Hello, everybody! He here. I got a package and another book haul video So I was waiting on the final book to arrive before I did my book haul video and it just now got here So Amazon's packaging. It just now got here So we are going to do a book a Package video along with our book haul and I got get all without the luminous dead by Katelyn Starling. Yeah, see that that's such a pretty cover. That's if you can't see it That's a hand grabbing on some rocks or something. I think it's about cave Dwelling or cave spelunk spelunking spelunking. Yes, I think it's about that It's a when Jair price lied her way into this expedition She thought she'd be mapping mineral deposits and the greatest dangers might be cave collapses and gear malfunctions She also thought the fact paycheck meant she'd get a skilled surface team Monitoring her suit and environment keeping her safe keeping her sane instead She got M. But if you guys want to check out the rest of this, I'm not going to linger too much on each book I'll give you a little overview about what they're about or a little bit about the author a little bit about why I grab them I know some people go into the entire description for a book. That's not me I find that Insanely boring and when I watch book haul videos that do that I tend to scrub to the next book I'm sorry.  It's from Harper Voyager So next up I want to tell you once again bookmarks a Stranger dream sent me a couple bookmarks and it gave me a code to give you guys a discount So once again down there in the doobly-doo click on that link go over there and check out a stranger dream And yes, those of you asking yes, this is the same company that did the cover for my cruelty and joy series on patreon So but if you want to grab these bookmarks, which are super awesome sexy Click on the link down there in the doobly-doo and type in at checkout Lorne five is a discount code and it gets a discount on the entire order next up I got yet. I couldn't pass this up because it was a quarter once again Yukio Mishima I didn't like star if y'all remember my review that one this one is the sound of waves And I figure since I since I just found it for a quarter I go ahead and grab this one too So yeah, like I said, the only reason I got it is because it was quarter And I might end up reading this one before I read confessions of a mask because it's so Super short Next up I have a couple of amazing finds the first one is first blood by David Morel, which is of course the The book that inspired Rambo from what I understand two completely different experiences Between the book and the movie. So I like the Rambo movie. All right, but from what I hear Morel did a fantastic job with the actual book. So I'm definitely going to give this a check out I might even do a book versus movie for it. I know I know I still haven't done witches of Eastwick I apologize. I'm so far behind an up. It's shot I just have a chance to load it for some odd reason anything over 30 minutes My internet right now is killing the only video over 30 minutes I've been able to upload has been the Stephen King theorist with black house and I have no idea why Ever since they kill the the internet died here. I've been having problems uploading long videos But we will continue to try until we get those bastards uploaded next up and that was a quarter That was a quarter at the library sale. Am I off? I'm off center, aren't I? Oh, well, somebody will just have to be upset Next up the haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson was a quarter at the library.  Yeah, there was one more Maybe it was two I can't remember. I know the last one was a was a quarter also, but we'll get to that But yeah haunting of Hill House. I've never read this. I read We have always lived in a castle and I wasn't too impressed But that everybody who read my review of that one said go check out this one The haunting of Hill House and it has one of the most famous opening lines of all time I can probably that something walked in Hill House and it walked alone something like that. Let me Let's see here. Let me try and find it No live organism can continue for long to exist sanely under conditions of absolute reality Even Larks and Katie did Katie did's Katie did's are supposed by some to dream Hill House Not saying stood by itself against its hills holding Darkness within it had stood for 80 years and might stand for 80 more within walls continued up Upright bricks met neatly floors were firm the doors were sensibly shut Silence lay steadily against the wood and stone of Hill House and whatever walked there walked alone I was under the impression that whatever walked there walked alone was like the opening line So my apology for reading all that but I suppose it has the the most famous opening paragraph of all time I know everybody talks about that one line. Whatever walked in Hill House walked alone. It's pretty rad line All right, so next up we have a two gifts actually The Wolf Sour you guys probably saw this and my I won't go into it too much But this is the last McCammon book that I needed from my McCammon collection and author Tim What in the world is his name Tim, Michael almost called my buddy Tim Feely. I have a lot of Tim's There's a Tim that comes in chat all the time. There's Tim Meyer. There's Tim Feely. There's another Tim Nobody else knows about I got Tim's coming out the wazoo. So anyways, yeah, Tim Meyer author great, dude He sent me the Wolf Sour because he saw on Instagram that I needed it and he didn't want any Compensation or anything I did give him a shout out on the channel, but he didn't ask for that He just said, you know, thanks for doing that and he's cool. Dude great guy Just sent me a book. Anywhere else you go. It's like five bucks. So thanks for saving me five bucks Tim If you watch the video next up we have my buddy Nick sent me the Frightners by Steven Laws I don't think this is the last one I needed for my laws collection, but it but it's awfully close to being done Mostly I have his old leisure paperbacks, but this one is a I don't even know who published new English library It's also either it's the Australian version of the book, which is cool It was twelve ninety five in Australia, but it was only four ninety nine in a in the UK crazy So, yeah, so new English library copy of the Frightners No, it is not the movie with Michael J. Fox and Jake Busey is not Based on this book. It's something completely different. In fact the Frightners It's a mob term from what it says in the opening of the book to put the Frightners on someone's like put A screw on them to you know pay back a loan or something next up is another one that I got For a quarter from the library is memento mori Yeah, I can't find this book for under 15 bucks not even on the Amazon I think the lowest I ever found it was $12, but it's super short and I couldn't see spending that it's 223 pages It's supposed to be a classic like mystery horror kind of deal and It's by Muriel spark. Yeah, so I've had this one in my Amazon gift card forever It's on a list of must-read books for like horror fans something like that I can't remember where I read by some Buzzfeed something, but yeah memento mori was another quarter book that I quarter a Book that I got from the library for quarter. I don't know you were see okay next up is a gift from my friend Terry She's always sending me stuff, which is the girls by Emma Klein I told kind of a funny story about this one I read this one while I was doped up on some pretty high pain medicine and I wrote a review of Just imaginings stuff that didn't actually even happen in the book As like she was always buffing her muffin is what I wrote I thought the book was full of masturbation and I got some plot points right but for some other reason I imagined or dreamt that this woman was always masturbating throughout the book I have no idea why but that's what I wrote so yeah I'm gonna try and read it again the first time I tried to read it It was on audiobook now. I'm gonna try to actually read the text I had somebody who wanted to buddy read with me was it Richard Richard was it you Wanted to read it with me. Let me know down there in the doogly-doo. So next up we have this one I've been looking for forever. I finally found a used copy of and I haven't been able to finish this one But I am such a huge fan of the original book that I had to get the sequel as the pilo Traveling show which is the sequel to the pilo family circus I think is the name of that one. It's a terrific book and I grabbed this one it the pristine copy Just like it's like it's brand new. I'm not sure why it was so cheap I think it was five bucks from a Goodwill. I think it was But it's like it hasn't even been read. There's no marks or scuffs or anything on it It's a perfect straight from the manufacturer is what it seems like and there's no writing in it anything like that So I'll probably get into this one relatively soon. Hopefully