2016/09/08 Minutes HIDDEN LAKE ASSOCIATION BOARD MEETING
Amended Minutes
September 8th, 2016
Rossi Hall 6:30 PM
Present: President- D Scofield, Vice President- B Osterhout, Treasurer – J Page,
Recording Secretary – D Mathews, Directors – S Kaczka, D Moxley, M Kelley
Guests: Frankie Scofield, Kaitlyn Kelley, Bryan Bruder
President’s Report: Dick began by thanking the Board for be volunteers for the Association. He related a humorous Tate’s compass story to point us in a new direction.
He wants each Director to have a committee to help do the work so the onus isn’t on
the Director. He wants each Director to choose their own committee members to make the committee compatible. He sees his mission to keep the Board focused in its work, to
lighten the Director’s burden, and to be a tie breaker. He will be writing and sending out meeting agendas.
Minutes:
1. August 11th Board meeting minutes need the Noga paragraph added.
2. August 27th Budget meeting minutes need spelling errors fixed. Also, the Board discussed the MOTION to add verbiage to Jack’s Treasurer’s report. Determination was made that the Motion cannot stand because Jack reads his report verbatim from his notes and wording he DID NOT utter cannot be arbitrarily added. Therefore, the MOTION made afterwards cannot stand and the June 2016 minutes must be voted on in June 2017 at the HLA Membership meeting.
3. August 27th Board meeting minutes accepted as distributed.
Treasurer’s Report – Jack Page
1. Checking Account Balance = $86,019.24.
Emergency Contingency Fund Balance = $37,317.28.
Rainy Day Savings Account Balance = $13,628.18. $3,625.54 was transferred into this
Account per membership vote to increase the cap to $1,500.
Unspent Boat Fees Savings Account = $4,700.24.
2. Accounts Receivable Balance = $15,900.08. 22 members have past due accounts.
Dunning letters will go out after completion of Federal and NH Tax Filings have
been sent out (9/15/2016).
3. The Audit
It was recommended that Lexie Currie be asked to send a Thank You note to Tracy
Noga for her audit of the HLA financial records.
Discussion of recommendations in Tracy’s letter:
* Accounting method is cash vs accrual. Members are not financial people and
our reports are written for them.
* Internal controls for cash: SBW doesn’t have lock box service; having two Board
members handle payments is begging for errors to be made; our check book is
balanced at least monthly; the debit cards have proven NOT to be risky.
* Miscellaneous: A/R is reported on monthly; Jack has records for every payment
and every disbursement; Quickbooks Online would be another place where we’d be
begging for errors to be made.
4. Paperwork for HLA Debit cards has been started for Mike, Donna & Roy.
Committee Reports
ROADS - Sam Kaczka
1. Geoff Jones did not bid on the Tree Branch Cutting.
2. Sam & Dian will meet to make revisions on the Bid Spec papers. Jack would like a
copy of any signed contract to be aware of a payment schedule.
WATERFRONT – Donna Moxley
1. Brian Bruder will put in a post and hang the “No Parking Overnight” sign.
2. Discussion on what to do with the sandy area by the wishing well. The idea is that it be a multie-use rather than a parking lot. Dick suggested Donna put together a committee to put their heads together on this.
3. Grass cutting – discussion was about the area not being cut 10 times as we believe former President Tom Chagnon had contracted verbally with Ben Davenport. Donna will call Ben to ask what the arrangements are with his father now supposed to take over the
mowing. Most of the trimming has been done by other people.
4. Thank you to Bryan Bruder for cutting all the roots to make a walkable path to the boat spots on the east side.
5. Donna will activate her debit card so she can make a wood purchase for repairing the docks. NOTE: The Board should be given a heads up prior to any HLA monies being spent.
6. Donna officially claims Brian Bruder as a member of her committee.
RECREATION – Mike Kelley
1. Mike presented the Board with a print –out concerning an HOA question: Is our pool
public or private. Discussion ensued about HLA members being the “common interest”,
not the public. The Board was asked to take the papers home to read over and think about.
2. Repair of the pool discussed. Jack and Roy were at the pool last Tuesday when Bluewater closed the pool. Only one jet is functional. We need at least one more as a back up. The auto-chem controller will be replaced. The steps will need to be repaired. We are getting estimates on everything.
3. Over the winter Mike and his committee will work on the official rules for “Safety Checks”, a simplified “Employees Handbook” and a finalized version of our “Pool
Attendant Duties”.
