Annual Meeting Minutes

Board Members Present:  Linda Siedhoff, president, Dick Vautravers and Jim Wharry, Treasurer, Carol Conway, Secretary, and Vaughn Carter.

Approved absences:  Tammy Hanel

Staff: Don McIntyre, Administrative Assistant

The meeting was called to order at 2:01 p.m. by President Siedhoff with 33 members present.

President Siedhoff acknowledged the residents in attendance and asked new residents to please stand and she acknowledged them. She asked that all residents that have lived in Wellington Greens over 20 years to stand, asked for those over 25 years and those over 30 years. She introduced the Board members in attendance and explained that Tammy Hanel had a death in her family.

President Siedhoff asked for approval of the 2020 Annual Meeting Minutes.  A motion was made by Vaughn Carter and seconded by Jim Wharry that they be approved. The motion carried.

President Siedhoff asked Dick Vautravers to introduced the candidates up for election to the Board of Directors and have them make their presentation to the group.  The candidates were Mike Beaver, Lon Dyer, Barb McCuen and George Wolcott.

The Candidates made their presentations.

President Siedhoff called a recess so that members could cast their ballots.

The meeting was called back to order and as the votes were being counted, the officers gave their annual reports.

President’s State of the Association – Linda Siedhoff

It has been a great year at Wellington Greens.  Thank you to our board who does a great job of keeping Wellington Greens going.  A big thanks to Don McIntyre who keeps us all in line and everything from creating our newsletter to working on the website, to sending correspondence.  I also want to thank Dan Riner and his crew, Ryan and Eric for keeping our campus looking great.  I also want to thank all the residents who have served on the committees this year and hope they will continue to do so.  Thanks, too to all the helpers today who helped get this meeting set up.

Our focus this year has been to continue keeping Wellington Greens a great place to live.  We have addressed immediate needs of the Association and our residents and hopefully solved many issues.  We have started a 10-year plan committee of which we will be working on further this next year.  As most of you know, we are losing Dan to retirement March 31 and are in the process of finding a replacement for him.  He has given us 50 years of service and he will be hard to replace.  As you will see in the financial report, we are financially stable and much to some resident’s concern, we have raised the dues by $15.  This is barely in line with inflation.  We are now 52 years old and utilities and concrete especially will need some work.  We also have old, dying trees that will need to be replaced; therefore, new trees will be planted.

This year we have finished the 1st phase of our 3-phases of concrete replacement.  We have also purchased a new tractor for the ground crew and made several bylaw changes in hopes of overall improving Wellington Greens.

Wellington Greens is a wonderful place to live and by keeping necessary repairs and updates current, it will continue to be a place where everyone wants to live.  We have requests all the time from people wanting to move here.

Treasurer Report – Jim Wharry

A quick review of the statement of position and operating results shows that the cash went down by $44,333.

We purchased a new tractor for almost $62K ($61,647).  We had an operating loss of 105K, 55K more than budgeted.  Our concrete was $141,000 or $75 over the budget, which was offset by getting a five-year 4% loan in the amount of $100,000.  The loan will cost us around $11,000 over five years.  The balance at year end, September 30th was $91,423.  Without the loan we never would have been able to do the concrete work.  Also, we collected $22,000 in greens fees more than what we budgeted.  Overall, it was not a bad year.

The finance committee was kept fairly busy this year.  We started out by researching and setting up a lock-box arrangement with our bank.  It was the easiest and probably the most economical way of establishing internal controls over our dues collection process.  The lock-box costs us around $200 per month and saves us $300 per month in accounting fees.  We found the bank’s computer systems were compatible with our accounting system, so it was a fairly easy transition.  We implemented the arrangement on March 1 of this last year and it has operated smoothly so far.

We discussed the possibility of having two signatures on checks over $5,000 but found this is not part of the banking policy.  In lieu of that, we have decided that any check over the $5,000 would be signed by someone other than the writer of the check.

At our July meeting, we decided we should ask for dues increase to $175 per month per unit effective October 1, the beginning of our new year.

We reviewed the financial statements and projected the results through the end of the year.  This is the first dues increase in four years, over which our cost of living has gone up almost 11%.  This increase of $15 represents less than a 9.375% increase.

We also are establishing a capital improvement reserve fund at the rate of $10 per month per unit.  This will set aside $2,770 per month for future upgrades, improvements and unexpected or unforeseen emergencies.  We have set up a money market account and have funded it with $2,770 for this month and also set up an automatic transfer each month for $2,770 to go into the account.

