September 2015 Message from the President Dear Owner: We are almost to the end of another successful summer season here at Pollard Brook. While the weather started out a little shaky, the rest of the summer has been spectacular and we are now getting ready for foliage season and hopefully another snow packed winter. My only hope is we get only a little bit of snow down south early and a lot up here for the skiers. The Board of Directors and the Resort Management Team have worked hard this year to provide our owners and guests a very pleasant vacation experience. The major improvements to the resort in the last few years both in the common areas and in the individual units, with major kitchen and bath remodels and upgrades to the décor, are paying dividends in both vacationers comfort and in our vacation club scores. If you haven t visited your resort recently, we invite you to do so. We are sure you will be pleasantly surprised. I know I ve talked about value in the past, but when you look at our maintenance fees and what you get at Pollard Brook in comparison to what else is available in the Lincoln area to rent during the vacation season, there is no other place that offers as much for as low a price as you pay in annual maintenance fees. More and more guests are using TripAdvisor and realizing the value that is already yours as an owner. Inside This Issue Continued on page 2... Board Candidate Data 2014 Annual Meeting Minutes DRAFT ByLaw Amendment Proxy Explanation Attention Owners Who Have Not Returned Their Proxy VRI*ety Election Proxy/Ballot ByLaw Amendment Proxy (Enclosed if your vote has NOT been received) Pollard Brook Unit Owners Association, Inc. ANNUAL MEETING OF OWNERS OCTOBER 17, 2015 Reminder Notice: Our Annual Meeting is scheduled for Saturday, October 17, 2015,11:00 A.M. at the Lincoln Town Hall Conference Room, 148 Main Street (Route 112 East) in Lincoln, NH (across from Flapjacks Restaurant). If you do not expect to attend the meeting in person, it is vitally important that you mark, sign, date and return the enclosed Election Proxy/Ballot to reach us no later than October 16, 2015. If you later find that you can be present or for any other reason desire to revoke your Proxy/Ballot, you may do so at any time before the voting commences. AGENDA I. Welcome and Introductions/Call to Order II. III. IV. Approval of Agenda Approval of 2014 Annual Meeting Minutes Message from the Board V. Elections VI. VII. VIII. IX. Management Reports Financial Review Communications and Interactions Election Results X. Open Discussion XI. Adjournment
Message from the President continued... For those of you that have a Facebook account, if you sign into your account as usual, and in the Facebook search bar on the top you type in InnSeason, you will notice our main Facebook pages as well as the one that was set up for the owners named: Owners-InnSeason Resort Pollard Brook. Once on this page you can ask to become a member of this owners group. Once a member, you can share information and ideas about your resort. You can also reach out to other owners who wish to swap, sell, or buy their vacation weeks. There is a Transfer of Ownership Policy that must be met by all owners that do this and our policy can be read and printed by clicking on the link at the top of the web page. This site was set up for the owners to be used for appropriate communication with other owners. The InnSeason administrators do police this site for inappropriate content. Our Annual Meeting this year will be Saturday, October 17th at 11:00 a.m. at the Lincoln Town Hall. I urge you to attend. We will continue to make improvements to the resort and if everything goes according to plan the rest of this year, we will have our first balanced budget when we finish our 2015 operating year in December. This is a major accomplishment that most resorts cannot accomplish. I look forward to seeing you on October 17th. Looking forward to a great fall and winter season! Bill Scanzani HOA President Board Candidate Data * Indicates Incumbent *William Scanzani I am a Platinum Level owner with 5 weeks, point overlays, and additional points. Education: Bachelor of Science in Accounting- Lowell Technological Institute, Masters in Management Boston University. Qualifying Experience: I have been the owner s representative and President of the Pollard Brook Board of Directors for the last 6 years and was a member of the Board of Advisors for two years prior to that. I m a seasoned operations and technology product manager in the food industry for many years. I have experience in budgeting, operations, managing a staff, purchasing, coordinating major projects, and customer service. Additionally, I have excellent communications skills and the ability to think outside the box to find innovative solutions to problems that need to be solved. My objectives for the next three years are to: 1) Continue to maintain the resort property and owner values which helps in securing future sales, additional rental income, and other vacation club interest in Pollard Brook Resort. 