Colonial Hills-Bakerfield Homeowners Association, Inc. Annual Meeting of the Membership- October 27, 2017

Transcription

1 Colonial Hills-Bakerfield Homeowners Association, Inc. Annual Meeting of the Membership- October 27, 2017 As a quorum was established and notice was properly posted: CALL TO ORDER: MOTION by Nichole Deakle_, SECONDED by _Bruce Buechner to call the 2017 Colonial Hills-Bakerfield Annual Meeting to order at 7:_05_ PM at the Saving Grace Lutheran Church, 1500 Snow Road South, Mobile, AL ROLL CALL: Motion passed by UNANIMOUS vote. Present: President Lori Ann Cassell Vice President Treasurer Secretary Bruce Buechner Cristina Cox Nicole Deakle Not Present: There were 21_ members present or by proxy. PROOF OF NOTICE OF MEETING: A neighborhood newsletter with meeting information was properly posted and delivered to each address; an electronic neighborhood newsletter was ed to paperless enrollees, a Facebook notice was posted, a notice was posted as a header on the neighborhood website, and a sign was erected at the exit of the neighborhood on the center island and on Colonial Hills Drive near Bridgeton Court. MINUTES: Minutes from 2016 Annual Meeting were reviewed and motioned by Lori Ann Cassell, and seconded by Bruce Buechner for acceptance. HOA REPORT: Lori Ann Cassell Lori answered questions and spoke about multiple administrative processes including, updating the client list for the neighborhood, methods used to keep it up to date, challenges in keeping it up to date, lien processing and cancellations, the necessity to increase our lien fee to cover

2 expenses, rental homes, communications with our CPA, realtors, property management companies, Arthur Howard (our contact with John Howard Homes), title companies, and attorneys, building our website including publishing a perpetual newsletter page, answering s, FB posts and private messages, and letters, maintenance of the drainage ditches and where they are located, easement concerns, covenant restrictions for all units in Bakersfield and Colonial Hills, violations to covenants and enforcement, liability insurance and taxes. Lori also spoke on the issues for Gwinnett Court homes with the new Storage facility being built on the frontage behind their property. The HOA did NOT receive a letter about the planning meeting for this project and has yet to find a homeowner that did receive a notice of this meeting that attended. The Board did send a letter to Airport One in hopes of opening a line of communication with them to address some of the concerns residents have. To put it simply Lori and Cristina are burned out with all the HOA efforts they have been making for the past 4 years. They are discouraged by the lack of neighborhood participation and help. HOA Board members are volunteers and upon reviewing the neighborhood by-laws and covenants Lori realized at the time these documents were written the neighborhood was significantly smaller in size and in turn so was the work load. Also important to note that this HOA board has gone above and beyond what is required of them in our legal documents in an effort to improve the neighborhood and encourage participation. The majority of the changes are things actually not required but are what makes CHBA a better neighborhood to live in. Lori suggested changes to things that are not required as well as restructuring things in our documents. Our neighborhood has grown to having 2 subdivisions- Colonial Hills with 6 Units and Bakerfield with 3. The reason it is so hard to find volunteers to be a part of the HOA is because the workload is too heavy for volunteers as currently written. Couple that with being mistreated by some homeowners and having constant demands made of you it is an exhausting job! It is Lori s hope to restructure the By-Laws to reduce the workload on the HOA Board Volunteers thus elevating burn out and hopefully making it a more attractive for future volunteers. In order to reduce the workload we need to reevaluate our efforts and hire things out when reasonable to do so. Lori discussed issues with the Paperless enrollment option for the neighborhood newsletters. There are only 35 s associated with the paperless enrollment. Of those some are husbands and wives making the total of homes that participate only 24 out of 288+ homes. Issues arise when homeowners move and do not alert the HOA and then the new homeowner does not receive a newsletter. Also, some participants have changed s and gotten upset with us when we failed to get notice of this change. Additionally participants have not responded favorably to getting e-bills for the HOA fees. It takes Lori many hours every month to try and figure out if any of the participants have moved or if they still own the home the is associated with. As a result of all these issues the HOA no longer offers the paperless enrollment option and instead will focus on our FB Page, which currently has 186 followers, and Website, which is frequented often and has the newsletters available for