I can finish it because before I only had it on ebook And I think that's part of the reasons why I kept on quitting it I don't think it's actually the book itself. Next up is something that's probably gonna end up getting sold And the reasoning for that is I I've seen the book everywhere, but I don't know it's my jam or not And that is I don't even know what it's called the great alone by Kristen Hannah If anybody wants this book, I'm willing to let go of it for a dollar plus shipping if anybody wants it I got it for a quarter at the library. It does have some sticker residue right here So I can clean it up for you If you want me to clean it up for you, that's fine It's gonna smell like goo gone when you get it back, but if you don't mind I'll just go ahead and send it I don't think I'll ever get to it. It's a pretty stout book. I think it's over 400 pages Yeah, 440 pages and I just don't think it's my kind of deal. Oh, also someone it's a destroyed book also So the publisher didn't receive any the publisher or the author didn't receive any money for it The price has been cut off of it But yeah former POW comes home from the Vietnam War a changed and volatile man when he loses yet another job He makes an impulsive decision He will move his family north to Alaska where they will live off the grip never mind I take back my offer. I'm gonna at least try this. I don't know what the writing is gonna Writing is gonna be like but I'm all there for that just picks up and leaves 13-year-old Lenny a girl coming of age in a tumultuous time caught in the riptide of her parents passionate stormy relationship There's to hope that a new land will lead to a better future for a family. Yeah, this sounds good I may put it up for sale anyways So if somebody wants it the first person to comment that they want it if I don't like it You get it for a dollar plus shipping. So yeah, there you go the great alone by Kristen Hannah Also, if it's good, I like literary fiction. I don't like contemporary fiction I certainly don't like romance if it's anything like that heavy on that Please let me know down there in the doobly-doo or if you know me well and you've read it and you think I won't like it Let me know why you think I won't like it if you think I'll like it. Let me know why you think I'll like it Arguing your case down there in the doobly-doo. Okay, so oh I got a stack leaning tower piece of the last one It was in the I think it was either in the classic section It was just up on the shelf for the library sale the quarter of book was Elmord Leonard's get shorty And yeah, I saw all you out there. I thought you've never read Elmord Leonard. I haven't that's why I got the book You silly so yeah Elmord Leonard. I follow a lot of his writing advice, but I don't I've never actually read one of his books He has a and what's kept me away this long is there's a there's a quote from him Not really a quote, but I saw an interview with him where he said an old woman came up to him in the store It seems like all authors have an old woman came up to him in the store Stephen King story is a Shawshank redemption story if you guys know that one Let me know down in there doobly-doo, but uh an old woman came up to me I really loved and she did he did the accent to you. I really love that movie get shorty and he says well did you What did you read the book and she said well? No, I didn't know was it was a book until just until after I saw the movie and he goes well Then you're no good to me or you're no use to me is what he said It seemed like a really dickish move and I stayed away from him until then I said I you know I'm not gonna buy the guy's work But if I ever find his book on sale or used or whatever I will try him out and if I like him Then I'll end up buying his work, you know, so there's the story guys But yeah, so I got get shorty by Elmord Leonard Whether or not he's a douche nozzler, not if he's a good author. He's a good author I'm definitely here for this now Let me try and fix this leaning tower a piece over here real quick because I have absolutely no room out in this Out in this office anymore I just made room by doing the big book sales on Twitter yet y'all catch those and I restocked again So I need to get rid of about a hundred more books and I don't go through the stuff that I plan on selling I don't do in these book haul videos But I usually bring in at least a hundred books a month and I'm not gonna bore you sitting through a bunch of books that That you know, I'm not gonna keep and I have no interest in reading like I buy James Patterson books all the time Just to resell them They pull a big profit for me Clive Clive Custler, James Patterson, John Sanford all these books I will never read even though everybody keeps telling me to read John Sanford. I'm gonna try it I have a stack of Lucas Davenport novels over here from the first to I think to the 10th So if I like them then I'll keep them But I always sell the later ones because those ones are usually the most popular I have a couple of Lee Childs down here I can't stand Lee Child, but the last book for this book haul is the necromancer's house by Christopher Buhlman I've read and absolutely loved those across the river and it hit my top 20 list of all time whether or not I'll stay at number 20 or not who knows but I grabbed this one because it was super cheap on Amazon a new copy I did not buy a used copy. This is a brand new copy off Amazon. It was super cheap for the hardcover So I went ahead and grabbed it. I think it was like 10 11 bucks something like that But yeah, this is the only other one of his that really piqued my interest Now I'm not saying that he can write that that the books that don't pique my interest won't be great I mean with insomnia insomnia and leasy story if I read the descriptions for those books I never and went off just that I never would have read them me being a super King fan Of course, I read them eventually and I love them But with with this on he hasn't quite won my trust So I'm gonna read one more that I know that's funny to say but I always give authors two chances Even when I like them and it takes at least two books for me to go. Okay, you're you're someone I'm gonna buy from all the time now So if you've read anything else by Christopher Buhlman and want to give me a recommendation for something that I should try That's fine, but I'm gonna read this one first I think the only other one that looked busy was like the suicide motorcycle cub or the motorcycle suicide club something like that seemed interesting But yeah, so I got this one. This is the last one that that for the for the list, but it's very intriguing I'm not usually a witch in warlock and all that stuff kind of deal But the rest of the premise seem interesting to me I'll go ahead and read this to you Andrew Randolph Blankenship is a handsome stylish non-conformist with why wit rye wit a classic Mustang and a massive library And I gotta admit that's one of the reasons why I picked it up He is also a recovering alcoholic and a practicing warlock able to speak with the dead through film one of my number one Guilty pleasures is witch fiction. I really enjoy stuff about witches But it tends when when that's a warlock it tends to be I don't know what it is But people rarely get warlocks right and it's not like there's some standard that I have It's just usually the warlocks come off kind of kind of laughable I mean, it's also the same with the male wizards and Harry Potter. I always found them laughable I don't know if there's a little sexism going on there with me Not liking the male wizard to how a man which like supernatural powers seems silly to me But it's completely fine for a woman to have it. I don't know what kind of gender bias I have there But hey, it's the truth So I was but it's still the closest one that I could that I read from the descriptions that kind of peeked to my interest So let's give this one a try also So yeah, this is the last one from the book haul the Necromancer's house I also am a huge fan of the cover. I'm not gonna get sit here and say this the whole reason that I bought it But it's pretty close. Anyways, if you have your own book haul videos, please link them down there in the doobly-doo I say this every time but they are some of my favorite Content here on YouTube. I watch book hauls from strangers. I watch a book haul from friends I love book hauls. I love watching people talk about the whys of why they buy things It's I feel like it's the best way to get to know somebody Through this in this whole internet shenanigans It's the best way to to get to know somebody is to kind of lurk on their buying habits So that's why I watch the book hauls I get to know somebody rather quickly whether or not I want to consume their content or not Whether or not I want to follow them whether or not I want to be a friend of theirs that kind of deal And I watch probably out of all the videos that I watch I only comment on probably five percent of the videos So if you're a friend of mine and your videos are up and you're like why hasn't he commented? I rarely comment because I watch so much and also the way I have my room set up I usually am watching it on the screen with my tablet charging across the room So unless it's something that really really grabs my brains like you have to say something I rarely ever comment So I apologize But if you ever do a video and you want me to specifically answer questions for you or anything like that You're gonna have to ask me Specifically in the video. Hey, what do you think about this thing? But uh, yeah, so definitely even if you don't have a video, please leave your book hauls down there in the doobly-doo Just give me a list Dustin. I love your list everybody else who puts their list down there I appreciate you. It's like I said, it's another thing I can get to know you without a whole lot of input given between the both of us I see you're buying habits. I have a good idea of what kind of person you are But until next time I have been E you've been you this been in the book haul video. I'll talk to you guys later. Bye. Bye


