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Home My WebLink About2020-05-27 Trustees of Osgood Hill Board Minutes Trustees of Osgood Hill Board Meeting— Remote Participation Minutes of Board Meeting conducted May 27, 2020 Called to order 5:03pm all participants remote due to COVID-19 requirements. Voting Members Present(5): Ellen Mosier(chair), David Brown,Jeanne Irwin, Robin Ellington,Jerome Justin Voting Members Absent (1): William Swiggart Town Officials (2): Joanna Collantine (Estate Director),Andrew Shapiro(Director of Economic and Community Development), Rosemary Smedile (Clerk, Board of Selectman) Handouts: • Stevens Estate P&L FY21 Forecast • Directors Update 52720 JLC Update.docx 1. Introduction—Ellen • Governor statement and my email: ellensmosier.stevensestate@gmail.com for questions during the meeting, I will read as received on topic. i. Meeting called to order ii. Verbal Role Call—Ellen, Robin, Dave,Jeanne, and Jerry present at start of meeting. iii. We have a quorum to begin the meeting. 2. Previous minutes from April 28, 2020 meeting were unanimously approved. 3. Community Statement from Ellen S. Mosier, Chair,Trustees of Osgood Hill W. 527 Chair ToOH statement.pdf 4. Trustees' "observation" response to&from Town Manager Reports and Inquiries, 1-23. • Melissa has received the observations and questions, but has not had time to discuss with her team due to COVID-19 priorities • She will be meeting with her team in a couple of weeks and will discuss responses. Ideally all the responses would be provided at one time, but if that causes significant delays then separate responses are OK. There was no timetable to have responses back to the Board. • Ellen: 2 items are important to get responses before Town Meeting: Bank statements related to a $1.6MM transfer and an additional, unaccounted for, salary charged to the Estate. These items, particularly the transfer of funds, affects the perception of how the Steven's Estate is going and the overall budget. • Jerry: Recommend giving Melissa a couple of weeks to start the discussion with her team and then if we don't get acknowledgement that work has started the Board can followup. • Jeanne: Due to the number of activities going on and the time needed to gather information giving Melissa some time to do the research to provide a response is important. Give 2 weeks and then follow up with Melissa if we haven't heard back. 5. Subcommittee, Profit Loss Report • Jerry: Dave,Joanna and I met last week to discuss the FY21 forecast against budget developed on April 1, 2020 and did a reforecast due to COVID-19 impacts. In Q1 and Q2 the total number of events is down,and some events are shifting timeframe. It is our intent to update this summary monthly and being tracking actuals, based on the Munis report, in July. In addition, each month we'll show what has changed, in a summary manner. • Ellen: The FY21 summary does not show inquiries,correct? Jerry: inquiries are not included, only confirmed booked events show up in the Actual to Date column. • Dave: Report will make it easier to monitor and track against the original forecast. Might want to monitor cashflow, however that is more detail than what is presented in this FY21 summary. • Ellen: Bookings report shows deposits received,etc and are accounted for in the period they are received. 6. Director,Joanna Collantine, Updates • Top level information for FY20. i. Revenue is projected to be$234,674 against a budget of$449,649 but with removal of indirect expenses and capital the `adjusted' revenue budget is $318,649. Munis is showing revenue at$190,000 so there are likely some timing differences for receipt of funds. This gap should close once all funds received in FY20 are accounted for. ii. Expenses are projected to be$229,319 against a budget of$371,094, not including indirect or capital expenses. iii. Forecasted profit=$5,355 iv. Jerry: Once the fiscal year closes,will be Booking report projection and Munis be aligned? Joanna: yes, once the fiscal year closes the reconciliation should bring the numbers closer together. v. Jeanne: What causes the differences between the forecast in the booking report and the Munis numbers? Joanna: 2 reasons. One is some differences between revenue tied to specific events vs general receipts, and the other is timing of when deposits are received and recognized. May be an opportunity to provide some additional breakout of revenue in detail for tracking purposes. vi. Ellen: kudos to the Director for controlling expenses in light of lower revenue due to Covid 19. How are the virtual tours going? Joanna: still occurring and received a deposit for a September wedding based on the virtual tour and marketing efforts. vii. Ellen: what is status of Covid 19 preparedness. Joanna: waiting on town guidance and most likely no events until September. Inquiries are continuing for potential future bookings. 7. Subcommittee, Marketing and Advertising Report • Town partnerships are continuing, including discussions with the Youth Center. • Jerry: another opportunity to offset the lost revenue is to accept and process donations. Why can't people write a check now even without the updated website with a `donations' button? Ellen: Melissa still needs to have a town process and applicable account to deposit and accept donations. Jeanne: Can town set up a fund code for donations linked to the Stevens Estate? Rosemary: Donations may require to be accepted by the Board of Selectman. Can do other fundraising activities to gather donations. • Rosemary: Thanks to the board for your hard work in support of the Stevens Estate. 8. Other Business/Updates • Ellen: we do have an open position on the board for 16 months. Rosemary: we need a report on how we assess candidates and ideally the full Board of Selectmen will vote on filling vacancies. Ellen: in addition,we will have a new position open on July 1. Dave: what is the status of William's position? Ellen: His position is up at the end of June and has been non-responsive so assumption is he will not be continuing, and Board of Selectmen will need to fill that spot. • Dave: have been researching the prior website issues and what needs to be done. Will meet with Chris from IT to discuss and get his input on path forward. Ellen: what is the status of the Town Website and missing information that cannot be found. Dave: can also put that on the list to discuss with Chris to get minutes posted. Also, our phone numbers are on the town website and not our email addresses. • Jeanne: sent an email to Laurie requesting an update on the caterer bid. Input was provided awhile back and requested a draft prior to it going out. • Robin: presented marketing report. Jeanne: when you capture people's emails, can you collect them that allows directed marketing(eg MailChimp)? Robin: an opportunity to allow people to enroll for updates on the Estate. Joanna: Would like Ellen and Robin to meet with Joanna and Humara to start discussions on marketing approach. � Y TSE Marketing Plan 2020.docx • Jerry: what is the current thinking on reopening the Steven's Estate? Joanna: following State, CDC, Board of Health and Town guidance. Phase 3 business' may be allowed to open in late summer, early fall. Ellen: other similar business are booking events in July/August. Joanna: many different rules and requirements based on the Estate operations. Jeanne: acquiring PPE for events is important and long lead to obtain supplies. And who is responsible for providing PPE for events. Andrew: Joanna can inquire about starting in-person tours, but events will require more planning. Encourage Joanna to work with Steve Foster on obtaining PPE and other planning for when events would start. • Dave: may want to consider extending outdoor season using heaters and such. Extending the use of the tent would be beneficial. • Dave: what is status of joint meeting with Long Term Advisory Committee? Ellen/Andrew: Planning is in the works to schedule something after Town Meeting. • Jerry: Action for Joanna to update the Board on reopening preparedness for the next meeting. 9. Upcoming Meeting schedule • Wednesday June 10, 5:00pm 10. Meeting adjourned 6:35pm