Spring

Spring has finally arrived to the Rocky Mountains!  Most of the trees have, at last, started to leaf out.  Some are still barely showing the first blush of green.  In another couple of weeks, our very, very long winter will be just a memory.

We had our annual meeting for our Ranch Association last week.  As president, I was really dreading the meeting.  You see, when I took over as president, the exiting president of 8 years gave me "The Book."  When I asked him a couple of details about "The Book", he answered, "I don't know.  I've never read it."

Sigh...

So I immediately dove into "The Book."  I read every single page -- Imagine that!  And I found that the corporation had been dissolved back in 2003 when no one bothered to do the annual paperwork.  No one did the tax returns.  No one filed with the State of Colorado.  Nothing was done.

Then when I came on board, and I started taking care of these things, I received some rude opposition from a couple of members of our little ranch.  The Treasurer refused to repay me for the filings.  I mean, it was a whole $27 after all.  One of the residents, who is a little loopy, voiced her opinion loud and clear.  So when I wrote out the agenda for this years' meeting, one of the line items was, "Do we follow the laws?"  Crazy!!!!  Of course, the answer was yes, but I needed it to be recorded in the minutes in order to make it loud and clear that we should do what we should be doing.  Our little association consists of 22 properties, 17 owners, and the only common property we have is the road.  Our dues are only $300 per year, so we're not talking about a huge deal.

Still, things need to be done properly.  A corporation is a shield for each one of us in case some dummy decides to ignore our private property signs and go screaming up our little mountain road and crash off the side.  Tax returns need to be filed.  (Seriously??)  They hadn't been filed in years.  And I just kept getting opposition from our Treasurer.

So a vote was held and not one person voted against following what the laws direct.  I mean it really seems stupid to even talk about it, but that's what happened.  Politics, even on the minuscule scale that our little association is on, stinks.