Briarwood HOA meeting

February 11, 2025

1. CALL TO ORDER

· The meeting was held in person at the Kinawa Middle School library as well as online via Microsoft Teams. It was called to order at 7:17 pm after technical difficulties.

2. ROLL CALL

· Board Members

o Pat Daniels, Mike Karagoulis, Lynne Page, Chrislyn Particka, and Jean Zwier present at Kinawa.

o Kayla Byrd-Daniels and George Platsis present online (Microsoft Teams).

o Absent: Jim Rypkema.

· Guests:

o Brenda Howser, Barry Carr, Jamile Lawand, Bruce Timmons, Jamie Schnepp, Joey Latterman, Fred Hambly, Fang Xu, Anne Billings, Senait Hally, Tewolde Meresa at Kinawa.

o Anita Fox, Maria Molina, Sheryl Page, Sasha Eisner, Kevin Vander Kolk, Chanin Heise, Paul Steiner, Katie Arends, Cory Pahl, Elizabeth Pahl, Meghan Webber, and Angela Fossi online.

2. APPROVAL OF MINUTES FROM THE 1/14/2025 MEETING

· Chrislyn announced that Lynne emailed a correction before the meeting that the increase in the commercial property and liability insurance premium was $296.00, not $269.00, and that she had edited the draft minutes.

o Chrislyn moved to approve the minutes as edited. Pat seconded.

o The vote was a unanimous yes (Mike, Lynne, George, Jean, Kayla, Pat, and Chrislyn) and the motion carried.

3. ANNOUNCEMENTS

· Chrislyn asked the guests to identify themselves by name as they had comments so that they could be included in the minutes.

4. REPORTS

President’s Report

· Pat thanked everyone for their patience during the year as he was board president for the first time - and the '24/'25 board was a group of individuals with diverse opinions and varying perspectives on neighborhood aesthetics and general expectations.

· Some changes had to be made mid-year and a lot of time was lost during board meetings due to needing to discuss ACCE matters. He hopes that next year, ACCE matters can be handled in committee. He recommended that the committee be expanded to 5 people and encouraged non-board members to join, not just the ACCE but all committees.

· Committees need to be made up of volunteers, not just board members, and individuals who were actively engaged last year and/or ran for the board last year should be included. Mike concurred.

Vice President’s Report

· No report

Treasurer’s Report

· Lynne prepared both an income statement and a written report. She reviewed the income statement, including that most of the income comes from dues and that other categories are minimal. Fees for both the special trash pickup and the garden cover expenses. Expenses are in four categories: communications, member programs, maintenance, and business expenses. Most of the expenses are for maintenance ($63 of the $78 collected in dues).

· Lynne also stated that in 2024, there was a large effort to collect past due dues. The board also made the decision to move away from QuickBooks and revert to a manual ledger system.

Secretary’s Report

· Minutes from the meetings are posted on the website. They go up after the following meeting, as they are not posted before they have been approved by the board. (Pat apologized for the delay in posting November minutes and noted they would be posted when January is added to the website.)

Communications Committee

· Chrislyn reported that the communications committee sent a survey to all homes to get an idea of the type of improvement projects that homeowners would like to see. It was not a vote; the purpose was only to gather information.

· Chrislyn gave a brief overview of the results of the survey.

o 84% of respondents were in favor of using existing funds for an improvement project, 15% were not, and 1% were “maybes.” There were 149 votes.

o 34% of respondents were in favor of a special assessment, 61% were not, and 5% were “maybes.” There were 137 total votes.

o Of the projects listed on the survey, the results were

· Pat noted that installing speed bumps would take coordination with the Ingham County Road Department. He said that the first step would be to call Meridian Township Police Department to bring out a speed reader box to collect data on how fast people are driving.

· Pat noted that over the past three years, the communications committee chair left the board part way through the year, which made it difficult to compile and publish a newsletter without a replacement. (He cited the time involved with the surveys as an example.) He promised to make communications and the creation and publication of a newsletter his personal priority for the '25/'26 board.

Maintenance Committee

· Mike stated that he wants to emphasize that over 80% of the dues are spent on maintenance. The main categories are mowing, snow, electricity (street and pathway lights), tree care due to storm damage, and fertilization/weed control.

· There were some special projects (repairing the storage shed, installing new lights on the entry signs) that were made much less expensive due to volunteers from the neighborhood.