3 download. This led to concerns about the quarterly newsletter mail out. This quarterly mail out is a significant expense (approx. $300+- each mail out) for the HOA and takes a lot of effort to do. Lori writes the newsletter, then has it printed, then she and her kids and sometimes another board member will collate the newsletter, fold it, stuff it, return address stamp it, put postage on it, try and research and update the neighborhood client list of owners, print the updated labels, then label the envelopes, and bring them to the post office for mailing. The pros of doing the quarterly paper from the HOA standpoint is it alerts the HOA if the homeowner we have on file has moved because the newsletter will be returned to us. Sometimes this is the only way we know there is a new homeowner! Judging by the volume of questions the HOA is asked it is apparent that the vast majority of these mailed newsletters are not actually read, otherwise they would have known the answer to their question already. Quarterly newsletters are not required in the by-laws so it is proposed to again focus our efforts on the website and FB Page and reduce the number of mail outs. Lori and Cristina researched dates in April that would avoid the Easter holiday weekend for the purpose of providing homeowners permanent dates for our semiannual yard sales which are included in the quarterly newsletters. This will negate the need to use the newsletter as a venue to get the word out. The board voted to use the 2 nd Saturday in October and the 4 th Saturday in April for permanent dates for CHBAs semiannual yard sales with the following Saturday as rain dates if needed. The HOA has experienced damage to our sprinkler system at the front entrance island many times throughout the year do to people driving over the island or parking on the island. Last Halloween the HOA Board and Garden Club Family stood at the island to direct traffic off the island and keep them off the island to prevent expensive sprinkler repairs. Since this is an ongoing issue throughout the year a more permanent means of preventing the issue were voted on and the board voted to install the black posts and chain around the center island with horse heads and balls to mimic the look of the iron work at the entrance and exit. In order to reduce the workload on the treasurer Lori researched the possibility of full accounting services verses the Accounts Receivable only services the HOA currently hires out. CPA will also be responsible for the liens and lien cancellations. The additional cost to have our CPA assume these was found to be within the HOA s abilities. The Board voted to go ahead and hire the CPA for full accounting services. Lori discussed the hate mail the HOA has received as well as the complaints we have received concerning covenant violations. Unfortunately the HOA is restricted in our abilities to rectify these issues and did not get the votes needed in order to grant us better enforcement options. Specific areas of issue include parking in roads and yards, unkempt yards, junk cars, travel trailers in yards, unkempt pools, speeding, yard landscaping restricting driver visibility, etc. Lori discussed the large quantity of letters she writes and has mailed out to date. Lori discussed needing changes to contact she receives. Most notable is that title companies will call her home phone (given to them by previous board member), cell phone, home , HOA , and FB multiple times all in the same day about a home. It s

4 important to note that all the information needed by the title companies can only be obtained by the HOA s CPA. But it isn t just title companies it is constant contact by homeowners as well that expect immediate assistance as evidenced by 3 voic s left 2 minutes apart with the last one accusing her of purposely not answering his calls. The emergency in the homeowners eyes was finding the previous homeowners bill in some debris in his yard. This must stop. In an effort to redirect title companies and homeowners with frequently asked questions Lori is proposing a page be added to our website with frequently asked questions and their answers. The HOA is blessed to have a homeowner who is willing to assist the HOA in updating and working on the website and can help with building another page. Additionally limits will be set to how often she checks and FB messages. Once the new webpage is set up an automatic response message with be sent redirecting people to this page which more often than not address their problem/question. Areas she proposed to include in this page include animal control, pot holes/road concerns, street lights, how to get statements, etc. ADVISORY BOARD REPORT: Lori Ann Cassell The Advisory Board has 2 volunteers representing Galeton Court and Gwinnett Court in Colonial Hills. These individuals have been instrumental in letting us know when new homeowner s have moved in. They also let us know when there are light outages, potholes, or covenant violations in their area. GARDEN CLUB REPORT: Lori Ann Cassell There is only one (1) family outside of the HOA Board that consistently participates in the Garden Club. There is one (1) other family outside of the HOA who helps occasionally as able. Efforts have been made consistently over the past 4 years by Lori Ann Cassell to encourage neighborhood participation to include, FB announcements, erecting banners at the neighborhood exit, reminders in quarterly newsletters, sending group FB message to those who expressed interest, etc. Before Garden Club events Lori has contacted those who expressed interest in participating asking which Saturday would work best for everyone in hopes of achieving maximum participation. Unfortunately this has not helped. As a result the decision has been made to have our landscaper choose which Saturday he will be planting the seasonal flowers. A FB announcement will be made and the banner will be erected as to when families can come and help him if they are able or so desire. Yard of the Month has been handled by the HOA Board with the Garden Club s input. In an effort to spread the work load of choosing the YOM each active member was asked to pick alternating between Bakerfield and Colonial Hills. Unfortunately people did not follow through. Lori has received complaints about not wanting a YOM as well but hasn t heard that people are interested in it. In addition YOM prizes donated for HOA use have dried up and now the HOA is paying for prizes. It is proposed to

