Common House minutes: 2007-12-12

Agenda:

- booster chair
- weight room
- cleaning the weight room
- elliptical?
- CH usage for outside groups
- charges for other CH room uses
- office use
- game room
- RSVP book
- CH zoned heating
- clothes line
- vacuum
- guff / foyer
- ping pong
- game room decor
- baby changing table
- dining room / kitchen floor cleaning
- new carpeting
- CH improvement proposal process

Minutes:

CH MINUTES 12/12/07

Present: Rachel, Sarah, Nancy, Heather, Judith

MONKEYS
Nancy will check in with Katie about her hand weights
Nancy will work with CH cleaners to figure something out for cleaning
the wight room this work season;
Rachel will talk to Rod about writing down his conclusions re:
cleaning the kitchen and dining room floor in a step by step format so
his efforts don't go to waste.
Heather will check in with Ted about his weight bench
Sarah still needs to get rid of the wooden high chair!
Sarah will talk to work committee for next work season re: wieght
room cleaner;
Sarah will send an announcement to TALK about the elliptical
Sarah will work with infoco to bring forward a discussion to re-
evaluate the game room at a meeting in February.
Sarah will draft a CH improvement proposal process for presentation
at a January meeting.
Sarah will work with F&L to bring forwarda proposal to replace CH
carpeting ahead of schedule sometime in MARCH.
Sarah will check with Tom about moving the baby changing table

BOOSTER CHAIR - Becky offered to donate a booster seat to the dining
room. We discussed this and think we have enough booster seats for
our current and future needs. We declined the donation. Also, Sarah
still needs to get rid of the wooden high chair!

WEIGHT ROOM - Katie offered to donate some hand weights ot the weight
room. We will take additions to what is already there that aren't
duplicates. Nancy will check in with Katie about this.

Ted offered to donate a bench to the weight room that he thinks will
fit in the space well. We discussed this and decided to accept this
offer on a trial basis. If the bench doesn't seem to work, or folks
just don't want it in there, Ted will take it back out. Heather will
check in with Ted about this.

CLEANING the WEIGHT Room: several members contacted the committee
with concerns about the state of the weight room. It is not currently
a part of any one's regular cleaning job. We discussed this and
decided to change the Game rm/ media rm job so that there is a Game
Room/Exercise Room cleaner and a separate Media room cleaner. Not
sure how this is going to work this work season since we discussed
this after the work survey went out. We will look at who has the CH
cleaning jobs and talk with them about how/who to work in the
excerise room into their cleaning routine.

Sarah will talk to work committee for next work season; Nancy will
work with CH cleaners to figure something out for this work season.

ELLIPTICAL? Several meetings ago we discussed the possibility of
getting an eliptical for the exercise room. The committee decided it
would be willing to pitch in $200 - $300 towards this piece of
equipment and that the rest would have to be fund raised or donated
by interested members. We need to get the word out about this so
folks can get the wheels moving on this. Sarah will send an
announcement to TALK.

CH USAGE FOR OUTSIDE GROUPS
Once again, we discussed the raising of the guest room fee. We heard
from at least two members who were concerned that an increase from $5
to $10 was too steep. After consideration we decided to leave the
guest room fee at $5 a night for GO member sponsored visitors.

For the occasional visitor who is passing through and staying at GO
because they are connected with cohousing or an intentional community
elsewhere the charge will be $25 a night.

CHARGES FOR OTHER CH ROOM USES
We also arrived at the following fee/donationstructure for other CH
room uses:

- Donations will remain the norm for non-money making events hosted
in the GO CH. A meaningful donation will take into account the
frequency of use and the impact the event has on the building and how
much of the building is used for the event. (This includes things
like the Origami group, Dale's Techno Geek gathering, the Zingerman's
meetings, etc.)

Currently, the Family Farms Coop is also under this policy because
the value of their voluntary donations far out strip anything we'd
ever be willing to ask people to pay to use the CH. If they start to
take us for granted the CH committee will re-evaluate this arrangement.

GO members using the CH for a money making venture also fall under
the "Donation Encouraged policy," (this includes things like Megan's
Nia classes, the Yoga class - because it is primarily GO members in
the class, etc.)

- For non-GO groups making money from, or charging admission to, a
one-time event hosted in the GO CH:
- Kitchen/dining room: $30 per event
- Small rooms (game room, media room, sitting room): $15 per rm per
event

OFFICE USE
Judith asked how CH offices get re-assigned when there is vacancy.
Our answer: when there is a vacancy the committee will announce the
availability to the community. If more than one member is interested
in he space we will encourage them to talk amongst themselves to
determine if they can share the space. If it is not possible to share
the space the committee will hold a lottery and assign the office to
the lottery winner.

GAME ROOM
The committee is aware that there are concerns and frustrations about
how the game room is being used. We would like to work with infoco to
figure out a way to wrk with the community to re-evaluate the purpose
of this room so that we know how to go about equiping it. Sarah will
work with infoco to bring this forward at a meeting in February.

RSVP BOOK
Yay! Dale and Rod. They are making us a new RSVP book with suggested
improvements. Keep your eye open for it.

CH ZONED HEATING
Dale is interested in exploring zoned heating for the CH. We are
interested in Dale collecting info about these systems and proposing
this as a CH improvement project. Info gathered should include:
installers, cost, potential savings, best products, etc. The
committee will give input to his proposal then post it for two weeks
to get feedback from members.

CLOTHES LINE thing
The old clothes line thing was moved to the dumpster...THANK YOU
whoever did that!

We discussed the possibility of setting aside money in an equipment
maintenance line item for occasional replacement of this item. We
decided that the cost is low enough that we will usually have enough
money in the CH general improvements line to replace this item when
it needs it, without setting money aside.

VACUUM
We need a new vacuum. We discussed. Rachel and Debbi S. went out and
did the deed. THANK YOU LADIES!! We now have a new CH vacuum. We
decided to go with a commercial grade vacuum from a local dealer who
is close by and can service it.

GUFF /FOYER
There was some discussion on the CH mailing list of eliminating the
junk mail recycling by the mailboxes. A great hew and cry was heard
and we would never consider doing anything like that! However, we
will try to support the CH cleaners in keeping this area a little
more orderly, if possible. Nancy will check in with the hall cleaners
to see if they have any ideas. Also, Rod volunteered to pitch in when
things start over flowing.

The committee would like to encourage EVERYONE TO PITCH IN with
keeping this area under control. Do what you can to make your help
out your neighbor, who might be falling behind or for some reason
isn't able to take out the junk mail in a timely way. This is a great
convenience and will only be worth it if it doesn't drive us nuts
because it's so unsightly.

PING PONG
Mary K made a valiant effort to find a better ping-pong table, but it
didn't pan out. The committee is open to suggestions and efforts by
members to make ping-pong a fun and viable activity in the game room
again!

GAME ROOM DECOR
Heather is working on the banners for the game room.

BABY CHANGING TABLE
Sarah will check with Tom about moving this.

DINING ROOM/ KICHEN FLOOR CLEANING
Rachel will talk to Rod about writing down his conclusions in a step
by step format so his efforts don't go to waste.

NEW CARPETING
Sarah will work with F&L to bring forwarda proposal to replace CH
carpeting ahead of schedule sometime in MARCH.

CH IMPROVEMENT PROPOSAL PROCESS
Sarah will draft this for presentation at a January meeting.