Part of our budget for this coming year includes the purchase of a new truck to replace the one that is 15 years old.  Also, we budgeted to set aside $1,855 per month to pay off the concrete bank loan and we budgeted $25,000 for concrete work in the coming fiscal year.

Golf Report – Carol Conway

2020 was a record year for non-resident members.  But in 2021, we beat last year’s record.  Last year we had 134 memberships and this year we have a total of 169 non-resident memberships. And that amount usually goes up during the fall.  I usually sell 1 or 2 memberships around Christmas time as gifts.

The income for the year is $51,605 which is over $17,000 up from last year. We are increasing the dues for the non-resident members for next year.  So, I anticipate that the number of memberships will probably go down.

I had one member of the Monday night ladies’ league tell me that she recently played at Pine Lake.  And she said our course in is much better shape…especially the greens!  That’s always nice to hear!

The Golf Committee was instrumental in getting a new picnic table for the clubhouse.  I want to thank Greg Hanel, Judy Dyer and Mike Beaver for being a part of that committee.  The new table is a nice addition to our clubhouse.

The guest fees will remain at $8 per day per person.  I want to remind everyone once again that anyone not living in your household is a guest and therefore, is subject to the guest fee. This includes grandchildren unless you are interested in buying a grandparent pass for $75 a year, which is a slight increase.

I also want to remind everyone to please sign in when you play.  It helps myself and Dan monitor the golf course for intruders.

If anyone is new to Wellington Greens, you must contact me for a golf tag. The yearly sticker you receive is not your golf tag.

Thank you for your time and thanks for being here.

Landscape – Carol Conway

The Landscape Committee did another walk around this year and sent out another 60 or so letters.  The response this year was not positive.  Some phone calls resulted in additional letters being sent.   I want to thank Judy Dyer, JoAnn Trumper and Mona Way for being a part of that committee.

Some of you may have noticed some very tiny trees planted around the campus.  Dan was able to purchase 50 trees this spring from NRD.  These are a mixture of serviceberry and blue spruce.

We had two residents pick up free trees on Arbor Day this past spring.  Those were two serviceberry and one red oak per Dan’s suggestions.  I will try to do a better job of informing residents when this happens again as it’s a great way to get new trees.

There were several specific trees planted around the campus.  A redbud at Tiffany, a swamp white oak at Kimberly, eight Regal Prince Oaks around #4 green and a  Chinkpin Oak at Ramsgate.

Several residents had trees planted with Dan’s permission.  Those were a Profusion Crab which I had planted behind our unit.  Our neighbor had a Japanese Maple planted at the corner of their house.  A couple of residents had a late blooming Magnolia planted at Wellington Court and a white oak was planted at Briar Glynn.

Once again, I will remind residents that you are always able to plant a tree at your expense.  Of course, this should be done with the approval of the landscape committee and Dan Riner or his successor.  If you wish to purchase a tree to be planted around your unit, please contact me and we will get the process started.

We have 28 ash trees remaining.  Several ash trees were cut down recently but some were a danger to the surrounding buildings and one was at the request of the resident living next to it.

Dan was told that all the ash trees in Ashland have died or are dying.  This is well ahead of the previously estimated timeline.

If you have an issue with a neighbor’s landscaping or have a request or a concern, please contact me and I will see what I can do about it.

I also want to thank Tammy Hanel for being instrumental in getting the beautiful new benches installed along Old Post Road.  They are a great addition to our wonderful community!

As always, please leave your outside lights on during a snowstorm to help the grounds crew get their plowing done.

Thank you for being here.

Architecture – Submitted by Tammy Hanel and read by Linda Siedhoff

President Siedhoff said Tammy sent out a total of 128 letters; 17 repairs were done but need to be monitored; 29 repairs to monitor for next year, 62 repairs completed and 20 repairs are in process so that we are down to 20.

Thank you to residents who have made repairs and painted their properties helping to keep Wellington Greens a beautiful place to live.  We’re working with homeowners who still need to make repairs in order to adhere to the Wellington Greens bylaws.

Warwick and Canterbury South courts have replaced their shake shingles with asphalt shingles, and they look great!

Paint codes have presented a bit of a problem due to the new paint not matching with the faded-out paint.  We are asking residents to get a sample of a paint chip to match when painting their properties.

A reminder that residents need to get approval from the architecture committee before making any changes to their units.