Donation of inventory. If you contribute inventory property that you sell in the course of your business, the amount you can claim as a contribution deducting is the smaller of its fair market value on the day you contributed it or its basis. So notice if you're you know giving inventory, contributing inventory, then you've got this valuation type of problem situation in terms what's the value of the inventory because you bought it for a certain price and then you're going to sell it for you know the retail price or whatever. So the basis of donated inventory is any cost incurred for the inventory in an earlier year that you would otherwise include in your opening inventory for the year of the contribution. You must remove the amount of your contribution deduction from your opening inventory. It is not part of the cost to good soul. If the cost of donated inventory is not included in your opening inventory, the inventory's basis is zero zero zero zero zero. And you cannot claim a charitable contribution deduction. Treat the inventory's cost as you would ordinarily treat it under your method of accounting. For example include the purchase price of inventory bought and donated in the same year in the cost of goods sold for that year. A special rule may apply to certain donations of food inventory. See publication five to six charitable contributions for more or more information there. Example one you are a calendar year tax payer who uses an accrual method of accounting in 2022. You contributed property from inventory to a church. So you go you got a church. You're going to give something to them. You're going to give them not cash but the inventory. It had a fair market value of $600. The closing inventory at the end of 2021 property included $400 of cost due to the acquisition of the property. And in 2021, you properly deducted $50 of administration and other expenses attributable to the property as business expenses. The charitable contribution allowed for 2022 is 400 which is the $600 minus the $200. The $200 is the amount that would be ordinary income if you had sold the contributed inventory at fair market value on the date of the gift. The cost of goods sold you used to determining gross income for 2022 but must not include the $400. You remove that amount from opening inventory for 2022. That's kind of an unusual situation where we have this charitable contribution but it gets a little bit messy in those cases. So example two if an example one you acquired the contributed property in 2022 at a cost of $400 you would increase the $400 cost of the property in figuring the cost of goods sold for 2022 and deduct the $50 of administration and other expenses attributable to the property for that year. So you would not be allowed and a charitable contribution deduction for the contributed property. All right, let's go to line 36 purchase less cost of items withdrawn for personal use. So now we're taking taking stuff out for personal use. So if you are a merchant, use the cost of merchandise you bought for sale. If you are a manufacturer or producer, this includes the cost of all raw materials or parts purchased for manufacture into a finished product. So again, purchase less cost of items withdrawn for personal use. So in other words, if you're just buying inventory and selling it, then it's fairly straightforward because you're going to put it on the on the cost that you purchased it for. If you have inventory that you're constructing into end use, then because it's a manufacturing company gets a little bit more complicated. So once again, if you are a merchant just buying and and marking up and then selling inventory, use the cost of all merchandise you bought for sale. If you are a manufacturer, meaning you're converting the inventory from raw materials to finish good or producer, this includes the cost of all raw materials or parts purchased for manufacture into a finished product. So trade discount. The differences between the stated prices of articles and the actual prices you pay for them are called trade discounts. You must use the prices you pay, not stated prices in figuring your cost of purchase. In other words, you're purchasing these items of inventory, they had a stated price that sticker price, but you actually bought them for something other than the sticker sticker price, possibly less than a sticker price. Obviously, you want to record them from an accounting standpoint at the price that you actually paid for them, not the sticker price, because that's different. So do not show the discount amount separately as an item in gross income. So an automobile dealer must record the cost of a car in inventory reduced by any manufacturer's rebate that represents a trade discount, for example, so cash discounts, cash discounts or amounts, your suppliers let you deduct from your purchase invoices for prompt payment. So these are a form of discounts that are usually a lot lower in an amount, because they're just trying to incentivize you to pay them earlier than you otherwise would as you do your time value of money. The general concept for time value of money from the payable side is I'm going to pay as late as possible without until I don't get penalized. And from the recipient side, they want to get their money as soon as possible. So if the recipient wants their money sooner than the terms of the agreement, they could try to give a small discount to incentivize that to take place. So there are two methods of accounting for cash discounts, you can either credit them to a separate discount account or deduct them from total purchases for the year. So we saw this in a prior presentation, if you're buying inventory, for example, you could say, well, I know I'm going to take on the discount. So even though I'm purchasing it on account, I'm going to assume I pay it within 10 days, instead of 30 days, for example, because they're going to give me a 10 a discount within 10 days, and I'm going to mark it in at that price, or you could say I'm going to just use the normal price, not including the discount that I'm going to purchase it for. And then when I do get that small cash discount, then what am I going to deal with it? I might have to record it basic. I can revalue the inventory after adjusting for the discount that they gave me, because I recorded it at the higher price, not including the discount, assuming that I'm going to pay them in 30 days instead of 10 days. But now I paid them in 10 days, and I got the discount. So am I going to adjust the value of the inventory at that point in time? Or because it's a fairly small discount, just record it possibly as income or something at the point in time, they give me the discount, which other methods you use, you must be consistent. If you want to change your method of figuring inventory cost, you must file form 3 1 1 5 for more information. You can see change in accounting method in chapter two. So if you credit cash discounts to a separate account, you must include this credit balance in your business income at the end of the tax year. If you use this method, do not reduce your cost of goods sold by the cash discount. So then we got the purchase returns and allowances. You must deduct all returns and allowances from your total purchases during the year. Now this gets a little bit confusing because when we talk about returns and allowances, you can think about am I talking about the returns that are coming from the customers that I sold the inventory to that are returning know here we're talking about the inventory that you rejected that you bought from your vendors and you're returning it to them and therefore you must deduct all returns and allowances from your total purchasing during the year because you returned them.


