Annual Meeting Minutes

Board Members Present:  Jim Davidson, president, Paul Canny, vice-president, Dick Vautravers, Treasurer, Carol Conway, Secretary and Bill Rice.

Approved absences:  Steve Imes.

Staff: Don McIntyre

The meeting was called to order at 2:03 p.m. by President Davidson.

President Davidson acknowledged the residents in attendance and asked new residents to please stand and acknowledged them.  He asked for all court captains to stand.  He asked that all residents that have lived in Wellington Greens over twenty years to stand, asked for those over 25 years and those over thirty years. He introduced Board members Dick Vautravers, Carol Conway, Paul Canny and Bill Rice.  He introduced the Administrative Assistant Don McIntyre

President Davidson asked for approval of the 2018 Annual Meeting Minutes.  A motion was made by Ned Hedges and seconded and seconded by Jim Wharry that they be approved. The motion carried.

President Davidson introduced the candidates up for election to the Board of Directors and asked them to make their presentation to the group.

The Candidates made their presentations.

President Davidson 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 – James Davidson

The year 2018 has proved to be a good year for Wellington Greens. We have been blessed with an abundance of rain, the campus looks great, and we look for better things ahead.

A special thanks once again to Dan and his crew at the Maintenance Building. They take their work seriously and do an excellent job. They arrive early in the morning and put in an honest day’s work day after day.

Their snow removal process is an arduous task. They have 20 courts to clear, 277 driveways and 2 ½ miles of sidewalk. So, if it appears on a big snow day that they are not and about, believe me they are. Enjoy a hot chocolate, keep your outside lights on which help the men, and be patient.

Our board continues to be a delight to work with month after month. Our meetings are at the clubhouse, third Tuesday of the month at 7:00 PM. You are welcome and encouraged to attend.

Dues will not be raised for the coming year. I regularly receive calls from other associations here and Omaha to inquire why WGHA is run so well. The reason is you! We are a village unto ourselves, and by and by overall we work well together.  The dues structure with what it provides is a steal when compared to other Presidents I have visited.  I am grateful.

Our finances in a word are in good shape. Thanks to each and every member who spend their time on the board. They are a delight for me to interact with. If I may be of service, you only need to ask.

Treasurer Report – Dick Vautravers

The Fiscal Year for our Association runs from October 1 through September 30.  The Financials that you have in front of you are for the years ended September 30, 2019 and 2018.  The financial information is prepared monthly by Barb Geiger at Professional Accounting Services, our contracted accounting service.  The compilation that you have in front of you is prepared by our independent public accountant Watts and Hershberger.  Barb and Jim Watts are both CPA’s.

Jim Watts indicated to me that he is very comfortable with the controls and procedures that we have in place, and did not make any adjustments to the financial statements that he received from Barb Geiger.  He said we have good internal controls and that the accounting records are in excellent shape.  He did not have to make any adjusting entries to the information he received from our accountant.  He said it was “one of the best financial reports he’s seen in his years of working with non-profit organizations”.

Our Association is over 50 years old.  Dan Riner, who authorizes many of the expenses, has been at Wellington for 47 years, most of the time as the Head Groundskeeper.  I’ve had two terms as Board Treasurer.  We’ve had the same accounting partners for many years.  So our financial results are very stable and very predictable.

Let me just go through a few highlights from the report:

• On page 2, you see that Cash increased slightly to $86,401 at year-end 2019.  Property and Equipment increased by $10,397, reflecting some minor completion work on the Club House and the purchase of a hand mower.
• The Note Payable Liability for the Maintenance Building is not present on this year’s balance sheet.  We were able to not only make the monthly payments, but also were able to pay the balloon payment on September 15, 2019 of slightly over $50,000.  This means we were able to off a new $300,000 maintenance building in five years.  This is something the board is proud of, and we think you should be too.
• Page 3 is the Statement of Revenue and Expenses, or Income Statement.  The bottom-line Revenue in excess of expenses shows a positive $74,001.  We generally managed our expenses within budget, did no concrete work and had good fortune with no major wind storms.
• While Page 3 shows we had Revenue in Excess of Expenses of $74,001, the Statement of Cash Flows on Page 5 shows why we only added $4,000 to Cash on hand.  The statement shows that in 2018 we had a $78,299 reduction in long-term debt (principal repayments on Note), and had $10,397 additions to property and equipment.  These two items do not flow through the Statement of Revenues and Expenses, except through monthly depreciation, as we use accrual accounting.  We have delayed some equipment purchases and concrete work over the past several years.  In addition to the hand mower mentioned earlier, we purchased two weeks ago a new toro mower for approximately $30,000.  Our budget for this fiscal year does include $25,000 for concrete repair, as well as $15,000 for ash tree removal and tree replacement.  We freed up $2,800 per month by paying off the note on the maintenance building.

