Steering minutes: 2013-01-06

Minutes:

Great Oak Steering Committee Minutes

Jan. 6, 2013, 5:00-6:00

Common House Sitting Room



Attended: Sari, Helen, Gayle, Becky H., Hermann

Facilitator/Convener: Helen

Minutes: Becky H.



Agenda:

Minutes takers for Feb., March and April mtgs

Cmttee reports

Matters arising, including communications with Touchstone



1.Minutes takers for Feb., March and April mtgs:

Feb.-Sari

March-Gayle

April-Debbi or Eric



2. Meeting time – first Sunday of the month, 5:00 pm



3. Cmttee reports



Finance and Legal – no Steering rep. this work season, but Adi sent the
following report:

F&L will not meet till Jan 14

What we plan to talk about:

- yet more consternation about how the late fee/lien placement threat
doesn't seem to be effective at ensuring prompt payment -- is that
really the goal we want to try to achieve? if so, we are terrible at
it and F&L is not equipped to do it well. Likely we need to rethink
why we think we do it and whether we can't find a different way to do
it (I don't know how else to best describe the ambivalence and
hand-wringing this issue creates)

- Mary's take on the next steps based on the Community meeting about
reserve fund spending and investment policy

- F&L's discussion about what we should recommend about an update to the
year-end rebate policy for the operating budget -- last time I think I
heard support for not rebating any excess at the end of a budget year,
but rather using it toward our reserve fund and thereby potentially
cushion our periodic increases, or use it toward the following budget
year's funds

and as a general comment:

*My* feeling about F&L is that the community foists too much on F&L to
decide and that most of it should be handled by the community in plenary
rather than F&L. F&L should advise at most, otherwise most of the time
and energy should be spent in the mechanics of tracking things. Case and
point is the "Master Deed" updates -- it should not be an F&L project
other than F&L can be consulted, but the driver should be a project
team. Without that we have burnout in F&L because of decision fatigue
and the feeling that it is too difficult to "please" the community or
divine the intentions of the community.

So if the community is looking to F&L for direction, what it is going to
really get (at least my approach will be) is that the community will
have to provide direction and be more involved.



Buildings – Eric was unable to attend the meeting, but sent the following
report:

There have been no buildings meetings because of the holidays, but the next
meeting will be Jan 17 at 6:30 at Eric's house. On the agenda is listing
potential 2013 projects and prioritizing.

Meals – Debbi was unable to attend the meeting, but sent the following
report:

Current work season’s cooks added to Meals email list; email sent to
GO-talk about this – encouraging folks to exchange info about meal
planning, menus, ask questions of each other, etc. The work survey had an
incorrect meal count so we’re short some meals workers. Cancelled some
meals, soliciting volunteers for 2 meals. If we don’t get volunteers,
we’ll cancel. Working on food preference survey – varieties of dressings,
other preferences (organic vs non; other issues/concerns/ideas about items
stocked with pantry fee. Also, resident turnover, we need more up-to-date
info on allergies.



Grounds – Hermann: 18 cubic yards of wood chips for the childrens’ play
area were purchased from Superior Play for $572; probably won’t need
another load for 2 years. Installation of five 10 watt LED lights and two
transformers by Light Your Night at a cost of $2174. These two major
projects were paid for from various Grounds budget lines; a total of $1702
was used to offset the deficits in the Maintenance, and especially the
Improvement lines. Began reimbursements to units that supply electricity
for outdoor lighting. Installation of one light across from the GO
workshop; TS paid for fixture and installation; GO will pay for
electricity. Partial removal of dead tree near GO western boundary paid for
by Swim Club. Adi has completed lighting for steps to basketball court.
Railing for that area will be discussed at next Grounds mtg. Several
initiatives having to do with sustainability at GO and TS have been
undertaken, e.g., loading the roll-off more effectively.



Work – Gayle: New work season just started; will reexamine the question of,
“Who is responsible for work and how is that responsibility modified?” at
coming mtgs.



Process – Becky H.: Topics discussed at the Dec. Process Cmttee meeting
included: reminding cmty about budget line available for member resources
(to pay for class or workshop of use to GO cmty); making cmty more aware of
books that are purchased for cmty use – idea to use display stands for new
acquisitions or materials of particular interest; “Memories of 2012”
project – turn in short written memories to Gail, will be used at GO
anniversary party, and there will be a drawing for a gift certificate to
Nicola’s Books; alternative mtg scheduling; how to get more members
interested in being facilitators – idea of a facilitator apprenticeship for
work credit; Adi’s interest in looking into exchanges with other cohousing
cmtys – knowledge, work or housing exchanges.



Common House – Sari: mostly discussed hole in ceiling (result of pipe leak)
- are there inexpensive ways of covering the hole? More work may have to be
done to the pipes, so immediate patching will be temporary. Pipes really
should not be located in the ceiling; debating what to do about this.
Nancy is cleaning coordinator this work season (re-instituted job); Sarah
is maintenance helper; Kelly is maintenance coordinator. Elliptical
machine is coming soon. Sarah asked that when we send maintenance requests
to cmty, we should put “Maintenance” in subject line.



Membership – Helen: Catherine gave presentation at Dec. 17 business mtg to
educate cmty about orientation of new members. We will ask new members to
send out short bio via email, using suggested template being worked on.
Beginning 2013, Membership will send out monthly report via email to keep
cmty up to date on changes in membership. Katie Zbrozek is newest member of
cmty, renting from Sarah.



3. Matters arising

F&L Cmttee issues – what is Steering’s role? Perhaps F&L should bring
“problem” issues to the cmty. Steering would support them in this. F&L is
talking about having an agenda item at each or most business mtgs. Will
check with Process about this. Maybe Process or Infoco could help in
formulating how to divide up issues and bring to cmty. Invite member of
F&L to next Process mtg to talk about this or Process convener could go to
F&L mtg. Becky H. will contact Jillian about this. We recognize that
formulating items for cmty meetings would mean even more work for F&L.

Structural problem in cohousing – “soft” approach to problems sometimes
doesn’t work. Sari will

be seeing Adi and will talk to him about these issues.



Touchstone liaison issues – Gayle got updated TS directory from Rusty and
provided her with a copy of the Go directory. TS asked about and got info
about our garden waste policy. We need to keep pushing communication and
information exchange with TS; there was concern that TS had not been
advised before New Year’s about the New Year’s Eve fireworks at GO (many TS
residents have pets who are afraid of loud noises). We should remember to
advise TS of meal cancellations or when worker substitutions are needed,
per their request. Perhaps Meals Cmttee could remind cooks on their email
list to let TS know if meal will be late or cancelled.



Next meeting: Sunday, Feb. 3, 5:00, Sitting Room
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