RHHA Meeting #11 June 22, 2010
at Greg and Beth’s House
In attendance: Greg & Beth Whitesell, John Latuperissa, Don, & Rita Dunbar, Joann Fyanes, Mike Gillespie, Joe & Carrie Zambrana, Ray & Jackie Pearl, Tammy& Johnny Messineo, Ken & Carolyn Polglase, Anita Herring, Joe Redzensky, Mary D,
Specifically we voted on and passed the following:
•RHHA to have 3 standing board members (members at large) in addtion to officers anually. (Joann, Tammy, Anita)
•2010-2011 officers to remain same as 2009-2010 (Don, John, Carrie, Greg)
•Email will be RHHA official form of communication, except for special meetings, votes and actions which will have written notice with best effort to give 7 days advance notice.
•RHHA Dues of $100 per year, to be paid in lump sum or bi-annual payments of $50 on or before September 1 and March 1.
•Any decision or vote affecting common property will require a 2/3 majority (10 votes) to pass. Majority defined as 10 out of 15 households.
•A quorum shall be defined as 8 households represented including one of them being either the RHHA president or the Vice president. A quorum must be present to hold an official RHHA Meeting.
•RHHA will perform an annual audit of the accounting records, around he same time of election of officers. (Mike Gillespie to audit)
Carrie Z – T report:
Checking for RHHA = balance 2374.51 no expenses incurred, upcoming expense of annual insurance coming up.
Also – another account for pier fund established and $2000 check for attorney was written. 2500 bal req’d in account. Current balance of 4,000 remain after Joe Zambrana put in check for 1,000.
Don D-. Minutes from last month…. Additions or Deletions? .Motion to accept. GW second. In record. Minutes Approved.
Don – One issue that we have tonight is election of officers….at 1 year. , We can have
Greg Sec, Carrie T, John VP, Don Prez. or anyone else from the Nominating committee or floor. Are there any nominations from the committee or floor? Speak up if you want to nominate anyone.
Carrie Z- What about nominating committees? Do we need board members.
Mary D- I suggest that we keep the administration as minimal as possible, especially with an organization of this size.
Discussion from group leading to motion.
Greg w- Motion on the floor that we have 3 standing board members up for election each year which would be voting, not to be from the same house hold. Jackie 2nd.
Motion passed after unanimous voice vote to elect 3 board members.
Don D- Are there any nominations from the floor for officers or board members.
Jackie – I’ll drop out to allow for Joann Fyanes to hold position on board.
Joann Fyanes replaces Jackie on the board. Joann Fyanes, Anita Herring, and Tammy Messineo have been elected as the new Board.
Don- Motion nominations be closed. Since there are non, the secretary will cast on ballot. At which time we will make it official that the officers will remain the same for the next year.
2010-2011 Officer will be – Don Dunbar – President, John Latuperissa – Vice President, Carrie Zambrana – Treasurer, Greg Whitesell – Secretary
Mary D- May I suggest that we use the title of Members at Large for the board members.
Tammy- Wants cell phone to be updated on cell phone. 443-822-7121.
Don D- Give me a little guidance. We have several issues to be discussed.
The main is Bylaws. and A few others. One of the reason why we have not had more progress is that we haven’t had a lot of feedback.
Carrie- I went on Ponder Cove’s website to look at the bylaws. I think its more along the line of what we have here.
Jackie- That’s what I thought we should use.
John L – that’s feedback and I’ll read the whole thing and go from there.
I found a 2010 bylaws and covenants from the state of Maryland. And I used it as a model to plug and play and delete a whole lot of stuff and added the verbage that we needed and specifically spoke about the gravel road, the sign, and the community pier.
A subset of that applies to the payments, and the structure of the lease. That’s important, because we need to have all the detail stuff in the bylaws and covenants and stuff. We need to afford them flexibility in their payment schedule. If we choose to go a non-lease route, we need to address that too.
John L – The other thing I want to address is the money that we put up. I don’t think it should work that the person who puts up money first gets the biggest slip or whatever. but all that was not reflected in the bylaws.
John L – Right now the HOA has no real legal authority until the bylaws and covenants are in place. Everything else up to date is speculation. This is a living document. If anyone has anything to contribute, then please let me know.
Don – Another thing along these lines. Email as a form of written notification. What I would like to do is make E-Mail an official form of communication.
John L- A motion to make email the official form of communication and notification except for special circumstances meetings, votes and actions will require a written notice, with the best attempt to give 7 days notice if possible.
Voice VOTE: Passed with no opposition. Email official form unless special.
Don D- We are starting our 2nd year. DUES. We all started off by putting money up. We need to start a standard dues structure for standard dues for yearly operating budget. My first thoughts were $50 per year per household.
