BOARD MEETING MINUTES

AUGUST 12, 2006

 

The Regular Board Meeting was called to order by President Isaac at 9:00 a.m.  Present were 1st Vice President Ken Passage, 2nd Vice President Frayer, Directors Hernden and Director Kozlowski and General Manager, Gail White.  The meeting opened with a pledge to the flag and a prayer by Director Kozlowski.

 

ADDITIONS TO AGENDA:  Director Kozlowski added the formation of an Ad Hoc Committee to complete the minutes of the 2005 Annual Membership Meeting to New Business.  Motion by Director Passage, supported by Director Kozlowski, to approve agenda.  Motion carried.

 

APPROVAL OF BOARD MEETING MINUTES:

Motion by Director Kozlowski, supported by 2nd Vice President Frayer to approve minutes of May 13, 2006 board meeting as presented by the manager and secretary. Motion carried. Motion by Director Kozlowski, supported by Director Hernden to approve minutes of June 10, 2006 board meeting.  Motion carried.

 

TREASURER’S REPORT:  Priscilla Moore was unavailable.  Mgr. White stated that for the month of July 2006 total income was $20,662.40; total expenses were $54,129.74 and cash on hand is $202,866.82. There was a question from Director Kozlowski about the General Maintenance, item “other” and Mgr. White stated that was for diesel fuel and gasoline.  Motion to table approval of treasurer’s report until the next monthly board meeting until the treasurer is present by Director Kozlowski, supported by 2nd Vice President Frayer.  Motion carried.  Discussion by 1st Vice President Passage for breakdown of miscellaneous items on income statement would be helpful.  The item “Credit Card Charges”; what is that?  Mgr. White stated that when people pay with credit cards, we get a surcharge. 

 

PRESIDENT’S REPORT:  President Isaac stated that during the meetings, in order to follow meeting procedure; all comments made from the floor will be addressed to the chair.  They will not be addressed to specific board members; they will be addressed to the chair and they will be taken care of in that manner to comply with Robert’s rules.  As a member, he addressed the assembly in regards to meetings that have been rancorous and has made it difficult for the board to conduct business.  He respectfully asks that when you bring comments to the floor that you think about the outcome of the comments; all comments are welcome, appreciated, and they will be addressed.  When we get comments from the floor, every comment will be written down.  The members of this association deserve a response.  Whether it’s from the appropriate committee chair, manager, or whether it’s from the board; everyone deserves to get a response to their concerns and comments.  He asks that when you make the comment, that you think about the ramifications.  Is it for a personal issue?  Is it germane to the business that is on the agenda?  What does it do for our association? 

 

What does it do for our entire membership?  Is it constructive or is it a personal issue and destructive? 

 

CORRESPONDENCE:  Director Kozlowski presented copies of a letter he received relative to an individual’s absentee ballots for the election of 2006. It was sent by member Judy Gute, lots 82 +83. She felt that the manner in which the absentee ballots were handled in regards to her voting raised some concerns and without getting into it; in lieu of this; (Director) requests that the chair appoint a couple of board members, being myself and director Passage to investigate this and bring an answer to the board and of course, answer to the member. Ken Passage is hesitant to do an investigation because the things that would need to be investigated have been sealed.  After some discussion, a third member was added, Todd Graham.  Todd suggested that all the tellers’ committee be reassembled and ask those individual to assist us in looking at this.  It’s not a question in how the tellers counted the votes; it’s the manner in which the absentee ballots were handled.  President Isaac directed the tellers’ committee to convene with the sole purpose of addressing the single issue of this letter with a response due by next month’s meeting.

 

MANAGER’S REPORT:  Gail White thanked Jan Isaac for running the tape recorder and stated that Carrie Forfinski had told her several months ago that she is too busy to be secretary.  She had agreed to stay on through the election but now would like some relief.  She put up a posting for secretary on the bulletin board Aug. 11, 2006.

