Steering minutes: 2008-02-03

Minutes:

Steering Committee Minutes 2/3/08

Present: Gail, Mel, Katie, Mac, AmyH

Guest: Ted

1. Wrapping up some monkeys

- Lakestone Apts.

Amy called the Lakestone Apts manager. Her name is Tiffany, and her
telephone number is 665-1695. Amy introduced herself, explained that
she was from Great Oak Cohousing, and offered to be a resource if
Tiffany ever had questions. Amy explained that there are three
separate cohousing communities, and Tiffany said she knew that. In
response to Amy’s question, Tiffany explained that she sends out a
newsletter the first of every month, so if we ever have need to
communicate with all of Lakestone, this would be an avenue.

- Steering's 2007 Critical Needs budget

Catherine reported for CRC that the total amount spent on
consultation with Annie Zirkel was $225. This was the only expense
out of the $2000 budget for 2007.

- Anticipating the "Steering Summit" with Touchstone

Many of our Steering members will be meeting with Touchstone's
Steering Com (and maybe Sunward's) on Saturday, February 9 from 11-1
pm in the GO CH Sitting Room for a “summit” to discuss topics of
mutual interest.

2. Matters arising

a) There have been recent concerns about non-GO kids on site and in
the CH without a host. This came up in InfoCo. It’s not clear who
should bring this issue forward to the community for discussion – is
there an appropriate committee?

MONKEY: Gail offered to take this topic to Process, to help
structure a conversation about this at a future community meeting.

b) Committee structure

Katie came across a discussion in minutes from a community retreat
about possibly reconfiguring our committee structure. She thought
that it had been tasked to Steering.

MONKEY: Katie will find and send us this section of minutes for
discussion at a future meeting.

c) Workshop

Ted stopped by to share his concern that TS is not contributing what
they had promised to the workshop project. Early on, TS indicated
that the workshop was a priority for their community, and said they
would contribute significant amounts of labor and money, as well as
some equipment. So far they have contributed very little labor or
money. They may yet contribute some equipment. A couple of
individuals from TS helped a lot last spring, but since then, very
little. Four GOers have done nearly all the work. Bottom line is
that Ted feels like we’re not equal partners.

MONKEY: Amy will ask Eric McGlohon for the status of TS’s financial
contributions to the project.

MONKEY: We will bring this up at the “summit” with TS next
Saturday. Amy will e-mail Jack Pyle to get it on the agenda.

3. Committee go-round
a) Membership – recent meeting very productive: new ideas about
how to more successfully market our houses for sale. Post near CH
front door, new ways to get things out to community at large, etc.

b) Grounds – Will have an arborist look at the Great Oak in the
spring when they can tell which limbs are dead. Spring work days:
prefer having Grounds jobs spread over both days. Planning to bring
a discussion to a community meeting about major projects in 2008:
sandbox, or shade structure in East Pod. Rod met with Doug Siewert
of Sunward about plowing with our truck; Rod explained how much TS
pays to use our truck; Doug is now looking into the budgetary aspects
at SW. Looking at locations for more trees at GO: Katie and Willie
interested in planting fruit trees near their house; talk also about
replacing the cherry tree in front of CH, planting pine trees near
the garbage enclosure, and possibly lilac bushes by the garages. Rod
is thinking about possible improvements to the area by the chickens.

c) Meals did not meet in January. They learned from Tracy the
balance of Meals’ outstanding loan from the community. Melissa
expects that all or part of this will be repaid from the Meals fund
balance.

d) Process – hasn’t met – nothing to report.

e) Work – Both community meetings in January involved discussions
about work; changes to Membership Policy were agreed upon at the
second meeting. At the regular February community meeting, changes
to the Work Agreement will be brought up for decision. Changes to
both documents were proposed to address questions about renters and
community work. Lots of feedback was offered at both meetings. Work
Com is sorting this out – quite a few things can be implemented
without further community input, but a few other items will need
further feedback. Work Com still has some more discussing to do
before this will be ready.

f) Buildings – Judith is on vacation, but reported by e-mail.
Fire inspection is complete and everything is in order except for
some NO PARKING signs at the entrance, that Grounds is working on.
[Note: a question was raised about this point in response to the
draft minutes, so this item will return to the agenda for the March 2
Steering meeting.]
Planning to buy Knox Boxes for all the buildings that have fire
suppression. These boxes contain a key to the home that has the fire
suppression "risers" in the basement and/or pantry. Only the fire
department can open these boxes. The boxes cost $149 each; looking
into funding. Touchstone already has these boxes, if you want to go
over there and have a look. Making progress on Ted's List. Rob
Marshall is working on Rod and Pam's front porch. Once he diagnoses
the problem, the other C's which have this problem can be repaired.
We have a new pipe wrench in the CH pantry for the fire suppression
(head replacement). We hope that this wrench does not go Walkabout.
Buildings’ spring workday projects will probably be digging a trench
behind Amy/Malcolm's house for better drainage AND (a separate
project) numbering our houses so that people can find what they are
looking for. New numbers may be placed near the porch lights so that
they can be read at night (see #531 and remember Jim Sorenson and his
practical solutions to problems).

g) Common House – Nancy is on vacation, but current topics in CH
were reported in recent meeting minutes. Cleaning is going well
overall; new bedding for CH guest room is being purchased;
discussions about replacing some equipment and possibly purchasing
carpet using capital reserve funds.

4. Next Meeting: Sunday, March 2 at 5 pm in the CH Sitting Room.