The official Inverness Forest Association website fell victim to a severe crash last year and many of our files were lost. Thanks to the hard work of Arne and Nicole Fleisher the website is now up and running under new software.
In addition to Arne and Nicole, Stephanie Cooperstein and I will be working on the website. One major problem with the official website (http://invernessvillage.org/) has been that, after the crash, most of the minutes were lost. Little by little I've been updating the Board Minutes section to bring it up to date. I've just added the minutes for Dec, 10, 2009.
I will continue to provide the complete set of minutes here at my blog, Inverness Forest Today. Look to the right in the sidebar for the link "Past Minutes & Other Files". You can find the Dec 10, 2009 baord meeting minutes at:
Dec 10, 2009 Minutes
Among the upgrades to the Inverness Forest Association official website is a revamped board member page, including the members of the committees. Another useful addition to the website is a section for Realtors and Settlement companies. If you are refinancing your mortgage, you will find the answers to many of the questions that realtors, lenders, and settlement companies ask in this section of the website. Feel free to direct your lender/realtor/settlement company to this section.
I welcome your suggestions for additional content on the official website. If you have any ideas for the website, please email me. And of course, here at Inverness Forest Today I will continue to keep you informed on what is going on in our community.
Harvey
ifatreasurer@mac.com
Showing posts with label minutes. Show all posts
Showing posts with label minutes. Show all posts
Thursday, January 21, 2010
Tuesday, September 1, 2009
Online Delivery of the Minutes - The First Time
For the first time ever, most of the Inverness Forest Community is getting the board meeting minutes online. The advantages of online distribution are that it saves trees, saves the cost of printing paper copies, and for those volunteers delivering the paper copies, online distribution saves time and shoe leather.
When I started Inverness Forest Today in April 2008 I didn't think it would grow so quickly and have such a large audience. The mailing list now has 239 email addresses! The are only 304 townhouses in our community. There is some double counting since in some cases more than one member of a household receives IFT and in other cases both an owner and their tenant receive IFT. Still, most of the residents in Inverness Forest are on our mailing list.
I've put the PDF file of the minutes online in the "cloud" (As always) at a location where you have a choice of reading the file online or downloading the PDF file to your computer for printing. Here is the link:
IFA Minutes 8-13-09
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Note that there is a request for more information on the Da Vinci roof material posted as a comment on the previous posting (below). I've some answers (also as a comment), but perhaps someone who has researched these issues can provide a comment with additional information.
Harvey
ifatreasurer@mac.com
When I started Inverness Forest Today in April 2008 I didn't think it would grow so quickly and have such a large audience. The mailing list now has 239 email addresses! The are only 304 townhouses in our community. There is some double counting since in some cases more than one member of a household receives IFT and in other cases both an owner and their tenant receive IFT. Still, most of the residents in Inverness Forest are on our mailing list.
I've put the PDF file of the minutes online in the "cloud" (As always) at a location where you have a choice of reading the file online or downloading the PDF file to your computer for printing. Here is the link:
IFA Minutes 8-13-09
**************************************
Note that there is a request for more information on the Da Vinci roof material posted as a comment on the previous posting (below). I've some answers (also as a comment), but perhaps someone who has researched these issues can provide a comment with additional information.
Harvey
ifatreasurer@mac.com
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
Online Delivery of the Minutes has Finally Arrived!
I know, I know, we actually have had the minutes online for more than a year. The entire set can be found on the IFA website (see link in sidebar at the right). The board has decided to use "e-delivery" as the primary means of distribution. Many of you have asked when we will stop wasting paper and just deliver the minutes online. The answer is that, starting with the July board minutes, we will not be distributing paper copies (see exception below). I personally appreciate this decision since I have delivered the paper copies to every house on the Deborah Dr. side for the past few months.
So, now we will be saving paper (trees), money, and shoe leather. We have reached "critical mass" with over 180 names on the email distribution notification list. I will continue to send out an email to everyone on the email list with a link to newly posted minutes.