She is waiting for direction on handling the opening.  The opening will be posted on the website, also.  Ken Passage stated the by-laws provide that the board selects the secretary with the purview of the manager.  Gail thanked Tom Dorcey for the dehumidifier in this room, with the humidity; we had some buckling of the flooring.  The gate company representative was here Aug. 11 and stated he couldn’t tell if it was struck by lightning or there was an electrical surge; everything has been melted.  The insurance company was contacted and we are completely covered for replacement value, but we have a $1000 dollar deductible.  She has asked them to give us a price on all the replacements and look into a more heavy-duty fixtures and a surge protector to plug into the box.  His response was that a lot of our problems in rural areas have been due to power surges.  Gail will keep us posted; and the insurance company said to get a figure and they will proceed.  Ken Passage asked if this might be a good time to look into some Alternatives since we haven’t been particularly happy with their response. 

 

ACCOUNTS PAYABLE:  Motion by Ken Passage, supported by Director Kozlowski to approve the accounts payable. Motion carried.

 

SECURITY REPORT:  Tom Forman stated things have been pretty quiet.  We need to tell the people what the correct security number is; a lot of people are still calling Fred (Witchell) thinking that is the security number.  Aug. 11, they got a report of a

Breaking and Entering on Cherry and a Breaking and Entering on Spruce Hill which he doesn’t have any information on.  The correct number is posted on the bulletin board

At the gate and on the front page of “The Birch Bark” and on the website.

 

COMMITTEE REPORTS:  President stated there are several committees with openings.  If you are interested, contact the office or the committee chair.  We will be putting emphasis on the committees for the direction of White Birch.  He would like our committees when they have their meetings, jot down the committee minutes and we can keep track and he has a folder for the committees.  A new committee not appearing on your agenda is By-Laws Committee and we had 9 people sign up for this committee.  After some discussion about the number of people signed up, the names of the chair of each committee and its members are being entered into the minutes to be in compliance with Robert’s Rules.  Committees will form their own agendas with suggestions from the board regarding areas of concern and each committee will have a liaison to the board for the purpose of guidance.

 

BY-LAWS COMMITTEE:  Chair-Sal Scozzari. Members-Tim Toner, Bob Adair, Jerry White, Joe Romine, Chick Witchell, Kathleen Kozlowski, Judy Gute, and Mark Connelly.

 

ACTIVITIES COMMITTEE:  Co-chairs-Joe Romine and Mary Alice Harrington. Members-Georgia Romine, Pat Graham.

 

COMMUNICATIONS COMMITTEE:  Chair-Todd Graham. Members-Joe Romine, Linda Culpepper, Tom Dorcey, Bill Ferrell, Jan Isaac.

 

EPC COMMITTEE:  Chair-Chick Witchell. Members-Joe Romine, Don Papesh, Dan Rahl, Rich Helms, Phyllis Willoughby, Charles Hastings, Les Sidell.  Chick Witchell stated the meeting is Aug. 21 at 7:00 p.m. 

 

SEEDLINGS/SAPLINGS COMMITTEE:  Co-chairs-Tina Hayer and Joe Romine.  Members-Georgia Romine, Pat Graham, Cheryl Costantino.  Joe Romine stated the saplings have not “gotten off the ground” as we have not been able to find something they would like to do.  If anyone has recommendations for teenagers to do, let Joe or Tina know. 

 

CAMPGROUND COMMITTEE:  Co-Chairs-Fred Witchell and Al Willoughby. 

 

ELECTION COMMITTEE:  Chair-Todd Graham.  Members-Joe Romine, Mark Connelly, Chick Witchell, Judy Gute, Jim Neal.  President Isaac commended the election committee and tellers committee for the good work that was done last election.

 

ENTRANCE COMMITTEE:  Co-Chairs-Kathleen Kozlowski and Linda Hernden

 

CONSERVATION COMMITTEE:  Chair-Tom Dorcey. Members-Jerry White.

President Isaac commended the good work of this committee; the speaker series was informative.

 

FUTURES COMMITTEE:  Chair-Joe Romine. Members-Ray Johnson, Chris Patasek, Linda Hernden, Fred Witchell, George Shower, Cheryl Costantino, Sue Helms.

