Background:

In their 2003 Annual Meetings all three Stormy Lake Road Associations discussed forming a lake wide association to address issues of common interest and consider ways to protect and insure ourselves regarding liabilies that may arise due to our private roads and events.

On May 18^th the Nestle Trail Association (North East Road) authorized their executive to commit $15 per cottage to SLA start-up costs. 

Issues of Common interest:

Currently there are 3 Road Associations for 83 of the 109 properties on the Lake, so representation is fractured e.g. there are 3 FOCA memberships. 26 cottages do not belong to an association. SLA could co-ordinate items that are common to all cottagers, including:

• one membership to FOCA
• a Lake plan & other environmental issues including water quality, dam maintenance, fish stocking, graffiti on the rocks, shore erosion, septic testing, recording of Lake History
• Act as a single voice to represent the lake to the township, County, provincial, Federal (e.g. 9-1-1 Road naming, Asphalt plant, property taxes).
• Lake events, including the annual Rock Bass Derby. Perhaps a Lake wide BBQ?
• Dissemination of information via newsletter, e-mail & Web site (stormylake.ca). Recording lake history.
• A sense of community

• incorporate, thereby limiting all cottager’s existing liabilities
• maintain one FOCA Road Insurance policy, to provide protection for all cottagers for a premium about $30 more than the existing policy held by Journey’s End.
• Maintain Director’s and Officer’s Insurance to provide protection to those who volunteer to help run the association. 

There would be no need to change the operation of the current Road maintenance groups. The corporation could form committees, one for each the major Roads (Journey's End, Stormy, Nestle & additional roads, as required). Persons could be elected to one of these committees only if they owned property on those roads - i.e. persons on the Journey’s End Trail committee would be elected from those cottagers located on Journey’s End trail. In effect, no real change of who does what or how it is done, other than cheques would be issued by the SLA Treasurer, from one single bank account. Current Road groups could continue to hold their annual meetings, as they do today, for the purpose of decisions on the operation of the road, election of persons to take responsibility to maintain the road, and to elect Directors to the SLA Board.

Financial: There would be two components to a cottager's annual dues. First would be the "SLA Dues" i.e. contributions to fund the elements that are commons to all cottagers. The 2nd component would be any applicable "Road Assessment". The total dues do not have to be uniform across the entire lake. If Journey's end wants $135 per member, and Nestle wanted $150, then the Corporation would invoice that amount and maintain separate accounting of the funds. A possible budget for SLA Dues is attached, working out to approximately $30/yr per cottage. 

Board Structure: Articles of incorporation, bylaws, policies and procedures would need to be developed. One thought is to have one director for approximately every 10 cottages. This could give us a total of 10 directors with 4 elected from Journey's end, 2 from Nestle, 2 from South, 2 from the other roads.

Motion: That the Association approve in principle the concept of forming one Stormy Lake Association to accomplish the above goals. Further, that the Association commit up to $15 per member to SLA start-up costs. The goal would be to have SLA operational by prior to April 2004 when next year’s FOCA membership and insurance premiums will be due.