July 29th, 2021 HOA Board Meeting

Lane, David, Eva, Melissa, Chris

Chris’s takeaways from the meeting
1. Report on the facts around the new sign
2. Report on the history of the mailbox fees
3. Dues reimbursement for board members
4. Does not want to be president
5. Paper ballot was called for to allow the whole neighborhood a chance to vote – include comment cards
6. Pond – think about having neighbors help add chemicals, need to cut back weeds/algae
7. Sidewalks – Chris found company that will give group rate if we have 15-20 people buy into it; they will come put together a quote; current resident paid $2000 to fix her personal space walks
8. Justify the dues increase by including pricing for common area maintenance items (pond, fountain, sidewalks, landscape)
Large Meeting recap
1. In the event that one person gets out of control, we ask them to stop or shut down the meeting
2. Start by asking to hold all comments until appropriate time – ground rules
3. If you don’t feel like your question has been answered, we are happy to stay after to discuss further
ACC meeting 7/28/21
1. Caught up on community mtg
2. Approved ACC guidelines
Existing fence that was denied and against ACC guidelines at the time it was put up
1. Discuss w/son in law who now lives there (FIL owns home)
2. Have them re-submit current fence for approval, make it clear that it was NOT okay to put it up without approval, if new submittal not approved it will need to be fixed
Transparency
1. Have a post meeting communication email to neighborhood with minutes, talking about upcoming ballots, etc
2. Regular monthly meeting with inner HOA board – need to have more communication between us about what we’ve dealt with that month
3. Either send minutes, financials monthly via email or post on website
4. Don’t need to have a member login for website
5. Financials – what do we share?
  1. Share quarterly financials
  2. Find report that can show YTD expenses or something similar
  3. the point is to show that we are being responsible with the HOA funds – what do we show to prove that?
  4. Do most people think we are being distrustful with the money or do they just see things not being done and wonder why they’re paying when we aren’t maintaining
  5. Include delinquency report – past yr/current yr outstanding, payment plans, status of legal dealings
  6. Unexpected items outside of budget
  7. Current reserve budget
  8. Option to open savings account where we keep our reserves; add to savings at year end with anything leftover after expenses – helps to visually see expenses in and out, reserve fund, and earns small amt of interest
6. Share with the neighborhood our meeting dates and leave them open to the public to attend between certain times
7. Put out annual mailing with items like due, how to handle trash service, how to submit an ACC proposal
8. When people approve the budget, they approve all line items on it
9. Our responsibility it to maintain and replace things as they age; if do ‘special projects’ without maintaining regular things they want to have a say about those before they happen
Insurance/Legal
1. Neighbor suggested Board members getting personal insurance in the event that a homeowner sues a member directly which is not covered under the neighborhood’s insurance
Block Party – need to set a date (end of summer) and rain date
Contracts
1. Will get multiple bids for each of the major recurring contracts (landscape, trash?, irrigation, pond/fountain, etc)
2. Ergon Landscaping 765-534-4826 (Bill Witek) – potential landscaper
3. Fountain/pond – signed with ASAP until end of 2022 – getting quotes to add underwater aeration to back pond to help with algae; issue is the heat and that the pond is shallow
List of projects
1. Check on mole/muskrat issue
2. Fountain/aeration
To Do:
1. Send email with minutes, ask once more for board nominees
2. After email, send out mailed ballot