Steering minutes: 2010-10-03

Minutes:

Minutes of Steering Committee Meeting

10-3-10



Present: Gail, Dale, Becky, Sarah, Jim, Vincent, Kathy, Amy

Guest: Becky





1. Request from Grounds for $1200 from the Critical Needs Fund to
implement first phase of new lighting plan



Grounds has been working for several months with a lighting company, testing
out new places for outdoor lighting. Want to move ahead now with
installation of 6 outdoor lights. Five will be elevated and one will be on
a bollard (post). Grounds has spent its funds for this year already;
however, it has a Projects budget which is not part of GO’s operating
budget. Grounds will be contributing about $800 to the lights project from
this Project fund.



Q: Is $1200 a guesstimate or a quote?

A: It’s kind of both. It’s based on an original quote with some changes.



Plan is to see how these lights work this winter. They may address all of
the dark spots, or we may need to add more later. Grounds will request to
add more money to next year’s operating budget so they can add on if
necessary. It won’t cost as much then because the proposed installation
includes transformers. The transformers will accommodate more lights if
desired. These lights don’t need much work to install – digging only for
the one bollard. The rest are up high. The transformers will probably be
located: 1) in bike shed, 2) on Vincent’s building.



If Grounds gets approval, they will have this done before snow flies.



Back-up plan if Steering says no: Grounds will go before the community and
ask for a one-time assessment of $30 per household for one month.



Discussion: Concern is that it’s only October, what if something comes up
in the last 3 months of the year that might require funding from the
Critical Needs Fund? All present agreed that that these lights are a safety
measure: our neighbors need a safe path to walk on in the dark and icy
winter, and since we ask guests to park along the road, we need to light
their path as well. Steering approved the Grounds request for $1200 for six
new outdoor lights.



2. GO/TS Summit

The July summit was essentially a joint GO/TS steering meeting, and
non-Steering folk were also welcome to come. We decided at that time to make
it a quarterly event. The next meeting will be from 10-11:30 am on November
6 in the Game Room. It will be well publicized. GO will provide beverages
and TS will provide snacks. The agenda will include discussion about
traffic patterns, as well as recycling issues since we didn’t get to this at
the first meeting. Included in this will be the subject of the stairs and
path for TS people to have safe and easy access to the recycling. The
Laundry Room is also a topic of discussion. Gail will request additional
agenda items from all. We will try to make this a positive, problem-solving
meeting instead of a gripe session.



Q: Is the issue about the stairs/path from TS to the recycling roll-off
only a winter problem or does it have to do with two cars parked in the
adjacent spaces? We need to ask TS to clarify what the issues are. There
also seems to be a problem getting into the workshop when two cars are
parked there. We need to clarify this, too.



3. Committee Meeting Schedules



F&L - 2nd and 4th M at 8

Meals – 4th T from 7-8

Work – meet 2x a month, usually Sunday eve., but some variability

CH – 2 Sat ams per month. Now 2nd and 4th. Usually at 10 except on
workdays when they will start earlier.

Grounds – 2nd & 4th Mondays at 7:15

Membership – meet when possible, schedule a couple weeks ahead of time

Process – in process of change. Had been 2nd Tues and are looking at 2nd
Thursdays. Meets once a month.

Buildings – usually on a Monday at the same time as Grounds.

Infoco – first Tuesdays over dinner



It would be ideal if committees didn’t meet at the same time. If a member
of one committee has a concern with another that meets at the same time,
they can’t go to that meeting. We are aware of this and that it is a
concern, but we don’t have a solution.



4. Other Business



• Basketball court. Gail looked for the agreement and couldn’t find it on
the WIKI. By searching the BOA using the search word “Bounce,” she found a
document that talks about trial policies. This may be the final document
but she isn’t sure. The rules are posted on the court but not visibly to
someone walking by.



MONKEY: We would like to ask Grounds to make sure that the basketball hours
and policies are posted on the WIKI and on the court itself and perhaps to
do a refresher for GO since we have so many new people.



• Address issue (500 Little Lake #50x vis #50x Little Lake Dr.)

A few months ago, Steering asked Rod to talk to Nancy Hedberg at the
Township Office about our address issue. He happened to be there recently,
talked to her about this. She went ahead and changed Rod’s address to 506
LLD. She did not think it was a problem to change it. She is willing to
change others’ addresses, but please don’t all come at once. Rod assumes
that this change will be reflected in his voter registration and perhaps his
driver’s license. Nancy was not sure whether this would be acceptable to
the Utilities Department. We also wondered about how this would affect
mortgage records and property taxes.



• Syndallas got a foreclosure notice on her unit Monday before last, around
the 20th.


MONKEY: F&L will follow up on this with Syndallas and Dorothy.



• Three-bid policy. Grounds is wondering about this in relation to the
lighting project. Can Steering overrule this requirement in certain cases?
Sarah wondered if two bids would be acceptable in this case?



MONKEY: Gail will look to see if there is a policy on this.



5. Committee Reports



Meals

Discussed info gathered at last business meeting. Will continue to discuss
this at a future meeting. Will come back to the community again with a Part
2 of the discussion.



Again having trouble with TS workers not showing up for meals shifts. Trying
to make sure that Meals gets notified with details. Meals would like to
keep track of this to identify ways to problem-solve.