(Master Plan for White Birch)

 

BOARD LIAISONS TO COMMITTEES: Subject to change due to openings on the board of directors: Security- Kozlowski; By-Laws- Kozlowski; Activities- Frayer; Campground- Frayer; Communications- Hernden; Conservation- Isaac; Election-Kozlowski and Passage; Entrance- Hernden; EPC-Director Hernden ;Future-Isaac

 

APPROVAL OF COMMITTEES FORMED AND CHAIRS NAMED: Motion made by Director Kozlowski and supported by 1st Vice President Frayer to approve committees as formed and chairs as named.  Motion carried.

 

CAMPGROUND COMMITTEE REPORT: Fred Witchell stated we need the 3 x 5 cards turned in to reserve a spot in storage.  There are 40 or 50 who have not turned in their cards to Fred. If he doesn’t have your card; you’re not in.  There have been a lot of campers this weekend and coming up and a lot of people are calling to come in now that we have the power back.

 

EPC COMMITTEE REPORT: Chick Witchell stated there were 2 driveways, 4 tree removals, 3 contiguous lot status, 2 accessory buildings and 1 cement slab.  We can always use more people on EPC committee, because people are busy and when there is a visit made to a lot, there is more than one person that goes.

 

SEEDLINGS/SAPLINGS COMMITTEE REPORT: Joe Romine stated if anyone knows someone in the teenage age group, grandchildren and such.  It would only take one good one, someone in school with lots of friends.  A meeting will be called soon. A short recess was called.

 

REPOSTING OF COMMITTEES WITH AN OUTLINE OF THE PURPOSE OF EACH:  Director Kozlowski stated that during the break, some people mentioned that due to new people in White Birch that may not know the purpose of each committee; there

 

REPOSTING OF COMMITTEES (Cont.) may be reluctance to sign up for a committee.  Gail White stated she will repost the committees.  If anyone is interested in a committee, they should attend a meeting and see if they want to continue on and leave the appointments (of members) open. 

 

COMMENTS FROM THE FLOOR: President Isaac reminded everyone to state their name and lot numbers to verify members-in-good-standing.   Jim Neal, lot#1094, a couple of things on points-of-order:  On committees, I knew we had to make a motion and was glad Ken finally made a motion to get them straightened out, so now, I am willing to go on to the election committee.  Before, the way it was done, it would not have been legal.  Newsletter:  Birch Bark, we have not received it.  Other people have; other people had to call to get it.  We should not have to call to get what we are entitled to so for next month, I would like an answer why people did not get it. Now, a key one, at the annual meeting, Mr. President, before I get to that, you are the president, not the chairman. You made several comments as the chairman; other people have addressed you as the chairman, you are the president, not the chairman. Mr. President, at the annual meeting, your second VP going through his closing speech, made some comment about his property, and he sold one, and he made the comment, “Are you happy now, Mr. Neal?” and he walked off.  By next month, I would appreciate what that was all about because to me that’s an implied negative mark on my name.  That is not called for, especially under Robert’s Rules.  And one other quick one, and I’m staying within my ten minutes is the handling of property that has been latched onto because of taxes. How are we handling the disposition of them, how much has been sold and how much have we gotten for them? I have not seen anything, anywhere on the properties being sold.  Thank you.

