September 10, 2024

September 2024 Hickory Farms HOA Meeting Minutes 

Location:  Microsoft Teams video 

Board Members in Attendance: 

Telah Jackson-Vice President 

Tad Weed- Associate Treasurer  

Ben Noviello- Secretary 

Melissa Stark- Common Areas 

Judy Deng- Treasurer 

Charles Chu– Member at Large 

Pam Barrett- Member at Large 

Others in Attendance: 

Bob Sottile  

Juliette Giordano 

Laura Bucher 

A quorum having been reached; the meeting was brought to order at 7:05 

Telah moved to approve the previous minutes; Ben seconded; the motion passed.  

Old Business  

Treasurer Report 

Judy confirmed that the proposed 2025 budget was approved by the board, published in the newsletter, and will be presented for community consideration at the annual board meeting on 15 October 2024. 

Judy reported that the relevant bank statements related to payment of several invoices were in Teams.  She also reported there is about $75,000 in a CD and about $40,000 cash on hand.  

Commons Area Report 

Melissa reported that “Northern Woods” had responded to her request for proposals with a bid of approximately $14,000 for the removal of trees. Based on her market research and her assessment of past performance, she recommended this bid be accepted. 

Melissa made this motion; Telah seconded; the motion passed. 

Melissa stated that she was still waiting for a proposal from the current landscaper for 2025.  

Melissa also indicated a requirement for someone in the community to both conduct a thorough reserve study of the development’s infrastructure and assume the responsibility to oversee the maintenance of this infrastructure. She reported that she had identified a few candidates, and would speak to them about this during the planned walk-around.  

ACC Report 

Telah reported on the meeting with our attorney regarding possible approaches to dealing with a house in the community that still exhibited damage from a fire, even after what was assessed to be a reasonable amount of time.  The assessment of the attorney was that more aggressive engagement would most likely be needed.  

Bob Sottile, representing the ACC, expressed concern about the priority of this action given the existence of even more egregious violations.  

Telah made the motion that we delay such engagement for now; Melissa seconded; it passed.  

There was discussion about whether we should begin additional actions against the violations Bob mentioned.  However, Bob also reported that Justin Menson had recently completed a walkthrough and was preparing a more formal assessment of possible violations. It was suggested that we wait until that report before taking further action.  This recommendation was accepted by consensus.   

Preparation for the Annual Meeting 

Melissa indicated she was preparing a brochure for distribution to homeowners during the planned walk-through in the coming weeks.  This would include the QR Codes and URLs for the online proxy and the actual meeting, scheduled for 7:00 15 October via Microsoft Teams.  

The presentations to be made during the annual meeting will be discussed during the next regular HOA board meeting on 8 October.  Ben reiterated his intention to integrate individual contributions to the presentation if provided with these. 

New Business   

There was a discussion of the need for the ACC to have improved access to TEAMS.  Ben indicated that this might require additional licenses and agreed to investigate this and the possibility of granting limited access to specified guests. 

There was a discussion of adopting a more aggressive “opt-out” approach to communicating with people via Listserve, as well as the possible disadvantages of this.  A consensus was reached to keep the current active “opt-in” in favor of on-going efforts to create and maintain dedicated email-lists to push appropriate information to homeowners.  However, it was noted that if such efforts were not effective, the “opt-out” alternative would be reconsidered. 

There was a discussion of the state of the community trash service, and the possibility of a resident-driven group-buy, similar to other such group-buys implemented in the past. 

Judy indicated that she had updated the VPOAA and had placed the relevant documents under the “legal” folder in Teams. 

Ben moved to adjourn; Telah seconded; the motion passed. 

The meeting was adjourned at 7:57