BY-LAWS –
1. Dick would like to wait for the committee to operate until we have a new attorney
because of some Covenant and By-law conflicts. Board discussed this and decided that
the committee could function beforehand by just working on HLA Customary Procedures.
2. Dian was asked to be the Chair of the By-laws committee and will choose the
committee members. The members of the former Covenants committee will be asked to
be on the committee.
NEW ATTORNEY
Both Jack and Dick did research on this issue.
The Board discussed how we should go about choosing an attorney.
Matters to find out:
* How many HOAs do they handle? Which ones?
* Where is their closest office?
* What do they charge?( For example, Sheliah Kaufold thought that $300 for a
Dunning letter from a lawyer was exorbitant.)
Dick will call the offices of Kaufold and Ron Howard; Jack will call Gary Daddario, Janet Aronson and Edmund Allock. They will get back to the Board.
The Committee will consist of Dick, Jack Dian and Bill.
We will try to get this accomplished ASAP. The Board will be notified with all the facts
and will vote via e-mail.
Board meetings will now be TWO HOURS – 6:30 to 8:30.
The August Budget Meeting minutes, once accepted, will be e-mailed and snail-mailed in March with the assessment bills. (We send out 225 bills total.)
The political signs under the kiosk by the mail boxes were not put there by the Board.
People who put them there must have the permission of the owners of the property: Andorra Forest. We will not remove the signs in the Town of Stoddard’s Right-of-Way.
Dick showed the Board a copy of NH State RSA 281-A:2 VIC which states that
The pool attendants are indeed employees.
Secretary Note: I will obtain a copy and print out the section which pertains to HLA.
Dian will look in the past minutes in our records to see if there have been any previous votes about employees. The employee/contractor question will be put to our new attorney.
The Board has a priority list for actions to be worked on.
Tonight we looked at repair of the pool. There is only one jet working we need at least one more as a back-up. The cost is $1,600 a jet.
We have budgeted $13,000 to repair the pool liner, steps and anything else which crops up and needs repair. The job right now looks like it might cost $7000 to $9,000.
The steps might cost $800 to $1000.
To save $$ we can pump H2O from the lake. It will take 10 to 14 days to clear.
We are looking at a start date of April 1st, 2017.
Meeting adjourned at 8:36 PM.
Next meeting is Thursday, October 13th, 2016.
Dian Mathews, Recording Secretary
Amended Minutes
September 8th, 2016
Rossi Hall 6:30 PM
Present: President- D Scofield, Vice President- B Osterhout, Treasurer – J Page,
Recording Secretary – D Mathews, Directors – S Kaczka, D Moxley, M Kelley
Guests: Frankie Scofield, Kaitlyn Kelley, Bryan Bruder
President’s Report: Dick began by thanking the Board for be volunteers for the Association. He related a humorous Tate’s compass story to point us in a new direction.
He wants each Director to have a committee to help do the work so the onus isn’t on
the Director. He wants each Director to choose their own committee members to make the committee compatible. He sees his mission to keep the Board focused in its work, to
lighten the Director’s burden, and to be a tie breaker. He will be writing and sending out meeting agendas.
Minutes:
1. August 11th Board meeting minutes need the Noga paragraph added.
2. August 27th Budget meeting minutes need spelling errors fixed. Also, the Board discussed the MOTION to add verbiage to Jack’s Treasurer’s report. Determination was made that the Motion cannot stand because Jack reads his report verbatim from his notes and wording he DID NOT utter cannot be arbitrarily added. Therefore, the MOTION made afterwards cannot stand and the June 2016 minutes must be voted on in June 2017 at the HLA Membership meeting.
3. August 27th Board meeting minutes accepted as distributed.
Treasurer’s Report – Jack Page
1. Checking Account Balance = $86,019.24.
Emergency Contingency Fund Balance = $37,317.28.
Rainy Day Savings Account Balance = $13,628.18. $3,625.54 was transferred into this
Account per membership vote to increase the cap to $1,500.
Unspent Boat Fees Savings Account = $4,700.24.
2. Accounts Receivable Balance = $15,900.08. 22 members have past due accounts.
Dunning letters will go out after completion of Federal and NH Tax Filings have
been sent out (9/15/2016).
3. The Audit
It was recommended that Lexie Currie be asked to send a Thank You note to Tracy
Noga for her audit of the HLA financial records.
Discussion of recommendations in Tracy’s letter:
* Accounting method is cash vs accrual. Members are not financial people and
our reports are written for them.
