Wheelwright Cluster Board Meeting – January 25, 2019

Board members present: Jessica Joyner, Mike Pendleton, Sarah Keally, Kristina Myers, Daniel Baldwin, and Jill Jenkins.

Residents present:  Matt Keally (2233)

General discussion:

• Jill, who has taken over as Treasurer, feels like the Treasurer role should be a paid position due to the amount of work required to complete the tasks and keep up with duties. Board members agreed that it was something to look into over the next year as a possibility and will consult with the lawyer to see how that could be implemented as well as the level of compensation.  Suggestions were free dues for the time of service or $100/month.
• All board members should have access to the cluster email now.  If you haven’t tried to access it, please do and let Jessica know if you cannot.
• Jessica will add more admins to the Facebook page so others can help make posts when needed.
• DRB application to Reston was submitted to Reston Association (RA) staffer Sarah Gaston.  It was submitted without signatures so was rejected until signatures could be obtained for entire row at entrance (2201-2215). Kristina needs help getting signatures for entire row so Jessica will assist in that task.
• Cluster sign was stolen after last cluster cleanup, so a new one was purchased.  Danny will take over duties of putting out sign and pick it up from Mike.

Concrete Contract – assigned to Danny

• Work has been identified by same contractor who did work in 2018 to fix tripping hazards in 2019.
• An entire proposal for all work that was identified with a contractor walk through exists and will be shared with Danny to help work on scheduling some of the work.
• Danny will work on getting additional quotes for the work.
• The drainage/pooling of water issues identified in front of 2231 were discussed and possible solutions presented by contractor.  Danny will work on this issue with specific costs.

Trash Contract – assigned to Sarah

• Waste Management (previous contractor) sold all HOA contracts to Bates Trucking, effective January 1, 2019.  All existing contracts will be honored.
• Will reach out to contractor to confirm trash schedules and post on the website/Facebook page.  
• Will talk to the general manager about billing process and when to expect bills.
• Also will request the notification process for when dates and pickup schedules change.

Landscaping Contract – assigned to Kristina

• Newcastle is the new contractor starting January 1, 2019.
• Currently doing a weekly sticks pickup from residents yards.
• Plans from contractor (included in proposal) are to paint and stain cluster benches, add in butterfly garden, in addition to other landscaping duties.

Electricity Contract – assigned to Kristina

• Will call Dominion Energy about two watch lights in front of 2233 and 2235/2237 being out and have it fixed.
• Dominion is now requesting cluster account number when issues are reported by board and requests to fix cluster lights must be called in by a board member -residents can’t call it in.
• Residents should report issues with cluster lights to cluster email, wheelwright.cluster.assoc@gmail.com.  

Snow Contract – assigned to Jessica

• Mike Peyton (2217) is currently the contractor.
• All agreed he did a great job with the last snowstorm in clearing the parking lots.
• He has been doing a great job invoicing the board once a job is complete.  
• Currently budgeted $8,000 for snow removal, which depending on rest of winter season, we could have a surplus of funds for this budget item.

HOA Software Discussion:

• Mike (Pendleton) proposed we look into the possibility of purchasing an HOA software to help manage administrative tasks for the board and keep us organized, including a financial software to replace Quickbooks.
• He has done research and came up with a few options – some issues is they may not include financial software or software becomes unsupported and out of date quickly. Mike is going to wait until Jill does financial software research to make sure they can work together.
• Sarah will ask Franklin Farm HOA board contact about software they might be using and if they recommend anything.
• Jill will reach out to RA and inquire if they have any recommendations, in addition to doing research on other financial software available besides Quickbooks.  
  • Quickbooks is cumbersome and not user friendly and often screws up financial data, making it so the Treasurer must manually do tasks to understand where discrepancies lie.

Dues for Furloughed Fed Workers:

• It was proposed by a couple board members that we give furloughed federal worker residents extra time to pay dues without penalties if government shutdown continues.
• Now that government is temporarily open, a plan will be worked on for if/when the shutdown occurs again. Residents experiencing difficulties should notify a board member and show their government issued ID as proof of federal employment.
• Jessica will write a blurb for the Wheelwrighter to inform residents of the plan.

Tree Committee:  Mike and Danny will be liaisons for this committee

• The board must create a tree committee per the referendums passed at the 2018 Annual meeting in December.
• No official guidelines were given so board will write them up in a charter for the committee and outline responsibilities for tree committee members and board members.
• A blurb about the new committee will be included in the next Wheelwrighter – residents should send concerns to the board email, wheelwright.cluster.assoc@gmail.com.
• Board is looking for residents to volunteer to be on the committee.
• Board liaisons will work on the committee charter which outlines roles/responsibilities and discuss at the next meeting
  • Sarah to send a sample charter to Danny and Mike.
  • Charter should include committee members will be responsible for writing all design review board applications that will go to RA.

Shingle DRB application was approved by RA–thank you to Kristina and Jessica for their work on the application.

Wheelwrighter – assigned to Kristina for next issue; Sarah will be responsible for development after that.

• Next issue will be distributed by February 1, 2019.
  • All assigned articles/blurbs due to Kristina by January 30.
• Content for next issue to include:
  • New contractor for trash service – Sarah
  • Donations of Goods – Danny
  • Treasurer change – Jill
  • Dues and Furloughs – Jessica
  • Tree Committee – Danny
  • Board member spotlight – Kristina

Treasurer Duties:

• Other board members trying to take on some tasks for Treasurer so it’s not so time intensive.
• Secretary (Sarah) to update guidelines with new options for shingles. .
• Money from cluster doc packages voted to go to Treasurer, even though Secretary will take on the task of putting packets together.
• Jill requested a wireless mouse for use with computer–all voted in favor of providing her a wireless mouse plus additional supplies needed to carry out Treasure job duties.
• Jill needs to be added to bank and Easton’s name removed from Cluster account.
  • Jessica will email Easton about debit card transfer over to Jill.

Parking Lot Map:

• Mike created a parking lot map and identified which spaces are assigned by name/house number and which ones are free (unassigned).  

Review of Cluster Survey results were discussed.

Financials – reviewed current budget and spend down in addition to collection of dues for the first quarter of 2019.

Next Meeting: March 7, 2019, 7-9 p.m. at 2209.