Community Financial Decisions

[Cynthia Tina]

Hi everyone,

I'm following up about paying for expenses, the condo fees, and the Homeowners Association account coming out of the smaller group meeting this weekend. 

Paying for Expenses

After some discussion, the group felt that we would like to have the chance to review and decide how to pay for expenses as they come up. Not forever, but just for a while so we have a better collective understanding of expenses. Going forward I'll send around an email for each expense, share the account balance, and wait for any comments.

Gwen, I know you have expressed the importance of having a budget. But I'm hoping this decision is okay with you and that you can keep sending me invoices or put me in touch with the people we normally pay so they can bill me directly? Happy to help with any admin needed. 

Condo Fees

Everyone is ready to transfer their automatic payments to the Homeowners Association account, if we decide to use it.

 

I had brought up during the meeting that Gwen and I were exploring going back to just using the Corporation account, since it seemed confusing to determine what should be in what account. 

I just re-read the emails and it seems that Gwen is thinking it'll be best to keep them seperate (as they are) at least for now. The decision is somewhat connected to who becomes the owner of the Corporation. If it is to be this group then keeping them seperate doesn't matter as much, if there is to be another owner then we should definitely keep the accounts separate or even consider setting up a new account under a separate entity. 

I just want to take a moment to check to make sure we are all on the same page before we all go through the task of redirecting the automatic payments. Gwen, please add aspects of this decision I may have missed. 

Hoping we can get some clarity via email. 

Thank you everyone for your thoughtfulness and care! 

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cynthiatina.com

Cynthia Tina (781) 244-0484 she/her Communications Director, Foundation for Intentional Community (FIC) ic.org Coach for Community Seekers cynthiatina.com/coaching

[Gwendolyn Hallsmith]

Hi all –

 

Thanks for the note! I think it’s a good idea to keep the HHA account separate and it’s fine for everyone to review the expenses that come up. This past week, I paid Dan Dunham $100 for plowing. I think the automatic payment for insurance will be made soon. I also signed a contract with Hall & Holden to do our taxes this year. I have an appointment with the accountant on Zoom on Thursday morning at 10. If Cynthia wants to sit in on that meeting, that would be OK with me.

 

Headwaters taxes are due March 15, so I have completed the preparation work for the accountant to get them done as soon as possible. The account and all the categories are all viewable in Quickbooks online. I finally figured out how to make it possible for other people to see it. I think that on Thursday, the accountant can give us some guidance about good practices with respect to this – I don’t know yet how to make it visible without also making it editable, which is something that is not prudent to share with lots of people.

 

From what I can tell from your note, the current automatic payments of $120 per month will be transferred to the HHA account ASAP. That would be great, from my point of view. I’ve been trying to make all the transfers and keep it straight, but it is confusing and so having all the money go into the dedicated account, even as soon as TOMORROW would be good.

 

This is the Routing Number:  211691185

This is the Account Number: 103385970

 

That is what you need to make the change at your bank. The account is with VSECU.

 

Right now, Monique and Tomas pay by automatic check that comes in the mail to me, so that’s a bit easier – I can deposit them straight into the HHA account. It would be good, though, for the automatic payments of condo fees to go by mail to Cynthia, whereas the automatic payments Tomas makes to me for his mortgage would stay the same, they need to keep coming to me.

 

The budget is important as a way of setting the condo fees in much the same way as a town budget is important for setting the tax rate. But waiting awhile to do it until you make some decisions about how to move forward is fine as long as the automatic payments are switched so Cynthia is not running around to get checks from people in order to pay bills that come up. That’s not fair to her and it will add a lot to everyone’s stress levels if there are problems. Missing tax bills means penalties and the possibilities of tax sale. You don’t want her to have to glue a bunch of small checks together to do that. Same with letting insurance lapse or forgetting to file taxes.

 

Over a year’s time there are not all that many transactions. So this is not a huge task. Right now, it’s plow bills, assuming that Dan keeps billing us monthly instead of the practice of giving us one big bill in the summer. I have already asked him to send the bills to Cynthia. (We’re coming back to Cabot tomorrow, we hope the driveway is plowed so we can get up there. Please let us know if it’s not.)

 

The only reason I was saying it was OK to keep doing things out of the Corp account was because of all the angst around the HHA account. I don’t think keeping one account a good idea. I probably should have set up the HHA account a long time ago. Live and learn. I’ll reiterate that it had nothing to do with any plans for us to leave, it was just a logical step in the transition from being a community-in-development to a more permanent situation.

 

I hope that answers all the questions.

 

Cheers, Gwen

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