Fairlington Glen Board Meeting

January 11, 2007

Attendees: Bob Patrician (President), John Fuller (Vice President), Alison Burns Trimble (Secretary), Margaret Windus (Treasurer), and Jasper Thomson (At Large)

President Bob Patrician convened a strategic planning meeting at 7:30 pm.

President Patrician led a discussion of strategic planning in areas the Board had identified in 2006 for focus, including Records/Contracts, Governance Structures, Volunteers, Facilities, Rules, Operations/Management and Staff, and Finances. The combined May 10 and June 7, 2006, minutes report on those discussions.

Records/Contracts. A record retention policy was approved in 2006, and we began screening old records under its guidance. This task will be completed in 2007. The 2007 budget provides money to archive important documents to disk for retention and reference in the future. A file of standard contracts and standard letters will be helpful.

Governance Structures. With assistance from the Buildings and Grounds Committee, the Board in 2006 revised its structure to strengthen dual communication between the Board and court representatives and focus some of its former activities in smaller groups. A Court Representatives Group was created and separate committees were established for Landscaping and Maintenance, as well as Security and Variance coordinators.

In 2007 the Board will work with these groups to move ahead on revising and/or creating procedures and communication channels in their respective areas. In addition, the Board will focus on community-building activities such as emergency preparedness, community gardens, Glen house tours, pot luck suppers, and other activities that would enhance our sense of community.

Volunteers. Volunteers were incorporated into the work of the Glen more strongly in 2006, and we want to maintain that focus in 2007. We continue to believe that to engage such individuals successfully requires that we given them important, well-defined work to do, support them in performing that work, and take their output seriously by acting on it.

Facilities. We worked during 2006 to assure that all aspects of our facilities were included both in the reserve tables and in the maintenance schedule under design by the Maintenance Committee. In addition, we established a Pool/Office/Workshop Building Task Group to consider upgrading and expansion needs at the pool area and provide improved facilities for on-site work efforts. This committee will begin work in 2007.

Rules. Having established a Variance Coordinator in 2006 and turned revision of our By-Laws over to our lawyers, we plan in 2007 to review existing rules to see where they might be revised, with an eye to areas that may be appropriate for greater flexibility, stronger enforcement, or blanket variances (such as French doors, lever handles, and empowering residents to plant in their front beds under Board-approved guidelines). Major efforts will also be given to considering recommendations from our lawyers on By-Law changes and discussing these with the community. The Handbook will be updated in sections as changes are made and posted to the Glen web site.

Operations/Management and Staff. A number of improvements were made in communications in 2006, including an improved GLEN ECHO, on-line distribution of agendas and other material, an enhanced Web site, and a Residents’ Forum at the start of each Board meeting. In 2007 we will use the Court Representatives Group to reach out to court residents and will consider creating a welcome letter for new residents, an on-line group to which all might post, and a community survey.

The Maintenance Committee is working with our Facilities Manager to design a maintenance schedule and reporting mechanism to provide greater oversight and better data for our maintenance work. Staff training will be a significant effort in 2007 as we more toward greater computerization of these efforts. In addition to focusing on the present arrangement of work effort and personnel, we need to plan for the future.

We will also work in 2007 with our new management firm, Cardinal Management Group, Inc., to optimize the interaction of a number of groups, including the Board, the management company/agent, on-site staff (as well as contractors), committees and task groups, and the condominium community at large. Our goal is to maximize the interactive functioning of all these groups while minimizing miscommunication.

Finances. As an aging community, we have a growing list of capital needs, with upward pressures on our budgets. We need to plan for budgets that we can live within, that we can explain well, and that are acceptable to the community. In the longer term, we need to provide a strengthened reserve position for the Glen. A significant budget increase was supported by the community for 2007. During 2007, we may conduct additional studies of our capital needs in the areas of sanitary sewers, storm sewers, and other drainage issues in order to assess the structural integrity of our lines and plan for future maintenance, relining, and/or replacement as well as other approaches to drainage problem areas.

The meeting was adjourned at 9:45 pm.