Briarwood Homeowners’ Association Monthly Meeting
Tuesday, September 12, 2022
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Call to Order - 7:05pm
Roll Call - Monica Fochtman Kayla Byrd-Daniels Jean Zwier Alyse Munishamaiah Raymond Poirier Gus Breymann
Approval of Previous Meeting Minutes - Raymond Poirier - motions; Alyse Munishamaiah - seconds; 4 yes, 1 abstention; motion passes
Announcements - None
Committee Reports
President
Monica will be sending fall email newsletter re: picnic and Halloween
Dues reminders
Pick up after dogs/mow lawns
Reminder about limited signage/political signs (in the Covenants)
Keep leaves out of street drains/don’t rake leaves into street
Notification of board looking at increasing of dues
Treasurer
Checking - $###
Savings - $###
CD - Account has been closed as of mid-August, balance rolled into savings
Outstanding Dues - 19 properties outstanding (3 have prior balances); total outstanding $3,707.24 (current FY dues $2,673.62 + prior balances $1033.62)
Expenses - maintenance and newsletter are large, recurring expenses; waiting to hear from Meridian Township re: community garden water final bill - have paid $1,700 towards it
Publicity/Communications
Monica will send picnic and Halloween communication electronically
Volunteer related communications
Offer to help Elizabeth Pahl with hard copy newsletter
Spring newsletter went out late, can we push back fall newsletter accordingly?
Jean Zwier offered to help with formatting/content/coordinating Paper Image to mail it
Discussion about doing away with paper newsletters or opt in or opt out option
Events
Food Trucks Review
Need for Volunteers
Picnic- 9/17
Halloween- 10/31
Ray to head the event, Jean and Monica to assist
Maintenance
Rec Park Estimates/Timeline - Alyse to reach out to R&D and update our prices to move forward; Jean to send Alyse Bob Barkham email/phone to get second quote
Raleigh Tree - has a watering bag that is being filled weekly by neighbors
Pathway lights - Middle pathway lights were on a manual timer but have been changed and has a light that was not ever updated - waiting on estimate for FD Hayes to replace; blinking light is being replaced by FD Hayes; no timeline for any light projects
Nominations
At 7 Board Members, supposed to have 9
Monica reached out to 2 individuals who expressed interest at National Night Out but they have not responded
Need Nominating Committee; Monica volunteered to be on it; call for volunteers to help with nominations will be added to fall email newsletters
Welcoming
Ray has delivered about 6 welcoming packets to new neighbors
ACCE
Have had a number of submissions that ACCE has followed up on with questions and have not heard back from the property owners
1 fence request on New Salem is out of the 30 day window that has been approved but neighbors had not been notified
A significant number of out-of-state inquiries
Issues with people in the middle of purchasing Briarwood properties submitting ACCE requests; concern with homebuyers pulling offers based on ACCE approvals
Potential solutions: Realtors need to be educated on Briarwood covenants and communicating that to buyers; ACCE does not respond to requests until person submitting request is the property owner; buyer may submit prior to closing if wishing to make changes quickly after purchase, ACCE to provide answer once notified of closing to allow quick turnaround
New Business/Discussion
Campers/Trailers
Issues with non-responsive violaters
Board members uncomfortable emailing violaters from personal board email due to individual backlash
Monica to set up ACCE email account for “committee” response rather than personal board email
Need to be consistent with all ACCE violations and encourage direct neighbor to neighbor communication
One ACCE member should not be responsible for sending all violation letters
Excel sheet to be created for address, violation, which ACCE member is assigned to the violation, date of first notice, date of second notice 7 days later
Briarwood East Inquiry
We are receiving a lot of status noticed from title companies in Briarwood East and demanding a contact for Briarwood East
Inquiries from new/potential Briarwood East property owners asking if they can join Briarwood HOA instead due to lack of activity and organization in Briarwood East
Briarwood East board member inquired merging due to “apathetic” board and lack of neighborhood support
Possibilities: No legal joining of boards/HOAs but informally allow residents to come to events, etc for a cost; request needs to come from Briarwood East to join Briarwood due to re-deeding issue.
Issues: Covenants are attached to our deeds; this means everyone in Briarwood East would have to pay to re-deed their properties to join our Covenants. Even if Briarwood agrees to merge, the initiation would need to come from Briarwood East. It would also need to go to a full vote of membership/property owners. Difficulty with estimating attendance for events if Briarwood East is informally invited to attend with fees (possible solution - Briarwood East contributes lump sum towards events annually).
Discuss expenses/events/maintenance and costs
Being cognizant of budgets when planning events, prioritizing projects.
Overspending on events or projects means it has to come from another project or event.
Be aware of increased post-COVID prices when budgeting for future events/projects
Old Business
Pond Pump (Jean) - no updates
Member Comments - none
Adjourn - motion to adjourn 8:46pm by Alyse, Monica seconds; unanimously passes