Minutes, Management, 2024 01 16

Topics: budget proposal changes, equipment purchase, guest room fees; officer election, foundation of Carol's unit, tasks this year

Decision: Kay Argyle is Secretary, Jorge San Pedro is Treasurer, and Ben Trueman is President. 

Present: Vinnie, Eliza, Gheybin, Steve, Joe, Jorge, Cheryl, Kerry, Ben, Kay (notes), Laura, Linda, Alex, Robin, Natalia, Heather, K.J.

Tuesday, 7:00-8:30

Action Items

Send more info to K.J.

Ben will update Management election and officers with State government.

Cheryl will check with Scott if there are additional questions for the attorney. 

Cheryl will review insurance documents before February 7 ACM with Justin.

Ben, Cheryl, & Kerry will go to Mountain America on Saturday noon to update signatures, etc.

Jorge will ask Mt Am credit union to put funds from cds that are ending into the money market account.

Check with Scott Cowley what records he has on construction of Carol's unit.

Budget

Sent out a new draft budget.   

Changes from previous draft

• No changes to pay or play.
• No vehicle fees or fee for private storage in workshop. 
• Those fees will be discussed separately in their own proposals. 
• Increased income amount from cashback Spark card; we are requesting cards for Cheryl & Ben to allow more items to be charged to the card.
• Using money from float in operating account (left overs from previous years) to increase reserve deposit.
• 15.1% increase.
• Reduced C.H. budget request because bed sheets were donated.
  

Budget proposal includes guest room fees and reinvestment fees. Not including fund raising as income in the budget because there is no way to calculate what we might bring in. 

Fee increase would start first of February.

May not need a vacuum. Natalia said they can donate a vacuum.  Linda will check current vacuum for a jam.

Handout with unit fees appears to have an error.

Q. Why $1K for Landscaping equipment?  A. Rental for boom lift, let us do tree trimming ourselves instead of hiring it out at $5K or so.

Q. Why $1K for Maintenance equipment?  A. Infrared camera and air compressor.

Infrared camera $275, to pinpoint second-story windows that most need caulking [hopefully leading to heating cost savings that offset the cost of the equipment -- note-taker]. Caulking windows is the association's responsibility.  Paying a vendor for the service would be several thousand.

Air compressor to

• paint carport stucco (hairline cracks) ourselves. Stucco paint requires a 27-gallon compressor vs. $8K to hire.    Elastomeric paint is too viscous for an airless spray painter. Other work can be done with a smaller compressor but doing the stucco paint ourselves is the biggest savings. 
  
• blow out irrigation lines; two years doing it ourselves pays for the air compressor.
• paint common house interior. 
• blow out storm drain lines,
• clean gutters.
  

Some people feel increasing fees is divisive.  Others feel not funding needed maintenance is divisive.

No promises on what next year's fee increase will be. Don't know how the year will go.  Could have successful fund raisers; could have expensive emergencies.

A lot of maintenance both of buildings and trees has been put off too long. The longer we put off maintenance the more it will cost in the long run. $10K for maintenance is not going to be enough.  Need 100% engagement from everyone. If the community wants to keep fees low to maintain income diversity, every single community member needs to be involved in fund raising.

Proposed guest room policy will be seven free room nights per unit, and $30 per night fee invoiced to the host after that.  (Donations are still welcome!)  This is not changing guest room policies aside from fee rather than voluntary donation.

One household can choose to host another household's guest.  The community doesn't have a way to police that a guest is related to the host. Note that a household donating nights is also assuming responsibility for cleaning (negotiable between the household giving up free days and household more closely connected to guest).

Welcoming will be expected to request donations from people who are coming to check out the community. 

Should discuss policy at an ACM so everyone is hopefully on the same page. 

Straw poll:  Could you support this budget?  Stand asides, Alex, Vinnie, & Eliza.  Alex: increase needs to be higher.  Vinnie: would like to see more money for commercial labor.  Eliza: concerned about pay or play getting passed separately.

Request: If we get a grant to help pay for the AED, increase maintenance or commercial labor a comparable amount.  Grant likely won't cover full cost; probably a reimbursement.  Safety & Security budget should include annual training, working towards half the community being trained.

Nothing in our CCR that prevents someone from leaving a unit unoccupied for long periods of time.  This is a problem for participation and also maintenance -- not catching problems occurring in an unoccupied unit.  Request that Management investigate how this can be handled. 

Q.  What is the difference between operating budget maintenance and capital reserve maintenance?  A. Items in reserve analysis are anticipated and planned for.  Reserves are for components with a three to thirty-year lifespan.  Work needed annually is from the operating budget.

It's entirely legitimate to ask questions if you don't understand something; offer suggestions, give feedback.  Don't engage in ad hominem attacks.

Announcement.  The U has accepted Linda's course proposal on conflict resolution.

Officer Elections

Kay is Secretary, Jorge is Treasurer, and Ben is President. 

Carol's Unit

In addition to the items listed in a handout for reserve expenditures, we don't yet know if Carol's foundation will require work. Once Carol's unit is empty, need to get the engineering firm in.  They couldn't take their measurements before.  Check with Scott Cowley what records he has.

Contact info, Carol's niece Jane's email janeelese at yahoo.com.  Attorney Wayne Barney wbarney at stellarliving.com

Planning Year's Tasks

Do a brainstorm on everything Management needs to tackle this year.

• Ben's impression is that we need to file a document (with the state?) stating that a reinvestment fee is required.
• Management forwarded a letter to the community from American Family on what HO6 policies need to have.
• Change reserve deposit to $5K, change to automatic transfer. Currently push (check) from Mt Am to UFirst.
• Jorge will get two $3K cds with January reserve deposit plus some from December. Start buying at $5K each month. Buying a CD with a new deposit gives us 0.25% extra interest. 1 CD coming due in April, 10 CDs in July.
• Look into way of doing deposits into QuickBooks that saves charges.

Emailed 1/27/2024.