February 23, 2021 Annual Board Meeting

February 23, 2021 Annual Board Meeting

Hawks Nest Home Owners Association Annual Meeting on February 23, 2021 via Zoom

Present:

Matt Riggs, Andrea Larsen, Heather Shuchter, John Aman, Rick Jeric, Suzanna Farver, Ron Barnes, Raj Govindaraj, Greg Waina.

Agenda:

  1. Approval of Minutes
  2. Election of Officers
  3. 2020 Financial Results
  4. 2021 Budget
    1. Mailboxes
    2. Landscaping
    3. Social Events
  5. 2021 Dues Payment update
  6. Phishing Update
  7. Other Business

Minutes of the discussion:

  1. Matt read the previous minutes which the members approved and ratified.
  • Election of Officers – John mentioned that there were no write ins on any of the ballots that were submitted and each one of them voted to continue with the current slate of officers. In the absence of any other volunteers and due to the majority vote for the current slate, the motion to re-elect the current officers of the board was proposed, seconded and unanimously approved.
  • John reviewed the previous year (2020) results. There was a decrease in spending last year and therefore the cash balance went up by approximately $7,000; John went down the list of actual expenses and explained the movement on the significant accounts like Sprinkler expenses, Christmas lights breaker, Mail boxes, etc. Social costs went down due to covid, Insurance is on a 3-year fixed costs with some increase to cover events; Accounting costs were in line with what was budgetted. John mentioned that if we have legal costs, that would be around collecting the annual dues. The main difference with the previous year (2019) and budgets was the mailbox expenses where we had replaced or repaired more mail boxes in 2019 when compared to 2020. There were no further questions regarding the 2020 Actual results and these were then formally adopted.
  • John then went through the budget for 2021 and said that we would be keeping inflow the same. On the expense side there would be a slight reduction in the grounds expenses, some mailboxes expense increase is budgeted continuing to make sure that we are following the five-to-six-year cycle of replacement; Sprinkler maintenance budget may not be completely met, but the general principle in preparation of the budget was that the board did not have to convene a meeting each time a budget was depleted. Utilities matches expense incurred. There is also a budget of $1,500 for clean-up of trees on the Brand Road & Muirfield entrances.

John then threw open the floor for any questions on the 2020 Actual results or the 2021 budget. Suzanna raised two issues – one, regarding the printing of directories. She said that the Directories are printed on a two-year cycle and the next one is due in 2022. However, we could incur some expenses in late 2021 towards that task and hence her question was if we could budget any moneys to be spent this year for the directories. A question came up about what was done in the past. Suzanna replied that in the past we had not spent any money on this task as there were sponsors. Matt said we need to be careful about this line item in the budget as directory expense may be considered as advertisement to recruit new board members. There was further discussion about this and there was no change made to the budget. The second question was regarding maintenance of trees in the conservation easement area in the backyard of certain homes that had the wooded backyard. John and Matt both confirmed that it was the responsibility of the owner of the property and not that of the HOA.

Heather mentioned that there was a jump in the costs of mulch and John should consider that in the budget for landscaping costs.

There was discussion around mailboxes and the need for the $14,000 per year budget. Many mailboxes have been repaired or replaced but there were some old ones that have not also been stained since 2017. May & John will conduct a walk through the neighborhood for visual examination of the condition of mailboxes. The findings will then be discussed and we could talk the Dave to see if there is any wiggle room in the budget to get more done. Matt & John said that anyone on the board is welcome to be part of the walk and discussions thereafter.

There being no other questions or topics to be discussed, the Board proposed, approved and seconded the adoption of the 2021 budget unanimously.

  • 2021 Dues payment update – John mentioned that there were 7 houses that were yet to pay the Annual dues. It was decided that Suzanna will send additional communications to them. The deadline was March 1, 2021 and these houses will be charged a late fee.
  • Social events – With regard to re-starting some of the social events following its suspension in 2020 due to the pandemic, Andrea mentioned that we should monitor CDC guidelines related to social events and follow those. All present agreed with this approach.
  • The board talked about the recent phishing attacks and other rising cyber security threats and emphasized the need to be vigilant when receiving suspicious emails.

There being no other business, the meeting was concluded.