HOA FOUNDATIONS

THE PLAYERS

If you own a home in Meridale, you are also part owner of Meridale Community Association. You may be wondering, who are all of the players in the Association and, as part owner, how are we related?

OUR HOA:

MERIDALE COMMUNITY ASSOCIATION A homeowners association –an HOA – is one type of community association, where the community is typically composed of single-family homes. (Condominium associations, townhome associations, and co-ops are other types of community associations.) The purpose of any community association is to provide a legal mechanism by which homeowners can unite for their common good, and that mechanism is almost always the formation of a nonprofit corporation. Nonprofit corporations must have a legal corporate title. The legal title of Meridale’s HOA is “Meridale Community Association” – sometimes also referred to as “the Association.”

MEMBERS

All Meridale homeowners – owners of Meridale Community Association – are legally called Members of the Association. As a Member, you have Rights and Responsibilities, and there is an Annual Membership Meeting each Fall.

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Members elect a volunteer Board of Directors to govern and operate the business of the Association. Ideally, the Board sets policies and procedures and delegates the operations to other volunteers or professional partners. Directors also have Rights and Responsibilities, and each quarter must hold at least one open, Regular Meeting. Directors also elect the Association’s Officers.

HAWTHORNE MANAGEMENT

Although the Association’s volunteer Directors and Committee members serve Meridale wholeheartedly, the Association simply cannot function without a full-time manager to run all day-to-day operations: gathering vendor proposals, collecting assessments, coordinating with our attorney, responding to homeowner emails, sending compliance notices, monitoring bank statements, inspecting vendor jobs, and much more. Your Property Manager is Sarah Ziegler. Sarah is a Certified Manager of Community Associations (CMCA) and is supported by a full staff at Hawthorne Management.

MATTAMY CORPORATION

Mattamy was the developer and builder for “Phase 2” of Meridale. (Phase 2, roughly, includes all homes except for those toward the entrance of the community, with their own mailboxes, and not built by Mattamy). As of this writing, Mattamy still has developer responsibilities for the roads in Phase 2 and still owns the home/sales office at the corner of Allen A. Brown Rd. As a developer, Mattamy continues to retain rights to access common property and certain responsibilities to Meridale’s homeowners and the common property. As a homeowner, they also retain those Rights and Responsibilities.

NEIGHBORS

Not every Meridale resident is a homeowner, but all are Neighbors. If you are renting affordable, quality family housing in Meridale; if you are one of our Young Neighbors; if you are one of our four-legged neighbors: You are our Neighbors, and we are glad you are all with us!

OFFICERS

The President, Secretary, Treasurer, and Vice President of the Association have certain duties that are spelled out in the governing documents. Officers typically come from the pool of Directors, but, interestingly, only the President and Secretary must be Directors – or even residents of Meridale. For example, it would be consistent with Meridale’s governing documents for the Board of Directors to elect as Treasurer a CPA who neither is a Director nor even a Meridale homeowner. This should be rare, and currently, all the Association’s Officers are Directors. Your current Directors and Officers are Dan Boisvert (President), Sarah Haley (Secretary), Michael Nail (Treasurer), Billy Crews (Vice President), and Natalie King (Member at Large).

PARTNERS AND VENDORS

In addition to Sarah Ziegler and Hawthorne Management, the Association works with a variety of other professional partners and vendors: attorney and insurance broker, and companies to support pool management, landscaping, maintenance, security monitoring, pressure washing, and more. You’ll learn more about our professional partners and vendors in the months to come.

HOA Foundations is a new, permanent column in Meridale’s monthly newsletter intended to help neighbors more clearly understand the nature, benefits, and best practices of an effective, helpful homeowners association, and especially our own Meridale Community Association