Hello Neighbors:       

As the 2008 Board of Directors (BOD), our vision is to strengthen an HOA that those before us have worked so hard to develop. You, the HOA, have entrusted us with the responsibilities outlined in the CC&Rs and By-Laws to run the association for the benefit of the entire community.

A strong HOA must first consist of a strong community, which we believe we have. We recognize that there are always opportunities for improvement.  We have identified several areas of where we can do better and are beginning to work on those.  For us (the BOD) to be successful in managing our HOA, we must have a level of trust from you, the HOA members.  The three of us appreciate this trust and do not take it lightly.  Our goal is always to represent the best interests of the community that we are a part of.

The following are the major areas we plan to strengthen in 2008:

–Improve communication within our community.  We are working to give you more information, sooner, about what’s going on.  The newsletter will resume publication soon and we plan to have a Web site where we all can share information more easily.
–Continue to improve financial management.  Using our historical information, we will develop a longer-range forecast (3 years or so) of our financial condition and communicate it to you.
–Strengthen community outreach.  We always want to hear your thoughts about our community: what you like and what we can all do better.  As always, you are welcome at the monthly board meetings.

Let us take this opportunity to provide some insight into the details of our HOA:

We take prudent steps to spend our community money wisely — it’s our money too.  The recent dues increase was the first in 5 years.  Our all-volunteer boards (along with other members) saved all of us more than $25,000 in the past 5 years by doing all of our management in-house, instead of hiring a property manager at a minimum cost of $5,000 per year.  It would be so much easier for the board if all we had to do was oversee a property manager, but we would all pay dearly for that.  This is a prime example of volunteerism at work.  Had this and past boards decided to retain a property manager, our dues would have escalated much higher or our reserves been substantially lower than they are today.

Whenever possible, we obtain multiple bids for work to be contracted.  In some cases, that may not be an option.  For instance, we may not be able to find 3 or more contractors who are qualified to do, or willing to bid, on the work we are contemplating.  This doesn’t mean the work doesn’t need to be done, or that the price we are getting isn’t a fair price for the work. We believe that past BODs have done their due diligence to the best of their ability. We’ll continue this process and commit to making improvements where we’ve identified opportunities to do so.

Thank you for your participation in the recent survey.  Your input helps us greatly in getting a read on the entire community.  We’ve attached a summary of your responses so you can get a feel for how your neighbors feel about those topics [survey results below - Webmaster].  You may also gain an appreciation for the board’s challenge in meeting the total community’s wishes or desires.

Moving forward, we thank you in advance for the things you can do to help reduce the workload on our volunteers: get your fully-documented ACC project requests in as early as possible, pay your HOA dues promptly, and communicate with the BOD when you have ideas or concerns.

For Your Montare Board of Directors,

Bob U.
President

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