President Siedhoff said that Tammy had done considerable work on rentals and determined that about 12.5% of the household are true renters, some have other family members living in them.  She said the Board is considering changing the covenants to limit the number of rentals allowed.  She asked for a show of hands of those that think the covenants should be changed.

Court Captains – Linda Siedhoff

The court captains met twice this year in the spring and fall. There was a good turnout at both meetings. They were all given the new bylaws and Use Restrictions to be delivered in their court. They were reminded to update their rosters. A welcome wagon committee is also in the works. We are still short one court captain for Canterbury west. If anyone knows of someone to let me know. We have three new court captains. Carrie Grant in Cambridge, Barry Johnson in Chatham and Elizabeth Sorenson in Bryer Glynn. We will be updating paint codes this next year.

Hospitality – Submitted by Tammy Hanel and read by Linda Siedhoff

It’s been nice to see the community of Wellington Greens sharing life together again through various golf leagues, court get togethers, bridge games, mahjong games, etc.

The benches on Old Post Road are a great addition to Wellington and allow our neighbors to rest and chat with one another while walking the “Wellington Mile”.

Long Range Planning – Vaughn Carter

The 2033 Vision plan has been put on hold for a while, but will gear back up this next spring and summer.  We gained a lot of good data from the survey we did.  We had over 100 responses which was about 40% of the residents.  We got a lot of good ideas.  After the holidays we plan to hold focus group meetings and by this time next year to have a plan in place.

As to Dan’s replacement, we have the job posted that has the job description, experience requirements, etc. and that is on the website.  We used Indeed and have received 12 or 13 responses.  It is open until November 25 and then we will narrow it down and start making phone interviews and then personal final interviews and doing reference checks.  We are asking anyone on Dan’s crew that wants to apply to do so.  Once we hire someone, they will work with Dan for 60 days.

A resident asked if something was planned for Dan’s retirement and Vaughn said it is being talked about.  A resident asked if Dan was in on the hiring process and Vaughn said he was asked to be, but declined.

Concrete – Jim Wharry

Before we did any concrete work this year, we had two surveys done on the campus by Gabel Construction and AJ Donner Construction.   Both showed we had about $350,000 to over $430,000 worth of work that needed to be done.  We ended choosing AJ Donner, after doing some due diligence and because of the amount he broke it up into three phases for us, with about $140,000 per phase.

This survey included 23 courts and for the first phase we had them work on 13 of the courts plus some work at the club house.

This year we spent $140,900 doing the work.  It caused us to have a budget overrun of $75,100.  We borrowed $100,000 to pay for it.  We are paying back that loan at $1,855 per month, this is a five-year loan at a 4% interest rate.  As of the end of the year we are down to $92,989.

You will notice that two park benches were put in along the sidewalk on the north side of Old Post Road between Chatham and Regency courts.  Thank you to Tammy Hanel for doing all the heavy lifting on that.

We still have about $290,000 worth of concrete work to do.  Planning ahead, we should be able to do another $25,000 per year; and if all goes well, which it never does, we could possibly clean up our concrete work in the next five or six years.

There are a couple of things the contractor needs to clean up, some cracks and some spilled hydraulic fluid that needs to be cleaned off the concrete.

Otherwise, things went fairly well with very few problems.

President Siedhoff said that some residents are receiving their HOA dues invoice by email and that saves the Association lots of money.  She asked the residents that are still receiving their dues via US mail to let Don know their email address so they can be added to the list.

President Siedhoff recognized Dick Vautravers and thank him for his many years of service on the Board of Directors.  She presented him with a plaque and gift certificate.

Mr. Vautravers said he has served 15 years total that he has been on the Board.  He said that no one has been more dedicated to Wellington Greens than Dan.  Dick encouraged the residents to be more involved in the Association.  He said they have lived here 45 years.

President Siedhoff thanked Tammy Hanel and Steve Imes for their service on the Board

Election results were announced by President Siedhoff.  Mike Beaver and Lon Dyer were elected.

President Siedhoff said the dues were raised this year.  She said Wellington Greens is 51 years old and water and sewer lines are getting old and we have had some break and that is one of the reasons for the dues increase.

President Siedhoff thanked the volunteers that worked today.

Jim Warry moved that we adjourn.  The motion was seconded by Vaughn Carter.

President Siedhoff declared the meeting adjourned at 3:30 p.m.

Respectively submitted: W. Don McIntyre, Administrative Assistant