Sunday, May 5, 2013

Sunflower Co-Op Boart Meeting Notes Apr 7, 2013

Sunflower Co-op welcomes its new board members for the year of 2013:

Bobette: Bobette.nesbitt@hotmail.com
Peter: Pdedek@txstate.edu
Bruce: Soniker@yahoo.com
Catherine Sewell: catsewell5691@att.net
Grant Shipman: grantshipman@yahoo.com
Patti: pma.rn@sbcglobal.net
Judi Henderson: judzig@gmail.com

We also held a monthly board meeting. Here are the notes:

Sunflower Coop Board Meeting
April 7, 2013

Present: Catherine Sewell, Bobette Nesbitt, Patty Adams, Bruce Salmon, Peter Dedek, Grant Shipman

Meeting started at 7:40 with several minutes of personal space for each board member.

I. Reading of last meetings minutes. No changes. Minutes were approved by email prior to this meeting.

II. State of the House.\ - Bruce Salmon
A. Ellar is moving out this week.
B. Michelle had another knee surgery – will use Bruce's room temporarily to avoid stairs. Abby was hit by a car while riding her bike. She is recovering.
C. Garden is doing very well.
D. David, from the Eastwind Community is staying at Sunflower temporarily. He has been contributing to the house. He is living in a camper in the driveway. This has presented a question for the housemates to discuss and determine how to charge rent for an extended boarder who is not a member.
E. New chicken died.


III. Foundation Repair Report – Bruce reported that there is an engineer with experience with old buildings, Girard Kinney, that has been consulted for an opinion. He recommended that before the foundation work begins, the drainage system should be restructured and cleaned out. He is willing to act as the Project Manager to represent the house during any foundation work by an outside company. Old bids for foundation repair were located in the house files, scanned and sent to G. Kenny who will review them. Bruce will ask him to submit a bid for Project Manager service. Board members all agreed that this would be valuable if it is determined to be affordable. Grant pointed out that the general rule is to get 3 bids from foundation companies before proceeding. Bobette will ask about the company that the neighbor just used for his foundation repair. Bruce will call the former bidders and have them update their bids.

IV. Filing for Not For Profit status – Bobette spoke with Judy. Judy's husband had a heart attack very recently. This is bookkeeper/CPA busy season. Judy will not be available until after April 15. Bobette will talk with Judy in a few weeks and ask if she is able to help us with the Federal level tax status change. No board action needed at this time.

At the end of the meeting Grant reported that house members refiled with State of Texas as a Non-profit. Sunflower Cooperative Inc. paid $5.00 on 4/4/13 for the refiling fee. Karl Martin continues to be the registered agent. The Secretary of State sent the notice to Karl and he sent it on to Sunflower. Grant will make a copy of this and enter it into the Board notebook.

V. Consulting fees to founding members – Patty gave a history of how the amount of $2500 was determined by the 2012 Board as a fair and appropriate amount of money to pay the founders for the consulting work they have done for Sunflower. They each need to bill Sundflower so that they can then be paid. Patty will notify the founders that Sunflower is ready to receive a bill from each of them for their remuneration. Jim Hoadley will be requested to render a bill also and if he so chooses can donate all or part of his fees back to Sunflower. Bobette will ask the CPA to issue the appropriate 1099's. Bruce will review all prior Board meeting notes.

VI. Future Agenda Items
A. Fund account minimum deposits. - Vacancy reserve fund; Maintanence reserve fund; Taxes & Insurance reserve fund. The board will determine how much money will be set aside as minimum balances for these funds. The CPA/bookkeeper will be asked to designate line items in the financial reports that indicate these reserves even though they may actually reside in the same bank accounts.
B. The Sunflower Grant/Gift Foundation needs to be formed. Patty will ask Vicki Totten to lead the project.

VII. Judy's request – Judy has asked that we move the meeting dates to mid-month to accommodate need for time to close previous months books. All board members determined that for the next 2 meetings; May and June, that we would keep the meeting date as the first Sunday of the month. Although Catherine stated she no longer needs to meet later in the evening, all decided that 730pm was to remain for now as our meeting time. Judy can bring the reports that are available at the time of the meeting. We can consider changing after the June meeting.

VIII. Federal Taxes – Bobette will check to assure that the $1051 tax bill has been paid. Our CPA firm is Carpenter & Langford CPA P.C.


Next Meeting date is set for May 5th at 730pm. Meeting adjourned at 8:52pm.


Synopsis of action items for Board Members:
Bruce
  • Request updated bids.
  • Request bid from Girard Kinney
  • Read old meeting notes.

Patty
  • Notify founders to submit bills.
  • Notify Vicki Totten to begin forming the SF Grant Foundation
  • Provide this board meeting minutes to board members for review before next meeting. Make corrections before next meeting. Bring hard copy of notes to meeting.
Bobette
  • Contact Judy, if possible, after April 15th to ask for help with Federal Tax status change.
  • If Judy not able to help, call CPA for help with the above.
  • Ask neighbor to give feedback about the company he used for Foundation repair.
Grant
  • Make copy of Non-profit State of Texas doc and put it in the board notebook.