Pat Graham, lot#1302, I want to make 2 comments, one, I would like publicly to thank Ken Zakalowski for saving my life Aug. 1, literally, and Dennis Carlson for staying with my husband that day, and Fred Witchell for giving me instructions and assistance on how to hopefully make my last 15 minutes available, if it ever occurs again. The second comment is, I had my grandchildren up and I almost lost my grandson. On Timber Lake, there is an extreme drop-off, not even the distance of our chairs apart from the beach and it’s an eight foot or better drop-off.  David went down, literally, and said, “I’m drowning”, and he almost did. I would like to see something noted that there is a drop-off.  President Isaac directed Gail White to get with Doug (Lake) and the best way to mark that.  Gail stated that Doug did move the buoys, but the teenagers, moved them back, so we will come up with something a little more permanent.  We did have a pipe there, but that was removed to make a nicer beach area, so I will get with Doug.  We need something in cement or a sign to mark the area.  Tim Toner, lot#620, on the by-laws committee, you guys can decide, but I think you should look at the number of the people that are going to be on that because, the more people you have on it, the longer it’s going to take; the more things are going to be brought up. I think we would like to keep it brief, so, you guys; look at the numbers and decide how many need to be on there.  The other thing, there is a question on the liaison’s job. What is he going to do in that committee?  Is he going to be silent and just oversee?  President Isaac responded that my take on the liaison’s job is that are the communication between the board and that committee.  Questions that they are concerned about, maybe with covenants and restrictions or by-laws, they are a resource for you to either go through the manager or bring them up at a board meeting and to give you that feedback so that you can make decisions.  Sal Scozzari, lot#1375, I came here this morning prepared to give you a list of who is on the by-laws committee.  You hit me with a bombshell and said that there would be nine people so now I’m asking you to give me list, because I don’t know. I know five, I don’t know four.  A few comments about by-laws, three years ago we had a By-laws Committee.  As far as I am concerned, it was very unsatisfactory.  We sat there and reviewed the by-laws that existed and accomplished very little.  If it weren’t for me, you wouldn’t have Robert’s Rules of Order on the by-laws and you wouldn’t have your requirement that we audit the books every year.  Those two things were never on the by-laws and it was through me that they went on the by-laws.  For those people that don’t know about by-laws, I have a few things that I pulled out of the computer from “Answers.com” which is kind of like a law library.  By-laws are rules governing the internal affairs of an organization.  The rules and regulations enacted by an association or by a corporation to provide a framework for its operation.  By-laws may specify the qualifications, rights, and liabilities of the membership.  By-laws cannot be countermanded by government and law.  I heard some comments on that years back that we superseded the law and I don’t agree with it.  There was some comment, years ago, when the state passed a law that said you couldn’t have closed door meeting, except in certain circumstances, there were people in here that disagreed with that.  We had a president who made it a habit of going into executive session every time we had a meeting.  In parliamentary procedure, particularly on rules of order, the by-laws are generally the supreme governing document of an organization.  We also have a little item called a quorum.  It’s up to the board, not up to the By-laws Committee to establish a quorum.  The board has to determine how many people they want or will consider as being a quorum.  In law, a quorum is the minimum number of members of a deliberative body necessary to conduct the business of that group.  In other words, if you have four people missing, as it stands right now, you can’t conduct a meeting.  The meeting is illegal, you don’t have majority.  But if you establish a quorum and say that three people is all that’s necessary that will fulfill law.  When a quorum is not met, a legislative body cannot hold a vote and cannot change the status quo.  In an ordinary society, such as a local club, if a quorum is not specified in the organizations by-laws, it is a majority of the members.  This can cause problems because in most organizations, only a smaller portion of the membership usually comes to meetings and without a quorum, no business may be done.  It may be impossible to correct this problem within the bounds of parliamentary procedure.  For this reason it is a good idea to include a provision in the by-laws setting a quorum at some smaller number.  Speaking for myself, it is not my intention to cut the legs out from under the board or the president but, judging from last years conduct, which was not illegal, because there was no by-laws, whoever takes charge, takes charge and if you want to act like Adolph Hitler, you could do it.  It was our intention to correct the by-laws to the extent that we could run an efficient organization and be a harmonious group.  The previous By-laws Committee concentrated on the present by-laws, which, was a waste of time.  It’s my intention to concentrate on what should be in the by-laws, what we have to add to the by-laws to make it a homogenous group and get along.  That’s the intention of the present By-laws Committee.  The board needs to give us two figures for a quorum, one for yourselves and one for the general public.  Arnie VanOverbeek, lot#1111, two small things, one, we have a very nice entrance coming in here, but, every time I come in I look this ugly, rusty flagpole.  It only costs $100 to replace it.  I know we spend a lot of money on the gate, but we’re putting up the flag on a terrible looking flagpole.  