Here is the exception I mentioned. What should we do about those remaining people who are not yet part of our online community and therefore won't see the notifications when the minutes are added to our website? For the moment, the board has decided that we will deliver paper minutes to them.
In the future we will explore other methods of getting the minutes out to people who don't have online access. One idea is to ask people who need paper copies to act as distribution points for others who also need paper copies.
I'd like to hear suggestions from you about how to get paper copies to people without online access. Please add your suggestions as a comment to this posting or send me an email with your ideas.
Equally important is how to sign up the remainder of the Inverness Forest Community so that they can participate in accessing the minutes online, as well as reading Inverness Forest Today, the IFA website, and the message board. I have spent a lot of time this past year knocking on doors and requesting email addresses of residents. Almost everyone I asked has provided an email address, which is why our online community numbers over 180. I will continue to knock on doors, but I have some ideas about how to speed things up. But I'll save that for another post.
Here is a teaser for my next post: did you know that the amount of money you paid for your house is public knowledge and available online on a State of Maryland website?
Harvey
ifatreasurer@mac.com
So, now we will be saving paper (trees), money, and shoe leather. We have reached "critical mass" with over 180 names on the email distribution notification list. I will continue to send out an email to everyone on the email list with a link to newly posted minutes.
Here is the exception I mentioned. What should we do about those remaining people who are not yet part of our online community and therefore won't see the notifications when the minutes are added to our website? For the moment, the board has decided that we will deliver paper minutes to them.
In the future we will explore other methods of getting the minutes out to people who don't have online access. One idea is to ask people who need paper copies to act as distribution points for others who also need paper copies.
I'd like to hear suggestions from you about how to get paper copies to people without online access. Please add your suggestions as a comment to this posting or send me an email with your ideas.
Equally important is how to sign up the remainder of the Inverness Forest Community so that they can participate in accessing the minutes online, as well as reading Inverness Forest Today, the IFA website, and the message board. I have spent a lot of time this past year knocking on doors and requesting email addresses of residents. Almost everyone I asked has provided an email address, which is why our online community numbers over 180. I will continue to knock on doors, but I have some ideas about how to speed things up. But I'll save that for another post.
Here is a teaser for my next post: did you know that the amount of money you paid for your house is public knowledge and available online on a State of Maryland website?
Harvey
ifatreasurer@mac.com
Sunday, February 8, 2009
January 2009 Board Meeting Minutes Online
The minutes from the January 2009 board meeting are now online at the Inverness Forest Association's website. Here is the link:
January 2009 board minutes
The online minutes contains a link to a PDF version of the file for downloading a printable copy.
The board has been discussing an experiment (in the spring) to eliminate the paper copies of the minutes except for those people who don't have online access. Anyone who has internet access but who wants a paper copy will have an opportunity to request one. Also they can download the PDF file and print it.
Harvey
ifatreasurer@mac.com
January 2009 board minutes
The online minutes contains a link to a PDF version of the file for downloading a printable copy.
The board has been discussing an experiment (in the spring) to eliminate the paper copies of the minutes except for those people who don't have online access. Anyone who has internet access but who wants a paper copy will have an opportunity to request one. Also they can download the PDF file and print it.
Harvey
ifatreasurer@mac.com
Monday, January 19, 2009
December 2008 Meeting Minutes
The December 2008 board meeting minutes are available to view at the IFA website: December 2008 minutes
If you would like a PDF version of the minutes for downloading and printing: December 2008 minutes
Harvey
ifatreasurer@mac.com
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
Minutes from the October 2008 Annual Meeting
The October minutes of the Annual Meeting are online at the community's website. Here is the link: October 2008 Annual Meeting minutes.
I've been told by several people that printing paper copies of the minutes and distributing them by hand is a quaint, old-fashioned idea that is bad for the environment because it requires the killing of trees.
