Annual Meeting Minutes 15-Oct-2019

Meeting Minutes

1. General introductions were made of all of the attending members as we went around the room.
2. A determination was made on whether we had a quorum in attendance counting proxies.  We did not have a quorum in attendance which will require us to canvas all members who were not present or represented by proxy.  I believe Brett McCormick indicated that 29 Associated Members were represented at the meeting counting proxies.
3. We walked through the budget as presented by the Treasurer, Josh Jackels and the group had very few questions.  The budget was adopted without dissent.   Josh told the group that the Board would be keeping the assessments at the same level as last year.
4. We then moved into the proposed changes to the Association Covenants. It was made clear that we would be discussing and voting on each proposed change individually.  Passage of one proposal was not tied to any other proposal.  It was not all or nothing.  The group was filled in on the procedure by which we would go door to door to determine the wishes of the members that were present or represented at the meeting.  Because of this we would be unable to determine passage of any individual item until a quorum had voted.   The group was reminded that if a proposal was turned down it would revert to the current Covenants wording, which in most cases was stricter than the newly proposed language.  Since a number of the proposals were not controversial, I did not record any vote that was unanimous with no abstentions or no votes opposing the proposal.  Below are any proposed changes that had opposing votes or amendments offered.  Again, Brett McCormick was using a spreadsheet of membership and recording the official vote totals so where my notes disagree, his will be the official record:
   1. Nuisances- Proposal was changed to specifically 4 dogs or 4 cats. The remainder of the proposal was left the same.  Vote was not unanimous but I could not see who all objected.
   1. Garbage and Refuse Disposal- We will add “garbage enclosure, not to exceed 30 sq. ft.” to the language for ways to store your containers out of site.  It passed unanimously after the amendment.
   1. Storage- Temporary storage was changed from 48 hours to 1 week.  It passed with 1 no vote.
   1. Antennas- It was noted by one member that we were not legally able to restrict antenna use according to Federal Law but we went ahead with the vote in case that was shown to be incorrect. (Question on whether we removed satellite dishes from this language???) The proposal was opposed by 3 votes.
   1. VII Nuisances- Rentals and Leases.  The cumulative 2-week maximum requirement in the proposal was changed to 1 month for the amount of time someone could rent out their property in a short term lease (per year).  We added an amendment to clarify that this does not apply to long term leases which are acceptable.
   1. Time Limit-The final controversial provision was on how we can change the protective covenants in the future, as our proposal was tied to the By-Laws which can be changed by the Board of Directors.  The discussion widened to how the BOD was elected and the group was told that the BOD elects the BOD from nominees submitted by the membership.  The general sentiment was that the membership should elect the BOD to have more say.  We said we would discuss changes on this subject in our next BOD meeting.  I did not record a vote on this proposal as we got side-tracked and I did not note that we ever voted.
5.  A question was raised on the noise levels from the highway and a member was wondering if the State DOT was going to study this or do anything about the highway noise.  We stated that they had studied it in the past (on a Sunday) and said they would be doing nothing further because we did not meet the minimum noise levels for abatement.
6. We received several nominations for the BOD.  Jane McCormick recorded these to present at our next BOD meeting.
7. We adjourned at about 9:00.