2) Sustain the resort s services and budgets and continued investment in new services and green initiatives to lower future long term operating costs and increase efficiencies. 3) Seek fair and equitable ways to help delinquent owners use their vacation or acquire the delinquent weeks into the HOA Trust in order to re-sell them to fee paying owners. 4) Continue to be an advocate for good owner representation on the Board. 5) Look at additional ways to invest the HOA s funds in order to increase income from other sources to maintain low maintenance fees. 2 September 2015
POLLARD BROOK OWNERS ASSOCIATION ANNUAL MEETING MINUTES Saturday, November 1, 2014 DRAFT I. WELCOME AND INTRODUCTIONS/CALL TO ORDER Bill Scanzani called the meeting to order at 11:04 a.m. and extended a warm welcome to all present. He then introduced the Resort Team as well as the Board Members present noting that Bill Curran was unable to make the meeting. In attendance were: Board of Trustees: Bill Scanzani - President Dennis Ducharme - Secretary Resort Management and Staff: Joel Bourassa- General Manager Amy Forbes- Front Desk Manager Angela Willey- Housekeeping Vacation Resorts International: Stephen Furrer- Director of Resorts Gallagher, Callahan & Gartrell: Erik Newman General Counsel II. APPROVAL OF AGENDA MOTION: Doug Evans motioned and Mary Regan seconded, the agenda was approved unanimously. III. APPROVAL OF PREVIOUS ANNUAL MEETING MINUTES MOTION: Norman Minor motioned and Pauline Walsh seconded, the 2013 Annual Meeting Minutes were approved unanimously as presented. IV. MESSAGE FROM THE BOARD Bill Scanzani discussed the Board initiative to update the resorts outdated and out of legal compliance Condominium Documents. He gave a brief history on Pollard Brook and how the documents were first created. He described working with legal counsel over three years ago to develop the draft proposed changes presented to the owners. Additionally, Bill stated that after three years of communications to owners, the resort is still struggling to reach the required 2/3 super majority of weeks voted as required by New Hampshire law. Bill defined the proposed changes. Members of the audience asked detailed questions regarding how each change affected their ownership as well as the governance of the resort. Attorney Erik Newman answered the questions in detail. Although many owners had taken the time to review the information and vote, Bill told the audience that they were about 700 votes from quorum. He explained about the high cost of ongoing paper communications and addressed the fact that it was not fair to those who voted and had to pay for the continued cost of these communications to those who hadn t. Therefore, for all owners who have not voted, there will be an annual administration charge of $25 to cover the cost of continued communications. This administrative cost will remain in place until quorum is met. V. ELECTIONS Stephen Furrer reviewed the voting process for the changes to the Condominium Documents as well as the election for the open Board seat. He stated that the vote for the changes to the Condominium Documents would not be closed today due to lack of quorum but that this meeting would remain open until the first business day of March 2015 in hopes of reaching quorum. Stephen called for nominations from the floor for the open Board seat, hearing none, nominations were closed. He then reviewed the biography for the only candidate running for election. Owners in attendance were asked to vote on both matters if they had not already. An inspector of the election was chosen. Votes were collected for the count. September 2015 3
