Monday, 16 February 2009 14:30

Board Members in Attendance:  Tim McFlynn, Kathy DeWolfe, Holly McLain, Patsy Batchelder, Jan Martin, James Brundige, John Clark, Brad Zanin, Rick Heede, Steve Child, Sue Helm.  (On phone: Emily Smith & Frieda Wallison).

The meeting was called to order by Tim McFlynn at 7:05 pm.

I.    Approval of  Meeting Minutes from 1.19.09.
    Postponed until the next meeting, as there are some changes to be made.

II.    Financial Report.
Jan presented the budget from Jan 1 – Feb. 17 (see attached). There was a net positive income of $2,158. We had $5,850 in recent contributions. There is approximately $57K in the bank, after Amy’s invoices are paid. We have a couple more donations and expenses that are not reflected.
Emily asked if we have the money in an interest-bearing account.  Jan said it’s in some kind of money market account. Jan will find out specifics, and either she or Amy will respond to this question at the next meeting. The expenses were legal fees.

III.    Land Use Applications.
No new applications in the pipeline.
Jan reported that neither the Wheeler’s nor Danis’ have received their official CO’s.

IV.    Website Development.
Jan reported that Joseph Grange, our new computer tech, has had this project for a month. He sent Jan an update….but it had no “sizzle”. He admits he is not a designer. He has recommended Danny Tamez with Aspen Website Design to help re-design the site. Danny said it’s written in HTML now…not the greatest. It’s an older language, not conducive to graphs. We should convert to PHP, CSS or MySQL. Take the guts of what James has done but change the language so it’s more amenable to changes, like a newsletter, voting, on-line donations, etc.  That should give it enough muscle to be able to add whatever we want in the future.
James asked if Joseph or Danny had Dreamweaver software. That would make it easy to work on the site.  Jan said no. According to Danny, it would be too expensive to continue with HTML.  Jan sent around a proposal from Danny, with a client list.  His costs would be $2,700 at the low end, to $5,300 on the high side. Joseph would continue to manage the site once we get everything set up.
Rick suggested we receive a few other estimates before moving forward. He had someone to talk to who designed his site.
Jan did not want to wait until the next Board meeting to make this decision. She asked if the Board could vote on this before then. James wondered if this Caucus needs a sexy, cutting edge website. How many people will really use it? Holly commented that we need to do outreach and promotion, and make sure it’s really good when you go on it. Promotion is key. Jan felt that it’s, at worst, a $2,700 gamble. But we raised $85K, with many, many donors…..which shows we’re getting the word out. Two other Caucuses have asked Tim about our Caucus and wanted to know what we were doing.  Tim felt developing this site is a slow and steady process. But it will be good for the neighborhood, for recognizing who your neighbors are, and for raising money. He didn’t see how this could be anything but positive.
Emily felt that the quality of the website is a reflection of the Caucus. In this day and age, it needs to be top-notch. The cost per family is a minimum. It’s money well spent, if it’s user friendly. We would save money in the long run by not doing as many mailings.
Tim asked Jan to get Danny’s proposal to everyone in writing and give the Board members 10 days to respond.
Assuming there is no red flag, let’s proceed.  Sue asked if there was going to be a budget. Tim said we should get a consensus on this after getting more information.  Kathy reminded everyone that to approve this expenditure without holding a meeting, we need every director to vote – e-mail is acceptable. The majority still rules.  Kathy later asked Jan to copy her on all the votes concerning this issue – for the record.

V.    Board Schedule and Procedures.
Frieda had asked at the last meeting if we could adjust our meeting days, so they wouldn’t impact government holidays that fell on Mondays.  Tim said he got the impression that people preferred the third Mon. of every month.  Frieda said now that we can participate in meetings by phone, the question was probably irrelevant.


VI.    Institutional Documents.
Kathy presented an example of using an Excel spreadsheet to keep track of land use applications. Columns included date of submission, name of applicant, planner, summary of the request, Hyperlinks to relevant docs and an outline of the final outcome. Tim said he still felt the hard copies for all land use applications should be preserved.  Perhaps these should be filed by parcel number, as that is separate and always remains the same…while the names of various applications can change as they go through the system more than once.  Kathy will get a file cabinet, find a place to keep it, get all the applications together and start organizing. Steve suggested we still keep the spreadsheet going and recommended some modifications.

