Start at 7:50
Attendees: Mike Gilmore; Kari O’Connell; Bob Papp; Mike McLaughlin; Rick Diesinger; Pat Holoob; Michelle Caravella; Patty Driscoll; John Arcoleo; Bob Sellinger
Monthly meetings – hosting
Bob – July
Pat H – August
Patty – September
Michelle C – June
Kari O – May
Rick D – March
Mike M – April
Harshal – November
Bob S – February
Mike M – October
President’s Report:
Board meetings are the first of the month.
Position of corresponding secretary – Bob S said he is crunched for time. He would like to discuss his responsibilities of authoring a blog further. Mike said he would be able to do what he wants with it. Kari suggested that she wants a paper copy to be sent as well as an electronic version of any blog. Bob S would like to have time to think about. In the meantime, Mike will act as Corresponding Secretary on a month by month basis. Bob P made a motion that Mike M. be corresponding secretary until the month of February. The motion was passed.
Parking Lot
Mike M said that the parking lot should be a priority this year. Mike M. talked to Phil Schifano and he is too big to do our job. Schifano suggested we talk to Hicks and LM Rothberg & Sons. Schifano thinks that Rothberg could give us a deal if we say that we know him. Lou Porchetta could also be considered. Mike is contacting all of them to get scope of work quotes. Schifano said to get a quote now and get it locked in. Bob P will look to see if the contractors are qualified with the better business bureau. Mike G said that the lumber needs to be moved out of the way in March. Mike M will ask them to also ask for a lining price. They need to layout the parking lot. Bob wants to know what we are doing with the dumpster – there should be a concrete pad for the dumpster. What do we do about the sinkhole? It is going to continue to weep. Will get a price for a concrete pad.
Proxy Vote Committee
The work that the committee did was sent for comments. The question was asked whether if we allow it will it be grandfathered in? Since the bylaws are silent we would have to allow proxy if we are not grandfathered in. Mike thinks it is important to make a revision to the bylaws by saying yes we allow it or no we do not. The Board needs to poll the membership to see what the membership wants. Mike M suggested Survey Monkey for the survey. Survey Monkey is set up so that there can be only one response per computer. Survey Monkey will let you see which ones voted and which ones did not, while maintaining anonymity as to the actual vote. Mike M. suggests that we send it out and say one vote per household or the household is disqualified. Bob thinks we should use the suggestions that the committee makes to get the survey finished. Kari doesn’t feel comfortable sending it to one e-mail – it should be sent to everyone. At Feb. meeting The Board will decide what the proxy vote question itself should be.
Social Host and Alcohol Liability
Our insurance coverage does not cover any alcohol liability. Mike M. said the lake is not covered as a social host. We are liable if someone gets in an accident due to alcohol consumption. Mike doesn’t know if we are covered if someone is on our property, brings their own alcohol and gets drunk. Mike reached out to Eileen Born who is an attorney and represents COLA and 60 other lake associations. He asked her the question. Also asked for rates. Her answer – “the Lake needs to get a social host rider on our insurance policy – it may also cover someone bringing their own alcohol.” The second option would be a Hold Harmless Agreement – that way there is a buffer if there is an issue. This applies to adult parties. The third recommendation would be that The Board amend the bylaws so that there would be no liabilities due to alcohol issues. Her rates are $300 an hour and she does not do retainer agreements. She is willing to give us a discount to $250 an hour plus a 5% charge on top of that rate. The insurance broker said we have no coverage for alcohol related issues. Her recommendation is to not provide alcohol. BYOB would be an additional insurance. Bob said we could get a rider for each event like we did in the beer tasting.
Bob S recommends that we authorize the payment of 4 hours of attorney time to determine a resolution of the above. Mike G. seconded.
