Meeting Minutes
March 21, 2023
Call to order:
Meeting was called to order at 7:10pm at the home of Carl and Dorothea Diller.
- Attendance (A quorum was present):
- Board Members:
- Danny Bier (2023 co-president)
- Alex Wolf (2023 co-president)
- Sandy Schell (Treasurer)
- Brittany Meeks (Communications)
- Andi Graves (Secretary)
- Christy Jones (Hospitality)
- Kathy Walker (Member at Large)
- Susie Lewis (Hospitality)
- Neighbors:
- Dorthea Diller
- Carl Diller
- Board Members:
Arapahoe Highlands Civic Association Business
- Reading of minutes of previous meeting;
- All reviewed on website
- Reading of all correspondence and/or hearings
- By-laws need to be updated in the member directory
- Recent concerns from one household have been addressed and the board considers them closed.
- Neighborhood notifications:
- Board will post happenings that impact health and well-being through email.
- For Pet notifications and others, we encourage neighbors to post on next door.
- Treasurer: Sandy Schell
- Current Balance: $4,467.20
- Pending Costs: Membership mailing and stamps ($162.89)
- Sandy Schell has key to the mailbox; Alex will be the backup
- Membership Drive:
- 24 so far; includes 4 PayPal
- Membership drive ends 4/30
- Membership Drive Reminders:
- Include reminder that the directory will be printed with information received through end of April
- Email will go out as a reminder mid-April
- Will go door-to-door if any updates are not received; Susie will call Denise to see if she is still interested in helping
- Put up signs to remind the neighbors
- Member Directory:
- Owner: Sandy Schell
- Proof Reading: Kathy Walker
- Goal: 2023 Directory to be published/printed by end of May 2023.
- Board will publish any updates end of year to identify new neighbors
- Will continue to print 110 directories (all houses + accounts for new neighbors)
- 2023 AHCA Budget:
- 2023 Budget discussed in detail with all Board and Neighbors at meeting
- All present board members (quorum was reached) and neighbors made a motion to approve 2023 budget
- Board will re-visit the budget once we learn the status of the 5 grants we will apply for; may need to re-assess budgeted events
- Grants to be utilized for:
- 4th of July Summer Party: Alex to submit
- Fall Festival: Christy to submit
- Dumpster: Brittany to submit
- Chipper: Danny to submit
- Holiday Party: Andi to submit
- Grants to be submitted by 4/1/23. Sandy will send board Tax ID number.
- Note: If grants are awarded, the money must be used for the event applied for (the money does not roll over to a different event).
- Architectural Control Committee:
- Reminder to submit work- past and future
- Social
- See: Upcoming Event Planning
- Hospitality
- Nothing to report
Upcoming Event Planning:
- Dumpster/Chipper Event
- Co-Chairs: Danny and Sandy
- Danny will call and schedule the vendors
- Sandy will identify the volunteers from membership forms
- Chipper: 3 hours on Saturday morning, 9am to noon
- Need to book by May 1st
- 4th of July Event
- Board will provide hamburgers, hotdogs, buns, chips, water bottles
- Keisha Gimm and Justin Denton are willing to host again! Thank you!
- Candace will coordinate mounted police and firetrucks (need to confirm)
- Kathy- Order popsicles
Topics Discussed:
- Newsletter: Danny and Alex
- Goal: Send in April
- Include membership drive information
- 2023 plan will be to circulate this responsibility to board members to ensure it is feasible
May AHCA Meeting Planning:
- Date: Tuesday, May 16th, 7pm
- Location: Brittany’s House @ 7693 S. Gilpen Ct.
- Topics:
- Plan 4th of July / Summer BBQ (Block street, permit, street party)
- Re-visit budget with grants
- Discuss Dumpster/Chipper Event Planning
- Other topics as identified
Adjourn:
Sandy Schell adjourned the meeting at 8:54pm
Andi Graves submits these minutes, gratefully acknowledging the board’s help!
I did not appreciate the bait and switch on the agenda items for the March meeting, keeping anyone interested in how the Board spends our dues in the dark about the budget discussion that occured. However, I am glad that the budget is being discussed. Despite a motion being made to approve the budget at the March meeting, it apparently was not voted on, mercifully holding open the budget discussion until the May meeting when the board will see if any grants were issued. To save time at the May meeting, please post the current draft budget ASAP so people can study it before the May meeting.
It seems the Board could save a lot of money on a chipper, if they could somehow tie into the City of Centennial’s chipper/mulch event on May 6.
Please honor the minutes from the June 2022 BBQ/meeting that say, “Board will determine and communicate how dues will be paid in 2023 so that no community member pays double for any given month.” With the change in fiscal year, there are only 9 mos. in 2023, for which dues have not been paid. Per the June minutes and the By-Laws, the current Board is only able to request $56.25 dues for 2023. This will still result in more dues being paid than in any prior year. The Board may not collect $75 dues for a year until 2024. Anyone who was tricked into paying $75 should immediately receive a refund of $18.75 from AHCA.
Hello Lila,
Thank you for your reply – the bylaws do not require the sharing of meeting topics before the meeting nor do they require a draft budget to be shared in advance of the meeting, we are required only to share the approved budget within 30 days. That being said, if the draft had been available earlier we would have put it on the meeting agenda and shared with the neighborhood for feedback, which we will endeavor to do next year. As it happens the current budget will be shared in the next newsletter. We encourage you to review and share any comments or suggestions at the next AHCA meeting.
Thank you for the suggestion on tie-ing into the city’s event, we will investigate that as an option.
On the subject of prorated dues – as you have already been informed the AHCA incurs essentially no expenses for the first three months of the year. For this reason the decision was made not to prorate dues this year, and no refunds will be issued.
As always we appreciate your patience with our volunteers, and welcome any feedback or suggestions – preferably at our regular meetings.
-Alex & the AHCA Board
No one said the By-Laws require the sharing of agenda items prior to a meeting. However you did share such information, but it was incorrect, discouraging any members interested in the actual agenda items, namely budget setting, from attending.
Will the next newsletter, containing the budget in its current form, come out prior to the May meeting? Obviously there was something that the attendees moved to approve, but did not vote on at the March meeting, per the minutes. The Board is charged with being accountable to the residents and therefore should be transparent with such information, especially since it will be discussed at the May meeting, per the March minutes. It will waste everyone’s time at the meeting, as people get up to speed with it, if you do not provide it prior to the meeting. There is still plenty of time to provide it before the meeting. No need nor reason to wait until next year. Any changes such as the posting of the budget, a newsletter, or minutes should be announced to residents by email, if you want the information seen, as we don’t just go and check the AHCA website everyday to see if there is something new on it.
As you have been told, but refuse to listen to, you do not have the authority to charge whatever dues you feel like without changing the By-Laws. You must honor the By-Laws. If the fiscal year had not been changed, you could have asked for $75 dues for 4/1/23-3/31/24, but the fiscal year did change and you are left authorized by the By-Laws and the June 2022 BBQ/meeting minutes, to collect dues for only 9 months of 2023, 4/1/23-12/31/23. $75/12 x 9 mos. = $56.25. That will still result in more dues being paid than in any prior year. Any who were misled into paying $75 deserve a refund of $18.75. The time of year expenses of the assoc. are incurred does not determine the amount of annual dues requested. In Jan. 2024, $75 dues can be requested for the 12 mos. of 2024, unless the By-Laws are changed again in the interim.
It is hard to be patient with anyone who refuses to honor the By-Laws of the organization they are leading, at the expense of the residents who fund it.
Lila Greaves