Meeting Minutes
January 31, 2023
Call to order, 7:10 PM
- Present: Christy Jones (hosting), Sandy Schell, Megan Johnson, Danny Bier, Alex Wolf, Brittany Meeks, Andi Graves, Kathy Walker, Joanne Davala, Dorthea Diller, Lisa Wiethorn
- Quorum Established: Yes
- November 2022 minutes approved
Reports:
- Presidents – 2022 co-presidents were not in attendance; no report
- Secretary – November meeting minutes (written by Christy Jones) were approved
- Treasurer –
- Ended 2023/ Current Balance: $3,085.07
- Pending Costs: Pending costs from 2022 – will close out 2022 books by the end of February
- Sandy will develop a summary of 2022 fund allocation for the 2022 Membership Year to publish alongside meeting minutes
- Architectural Control Committee – Reminder to submit work (past and future)
- Hospitality – Nothing new to report
- Communications – Nothing new to report
- CenCon (Centennial Council of Neighborhoods) – AHCA is currently in good standing. If you’d like to know what is happening with our city’s 45 neighborhood associations, please visit www.cencon.net.
New Business
- Elections were held and we’re happy to see more participation with our neighbors!
Announcing our 2023 AHCA BOARD!
Co-Presidents: Danny Bier and Alex Wolf
Secretary: Andi Graves
Treasurer: Sandy Schell
Communications: Megan Johnson & Brittany Meeks
Hospitality Co-Chairs: Susie Lewis and Christy Jones
2023 Membership Drive:
- Goal: Get forms out in February
- Team:
- Joanne: Can update mailing labels.
- Christy: Will help stuff envelopes
- Need to figure out who will print
- Discussion:
- Decided to send via USPS as well as via website when paying through PayPal
- Sandy will send form via e-mail to all members + neighbors present; will need consensus
- Will have a centralized drop-off location for membership forms if neighbors do not want to mail
- Team:
Dues Increase:
- Increase dues from $50-$75 annually. All in attendance voted for. Approved.
- Neighborhood dues will remain voluntary
- 2022 Overview:
- Brought in $5,245 (including $1,500 in Centennial grants)
- Spent $5,996.46
- Difference: $(751.46)
- Challenges:
- All costs have gone up with inflation; Dumpster/Chipper was a large expense increase. Increases across the board in required insurance, flyer/printables, food, etc.
- Due to increases in cost to run events, proposing annual dues increase from $50 to $75
- There have been no due increases since the AHCA was established
- Commitments:
- The board is committed to ensuring we are being frugal, while also planning fun events for our neighbors to connect.
- The board commits to look at ways to reduce costs and drive ways to save in order to stay within budget.
- As we planned the 2023 calendar, we considered neighbor attendance and feedback to ensure we were spending our time and money resources in most leveraged areas.
- Meeting vote to increase annual, voluntary, dues from $50 to $75
- All in attendance were in favor. Approved.
Board Elections:
- Co-presidents: Danny B + Alex Wolfe
- Secretary: Andi Graves
- Newsletter: Sandy Schell + Danny B.
- Digital Communications:
- Website: Megan Johnson
- E-mails: Britney + Danny B.
- Treasurer: Sandy Schell
- Backup: Alex Wolf
- Hospitality: Christy Jones + Susie Lewis
- All in favor voted for and approved.
ACC Elections:
- No current ACC board members here
- Current: Hank, Vorry Moon, Matt
Meeting Adjourned: 8:26 pm
Andi Graves submits these minutes, gratefully acknowledging the board’s help!
Other Notes:
- Holiday Party at the Moons had great attendance!
- Did get feedback around being able to bring children. Board decided to maintain the Holiday Party as an adult only event, as majority of events are family-friendly.
- If you have issues or concerns, please attend meetings in addition to voicing concerns online and/or emails
- Need to begin confirming that name and address are OK to publish prior to doing that
- CenCon- Centennial council of neighborhoods. Meet on a monthly basis in person.
- In the past, we’ve had a delegate that would attend and provide updates.
- Lisa will be our volunteer to do this (thank you!)
- Megan will apply for the permit for 4th of July
- Christy will get info for potential new chipper company since last one was unreliable
- Should keep same dumpster company
- Will apply for $500 Centennial grants; Sandy to determine # of grants we can apply for. Potential options for usage:
- Dumpster
- Chipper
- 4th of July BBQ + Parade
- Fall Festival
- Holiday Party
Regular Meetings: Odd Months; 3rd Tuesday @ 7pm
January 31 |
Host: Christy Jones Topics:
|
March 21 |
Host: Dorathea Diller House Topics:
|
May 16 |
Topics:
|
July 18 |
Topics:
|
September 19 |
Topics:
|
November 21 |
Topics:
|
|
|
Community Events:
2/15 |
AHCA Membership Drive Starts |
Alex + Danny |
6/3 + 6/4 |
Dumpster/Chipper Weekend |
Sandy + Danny |
7/4 |
Summer BBQ + 4th of July Parade |
Christy + Megan |
8/1 |
Ice Cream Social |
Andi |
9/23 |
Annual Fall Festival
|
Britney + Aaron |
12/9 |
Santa Visits + Holiday Party |
|
Other Activities:
- Entrance clean-up
- Membership Directory
- Kathy- Proof Reading directory
- 3 Grants
All those who paid dues in spring 2022, are already dues paid from 4/1/22 through 3/31/23.