Work

Work committee is gearing up for the winter 2011 (January - April) work
season. Announcements went out to all committees to get their job
information done (via their committee job management page) by November 12.
The survey will go live around November 14.



Work days are coming up; 10/9 and 10/23, Patti and Debbi are the work day
coordinators. We just received the job lists for CH and Grounds.



We continue to work at clarifying what role contingency hours play: they
serve as a reserve for us to draw upon in the event that we unexpectedly
lose hours from one or more members (e.g., they move out). Some folks are
uncomfortable with what they view as "additional" hours of work being
expected, while others believe the hours should be used to fulfill the need
for additional work that committees might need. Work will try to clarify
the very limited role that contingency hours represent.



We still plan to address some long-term problems with our work system:



- In the past, we weren't approaching every member about work, we need to
approach every member and ask them to participate instead of ignoring it if
they aren't, at least check in.

- It would be great to have guidelines on how to award reduced labor
requests

- Community feedback on how many and what types of jobs are being assigned,
perhaps season by season or perhaps annual basis (a work budget)

- How do we create incentives for people to do their work and what happens
when they don’t want to or can't do it.



We probably won't bring these as a single proposal, as we tried before, but
in pieces. Related to this, Willie will be preparing a report on the work
assignments for the season, including requests for reduced work hours.



Work is very excited to have Jillian as our convener, and wants to support
the community at any level in seeking out ways to define the convener role
in a way that we don't burn out conveners.



For the next work season, we're going to try co-conveners, and are presently
looking for a co-convener to work with Dale.



CH

Concentrating on next year’s budget, and what tasks to put on the Work Days.
It seems like Grounds has a lot, so CH is trying to keep theirs to a
minimum. The biggest things are continuing to wax floors and to shampoo
carpets.

Two other things:

We now have a recliner on loan from Heather and Adi in the Sitting
Room. Reluctant
to think about buying – will be a big ticket item.

Also, in the Kids Room, the couches have become unsafe – springs are poking
out. Planning to get both couches out, leaving cushions. Looking at the
possibility of budgeting for a new couch for next year, maybe a
school-quality couch designed for kids.

Continuing to look at Kitchen changes.



Grounds

Recent discussion about lighting and jobs for work day, also about next
year’s budget planning. Have decided that a major project for next year
will be the area on the CH South side.



Membership

Catherine is doing an awesome job as convener. She coordinated the
production of a New Membership Packet. Dale helped bind it. It is very
comprehensive. Catherine has also been involved in preparing info for
realtors. Adi has helped with getting this digital and on the WIKI.
Sarah is compiling a list of everyone who has ever lived at GO. May
separate out births and deaths. At some point she will post this for edits.

Sarah is going to update directory pictures. Jim suggested including
children’s birth year instead of age, so it’s not so quickly out of
date. Vincent
explained that this is automatically updated on line, but of course hard
copies do not update by themselves!



Buildings

· Fire Suppression Issues – we think we have the “mess” straightened
out. Three ceiling holes were patched, one left for Jeff to do.

· Seller issues. During the inspection of Cher & Greg’s unit, an issue
was discovered with a bathroom vent. Buildings now knows that several units
have this problem. Jeff will be fixing this issue in #4 and #6 because
these are at risk of damaging the structure. Then Buildings will look at
the rest.

· Knox Boxes. The FD has been called to install the keys. All but one
key is in Judith’s possession.

· Judith has provided information to help with the Reserve Study, on
painting, garage door openers, and fire suppression system.

F&L

• Reserve Study – F&L recently met with Paul Conahan and went over many
points with him. Now we have homework in gathering information for him. We
hope to get this to him asap so the Study can be wrapped up during the
budget process. His determination may result in a different monthly amount
owed by each unit and we need to know this during the budget process. We
are also looking at the history of discussions and consensus about General
Common Element/Limited Common Element responsibilities and how they relate
to the Master Deed and the Reserve Study.

• Foreclosed unit. F&L has been tracking Dave Butler’s foreclosure and is
now providing information to a Realtor and to Attorney’s Title.

• Late association fees are an ongoing problem, and F&L spends time at
nearly every meeting discussing current accounts receivable and any actions
that need to be taken.

• F&L will be reviewing its own line items in preparation for the Budget
process. We are getting three bids on an external review and on GO’s
Insurance Policy (the latter thanks to Willie for asking).



Process

Working on Skills & Thrills event (Nov. 13 & 14). Gave feedback to InfoCo
Convener on a revised InfoCo Mandate draft.



4. Additional Steering Items



Kathy is our Ambassador to TS Steering. Kathy will contact Rusty Towers,
Robin Kahler or Betsy Reitbauer to find out this month’s TS steering meeting
dates so she can attend one. Kathy should remind TS about the Nov. 6 summit
from 10-11:30 am, and invite them to contact Gail with agenda items, in
advance if possible. No childcare will be provided.



Gail is going off as convener after this season. We will need another
convener – start thinking about this.



6. Next Meeting



November 7 at 5 pm. Amy has to leave at about 5:45, so we’ll do committee
reports first, or she will find someone else from F&L to attend. Someone
else will need to take minutes.
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