Minutes, Management, 2024 01 16
Topics:
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.
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 cds that are ending into money market account.
Budget
Sent out a new draft budget.
Changes from previous draft
- Not making any changes to pay or play in the budget.
- Not including vehicle fees or fee for private storage in workshop.
- Those fees will be discussed separately in their own proposals.
- Increased 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,
- Sets of sheets were donated, so removed from C.H. budget request.
Fee increase would start first of February.
Not including fund raising as income in the budget because there is no way to calculate what we might bring in. Including guest room fees and reinvestment fees.
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 $275 instead of several thousand by vendor. Pinpoint second-story windows that most need caulking. Caulking windows is the association's responsibility.
Air compressor to
- Plan 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 stucco paint ourselves is the biggest savings.
- paint common house interior.
- Blow out storm drain lines,
- gutters.
- Two years of blowing out irrigation lines pays for air compressor.
Divisive to increase fees, but divisive to not fund maintenance.
A lot of maintenance both of buildings and tree has been put off too long. The longer we put off maintenance the more it will cost in the long run. Need 100% engagement from everyone.
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 emergencies.
$10K for maintenance is not going to be enough. If the community wants to keep fees low to maintain income diversity, every single community member needs to be involved in fund raising.
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!)
Welcoming will be expected to request donations from people who are coming to check out the community.
This is not changing guest room policies aside from fee rather than voluntary donation. Should discuss policy at an ACM so everyone is hopefully on the same page. Don't have a way to police that a guest is related to the host. One household can choose to host another household's guest; however, the host is responsible for cleaning (negotiable between the first and second host).
Straw poll: Could you support this budget? Stand asides, Alex, Vinnie, & Eliza. Alex: increase needs to be higher. Vinnie: would like to see more for commercial labor. Eliza: concerned about pay or play getting passed separately.
Request: If we get a grant to help pay for the AED, sweep unspent money into maintenance or commercial labor. 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. Request that Management investigate how this can be handled. A problem both for participation and maintenance -- not catching problems occurring in an unoccupied unit.
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.
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.
Carol's nice 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 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. 1 CD coming due in April, 10 in July.
Look into way of doing deposits into QuickBooks that saves charges.