Last nights Annual Meeting came off very smoothly considering the HOA President Gary Walsh was in a hospital bed at Sarasota Memorial Hospital. Gary was admitted Monday with a case of walking pneumonia and was scheduled to be released on Thursday. Of course being an annual meeting it involved some last minute running around to gather the required votes for the two open seats on the Board.

Debra Salisbury, the HOA’s legal council and Joe Stewart the sitting VP headed back to the neighborhood to knock on a few doors gathering those final votes. After all was said and done enough votes were cast to have a quorum and the ballots were officially counted by Betsy Dane with assistance by a few other residents in attendance.

The turn out for the meeting was strong as it seemed most chairs in the room were full. All items on the Agenda were reviewed including reports on our present financial status by Treasurer Shana Pakula and the status of our wetlands by Joe Stewart. Debra Salisbury also gave a report on how we’re dealing with the six homes in the development that are now in foreclosure.

The election results saw Gary Walsh re-elected for a second consecutive term. Gary’s efforts have seen the HOA return from the brink of insolvency to a state of fiscal well being in these past two years. There is now almost $10,000 in the HOA’s reserve emergency fund. This was accomplished after spending over $8,000 on the badly needed repair, repainting and maintenance of the outer wall last year. While an additional $2200 was spent on required replanting in the wetlands this year as we strived to stay in compliance with Sarasota County authorities and avoid costly fines.

Finally La Nae Duchesneau was selected to fill the fifth open seat on the Board vacated by Dolly Felix. Adam DeClerico volunteered for the Board and received a number of write in votes. He could be named to the Board by the sitting President at his discretion as the Board is allowed up to seven serving members.

In all 32 votes were cast, 2 more than the required 30 votes need to reach a quorum. Gary Walsh received all 32 votes, La Nae Duchesneau received 15 votes, Adam DeClerico received 9 votes and Vivia Martin received a single write in ballot. The Minutes of this meeting will be posted here shortly.

The new Board will meet with President Walsh early next week to choose it officers.

To All Residents and Property Owners of Meadow Walk:

We shall be holding our 2009 Annual Meeting to discuss and decide on very important and imperative issues. More than ever we need to come together as a community. Our everyday lives are vested here in our neighborhood of Meadow Walk. Your presence and participation at our Annual Meeting is much needed.

Board of Directors Vacancies:
There are two open seats on our HOA board. Please seriously consider volunteering to serve a term. We need a complete board to continue functioning successfully. Enclosed are Nominee forms. Please fill out the forms and mail them to Meadow Walk HOA, Inc., P.O. Box 51533, Sarasota, FL 34232, or save a stamp and walk them over to Gary Walsh at 1033 Meadow Breeze Lane by December 1, 2008.

Not having a full membership of at least five members on the Board always presents the probability of not having a quorum to conduct official business. Please consider joining our Board of Directors team. This is a volunteer service to our neighborhood and we recognize that the members of the Board also have their personal professions and affairs to attend to. There will be times when one or two members may be unavailable or out of town. A full board will help guarantee a quorum whenever it is needed. Not having a quorum can result in not being able to meet to officially address our HOA obligations. Such a situation leaves us open to the state taking over and appointing an outside management company. Our statutes allows this. While this might be more convenient to resort to, it will also cost us much more in assessments.

Judgments and Foreclosures:
JUDGEMENTS: Going to court and seeking judgments on assessment collections is not the way we want to go and yet it has been necessary to do so. To date we have received judgment on one case and another is pending for total collections of $3,000. Over the course of time, these accumulated and increasing late fees have thrown us off budget. Not to mention the time and related costs of going through the process of collection. The receipt of these monies cannot be fully determined or counted on.

FORECLOSURES: As we all know the dark cloud of foreclosures continues. Sadly six homes in our community are facing foreclosure. We all feel for and deeply sympathize with our affected neighbors. And yet there is the larger situation we need to continually address, that of the timely, sustainable, and independent functioning of our HOA.

In new foreclosure cases, our HOA is served a summons by the court as a named defendant in the complaint. This inclusion is done by the holding bank of the defaulted mortgage. We have had to hire a lawyer to immediately respond to the court to prevent a judgment from being rendered on our HOA for non-compliance, thereby losing our right to claim owed dues and assessments. This is yet another way that mortgagor banks are legally resorting to in foreclosure actions to avoid being held liable for any unpaid fees owed by the defaulting homeowner. We can foresee more of such added legal responses and expenses for our HOA to face.

Funds and Budget:
FUNDS: Current funds available will cover payables and expenses through the end of 2009. This year in addition to the regular monthly maintenance items, we were able to pay for the special project of refurbishing the plants on the littoral shelf. Our shortfall and budgetary difficulties from last year have been corrected, but uncollected assessments continue to keep the annual fee’s higher than they should be.

BUDGET: We have projected our 2010 budget to cover contingencies, increasing costs and any other special project expenses for our community of Meadow Walk, and will be discussed at the annual meeting.

Assessment of Homeowners Dues:
Last year we increased our HOA fee to $600 annually. Although this is a reasonable fee we agreed to re-address the increase and provided we able to get the budget and collection of fee’s under control, we would look at reducing the fee’s for 2010.

1. Dues for 2010 are proposed to be $550.00 Annually per
Resident/homeowner.

Collection of Assessment Dues:
Our bylaws specify that the full annual assessment is due and payable every January of the new calendar year. Consideration was made to allow for the semi annual payment of dues.

We ask all of you, our neighbors to please come to this very important meeting. We look forward to seeing you. Your Meadow Walk HOA Board,

Gary Walsh, Joe Stewart, Shana Bickel, Janet Dunay