The dues being requested for the new fiscal year for 2023, 1/1/23 through 12/31/23, assume anyone who paid dues in 2022, wants to pay dues twice for 1/1/23 through 3/31/23. If you don’t want to pay dues twice for the first quarter of this year, you should pay .75 of $75, which equals $56.25 for 2023.
Every AHCA member is owed the 2023 budget ASAP, and
explanations of 1) $530 other 2) $913 summer bbq and 4th of July 3) $222 ice cream social 4) $597 fall fest.
How did these amounts compare to the 2022 budgeted amounts? How many $ spent per attendee? Some of these amounts appear to be ridiculous and financially irresponsible.
Hello Lila. The AHCA Board has sent you an email addressing your concerns. For more information please see the latest update from our AHCA co-presidents here: https://arapahoehighlands.com/a-message-from-the-presidents/
Dear Danny, Alex, and rest of AHCA Board, and residents,
Thanks for your reply. Yes, the fiscal year was changed, but you can’t have two fiscal years at the same time. You must ease into your new fiscal year schedule by having a 9 month period for the first one, April 1, 2023 through Dec. 31, 2023. Then you can go on having your new fiscal year, for 12 mos. starting with Jan. 1, 2024 through Dec. 31, 2024. The change in fiscal year cannot be retroactive. Those who paid dues a year ago, did in fact pay dues for April 1, 2022 through March 31, 2023. It was not just intended, it was actual, per our By-laws at the time. Since your new fiscal year must start with a 9 month period, to get you to where you can start having fiscal and calendar year be the same, you are obligated by the trust put in you by those who elected you and those you serve, to collect no more than 9 mos., 3/4, of the new $75 annual dues, this spring, for the 9 month partial fiscal year. That amount, $56.25, is still more, for the nine months, than we have been paying for 12 months. Your request for $75 for the nine month period does not conform to the recent changes, which say $75 for 12 months dues. In Jan. 2024, you can charge $75 for the first 12 month fiscal year. You might be interested to know that the By-laws on the website still say the fiscal year is 4/1 thru 3/31 and dues are $50/year.
I do not feel spending 7.5% of our annual dues income on a bouncy castle for 10 or 12 kids at one afternoon event is cost effective. If a bouncy castle is ever gotten again, please do not place it and the screaming children, and the crying ones who inevitably get hurt in it, near where adults are trying to converse. If neighborhood parents are looking for events large enough to afford bouncy houses, magicians and balloon men, they should look into the City of Centennial summer events, the rec centers, churchs, libraries, etc. If children are for some reason unable to play on their own at our events, it would cost much less to hire a teen or two to play games with them. We have bins of games materials, burlap sacks etc. for races and games, that have been passed down through the officers.
If the budgets and financial statement data is not secret, why is it not automatically presented to every resident as required by the By-laws? I should not have to make any request, let alone multiple fruitless requests for this information, nor should any resident. Emailing the board and attending a meeting will not/has not provided this information to me.
Correct, no one has ever been paid to be on the board. It is a job done with love of one’s neighborhood at heart, paid for with the joy of building a solid, close community that is proud enough to keep itself well maintained. It should be done by those who will most use the services of the association. May you receive lots of that joy. My expectations are not relevant here. What is relevant are the expectations for Board members and officers as laid out in the By-laws. Every single board member should read them at the start of each new term. April 1st is not far away and that is when your 9 month term begins, per the voted in change in fiscal year. I am available for providing AHCA history/question answering/mentoring. You just have to ask.
Notes – Do babies Nora and Oliver have parents? Who are they?
Minutes should state the number of yes and no votes on issues that are voted on.
When people are mentioned in the minutes, who are not listed as being present at the top, their last name should be provided so readers know who they are.
When minutes are written or a letter to the neighborhood is sent, the writer’s name should be on it.
Lila Greaves
Hi Lila. The Board has received your response. We invite you to attend this month’s meeting if you would like to discuss this further. It will be on Tuesday, March 21 at 7pm, at the home of Carl and Dorothea Diller.
It should be noted that all amendments to the By-laws from 2014 were left out of the 2022 Directory, though they were in the 2020-2021 directory. You can tell because there were two amendments in the Elections section, and probably others, that do not appear in the 2022 Directory. So if the new Board members are reading the By-Laws from a directory, they should be sure they are not reading a version from pre-2014.
I am not sure what purpose it would serve for me to go to the meeting. I am not interested in planning the dumpster/chipper nor 4th of July hot dogs for brunch party. I have stated that the board cannot expect members to pay dues for the same period of time twice, no matter what the Board did with the fiscal year. Since only 9 months exist from the end of the current fiscal year to the beginning of the next, 3/31/23 to 1/1/24, the new $75 dues for a year must be prorated for the existing 9 mos. = $56.25, still more than we have been paying all these years for a whole year. I doubt that appearing at a meeting will cause the 2022 budget and 2023 budget to magically appear on the website, so what is the point? All board members must read a version of the By-laws, that includes the 2014 amendments, and follow them, or change them, if the association is going to do its job. If anyone wants AHCA historical info, advice, etc. Just let me know. I am available.