The Elite Book 600 series is trying to open up the brand for more consumers, with the 640 G9 being a fantastic and portable laptop. Now, we have the bigger 15.6 inch member of the family, the Elite Book 650 G9, which brings the same hardware but in a larger chassis, so it will be interesting to see how it performs. On the outside, we see a standard business inspired design, with a silver finish, sharp edges, and rounded corners. The laptop is made from aluminum, which improves the durability by a decent amount, but there's still some flex when we twist the lid or press on the base. The Elite Book is quite portable, with a weight of just 1.74 kg and a profile of 19.9 mm. The lid opens easily with one hand, showing off thin bezels on all four sides. The top one has an HD webcam, but you can get a full HD model with an IR sensor for face recognition. The base comes with a fingerprint reader below and a speaker grill above the keyboard. The board itself is very good, with a backlight and spill resistance. Typing feels great, as the key travel is long and the feedback is clicky. The touchpad sways a bit to the left, however, its surface is really smooth and the tracking is quite clicky. Going to the sides, the input output shows good coverage. The left side has a LAN port, one full sized 5 gigabit USB port, and an optional smart card reader. On the other side, we have the power plug, one Thunderbolt 4 port, two more full sized 5 gigabit USB ports, an HDMI 2.0 port, an audio jack, and an optional SIM card tray. The display selection includes a 1366 to 768 PTN panel or a full HD IPS panel. We tested the FHD option, which is okay for daily use and office work, however, with only 51% sRGB coverage, professional color related work is out of the question. However, the laptop isn't targeting designers or creators, so we think the display is suitable, with no PWM usage. Once the laptop is suited for the office, we'll link our office work profile, which improves clarity when looking at pieces of text or tables. There's definitely more space for a larger battery pack, but HP thinks it's okay to offer a 42.75 watt hours unit. It lasts for 9 hours and 15 minutes of web browsing, or 7 hours and 17 minutes of video playback. These results are accomplished with the Core i5-1235U, which doesn't perform as well as we would want. The Dell Latitude 153530 does a lot better in 3D rendering with the same CPU, but the Elite Book is still a bit quicker in Photoshop. There are other CPU options available, including 2P series chips. The device uses one heat pipe and one fan, which is enough for a 15 watt CPU. We see very high clock speeds and up to 45 watts in the first few seconds of our test, which is more than enough for basic work and quicker tasks. In the long run, the CPU settles at 24 watts, so we are pretty happy. CPUs do get high, but they can't really be felt on the outside, as the base reaches only 35 degrees Celsius. Noise isn't an issue as well. Since this is a larger laptop, it has space for two Sodium slots for up to 64GB of DDR4 memory in total and 2M.2 slots, both of which can fit generation for SSDs. We have a separate teardown video, which shows how to upgrade the HP Elite Book 650G9. You'll leave a link in the video description. The Elite Book 650G9 is a great business device with a solid chassis and good upgradeability. The short load performance is good as well, so you'll have a snappy experience when using it. All in all, it might sweep the rug under the Probook series, so HP should be pretty careful with pricing and how they position the series in their hierarchy. For more info about the Elite Book 650G9, you can go over our written review which shows even more tests.


