October 8th 2004 Board of Directors Meeting Open Session Cloud 9 Ranch Clubhouse Patio Room 9/Oct/2004 12:43:48 Lola J.J. Johnson, Jan Morgan, Ray and Connie Walker, Ed Cavin, Ann Baker, Bob Morgan, Charles Huey, Sharon Horton, Tom Erskine, Mary Bullard(Gamblingranny), Don Willis, Cindy Bloom, Don Valencia, Earl Ralfs, Don Skola, Roger and Linda Amburgy, John and Karen Stewart, Charles Vandre, 9/Oct/2004 12:45:18 Mel Hands, RM present. 9/Oct/2004 12:45:28 Ralph Cole, Head Ranger present. 9/Oct/2004 12:45:59 Grace Erskine present. 9/Oct/2004 12:48:02 Diana Melton enters. 9/Oct/2004 12:50:12 Howard Mohr, Ed Horton enter. 9/Oct/2004 12:50:20 ~70-80 members present. 9/Oct/2004 12:50:43 Charles Baker enters. 9/Oct/2004 12:53:55 Frank Shores enters. 9/Oct/2004 12:54:29 ~80-90 members present. 9/Oct/2004 12:59:57 Well over 100 members present. 9/Oct/2004 13:01:27 Mr. Hughes would like to make an announcement. Adult Bingo tonight starting at 6:30 More the merrier. 9/Oct/2004 13:02:22 Grace calls to order. regular board meeting, we will have questions and floor comments about the budget later Sue is in Kentucky, she had a scheduled event before the date of the BOD meeting was set/changed. 9/Oct/2004 13:02:39 Approval of the minutes. asks to table until time to address. 9/Oct/2004 13:02:53 motion to table passes 9/Oct/2004 13:03:06 Financial report Frank reports. Apologizes for last month's absence Money Market and CDs $325,936.06 total Money Market accounts $34,837.16 General Checking and Payroll $383,467.22 4 CDs coming due this month, October. Looking at them to roll over as much as possible into additional CDs. Still need to look at how much money we will need between now and January. current CDs rate from 1-2.25% Look at getting better rates. Most people have paid their annual fees, so we do not have the money coming in now like it was at the beginning of the year. We are still better off now than we were last year. Karen Stewart asks if we will be getting monthly financial statements. Grace says this will be addressed by Mel. The BOD does plan to keep the members informed. 9/Oct/2004 13:07:31 Committee reports Activities, Don Valencia reports thank craft house for furniture donation. also had some dominoes donated to the clubhouse. Coffee Club, Mabel reports nothing new School house, same Fire Department, Don Valencia Poker run Sunday Kid's activities, no report Conservation, Don Skola reports Cook out tomorrow 10AM hot dogs, sausages, soft drinks, in conjunction with poker run. thank everybody for contributions they have a "new" tractor 1959 Case tractor Craft House, closed Wilderness way, no report Welcoming committee, Bob Morgan, extinct. 9/Oct/2004 13:10:07 Old Business, Diane addresses the minutes situation. apologizes for the lateness. Before she leaves the Ranch from now on, the BOD will have the minutes. 9/Oct/2004 13:10:55 Grace wants to set the tone for the rest of the meeting. Grace states that Mel will be in charge of hiring and firing, he will have the ability to suspend a member up to 3 weeks. will still take BOD to suspend beyond 30 days. 9/Oct/2004 13:11:45 RM Report - Mel Hands Several Items Lost and found, rental trailers, a procedure has been established through housekeeping for marking and dating items so they can be returned to rightful owners. Have recently completed an inventory of compounds 1-4 and open. Many unreadable numbers, some owners deceased, items with unlisted numbers, or with previous members. going through all the records to resolve as much of this as possible. attempting to find rightful owners. Ranger uniforms, will have standard shirt with names on them, appropriate hats, etc. Ordering some items to be on track there. We want a good looking ranger staff. Report on swimming pool. many things on the pool that need to be repaired. Metal grating is very hot, something needs to be done with that. Some of the concrete wall has been damaged. Normal repair and maintenance need to be done. Sand filter and system needs to be replaced. Large list, and it will be prioritized appropriately. Security, training, adult and child CPR training an elective for ranger staff. Ralph and Mel are CPR certified. Looking for others to get the training. Daily security report lacks some information, attempting to reconstruct things. Daily security items, receipts, and maintenance items, etc. Mel wants to see this improved too. all will be included on reports. also add a section for daily incident report. Items will be maintained in the files in Sec office for 4 months. ATV stickers. No way to reconstruct the records other than to go through old stacks of papers. Will not be an easy process if it's possible at all. In January Member's name, member's number, guest name, etc. section added for violations, will all be on record. will make a presentation to the BOD of recomendations. Stickers will be paid more attention to, clearing up issue with forgeries and reusing stickers, multiple numbers, etc. Few things to get done before Winter. Stage stop roof repairs before the Winter sets in. We still need to use the facilities and need to keep them in good condition. $5000 of materials to get this done, looking for some volunteers to get this done. Would like to get this started next Tuesday, to start on this soon. Vehicles, BOD have statement of vehicles, excepting tractor types. commend maintenance for keeping them in some state of repair. Security vehicles 4wd, need some sort of program to emphasize care of the vehicles. They are not typically driven with care. need to make sure this is considered. Some of these vehicles are used for marketing and the vehicle used for this is not in the best shape. it does not make a good impression. Some potential buyers have sat on thumbtacks in marketing vehicles. MUST Look at some mechanism to get this situation fixed. Pump truck with gas engine, but it does not work. Gas pump is made for pool water, not sewage. it is unsuitable as a honey wagon backup, which we still need. Overall our vehicles are in poor shape, we need to look at a schedule of repair and replacement. BOD has a recap sheet. Several vehicles on surplus sheet. Need to move ahead with a tour vehicle in order to appropriately market the Ranch for membership sales. Mel asks for questions. Frank Shores comments that many members have vehicles, asks that they consider donating those to Ranch, instead of selling or using for a trade-in. Frank suggests we authorize up to $.30 a mile for this use. Roger and Linda offer their Pontiac Transport, with some use left in it, only need a receipt for tax purposes. Question from the floor about the store and restaurant roofs. Mel says they do need some work and will get it done. Question about type of roofing, shakes or shingles. Mel says we probably don't want too many varieties out there. Bob Morgan asks about cracked blacktop. Mel says we have a lot of priorities, not sure we will be able to get to all of them this year. Ray Walker asks about some of the walls on other facilities. Mel mentions that there is a general survey ongoing to find these problems. There was an authorization for a climbing wall over labor day, we received a check for $90. It was shut down before the poker-run so it would not interfere with the Ranch money making attempt. Purchasing concerns. Lightbulbs, $14 per 6' tube! these are $1-2 at Wal-mart. Need to get these sorts of things addressed. Contracts that need to be looked at. Vendors in the store and such. Excessively priced items do NOT help the Ranch. Many things need to be looked at in this area. Planning to do centralized purchasing from the accounting office, as opposed to departmental purchases. This should help the situation. Liquid chlorinator for the big top pool has been located. it was either purchased or donated. saves money as opposed to throwing it in by hand. Hay situation. fields are not limed and fertilized on a regular basis. Not a quality hay. it's a grass hay, not a heavy hay. Large number of bales. some bales will be sold for $12 some sold for $5. Our equipment for this business is very poor. In order to stay in this business we will need some major capital outlay in equipment to do this properly. alternatively there is a local farmer who would do a share-cropping arrangement. we may allow this in order to get our fields improved. exchange for the hay that we use. save us money in labor and capital outlay. Report of raw sewage flowing out on the ground last Thursday. Lower pumphouse by Powder Mill. cesspool is leaking. Upper pumphouse has an overflow drain, and it was overflowing. "Has been going on for many many weeks prior to the holiday. It was known, and covered-up purposefully." Switch to the pump was turned off inorder to try to hide the fact that there was an overflow. Contacted the pump company, got the pump operational the next day, and it was pumped out. This is a violation. Got a visit from MoDNR and we have been cited. We have to upgrade to be in compliance. At least a couple pumps, and an alarm system. Will cost at least a couple thousand dollars. They are working with us to address a number of issues, and we will require a registered professional engineer, Frank has offered his services. Mel recommends a motion. 9/Oct/2004 13:37:59 Forwarded and seconded. Motion to go ahead and buy 2 pumps for the sewage station. and Frank wants to include the warning system and professional contract. 9/Oct/2004 13:39:07 Motion passes. Connie Walker has a question about water in powder mill. it was very bad. Mel says we are in the process of fixing the water quality. Question about why there is not hot water in the laundrymat. Mel will return to that. Mel comments that some employees knew about the pump situation and were afraid for their jobs, and afraid to report. Many want to see things corrected. and there are other problems that have come out since. Water lines have been leaking. Many employees are coming forward with these sorts of things and it is truly appreciated. Their jobs will not be in danger. Employer advantage, ends november 23. Renewable on a 30 day basis after that. they provide worker's compensation insurance for a $500 deductible. they pay payroll taxes. Recommend that we do not continue with them for the following reasons: we pay $5/100 hours for workman's comp. through EA. can get it for $4.92(?)/100 hours on our own. with a total of $456,000 in payroll, we can save the $25 fee per each employee. can save approx. overall $15,000 by not continuing. Another issue is the volunteer situation. EA wants a chart for every volunteer hour contributed. The paperwork and logging situation may be excessive. It will take us an hour extra every two weeks in the winter to run our own payroll. Occasionally we have an error, EA helps double-check the errors. But in balance this may not be worth it. With the volunteer situation, and workman's comp situation, we can save and benefit by not renewing. We have to stay until November 23. We will need time to reinstate our control of the records. We should keep them through the end of December to avoid the W2 situation. Ed Horton asks how this will affect our situation with having loggers coming in or other situations with the EA liability structure put on us. Mel states that if they were volunteers, sure. otherwise they would be on the payroll. 9/Oct/2004 13:46:56 Grace asks if there is a motion 9/Oct/2004 13:47:07 Charlie moves to accept Mel's recommendations, Frank seconds 9/Oct/2004 13:47:13 all approved. Mel responds to the hot water in the laundry. It is not a priority at this point. We will get it done as quickly as possible. Sewage situation is more important at this point. Logging will be commencing. Trees are being marked. We can get some good hardwoods or lumber out of some of these. Frank Shores will be taking care of much of this situation. Frank has a map of certain stands and trees that need to be marked on the map to have these trees salvaged. We need to get these things taken care of. If we can get them down and try to sell them. Either we need to sell these or get them ready for our own use on picnic tables or elsewhere. Conservation Comm has a flagpole memorial proposal to get a brick sale ($35 per). must be sold in lots of 50. Will be placed around the flagpole. Requests BOD approval on this. 9/Oct/2004 13:50:45 Grace asks for a motion 9/Oct/2004 13:50:50 Howard moves, Ed H seconds 9/Oct/2004 13:50:57 motion passes. Stable operation--initial assessment has been done, not comprehensive. But we have a 3 part mission there now. Stable operation, Hay farming, and horse breeding. Need to develop the trail riding, develop a petting zoo, and explore the horseback experience for the younger children. Hay farming has been corrected with above motion. Our workman's comp. situation will not allow us to continue to breed and break horses. It is quite expensive to raise a horse and break it for trail riding. We can buy trail broken horses and it will be much cheaper. Mel recommends that we not continue with the horse-raising operation. There are some horses that should be sold, they do not fit our needs. We have some that we should keep. Look at having the training done off-site, because it is not cost effective for us. We were not vaccinating for west nile or respiratory illnesses. Have a form filled out on all horses, so if we should desire to sell them, we will have the paperwork. Question whether we want to continue with this. Recommend going through the horse list to see what should and should not be kept. Possibly offer these for sale, to members first. Grace explains it is cheaper to sell the colts and buy trail broken horses. 9/Oct/2004 13:57:16 Grace asks for a motion to have Mel go through the list of horses to determine suitability to sell and keep as appropriate. Frank moves to accept, but comments that this is first time in all his years at the Ranch that he's ever seen an inventory list of the horses. 9/Oct/2004 13:57:59 Charlie seconds. Ed Horton comments that it costs around $3-4000 to raise a colt to riding age, while it may cost the same to buy a trail horse. Mel comments that the difference is the labor and worker's comp premium that we save by farming this work out. 9/Oct/2004 13:59:21 motion passes. Frank states that this should be emphasized to have member's buying these horse, we need to have a policy on this. Also there is the issue of members keeping their own horses in the Ranch stables. Frank wants to leave this administration issue up to Mel. Mel states that "we intend to keep the burro" 9/Oct/2004 14:00:18 Grace asks if there are any questions for Mel. *editorial* THIS WAS A VERY GOOD RM REPORT. I have been expecting this sort of thing since the last budget meeting in October of 2003. What Mel provided was exemplary. This should serve as a model for the future. We have been fools for accepting anything less than this. *end of editorial* Grace runs through list of what Mel has done. mentions that he is getting new software for the office. "he's already saved us his salary. so as good as he is, we're getting him for free." Grace asks for a motion to get the RM a corporate credit card, and office manager a card. Limit is $5000. Mel has been using his personal credit card for items. 9/Oct/2004 14:02:32 Howard makes a motion to obtain credit card for RM for $5000, and one with a limit of $2000 for Office manager. Seconded. Grace comments that Mel has been reimbursed for the use of his card. Everything he purchases is reported on the monthly report. 9/Oct/2004 14:03:34 motion passes. 9/Oct/2004 14:03:45 Charles Baker has an announcement. Sad duty to report that Bev Cooley passed away last week sometime during the night. Trying to find the arrangments. 9/Oct/2004 14:04:26 Don Skola would like to remind people to put membership number on your envelope. Question about sealed ballots and sealed envelopes. 9/Oct/2004 14:05:21 Money making projects. Ed Horton and Ed Cavin report. suggestions for different ways to raise money. Ed Horton says we need a structure for evaluating suggestions that come up. Resources, financially, personnel etc. Some ideas are worth being looked at, but we need a group to evaluate these projects, BOD and some members to look and make recommendations as to what might be done. Ed Cavin mentions the recommendation to have a financial committee. This group that looks at projects would look at these issues as well. Ed Horton lists some of the projects. They have been covered before. Golf cart lease/dealership, and other projects. Ed Horton says we need some method for looking at these proposals and making a conclusion or recommendations on this. No apparent motion or resolution on this piece of business. Pete Lindler(?) would like to speak to us about cabins and storage. Comments about our reciprocity programs with RPI and C2C. There is another park in Branson called Treasure Lakes. Asks if people are members. Question about possibility of direct reciprocity with Treasure Lakes, no C2C or RPI membership necessary. The payment would be a matter of guest fees. Asks if we're interested in following up on this as a member. Howard wants to see a show of hands in support. Frank wants to see oppositions. Problem with associtate members would need to be negotiated. Roger Amburgy comments on the trailer pad situation, it presents a maintenance issue for broken pads and water lines. Question about holiday exclusions. Connie Walker mentions that there will be some exceptions regardless. Question about rental units and old C2C requirement. Regarding reservation of trailers and C2C being given preference to Ranch members. Charlie states that this problem has been fixed. 9/Oct/2004 14:19:10 motion made to allow Mel to negotiate this reciprocity agreement with Treasure Lake. 9/Oct/2004 14:19:24 motion passed. Grace asks Peter to comment on Treasure Lakes' attempt to build rental cabins. Cabins can be built for less than $28,000 which is what it would cost to buy certain models. Peter asks about the potential for a special assessment around $5 from each membership for such a project. Mel comments on the situation with rental trailers. 35 have been gone through and there is a list of repairs for each of them. Addressing questions about pricing for longer trailers that sleep fewer people. Question about permanence of the trailers being built at Treasure Lake. Question about possibility of stripping some trailers down to the frame and rebuilding our own portable cabins. No apparent resolution or motion to buy or fix rental trailers/cabins. 9/Oct/2004 14:26:28 Question and answers regarding the Budget. Frank Shores will be answering questions. Question about operating expenses. Why were last year's expenses not included with the mail out? Questioning why the format is the way it is. Linda Amburgy comments that in the Sept. 10 St. Louis Post-Dispatch the Fair Pay law did not pass in congress. This should affect the Budget in a major way. Karen Stewart mentions that the budget mentions unemployment and how it is inaccurate. Karen points out that many of the statements that accompanied the budget ballot were not answered for the committee that prepared the budget. Question about number of members who are billed and how the billed accounts get on that list. There are paying members who did not receive a bill. Frank states that there are 3200 members that we can anticipate paying their membership fees. Question about not having received a bill at all. Question about status card and monthly versus yearly payment memberships. Question about responsibility to send bills out to members. What is done when the computers are down? What backup plan is in effect? Frank responds that the computer system has been giving us fits. Question about taxes on Ozark County property. Issue of personal property being paid in home county or Ozark. Frank asks for any other questions relevant to the Budget. "We're trying to get input from the membership" Comment on how the budget is run. His wife will not come to the ranch because it costs $290 a year and the Ranch looks like it does. Sue Valencia comments on from what we've seen our money looks like it is being better utilized. Mel may be putting us in far better shape that we ever hoped. Grace says that last year was the first time since she was a member that the Ranch has ever come in "in the black" Grace comments on the conservative nature of the budget, Mel and Frank have both said that with all the problems in the budget, they can work with it. Grace asks if there are any more questions. Donna Walker asks about the $4000 for the annual meeting. the money went for printing and postage. 9/Oct/2004 14:47:38 Grace says the BOD wants to cancel the December meeting. Howard moves to cancel the Dec. meeting. Ed Horton asks to schedule the next meeting after that on January 15th, 2005. Still scheduled for meeting Nov. 20 Hope to go to quarterly meetings after the new year. 9/Oct/2004 14:49:59 Charlie seconds the motion. 9/Oct/2004 14:50:12 motion passes. Frank comments on the By-laws. none of the discussion that commenced after the June passage of the By-laws continued. Request that anyone involved with the by-laws meet after the meeting to see about getting that back on track. Comment about BOD authority to make buildings smoking or non-smoking. Comment that the most ridiculous ruling on the Ranch is that smoking is allowed only in the clubhouse AND in the restaurant. "it smells like an ashtray in there". as a comparative example, the south end of the pool should be made for peeing only. it's the same situation with the smoke. Asks that the BOD do something to guarantee that kids in the restaurant do not have to have smoke blown in their faces. 9/Oct/2004 14:53:40 Ballot counting committee is returning. 9/Oct/2004 14:54:25 Grace asks to recess for 15 minutes to tally the final results of the vote. 9/Oct/2004 15:13:01 Grace attempting to call the meeting back to order. Earl Ralfs with the voting results. Earl says we received numerous ballots with no identification or member number so they could not be counted. The instructions stated that ballot should be unmarked and returned in the voting materials envelope with name and number Results of vote: 367 yes to accept budget 83 no Budget did pass. over 100 invalidated ballots due to failure to identify. 9/Oct/2004 15:15:20 Diana has additional issues to address. We have a proposal from the conservation committee. 5 items 1. bi-monthly stocking of 1000 pounds of fish, 500 pounds weekly. conversations with fishermen say they prefer bi=-monthlystocking. it would also be cheaper. 9/Oct/2004 15:16:28 Diana moves that this be accepted. go back to bi-monthly stocking. Frank asks to ammend the motion to allow Mel to address the stocking issue as the money comes in. Grace asks if Mel would like to discuss it with Conservation committee before this is put to a vote. Mel understands comment on budget situation with relation to dollars in, dollars out. Grace asks if they should settle it today. Mel says yes, with the understanding that the budget concerns will be used to determine future stocking. 9/Oct/2004 15:20:00 motion passes 2. 1 day fishing permit for guests, $5 per permit. 9/Oct/2004 15:20:54 Diana moves to accept this. many people say their guests would prefer to take advantage of this rather than the weekly pass. could be more beneficial to have a daily pass option. Frank comments on game wardens keeping track of their own possession limit which is 20 per family. Howard would like to review this also at a later date, to see if it is beneficial. 9/Oct/2004 15:24:04 motion passes 3. Offer a 3-day guest fishing permit for $10 per permit. 9/Oct/2004 15:24:39 Diana makes motion to accept this. Seconded by Charlie. Howard would like the same qualification to test benefit in the future. 9/Oct/2004 15:25:23 motion passes. both these are effective January 1, 2005 4. Any permit purchased after 6P.M. will be effective on the next day. 9/Oct/2004 15:25:56 Diana moves to accept this proposal. Question for the reason for this. Mel comments on the 1-day or 3-day specify the day. some discussion at the table. 9/Oct/2004 15:29:07 motion fails. Don Skola asks if the fishing licenses are not being bought for specific dates? Mel clarifies that when a permit is bought, it will have a specific date(s) that it is good for. Frank comments that this allows people to come in late in the day and buy a permit to fish that day. Don Willis asks about coming up with a color code on the permit to make this enforceable. Frank Shores says the permits are already color coded in certain ways. Pete Lindler says to make the dates valid visible across the license. 5. increase the cost of hunting permits. Member would be $20, guest would be $50. Frank comments that this was supposed to be changed in June, and has yet to be enforced. The understanding is the $20/$50 change is for 2005. Discussion at the table. Diana comments that since there is already an increase in June, That one should be enforced before we increase the rate again. Mel comments that there should be an established effective date, so that we are not charging two different rates in a single year. Question about paying twice on the same hunting fee for a guest. What happened to the money for the ATV trails. Many things are not being addressed that should be. His camper was moved 7' into the road. "I want everyone to hear this. I want them to know what went on yesterday" Don Skola says that the proposal was for the 2005 hunting season. Grace says the issue is tabled for discussion at the November meeting. 9/Oct/2004 15:40:09 Mel has some comments. Diana comments first. Why are we tabling this until November. If it can be taken care of now, it can be placed in the newsletter and have the issue circulated. 9/Oct/2004 15:41:00 Frank moves to increase to $10 for members and $30 for guests, effective January 1, 2005. Diana seconded. this was passed in June, without the start date as part of the motion. 9/Oct/2004 15:43:04 motion passes. J.J. Johnson asks for some way to keep the members involved and updated on these issues.. 9 Lines will be updated with RM's notes. 9/Oct/2004 15:44:11 Diana has another issue. Previous board vote. Laurie Collins and Mel Hands were added to check-signing cards and accounts, and Devonna Moss was removed from these accounts by board motion. 9/Oct/2004 15:44:57 Motion to adjourn. seconded. Marie Hands, Mel's wife speaks. Thanks everyone for welcoming them and making them feel at home. She really likes the new speaker system. Grace says that since Mel has promised to stay we can let him go out the gate now. 9/Oct/2004 15:45:44 Motion to adjourn passes. life is too short.