I think online delivery of the minutes is better than paper distribution. Here are my reasons:
Those people who do not use the internet could still receive paper copies. Only about 3% of the people I've talked to in our community say they don't have internet access. Also those people who have an internet connection but would rather get paper minutes could share the burden of paper minutes distribution by offering to distribute paper copies to those who don't have online access to the internet (or to those who, like themselves, would rather receive paper copies). Or we could put a stack of printed minutes at a nearby location (Cabin John Mall or the Potomac Library for example) for those people who want a paper copy. Another idea is for a few people who want paper copies to act as distribution points for other people who also want paper copies.
If you haven't read the minutes online in the past, you can read the October 2008 minutes online by clicking the link above. What do you think? Is it just as easy (or easier!) than handling and reading paper minutes?
I'd like to do a trial run of online delivery of the minutes on the Deborah Drive side of Inverness Forest some time this winter. I've picked Deborah Drive residents since that part of our community has a higher proportion of residents on our email list than on Inverness Rdige Rd. For this test we will only deliver paper copies to those people who don't have internet access and to those people who specifically request paper copies by sending me an email. I'll send out an email a few weeks before the trial run to Deborah Drive residents so that they will have plenty of time to "opt out".
I'd like to know what you think about online delivery of the monthly minutes. Please leave your comments on this post (by clicking on the word "comments" -- add your name to your comments unless you truly want to be anonymous ) or send me an email.
I have to go now because I have to distribute paper copies of the October minutes. It does seem awfully cold outside this morning...
Harvey
ifatreasurer@mac.com
I've been told by several people that printing paper copies of the minutes and distributing them by hand is a quaint, old-fashioned idea that is bad for the environment because it requires the killing of trees.
I think online delivery of the minutes is better than paper distribution. Here are my reasons:
- It cost the community almost $1000 per year to print the minutes. Online distribution of the minutes is free.
- Trees have to be killed to supply the paper for paper copies of the minutes.
- it wastes a lot of the Secretary's time going to Staples each month to have the minutes printed, collated, and stapled and then going to the volunteer's houses to drop off the stacks of printed copies.
- The volunteers (like me!) spend a lot of time each month going door to door to deliver paper minutes. Since so few people have volunteered to help the community despite repeated requests in the minutes this past year, the burden on those that do help out is large. Online delivery would lessen the burden.
- So many people are now used to receiving important information online (online banking, brokerage statements, receipts for purchase at Amazon, etc) that reading the minutes online would be easy and normal (and you wouldn't have to throw away a piece of paper after you've read it).
- Some people keep files of the paper minutes for future reference. Online distribution makes this unnecessary since the past minutes are already online (back to Jan 2007 which is when our webmaster, Nicole Fleisher, started putting the minutes on our website).
Those people who do not use the internet could still receive paper copies. Only about 3% of the people I've talked to in our community say they don't have internet access. Also those people who have an internet connection but would rather get paper minutes could share the burden of paper minutes distribution by offering to distribute paper copies to those who don't have online access to the internet (or to those who, like themselves, would rather receive paper copies). Or we could put a stack of printed minutes at a nearby location (Cabin John Mall or the Potomac Library for example) for those people who want a paper copy. Another idea is for a few people who want paper copies to act as distribution points for other people who also want paper copies.
If you haven't read the minutes online in the past, you can read the October 2008 minutes online by clicking the link above. What do you think? Is it just as easy (or easier!) than handling and reading paper minutes?
I'd like to do a trial run of online delivery of the minutes on the Deborah Drive side of Inverness Forest some time this winter. I've picked Deborah Drive residents since that part of our community has a higher proportion of residents on our email list than on Inverness Rdige Rd. For this test we will only deliver paper copies to those people who don't have internet access and to those people who specifically request paper copies by sending me an email. I'll send out an email a few weeks before the trial run to Deborah Drive residents so that they will have plenty of time to "opt out".
