Homeowners Association Board of Directors Meeting



Board of Directors Meeting

Minutes for February 18, 2010

Linden Hall, Dorsey Search Village Center

The meeting was called to order at 7:00 p.m. Board members in attendance included President Leila Bristow, Vice President Mark Hensman, Secretary Doug Neilson, Treasurer Kathy Gustafson, Director Rich Gorman, and Director Rob Kimberl. Community manager, Danelle Boso from WP&M Real Estate also attended.

Approval of Minutes – The reading of the April 29, 2009 Minutes was waived and the Minutes were approved.

Presidents Report – Ms. Leila Bristow

▪ Change in HOA Management – A letter was sent to the HOA membership explaining the reason for the change. WPM will no longer be the management company after February 28, 2010. (Due to a number of Homeowners Association members having gone to the wrong meeting room, the meeting was temporarily halted and then resumed once all had the opportunity to sign in and find seats.)

▪ New Coupon Books for the monthly assessments are in the mail and should be arriving any day.

▪ A question was raised about the use of Linden Hall over Ellicott Mills Middle School. It was explained that the school was difficult to work with when trying to book a meeting room, due to school system policies, we had to set-up and clear the room at the school, the cost for either facility is about the same, and best of all, the seats at Linden Hall are not sticky or dirty.

▪ How We Will Operate

← Going forward, the majority of communications will be done by email blasts, we have already done one, so it is important to make sure the Board has updated information for each household.

← If you can’t email your ARC forms to the Board, please mail them. The new address for the HOA is Townhomes of Timberland, Inc., P.O. Box 2378, Ellicott City, MD 21041. Be careful on the zip code to note that it ends with 41 and not 43 – the Post Office mailboxes have their own zip code which 21041.

← Treasurer Kathy Gustafson will handle the bookkeeping duties, tracking dues and generating monthly expense reports.

← The Board of directors will handle Resale Packages for homeowners selling their homes. It is the Boards intent to do these electronically.

← Subcommittees will become very important

← Drainage issues with the retaining walls – the Board had an engineering study done during 2009 and they found there were issues with all the retaining walls behind all of the homes (on Cedarcreek Court and Timber Hill Court)

← Land “dispute” next to Cedarcreek

← Entrance feature on Cedarcreek Court

← Tennis Court project to repair the tennis court

← Gathering Area and/or picnic area next to tennis court

▪ The Board encouraged HOA members to use Electronic Funds Transfers to pay their monthly dues assessments. Forms were available at the rear of the meeting room and are available on the community’s website (). Members were told to skip the line asking for an “ID Number. “ This was on the form supplied by M&T Bank, but does not pertain to Townhomes of Timberland Homeowners Association members.

▪ No Late Fees for either January or February due to banking / management changes

▪ Snow Removal – no bills had come in as of the time of the meeting – still unknown whether a special assessment would be needed

▪ Spring Community Dumpster will be weekend of April 17th & 18th

▪ There will be a Community Yard Sale the weekend before that, on April 10th

Committee Reports

▪ Social Committee – Ms. Kathy Gustafson

← Spring Egg Hunt will be held on Saturday March 27th that will be open to children, grandchildren, nieces, nephews

← Community-wide Yard Sale will be held on Saturday April 10th from 8 until 2

▪ Communications – Mr. Doug Neilson

← Email Messages / Newsletters - Addresses still needed from approximately one third of members. Those items that are supposed to be mailed for legal purposes will still be mailed to the homeowners.

← Website Update – Please let us know what additional information you would like on the website. The web will be one of the main communications tools between the Board and the membership.

(Impromptu Community Forum)

▪ Is the Board looking for places where expenses can be cut or for things that can be put off until the full impact of the snow removal costs are know? Yes, the Board does this automatically every year to try to keep down expenses. By going self management, we will no longer have the expense of WPM management fee.

▪ On the automatic deduction forms, what is the ID Number? This is part of the standard form that M&T Bank supplied, but the Townhomes of Timberland does not have an ID number, so homeowners can skip that space when filling out the form. Also, the Board does not need a copy of a voided check with the EFT form.

▪ What about the pile of snow on Cedarcreek? Are the snow removal folks going to come back to do more clean-up? The Board had been led to believe by Brickman that the crews would be back at some point to do more work.

▪ I tried to keep the snow drain in front of my home clear, but the guy running the bobcat was dumping snow on top of it. A previous snow removal company had marked the drains and fire hydrants with an orange post. We will look into doing this again next winter.

▪ When can we expect the first withdrawals from the EFT, will it be March? For those who have already submitted their EFT forms it should begin in March.

▪ Is self management an interim plan, or is the Board planning to do this going forward? The Board looked into hiring a new management company, but found that in some cases we were too small of an association for some to consider, and other offer less services for more than what we were being charged by WPM. Some have a similar monthly fee, but then charge extra for meetings, bids, and other things we have come to expect from the management company. If the Board becomes overwhelmed, and we can find a management company that is reasonable, we would stop being self managed.