The other thing is, I look at the income statement, and I see that we are paying off a lot of long-term debt but I never see what that amount is.  I see money going out but I would really like to know, what is our long-term debt?  Thank you.  Sue Nethaway, lot#653, I am concerned about the head of security not living in White Birch.  I think he should live in White Birch so that we can get hold of him because it takes too long to come from wherever.  Joe Romine, lot#    , I would like to see the board appoint an ad-hoc committee and do our part and maybe it’s been taken care of by the manager in cleaning up the highway.  Those signs out there say the highway is being cleaned up by White Birch Association and as far as I know it hasn’t been done at least since the discussion since a couple of years ago.  This was one of the things I had planned for the saplings but I have gotten a good idea from Pat Graham that we have several 20 or 21 year-olds that may be interested in that.  Perhaps they could, it only takes 3 or 4 on each side of the road. The second thing is, and I hear a lot of talk about it, and I didn’t hear anything at the annual meeting of ORV’s and the ORV problem.  We have a booklet that’s printed that has Michigan law in it and it has White Birch law in it that is not being followed.  We’re in a very touchy situation here where Michigan law states that no ORV’s should be run on roads maintained for your own traffic.  We are in here with a loophole.  I would ask the board to assure me that my interests in the amenities are being protected against someone like Geoffrey Feiger coming along and what we do when we kill somebody or kill several some bodies and we not only allow people to ride in here without helmets, without flags, go through stop signs but we encourage it.  Salesmen selling property encourage it here.  We have a thing in there for noise abatement.  If you don’t live on some of these roads that catch the traffic, you might know about it, but at 10 or 11 o’clock at night or any time, revving up at the corner.  You can’t hear yourself talk and I’m probably close to 300 ft. away.  It says 80 decibels at 50 ft. at right angles at second gear.  We don’t have a decimeter.  We are supposed to have spark arrestors on the exhaust.  We don’t know if they have that or not.  I think we have tried to control the situation.  A couple of them stopped me asking directions to the campground without helmets on.  Their reply was that they didn’t need helmets in White Birch.  Well, they’re wrong.  You can’t chase them down because who wants to kill a kid because you want to check his credentials or something.  They have to police themselves and if they can’t police themselves, then, out they go.  I don’t know any other way to handle it, we’ve tried for years and years.  It’s getting worse.  Right now, you can go out there at any time and see them without helmets.  Very few of them have flags on anymore.  I think we’re just asking for a big fat lawsuit when somebody gets hit.  President Isaac stated that issue has been brought up by security folks themselves and that Director (Kozlowski), as liaison, will be meeting with them to address this.  Pat Graham stated she had seen a lot of golf carts being driven by little children.  Little children and no adults are with them at all and I’m talking younger than teenagers.  Just recently there were kids that I don’t think were past third grade riding a golf cart going down the road and that was about 9 o’clock at night.  Tammy Mitchell, lot#421, on one of the campaign letters that had went out before the election, it says to hold down assessments, part of it is, bring back the volunteers, to work the pool, or the bus stop?  Or is it to bring back volunteers for the committees?  President Isaac stated it probably covers many issues.  There’s a lot of stuff we do that we may have to pay someone from the outside to do that we could do ourselves.  I know that Dan Holzer and Dave Conley and Fred (Witchell) went back to work on that emergency exit and Dave had his own equipment.  That saved the association a great deal of money.  Tammy stated there is another way to save the association a few bucks a year, too.  Have parents volunteer to do the bus stop.  I brought that up and other people have brought that up and years ago I offered to do it because I am there every single morning and every single day after school. I don’t leave the bus stop until all the kids leave because my son rides a separate bus.  He arrives anywhere from 45 minutes to an hour after the regular bus.  I read a book or do a crossword puzzle.  During the wintertime, I did go home because it was too cold to run the van but I waited until all the kids went home and 99% of the time; I am the last parent to leave and I can’t comprehend that the members that don’t have kids are paying for us that do have kids to have somebody supervise them in the morning and after school.  And I have kids, and I don’t feel that members that don’t have kids, that that money should come out of their dues.  I don’t see why that has to be a paid position.  Jerry Bridges, lot#158, a couple of things that we just talked about, trying to prevent lawsuits in the future and stuff like that, on of the things that I’ve noticed staying at the campground, we have ORV’s running around here way past midnight and sometimes past 2 or 3 o’clock in the morning, they’re still running and some people are trying to sleep.  Some of these ORV’s make a lot of noise.  They just don’t travel slowly, they’re speeding.  The trails behind the campground- one of these nights they’re going to come sailing up through there and smuck a deer as well as on the roads.  The other thing I’ve heard a lot about is the authority that our security people have in trying to enforce some of these regulations.  Some of the kids don’t pay attention to them.  Some of the adults don’t pay attention to them.  I think the board should look at some way of getting our security people the authority to do the jobs that they are expected to do.  Whether it’s the Sheriff’s Dept. or you come up with some other way, so that these people do have the tools to either ticket or prevent people from riding.  