Members of the Executive met for the first time in 2007 at the offices of Plodzik and Sanderson in Concord on Thursday, January 11 th.

Present were Joan Porter, CTC, President, presiding; First Vice President Pat Tucker; Second Vice President Cindy Torsey, CTC; Treasurer Joyce McGee, CDTC; Secretary Brenda LaPointe, CTC; Legislative Committee Chairman Jill Hadaway, CTC; Director of Public Relations and Chairman of the Certification Committee Kathy Seaver, CTC; Convention Coordinator Desiree Mahurin, CTC; Education Committee Chairman Cheryl-Ann Bolouk, CTC; Workshop Coordinator Joe Wiggett, CTC; and Director at Large Patricia Woolsey, CDTC.

Special Guest: George West, Honorary member.

The President called the meeting to order at 9:33 a.m. after making a quick remark about the change to our meeting place. Recent renovations necessitated the change to a different room upstairs. Joan started off by saying she was surprised to learn from the minutes that she was supposed to send a letter to Betsey Patten thanking her for help with the presentation to George West at the Convention. As soon as she is able to obtain Betsey’s address she will follow up on this item. Jill quickly noted that since the fall elections a lot has changed politically in Concord. Betsey is no longer the Chairman of the Municipal & County Government committee in the House. Robert Theberge is now the Chairman and Jessie Osborne is the Vice Chair. It will remain to be seen as we move through the legislative session how this change will impact any legislation that the Tax Collectors might try to move forward.

Minutes
Consideration of minutes from the last two meetings and the annual convention were next on the agenda. Pat Tucker made a motion to accept the minutes from the August 10, 2006, September 22, 2006 and 2006 Annual Convention as submitted. The motion was seconded by Cheryl-Ann Bolouk and passed by unanimous voice vote.

Correspondence
Receipt of the following correspondence was acknowledged:

• Letter from the Town Clerks’ Association denoting 2006-2007 Executive Board members.
• Thank you to the NHTCA for the “George West Day” from Mr. West.
• Letter from Frank Mevers, Secretary NH Municipal Records Board for listing of 2006-2007 NHTCA Board members.
• Thank you note from Maurice Barrett for the invitation to the Annual Banquet.

Treasurer’s Report
Joyce McGee handed out a copy of the Treasurer’s Report which detailed the activity of the various bank accounts between August 10, 2006 and December 28, 2006. With most all of the expenses from Convention being paid, the checking account balance is $6,894.17. The total of investments is $19,342.46. Overall, the Association looks to be in good shape going into the new year. (Copy of Treasurer’s Report attached to these minutes.)

Secretary’s Report
Brenda LaPointe merely stated that all of the “after convention” correspondence has been sent. Correspondence received was covered previously so other than the minutes she had nothing to report.

Certification Committee
Kathy Seaver reported that meetings for this committee have temporarily been put on hold because of her current workload and that of other members as well. All of the basics are already in place and the upcoming program is all set to be held at Primex the week of August 13 th through the 17 th, 2007. She said that financially the Certification Program is better off now than they have been in a long time due to the overall attendance last year. Several positive comments were made about the new location (Primex facility) specifically how good the move was for accommodating the number of participants enrolled.

Kathy brought up another subject not related to the activities of the Certification committee. She expressed concern that when Ed Garvey passed away no notice was sent out to members of the Association. Unsure as to where the responsibility had been designated she said that as Board members we “dropped the ball on this one” and need to make sure that in the future we communicate better. She also asked if the new member of the Board has been brought up to speed with her job description. This is an area that also needs to be addressed. In response, Joan said that she hopes to get back to addressing the job descriptions this year. The problem in the past has been that there is not enough time during the regular meetings to go over extra items. She suggested that a work session might be appropriate to accomplish this task. Joan also agreed that we need to do a better job of keeping on top of these things.

Kathy continued with the subject at hand saying that we need to get a copy of the Tax Collector’s database from LGC. We should have someone be responsible for putting out an e-mail alert when needed. It is not always to our advantage to rely upon LGC and it should be a collaborative effort. The recent change in personnel over the last year has made that fact clear. Brenda offered to try and get a copy of the e-mail listing from LGC and work out a plan for use in the future.