VI. MANAGEMENT REPORTS Joel Bourassa reviewed general operations as well as capital improvements completed in 2014. Improvements included replacing exterior rotted wood and painting, bathroom remodeling, carpeting units, wallpaper removal and more. Additionally, he went on to discuss the items being considered for 2015 improvements which included resort wide WI-FI upgrade, new couches, exterior stair rail replacement, additional air conditioners for living rooms and flat panel TV s for bedrooms. Joel further discussed the historical spending as illustrated by a line graph. He also reviewed the general areas of updates noting that 55% of spending was for interior updates, 24% for exterior and 21% for facilities/common areas. Stephen Furrer reviewed the most recent set of Customer Satisfaction Scores from InnSeason Resorts noting that the scores where trending up. Additionally, he reviewed the scores from Interval International and RCI noting the same. As a whole, Pollard Brook is scoring in the A- range. VII. FINANCIAL REVIEW Stephen Furrer reviewed the 2013 year end financials noting that the resort s operating budget came in $15,881 to the positive for the year. Additionally he reported that Reserve spending was $173,203 more than in 2013. Stephen noted that the overage was planned and Reserve cash on hand was also used to fund the improvements. Next he reviewed the steps that are taken to help keep owners paying as well as the steps taken for collections and ultimately foreclosures. The year-to-date financial position at the resort was $92,088 to the positive with three months left to go in the fiscal year. The resort team is continuing to find ways to reduce spending and expenses but still keep service levels up. Stephen discussed cash flows and Reserve balances in detail noting that for the first time in its history, in 2015, the resort would not be using future year s money for current year s operations. Additionally, he noted that the Reserve cash balance was good and that this is allowing for more improvements to be done beyond what current year reserves can fund. Finally, Stephen Furrer reviewed the Income and Expense projections for the 2015 Operating Budget. With a conservative approach for the 2015 Budget, the Annual Fees came in approximately 1% higher than 2014 or $7.50 more per unit/week going directly to fund Reserves. VIII. COMMUNICATIONS AND INTERACTIONS Stephen Furrer reviewed the benefits of using HYPERLINK http://www.innseason.com www.innseason.com online Owner s Area. He also showed the owners other information and features accessible through the website. IX. ELECTION RESULTS Stephen reviewed the voting results as follows: Candidate Ballots William Curran 3,601 Congratulations were given to re-elect Board member William Curran. X. OPEN DISCUSSION Owners asked various questions regarding Operations including pay scales for entry level employees. There were also dialogues regarding re-sales and how to approach disposing of a week when it has reached the end of its useful life for that owner. Owners also asked questions on usage especially regarding exchanges. Stephen Furrer discussed nuances of exchanging with Interval International, RCI and through the management company directly. Exchanging with no fees within the resort itself was discussed. Stephen Furrer recommended talking directly to the Front Desk Manager or GM and reminded the owners that it is difficult to exchange from a low demand period to a higher demand period. XI. ADJOURNMENT Being that the business of changing the Condominium Documents was not finished this meeting was not formally adjourned and will remain open until the first business day of March 2015 or such time as quorum is met on the matter. 4 September 2015
Attention Owners Who Have Not Returned Their Proxy For over 4 years now we have reached out to all owners through direct mailings, newsletters, face to face contact in our resort, and other means in order to secure the votes to amend our condominium documents that is required to meet the State of NH regulations for timeshare properties. Every owner has been notified numerous times regarding the need to vote on this matter. At the current time we have over 95% of the votes required with 99.5% voting in the affirmative. An affirmative vote does not in any way affect your rights to use the property you own which is controlled by your deed and our resort policies. While the HOA has spent a lot of money on legal issues and mailings to this end, it is not fair to those who have met their responsibility by voting as requested to continue to pay the higher costs of ballots and communications for those who have not taken the time to read the new documents and vote. The full documents, red-lined edited version, and summary of changes can be located in the Pollard Brook Online Owners Area of www.innseason.com. Once logged in choose the Owner Information Library. Access to the documents is on the right. If there is a Proxy with this newsletter then your vote has not been received. Effective immediately, owners who do not return their Proxy, enclosed with this mailing, with a vote will see an additional fee on each of their annual assessment invoices of $30 until such time the Board has the required number of votes to adopt the amended condominium documents as required by law. Please take the time to vote now in order to avoid the additional fee. Bill Scanzani HOA President IF THERE IS A BYLAW AMENDMENT PROXY INCLUDED WITH THIS NEWSLETTER We have NOT received your vote. Please help us meet quorum requirements and avoid the $30 administrative fee by completing and returning your Bylaw Amendment Proxy today. Thank you for your participation in this important process! September 2015 5
