Thursday, December 17, 2015

Old Facebook Page Invalid

A post was made in the blog on July 3, 2015 announcing a Facebook page for the HOA.  That same information was in our newsletter that went out in October.  However, the HOA now has a new Board of Directors and new leadership for the Association.  A former board member retains control of this Facebook page, www.facebook.com/VillagesofChisholmRidge, and this OLD page is no longer valid and DOES NOT in any way represent the Association or the HOA Board of Directors.

The July 3 post in this blog has been deleted, and we are working to take down the OLD Facebook page and create a new one that DOES officially represent the HOA and the HOA Board. We will keep everyone advised as things develop.  

Minutes, Quarterly Meeting Part 2, July 3, 2015

Minutes July 1, 2015, Part 2, Villages of Chisholm Ridge. Followup meeting on July3.
Since our Manager, Jennifer, did not make our July 1 meeting due to a date mix up, she met with Joe and Irene on her day off at 8:00 am on July 3. Barbara did not attend.
We discussed the financial reports which were not available at the July 1 meeting as Jennifer was not there. Below is the overall financial picture as of May 31, 2015:
Operating Account: $17,907.06. Reserve Account: $7,132.05. Residential Assessments Receivable:
$19,275.96. Net Income: $12,496.70. TOTAL OPERATING INCOME YTD = $30,768.79 vs $28,704.00 budget. TOTAL OPERATING EXPENSES YTD = $21,356.44 vs $25,857.00 budget. Our finances are in a healthy state.
We discussed delinquencies and some of the problem areas that Joe brought up on July 1. Jennifer had put one of those on a payment plan, and the Board (Irene and Joe) waived $166.95 in soft charges to help clear this one up. Jennifer has put another delinquent account on a payment plan and will reach out to 3 others in order to do the same thing. We also waived another $263.04 in charges to an account due to mistakes that were not the owner's fault. We seem to be making good progress on delinquencies.
Jennifer agreed to contact Sunspot on mowing the back area where the old fence was, fertilizing and weed control and trimming of trees/shrubs.
We discussed some recent Texas laws on payment plans and landscaping and also some of the problems we have with redefining acceptable garden borders and retroactively disapproving some that were originally there. We talked about the Annual Meeting Notice and determined that it should go out about a month in advance.
Finally, we drove the neighborhood and identified many locations where shrubs or low-hanging trees should be trimmed by Sunspot. Jennifer is to contact them with this information. This “drive around” also resulted in 16 new violations.
In all, this followup meeting took 2 hours. The meeting was adjourned.

Minutes, Quarterly Meeting, July 1, 2015

Villages of Chisholm Ridge Board Meeting, July 1, 2015
Judy, Shari, DD, Elizabeth, Barbara, Joe and Irene attended. Jennifer was missing.
We approved the minutes for the meetings of 1-30-2015, April 6 and April 27.
We handed out financial summary information that was viewed by all at the meeting. However the more detailed reports that our Manager provides at our quarterly meetings were unavailable since our Manager, Jennifer could not get to the meeting for some reason.
The Minutes for all 2015's meetings were handed out.
Barbara is setting up a Face Book page under villagesofchisholmridge.
Barbara is contacting the State about a traffic light and other improvements on Blue Mound.
We had a general discussion about delinquencies, the current status and what further action needs to be taken.
Other topics of discussion were:
Setting up a “Night Out” community gathering on September 24
Joe will contact Sunspot about mowing in the back where the old fence was taken out, fertilizing, shrub trimming, etc.
We are going to look into the possibility of putting in a playground.
Irene is going to call Jennifer and meet with her on the property to show her how we want to handle the violations.
We agreed to waive the approval fee for motion-sensored outdoor lights. Barbara will update this in the blog.
Barbara brought up the work we did in April to consider changing management companies and the decision-making process. Barbara once again made her case that dropping PMG would have been a smart thing to do, that it wouldn't have been THAT much more expensive and that PMG did NOTHING. Joe briefly refuted her arguments, but this was by no means a complete treatment of the subject. We were not prepared to have this item on the agenda or to deal with it at this meeting.
We covered current projects/work: Fence repair (just completed), removal of debris from the creek and the message board.
It was suggested that it might be a good idea to put a lock on outside electrical boxes.
The next meeting, the Annual meeting, was set for Tuesday, September 1 at Judy's house, 7413 Cowhand, at 6:00pm.
The meeting was adjourned.

Monday, December 7, 2015

Notes from the Open Meeting 09Sept2015

To All It May Concern:
We are extremely sorry for the delay in putting this out to the masses. We have had a leadership change with the board and are still ironing things out.




Notes of Open Meeting   September 9, 2015
This was not an official HOA meeting. This was held to allow the community to express their concerns prior to the annual meeting and to satisfy the petition requesting a meeting. These are not official minutes. They are a summary of the items discussed by the homeowners. The meeting was recorded to document content and tone of the proceedings.
Meeting of homeowners at Barbara Sproat’s address 7:00pm Wednesday, Sept.9, 2015
Meeting was posted as a Special Meeting in the HOA message center on Grand Central.   
Barbara Sproat, president, began by saying this was not a Special Meeting 
but had been changed to an “open meeting”. 
Discussion was brought up to explain the difference. A Special meeting must have a very specific agenda and nothing else can be brought up.  An open meeting or town hall can discuss anything but cannot pass items or vote on items.  
Barbara stated the number of board members that were allowed and encouraged members to apply.
A lengthy discussion of when the annual meeting of the board was to be held next year, 2016. Various members had specific dates of the month, dates of the week, and even specific time slots. Generally most came to the conclusion that they liked the 1st Tuesday of May. This information will be related to the board at the October 1 annual meeting. At that time the board could take it under advisement and vote to set a time or give that responsibility to the new board for 2016.
The next item (number 6) on Barbara’s agenda was the discussion of Sunspot landscape service.  
A general discussion session went on for around one half hour. Different ones present went through each problem they had with their yard service by Sunspot. This ranged from not trimming hedges to blowing grass back on porches. The owner Peggy Meyer was the most unsatisfied about her service.
Everyone spoke of problems, suggestions, and ideas. Rajiv Ranjan lead the positive remarks for Sunspot stating the condition of the development landscape was quite good considering that there are a large number of renters who do not water their yards at all.  
The care of the common ground that has been reclaimed behind Howling Coyote was discussed. A letter was brought up to be sent to Sunspot giving them a 30 day notice. This was discussed and dismissed in favor of a walk-through with board members and homeowners with the company to voice concerns.
Four landscape companies were presented with prices collected by Barbara. The people present thought that the HOA could not do any better by looking into these four suggestions.

Toward the end of the meeting, Barbara stated she did not want to do further board votes by email or on the phone and would only conduct business in person. She did not explain why.
Shari M. told Barbara that for full disclosure she believed it would be best to disclose relationships of people running for the board. Barbara confirmed that Spencer Meyer and Carol Meyer were her father and sister. 
Meeting was concluded around 9:00pm. Everyone thanked Barbara for having us in her home.

Irene Norman 
Secretary HOA 
Homeowners present for “Open Meeting” on September 9, 2015 
Rajiv Ranjan 
7544 Lazy Spur 
Mark Meyer 
7409 Cowhand Court 
Joe Thompson 
7421 Howling Coyote 
DeeDee Dunlap 
7424 Howling Coyote 
Irene Norman 
7428 Howling Coyote 
Shari Mardis 
7449 Howling Coyote 
Carol Meyer 
7425 Lazy Spur 
Spencer Meyer 
7404 Lazy Spur 
Peggy Meyer 
7404 Lazy Spur 
Barbara Sproat 7405 Cowhand