Good afternoon and welcome to our weekly show, Condo Insider. My name is Jane Sugimura and I'm your co-host on this program. Richard Emory is off island and so I'm going to be doing the show today. And my guest today is Larie McGuire. She's a partner, a law partner at Porter McGuire, Kia Kona and Chow. She's an attorney. She's going to be talking to us today regarding a very important topic. This show is about condo living and issues that affect residents and owners. And today we're going to be discussing board of directors and what do they do. Welcome to the show, Larie. Thank you, Jane. I'm happy to be here. Why don't you tell us about your firm? What do you do? My firm is Porter McGuire, Kia Kona and Chow. And as you may know, we work primarily in the area of condominium and homeowner association law. And probably 80% of our practice deals with condos and homeowner associations. So you know a lot about boards of directors. I know quite a bit, yes. And so a good portion of your job is talking to boards and giving them advice. That's correct, yes, definitely. And so what we're going to be doing today, and hopefully we have in our listening audience, we have new board members and existing board members. And we're going to be talking about what they have to do at every board meeting. And that's making decisions. And really, if you're on a board, what kind of decision making are you involved in? Oh my. If you're on a board, you're going to be involved in every decision that a board would deal with, be it dealing with collection of assessments, possibly replacing or maintaining the common elements, paving a parking lot, replacing a roof, dealing with a homeowner who has maybe an excessive number of pets when you're governing documents allow for one or two pets. So you name it, you're going to be dealing with just about every decision you can imagine. Okay, for a person who's just coming on the board, and if they were to ask you to read, you know, I'm now a new member. I mean, how do I go about making these decisions? I don't know anything about the condominium. That's a very good question. And you know, most board members don't know anything when they come on a board in terms of an association and how an association is run. And the law actually protects board members. They allow board members to comply with a standard known as the business judgment rule. And so long as a board complies with the business judgment rule, then they're safe. They'll be covered. If an owner has an issue and an owner later comes after them with a complaint, so long as the board has complied with the business judgment rule. And so you may ask, what is the business judgment rule? Yeah, that was going to be my question. What is the business judgment rule? OK, to begin with, every board has a fiduciary duty. They actually have four fiduciary duties. They've got a fiduciary duty of diligence to act as a reasonable person would act in the same or similar situation, a recently prudent person, careful person. They have a duty to act in good faith, to act honestly and fairly in dealing with the situation at hand. They have a duty of loyalty. They have a duty to be loyal to the association. In other words, don't act in your own best interests. Don't act in the best interests of your neighbor, of that owner who you're concerned, make it upset if you vote one way. You have to be independent and you act in the best interest of all of the owners of the association. In other words, if you sit on a board, you can't vote with the board president because she or he is the board president. You need to vote, exercise your own independent judgment and you vote accordingly. And how do you do that? That is a great question. As a board, in every situation, in every issue, the first thing you want to do is determine what the facts are. What is the issue? What is the problem? So you enter into a fact gathering mode and talk to other owners, look around. You know, what do you see? What do you hear? What do you smell if there's a problem? But figure out what the facts are. And then you as a board want to come together and discuss those facts and figure out what questions remain unanswered. And then maybe you want to look to an expert to answer those questions. So you want to hire an expert. If it's an accounting problem, a problem with your reserves, you may want to talk to an accountant or reserve specialist. If it's a legal question, you may want to talk to an attorney. But what happens if you're sitting on a board and somebody says, yeah, but that costs money? You know, it's probably cheaper to get that opinion, that expert opinion. It's probably a lot cheaper to do that than to wait and not obtain the necessary information. It's OK for these board members to go out and spend association money to get expert advice or hire consultants to come in and tell them, explain to them about the problem that they're facing. Yes, and here's why. When board members are elected to the board, they are given a position of trust. Owners vote them onto the board because they trust their judgment. They trust their ability to obtain expert information if they need it. They trust their ability to go out and obtain the answers to the questions that they have in order to make the right decision. So how does the board go out and find these experts? I mean, what if you're sitting on the board for the first time? I mean, you don't know any architects or lawyers. So how do you find out who these consultants are and how do you get them to come to the board or give you an opinion? That's a great question. Typically, most associations are managed by property management companies, and we have a number of them here in Hawaii. So the property manager that's assigned to your particular project will typically know who to call. And if they don't, they know who to ask in terms of figuring out who to call. If you're a self-managed association, then you want to get on the internet.  But it's important to have somebody come in and explain to you how to address the issue that you're trying to make a decision about. Definitely. Definitely. You don't know that, and nobody expects you to know all the answers. So you do need to get that expert information. So you can then make an informed decision about whatever the issue is. You're going to rely on that expert. And usually these experts, I mean, that you hire like the attorney or the architect, they have their own insurance, right? They've got their own errors and omission. That's correct. So that's another reason. I mean, this way, if there is a mistake, then that expert has insurance that and you can go after that expert. That's true. That's true. Or rather, the owner can go after that expert if necessary. But the expert is the one who's making the decision, ultimately. And then you're relying on that expert. And the board makes a decision based on the expert's opinion. And how would a board member make sure that they're protected? Because it's usually when a claim is made by an unhappy apartment owner or... I mean, it happens a long ways down the line. So how do you protect yourself? I mean, to show that you followed the rules. OK. You want to document everything. You want to document and disclose. So you want to document all along. So for example, you first find out there's a problem. You want to document in your minutes, the board meeting minutes, that you have a problem. Once the board knows a bit more about this, let's say they've hired an expert. An expert has told them what the problem is. They want to document that in the minutes. They may want to do a notice to all the owners. Advising all of the owners. Here's the problem that's risen. Here's how we propose to deal with it. Or maybe we're going to have a special meeting to discuss this particular problem, to apprise all the owners of the status of the problem and what we've done so far to address the problem and what we're considering doing about the problem in the future. So you want to document your decision making, the facts, the issue, and you want to disclose everything to your ownership. What's important about disclosing to the ownership? Oh, that's great. So many times you will have individual homeowners that get upset because they feel that the board is not providing them with all the information or they feel that the board isn't being quite candid with all of the owners. They know what's going on, but they don't want us to know what's going on. They want to make a decision before they tell us there's a problem so then they don't have to listen to our feedback about how the decision should be made. That's why you want to get them involved. You want to have owner engagement because if the owners are engaged in this decision making process, they're going to be more apt to go along with whatever the resolution is and less apt to sue you in the future if there is an issue. But if you have retained the documentation all along in terms