Ahhhhh - the winter FINS.  One of the first signs of spring and the beginning of a new year on the island.  I hope the "off-season" has been good to all of you.

The Frye Island Inc. (FII) Board had a busier year than usual.  Historically, the majority of our work revolves around the operations of the golf course and marina.  Last year we also became heavily involved with real estate sales, the addition of the ball field, and evaluating whether or not FII should transfer a portion of their assets over to the Town.  As the golf course, marina, ball field and real estate are discussed in other portions of the FINS, my report to you will be limited to our asset evaluation.

In order to appreciate why we are considering the asset transfer, it is important to understand the relationship between the Town, the Board of Island Trustees (BIT) and FII.  While most of us have a pretty good sense of these relationships, I will provide an extremely brief overview for the benefit of our newer islanders and for those individuals who have been having too much fun to pay much attention to island politics. 

· The Town is comprised of those individuals who are registered to vote at Frye Island.  The Town functions much in the same manner as most Towns.  However, there is one very notable exception.  While the Town voters pass the budget, they can only vote "yes" or "no" to the municipal budget that is developed by the BIT.
· The BIT is comprised of those individuals who own cottages on the island.  While they have several responsibilities, probably their most important function is developing the municipal budget.  With this process all of the homeowners control the local costs of running the island.
· FII is comprised of all lot owners on the island, whether or not the lot has a cottage.  FII owns many of the assets on the Island including hundreds of lots, the beaches, ferries, golf course, marina, roads, water system, pool, tennis courts, administration office, community center, maintenance building, old fire barn and transfer station.  FII manages their real estate and operates the golf course and marina.  The balance of the assets are leased to the Town for use and operation by the Town.

With our recent separation from Standish, we now have a public organization, the Town, and a private organization, FII, who both have the best interests of the islanders at heart.  As public and private organizations each have their own set of advantages and disadvantages, the FII Board decided to evaluate the ownership and operation of each asset to determine which organization should be doing what to best benefit the island as a whole.  For example, if the Town owned the water system the island would probably have decreased potential liability and we may have better opportunities to receive funding.

OK - that's the background.  Now, what have we done and where are we heading? 

· Before we left the island last year members of the Board split up into groups to assess the various assets.
· Draft reports were completed and distributed to all Board members prior to our January meeting. 
· The reports were discussed in detail during that meeting.