Board of Directors Meeting

Date

Monday, July 20, 2020

Time

7:30pm

Location

Zoom

Minutes

Virtual meeting began at 7:50 pm.

Items discussed:

Transition to new board:

Tom will send Brynn an Excel file with roster of residents. Whenever a house is sold, most times Tom is notified by title company asking if HOA dues have been paid. As he receives these Tom will send a change of address to update the HOA property ownership roster.

Tom will handle the money and has checkbook, Brynn and Jordan will need to go to credit union to sign signatory cards. Jennifer Whitmer with Sound Credit Union is who to contact.

Tom will handle the dues when they come up - that’s when he needs an updated roster. Notices are sent to owners typically by the end of January with a March/April due date.

Tom will also handle Backflow Assembly Test. Any home with sprinklers has to do an annual test as required by water company. The BAT Lady (Jennifer Mercado) from peninsula does it for $30 each household. Previously the water company did the test and billed it to homeowner. But when sold to Thurston PUD they require property owners to do BAT test. HOA joined with each other to contract with the BAT Lady to test.

Insurance comes up in April, PO Box and misc supplies handled by Tom. He will keep handling. Tom has a debit card and uses for purchases, but won’t do any online for security reasons.

Upcoming meetings:

If a board meeting is held all homeowners must be notified.

Bylaws state at least one Homeowners Annual meeting a year is required, usually held in May and must be advertised with signs in neighborhood. In past held at the library. Approximately 20 people attend annual meeting. Min requirement to have a quorum - 25% of total HOA members.

As Secretary, Brynn will send out email invites to all meetings.

Board members agreed email and phone are the best ways to stay in touch throughout year as issues arise. For HOA annual meeting in 2021 board agreed to send poll to HOA members to see if people want to keep virtual meeting as an option.

Agendas/notices:

The board will communicate with each other around what agendas/notices need to go out and who will take on task as it arises.

Yard of the month:

Board and Architecture Control Committee review nominations and then vote via email on sign recipients. The board needs to get the signs back - Gold and Silver signs. An email will be sent to neighbors to request return of signs.

HOA annual meeting signs are with former Secretary Wes, he is to drop off to Brynn and she will put out to announce upcoming meetings.

Email:

When emails come in they will be sent to all of board members, who will respond accordingly. A new email address will be created but the old email address will forward to the new one.

Website:

heronwood.org domain purchased. As President, Jordan has made the HOA documents searchable so it will be easier for people to find information they seek.

Jordan will update the new site, have the board review and then redirect the old site to the new site. Down the road Jordan proposed adding Google Forms to streamline the process for residents to submit complaints, Architecture review requests, etc.

Old Business:

Pond:

The past board members and Jordan teleconferenced with the hired real estate attorneys via phone July 14, 2020. Member expressed their dissatisfaction with the services rendered and they said they would offer partial refund.

Tom will send letter to the attorneys with the new board info and tell them to send invoices to all board members and will also follow up to see about when the refund will come. The law firm is to also make changes to HOA legal documents and file them with state.

History on the pond: 3-5 yrs ago pond was full with water. At a board meeting the question came up of who is responsible for maintenance of the pond? That is how the law firm was hired. The lawyers determined the pond is owned by every homeowner. Pierce County and City of Gig Harbor both say they are not responsible for its maintenance, only the HOA is responsible. Through the review it was learned another housing development off 38th and a ditch off 38th drain into the pond. Overfill area is in place that city or county cleaned out which helped improve drainage under 38th and controlled the pond water levels.

The board will need to stay on top of the county/city to make sure it is clearing the culvert so there aren’t back ups in the pond.

Brynn will reach out to her contact at the city of Gig Harbor to see who to contact about maintenance of culvert as a first start.

Sidewalk maintenance:

It is time to reapply bark to the medians. Jordan will come up with estimate of need for yards of bark to purchase. Jordan proposed dropping the bark in Brynn’s driveway and another driveway one street over to help spread out the bark distribution. More to come on timing and cost.

Misc.:

Jordan inquired about HOA with condos and will look into more details around relationship of that HOA to Heronwood, as they also pay dues to Heronwood HOA.

Annual meeting minutes are now published on the HOA website.

Board meeting minutes will be reviewed and sent to HOA membership to keep people informed.

Jordan will migrate Mailchimp account to domain name and that will be used to send communications to members.