of what you did, how you decided the problem, let's say for example, you know that there's a repair that needs to be made. So you're talking about how are we going to fund these repairs, right? So you're going to have a meeting and you're going to figure out, okay, owners, here's the cost of the problem. Here's the overall cost and here are options on how to deal with it. Do we need, how are we going to fund it? Are we going to get a loan? Are we going to have to do a special assessment? If we're going to get a loan to fund it then we've got to have majority ownership approval in order to do that. So all along the way you're involving the owners and that way they feel like they too are a part of this decision. And so that's one of the things that the board really should be involved in. Oh yes. In their decision making process. You bet, definitely. Okay. And you know, you mentioned lawsuits. Do board members get sued? Indeed, they do. Yes, they do. However, if they have complied with the business judgment rule, if they have acted as a reasonably prudent person should have acted under the same or similar circumstances, even if they made the wrong decision, they followed the proper procedure, they made the wrong decision. If they get sued, the court will more likely than not find that they are not liable because they followed the proper procedures. They made an informed decision. So that's even a more important reason to follow the business judgment rule really to protect yourself from getting sued because board members don't get paid, right? No, they don't. No, they don't. They're volunteers. And so the more reason, you wanna do something, you cannot do nothing. If you do nothing and you get sued, chances are your directors and officers, insurance will not cover you. They will cover you if you've complied with the business judgment rule. But if you haven't complied, if you haven't done your due diligence, if you haven't acted in good faith in the best interests of the association and in compliance with your governing documents and the law, then the court may find that you are personally liable for whatever that harm was that was committed or that owner incurred. Wow. Well, we're gonna take a break now and think about this. And then when we come back, Larise gonna give us some examples on how this works, how the business judgment rule works. And so we'll be back. Hello, this is Martin Despeng. I wanna get you get excited about my new show, which is Humane Architecture for Hawaii and Beyond. We're gonna broadcast on Tuesdays, 5 p.m. here on Think Tech Hawaii. Hello, I'm Marianne Sasaki. Welcome to Think Tech Hawaii, where some of the most interesting conversations in Honolulu go on. I have a show on Wednesdays from one to two called Life in the Law, where we discuss legal issues, politics, governmental topics, and a whole host of issues. I hope you'll join me. I'm Jay Fidel, and I'm the host of Research in Minoa, Mondays from 12 to 1, on thinktechawaii.com. Take a look at us and learn about geophysics, learn about planetology, learn about the ocean and earth sciences at UH Minoa. You'll really enjoy it. So come around, we'll see you then. Okay, welcome back. We have with us as our guests, Larry McGuire, and we're talking about the business judgment role. And Larry's been telling us how as a board member, if you follow the business judgment role, that you can minimize your exposure if you are eventually sued by an unhappy homeowner. And one of the things that she emphasized in the earlier part of the program is that you have to do a fact finding. You have to do fact finding. You have to consult with an expert to get an opinion. And you have to talk to your owners and disclose to keep them in the loop as part of the decision-making process. Now you're gonna be giving us some examples to show us how the business judgment role works. Okay, for sure. Here's an example that I think many condominiums are having to deal with today.  Oh, the clay pipes situation? Yes, exactly. And they're corroding from the inside. They're corroding from the inside out. The manufacturer previously issued a warranty telling the owners that these pipes were gonna last 80 years. And they've been in install for, let's say, 40 years. And now we know, we've learned that they are corroding from the inside out. We've had backups in units where they're flooding units. We know about this problem. We're trying to minimize it. What do you, as a board, need to do? Let's look at a situation that is feasible. And that would be, let's say you've got a project and they recently did a spa repair project, a very expensive project. So they took out a loan to pay for that spa repair. And then soon thereafter, their elevator broke down and they had to replace the elevator. And now they've done a special assessment to replace the elevator. Now they've learned about the pipes and they've gotta replace the pipes. And the board, certainly members of the board are saying, we just can't deal with this right now. We don't have the funding to deal with this right now. Can that board just bury their head in sand and ignore it and hope that that problem will go away? Can they? No, no, no, they cannot. If that goes, if there's an issue and let's say those pipes back up and they flood somebody's floor and that board has done nothing, that board's gonna get sued and they're gonna be found intentionally liable because they knew- They're intentionally liable means that they can, it's not covered by insurance. That's right, it's not covered by insurance and they may have to pay for it. And this is for a volunteer person who volunteers for the board, doesn't get paid. That's right. And if they make a bad decision, they could be personally liable and pay for it out of their own pocket. That's right.  If you don't wanna make decisions, do not sit on that board. So in this particular case, what this particular condominium should do, what the board should do, the first thing they need to do is assess the problem. So they wanna talk to homeowners. They wanna talk to other residents to find out what's going on in that particular unit. Gather all the facts then the board's gonna meet and make a determination, okay, how bad is this problem? Obviously, we aren't experts. We aren't plumbers, we don't know. They need to hire a plumber or someone like architectural diagnostics. Somebody who is into forensics, they can look and see what the actual problem is, possibly drill into the pipes and look into it. So they wanna hire an expert. Once they've got that expert, then they're going to want to have that expert draft up specifications that they can then put it out to bid and make a determination what are we dealing with financially? What's the cost and how are we gonna fund it, okay? And once they've done that, they need to get their owners involved. They need to get the owners involved, tell the owners exactly what's happening. You know, we've got the spa project, we've obtained a loan, we've got the elevator, so we've already done a special assessment. We cannot afford, we cannot afford another special assessment and we can't take out a loan yet. So before the board decides they're going to do nothing, they need to make an informed decision and say, okay, look, this is how bad the problem is. We've now hired an independent contractor. They've gone in, they've actually looked at some of the pipes. We now know what area is the worst, what area can last a little bit longer. We know how much time we have before we absolutely have to replace these pipes, right? So they do all of that. They get the board fully informed, the board has made a decision, okay, this is what we're going to do. They've met with all the homeowners. They've talked to the homeowners about the scope of the problem. They tell the homeowners, okay, we can't do anything about it right now. We are going to start putting away some money now in our reserves so that we can have some money set aside when we start to do this replacement. And we're documenting the fact that we're not going to do anything until let's say 2018, once our loan is paid down somewhat. So we are doing something. We are doing something. We're aware of the problem. We know the extent of the problem and we're doing our best to address it now. They've acted within the scope of their business judgment. So if next year a pipe breaks and it does flood somebody's unit and that owner sues the board because they didn't replace those pipes sooner, the board can look back. They've got their minutes documenting what they've done. They've got a copy of the notice that they sent out to everybody or the second notice and the third notice, making sure their owners are fully informed about what they need to do. And the court would look at that and say, you know, I understand that there was damage here. However, this board acted within the standard of its business judgment and they're not liable. Okay, well, that's