VII.    By-Laws – Conflict of Interest.
Tabled until the next meeting (Frieda).

VIII.    P.R. and Outreach.
Holly has put together a committee to work on newsletter and website ideas, including Marilyn Osier and Molly Child. Website could feature: Weed of the Month, features on residents, etc. James said he originally left a page open on the website for Old Snowmass history. In the off-season he could take a stab at writing this. John McBride had given James history info. Steve suggested topics as where the roads use to go, cowboy poetry, articles on caretakers, wildlife stories, emergency procedures. Jan and Holly will attend the various neighborhood HOA meetings and e-mail every resident once the website is up and we’re happy with it. We will also have signs in the Post Office.
Kathy mentioned the brochure rack at the post office is empty.  James will resupply.

IX.    Annual Budget and Fundraising for 2009.
Tim suggested we develop an ‘09 budget that anticipates next year’s expenditures, parties, Creek studies, etc. He would like Amy to put this together, after reviewing past years’ expenditures, and present this at next month’s meeting.
Summer picnic/donor event. Holly said she was happy to host this event at Moon Run, unless someone else wanted to be the host. The Wheelers would like to do another fundraiser at their home as well. They were a bit disappointed their event didn’t raise more funds. Perhaps they could present a donation check in front of everyone, and get others to step up. Or maybe they could “match” funds donated. Tim suggested having the party earlier in the year. Or, in the fall, having a barn dance. Emily suggested having a raffle. She saw one where everyone bought 10 tickets and put them in bowls for different items of interest. Jan said Habitat does that at the RF Club. Tim said if we can plan the Moon Run party and one at the Wheelers, and know what we’re doing by Feb. 16th, we’ll be way ahead. He suggested Holly ask for help for her party…from neighbors too.
Dottie Fox Open Space Dedication.
Tim said the current owner is fairly far along in creating that space. This could be another event to schedule. We should be involved with the County on this, so we know what’s happening.




X.    County Codes/Caucus Policies and Principles.
Jan wanted to propose a subcommittee to review county Codes. Some are applied unevenly, some don’t make sense. She gave examples such as having to haul away excess dirt off your land when excavating; Codes for the size of 3-rail fences that were harmful to horses; construction of horse shelters; Codes on what kinds of trees to plant that seem arbitrary and apparently did not apply to County projects, etc. She felt we need to work with the County to make such Codes more rational. We should also start to examine these and let the County know how we feel. The Caucus should be more pro-active on behalf of our residents. John felt that we may disagree among ourselves on these issues, but we should weigh in on them. Tim felt in some cases people don’t understand the Codes, nor the reasons behind them. If we delve into this, we should invite the appropriate County people to educate us and present background information on the rationale behind them.
Sue mentioned we need to be careful we don’t get between the County and any homeowners in disputes. We have a great relationship with the County and they respect the Caucus. This relationship and mutual respect has been extremely beneficial to our interests. Regarding the tree issue, Sue suggested the County could feel certain trees are called for because of consideration of available water. Tim said absolutely, these should be general discussions, not pertaining to any current disputes. Every bureaucracy has an “us vs. them” stance. Our Master Plan was written to improve our rural character, and perhaps two or three changes in these Codes could better preserve that character.
Due to time limits, Jan would like to put this on the agenda for the next meeting.

Tim mentioned George Newman asked if he could come to some of our meetings and asked if that was OK with the Board members. Several of the other Caucus groups have heard we are very active and want to learn from us. Steve suggested as a means of increasing our communication with the BOCC, maybe we should attend their meetings. Maybe we should talk to and interact with them more, without there being an agenda particular with our Caucus that we want to advocate. Tim said that was a great idea. Maybe with George Newman’s help, we can ask to be involved in their work sessions, if there’s an issue that pertains to us.

XI.    Board Member Attendance.
Kathy reported Kevin Ward has missed three consecutive meetings.  Per the By-Laws, last month she notified Kevin via e-mail that his seat on the Board was in jeopardy if he missed one more meeting, but received no response. After a brief discussion, the majority of Board members felt this should be enforced. In the e-mail to Kevin, Kathy welcomed him to attend meetings and that his involvement with the Caucus on any level, would, of course, be appreciated The language in the By-Laws is a little confusing as to whether Kevin must be asked to resign, or whether he is “deemed to have resigned”. Kathy will propose a change to clean this up.

The meeting was adjourned 9:00 pm.