Dear Neighbor,
In reply to the latest letter, proposed budget and proxy sent by our illustrious president Doug Parker I can only make the following comments:
First, why does it take so much pressure from the community to get the present board to go to work and do the things that should have been done in the first place? The reduction in electrical costs is long overdue. And no recent drops in the cost of electricity have been evident – so the savings have probably been available all along. All a lazy board had to do was research it and find a better deal. In other words – do their job.
Second, how can the board scream about needing additional funding when they were able, albeit under the same pressure, to present a somewhat balanced budget that even allows payment of 2009 shortfalls of Eighteen Thousand Three Hundred Ninety ($18,390) dollars?
Third, why is the proposed budget presented in a “combined” format? I think that the presentation should be by section, allowing us to see where and when the money will be spent.
Fourth, why are we budgeting $9250 dollars for accounting and CPA fees? If we assume that the association has 40 payments per month, taking an average of five (5) minutes per transaction to pay and record in a suitable accounting program, we can make a further assumption that this requires three and one third (3.33) hours per month. This works out to forty (40) hours per year. Now assume an additional ten hours at the end of the year to print out an annual line item profit/loss statement and prepare tax documents. The total is now fifty (50) hours of work. Divide the $9250 by 50 and you get a whopping one hundred eighty five dollars per hour ($185). How many of us working stiffs would like to earn this kind of money? Who is this whiz of a bookkeeper/accountant anyway? Is he/she related to anyone we know?
Fifth, how much do you suppose it costs us to have our prez send out the numerous appeals that have been sent? Let’s assume postage of $.44 and a cost, excluding any labor, of about $.20 each for a total of $.66 for each correspondence sent. Multiply this by 741 and we get a raw cost of six hundred seventy five ($675) dollars. I know of two letters that have been delivered, so Big Doug has spent at least One Thousand Three Hundred and Fifty ($1,350) dollars telling us that they can’t pay our bills. Is something wrong here? Does this sound like responsible fiscal management to you?
It’s way past time for a change. Please do come to the annual meeting. If you are unable to do so, appoint a responsible friend or neighbor as your proxy to vote for change. Please do not sign the proxy sent by the board. They will only use the vote to maintain the “status quo”.
Sincerely,
A Caring Meadowcreek Neighbor
In reply to the latest letter, proposed budget and proxy sent by our illustrious president Doug Parker I can only make the following comments:
First, why does it take so much pressure from the community to get the present board to go to work and do the things that should have been done in the first place? The reduction in electrical costs is long overdue. And no recent drops in the cost of electricity have been evident – so the savings have probably been available all along. All a lazy board had to do was research it and find a better deal. In other words – do their job.
Second, how can the board scream about needing additional funding when they were able, albeit under the same pressure, to present a somewhat balanced budget that even allows payment of 2009 shortfalls of Eighteen Thousand Three Hundred Ninety ($18,390) dollars?
Third, why is the proposed budget presented in a “combined” format? I think that the presentation should be by section, allowing us to see where and when the money will be spent.
Fourth, why are we budgeting $9250 dollars for accounting and CPA fees? If we assume that the association has 40 payments per month, taking an average of five (5) minutes per transaction to pay and record in a suitable accounting program, we can make a further assumption that this requires three and one third (3.33) hours per month. This works out to forty (40) hours per year. Now assume an additional ten hours at the end of the year to print out an annual line item profit/loss statement and prepare tax documents. The total is now fifty (50) hours of work. Divide the $9250 by 50 and you get a whopping one hundred eighty five dollars per hour ($185). How many of us working stiffs would like to earn this kind of money? Who is this whiz of a bookkeeper/accountant anyway? Is he/she related to anyone we know?
Fifth, how much do you suppose it costs us to have our prez send out the numerous appeals that have been sent? Let’s assume postage of $.44 and a cost, excluding any labor, of about $.20 each for a total of $.66 for each correspondence sent. Multiply this by 741 and we get a raw cost of six hundred seventy five ($675) dollars. I know of two letters that have been delivered, so Big Doug has spent at least One Thousand Three Hundred and Fifty ($1,350) dollars telling us that they can’t pay our bills. Is something wrong here? Does this sound like responsible fiscal management to you?
It’s way past time for a change. Please do come to the annual meeting. If you are unable to do so, appoint a responsible friend or neighbor as your proxy to vote for change. Please do not sign the proxy sent by the board. They will only use the vote to maintain the “status quo”.
Sincerely,
A Caring Meadowcreek Neighbor
I doubt that there are 40 transactions per month, so you can probably add to the hourly rate that the accountant receives for his/her work. And why does the accountant use a mail stop to receive payments from us? Where is the office? Somethings a little strange here.
ReplyDeleteIt has been a while since I checked in here, and I am also a caring fellow neighbor. I have only looked at the financials at the past meeting, and not the receipts. However, here are some thoughts. I have about 10 years working in the non-profit industry. I am not an accountant, but I was an executive director working with both CPAs and Boards.
ReplyDeleteQuestion 3&4: Many accountants try to simplify accounting and keep the cost down for small non-profit organizations. If every bill needs to be entered for each section, that takes additional time and additional billable hours. Also, each vendor does not break up their work by section. So there would have to be additional accounting hours for that as well. It could be calculated that way, but would it be worth the expense? I don't have an answer on that, but since the complaint seems to be about the cost of accounting . . . it is something to consider.
Also, I think that accounting would also include entering and tracking all of the fee assessments. It seems a bit strange to assume that the only accounting is the receipts a person has. I am sure that they spend time tracking income, reconciling bank accounts, creating reports monthly for review by the board, and so forth.
Question 5: I think that there are some requirements to send out information. Not sure, but I think it would be similar to the annual meeting requirement. Since one mailing was the bills and another was the annual budget, sounds like those would be required mailings to me.
Just a thought from another neighbor!
Good points Coril - and includes some things that need clarification. The expenditures actually need to be separated by section, as the deed restrictions require each to "stand alone". Town Homes are actually billed separately for some items, as they are the only entity receiving the service (trash pickup, lawn care, water).
ReplyDeleteAs far as making entries to track, any good accounting program can handle this chore with ease. Quick Books Pro would be an example of software that would do the job.
The key word here becomes transparency - we the people want full disclosure, but the "old board" seemed not to want this. They certainly had ample opportunity to provide the information. And only having ten or so copies of the annual financial report available at the meeting was unconscionable.