{"id":1006,"date":"2013-12-02T23:02:13","date_gmt":"2013-12-02T23:02:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gc-poa-realnewsandinformation.com\/?page_id=1006"},"modified":"2013-12-02T23:02:13","modified_gmt":"2013-12-02T23:02:13","slug":"annual-meeting-and-nov-19th-meeting","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/gc-poa-realnewsandinformation.com\/?page_id=1006","title":{"rendered":"Annual Meeting and Nov 19th Meeting"},"content":{"rendered":"

Contents<\/span><\/b><\/span>
\n1. Road Project Costs and Special Assessment<\/span>
\n2. Funding of Future Capital Improvement Projects<\/span>
\n3. Long Range Plan<\/span>
\n4. Realtor Relations Committee<\/span>
\n5. Election Figures<\/span>
\n6. 2013 Financials<\/span><\/span>
\n7<\/span>. Covenant Re-Write Project<\/span><\/span>
\n8. Miscellaneous Items
\n<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

This will combine items covered at the annual meeting on November 18th<\/sup> and the Board Meeting on November 19th<\/sup>.<\/span><\/p>\n

1.\u00a0 Road Project Costs and Special Assessment
\n<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Roy Thornton gave a detailed update on the road project.\u00a0 <\/span>He estimated that the total project may come in at around $2.6 million, which is between $200,000 and $300,000 lower than the expected $2.8 to $2.9 million. However, please note that f<\/span>inal numbers will not be known for a month or more.\u00a0 <\/span>Savings to date have resulted from not having to use contingency funds; meaning that we did not have too many bad areas requiring extra excavation and stabilization.<\/span><\/p>\n

Following on from the explanation in last month\u2019s summary (found here in Item 6:\u00a0 <\/span>10\/15\/13 Meeting Summary<\/a><\/strong>), if the costs turn out to be less than expected, we should not need to borrow as much as the predicted amount of $400,000.\u00a0 <\/span>If that is the case, the special assessment approved by the Board in October should be less than the expected $300 per lot.\u00a0 And we could be in the position of paying off that loan in full from the assessment proceeds.\u00a0 <\/span>Again, until the final numbers are known, the amount of the assessment will not be known.<\/span><\/p>\n

At the meeting on November 19th, however, the Board discussed alternative methods of funding improvements.\u00a0 Details are in the next section.\u00a0 <\/span>This is worth reading because it ties in with future projects and funding procedures (and now appears to be a fluid situation).<\/span><\/p>\n

2.\u00a0 Funding of Future Capital Improvement Projects<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

At the 11\/19 Board meeting, the directors discussed alternatives for funding future capital improvement projects.\u00a0 <\/span>The current project was funded primarily from cash reserves accumulated over a period of years, and the Board has previously expressed its desire to continue this practice of accumulating reserves from our annual assessments; and hopefully keeping special assessments and borrowings to a minimum.\u00a0 <\/span>However, at this meeting, the Board discussed the idea of borrowing money to pay for future projects.<\/span><\/p>\n

At least one director expressed a preference for borrowing money over special assessments.\u00a0 <\/span>Another suggested being more aggressive on undertaking major road projects sooner and, if necessary, borrowing money to fund those projects.\u00a0 <\/span>In that regard, it was suggested that the POA consider borrowing the entire $1,000,000 available under our current facility and using most or all of it on the next project (which project was not clearly defined; either in scope or timing; in as much as the Infrastructure and Long Term Plan Committees have not finished prioritizing projects).\u00a0 <\/span>The impetus for this idea seemed to be a fear of rising interest rates.\u00a0 <\/span>Some directors consider the current facility\u2019s rate of 4% to be very attractive and feel that future loan facilities will likely carry much higher rates.\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>If the entire $1,000,000 were borrowed today, the funds would be put into short term investments pending their need for a project.\u00a0 <\/span>The cost of doing this would be the 4% paid to the bank less whatever we earned on that money in the interim.<\/span><\/p>\n

Some recognized that borrowing the entire $1,000,000 in the current facility would be contrary to the strategy adopted at the October Board meeting; namely borrowing only the minimum necessary to finish the current project and paying that off with the proceeds of a special assessment in early 2014.\u00a0 <\/span>Most directors seemed to agree that, before undertaking such a wholesale change in strategy, it might be a good idea to solicit community input.<\/span><\/p>\n

(Editorial Comment:\u00a0 There are arguments for and against the idea of using borrowings to fund capital improvements.\u00a0 If this idea gains any traction, I will try to summarize those points in a separate paper.\u00a0 However, from all I have read about homeowner associations, I think it is safe to say that borrowing money is usually considered the least favorable method of funding capital projects.\u00a0 What we have been doing; building reserves over a period of time; seems to be the preferred method.)<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