▪ And the people involved, are they bonded? Yes, the Board had a fidelity bond already and it is being increased to cover the deposit amounts and the officers. Regardless of dollar amount, two signatures are required on every check and only three officers have the authority to sign checks.

▪ Will there be an audit done? Yes, there is an annual audit and there will continue to be and we have to pay taxes.

▪ Emergency Preparedness Committee – Mr. Mark Hensman

← Citizen Emergency Readiness Training – Written information was available about a County sponsored program that provides individuals with training to become prepared for disasters effecting our community. There are five sessions that cover what disasters are, how you can get prepared, first aid (with certification), participation in the community, and a review of household utilities and how to shut them off. Participants also get trained on how to put out a small fire.

At the November Annual Fall Meeting, the new security lighting for the community was discussed. President Bristow heard from BGE that the new lights on the four courts and by the tennis court should begin to be installed by April 16th. BGE was a little behind schedule due to weather.

Special Election – Mr. Doug Neilson & Ms. Danelle Boso - Open Director Position created at November Annual Fall Meeting when Board was expanded from five members to seven members. There were no rules regarding a special election in the Covenants or governing documents, so the existing rules for an election were adopted and modified for this special election. As per the normal election process, a call for nominations was sent to the HOA members. By the Nominations deadline, only one member had been nominated, but they declined the nomination for personal reasons.

▪ Ms. Boso called for nominations from the floor for the open position on the Board of Directors – Mark Hensman nominated Ms. Tommie Tarsell for the open director position. Ms. Tarsell had been a long time Board member, who had expressed interest of returning to the Board. (Due to a prior commitment, Ms. Tarsell was unable to attend the meeting.) No other nominations were received, and Ms. Tarsell was elected by acclamation.

Revision to the Wrapping Amendment for the ARC Guidelines

▪ The Board formed an ad hoc committee of HOA members that included homeowners with and without synthetically wrapped homes, and the members of the Board. The committee met in December at the Home of Mark Hensman. The committee reviewed the proposed amendment, discussed various aspects of the amendment, modified the language, and charged Board Secretary Doug Neilson with rewriting and revising the amendment. The committee members received revisions by email until all committee members were in agreement with the revisions to the amendment. The Board passed the revised amendment unanimously.

Membership Forum

▪ Rusty Gutters and downspouts on the rental property at 8402 Timberland Circle

▪ Tennis Court – the HOA should vote to get rid of the tennis court. “Nobody uses it.” The homeowner was tired of picking up trash on and around the court.

▪ Howard County has nice parks and recreation facilities and if anyone wants to have a gathering they can go there because using the area around the tennis court would lead to more trash, rats, and drug paraphernalia on the grounds and around the court

← The tennis court does need maintenance – The Board is obligated to perform the maintenance because it is an asset to the community

← The landscaping company is suppose to pick-up trash and litter around the tennis court and the community – President Bristow announced that Brickman had been awarded both the landscaping and snow removal contracts, and that they should be cleaning up the area when they perform the annual spring clean-up and also when they mow the grass in the community

▪ What is the status of the ARC tour of the community?

← Only about half of the community has been done. It is extremely time consuming. Residents are welcome to join the ARC tour when it resumes. The intent was not to find violations, but to develop a record of the colors, additions, modifications, etc. that exist in the community.

▪ Dumpsters – Could they not be placed across the street from our driveways when there is a whole street available?

▪ Has the County done anything regarding snow removal in the community?

← Howard County Executive Ken Ulman visited the community to evaluate county’s snow removal efforts. Just prior to his visit the first salt truck came through.

▪ Reserves are low - $6,000 $18,000 2009 instead $12,000

▪ Has there been any word on the future of land next to Cedarcreek Court? The Board is still trying to determine what the County’s intentions are for this land or if the HOA might be able to acquire the land either for free or a small monetary amount. The County has not done any maintenance of the grounds as was agreed upon between the HOA and the County Department of Recreations and Parks

Adjournment – The meeting was adjourned at 8:04 p.m.

Organizational Meeting for the Board of Directors

Following the meeting, the Board of Directors met to determine Board Officers and Committee Chairs. In keeping with the governing documents, the Board had done this following the meeting of the Synthetic Wrapping Committee. As the Board expanded from five members to six members effective January 1, 2010 (the seventh member was elected earlier in the evening), the Board decided to redo the officer elections in order to allow for the inclusion of Director Rich Gorman who was elected at the November Annual Fall Meeting. Here are the results of the Board officer election:

Board of Director Officers:

President Leila Bristow 5 aye – 1 no

Vice President Mark Hensman 6 aye

Secretary Doug Neilson 6 aye

Treasurer Kathy Gustafson 6 aye

Committee Chairs:

Architectural Review Committee Chair Rob Kimberl

Co-Chair Rich Gorman

Grounds Committee Chair Leila Bristow

Co- Chair Doug Neilson

Communications Committee Chair Doug Neilson

Social Committee Chair Kathy Gustafson

Emergency Preparedness Committee Chair Mark Hensman

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