5 reduce YOM to quarterly or to a most improved yard to encourage pride of ownership throughout the neighborhood. ARCHITECTURAL CONTROL COMMITTEE REPORT: Lori Ann Cassell There was 1 approved architectural request this year concerning an upgraded roof and 1 approved architectural request to build a shed. NEIGHBORHOOD CRIME WATCH REPORT: Lori Ann Cassell As of now, we still do not have a neighborhood watch committee. It is our hope that someone will step up and be in charge of this effort. Currently families are contacting the HOA with concerns via our Facebook Page and . There have been no crime alerts issued since January The current method of placing a banner at the exit and posting to the FB page worked well and received positive feedback from CHBA Homeowners. This past year we have had the typical crimes of opportunity around the holidays. TREASURER S REPORT: Cristina Cox Cristina presented the Treasurer s report based on _08_/_31 /2017, unaudited financial report from Hancock Bank: Operating Account - $_ and Savings Account - $_ _. Delinquent accounts as of 5/25/2017 $_ , _66 homes are delinquent on their homeowners dues. Based on collected dues we had an approximation of _76 % collection rate or _219 families paid current dues in We have approximation of _43 liens with outstanding past dues owed. Average monthly expenses a month totaled $_1939, which leaves an outstanding projected amount of expenses to be paid for the year of $_5815. The available funds from the checking account reflects a balance from the past dues collected and 2016 surplus. The average cost of liens is $50.00, which covers notary, probate recording fees, and release if dues are paid and only 1 lien needs to be released. Total Assets as of 8 /31/2017 = $ Treasurer s Report has been filed. The HOA Board Voted to go forward with hiring our CPA for full accounting services and redefined the Treasurers responsibilities. The treasurer will be responsible for: looking at bank accounts quarterly, Look for oddities in accounts, send any questions to CPA and alert President of questionable entries, keep receipts, have CPA mail correspondence annually, review and calculate HOA dues and budget, give list to CPA of what is approved to be paid on a monthly basis ie. Power, water, landscape, property taxes, insurance, and PO Box. CPA bill not to exceed

6 contract amount without authorization anything outside these things needs Treasurer approval to be paid, provide semiannual budget on website and treasurer will be second signer on accounts. The neighborhood By-laws will be updated accordingly. ELECTION OF DIRECTORS: Four (4) seats are available on the Board OPEN FLOOR NOMINATIONS: President Lori Ann Cassell Vice President- Bruce Buechner Treasurer- Cristina Cox Secretary- Nichole Deakle or Janet Phelps Lead Architectural Control Member- Lead Neighborhood Crime Watch Member- COLLECTION AND COUNTING OF BOARD MEMBER VOTES: Nichole Deakle counted the votes. The official results are President: Lori Ann Cassell, Vice President: Bruce Buechner, Treasurer: Cristina Cox, Secretary: 21 and elected board member positions will take effect immediately. UNFINISHED BUSINESS: No unfinished business. NEW BUSINESS: The meeting minutes will be posted to the website. Neighbors discussed the possibility of painting the white electrical conduit on the backside of the plaque wall going to the lanterns black to match the iron work. ANNUAL MEETING ADJOURNMENT:

7 MOTION by _Lori Ann Cassell_to adjourn at 8: 20 PM, SECONDED by _Bruce Buechner_. Motion passed by UNANIMOUS vote. BOARD ORGANIZATIONAL MEETING: Since there is no change in Board members requiring immediate actions they plan to hold a board meeting in December. Respectfully submitted, Nichole Deakle Secretary These minutes are unapproved and will be up for approval at the next annual meeting.