PRST FIRST U.S. POSTAGE PAID CURLEY DIRECT c/o Vacation Resorts International P.O. Box 399 Hyannis, MA 02601 Important Numbers Pollard Brook Unit Owners Association, Inc. and Vacation Resorts International (VRI) Pollard Brook Resort (603) 745-9900 Fax (603) 745-8233 Website www.innseason.com Exchange Information Interval International (800) 828-8200 RCI (877) 874-3334 VRI*ety (888) 203-1044 Vacation Owner Services / VRI (800) 999-7140 Maintenance Fees Payment Plans Changes/additions to Ownership Email nememberservices@vriresorts.com Central Reservations (800) 228-2968 Information and Assistance Fixed Week Reservation Float Week Reservation Bonus Time Rental Program Deposits with Exchange Company Email innseason@vriresorts.com Still Need Assistance VRI Corporate Services (508) 771-3399 VRI Fax (508) 775-6396 Managed by Vacation Resorts International Perfecting the Art of Hospitality www.vriresorts.com
IF YOU MAY BE UNABLE TO ATTEND THE ANNUAL OWNERS MEETING, please note your preference on this Proxy/Ballot and return it to reach us no later than October 16, 2015. Pollard Brook Unit Owners Association, Inc. Election Proxy/Ballot This Proxy/Ballot will be voted according to the instructions indicated below. If you own multiple weeks, only one Proxy/Ballot is required. Please indicate unit/week(s) owned below. PROXY: Solicited on Behalf of the Board of Directors for the Annual Meeting of Owners to be held on October 17, 2015. The undersigned hereby appoint(s) (check one only): Billy Curran, Treasurer Other: Only current members of the Unit Owners Association may act as Proxy to act as Proxy with power to vote for and act on behalf of the undersigned on any business that may properly come before the Annual Meeting of the Owners of Pollard Brook Unit Owners Association, Inc. to be held at the Lincoln Town Hall, 148 Main Street (Route 112 East), Lincoln, NH on Saturday, October 17, 2015, 11:00 a.m. or any adjournment thereof. BALLOT: Election of Director Vote for no more than one (1) Director to serve for a three (3) year term. * Indicates Incumbent *William Scanzani Signature: Interval Owner Date: Signature: Interval Co-owner (if applicable) Date: Please Print Name(s) Legibly: Unit/Week Number(s): PLEASE FOLD OVER AND RETURN IN ENCLOSED ENVELOPE Thank you for your participation! Please complete and mail in time to reach us no later than October 16, 2015.
POLLARD BROOK UNIT OWNERS ASSOCIATION ( ASSOCIATION ) BYLAW AMENDMENT PROXY I,, owner, hereby grant the right to vote my interest under the Bylaws of the Association as directed herein below, at the Annual Meeting of the Pollard Brook Unit Owners Association, on Saturday, October 17, 2015 commencing at 11:00 a.m. and ending upon adjournment of the meeting, or such later meeting to which any matter addressed herein below may be duly tabled or continued, to the following: Current President of the Association. Other:, noting that if the designated individual is not present and voting at the annual Meeting, the President of the Association will exercise this Proxy in accordance with the instructions herein. The undersigned owner(s) acknowledge(s) receipt of notice of the meeting in the form of a newsletter dated September 2015. ADOPTION OF AMENDED AND RESTATED BYLAWS The full documents, red-lined edited version, and summary of changes can be located in the Pollard Brook Online Onwers Area of www.innseason.com. Once logged in, choose the Owner Information Library. Access to the documents is on the right. Your Board recommends your YES vote to Approve the changes. Sign: Print Name: Unit/Week: APPROVE the adoption of the Amended and Restated Bylaws. REJECT the adoption of the Amended and restated Bylaws. ABSTAIN from voting on the adoption of the Amended and restated Bylaws. Date:, 2015 PLEASE FOLD OVER AND RETURN IN ENCLOSED ENVELOPE OR EMAIL TO POLLARDBOARD@INNSEASON.COM FAX: (508) 775-6396 You may also vote online at http://www.innseason.com/isr/pol_proxyvote.aspx