I'd like to know what you think about online delivery of the monthly minutes. Please leave your comments on this post (by clicking on the word "comments" -- add your name to your comments unless you truly want to be anonymous ) or send me an email.
I have to go now because I have to distribute paper copies of the October minutes. It does seem awfully cold outside this morning...
Harvey
ifatreasurer@mac.com
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
Minutes and a Resident's Request For Help
Here are links (at the IFA website) to the August and September 2008 minutes:
August 2008 Minutes
September 2008 Minutes
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I received an email from (link contains her contact information) If you know of any teenagers willing to work for
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The Inverness Forest Associaton's Message Board is a valuable way for residents to communicate with other residents. All you need to get started is to sign up. A registered user may post messages in the categories of "Home Repair and Improvement", "Inverness Parents", "Seven Locks Bike Path Project", "For Sale or For Free", and "General Discussion".
Right now few people know about the message board so there are very few postings. As residents begin to use the message board it will become more interesting and useful and that will, in turn, generate more messages and replies. So if you have anything to say to the community at large, or questions to ask, please use the message board. The more it is used, the more valuable it will become to all of us. You can even add pictures to your postings, as I did in posting Harvey
ifatreasurer@mac.com
August 2008 Minutes
September 2008 Minutes
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I received an email from (link contains her contact information) If you know of any teenagers willing to work for
---------------------------------------
The Inverness Forest Associaton's Message Board is a valuable way for residents to communicate with other residents. All you need to get started is to sign up. A registered user may post messages in the categories of "Home Repair and Improvement", "Inverness Parents", "Seven Locks Bike Path Project", "For Sale or For Free", and "General Discussion".
Right now few people know about the message board so there are very few postings. As residents begin to use the message board it will become more interesting and useful and that will, in turn, generate more messages and replies. So if you have anything to say to the community at large, or questions to ask, please use the message board. The more it is used, the more valuable it will become to all of us. You can even add pictures to your postings, as I did in posting Harvey
ifatreasurer@mac.com
Friday, October 17, 2008
Annual Meeting Notes (10/16/08)
Last night the Inverness Community held its Annual Meeting from 7:30 - 9:00 pm. About 30 Inverness residents attended. Thanks to Nicole Fleisher for a great job of organizing the meeting and taking care of all the behind the scenes details. Also a special thanks to Mary Ferguson for counting the votes, handling the check-in procedure, and validating the ballots and proxies. Here are a few of the highlights from the meeting (see the meeting minutes for complete details).
The Inverness community re-elected the three incumbents to a three-year term: Susan Little, Elliot Postow, and Harvey Levine with 69 votes each. No other resident decided to run for the board so there is still a vacant seat.
New streetlight designs were extensively discussed; Sharlene Shugarman showed pictures of two examples. The attendees commented on the pros and cons for each light. One sample light has been on display for several months at the corner of Inverness Ridge Road and Deborah Dr. Sharlene said that the board would consider erecting another sample with the second lighting style.
We were fortunate to have two realtors present -- Jayne Grant and Art Glazer -- both of whom are also residents of our community. They were asked how home prices have fared in our community compared to other similar communities given that housing prices have declined significantly nationally and locally. Both Jayne and Art said that, given the current housing environment, the Inverness Forest Community's housing prices have preformed in line with local trends.
After the election, the board members met to determine officers for the coming year. There was no change in the officers: Art Glazer will be president, Sharlene Shugarman will be vice-president, Harvey Levine will be treasurer, and Elliot Postow will be secretary.
Harvey
ifatreasurer@mac.com
The Inverness community re-elected the three incumbents to a three-year term: Susan Little, Elliot Postow, and Harvey Levine with 69 votes each. No other resident decided to run for the board so there is still a vacant seat.
New streetlight designs were extensively discussed; Sharlene Shugarman showed pictures of two examples. The attendees commented on the pros and cons for each light. One sample light has been on display for several months at the corner of Inverness Ridge Road and Deborah Dr. Sharlene said that the board would consider erecting another sample with the second lighting style.
