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2008
Minutes
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KIAWAH PROPERTY OWNERS GROUP, INC.
Meeting of the Board of Directors
March 5, 2008
MINUTES
The regular
monthly meeting of the Kiawah Island Property Owners Group (KPOG)
was held at the Sandcastle on Kiawah Island at 9:00AM, Wednesday,
March 5, 2008.
Present:
Board Members in attendance were President Art Morgenstern, Vice
President Arie DeZanger, Treasurer Pete Silveston, Secretary Ron
Ritchie and Board Members Charlie Smith and Katie Kotz. Board
Member Bob Oakman also was in attendance via teleconferencing.
Member guests in attendance were Past President Diane Lehder, Past
Treasurer Ben Farabee, Past Secretary Sandy Williams, Past Board
Member Laurie Burpee, Wendy Kulick, Greg VanDerwerker, as well as
TALK Editor Barbara Winslow and Database Manager Kathy Heikes.
Approval of
Minutes: The
minutes of the February 2008 Board Meeting were approved as
written.
Treasurer’s Report:
Pete Silveston
report that the transition between himself and the former
treasurer had gone well and the books look to be in excellent
shape. Pete will pursue getting an audit of the books done by a
volunteer former accountant who lives on the island. It is not
deemed necessary to have a full blown audit done by an outside
accounting firm at this time.
Membership Report:
Katie Kotz in
her role as membership chair announced that a letter is going out
in the next two weeks as reminder for those members who have not
sent in their membership renewal checks, and as an invitation for
property owners who are not members to join KPOG. She also stated
that as of March 4th we had 1781 members signed up, a
total that was far ahead of the figure for this time last year.
KPOG Alerts:
Kathy Heikes
acquainted the Board with a problem if, and when, we wanted to
send mass E-Mail messages to all members. At present we cannot do
it given the limitations with our current data base system and the
fact that members cannot be contacted via this means unless they
have agreed to receive them. To do so they have to sign into the
system and agree to receive such correspondence. Kathy indicated
she is getting to work to address both of these problems.
OLD
BUSINESS
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By-Laws:
Art Morgenstern
informed the Board that one issue remains regarding changes to the
group’s by-laws. This centers on how we treat property owners vs.
long term renters. He will discuss with KICA how they handle this
issue and report back to the Board at a future meeting as to
possible resolution of this issue.-
Insurance:
The Board was
reminded that our liability insurance will be up for renewal this
summer and initial work needs to start to ensure we continue to have
coverage.-
Communications with KICA:
Barbara Winslow
discussed the ongoing situation relative to our communications with
KICA. The COO of KICA has suggested that KPOG consider allowing the
TALK Editor to review with them any articles that were being written
about the community association prior to the article actually
appearing in TALK. After some discussion the Board unanimously
agreed that this was a contrary to the principle of freedom of the
press and such a suggestion would not be accepted. It was agreed
however that in instances where an article was being written on a
technical subject, where the need existed to get such data stated
correctly, that such a course would be both acceptable and
desirable. -
Town of Kiawah Island and the Freedom Of Information Act:
At the February
Board Meeting it was agreed that KPOG would ask Jay Bender (an
outside attorney very knowledgeable on FOIA) to write a letter to
the town advising them of our opinion that they are in violation of
the act and request they to make the necessary changes to be in
compliance. Art Morgenstern will follow up to ensure that the
letter is written. (See the February Board Minutes for additional
information on this subject.) -
Annual Meeting:
The consensus of
the Board was that the KPOG’s Annual Meeting had gone extremely
well. A number of favorable comments were received from attendees. -
Safety & Security:
The
number of incidents reported for February took a sharp upward jump
from what was recorded in January. The increase was solely
attributed to distemper problems with the island’s raccoon
population. No reliable traffic count statistics were available for
February.
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Development Agreement: There
is nothing new on the ongoing discussions between the resort and the
Town on a new Development Agreement -
Roads: KPOG will
sponsor an open forum on March 26th which will solely
address the proposed extension of I-526. It will not touch on the
questions concerning upgrades to roads on Johns Island. This event
will be publicized both on our island, as well as in the Seabrooker
and the Island Connection. The meeting will be open to all
interested parties regardless of where they live. Diane Lehder will
make sure that the details are posted on our web site.
A question was
raised by a Board Member as to whether KPOG, as an organization,
should take a position on the ongoing controversy regarding
improvements to Johns Island roads. No decision was reached however
as several board members questioned whether the Board itself had the
expertise to intelligently weigh in on the subject. It was pointed
out that Seabrook residents have had no reluctance to get heavily
involved and it was suggested that we might pursue networking with
them to see if both islands could develop a united approach.
NEW
BUSINESS
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Board Meetings:
All Board
Meetings for the balance of 2008 will be held on the first Wednesday
of the month at 9:00 AM at the Sandcastle. The April meeting, which
originally was set for the 9th will be moved back to the
2nd. -
Board Assignments: Art
Morgenstern discussed the need for various Board members to indicate
their wishes for specific assignments on various standing KPOG
committees. These include one additional person for Membership in
addition to Katie Kotz, another individual for the Editorial Board
in addition to Art and Barbara Winslow, Safety and Security as well
as the Nominating Committee. In addition, a back up for the
Treasurer is a priority as well as individuals who will be
responsible to attend Town Council and KICA Meetings as well as
Mornings with Joe. Volunteers are also needed to follow the roads
issue, the progress on the development agreement and research on
current, ongoing, activities such as the current KICA study on
amenities/long range planning.. Art asked each Board Member to call
or E-Mail him within the next week to state their assignment
preferences.
Bob Oakman and
Arie deZanger expressed an interest in Safety and Security. It was
subsequently agreed that Bob Oakman would assume responsibility for
these activities.-
Volunteers:
Katie Kotz will
put together a comprehensive list of KPOG members who have indicated
a willingness to volunteer to help the organization when additional
assistance is needed for various projects/activities. This list
will be distributed to all Board Members.-
Check
Signing: It was agreed that in addition to the Treasurer, Art
Morgenstern and Ron Ritchie will be authorized to sign checks for
the organization. -
Web Site
Update: Kathy Heikes will update the KPOG web site to reflect
the new officers and the revised by-laws approved by the membership
at the March 1st Annual Meeting. -
Property Tax Reform: Diane
Ledher raised the question as to whether KPOG should get involved on
the issue of property tax reform for non-residents of South
Carolina. This obviously is a matter of interest to a number of
KPOG members who are not permanent residents of Kiawah. Should we
marshal folks to write letters, contact legislators etc. on the
subject? Bob Oakman agreed that he would pursue this question
further and report back to the Board.
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Data Base: Kathy Heikes
pointed out that we need a record of what leaves our data base, who
receives it and for what purpose the information would be used.
While this has not been an issue in the past it is important that we
remain diligent on this subject to ensure that vital member data is
not compromised.
ADJOURNMENT
The meeting
adjourned at 10:50AM and the members then collected for a group
photo to be published in the next issue of TALK.
Respectfully submitted,
Ron Ritchie
Secretary
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