Minutes, Management 2024 01 07
Topics:
Sunday, January 7, 2024, 10:00 a.m. Rescheduled from Tuesday January 2.
Present: Vinnie, Cheryl, Kay (notes), Scott, Jorge (10:30), Ben, Kerry, Mary
Action Items
Ben will prepare a proxy form.
Ben & Vinnie will contact Dale to calculate the reserve.
Vinnie will do a spreadsheet and graph for the reserve.
Carol will notify necessary person on Carol's behalf about changes in her HO6 due to deductible (talk to Marina about who).
Proxies
Ben looked at the Bylaws. To approve the budget 67% of the vote of the undivided interest (owners) must vote either in person or by proxy. To be official, a proxy must designate a specific person, be submitted in writing, with a signature, and submitted to the Association Secretary or their designate (so therefore the note-taker) prior to or at the start of the meeting. You can specify how your proxy votes or leave it to their judgment. A person can attend on zoom but not vote on zoom. The quorum requirement is "67% present in person or by proxy" so attending on zoom doesn't count. If 67% is not present, the meeting is adjourned for 24 hours, reconvened, and whoever is present counts.
Scott says the law changed this past year and is now people present at the meeting. Does condo law trump bylaws?
Ben is preparing a proxy form. For this meeting, as people are adjusting to us enforcing this, Cheryl would be willing to act as a runner to take proxy forms to people who are on zoom and on site. Email the form. Also print & put a copy on doors?
Budget
The proposed budget has all committee budget requests funded and none of the new suggested revenue streams, since none of them are secured.
Insurance line is adjusted to reflect change in premium from change in deductible. Common House Committee's request included c.h. supplies, which is usually under non-committee expenses; Vinnie had put it all under requests (discretionary) but will revise to split the request between discretionary and non-.
The amount going into the reserve doesn't need to match the expenditures on a year-by-year basis, only averaged over time. OTOH we have some expensive repairs coming up that will sharply draw down the reserve. OT3rdH we are pushing some remodeling the reserve has scheduled soon which will compensate for repairs we are bringing earlier.
The percentage basis of increase is 39.5%. :O
December bills haven't been added into the actuals yet.
Proposal doesn't have attorney fees, but we will have them. Scott recommends $1500.
Need a licensed bonded property inspector checking uninhabited units, of which we now have two. Can we charge the cost to the owner? If water is turned off, is it turned off outside the house? With the heat off, a turn-off inside the house can freeze and break.
People don't seem to be understanding that we need increased fees AND increased participation.
If misc. fees (guest rooms, extra vehicles, garden beds) are increased in the 2024 budget, they are only good for 2024. A problem with budgeting them into expenses is that implementing may change behavior.
Legally we can implement a 0.5% reinvestment fee, which goes into the reserves. Management company Ben talked to said $500 transfer fee is about as high as anybody charges. We can include as many transfer fees in our budgeted income as we can justify. Are we required to have community approval before implementing a reinvestment fee? Management can create a rule that is good for 90 days before the community must approve it.
Having an outside facilitator can make a huge difference in participation and community cohesiveness. Last time was about 2018. It would be on the Procedures line item. The resources from cohousing.org are free to us as a Partner but the issue is getting people to use them, and to use them collectively so we have group discussions. Devote an ACM?
Our CCR says hourly fee for not working is three times minimum wage.
What would we have earned on a guest room fee if we assume changes in number of guests resulting from change in fee?
... unless we have specific language in the budget proposal saying fee increases are until changed.
Vinnie's count is that there are fourteen units with more than one vehicle.
Can justify pay-or-play, guest room, and vehicle fees based on expenses and usage in other communities. For now not include the garden bed fee. Most of the usage-based fees are going to upset someone. Catering to one person's feelings by not implementing a particular fee while overriding someone else's itself can be upsetting.
For fairness and accountability, the chicken club should be paying for its water (while the hydrant is on in warm months).
41.74% without new fees, with new fees and grant for AED 29.18%. Just the increase to the reserve is an 15% increase in fees.
Idea: fee for storing personal items in workshop.
Vinnie & Ben are sending new numbers to Dale-the-reserve-guy. Ask him to expedite the calculations even if we need to pay extra.
Inadequate time before the first January ACM to meet distribution requirement to allow us to vote on the budget proposal. Second ACM is the 28th.
How confident are we that our estimates of the amount needed in the reserve? Quite a bit, since we aren't required to follow the analyst's recommendations.
Moving part of the reserve to CDs gave us an additional $3K in interest.
Management Election. Kay, Cheryl, and Jorge are continuing and Scott's and Vinnie's position are up for election.
Budget has to be out by 3 p.m. on the 18th. Next Management is the 16th. If Vinnie isn't elected on the 10th he will still show up on the 16th.
Cheryl will ask Marina who to notify on Carol's behalf about the change in insurance deductible and the needed change in the HO6.
Vinnie will do a spreadsheet for the reserve and graph showing the annual balance expected.