We were fortunate to have two realtors present -- Jayne Grant and Art Glazer -- both of whom are also residents of our community. They were asked how home prices have fared in our community compared to other similar communities given that housing prices have declined significantly nationally and locally. Both Jayne and Art said that, given the current housing environment, the Inverness Forest Community's housing prices have preformed in line with local trends.
After the election, the board members met to determine officers for the coming year. There was no change in the officers: Art Glazer will be president, Sharlene Shugarman will be vice-president, Harvey Levine will be treasurer, and Elliot Postow will be secretary.
Harvey
ifatreasurer@mac.com
Saturday, August 2, 2008
July 2008 Minutes
The July 2008 board minutes have been completed and uploaded. Here is the link to the July 2008 minutes.
At the link above you can read the minutes online or download a PDF version to read or print on your computer
Harvey
ifatreasurer@mac.com
At the link above you can read the minutes online or download a PDF version to read or print on your computer
Harvey
ifatreasurer@mac.com
Thursday, July 10, 2008
June 2008 Board Minutes
The June 2008 board minutes have been completed and uploaded. Here is the link to the June 2008 minutes.
At the link above you can read the minutes online or download a PDF version to read or print on your computer
Harvey
ifatreasurer@mac.com
At the link above you can read the minutes online or download a PDF version to read or print on your computer
Harvey
ifatreasurer@mac.com
Monday, May 26, 2008
May 2008 Board Minutes
The May 2008 board minutes have been completed and uploaded. Here is the link to the May 2008 minutes.
At the link above you can read the minutes online or download a PDF version to read or print on your computer
Harvey
ifatreasurer@mac.com
At the link above you can read the minutes online or download a PDF version to read or print on your computer
Harvey
ifatreasurer@mac.com
Friday, May 2, 2008
April 2008 Minutes Uploaded
Well, this is fast! Thanks to Elliot Postow, Secretary of the Inverness Forest Association, for emailing me the April 2008 minutes as soon as they were in final form. This is the first time that the minutes are being distributed online before the paper copies even went to the printer.
Here is the link: April 2008 Inverness Forest Association Board Minutes
If you would like to attend the next board meeting, it will be held on May 8, 2008 at 7:30 PM on the third floor at Summerville.
If you would like to bring an issue before the board but can't attend the meeting, please add a comment to this post or send me an email.
As always, I'd like to hear your ideas about how to make Inverness Forest Today as useful as possible to the community. Provide your suggestions for a future column on IFT.
Harvey
ifatreasurer@mac.com
Here is the link: April 2008 Inverness Forest Association Board Minutes
If you would like to attend the next board meeting, it will be held on May 8, 2008 at 7:30 PM on the third floor at Summerville.
If you would like to bring an issue before the board but can't attend the meeting, please add a comment to this post or send me an email.
As always, I'd like to hear your ideas about how to make Inverness Forest Today as useful as possible to the community. Provide your suggestions for a future column on IFT.
Harvey
ifatreasurer@mac.com
Thursday, May 1, 2008
March 2008 Board Minutes
The March 2008 board meeting minutes are online. Below is a link to the PDF file. When you click on the link you'll have a choice of either previewing the file online or downloading the file to your computer where you can read or print the file with the free Adobe Acrobat Reader that is standard software on almost every computer in the world. Let me know if you have any trouble.
March 2008 Board Meeting Minutes
The April minutes should be online in the next few days. The next board meeting is on May 8, 2008 at Summerville (as usual) at 7:30 PM. We meet on the third floor and visitors are always welcome. I'll post a summary of the meeting on the following day.
Harvey
March 2008 Board Meeting Minutes
The April minutes should be online in the next few days. The next board meeting is on May 8, 2008 at Summerville (as usual) at 7:30 PM. We meet on the third floor and visitors are always welcome. I'll post a summary of the meeting on the following day.
Harvey
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