I think the board needs to give that support to your security people out here.  Toni Passage, lot#163, And if you’re going to do that, then you better make sure you give people the authority to ticket people that aren’t in ORV’s and in their own vehicles racing through this place.  I watch and there’s people flying through here and not stopping at stop signs.  So don’t just pick on the ORV people.  Do them all.  Because I’ve come around a corner my 25 miles per hour and almost got hit by some of these people.  Even the adults, I see it every day.  Dottie Massey, lot#103, we’re temporarily at the campground as well, because we don’t have our utilities on our property yet.  Last night there was a large amount of people at the campground and there was noise, really bad noise, until at least 3 or 4 o’clock in the morning and voices and screaming.  Do you have a safety committee for the off-the-road-vehicles and helmet issues?  Is there any way you could have a safety committee to have those things addressed?  I’d like to know, when you have property that is in foreclosure about hearing about it and what is available?  Jerry Bridges, I forgot one issue when I spoke before.  I heard complaints about the restrooms at the campground being totally demolished.  I think the board needs to find a way to deal with that issue effectively.  As an example, I understand, sometime during the night, last night, kids or somebody sprayed pop all over the wall down there to be cleaned up by our caretaker.  We’re paying someone to clean that up down there and they are spending a lot of extra time with all this extra clean-up and it shouldn’t be necessary and if it’s folks at the campground, then, they should be told the can’t camp there anymore.  Caroline Neal, lot#1094, I know when we camped there when our house was being built, we had to have a key to the restroom.  We couldn’t get in unless so either the campers are leaving the doors open or we are not doing that policy anymore.  We all had one key, so we had to share it.  Margaret Hammon, lot#63, I would like to know about the log home on White Birch Lane.  How come they’re not taking care of their yard?  It needs to be taken care of.  Somebody needs to take care of it.  Matt Lucas, lots#                The last board that was here, at one of the meetings I asked that someone take security seriously.  I am reiterating that at this point, the board needs to take security seriously and I’m sure they will.  The second thing, the board holds fiduciary responsibility for our projects and our activities and White Birch.  The process of due diligence is somewhat non-existent in relationship to projects that go on here.  We are again at a crossroads with the front gate among other projects here.  I would ask, implore, and in fact, beg, the board to employ generally accepted engineering standards to the projects here regardless of committee work.  And I would thank them in advance for doing so.  Harry Quinn, lots #566 +567, Have we invited the Sheriff’s Department back in here? I understand they were asked to leave.  I just wondered if they had been invited back in. I have a little problem on my street and it needs to be handled by the Sheriff’s department and I don’t think it’s something Security can handle.  It is in regards to driving.  Thank you. Walt Sonnichsen, lot#1377, President Isaac, Board of Directors, in response to the lady’s comment about finding what properties to be turned back over to the board.  We’ve asked that question before.  The manager told us that due to privacy that can’t denote that information but I think, as an association member, and these other people are association members, they pay their money, and if they want to check to see what properties are being foreclosed on or turned back over to the association, I think it should be supplied.  Also, any property that is one or two years behind in assessments should have a lien placed against it; all of them, not selected.  All of them.  Pat Graham, we were talking about security, I should really thank Bob Palfrey.  Bob was kind enough to see if I was ok and see if I needed him to follow him.  I appreciated it even though I got teased about it.  Jerry Bridges, just a suggestion, local newspapers have a weekly report about fire and police calls.  Maybe “The Birch Bark” should have something in there of some of the complaint issues so that some of the general membership out here knows what some of the complaints are, especially the ones that can’t attend meetings, and maybe some of the things that were done to eliminate those problems.  Bill Coe, lot#232, with the loss of the Sutton property by fire, the total destruction of the property, I’m concerned, I’m not here as a full-time resident and I just wondered how secure my house is if I’m on a dead-end street and there’s not a lot of traffic going by, if my house should catch fire, I think I’d be in the same situation.  I was told by a volunteer fireman, one time, if my house should catch fire, forget it, it’s a total loss before anyone could get to it.  It just seems we are kind of out there, hanging.  Sharon Bridges, lot #158, I wondered if there are sub-committees allowed with committees and whether or not a subcommittee of a Safety Committee to address the issues that you just brought up and some of the other traffic issues could be part of the Security Committee.  Jim Neal, the one on Security, just as a possibility that the association could look into with an ADT or a security company.  Is there someone the association could get a good deal from?  It doesn’t mean everyone would have to use it.  Maybe we could get it for our homeowners. Les Sidell, lots #88 +#89, About vehicles and speeding and stop signs; I live on the corner of Mockingbird Circle, down from the campground and that’s where it’s going to happen, and I suggest putting a three-way stop sign on that corner. That would really help.  President Isaac thanked the members and stated that by some form of communication, “The Birch Bark”, a telephone call, or email; these concerns will be answered.

