Minutes Meeting December 2nd 2008
The meeting was started at 8:00 PM (since the secretary was counting votes Mike did his best to conduct a meeting and take notes. If you see missing comments or incorrect comments, please comment and we will fix)
Board members present:
Renee Layshock, Don Wood, Gerry Ridgeway Steve Flecher, Kathy Buller, Mike Frye, Rick Marsaleak,
Mike Frye asks all to turn in their votes to the teams counting the votes.
Mr. Bill Johnson from the American Legion announced a program to the community where the Legion purchases electricity in a coop for reduced rates. Anyone that was in the military can join the American Legion. Anyone related to someone in the military can join an American Legion affiliate organization and enjoy the many community events the American legion puts on. There are many reasons to join, and the electric coop is a great reason. Someone mentioned that 75 cent beers is also a nice benefit.
For current American legion members: Sign up time 10AM to 4PM Saturday Dec. 27,2008 to get the lower Electric rates. For eligible Veterans, after submitting your application, Members of the Legion will vote to approve your membership at their next meeting. A future sign up date will be announced
Mike Frye commented that we are trying to work closer with the American legion.
Bylaws discussion:
There was a discussion about changing the bylaws. While the bylaws are clear about what it takes to pass a change in the tax, there was a discussion about what it takes to pass changes to the bylaws.
Mike stated that the last four presidents agreed along with two of the authors of the bylaws that to modify the bylaws takes a 2/3 of the voting community.
William Trepp, Linda Nann and several other residents argued that it takes 2/3 of the entire community. Mike stated that there has never been a vote or an issue where 2/3 of the 599 houses voted on anything in the last 15 years and the bylaws have changed several times since then.
At the meeting it was decided to wait and see how the vote turned out before further discussion.
What the board will likely do is to honor the bylaws vote, but do the following:
In March or April, we will send out the same voting form with the bylaw changes. In addition, we will also fix the vague language in the bylaws so that we don’t have to cross this bridge again. We will give ourselves months of time to get the entire community to vote to fix the bylaws. This will be a door to door campaign.
Approval of the budget:
Mike Frye made a motion to approve the budget. Herb Stassie seconded the motion. The copy of the budget was handed out.
There was a question on why the accounting fees have increased. The answer given was that the price of accountants went up. In addition, the community asked that all the funds be reviewed by the accountant. This will cost more.
A vote was taken. The vote to pass the budget was unanimously approved.
Miscellaneous:
Mrs. Marjorie Flinchum asked that someone attend the Severna park police commission meetings.
Nancy Rando commented that the budget was in a easy to read format and thanked the board.
William Trepp reminded the board that the Marina’s board meeting was in early December. Bill Stark attended this meeting.
Mike Frye commented that it would be nice if there was a community Kayak that folks could take out for a paddle. Drew Paylor mention this may be a liability if someone drowns while going for a ride.
Drew and Leeann Paylor asked that community notices also get posted on the community center door or nearby suitable area. The comment was it’s a bit difficult to stop and read the sign with traffic going by.
At this point, there were no more issues and we paused the meeting while the vote was checked and rechecked.
Mike Fry asked Bill Trepp if he wishes to make a motion to have the community discuss and vote on supporting the neighbors who have petitioned against the Alamo. Mr Trepp declined to bring this topic to the community as this time.
Voting:
We had a group of board members along with a group of volunteers from the community count the vote. So that it would be fair the teams count the votes and then exchanged batches so the other teams could verify the votes. The following is the tabulation: