Directors Report, June 2015

Directors Report to the Tropical Properties HOA

June 2015

AGM:

As we have discussed several times in the past we have now moved the AGM to June rather than October or November.  We are having the first of many AGM and BBQs in June.  We hope that you will all be able to attend, not only to discuss the business of the HOA but also to enjoy some time together as a community.  Our year end is now April 30, but we will not be invoicing for the annual dues at this time.  That will continue to be done in November as in the past.

The money for the BBQ is coming from our AGM room rental cost that we would normally incur at the Renfrew Sports Complex.  We are going to make home-made burgers with all the trimmings, baked beans and salads and dessert.  If you are allergic to beef, please let us know so we can make something else for you.  If everyone could bring a salad or dessert to share that would be great. Please arrive by 1:00 to get settled before the meeting starts.  If you are able to bring a lawn chair that would help.  Hopefully the meeting part will be short this year.

Please remember to send those proxies if you will not be able to attend so that we can have quorum.

The address is:
Linda Miller
172 Hidden Valley Manor NW, Calgary
Phone 403- 275-0223
Parking is available on the street.

Our finances are in very good shape.  As has been discussed in the past we have been able to move some contingency money from our chequing account into our savings account to earn some interest for the association. 

As our year end is April 30th we are able to present the HOA membership with a complete set of financials and a future budget to review and consider at this meeting.  We anticipate that this year we won't spend as much time on the financials as we have in the past, so please see the financials that were sent to you .  If  you require a set at the meeting please print them off and bring then with you as we will not be providing copies at the meeting.  We would like to approve them and proceed with other business as quickly as possible.

As well we have calculated a budget for next year which is being sent ahead of time for your consideration.

We would like to discuss a small increase in the HOA fee this year.  The cost of our gardener has been steadily climbing over the years, and of course with the cost of living increasing, the cost of everything keeps going up.  A small increase of  5% or $15.00 per lot would help to offset the increasing costs due to inflation. We would like to put this on the table for discussion at the AGM and will be asking for your input on this idea.

Elections

2015/2016 is an election year for the Board.  We require a total of 5 directors.  Rosalie Lillo is stepping down as President.  Susan Ross has agreed to let her name stand for the position of President for the next term.  Linda Miller is willing to let her name stand as Treasurer for another term as well.  
We would like to propose a new position on the Board of Directors for the 5th director.  It will be called: Director of Operations.  The reason we need this position is that we require someone in Panama that can over-see the day to day operations of the property, as well as oversee any construction, purchasing of equipment, paying our gardener and paying the bills.  Additionally someone has to have access to the Panama bank accounts.  Rosalie has her name on the accounts at present and John Gilmour has also been added in case of emergency

Rosalie currently maintains an Excel spreadsheet of cheques written and Petty Cash used.  These records are sent to the Treasurer to enter into Quickbooks and produce financial statements.  Our treasurer reconciles the bank accounts on an ongoing basis and reports to you each year.  Rosalie has agreed to let her name stand for the position of Director of Operations.  

Additional positions open for nominations are:
Vice President
Secretary

There is very little required to be done in these positions. If you can spare a small amount of time for one or two meetings a year your help would be greatly appreciated.

Although some of the positions on the board can be acclaimed by the individuals willing to serve, all positions are open to nominations either by email or from the floor during the meeting. We will be asking for nominations from the floor for all positions during the meeting.  If you wish to run for a position and will not be able to attend the meeting please notify one of the directors of your intent to run either by phone or by email.

House Construction Update
Ron and Donna James have worked tirelessly on finishing up their house.  They even got most of the landscaping laid out and will have grass growing by the time they get back. Note the retaining walls and the soil back filled and leveled.

John Gilmour's house is progressing and as of the end of April looked like this....

Owner Visitors:

This year, to my knowledge, we had a couple of lot owners pay a visit to check out their investment.  

Linda Miller and one of her pet horses

Ronel and Magnus Murphy with Ron James

Improvements and Upgrades

This was a great year for improvements.  We are pleased to inform you that our north perimeter fence is now complete.

Although it's chain link, the contractor did an amazing job and it looks fantastic.  It is sturdy and they did an exceptional job of building it.  Once the trees are planted along the fence, it will become almost invisible to us.

It did cost the Association more than originally planned.  As you can see from the pictures, the level of detail and concrete work is extensive.  Due to the slope of the land it was necessary to tier it for the length of the property from top to bottom.  As such there was a lot more concrete that went into building this fence than originally estimated and so more costs were incurred.

View from inside the development, right side of roadway.

View from inside left (note the foundation height)

View from outside the development.

Entire length of new fence looking from outside of the development

Another thing that we were able to accomplish this year is the painting of the rancho.  It turned out to be very cute.  Now all we need to to is to plant some colorful bushes in front of the wall to add some interest.

In addition to that we painted the sign out front. We changed the color from brown to dark green and it looks great.  All of this work has added value to the property and keeps it looking maintained.

At last years meeting we discussed a new gate.  We did not pursue that this year for several reasons, the first being that Judith Carpentier had kindly offered to help us do up a design and Rosalie has not had time to meet with her regarding that. Secondly our builder has been very busy with construction on the James's house and now John Gilmour's house so we were just lucky that he found time to build the fence for us.  We will work on a plan hopefully this year and will start to get some quotes for next year.

HOA Fees

We are pleased to report that most HOA members have paid their fees in full and on time.  Thank you, due to your continued support we are able to maintain the property in beautiful condition and make it a place for everyone to be proud to own.

Unfortunately we have a few people who are delinquent over many years.  They are as follows:

• Lot 8    Kim Twohey and Jason Chambers
• Lot 24  Dave and Dianna Lyle
• Lot 38 Chris Blake

If you can think of a way to involve these three people in the Association and get their fees paid up we would appreciate hearing your thoughts on this.

We are collecting shortly from John Gilmour on Lots 9 and 10, for 2015 dues that are currently still outstanding.


Lot Maintenance
We are happy to report that all but 4 of the lots are being maintained on a regular basis.  Rosalie will continue to offer that service and a big thanks to all of you who regularly contribute.  The overall look of the development has improved dramatically as this is the 2nd year for many of them and they are now looking ever so much better.  Again, those fees are not due at this time.

Foundation Formation
The Homeowners Association, unfortunately, is still not ready.  The lawyer had the documents returned for some clarification, and rather than emailing Rosalie, waited until her return.  As a result she has resubmitted the documents to Panama City and they have yet to receive final approval, the process is frustrating.

Rooster Fight
Just for fun, incase you didn't see it on her blog we have attached a fun little video that has a real Panamanian flavor.  Rosalie took this video of a couple of roosters fighting and the music is not dubbed, it was playing in the back ground as she videoed.  It couldn't have been more appropriate...enjoy

That about sums up the changes since last report.  Happily most of them are positive.  We look forward to seeing you all at the meeting.

Respectfully submitted:

Rosalie Lillo - President
Susan Ross - Vice President
Donna James - Secretary
Linda Miller - Treasurer
John Gilmour - Director at large

Directors Report, February 2015

There is so much to report here that I have decided to do it with a blog.  It is so much easier to add pictures and text in a blog than in a word document that I have decided this is the route I am going to take to make my life much easier and to facilitate communication with all of you. If you click on any picture they will all come up large in a row at the bottom of the screen so that you can get a better look at things.

Tropical Properties Residences

As of to date we now have 3 families living in Tropical Place.  Two are seasonal and one is permanent.  From left to right we have: Harry and Rosalie Lillo, Ron and Donna James, John and Mara Gilmour with son Matteo.

The Houses

Ron and Donna Jame's House
The first thing I would like to show you is Donna and Ron James house.  I am happy to report that they moved into the house Dec 20th and have slowly been finishing it off with cabinets, doors, landscaping etc.  It is truly a lovely home and it a showpiece for people driving in.

Harry and Rosalie Lillo's House

 The famous bird bath in the back yard.

Carmelo Daprocida's House

John Gilmour's House
Next on the agenda is John Gilmour's house.  John is now married to Mara and his their son Matteo is 2 and a half years old and just as cute as can be.  John started the construction of his house about a month ago and is making incredible progress.

I am adding a video because video's give you a much better idea of what is actually going on.  This is what it is like on a construction site here.

What is Happening with the Realtor
Although I haven't heard from the realtor since I got here, she did come out and post new signs which have made an incredible difference.  Now the signs are very visible and we have been getting a lot of people driving through and taking a look. Plus Mara is now working for a realtor in David and he has been out to see the property as well so is familiar with what is here.

Notice how much more professional the entrance looks with the big new fence that Donna and Ron built.  Donna has worked very hard to get that front entrance cleaned up and maintained...a big thank you to Donna and Ron for that.

In this last picture you can see that she put 2 signs one on either side of the entrance and with Donna and Ron's new fence in the background it is much easier to see the signs.  There are also 2 signs just off of the main road up to Volcan.

Now the good news about the realtor is that the signs drew in one looker who is now seriously considering buying John's house in the pre-construction phase.  They are a professional Panamanian family  both English speakers who are looking to relocate to the area.  We are very excited about this.  Also I have another man who came to do the survey that knows an American looking to buy a large piece of land to build a large house on.  I am hoping to sell him 2 lots that are together as he is wanting 2000 meters and our lots are 1000 meters.  He is supposed to arrive here in a couple of weeks and my fingers are crossed that he will contact me.

The New Section of Fence at the Far End of the Development
Last year we had several lot owners who were several years in arrears on their dues finally catch up. That added a significant amount of money to the coffers and the executive decided to put the money to good use building a fence to block off the open area at the far end of the development. We are very excited about the fence as the neighbors on that end of the development have long been a problem taking liberties with our lands. It has been slow to start as Abigail has been very busy with Donna and John's houses but finally this week the construction is underway on the fence.

It turns out that the fence line is much further in from the roadway than it originally appeared to be which is actually good as it puts a bit more distance between us and our neighbors and will make the very narrow road at that end be as wide as it should be for a road allowance.  When they build fences here they tend to put them where ever it is convenient. There was a 'living' fence there before meaning that someone stuck some tree branches in the ground and they grew to be trees.  They then tack a wire to the trees and a fence is born.

After the fence is built the lot owners have agreed to pay to have us plant some trees that are designed to block a view.  This is the view we are attempting to block.  .

 Along this fence line elsewhere in the development you can see the little row of trees that have been planted.
Give it 3 years and the trees will look like....these..

I can tell you that slowly, but slowly the development is maturing and as it does our lots become more desirable.  That leads me to another point.

Delinquent Accounts
I am pleased to report that 80% of the lot owners have been very responsible in ensuring that their maintenance fees are paid up and paid up in time.  To those people I give a big THANKS.  If you have never been here you can't appreciate how hard we work here to try to maintain and improve the property.

 Unfortunately, as is always the case, there are a few (and you know who you are) who steadfastly remain in arrears which grows year after year and becomes increasingly difficult to make up.  It is much better to pay the fees on time than to have to come up with a good chunk of change in the future.  There are still several landowners who have been delinquent in this regard and I urge you to catch up on your dues as it benefits us all if we have a bit of money to make some capital improvements.

Linda has been contacting you to set up a payment plan if you are unable to pay all of the arrears up front.  We are willing to work with you but understand that it takes participation from everyone to make it work well, otherwise we just limp along, trying to maintain what is here.  It is only because 3 landowners paid their delinquent accounts last year (and a big THANKS to all of you) that we are able to build the fence that we so badly need.  If the others pay up their accounts we can make more capital improvements which benefit us all, like a new electric gate.

This is a serious matter so please make sure that you do your part and that you don't make all of the others responsible for your share of the burden.  Remember that land ownership always comes at a cost and we are fortunate enough not to have to pay taxes here so consider the HOA fee to be your annual 'taxes'

Meet the Gardener

The first thing I would like to do is to introduce you to our gardener, Hormelis.  Here he is with his family.  Wife Roselia, daughters Sol and Jasleen, sons Cholo and Porfirio and in the grey shirt cousin Jeffrey.  When the development was first started he was an unemployed alcoholic who had only sporadic work.  Now he has been sober for 5 years, has a car (of sorts), can put food on the table and clothe his family, Plus with his social security benefits that we provide he has medical coverage for himself and his family.

Hormelis has been the gardener for this development since I first arrived here.  At first he was on an 'as needed' basis, later he became full time as it became clear there was a lot of work to do here to maintain the place.  I photographed him at work so you can see why it is so essential to have a person like Hormelis to look after things for us.

Cleaning Ditches

Controlling Vegetation

Planting Plants in the Common Areas

Pulling Weeds

Cutting Grass

Macheting Overgrowth

BEFORE and AFTER

Just so you can appreciate what has happened in the last 6 years here are some comparison photos.

2008 - Vegetation has taken over the road, power pole laying on side of road

2011 - The vegetation on the roadway is gone, the ditch built up on the side to retain the soil with grass and a hedge planted. 

2014 -   Note how the hedge has grown up to hide the ugly fence 3 years later.

2008

2011 - The plants along the edge are pineapples and we maintain a constant supply.

2014

2009

2014

2008

2014 - Note the flat sided rock visible in both pictures

So I hope this gives you a better idea of what is going on here and why it is so important that we all do our share to maintain this property.  Until next time ...hasta luego from your directors.