good to know. I mean, because that's very stressful when you're sitting on the board and all these problems seem to multiply. In fact, you know, with the buildings right now, there's so many people, many of these buildings are old. So everything is failing or it's deteriorating to the point where it seems like every day you turn around, there's one other component that's failing and needs to be fixed or repaired or replaced. And it means another big expenditure. And you know, so the boards are, you know, I know that many of them are in a quandary as to where, how are we gonna do this and where we're gonna get the money and how do we explain it to our owners? Well, you've got to do the best you can. You need to become informed, like I said. And basically this procedure that I've laid out, you would want to go through that procedure on just about every issue. You may not need to have an expert draft specifications for you. You may not need to put it out to bid, but often you are gonna need to obtain an expert opinion on how to deal with something because you as a board member, let's say you work at, you know, Hawaii Intel or, you know, you have various jobs, but you're not an expert. You're not an architect. You're not an engineer. You're not a reserve specialist. And that's why you have experts that you can turn to and question. Definitely. Okay, and as part of the board's fiduciary duty, how often, I mean, when do they have to tell? Tell the unit owners. I would say tell them as soon as they know. As soon as they know something, tell them what they know initially.  It shouldn't be a secret. Whatever the problems that the board has, those same problems belong to the owners. The board, you represent the owners. The owners have elected you. They put you in a position of trust. It's your job to keep them informed. And I know numerous boards, they don't wanna tell the owners because they fear the complaints that they may get from the owners or they worry about the owners are gonna tell them what they think about how they should repair this particular issue. And that may be true, but it's much more important that they disclose and document everything. You know, are there any, can you think of another example for that would illustrate this business judgment role besides the repair situation? Yes, you bet. Let's talk about collecting maintenance fees.   And you know, now you're being placed to be put in the position of a debt collector, right?  The board has a budget. They know the money's coming in, they know the money's going out. And it's their job to make sure they've collected on these assessments. So even though it's not a pleasant thing to do, they need to make sure that they move forward. I can tell you so many times our firm has been, we've been referred certain matters where the debt is already exorbitant before it even gets to us. And you know, by that time, homeowners, if the debt is so high, they absolutely can't deal with it. And so they may not. But if you've addressed that debt early on before the particular owner owes thousands of dollars, then you're going to be in a better position to be able to deal with that person such that they can pay off that debt. And then the association can pay its bills because they're collecting timely, timely actions are the most important. Don't delay because you don't want to deal with something. Act timely. And with respect to collections, I mean, everybody who sits on the board, I mean, most of them live in the project. So you're dealing with neighbors and people that they may know.  No, they can't, they can't. And oftentimes the board, they are concerned about the neighbor who's going to come and talk to them. Who's going to ask them, can you please give me a payment plan or work out something with me? Well, you as an individual on the board, you have no authority. Only the board as a group can act. And the board should act as a group. I would recommend that you have a billing policy where you have a policy as to how you're going to deal with these particular owners. So that you're not dealing with each situation individually. There is a process. And the process would be that, you know, after the, you know, when you're late once and the management company will send out a letter, maybe they'll do it two times before it gets sent to legal. And at some point it gets sent to legal quickly before this amount starts to mushroom. Exactly, but have a policy in place. I mean, there are different policies, but you as a board need to make a determination of what's best for your association. Have that policy and then you want to follow it as to everybody. Because if you don't, then you're gonna get hit with a discrimination claim. Because let's say you allow this owner to have a five year payment plan. This owner has a six month payment plan. This owner's allowed a one year payment plan. You can't have different payment plans for different people. So there again, you want to become informed.  Get together as a board. Make a decision of how you're going to address it. Have a written policy. Draft a resolution, which is something that boards have in writing to document the various policies that they make. And that's also a historical record so that subsequent boards can look back to see how the board dealt with a particular issue in the past. And then owners can look at that and say, hey, okay, now I see there is this 12 month payment plan policy. The board implements it across all owners. It's not just me. So I understand, okay, I will implement this 12 month payment plan. And so if you have a collection or a billing policy, that also makes decision making easier because it's not like you have to make a special decision for this one unit order. I mean, it is if they owe the association money and this is what the process is and then you get into a payment plan and this is how you pay it back. Exactly, exactly. And that way, the attorney who works for the association doesn't have to come to the board every time there's an issue and every time they have to make a decision about a particular payment plan. That way, because you folks are busy. People on boards are busy. They don't have time to have a call from the property manager every day about a different issue. So you wanna have policies in place to where your business can run smoothly. The business of running the association can go smoothly. Well, geez, thank you so much for being with us. Thank you. And I'm sure we're gonna have to have you back because we're not finished with the topic, but thank you very much. And thank you for joining us. Next week, we're gonna have somebody from the Hawaii Civil Rights Commission to talk about housing discrimination. So I hope you can join us on Condo Insider. See you next week. Thank you.


NN, The Tiger, Financial News Network, News Update. Good morning, everyone, Basel Chapman here. This is The Tiger Financial News Network, 10 AM market update, sudden slide in the market. Not very deep, but a slide nevertheless. The Dow is down 67, I guess, Powell is about to talk, a little nervousness there, 33,381 at this particular time on the Dow. A very nice move up, third day yesterday, moving higher. Now you've got the S&P, which was up some. Now it's down 13 and 4,034. You've got the QQQ index 100 trading down 90 cents at 298. You've got the IWM, the Russell 2000 down 67 at 188. And let's just see what the bonds are doing. If they're doing that immediately, U.S., let's just see. Yeah, bonds are up 10, 30 seconds. I might be delayed on that. They're 124 and 29, 30 seconds. Crude oil, crude oil is down a dollar at 79, 40. This is going to be very interesting. So I'm going to crude oil. I want to get to the volatility index. The VIX index at this point is up 8 at 1867. It's up 8 cents. It's not a big deal. Still in the lower territory. All right, so we've got an acceleration down. We were expecting that for subscribers to my opening course. I had some real nice moves to the upside. Expected that today should see some, especially with that long-legged doji in the Dow. Let me just show you INDU. Look at this long-legged doji in the Dow. And it suggests that there should be some kind of a digestive phase, and that's going on right now. You've got support in the Dow at 33,300 and then 33,200. And if you're looking at the S&P, where support today, the support is at 4,027, I would say 4,013 to 4,010. That must contain prices. If it starts to go down deeper than that, that's going to become a little bit more serious. Now, within the context of everything, we're looking at gold. Gold is down $23 at 1831. We'll be back. And what's the dollar doing? The dollar is, it looked to me like the dollar wanted to be ready to that leg. But he could still do that. It's up 34 ticks at 1 or 4.63. I'll be back for the target technicians that are on check out my opening call today in Utah. And don't forget tomorrow is 30% of those, all the webinar should be a family.