3.\u00a0 Long Range Plan<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Although the plan is not yet available for review, Doug Frey presented some information; the key points of which were as follows:<\/span><\/p>\n

It assumes no more than a 2% increase in annual assessments every year.<\/span><\/p>\n

It will contain a five year forecast of capital expenditures.<\/span><\/p>\n

Different road rebuilding alternatives are still being examined, so no firm estimates are available for the next several projects.<\/span><\/p>\n

Two projects were noted as being high on the priority list; replacing or upgrading lower Manly plus rebuilding the section of Governors Drive from Manly to the country club entrance.\u00a0 <\/span>Engineering costs for some future projects have been accounted for in the 2014 budget.<\/span><\/p>\n

75% of our roads are in good condition and should not require major work for at least 5 years or more.<\/span><\/p>\n

The intent is to continue to allocate between $450,000 and $500,000 every year to the Reserve Fund to build reserves for these future projects.<\/span><\/p>\n

The five major areas to be addressed by the Long Range Plan are:<\/span><\/p>\n

1.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/span>Asset maintenance<\/span>
\n2.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/span>Security Gates<\/span>
\n3.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/span>Walkways<\/span>
\n4.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/span>Long Term Roads Plan<\/span>
\n5.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/span>Emphasize POA\/Country Club Cooperation<\/span><\/p>\n

4.\u00a0 Realtor Relations Committee<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Gus Kolias gave a summary of this committee\u2019s activities at the annual meeting.\u00a0 <\/span>The overall goal of the committee is to have us become the most realtor friendly community in the triangle.\u00a0 <\/span>He presented figures which showed that we are increasing our exposure to non-resident realtors.\u00a0 <\/span>For example, 324 new realtors came to the community in the past year; and 94 of those were from Raleigh.\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Within the last year, 47 homes sold, and there are currently 17 homes under construction.<\/span><\/p>\n

75% of houses currently for sale (56 total) are using the magnetic Quick Response tag which can be seen on mailboxes.<\/span><\/p>\n

5.\u00a0 Election Figures<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

At the annual meeting, it was disclosed that 590 ballots were cast in the recent election for directors; representing 56.4% of all eligible voters.\u00a0 <\/span>This compared to 411 ballots cast in last year\u2019s election.<\/span><\/p>\n

Of those who voted this year, 41% used the electronic voting procedure.<\/span><\/p>\n

6.\u00a0 2013 Financials<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Financial results for 2013 were reviewed both at the annual meeting and the Board meeting.\u00a0 <\/span>It appears that, barring any unforeseen events (such as a snowstorm), the budget should be met for the year after using most, if not all, of the $50,000 contingency.<\/span><\/p>\n

I will not have access to the board papers and financial statements until next week.\u00a0 <\/span>If there is anything in those statements worthy of note, I will do a separate post.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

7.\u00a0 Covenant Re-Write Project<\/strong><\/p>\n

We have reached the 80% threshold to make the proposed changes to the covenants.\u00a0 Some administrative tasks need attention; after which the necessary amendments will be filed.<\/p>\n

This was the first step in cleaning up our covenants; the critical part being the lowering of the voting threshold for changes from 80% to 67%.\u00a0 The next step will be a detailed examination and rewriting of the covenants to clean them up and make them easier to administer.\u00a0 That is a long term project, and future proposed changes will require a vote of the community to become effective.<\/p>\n

8.\u00a0 Miscellaneous Items:<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

    \n
  1. As best I could determine, the Board voted to change the ad-hoc IT Committee to a standing committee.<\/span><\/li>\n
  2. The Safety Committee is working on obtaining bids for new gate hardware and software.\u00a0 <\/span>The gate hardware is 15 years old, and the entry software needs updating.<\/span><\/li>\n
  3. The Board appeared to show interest in creating a new committee to deal with Country Club \/ POA relations.\u00a0 <\/span>Other than one director expressing interest in re-examining the letter agreement between the two organizations, the desired goals were not made clear at this meeting.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Contents 1. Road Project Costs and Special Assessment 2. Funding of Future Capital Improvement Projects 3. Long Range Plan 4. Realtor Relations Committee 5. Election Figures 6. 2013 Financials 7. Covenant Re-Write Project 8. Miscellaneous Items This will combine items … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":599,"menu_order":13,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-1006","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gc-poa-realnewsandinformation.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1006","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gc-poa-realnewsandinformation.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gc-poa-realnewsandinformation.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gc-poa-realnewsandinformation.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gc-poa-realnewsandinformation.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1006"}],"version-history":[{"count":23,"href":"https:\/\/gc-poa-realnewsandinformation.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1006\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1029,"href":"https:\/\/gc-poa-realnewsandinformation.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1006\/revisions\/1029"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gc-poa-realnewsandinformation.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/599"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gc-poa-realnewsandinformation.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1006"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}