Mariner House Board of Directors Meeting: Minutes of October 21, 2025

A Zoom-based Mariner House Board of Directors (BOD) meeting was held on Tuesday, October 21, 2025, using the Mariner House Zoom account and recorded by MHA Zoom host Tracy Canty, the Mariner House Association (MHA) Property Manager. That recording constitutes the official and approved recording of this meeting, to the exclusion of any and all other recordings or partial recordings, intentional or accidental.
Attending the meeting was the full complement of Board members, comprised of: Ranelle Brew, Pat Catchpole, Kerric Harvey, Tammy Rausch, Mark Thurston, and Bob Vanasse, as well as property manager Tracy Canty.
The regular Board meeting was followed by an Executive Session.
A quorum of the Board voting members having been attained, Bob Vanasse called the meeting to order at 7:05 p.m.
Approval of prior meeting’s minutes
The minutes from the previous meeting of September 16, 2025, were approved and accepted by a voice vote of the Board.
PROPERTY MANAGER’S REPORT
Island News
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After a brief experiment, the “Island News” section of the monthly BOD meeting is back by request of the majority of the Board members.
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The Nantucket “No Kings Day” event on October 18 was attended by approximately 650 people on the island. Such were the dimensions of attendance that the town had to close off Centre St. for part of the day.
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The Nantucket Whalers are having a highly successful season, with a 6-0 record going into Homecoming weekend.
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Roughly half of the Vineyard Wind offshore turbines are up and running again after storms, malfunctions, opposition by many islanders and related operational struggles.
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The Town is warning islanders and all who cross Nantucket’s cyberspace about a SPAM email going around, which claims to be from the Town of Nantucket regarding something about island sewers. Resist clicking on this message, should it come your way, is their advice.
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Mariner House Updates
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September occupancy at the Mariner House was 71%.
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Painting is now completed for the back of the building, with only a few storm windows left to be installed to make it ready for winter.
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Tracy has sent out a “Save-the-Date” email to the Association membership apprising them of the November 22, 2025 Annual General Meeting.
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Several members have expressed their interest in running for the Board, which has three vacancies to address at this year’s annual meeting.
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Two people have expressed their interest in being the Decorating Chair for Essex and/or Defiance.
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Kerric Harvey and Bob Vanasse are both running for re-election to their Board seats, which reach end-of-term at the close of 2025.
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Gloria Kunz’s seat on the Board has been vacant since she retired from the Board and sold her Mariner House unit in 2024.
OLD BUSINESS
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More robust discussion around the hybrid vs. online-only models for this and subsequent annual meetings continued from last month meeting and many email exchanges, beginning tonight’s discussion with Bob noting that in the last two years, only seven people in addition to members of the Board attended the Hyannis gatherings in person. Kerric added that this was about the same number of non-Board members as attended the annual meeting using the online option.
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Tammy introduced a compromise position based on a graduated sunset of the in-person meeting that would address the low attendance problem for in-person numbers while at the same time not seeming to spring a Board-mandated change at this level on the membership out of the blue. The heart of her suggestion is that the Board consider making this the last of the hybrid meetings and use this 2025 session to convey that to the members through the auspices of the annual meeting. This idea was met with a great deal of interest by many Board members.
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Kerric made an informal friendly amendment to Tammy’s motion, suggesting that
the Board move forward with Tammy’s idea but make frame the wording of how we so that it includes a “passive vote” for the membership.
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Specifically, the Board would announce that the move to virtual-only will automatically begin with the 2026 Annual Meeting unless we hear from a significant number of the members at the 2025 annual meeting that they oppose such a change.
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The only “extra step” this requires, she continued, would be that notice of this issue be included on the agenda going out to members.
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Discussion having been exhausted and a motion made and seconded, Bob took a roll call vote on the following motion: a) that the 2025 annual meeting shall be the last hybrid annual meeting, with subsequent sessions being online-only; b) the members shall have the opportunity to voice their opposition to this change at the 2025 meeting; c) such opposition shall need to be a majority vote of the membership in order to prohibit the change from going forward as scheduled and described, and; d) if no such level and timing of opposition shall be voiced, then that shall be considered a passive vote on the part of the MHA membership in support of the subsequent meetings being held virtually beginning in 2026.
Results of the roll call vote were (4) to (2) in favor of the motion, with Board members voting as follows in the order in which they were called:
Ranelle: Yea
Mark: Nay
Tammy: Yea
Kerric: Yea
Bob: Nay
Pat: Yea
The motion passed as described above.
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Following the vote in which it was decided that this would be the last hybrid annual meeting unless more than 50% of the membership protested against it, further discussion arose regarding the time at which the meeting should be held.
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The main question here was whether we should hold the meeting later in the day (East Coast time) to provide a more congenial start time for Mariner House members who reside in the West and Mid-west.
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Kerric noted that Bob’s overlay map from the September BOD session illustrated the degree to which MHA members are now distributed across the continental U.S., suggesting that adjusting the meeting start time would address this change in MHA residency patterns quite nicely.
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Ranelle provided an alternative perspective, noting that moving the start time later in the day could be difficult for many of the membership who have children or other weekend commitments, since having the meeting start later makes it run longer and essentially consume all of Saturday.
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Tammy, Pat, and Mark all contributed to the discussion in addition to those already mentioned. The outcome by general assent was that we will not move the meeting start
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time significantly later in the day. Consequently, there will be a boxed lunch for in-person attendees at 11:00 a.m. and the actual meeting will begin at 12 noon, Eastern Standard Time (EST).