Legislative Committee
Jill Hadaway handed out several pieces of information to go along with her report. Copies of two proposed House bills, 2007 Proposed LSR’s, and a listing of various members of legislative committees (House) were reviewed.

The first item discussed was a House bill that “requires consumer reporting agencies to exercise reasonable diligence to verify the accuracy of municipal liens and to report a lien release on a credit report within one year of the recording of the lien release with the registry of deeds.” Although this does not yet have a bill number or sponsor, it is a preliminary attempt to try and force credit agencies to come into compliance with existing law. Jill said that legal opinion is that as long as this law does not attempt to supersede the federal law it will be okay. The Local Government Center has indicated that it will support this piece of legislation.

The other bill that LGC will support is a bill “relative to collection of taxes on land with a discretionary easement and relative to the calculation of penalties applied to tax deeded properties.” This bill clarifies the tax collection procedure for land with a discretionary easement and also clarifies the adjustment of the penalty applied to proceeds from tax deed property. Again, this bill does not yet have a number or sponsor but Jill will be tracking its progress as the legislature commences.

Jill asked for members of the Board to look at the list of proposed LSR’s and offer some feedback as to which ones she should be tracking. It is always difficult to make a determination at this point with the full text of these proposals not yet available, but some direction would be appreciated. (Note – Since the legislative year is in its beginning stages, many of these proposals have not yet been signed off on by the various sponsors thus the text is unavailable. To date, over 1,000 LSR’s have been submitted for consideration.) Out of the total list of 40 proposals, members of the Executive Board discussed and ultimately recommended the following to be put at the top of the “watch list”:

Jill said that more information will be forthcoming on many of these proposals so as things change she will keep the Board appraised. This year there are only two other members on the Legislative Committee besides herself. They are Dave Fredette, Nashua and Kathy Valliere, Greenville. Pat Tucker offered to assist as needed because she is interested in learning more about the process. George West also offered to help out as needed. He noted that with all of the changes taking place Jill might need some new connections in both the House and the Senate.

Kathy mentioned that there has been a change to the Soldiers and Sailors Civil Relief Act since the last time that it was discussed at any of the meetings. This federal law has been renamed and there are a few new provisions. She will find out the particulars and get a copy to Cheryl in time for the Spring Workshops.

Education Committee
News from the Education Committee came from the Chairman Cheryl-Ann Bolouk. The New Collectors’ Workshops have been scheduled for Thursday, March 22 nd and Tuesday, March 27 th in the training room at the Department of Revenue Administration in Concord. The program agenda will be the same as in previous years and will include a presentation by Kim Hallquist from LGC on ethics. Feedback from previous workshops has helped to provide guidance with regards to the content of these meetings. The presentation on completing the MS-61 has been especially helpful since it is often a source of confusion for new Collectors. Patricia Woolsey asked if the MS-61 review could be included as part of the User Groups session at this year’s convention. She stated that it is important for all Collectors to know where the numbers come from and not just rely on the computer. Verification is the key to making sure that you don’t have problems down the road. Networking with fellow Collectors is also extremely useful when first starting out so having some “seasoned” Collectors available to answer questions is also valuable.

Cheryl moved on to discuss the agenda for the 2007 Spring Workshops. Along with the usual Legislative Update presented by members of the Legislative Committee, Attorney Campbell will be discussing Current Use and Easements (Conservation, Historical and Discretionary). Although Bernie has not yet confirmed with Cheryl she expects to hear from him at any time. The dates for the workshops are: March 23 rd-Marlborough; April 10 th-Concord; April 19 th-Hampton Falls; and April 26 th-Littleton. (Cindy Torsey will update the website with dates, locations, and times.)

Workshop Coordinator’s Report
Joe Wiggett referred to the previous details mentioned by Cheryl. Everything is pretty well set with the exception of some parking issues in Littleton and contacting a caterer for Concord. The parking issue will have to be resolved by the Town of Littleton and suggestions for a possible caterer were discussed. Joe was given several good leads to checkout. The cost of the meal will play into the final decision since the Board tries to keep the overhead costs for the workshops to a minimum.

Cheryl said that she has a draft copy of the workshop agenda all ready to be printed. She is just waiting for Bernie to confirm. She asked when workshop notice should be mailed. With the first workshop being scheduled for March 23 rd it was decided to make sure everything was out no later than March 1 st. Items to be included in the mailing will be firmed up at the next meeting.