We had a question raised at our last annual meeting about internal controls and checks and balances within our association financial work.  We have done several things in the past year to answer that question.  In the February 2019 newsletter, we printed out a detailed description of our financial record-keeping system and how duties are segregated within the association.  We have also had three meetings of the Finance Committee this year.  Members of the Finance Committee include myself, Carol Conway, Velda Menard and Jim Wharry.  Velda and Jim are not board members, so we have association residents helping review our records.  Velda retired from a career in banking, and Jim is a retired CPA.  In April the committee met to review the six-month financials, our accounting records and to discuss our controls.  One suggestion that came out of this meeting was that all of the deposits are handled by our external accounting firm.  It was suggested we might want to review the accounts receivables to make ourselves comfortable with the process.  In July, we met to prepare the 2019 budget which was recommended to the board.  Early this month we met a third time and reconciled the accounts receivables back to the general ledger.  We also reviewed the cash receipts, including prepaid dues and other receivables.  No areas of concern were noted in our review.

So, with solid financial results, good words from our external accountant and additional overview by our Finance Committee, we believe you should be very comfortable with the financial condition of the board.

I’d be happy to answer any questions from the members.

Dottie Shapiro asked about the maintenance crew make up and Dick explained the crew makeup and indicated that we added one new full-time member of the crew.  Dottie inquired of the salary of crew members and Dick declined to give out that information.

Golf Report – Carol Conway

We have a total of 99 non-resident golf members.  Each year we seem to gain a few more and this may be a record number.  There are 55 family memberships, 34 single memberships, 8 youth memberships and 2 grandparent memberships.

The golf revenue for the year was $27,740.32 from non-resident memberships, guest fees and leagues.  This is up slightly from last year.

We had another league drop out this year and that was the one on Thursday evenings. So currently we have the men’s league on Tuesday. We have 1 morning league and 1 evening league on Wednesday.  Those leagues usually run May-August and I usually post the schedule in the newsletter so I encourage all of you to read the newsletter.

The winner of the men’s league this year is Boyd Epley who is a non-resident member.

If you are new to Wellington Greens, please be aware that you need a valid golf tag to play here. If you do not have a golf tag, I am the person you need to contact about that.  Also, a golf tag does not mean the yearly sticker that you receive.  That sticker is to be placed on your golf tag.  Those stickers are usually mailed out sometime in March.  Our guest fee remains at $8.00 per person per day.

Anyone who lives in your household is allowed to play on your golf tag.  This does not include visiting relatives such as grandchildren.  We do offer grandparent passes for $50 a year.  If you have a grandparent pass, your grandchildren must be of school age and you must be with them when they play.  This age goes through high school.  If you are interested in a grandparent pass, please contact me.

I also want to remind everyone that all golfers are required to wear shoes on the golf course.  This is for your safety.

Also please be sure to sign in at the clubhouse whenever you play.  This includes writing down your address.

Every year I get asked to put our little gem into the spring Journal Star Golf magazine and I apologize that every spring something seems to happen that prevents me from doing that.  We are very close to our maximum non-resident membership so the board will need to have a discussion about whether we want to increase that maximum.  That maximum number came from a previous board.

I get quite a few calls from the membership signs on 70th St and South St.  We also get many word-of-mouth referrals.

Thank you for the privilege of being able to work with this beautiful little gem we have here and thank you for your time.

Nanette Hesse asked why our leagues were down and Carol said it is due to lack of leadership within their league, they cannot find anyone to be in charge.

Landscape – Carol Conway

This past year has been a controversial and tumultuous year for both residents and the board.

As most of you know by now, the board has made a decision to remove all of our ash trees rather than treat them because of cost and liability.  Several people have objected to that decision.

However, since we cannot take ALL the trees out at once, the board has decided to let courts/residents ‘adopt’ an ash tree.  To do that, the residents will need to have a tree ‘deemed’ treatable. I would encourage anyone who wants to do this check to see if you can get a city forester to come out.  I believe that any person who is treating trees will give you a biased report because they want your money.  The residents will have to arrange this and any costs associated with this will have to be covered by the residents.

We currently have a form to be filled out by residents and approved by the Landscape Chair and the Board.  These adoptions will be for a 2-year period.  At the end of that 2-year period, the tree will need to be re-evaluated.

We already have residents at 7200 OPR that are adopting 2 or 3 trees.  They had a city forester come out and that person did say that 2 of the trees could not be treated so those trees will be coming out.  Two other trees could be treated and a 3rd was questionable.

If you wish to know more about this new program, please see me after the meeting.  I have copies of the permit.

We also have some residents who have issues with mowing hours.  As we all know, the weather sometimes determines the mowing hours.  Also the members of the board are not landscape experts.  Therefore, we will often defer to Dan Riner’s recommendations.  The board tries to resolve these issues to the best of our ability.

