| Winterchase Newsletter
WinterchaseHOA.com |
8/24/18 |
We are only 2 months away from our 1st full year in office. This has been a very busy year for us. Please see all twelve of our regular board meetings published on WinterchaseHOA.com and two executive board meetings which cannot be published.
Now is the time to party!
Just because the pool is closed in September, doesn’t mean we can’t have some fun
BBQ at the Pool
Saturday, September 15th at 12pm noon we will provide BBQ from JD’s BBQ and ask that you bring covered side dishes to share and your own beverages. (No, the HOA will not be paying for booze 🙂 Hot dogs and some bean/veggie burgers for those who don’ t eat meat will be provided as well.
Please RSVP via WelcomeWinterchase! (private Facebook) or email.
Community Yard Sale
Saturday, October 13th. If enough people sign up, we will place an ad in the local events publication.
Volunteers needed for pressure washing and staining our fences. Bids on the fence came in higher than expected. Until we have all of our assets back from HMS, let’s play it safe and keep to our original cost savings plan. You can make the community better by volunteering 😊
We are prepared to go back to being self-managed. We need the money more! We can do this. All we need are people willing and able to oversee the bank statements and service providers to make sure things go well. We can’t do much worse than HMS. HMS was so bad that their accounting said we have condos, club houses and a pool without water. Even in the winter our pool has water in it, not according to HMS. We got tired of correcting them and can’t wait to leave. We’ll save a grand on insurance too, yahoo. $6k saved, bam.
We are installing two great ideas:
- We partnered with BB&T to provide invoicing, payments and online access to our accounts. This is the same basic service provided to you at 1/10th the cost. We already transferred our savings account to BB&T earlier this month. No more HMS interfering or extremely long delays in answering questions.
- We hired a financial professional with no conflict of interest to oversee our bookkeeping. We are following the example of other long standing national non-profit organizations. The report will be presented at our annual membership meetings.
These 2 new initiatives will cost the association less than $1,000 a year, really even lower than that.
Private Facebook page is WelcomeWinterchase! Stay informed and engaged, please join our “member’s only” club. There are mainly positive issues brought up; however, we welcome feedback and healthy debate. Lord knows (Southern expression for those not from the south) that previous boards had no problem using the public website to publish names and unwanted drama for the world to see. Currently on the private page are the closed bank account paperwork from Wachovia, HMS threats against the Board, $14,000 lien paperwork or lack thereof, and more private and needed info. WelcomeWinterchase! is our answer to bring relevant issues that is none of the rest of the world’s business.
The basics, mostly boring, but some rabble rousing at the end:
Pool key – contact BOD via email or mail, replacements cost $25.00 per key.
Trash Cans – please move trash cans out of sight or to the side of your house. Our Covenants require trash cans to be placed in the back yard or completely out of sight. We are only asking for them to be placed on the side of the house. Please don’t make us see your dirty laundry/trash every day on our way out.
Dogs/pets– A good way to gain an enemy is to let you pet poop in their yard, please be kind.
Pool parking lot – email the Board when parking longer than 3 days. We don’t know who the owners of the abandoned cars are. Vandalism, maintenance and general good governance are all reasons we need to know who is parking at the pool for extended times. The purpose of the parking lot is for visitors and users of the pool & playground. Only one car was towed this past year. The car appeared abandoned and registration had long since expired.
Police – Report any unusual activity in your area to Acworth Police department (770) 974-1232.
Email the entire BOD at [email protected]
Rabble rousing…
First of all, we don’t like this… We’re making light of it…but…we finally hit the bottom of the barrel/bins.
A lien for over $14,000 was placed on a homeowner in 2017. Ouch! Stranger still, the homeowner was current (owed zilch, noda, nothing according to HMS records anyway). And hardly any paperwork, one would think that a $14,000 lien would have a lot of proof yet hardly anything in that department either. We sure didn’t want to touch that with a ten-foot pole…our lawyer said to drop that lien like it’s hot. We did. Go to WelcomeWinterchase! for the goods.
Please see WelcomeWinterchase! FB for the Wachovia bank closure statement too. Don’t know why HMS can’t get off their duffs and do their job of giving us that $30k they keep listing. Or, HMS take that account off our books. Shameful! We don’t want to be blamed for holding that hot potato.
We placed a BBB (Better Business Bureau) Complaint against HMS and their response was expectedly rude and uncaring. No, we aren’t afraid of HMS suing us because it is true. Direct link on FB.
HMS negligence goes to failing to collect Initiation Fees at closing. Winterchase has some of the lowest closing costs for new home buyers at only $200 with no other fees. Volunteers collected those better than HMS.
HMS didn’t fail to pay themselves our late fees and other items they take from us at the end of the year.
Housing prices are going up! Our values are going up! Being in an HOA has advantages, if we can get along.
Board of Directors
Deborah Rogers (President) – phone/text 770.722.2940
Doug McMinn (Vice President)
William Godfrey (Treasurer)
Mark Perdue (Secretary)
Connie Keller (Director-at-Large & ACC Chairman)