Smoking/Non-Smoking Section
Mike is concerned about having a smoke free area in public and non-public areas. If you have a structure that your employees go into – and the building has seepage of smoke from outside there could be an issue. It is mandated that the smoking area be 50 feet from the entry to a structure per state law. The board needs to think about this issue and determine if State law applies to SSL
Community Garden on Ball Field
Membership has some desire for a community garden. Mike M. thinks it would promote community within our club. We could do it and raise money to sustain it. There would be a charge per plot. After the first year we could put a well in with a hand pump. Kari suggested that we do a trial run with a small plot to be sure that it will work. John A said he will contact someone from Duke Farms and Wagner Farms to get some input. We will start out small as a community garden. Mike M. said we will move forward with the community gardens.
Boat Roundup
We haven’t done one for a long time – we should send a note saying come and get your boats and if they are not picked up they will be picked up and auctioned off.
Pat H. – Vice President
Nothing to Report
Pat H. – Clubhouse
Talked to Tom Kern about the keyless entry for the clubhouse so all members can have access. He said we could use the same program that we use for the gate. It can be setup to allow access during specific hours. We can issue board members keys, in the event the electricity goes out or the keyless entry is not working. – we need to figure this out.
Pat wants to have the clubhouse trim sanded. Bob S said that it may be lead paint. Mike M. suggested that we test the paint first to be sure it isn’t lead.
Pat wants the rest of the sheetrock hung so she can complete her kitchen makeover.
Bob P. – treasurer report
If we have new members they need to give us two checks. One check for the non-refundable initiation fee for the Lake Restoration Fund. The other check for annual membership dues.
The $4,340 penalty assessed by the IRS for filing Form 990EZ for the tax year ending December 31, 2012 was abated by the IRS. We are in receipt of a letter on New Year’s Eve for a $10.000 penalty for filing Form 990 for the tax year ending December 31, 2011 late. Bob suggests that we use the same letter we used for 2012 for the 2011 penalty.
The Lake does not have a conflict of interest policy. The IRS expects us to have a conflict of interest policy in place. We have a sample conflict of interest policy of statement provided by the Lake’s accountant that is suitable.
The accountant also notes that our website identifies us as Sunset Lake Association. We are legally known to the township, county, state and IRS as Sunset Lake Community Club Inc. This discrepancy exposes us to the IRS to make inquiries about the disconnect. We should either change the name on the website or look into the feasibility of adding Sunset Lake Association as a doing business as with the State.
Recording Secretary – Harshal
Harshal proposes that we do our minutes by Google Docs going forward.
John A – Environmental
Dredging with a pontoon boat by suctioning may be cheaper than a dredging. John thinks that much of it is organic material that is now in the lake. Mike M suggested that we look into how much it would cost and which permits would be required. Bob said he wants to lower lake to remove the cattails. Bob wants to know if we need a permit to lower the lake. Mike G said that we want to pull out cattails and muck and clean up the lake. Mike said if we lower the water level we can get more material dredged. This would be considered maintenance and a permit would not be required. We need an excavator and a dump truck.
Mike G
Cleaned up area around corner of south and north shore and wants to get ready for Spring in March. Pat H. said that there is dust when there are a lot of people on the beach. Can we look into a better quality of sand that doesn’t do this. Mike G will look into quality of sand. We need to move the sand that is there around.
Lifeguard – Carrie
Will check about the status of the kayak.
Membership – Patty
Wants to change the application for new members to include parking pass information.
Michelle – social
Booked first social event which is a trip to the Sands. Event Brite charges a fee for each transaction. Michele absorbed the cost for this event. Got an e-mail from Brenda Horvath asking if the bus trip is subsidized. The bus trip is not subsidized by the lake.
Rick Diesinger – water quality
There is a $20 increase in the fee for water testing. At the annual meeting it was asked if we could test earlier than the week before opening day so that we know before Memorial Day. Rick said that we will schedule additional treatments for the upcoming swim season.
New Business
Mike M. – Beer event – picked a date of May 9 with a limit of 250 people. There will be more vendors and distributors. Proceeds will be going to lake restoration. There was a motion that the $150 application to the state be processed. The Motion was passed.
George Bicking is interested in doing a new website for us. We should ask George to go forward. It will be $2.99 first year, 14.99 second year for the .com and 8.99 each year for the .org.
Bob P – everyone should look over the conflict of interest policy for next meeting.
Motion to adjourn 9:56.