Semblesa is a project for intensification of maize legume cropping systems for food security in eastern and southern Africa. As part of this effort, Ilri Semblesa collaborates to increase further forage production for livestock feed. Semblesa is a project for intensification of maize legume cropping systems for food security in eastern and southern Africa. As part of this effort, Ilri Semblesa collaborates to increase further forage production for livestock feed. As part of this effort, Ilri Semblesa collaborates to increase further forage production for livestock feed. As part of this effort, Ilri Semblesa collaborates to increase further forage production for livestock feed. As part of this effort, Ilri Semblesa collaborates to increase further forage production for livestock feed. As part of this effort, Ilri Semblesa collaborates to increase further forage production for livestock feed. As part of this effort, Ilri Semblesa collaborates to increase further forage production for livestock feed. As part of this effort, Ilri Semblesa collaborates to increase further forage production for livestock feed. As part of this effort, Ilri Semblesa collaborates to increase further forage production for livestock feed. As part of this effort, Ilri Semblesa collaborates to increase further forage production for livestock feed. I don't think that my daughter would be like that. We don't have to give her so much money to get it. We don't have to give her so much money to get it. We don't have to give her so much money to get it, but we have to give her money. We rack the tent with the fire and start working on it. That is why you get to work on it directly We're going to go all the way up and down, and we'll see what happens. We'll go up and down, and we'll see what happens. We'll see what happens when we arrive at the place where we stay. We'll come back. We'll come back to the place where we stay. We didn't know what we were doing and we didn't know what to do. We didn't know what to do. At first we didn't know what to do, but then we got to know the way to do it. When we came here, we didn't know what to do. It's not a small village, but it is a small village. There are many people who live and live in the village. The weather is good. We have a lot of people here. We have a lot of people who are living in the village. Our village is called Tawasidhala. This village is called Tawasidhala, and this village is called Zerttawasidhala. I am very proud to be a member of the International Human Rights Institute. I am very proud to be a member of the International Human Rights Institute.


For more videos on people's struggles, please subscribe to our YouTube channel. The UN Climate Change Conference of Parties, or COP26, commenced on Sunday, October 31st in the Scottish city of Glasgow. The conference is happening at a crucial moment when the world is running out of time to tackle the climate crisis. The unabated high emission levels, the alarming rise in sea level and extreme weather conditions denote the deteriorating global climate and irreversible changes to the environment. These issues demand immediate, serious and effective policies. The conference began just a day after the G20 economies failed to commit to a 2050 target to halt net carbon emissions to prevent the most extreme global warming. United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres addressed the summit attendees on Monday and emphasized we are digging our own graves. Our planet is talking to us and telling us something. And so are people everywhere. Climate action tops the list of people's concerns across countries, age and gender. We must listen and we must act and we must choose wisely. On behalf of these and future generations, I urge you, choose ambition, choose solidarity, choose to safeguard our future and save humanity. U.S. President Joe Biden called on world leaders to take up a transformational shift to clean energy, and made questions over his own ability to implement the same at home. All our writing purpose here in Glasgow is to raise the ambitions of our commitments to keep within reach our goal of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius. According to the International Energy Agency, the U.S. is the second largest emitter of methane in the world, which accounts for 30 percent of global warming since pre-industrial while leading the globe and also carbon emissions, the United States continues to lag in implementing policies to curb emissions and transition to green energy. In fact, around 2,500 new oil and gas permits were authorized in the first six months of the Biden administration. Many activists around the world have also pointed to the overwhelming role the U.S. military plays in causing environmental destruction and devastation. It is the largest institutional consumer fossil fuels in the world and emits more greenhouse gases than most mid-sized nations to keep its 800-plus military bases running. Meanwhile, Bolivian President Luis Arce pointed out that the climate crisis cannot be contained with green capitalism or more global markets, but only by moving towards an alternative model to capitalism. For us, the indigenous people are the main issue in the climate change. The most affected people in all over the world are indigenous communities, indigenous people. So for us, it is important to include life, people, not only, you know, as we were talking to many investors or people dedicated to environmental in all over the world. They are talking about fishing, they are talking about forests, but they are not talking about people. And we think that the main focus of our policies should be indigenous people, should be people. Barbados Prime Minister Amia Motley, a key leader representing the interests of some of the most affected by climate change, the small islands, also reiterated that the failure of rich countries to not deliver a promised $100 billion a year to help vulnerable nations cope with climate change will have deadly consequences. The pandemic has taught us that national solutions to global problems do not work. We come to Glasgow with global ambition to save our people and to save our planet, but we now find three gaps on mitigation, climate pledges, or NDCs. Without more, we will leave the world on a pathway to 2.7 degrees and with more, we are still likely to get to 2 degrees. These commitments made by some are based on technologies yet to be developed and this is at best reckless and at worst dangerous. On finance, we are $20 billion short of the $100 billion and this commitment even then might only be met in 2023. On adaptation, adaptation finance remains only at 25%. Climate finance to frontline small island developing states declined by 25% in 2019. Failure to provide the critical finance and that of loss and damage is measured my friends in lives and livelihoods in our communities. This is immoral and it is unjust. If Glasgow is to deliver on the promises of Paris, it must close these three gaps. From November 7th to 10th, the COP26 coalition will host the People's Summit for Climate Justice. The summit aims to bring together the climate justice movement to discuss, learn, and strategize for system change. Climate activists from various organizations have gathered in the city of Glasgow to demand urgent measures to cut greenhouse gases emissions from the heads of state attending the meeting. I'm here because I think this is the biggest health problem we've got. I'm a pediatrician. I'm particularly concerned about the health of children, which is suffering very badly now here and now in Glasgow as a result of air pollution. We are in a climate emergency and yet the way it's treated is it's like this is something we've got another 30 years but we don't. We have 88 to 10 years of the most to really turn it right and we're just not going fast enough. I think people recognize that. I think the people around here in George Square I found have been very receptive and have said the government isn't doing enough. So we have to say it very loud and clear to the government. Activists from Extinction Rebellion march against JPMorgan investments in the fossil fuel industry. Several other groups have also announced marches and other forms of protest actions throughout the week. Protests are also being organized in other parts of the world.