As indicated at the Town Hall Meetings held on November 13, 2007, the 2008 Budget development process took over five months to accomplish.

As residents, we are fully aware that we are now on our own without any influence from the developer, US Home, and it is critical that we establish a direction as to where the Association should be going in the future. Therefore, this year the budget development process included Business Plans developed by the management staff for the three-year period from 2008 thru 2010. To appreciate the amount of time and energy it took in preparing the Business Plans and the 2008 Budget, the following schedule was provided:

·        During the months of July & August, the management team of Heritage Highlands began aggressively developing “business plans” for the three major departments of the Association. This includes Jeff Ziegler for Administration, Brad Engel for the Golf Operations and Nico Carbone for the Food & Beverage, with the assistance from Ted Colburn, the Association Controller.

·        On September 5^th, the business plans were presented to the Board of Directors for evaluation. The individual plans provided objectives and strategies that could be accomplished over the next three years.

·        The Board did provide some refinements and points of emphasis for management team to consider. It was pointed out to each department that they should provide a list of critical issues that needed to be accomplished in the short term. Also, for any projects being considered, we need to prove to the residents, the need, the benefits and/or cost savings.

·         During the month of September and early October, the management team developed budgets to achieve the objectives projected for 2008 timeframes.

·         On October 10^th the Board/Budget team came together to evaluate the budgets. The Budget Committee consisted of the following residents: Ralph Clark, Chair of the Budget Committee, Pete Edwards, Chair of the Finance Committee, Rick Devereaux and Kern Lucas.

·         Feedback from the Board/Budget committee was given to the management team during the next two weeks in October. Also, during this time, the business plans and budget information was forward to the Finance Committee for their input.

·        On October 26^th, the Finance/Budget Committee outlined their recommendations to the Board for final review on November 6^th.

·        November 6^th, the Board finalized the proposed 2008 Budget for presentation to the residents at the Town Hall Meetings.

Following the Town Hall meetings on November 13^th, the Board, Budget Committee and Finance Committee reviewed feedback provided by the residents. At that time, it was determined that no further adjustments to the Budget or Business Plans were needed. Therefore, the Board at its November 15th meeting approved the both documents.

As was indicated at the Town Hall meetings and again at the Board meeting, the Board, Finance Committee and Management will be monitoring the 2008 Budget on a monthly basis and will act immediately to any deviations in expenses and/or revenues that would affect our ability to meet our projections.

We will keep you informed or our progress.