NEW BUSINESS
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Tammy and Tracy reported on several items affecting the proposed budget for the coming year. As Tammy summed it up: The areas in which there are significant increases in the proposed 2026 budget fall largely in two areas: increased energy costs (fuel, electricity, telecom, etc.) and anticipated legal fees needed to foreclose on our (7) current delinquent and/or abandoned intervals. Everything else in the budget is changing (increasing) according to general expectations.
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As a result, the annual fees for all units will increase for all intervals, at the rate of, roughly, 6.4%. Roughly half of that amount is the normal rise in year-to-year costs and the bump in electricity, etc.; the other 3% is for lawyer fees. Hopefully these lawyer fees are a one-time “bump” which, once the foreclosures are completed, will allow the budget to settle into more familiar lines, although of course that cannot be guaranteed.
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Bob provided context for the budget increase rationale, noting that the overall inflation rate last year was =/- 2.9%.
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The primary repair and upkeep expense this year will be the front stairwell in the main building, including the railing, some of the stairwell wall, and the cupola itself. This expense will be handled through the levying of a special assessment, in addition to the normal fees, taxes, and dues.
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The special assessment is proposed as being $165.00 per interval for one-bedroom units and $190.00 per interval for two bedroom units.
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A very brief discussion re-affirmed the need to address this problem expeditiously, despite the expense, a point on which the entire Board agreed by general assent.
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Discussion then turned to the special legal expenses in the 2026 proposed budget. The (7) intervals in arrears comprise a cash shortfall to the MHA to the amount of $19,000 – $21,000. The current Mariner House attorney, Joe Guay, reported to Tracy that he met with island attorney Jesse Bell, who would be assisting him with the transfers of ownership that would allow Mariner House to sell these units and relieve the continuing shortfall. According to Joe, Jesse would be starting to work on the “Notice(s) of Intent” needed to initiate foreclosure proceedings.
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This was of great interest and some confusion to several members of the Board. Bob expressed concern about Joe’s ability to really dig into the work at hand and his enthusiasm for doing so, since Joe is already semi-retired and living in Florida. The idea that Joe would be handling the matter, but with Jesse’s assistance, was something
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Ranelle wanted clarification about, since she reported having spoken personally with Jesse earlier this year and was told that she (Jesse) was not interested in being the new Mariner House attorney unless we could meet her current rates, which are much higher than Joe’s have been.
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Ranelle also noted that this conversation occurred on October 10th and that she still has the chain of emails about it.
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Speculation arose about the possibility that although Jesse was unwilling to be the official attorney for the Mariner House, she might be amenable to providing project work for Joe on a part-time basis.
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A feeling of general dissatisfaction with the situation gathered both force and momentum as the conversation continued.
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Mark asked for a ballpark estimate of how much it would cost to pursue all seven (7) foreclosures and raised the point that it might not be worth doing so if the financial “hit” far exceeded the yearly cost of carrying these units.
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Kerric suggested that we might want to prioritize the units and then work on getting them cleared up over a number of years, rather try to fix everything as one big project. This would help spread out the increased legal costs instead of hitting people all at once.
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Mark suggested that we find out from Joe, as precisely as possible, what we could realistically expect to get for the money dedicated to these special legal fees in the proposed budget.
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Tammy gave us the exact dollar amount for that, which is $10,000.
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Opinions varied among Board members regarding whether or not that would be sufficient.
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Tracy offered to get clarification from Joe about: 1) Jesse’s role in the foreclosure legal work, specifically, and; b) what we could reasonably expect to achieve with that $10,000 amount.
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There then followed criticism of the $850 budget line item for buying paper checks. Tracy supplied the information that we get 1,000 checks for that amount, and that we won’t have to buy checks for several more years. More discussion about the relative merits of using paper checks as compared to virtual payment means followed, with several Board members noting that they used a mix of the two methods in running their own businesses and others sharing that they relied on electronic means entirely.
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Pat noted that she pays her various vendors and business associates using both checks and electronic means, according to those vendors’ preferences and technological set-ups. Mark said that he does the same in his own business dealings.
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As the budget conversation began to draw to a close, Tammy reminded the group that the one open item in the proposed budget is this amount set aside for legal fees, and
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that the budget itself must be presented to members at the November 22 meeting and put into their hands ahead of that.
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Mark suggested that we use the $10,00 figure for now, but that we get a realistic notion from Joe as to what that will likely “buy us.”
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Tracy added that if we do prioritize the uncollectible intervals, we could do so according to which ones are easily rentable and do those first, since they’d then start generating revenue for the MHA even before they are sold to new owners.
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Prioritization would also take into account interval transfers that are already in the transaction phase as being priority items.
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In closing, Tracy reminded the Board that time before the annual meeting is very short, and she needs to have an approval on the budget and these other items in order to send proper and even minimally timely notice to the membership.
EXECUTIVE SESSION
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The Board then went into Executive Session with Tracy leaving the call. The Board discussed personnel matters and compensation for Tracy and for Bill (The Facilities Caretaker).
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Bob also reminded the Board that according to our By-Laws, it is the Board which is responsible for finding and retaining legal counsel for the MHA.
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Consequently, he will make inquiries among the attorneys whom he knows, and Kerric will investigate who provides legal serves for Brant Point Courtyard, where she is also an interval owner. Both will report back to the Board and to Tracy the results of this research.
There being no more new business, and a motion to adjourn having been made and seconded, Bob adjourned the meeting at approximately 9:20 p.m. EDT. The next Mariner House Board meeting will be held by Zoom on Tuesday, November 18, 2025, at 7:00 p.m. EST, in advance of the November 22nd annual meeting.
Minutes submitted by:
Kerric Harvey,
Mariner House Board of Directors and Secretary,
November 5, 2025