Convention Coordinator’s Report
A conference evaluation summary sheet was handed out by Desiree Mahurin. General consensus seemed to indicate that more time should be allotted to technical sessions. This comment speaks volumes as to the dedication of Tax Collector’s who want to stay informed! Overall, comments about the Red Jacket were exceptional. Much to the delight of Cheryl and the Education committee, a number of new ideas for future topics were also mentioned. Patricia Woolsey added a note that a session about human resources might also be something to consider. Jill agreed and offered some suggestions that have been passed along to her over the years. Pat W. said that organizational tips would be helpful too.

Tentative dates for the 2007 Annual Convention are October 15, 16 & 17 th at Wentworth by the Sea in Newcastle. Desiree stated that she has some concerns about the costs quoted by the facility. The contract with the Wentworth was signed several years ago and since that time they have decided to no longer offer group rates. That being said, the rates quoted are: non-taxable, double occupancy - $298.00 per person/per night, single occupancy - $382.00 per person/per night. Taxable rates, double occupancy - $318.00 per person/per night and single occupancy - $408.00 per person/per night. A few sighs were audible as the cost factor began to sink in. All Board members expressed concern about the high prices thus a discussion ensued about possible alternatives. After many suggestions, it was decided to let Desiree talk to the management at the Wentworth to see if there is any way they can offer us more of a discount. If not, to explore the possibility of holding this year’rs convention at another location. The big question here is whether or not we will be allowed out of our contract. The cost to renege might not be surmountable. (Stay tuned for breaking developments . . .)

Future conference dates are: 2008 September 17, 18 & 19 th – Red Jacket Resort, North Conway and 2009 October 21, 22 & 23 rd – Attitash Summit Resort, Bartlett. Desiree is now looking to book facilities for 2010 and beyond.

Historic Committee Report
George West was called upon to give a final report on the actions of the Historic Committee. He said that the last time he got together with Kathy and Pat W. they finished going through just about everything but there is still one box left in his office that needs to be sorted and then go into storage. Brenda agreed to take the box, review the contents, and put into storage. She said that perhaps the Board would consider buying a filing cabinet or some more shelving for the storage space. Kathy said that would be a good idea after it has been cleaned out. A date should be set aside sometime this spring to get the records organized once and for all.

Newsletter Items
Items for the next newsletter were discussed. Kathy said that there is a lot of information that needs to be put out. Everything from the convention items, minutes, and thank you notes, etc., all needs to be forwarded to the membership. Issuing a newsletter at this point in time will allow the opportunity to include information about the Spring Workshops too. The last time that we sent a newsletter we were held responsible for additional handling costs due to the amount of material included so to keep the costs down we should do a mailing before we get overburdened with material. Jill said that we should put one out before the postage rates go up in May. This bit of information came as a surprise to some Board members. A brief discussion further confirmed that postal rates are anticipated to go up in May or June. First class postage will increase to $ .42 and certified rates are expected to rise by $ .30. Kathy will verify this ugly rumor and include with the newsletter if true. The recent passing of several Tax Collectors and change of Collectors in some communities will also be mentioned. The exact date for release of the newsletter was not specified.

Other Business
George West told about visiting his dear friend Ed Garvey several days before his death. He said that Ed was the best he had seen him in a long time so he was surprised and dismayed to get the call about his passing. In recognition of Mr. Garvey’s service to the Tax Collectors’ Association Pat Tucker made a motion for the Association to make a donation in the amount of $50.00 to the Alzheimer’s Association in his memory. The motion was seconded by Joe Wiggett and passed by unanimous voice vote.

Cindy Torsey said that Audrey Bentley from LGC wanted her to pass along that they are in the process of installing a new website so to expect some temporary delays when attempting to log on. This might also affect the NHTCA website. If anyone experiences difficulties over an extended period of time they can let Cindy know and she will pass it along.

Next Meeting - February 8 th; Bow Town Hall @ 1:00 p.m.

The next meeting will be with the County Coordinators. Pat Tucker plans to extend the invitation for all Coordinators to attend.

Adjournment happened abruptly at 11:55 p.m. without benefit of a motion.

Respectfully submitted,

Brenda LaPointe, CTC
Secretary