Board Meeting Minutes (February 6th, 2006)

February 6th, 2006

The meeting was called to order at 7:00pm at the NMI office on 101 E McDermott.

Present

• Robert Butler - President
• Howard Fisher - Secretary
• Katie Waters (NMI)

Items discussed

• Rob updated the HOA board member and officer roles and responsibilities document using a combination of our Bylaws and an old (old circa Excel!) document.
• Rob made a few minor changes to the Welcome to the Neighborhood and advertising documents, and made several updates to the FAQ.
• Rob brought up the issue that while Beth is our accountant and candidate for the management position, she is also the treasurer of the association. If we decide to do with another management company, it is doubtful that Beth will want to remain treasurer. That being the case, Rob asked whether Howard would be interested in taking on the position of treasurer, and whether Yesika would take on the job of secretary. Overall, none of the actual duties and responsibilities change, however Howard has been regularly reviewing the financial statements already, which matches the responsibilities of the treasurer. Section 9.1 of the Bylaws has details.
• Rob contacted Richard Truong with the City, and asked for an update on the aerial photos of the neighborhood. Richard prepared a bundle of 5 CDROMs with images of our local area, and Rob picked it up at city hall. Rob hasn't had a chance to check all the images yet, but given the number of CDs there may actually be coverage of the entire city. Our previous aerial was from January 2003 when the neighborhood was still not 100% built out.
• Rob spent a few days working with our ISP to reduce the amount of spam and viruses reaching our email accounts, and purchased additional filtering for $3.33/month. Rob had been averaging around 20 spam/virus messages a day with the earlier filtering, and the additional filtering has reduced that to 4/day on average. However, the number of "obvious" spam messages still being allowed through without being caught by filter is fairly high.
• While cleaning his office at home, Rob found a copy of the original proposal that NMI gave the HOA back in 2003. He asked Yesika and Howard to please contact the six references listed in the older proposal to find out if they were still with NMI, and what their experience has been. Howard attempted to contact all seven references; one number was disconnected, two did not return his telephone call, and the remaining four had positive things to say.
• The remainder of the meeting was spent interviewing NMI for the management company position.
  • Rob made up copies of the New Homeowner binders and gave a copy to Howard and Katie, and asked Katie whether they would be able to distribute them to new homeowners at closing. Katie said that she was impressed with the binder, they should be able to distribute them, and she asked whether we would want NMI to print and assemble the binders. She also mentioned that they may need to purchase a new laser printer (the assumtion being that they are currently using a color inkjet).
  • Katie said that she is responsible primarily for doing neighborhood inspections and most office paperwork (paying bills, violation letters, etc.) Beverly handles most of the financial account details.
  • Katie said that both she and Beverly would try to attend our board meetings if given enough (several weeks) advance notice.
  • Rob showed Katie the violation reminder postcards that were given as an example in the older 2003 proposal and he asked whether they were still used, or if the more plain colored paper postcards were sent instead. Katie said that the current cards were the more plain version, but that they could send a different design if we desired.
  • Katie reiterated that they do not normally take photographs of violations, and that it has generally not been a problem for them. She mused that she could / should the camera in her cellphone for this purpose if we wished, although there may be an increase in price for the added detail over their standard violation letters.
  • Katie started with NMI back in August 2004.
  • Katie provided information on the CAB that Rob had requested, the URL is http://cabanc.com/.
  • Rob expressed the need for a debit card for the bank accounts for occasional use, and Katie will check with Beverly. The debit card is used for a number of things, such as paying the monthly bill for our ISP (web site), office supplies, holiday decorations and events, etc.
  • Rob expressed concern that he had asked Beverly for a copy of their proposal in PDF format during the original interview. He followed up with an email several days later, and again several days after that asking to receive a copy before this follow-up interview. What is the cause for the delay in providing a copy, lack of response, etc.? During the original interview, Beverly stated that they had about a 1-business day turnaround on emails, so clearly this should have been resolved over a week ago. Is the lack of response because we are not an official customer, lack of materials, or what? Katie said she would follow up on this on Tuesday.
  • Rob asked how they handle email and communications in general? It would be preferable for us to send to a group maxwellcreek@nmi address, and all of NMI's employees could access it. Katie said that she and Beverly have separate @sbcglobal email accounts, and that she checks her email daily. She also said that they will regularly check voicemail over the weekend, especially if we have notified them about an upcoming event.
  • Howard asked whether Katie or Beverly would be able to assist us with a possible future rewrite of the Bylaws and / or Covenants. Katie said that they would do their best to provide information and assistance, but we would probably need to seek outside legal assistance for the actual drafting.
  • Rob asked again about the time required for NMI to get up to speed on our account, and Katie said it shouldn't take more than 15-30 days. She inquired about import formats for homeowner and financial information, and Rob said that they should both be able to be exported from Quickbooks.
  • Rob asked Katie about the 30-day notice on resolving violations, and that our Covenants specify a 10-day resolution period. Katie said that they would work to our documents and processes.
  • Rob inquired about obtaining periodic exports of the homeowner, financial, and violation information so that we can keep our copy of the records reasonably up to date as well. Katie said that the homeowner contact list should be easy to export, but she would have to check with Beverly about the others.
  • Rob asked about copy costs. Katie said that normal monthly invoices and mailings would be covered at no additional cost, but that if we need to do special mailings (such as for the annual meeting or annual dues invoices) that they usually have Staples print them and it would cost the HOA 3¢ per page.
  • Rob asked about using some of NMI's storage space for HOA property (signs, tables, holiday decorations, etc.). Katie will check with Beverly about us possibly using some of their storage space and any additional cost involved.
  • Rob asked about the terms of cancellation on the contract. Katie said that there were no obligations, and that if we ever decided to cancel that it would probably be for the best for both companies. Katie said (and repeated Beverly's earlier statements) that NMI is in this for the long haul, and is committed to making sure we are satisfied.
  • Rob asked how the bank accounts were managed, and whether all of the association monies are grouped into one account, or whether there are separate operating / savings accounts. Katie said that she believed all monies were kept in a single account, but would need to check with Beverly about the specifics.
  Rob mentioned to Katie several times that we are a very involved and active group, so she should expect that we will be contacting her frequently about association issues. We would treat NMI as a member of the team, and include them in all correspondence.

Action Items

• Everyone - Think about / discuss various management company proposals.
• Rob - Forward a copy of the email to Beverly about the request for a PDF copy of NMI's proposal to Katie. Done.
• Rob - Delete references and information about the old Compass Bank accounts, those have been closed. Done.
• Rob - Create a management@ email alias for whichever management company we end up chosing Done.
• Yesika - Contact additional references for NMI. Done, Howard did.
• Howard - Contact additional references for NMI. Done.
• Katie - Follow up on PDF copy of the NMI management proposal.
• Katie - Find out about use of the NMI storage unit.
• Katie - Find out about obtaining / keeping a debit card.
• Katie - Find out about bank account operating / savings separations.