Steering minutes: 2011-12-04

Minutes:

Minutes of GO Steering Committee Meeting

12-4-11



Present: Gail, Jim, Gayle, Debbi, Rod, Amy, Pam, Mary

Guest: Rusty from TS



AGENDA

1. Report from Touchstone

2. Follow up on discussion about process

3. Critical Needs Fund

4. Committee Reports


MONKEY: Amy will start thinking about the next GO-TS Steering Summit. At
the last summit, we planned to do it in February. Rusty will be away in
February and March.



1. Report from Touchstone (Rusty Towers)



a) Meals

It would be helpful if GO and TS could exchange information about newcomers
and departing residents for the Meals Billers. Some TS residents had bills
in arrears, and Gail discovered they had moved away. (None of the arrears
is over $25, the point at which we start charging an admin fee of
$3/mo.) We’ve
had a problem with renters amassing meals arrears and then moving away at
GO as well.



There was brief discussion about whether it would make sense to have
renters make a deposit that would be returned when the person leaves. This
will be discussed at a Meals meeting.



Rusty reported that Lois Zimmerman now has all the info she needs to work
on TS meals billing, which had fallen behind during a transition in billers.



b) TS Common House

Touchstone has to decide whether to paint their buildings in the spring. This
will be very costly, and they are talking about how this will impact the
construction of their CH. The economy has made things very difficult for
TS.



Is there anything GO can do to make the GO CH more amenable to TS
people? They’ve
thought about this and haven’t come up with anything. They appreciate our
welcome to GO.



c) Snow Removal

Jason at TS is again the snow removal coordinator at TS. Erik Kauppi will
need to coordinate with him.



d) Fire suppression

TS is doing their annual inspection with Ray Fuller. Rusty asked how we
provide access to all units. We don’t – we only have the inspector look at
the system in the basement of one unit per building. At TS, one person per
building collects keys for all units in their building. They have a policy
that requires least 48 hours notice for access to units for maintenance.



e) TS Ambassador in Winter 2012

Gayle Turner will be the GO Ambassador starting in January.



MONKEY: Amy will start thinking about the next GO-TS Steering Summit. At
the last summit, we planned to do it in February. Rusty will be away in
February and March.



2. Process



Gail reported that the Process Committee plans to remind the community
about our policy requiring a two-meeting process for decisions, and to
encourage facilitators to review how to deal with stand-asides.



In addition, Process is planning an Alternative Meeting on dealing with
emotional content in comty meetings, from the facilitators’ and the
community members’ perspectives.



InfoCo will be addressing some of these issues at their meeting on Tuesday.



Weaknesses in our current system: When a committee has something urgent
for a decision, the two-meeting decision process can seem too lengthy
because business meetings are a full month apart. Also, it can be
disruptive to take time out of an Alternative Meeting for a business item.



Some items that seem to one member like a no-brainer for a one-meeting
decision do not seem like no-brainers to other members.



As Process and InfoCo work on these issues, it would be ideal if they would
involve more people in their discussions by actively inviting people to
take part, perhaps doing more than send a meeting notice out over e-mail.



We haven’t been good at getting info out in advance of comty meetings.
This is a separate issue.



Maybe we need to revisit the Alternative Meeting agreement, though mostly
we are talking about exceptions to the rule.



A lengthy discussion followed about a recent incident involving the CRC.



3. Request for funds from Critical Needs Fund

Mary presented a proposal requesting $2000 from the Critical Needs Fund to
support the construction of the concrete steps between buildings #8 and #9,
related gutters, and straw bales along the steps during the sledding season.
She estimated that the total project cost would be about $2580. The
balance of $580 will be financed by private donations.



All present supported this proposal. The Steering Committee strongly
recommends against anyone or any committee making expenditures in advance
of having funding in place. But since the community decided to do this
project, we will help to fund it. If any additional critical needs arise
during the rest of December, we’ll consider them at our January meeting,
when we’ll have the 2012 Critical Needs funds available.



4. Committee Reports

F&L:

Bringing changes to the Master Deed to the community meeting on Weds 12/7
to reintroduce the topic, which was originally presented in 2005. It will
come back on 12/19 for a decision, then will go to our attorney. We are
starting the process of working with our outside bookkeeper/CPA.



Process:

(As noted above) The Process Committee plans to remind the community about
our policy requiring a two-meeting process for decisions, and will
encourage facilitators to review how to deal with stand-asides. In
addition, Process is planning an Alternative Meeting dealing with emotional
content in comty meetings, from the facilitators’ and the community
members’ perspectives. 5 copies of "Dimensions of Leadership Profile", the
book used for the Skills & Thrills Weekend, have been added to the Member
Resource Collection housed in the Sitting Room. Those who attended or who
were not able to be at the weekend sessions might want to use the book to
assess their leadership style.



Buildings:

Window well summit was held, but the topic is on hold while Judith works
on getting bathroom fans vented properly. Judith has 3 estimates for the
work on fans and chose the lowest one (Peter Keeler Construction). This
will cost about $4500. Thinking ahead about painting in the spring. Eric
McGlohon is a new member of Buildings as Assistant Maintenance Coordinator.



Work:

Work allocation was completed yesterday, December 3. The committee
conveners are reviewing it and it will be published to the community
December 6. Job trading will then be open until December 10 and final
results will be posted. The meals scheduling survey will be active from
December 11 through 19; the results will be posted by December 27.



The community discussion on "Who is responsible for work and how is that
responsibility modified" has been delayed for several months because of the
budget and other issues and is now scheduled for the December 19 meeting.
We have a worksheet to go out to the community prior to the discussion;
the worksheet provides scenarios of concern so that members can come
prepared for the discussion.


Grounds: Grounds is in between seasons right now, so not much is going on.
We continue to discuss upgrades to lighting as a long-term project.




Meals: No report submitted.


Membership:

Membership has made two changes to our work positions. They are both
for one work season, to be revisited before the following one. We
made of the Fun Committee positions into the lead position, with 2
hours per month work credit rather than one. Megan has been taking
the lead on Fun committee events for a long time and we agreed it was
time to give corresponding work credit. We called this position
"Julie McCoy, Cruise Director." We also added a work position to look
at our buddy system and consider ways to streamline some of the stuff
that happens every time. This position will also handle any
orientations which are needed.

We will also, before the end of December, take care of paying for line
items which require payments to be sent out and wrap up with one
committee member and her tasks before she rotates off of the committee
for next work season.


CH: Nothing new to report.
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