They had come to a time when no one dared speak his mind, when fierce, growling dogs roamed everywhere, and when you had to watch your comrades torn to pieces after confessing to shocking crimes.
-George Orwell, The Animal Farm, Chapter 7
PROBLEM (Oink!) Too many homeowners participate in the Annual Meeting in February and, to make matters worse, they are watching their money more closely, after having over-spent during the holidays. This untenable situation simply creates too much unnecessary risk to our eternal Stewardship of the poor animals – and they need us!
BACKROOM DEAL Move the Annual Meeting from the middle of February, as the By-Laws clearly appoint as the time for the Annual Meeting, to the middle of December. ‘But people are so busy around the holidays!’ squealed one pig. ‘Oink, that’s the point’, grumbled another.
COVER STORY By moving the meeting to December, you also make the new year's budget official starting January 1, as opposed to March. As a result, the the new monthly assessment amount can be collected on a schedule that's more closely aligned with the budget and our fiscal year.
COVER STORY FACT CHECK From a budgeting perspective, there's nothing more ‘magical’ about January than December. If the two months present different levels of expense or income, then you plan for that - that's the purpose of a budget! Contracts with vendors expire at staggered periods throughout the year, depending on the month they were first signed, so it isn't like our expenses are all radically different in January than they were the month prior. And even with a December budget adoption, the marginal increase in revenue (this assumes every budget is bigger than the last because, I think everyone would agree that's the pretty much the norm anymore) comes only one month sooner than it would have otherwise – and we have sufficient working capital to cover well beyond the incremental new revenue represented by just one month’s assessment increase. As for alignment with the fiscal year, whats so difficult about budgeting January and February with what you know will be the revenue and then budgeting the remaining ten months with what the new revenue number will be?
A change in the budget process that would make more sense than bumping forward its approval would be to construct it in an orthodox manner where 'pine straw' isn't its own budget category, but, rather, is included in a 'Landscape Maintenance' category. (Continued...)
Our budget categories are so random and all over the map, that they are almost comically unreadable from an accounting perspective, from one year to the next. Or, we could consolidate the four budget lines for fire-related expenditures into one to facilitate year over year comparisons. But, then again, maybe it best serves the objective of obfuscation the way it is. In any event, the 'cover story' on this is baloney - whatever small gain may be had by matching the fiscal year to a twelve month period of the same revenue hardly seems worth driving a dagger through homeowner participation in the Annual Meeting and in the affairs of their association. Especially when every time one turns around, homeowners are getting hit over the head with a beer bottle for their lack of participation.
BARNYARD SCOREBOARD Pigs 1, Homeowners 0!
Lower attendance means you need fewer votes to win – and you get fewer pesky questions, too!
Lower meeting turnout has, in fact, been the result of moving the Annual Meeting to December. Common sense would tell you that most people's December schedules simply don't
have room to accommodate yet another obligation, as most are frantically trying to juggle: making the requisite appearances at office parties, parties thrown by friends or throwing their own parties; battling crowds at malls to buy gifts for friends and family; end-of-year deadlines at work; hosting their own holiday parties; putting up Christmas trees, lights and wrapping presents; standing in line at the post office to send gifts; writing everyone on their holiday card list; either going out of town to visit family or scrambling to get their own house ready to have company; gathering required paperwork and documents so they can file their tax return as soon after January 1 as possible so they can get any refund due sooner. Don’t forget, all this is on top of everything else they have to do in any given month.
And, as for those that can still manage to come in December? Well, it’s at least more likely that they will be in better and more complacent spirits, with all of the holiday cheer, goodwill and Christmas wafting through the air. ‘Oink, Perfect!’
Word for the day - SUTHERSTENCH - n - That rather foul smell you often smell getting off the elevator at 660 Glen Iris Drive 4th floor that appears to be emanating from unit 409. The smell often smells like that of a pig pen or deification field for farm animals.
ReplyDeleteEx: I was going to unit 405 at 660 Glen Iris and when I got off the elevator I smelled the horrid SUTHERSTENCH and started to gag.