WWS 2010 Preliminary Budget Distribution

The WWS 2010 Preliminary Budget is being prepared for distribution to the owners. Next week the cluster advisers will be delivering the preliminary budgets to each cluster. Out of town owners will receive their packets in the mail.

The 2010 Preliminary Budget shows a reduction over last year's figures. Annual maintenance fees will be approximately $360 ($90 per quarter ) lower than last year if the BOD approves the budget as proposed. The major portion of this reduction comes as a result of a proposed revision in reserve accounting. The Budget Committee has recommended the adoption of a method known as 'pooling' that will combine our multiple reserve line item accounts into one fund.

Once the 2010 Preliminary Budget is accepted with the pooling of reserves, the owners must approve the transfer of existing reserve funds to the new pooled reserve fund. This must happen at a Special Meeting of the Owners. We have scheduled the Special Meeting to convene immediately after the November 23, 2009 BOD meeting.

Look for a voting proxy and return envelope in your budget packet. Each owner must vote to approve the transfer of reserve funds from our current line item accounts into the new pooled fund. Please complete and return your proxy to the office ASAP. This will insure that your vote is counted in the event you cannot attend the Special Meeting on November 23.

The BOD recommends you vote 'YES' on this item.


Director Terms. Déjà vu
I've had some discussion with a few owners about the following statement in my last post:

We have ten remaining Directors who were elected prior to the effective date of this law. Since the law is not retroactive, those ten Directors are allowed to complete their terms.

Some people have read that statement to mean that those 10 Directors are not up for election in March 2010. I included the statement to explain why only 5 Directors were elected in March of 2009 and not all 15. Those 10 Directors were allowed to complete their terms.

As another year passes, 5 of those 10 seats will be up for election in March 2010. Remember that our BOD had staggered 3 year terms until the law changed. So as each year passes, 5 more Director terms come to an end until all 3 year terms are gone.

Consider the following information:

We have 15 Directors on our BOD with the following status:

5 Directors on 3 year terms expiring March 2010
Elected 2007 - prior to the new law

5 Directors on 3 year terms expiring March 2011
Elected 2008 - prior to the new law

5 Directors on 1 year terms expiring March 2010
Elected 2009 - after the new law

A total of 10 Director seats are up for election in March 2010.

So the original statement as it was presented is correct. We have ten remaining Directors who were elected prior to the effective date of this law. Since the law is not retroactive, those ten Directors are allowed to complete their terms. 5 of those director seats will come to their natural term end in March of 2010 and will be open for election.

If nothing else, this highlights how confusing the whole issue can be.