Summary of Oct. 31 Meeting

Hi All,

We had a very nice and productive virtual meeting among the owners of Bohol Jewel today. I want to thank those who attended and invite those who didn’t to join us at our next meeting which will be on Saturday, January 7, 2023, 8am Bohol time (details to follow). Please leave comments below.

One of the things I took away from this meeting is that we work better as a community, and this has been lacking for a few years. This is why we have agreed to conduct meetings every quarter instead of every year. Please mark the next meeting (January 7, 2023) on your calendar so we can act and feel more like a community, even if we are physically far apart. The virtual format worked well, and it was also nice to get replies to the questionnaire from many owners even if they were not at the meeting. So we will use this format to communicate, make decisions, and meet as owners every quarter.

Directory

One of the things that were discussed was to make available a “directory” of all owners including names, apartment number, email, possibly Whatsapp or phone, so you can communicate directly with your neighbor and vice versa. Please reply to this email to consent if you agree to share your contact info with all other owners. Please specify if we can share only your email, or also your Whatsapp and phone. If we don’t receive a reply then we will just put your first name as the owner.

Generator

We discussed the generator in detail and have agreed that the best course would be to sell the current generator, and for all owners to chip-in to buy a new, larger unit that is better quality and has no maintenance or repair issues, and capable of handling all the power needs including aircon. This was also the most popular choice from the questionnaire even from owners who were not at the meeting:

The estimated price per apartment would be 15K pesos per apartment. The exact price will only be available after we sell the current one and when we source the new one. I am OK even though I would be responsible for contributing to 10 apartments. But this only works if all owners agree. If we have a few who don’t want to participate then it becomes more expensive for all others, and we don’t have any way to disconnect one or more units from the generator. So this would complicate things. I hope we can come to a unanimous decision and please share your thoughts using the comments section if you don’t agree and why you don’t agree.

Let me conclude this section by pointing out that having a reliable and good backup power will benefit ALL owners, even if you are not living in your apartment. It makes it easier to rent your apartment, and it will make it more likely to sell your apartment one day as the new owner will want this. So everyone benefits from having a reliable backup power if we can all share in this expense.

Internet

We also discussed the internet and for the next few months we will continue to provide internet by subscription. I am sharing the details of the subscription here so anyone can see that we are using these subscriptions to pay for PLDT bills and future equipment upgrades only. No one is making any profit from the internet at BJR. I will look into upgrading the account at PLDT and will keep you informed.

In the first quarter of 2023 we expect to have Starlink internet available in Bohol. We have already reserved our satellite dish that will cost $110 per month, plus a $599 equipment fee (that is 6,380 pesos per month, and 34,742 pesos equipment fee with current exchange). So far we only have 2,240 pesos saved for this equipment so we still have a long way to go before paying for the Starlink satellite internet.

The results from questionnaire were more divided:

​In Summary

The generator and the internet are not the only things we need to discuss and agree on. There are issues of staff, keeping up the appearance of our property including the garbage area, the pool, back of buildings and driveway and of course the monthly fees. We are looking at increasing the monthly fee for next year due to all prices going up (common electricity, pool supplies, salaries and benefits, etc). These all need to be discussed and understood by all owners so I ask that all participate in our discussions, questionnaires, comment section and meetings.
I heard from the friend of the owner of unit 208 and apparently he does want to keep his apartment. So for now the unit will not be available for assume, we will see.

No one is happy about what happened the last 2-3 years, and continues until today. It’s even more important now that we work together as a community. There are advantages to having many owners, and we should use those advantages. Of course one key advantage is that the burden of keeping up the property is shared among all owners, not just one.

I can always be reached at this email (boholjewelcorp@gmail.com) and I look forward to comments, discussions and our next meeting in January.

Please leave comments below. You don’t need to create a new login to use the comment section, if you have a Google login you can use that.

Regards and Happy Halloween ,

Bill