Common House minutes: 2007-10-14

Agenda:

* Budget
* ARC Process for CH improvements
* Remind community about increase in Guest Room fees; Review / remind
community of building usage fees
* Miscellaneous

Minutes:

CH Meeting Minutes
2 pm, 10/14/07 at Nancy's house

Present: Rachel, Nancy, Sarah, Heather, Rod, Eric M.

BUDGET

GAME ROOM
- We will eliminate the climbing wall suggestion from the possible
list of improvements to the Game Room.
- We will ask for $1500 for a general improvements line item with the
intention of focusing some of the money on the Game Room; we will
bring a discussion of the game room to the community before making
decisions about what or how to improve it;
For now, the committee recognizes that the Game Room is an
unsupervised play area and we have developed the following criteria
for making improvements to it:
1. Must be relatively inexpensive to repair or replace;
2. Must be made of materials / design that can sustain some misuse /
abuse without compromising functionality or aesthetics;
3. Must be able to be removed from the room with relative ease by one
or two adults;
As long as the Game Room is used as an unsupervised play area the CH
committee will use these criteria in evaluating suggestions and
proposals for improvements to it. If the community chooses to change
the function of this room the committee will re-evaluate this criteria.

CARPET
- We will work with F&L to see about replacing some or all of the
carpet using Reserve fund money; we will not include money to replace
CH carpet in our 2008 budget request;

MARMOLEUM
- We will include $1,500 in our 2008 budget request to hire out
cleaning the Marmoleum one time in 2008; this is a significant amount
of money. The Marmoleum floor is a significant amount of the building
to be unsightly and improperly maintained; The committee thinks that
preserving long term aesthetics and durability of the Marmoleum is a
prudent use of community funds;

HOT TUB
- We will include $600 in the CH electric utility line item to cover
12 mos. of hot tub operation; the hot tub committee will evaluate
usage after 6 mos of operation and get feedback from the community
about user fees/subscriptions; if user fees are instated at the 6 mo.
point, then the unused portion of the Hot Tub electricity will be
rebated at the end of the year;
- We reviewed and supported the Hot Tub safety and usage policies;
the Hot Tub committee will do a 6 mos. eval., get input from the
community and make any necessary adjustments;

ARC-LIKE PROCESS FOR CH IMPROVEMENTS
- The committee would like to set up an ARC like process for members
to propose and pursue improvements to the CH.THe committee does not
see itself as the arbiter of competing ideas for CH improvements. The
committee's role is more of a management role, overseeing maintenance
and upkeep and policy issues and tracking the funding needs of this
community resource.

The CH Improvement Proposal Process would look something like this:
present and review your proposal with the committee (including est.
costs, and who is going to do it), incorporate committee suggestions
into proposal, post proposal on the CH b-board for two weeks for
comments; resolve any concerns or questions; do the improvement;

- The committee will work out the details of this process then
present it at a community meeting sometime over the winter

REMIND COMMUNITY ABOUT INCREASE IN GUEST ROOM FEES / REVIEW & REMIND
COMMUNITY ABOUT BUILDING USAGE FEES & POLICIES
- Sarah will slog through old minutes to capture the committee's
decision to increase the guest room fee and to establish building
usage fees;
- We will post something to talk to remind the community that these
fee changes will begin on Jan. 1, 2008;
- The committee needs to review our building usage policies and make
sure any building fees are incorporated into these policies and are
consistent with them;

MISCELLANEOUS
- Rachel will check in with Becky re: the slip cover for the couch in
the media room
- Sarah and Heather will shop for fabric for banners for the game
room ceiling this week and will aim to have the banners completed and
installed BEFORE T-giving!

NEXT MEETING
- Our next meeting will be Wednesday, Oct. 24, Noon, in the CH
sitting room;