Carrie- Thus far this year we have had expenses for insurance and signs. In the future, possible maintenance may be needed for the common areas. So far we’ve had a lot of people volunteer things and services. But we haven’t needed to spend much money. I’m thinking we may need $100 per household and they can make either lump sum or quarterly or bi-annual payment.
Carrie – I motion for $100 per year dues either in one lump sum of 2 payments.
Voice Vote: All Ayes (most of room) / 1 Nay, Motion Passed.
Jackie – Why don’t we make them Due on September 1, and March 1.
Voce Vote : Motion Passed All Ayes, 1 Nay.
Mary D- To my understanding with bylaws and Covenants, one is amended and one is not.
john L – We can vote on it with a majority.
Don d- Our bylaws and covenants….are they all on one piece of paper?
John L – yes it will all be in one document.
Mary D- Is there a legal advantage to have them separate.
Don- Bylaws are how the Organization is run, and the covenants is for the property management.
Mary D- In my experience it was with the state office in which we did the filing.
Don D- Next item is probably not going to be the most popular item. We have a community pier. We have boats down there. I think we should start charging to have boats down there.
John L- Right now I’d be against it. Because technically, we shouldn’t haven’t boats down there and the HOA shouldn’t be involved in making money on an illegal activity.
DOn D- The lease money would go to pay the electric bill and insurance.
Greg W. – I agree with what John said… and for the record, I’m not complaining about paying the electric down there. but I don’t think we should have the RHHA charge for something until it is legitimate.
John L- A homeowner brought up a very good point. I’d like to establish how many homeowners we need to have a majority.
Don D- My recommendation would be 8.
John L- It is going to be a very important decisions that we are making. These are important issues and we need to define what a quorum and what a majority are going to be. We are going to have to vote on 8, 9, and 10.
Don – But for voting on issues, we can still include written proxy votes, and via email if people can’t attend a meeting.
Mary- I move that any decision affecting common property that would require a vote of at least 2/3 (10) of the homeowners voted to pass. (homeowners to equal 1 vote per household).
Greg W. – Motion on the floor that any decision affecting common prop would require a vote of 2/3 in favor. (10 out of 15 households) Voice Vote (All ayes) Motion Passed.
John L- What’s that number we need to put forward a meeting and have a meeting and have a quorum? Any intro of a new bylaw would have to pass a quorum. where a majority would be present. So what number will that be?
MOtion on the Floor – A quorum would be defined as 8 household represented at a meeting to include the president or vice president, which can be part of the 8.
Voice Vote – Motion Passed = quorum defined as 8.
Don D- two things, committee chairs. We need a pier, sign and bylaws…all standing committees every year. Should we have any other comittee.
Jo Fyannes and John and Joe Redzensky and Ray Pearl – will be the Pier committee. Clean up and maintain around the pier.
Sign Committee – Joann, Rita and Joe R
Don D- This is one more thing…..Carrie this is not aimed at you. Should we have a
RHHA Audit.
Mike G- I can do it.
John L : Motion on the floor to have an Annual RHHA Book over seen once a year around the election time Rita Second.
Voice Vote All say AYE: Vote Passed. (Mike Gillespie to perform audit)
John L- Again, Please contact me. This is a living document. Please let me know your thoughts. Let me know about the Ponder Cove Coveneants.
Don D- One of the things in the original bylaws is that the sign but not the bushes are community property.
Don D- Anymore noted items of business.
Mary D- I’d like to raise a concern about the RHHA property, regarding easements. Some of use have old road running through the property. I suggest we remove the term easement from the covenants in regard to rights.
John L- My concern was that we’d be allowed to run any utilities to the pier.
John L – We can work through the verbage until every one is happy, and we won’t vote on it until everyone is happy with them.
Motion to Close:
Jackie – We should have a cap on the lawyer.
Don- We had discussed 5k then reassess. We are getting a punch list together for the lawyers.
Greg W – I think we already decided to assess where we are when we hit $5K and see what we’ve gotten and where we are before we decide to proceed.
Next Meeting: Tuesday July 13 at Don and Rita’s house.
Don L- Once we’re passed the pier thing, we won’t have to meet so regularly.
Meeting Closed at 8:26 pm.
Meeting Minutes: recorded by Greg Whitesell- secretary
(Note: These meeting minutes are an attempt to record as much as possible that took place during the meeting, but not nearly everything said was recorded. As they are not transcribed from a tape, nor are they all inclusive, they are not meant to be direct quotes from anyone or to be used as legal documentation. Rather this is an attempt to provide a degree of transparency of the proceedings and to serve as a casual record for both those in attendance and for those who were unable to attend. There is quite a bit that was said that could not be recorded, therefore, consider the minutes as a bit of short hand with some exclusions. Thanks, Greg.)