Notes from 9/9/09 Finance Committee (FC) Meeting

 

 

Attendees: Rick Barrett, Austin Godfrey, Lori Denson, John Murray, Bob Yingling, Davor Gjivoje, Terry Dwyer.

 

 

Work items at meeting:

 

The group reviewed and discussed the most recent reserve system spreadsheet. Bob Yingling mentioned that he had to correct a few items. A suggestion was made that the spreadsheet be run omitting the 2 non-cash line items, so that we can see the underlying cash-based ending reserve balances

 

The group also reviewed a draft presentation created by John Murray for outpost meetings. John will incorporate a number of suggestions and present an updated version at the next FC meeting. Among the suggestions were the following:

 

-         Include a line graph of the historical escalations in the dues during the last 10 years or so

-         Include a line graph showing the likely growth of dues if we "pay as we go", without any reserving or financial planning

-         Include a line graph showing a comparison of implementing and not implementing the fiscal planning and reserving that the Committee is considering

 

Austin described a discussion he had with a firm specializing in reserve studies. He indicated that MKL had some special circumstances, in particular a home-grown water system and a lake with unknown silting characteristics. Davor suggested that we hire a firm which performs reserve studies, at least in a consulting capacity, to review our work and make recommendations on how to proceed. This topic had been discussed at previous meetings. No decision was taken.

 

Outpost meetings:

-         John has arranged for 8 residents to host outpost meetings  (Allyn, Guy Bowden, Dwyer, Gjivoje, Gray, Murray, Priscu, Van Kirk)

-         John has volunteered to be the primary speaker at the outpost meetings, supported by a note taker (Lori volunteered for this) and a backup question-answerer (volunteers for this included Rick, Austin, and Bob).

 

 

 

Community Inform meeting:

-    Austin will work on the format and content of this meeting. In particular, he will determine specifically what resolutions and/or by-law changes will be presented to the residents. One item discussed was the amount of transparency and authorization requirements for the Reserve Fund. Suggestions ranged from using an external trustee to a separate yearly report on the activity of the fund.

 

Austin described a discussion he had with a firm specializing in reserve studies. He indicated that MKL had some special circumstances, in particular a home-grown water system and a lake with unknown silting characteristics. Davor suggested that we hire a firm which performs reserve studies, at least in a consulting capacity, to review our work and make recommendations on how to proceed. This topic had been discussed at previous meetings. No decision was taken.

 

Working Schedule:

-         Next meeting is Wednesday, Sept. 16,  7:30pm at Terry’s. Agenda is to review next version of outpost meeting slides.

 

-         The goal continues to be to complete the FC’s work at the upcoming (January, 2010) annual meeting. Here’s a proposed schedule:

 

o       Week of Oct. 5: FC meeting to finalize outpost slides

o       Oct. 12 – Nov. 2:  outpost meetings (8)

o       Week of Nov 2: FC meeting to discuss input from outpost meetings

o       November: FC meetings to work on slides for community inform meeting

o       Dec. 3rd: Community inform meeting

o       Dec, January: proposals, by-law changes, etc. created for annual meeting

o       January 29, 2010: abbreviated FC presentation at annual meeting, voting as necessary.