· Other projects included brush cleanup in the Nature Park, removal of unsafe trees, repair/replacement of lights on the footpaths and at the Recreation Park, and replacement of the pump in the pond.

· Mike noted that he believes that due to inflation, maintenance costs will be higher than the income from dues, and that dues were last increased in 2001.

Audit Committee

· Lynne reported that the audit will take place after the March meeting with the new board. There have been a few volunteers to be on the committee. She also said that it is more of a financial review than a true audit.

Election Committee

· Pat reported that the election committee was made up of himself, Chrislyn, Mike, and Sarah Grillo and gave an overview of the process that was used to separate ballot envelopes from dues checks/remittance forms.

o The committee met on January 19 and February 9. On January 19, the committee only separated ballot envelopes from dues checks/remittance forms. On February 9, the committee separated the rest of the ballot envelopes from dues checks/remittance forms and then counted the ballots.

o There were a total of 209 ballots returned and counted.

§ There were five ballots where the address could not be verified to determine if that homeowner was in good standing (e.g., current on dues). The committee decided to count these ballots.

o The 2025 board will be:

§ Pat Daniels, Mike Karagoulis, and George Platsis serving the remaining 1 year of their 3-year terms.

§ Sasha Eisner, Jim Rypkema, and Jean Zwier elected to 2-year terms.

§ Lynne Page, Sheryl Page, and Tasha Warren-Yehuda elected to 3-year terms.

Events Committee

· Kayla gave an overview of the 2024 events.

o The main event was the June garage sale and special trash pickup.

o National Night Out was cancelled due to rain.

o There were several food trucks.

o There was a Halloween parade/kick off.

o The board did not budget for a picnic in 2024.

ACCE Committee

· Kayla reported that there have been no ACCE requests submitted in the past two months. She also stated that she hoped the committee next year could come up with a better process for reviewing applications. Kayla also thanked everyone for their time spent volunteering with the HOA.

Welcoming Committee

· Jean reported that the welcoming committee (herself, Lynne, and Chrislyn) welcomed 20 new neighbors this year.

· Jean also reported that the committee developed an updated handout that is given when new neighbors are welcomed.

Old Business

· Kayla stated that the 2025 board will need to develop a solar panel policy per the state law that was passed in 2024 and that she believed it was on Lynne’s radar.

New Business

· None

Guest Comments

· There was discussion about the following items. A short summary of the discussion is included.

o Directory – Some guests asked about the directory, stating that they would like a new one. Board members said that a form to collect information for the directory was included in the dues mailings and that homeowners were given the choice to opt out of the directory. Several homeowners didn’t return or complete that section. Having updated contact information for all homeowners could help to improve neighborhood communications, but there are concerns with privacy and then the time and cost of publishing the directory. Concerns were noted that soon as a directory is published, it is likely outdated.

o Ballots – Why five ballots were counted that could not be traced to an address. The committee decided to count these ballots because there were no instructions included with the ballots and the bylaws don’t explicitly state that the address has to be verified (the bylaws say that signatures are supposed to be matched). Instructions will be included with next year’s ballots.

o Non-working yard lights – This will hopefully be a focus for the 2025 board. Also, not all covenants require them and in many homes in the neighborhood, the control box for the yard light is very difficult to find.

o Un-shoveled/icy sidewalks. Perhaps the board could distribute a list of people who are willing to help out. Meridian Township code requires that sidewalks are cleared and the employee who enforces the code is out of the office.

o Dues collection – How is it going? The dues collection for this year looked at 2020 to present. On October 1, 130 reminder notices were mailed; there was close to $15,000 in unpaid dues. Of that, about $1500 were uncollectable because the house had sold. About $2300 were disputed due to recording errors – a lot of the errors had to do with Quickbooks and that converting to the online version caused a loss of transaction information. Currently, there are 12 homeowners with outstanding balances, with the majority owed by 4 homeowners. Leins will be filed on the 12, but requires a substantial amount of time and cost.

o Speed bumps – More discussion about what it will take to get them installed. There was also discussion of traffic calming ideas. Pat reiterated that this is a good conversation to have, but we need to start with getting data on the issue (and getting buy-in from Meridian township).

ADJOURNMENT

· Chrislyn made a motion to adjourn the meeting.

o Jean seconded.

o The vote was a unanimous yes (Mike, Lynne, George, Kayla, Pat, Jean, and Chrislyn) and the motion carried.

· The meeting adjourned at 9:02 pm.

Briarwood HOA

February 2025 Minutes