I’m pleased to report that the board has decided to continue all mowing as it stands right now.  In previous years, we were talking about discontinuing ‘hand’ mowing of private lots.  This is no longer the case and mowing will continue as it has in the past.

I encourage everyone who has a concern to contact the board, come to the board meetings and/or come to the annual meeting.

I also encourage you to talk to your neighbors….especially new people in the area…..about attending the annual meetings.  It’s important that we have residents attend so they can hopefully understand what this association is about.

Thank you all for being here.

Allen Barber said that they started to cut down trees in his court and he asked them to stop.  He said the cost of cutting them down is higher that the cost of treatment.  He said he got the numbers to treat the trees and it is $40,000 less to treat than to cut down.  He said the city has changed their opinion.  He said the chemical is not a nuisance and it has a 99% success rate.  He said it is devastating to property values

Architecture – Steve Imes (Read by Paul Canny)

Thank you to those of you who continue to take good care of your townhome. Thank you for the painting, roofing and other exterior repairs.

Thank you to Anna Votipka for her assistance in inspection of numerous townhomes.

When you are maintaining the exteriors of your townhome please keep in mind that paint brands and codes may be outdated and no longer available. There is a difference in paint brands. Windows, fencing, shingles etc… may be outdated and difficult to match.  Please contact the Architectural Committee for assistance.

If you have any questions feel free to contact me by email (simes312@gmail.com) or call me at 402-489-5718

Concrete, Long Range Planning and Clubhouse renovation – Bill Rice

Bill said that the clubhouse still needs a modern kitchen and needs to be opened up.  He said we could generate revenue by putting solar panels on the south roof of the maintenance building.  He said two courts need concrete, Sunbury and San Simeon. He said we should have a state certified person to provide the permits to treat the Ash trees.

Social Committee and Court Captains – Paul Canny

I feel 2019 has been a very positive year for Wellington Greens.  We have paid off early the loan that was taken out to build the maintenance building, maintained a high level of care and up-keep of the common areas and the golf course, approved the purchase of some new equipment all the while being financially prudent so that the monthly homeowner fees will remain the same for the next year.

As the vice president of the Board of Directors I performed  the duties of the president, like presiding over Board Meetings, while the President of the Board was recovering from surgery.

I was also the Board Member who worked with the Social Committee.  The Social Committee consists of six people who met to plan Wellington Greens social events. The committee met to plan upcoming events- trading ideas about the events and helping with work necessary for the event to be successful. We planned and coordinated the annual Wellington Greens Garage Sales.  After the garage sale, which many people considered a success, Goodwill Industries collected unsold items.  We participated in a community wide program run by Goodwill and Wellington Greens received $300 due to the amount of items donated my our homeowners.  The social committee planned a number of other activities throughout the year, including two new events.  One event was a presentation on exercise and health opportunities sponsored by community groups.  That program was not very popular and attracted very few people.  Another new activity sponsored by the Social Committee was the tailgate party in September before a Husker Football game.  That event was popular and the clubhouse was very crowded.  The next up-coming event will be the Wellington Greens Annual Boutique which will be held on December 7.  Last year the Clubhouse was packed with people selling and buying boutique items. The Social Committee also encouraged individual courts to have picnics or pot-lucks to foster friendships and communication among court members.   Another part of my role with the social committee is to stay in contact with Court Captains who relay information about Wellington Greens activities and information with the homeowners in their court.  I did not do a very good job of communicating with court captains last year. The role of a court captain is pretty easy, they are asked to relay information about Wellington Greens events to the other members of their court. There are sign-up sheets for people to volunteer to be a court captain out in the hall.

The social committee is only one of the committees designated by the Wellington Greens Board. The other committees we presently have are; Architectural, Finance, Landscape, Concrete and Golf.  Out in the corridor there is general information about Committees from page 3 of the Wellington Greens Green Handbook and signup sheets for people who would like to be on a committee. Further information about specific committees is contained on pages 4 and 5 of the Green Handbook.   After the results of today’s election of Board Members, the Board will discuss which Board Members will be selected to lead each committee and then those board members will designate members of the committees.  Please consider being a court captain or a committee member, it’s a great way to help Wellington Greens while not time consuming.

More residents’ questions to the Board members were taken.

Election results were announced by Jim Davidson.  Jim Wharry and Carol Conway were elected to the Board of Directors.

The drawing for the door prizes was next and Phillis Mueller, Mary Vesely, Linda Siedhoff and Dianne Brenden won $25 gift certificates and Eola Hedges and Elizabeth Woody won $50 certificates.

President Davidson thanked the volunteers that worked today.  He reminded everyone of Bridge and Pitch in the clubhouse.

President Davidson declared the meeting adjourned at 3:33 p.m.

Respectively submitted: W. Don McIntyre, Administrative Assistant