* Internal controls for cash: SBW doesn’t have lock box service; having two Board
members handle payments is begging for errors to be made; our check book is
balanced at least monthly; the debit cards have proven NOT to be risky.
* Miscellaneous: A/R is reported on monthly; Jack has records for every payment
and every disbursement; Quickbooks Online would be another place where we’d be
begging for errors to be made.
4. Paperwork for HLA Debit cards has been started for Mike, Donna & Roy.
Committee Reports
ROADS - Sam Kaczka
1. Geoff Jones did not bid on the Tree Branch Cutting.
2. Sam & Dian will meet to make revisions on the Bid Spec papers. Jack would like a
copy of any signed contract to be aware of a payment schedule.
WATERFRONT – Donna Moxley
1. Brian Bruder will put in a post and hang the “No Parking Overnight” sign.
2. Discussion on what to do with the sandy area by the wishing well. The idea is that it be a multie-use rather than a parking lot. Dick suggested Donna put together a committee to put their heads together on this.
3. Grass cutting – discussion was about the area not being cut 10 times as we believe former President Tom Chagnon had contracted verbally with Ben Davenport. Donna will call Ben to ask what the arrangements are with his father now supposed to take over the
mowing. Most of the trimming has been done by other people.
4. Thank you to Bryan Bruder for cutting all the roots to make a walkable path to the boat spots on the east side.
5. Donna will activate her debit card so she can make a wood purchase for repairing the docks. NOTE: The Board should be given a heads up prior to any HLA monies being spent.
6. Donna officially claims Brian Bruder as a member of her committee.
RECREATION – Mike Kelley
1. Mike presented the Board with a print –out concerning an HOA question: Is our pool
public or private. Discussion ensued about HLA members being the “common interest”,
not the public. The Board was asked to take the papers home to read over and think about.
2. Repair of the pool discussed. Jack and Roy were at the pool last Tuesday when Bluewater closed the pool. Only one jet is functional. We need at least one more as a back up. The auto-chem controller will be replaced. The steps will need to be repaired. We are getting estimates on everything.
3. Over the winter Mike and his committee will work on the official rules for “Safety Checks”, a simplified “Employees Handbook” and a finalized version of our “Pool
Attendant Duties”.
BY-LAWS –
1. Dick would like to wait for the committee to operate until we have a new attorney
because of some Covenant and By-law conflicts. Board discussed this and decided that
the committee could function beforehand by just working on HLA Customary Procedures.
2. Dian was asked to be the Chair of the By-laws committee and will choose the
committee members. The members of the former Covenants committee will be asked to
be on the committee.
NEW ATTORNEY
Both Jack and Dick did research on this issue.
The Board discussed how we should go about choosing an attorney.
Matters to find out:
* How many HOAs do they handle? Which ones?
* Where is their closest office?
* What do they charge?( For example, Sheliah Kaufold thought that $300 for a
Dunning letter from a lawyer was exorbitant.)
Dick will call the offices of Kaufold and Ron Howard; Jack will call Gary Daddario, Janet Aronson and Edmund Allock. They will get back to the Board.
The Committee will consist of Dick, Jack Dian and Bill.
We will try to get this accomplished ASAP. The Board will be notified with all the facts
and will vote via e-mail.
Board meetings will now be TWO HOURS – 6:30 to 8:30.
The August Budget Meeting minutes, once accepted, will be e-mailed and snail-mailed in March with the assessment bills. (We send out 225 bills total.)
The political signs under the kiosk by the mail boxes were not put there by the Board.
People who put them there must have the permission of the owners of the property: Andorra Forest. We will not remove the signs in the Town of Stoddard’s Right-of-Way.
Dick showed the Board a copy of NH State RSA 281-A:2 VIC which states that
The pool attendants are indeed employees.
Secretary Note: I will obtain a copy and print out the section which pertains to HLA.
Dian will look in the past minutes in our records to see if there have been any previous votes about employees. The employee/contractor question will be put to our new attorney.
The Board has a priority list for actions to be worked on.
Tonight we looked at repair of the pool. There is only one jet working we need at least one more as a back-up. The cost is $1,600 a jet.
We have budgeted $13,000 to repair the pool liner, steps and anything else which crops up and needs repair. The job right now looks like it might cost $7000 to $9,000.
The steps might cost $800 to $1000.
To save $$ we can pump H2O from the lake. It will take 10 to 14 days to clear.
We are looking at a start date of April 1st, 2017.
Meeting adjourned at 8:36 PM.
Next meeting is Thursday, October 13th, 2016.
Dian Mathews, Recording Secretary