 

MOTION TO REOPEN AGENDA by Director Kozlowski to add that at the close of listed business, the board will go into executive session to discuss a legal issue. 

 

NEW BUSINESS:  Signatures on accounts; motion made by Director Kozlowski and supported by Director Hernden to ratify the resolution of the Emergency Meeting of the Board of Directors, July 17, 2006 stating the signatories of which no less than two signatures are required on all bank accounts are as follows: President, President Isaac, 1st Vice President, Ken Passage, and Treasurer, Priscilla Moore.  Motion carried unanimously.  Motion made by Director Kozlowski and supported by 2nd Vice President Frayer to confirm the resignation of board member Dave Conley and to instruct the manager to send him a letter notifying him of the board’s actions.  1st Vice President Passage inquired as to who is acting as secretary and that the aforementioned letter should come from the secretary.  Gail White stated she is acting as secretary.  Motion made by Director Kozlowski and supported by Director Hernden to confirm the resignation of board member Dan Holzer and to instruct the manager to send him a letter notifying him of the board’s actions.  Motion carried.  The chair recognizes       Hammond, lot #63, (point of order), how is the resignation of board members on the agenda when you just voted to confirm their resignation?  Director Kozlowski answered that the confirmation is necessary to establish the vacancy of two positions on the board.  Without the confirmation, the two board members in question could come in at any time and retake their seats on the board.  Motion made by Director Kozlowski, supported by 1st Vice President Frayer to accept the minutes of the Special Board Meeting of July 15, 2006 which was an organizational meeting of the board, stating who was present and the vote for Director Passage as 1st Vice President and Director Frayer as 2nd Vice President.  Director Passage stated (point of order), this item should have been added to the agenda by reopening the agenda and noted by President Isaac, that would have been more correct.  Motion carried.  Motion by Ken Passage and supported by Director Hernden to post the position of secretary to the board.  Motion by Director Kozlowski and supported by Greg Hernden to reopen agenda to include letters of intent from members that want to be considered for the vacancies on the board.  Motion made by Director Kozlowski and supported by Director Frayer to refer a quote on printing “The Birch Bark” to the Communications Committee.  Motion made by Director Kozlowski, supported by Director Frayer to post in all manners of communication the two vacant board positions with letters of intent to be received by close of business 9/01/06.  1st Vice President noted those should be in free manners of communication.  Motion carried.  Director Kozlowski stated that in the past, the board has gone into executive session to interview candidates; then the appointments will be made by the board during regular session.  Director Kozlowski asked that previously submitted letters of intent should also be accepted.  President Isaac agreed.  Director Kozlowski, supported by Director Frayer motions for the formation of an ad hoc committee to obtain required information to amend the minutes of the Annual Membership Meeting of July 2005 and submit the information to the board for approval.  The chair recognizes Todd Graham who states that if the board chooses to amend those minutes, the membership has to vote on those changes, not just the board.  After  

 

Discussion by Director Passage and others regarding the need for the committee, Director Kozlowski withdraws the motion.  President Isaac charges Mgr. White to prepare a document with the required information so that the minutes could be amended.

 

MOTION TO ADJOURN TO EXECUTIVE SESSION made by Director Kozlowski, supported by Director Frayer.  Motion carried.  Time of adjournment-12:12 pm.  Minutes submitted by Jan Isaac.