Common House minutes: 2008-09-01

Minutes:

CH Minutes
9/1/08

Present: Rachel, Nera, Becky, Rod

Agenda:
Talking about budget - what we have left this year and what we want to
do about next year.

Brainstorming
*replace carpet in all rooms, with good padding
*timed locks on the doors
*add media server to the media room
*have an energy audit/report done to show us where we can make the
most improvements
*redo the concrete section of the floor (finish part)
*blinds for Kitchen, guest room, maybe more to increase energy
efficiency
*maybe additional seating the sitting room
*pay for sealing the marmoleum

Decisions
1. supplies and annual service/repairs lines items will stay the same
2. we will factor a small increase for utitlites like phones/satelite
3. we will factor a greater increase for gas (probably 25%)
4. Get quotes for: locks, blinds, floors
5. Going to do an energy audit

Keep reading if you want details of meeting


We agreed that having the energy audit done this year could help us
set the budget for next. Becky will call to see how much.

UPDATE It will cost approx. $400 to do the energy study, which will
include things like what items we should do first to get the biggest
return and also where looking at alternative energy might be good.
We have the money in this year's budget, and it seems like a great way
to help us long term reduce energy costs. Jason Bing from Recycle Ann
Arbor would do the survey. He also put Becky in touch with the city
contact who is heading up the Solar Ann Arbor program, and we might
qualify to be part of their program. 1st step is having the energy
audit done, which we are planning to do anyway. Becky will follow up
once that is completed, and send details in another email seeking help
with bringing that part forward.

We agreed to get pricing on blinds to see if that makes sense for this
year. Budget Blinds came out and measured all the windows left
pricing with Becky. At the next CH meeting, we will make a decision
about blinds vs other improvements for this year, and what we want to
ask for for next. We could use community input about priorities. A
separate email will go out once we have more info.

*F&L clarified that there is money to replace carpets in 2013. If we
want to replace them early, we need to pay for that. We will work on
getting some quotes for the worst rooms (Sitting and Media) to help us
set priorities for this year and next.

CH is concerned about the marmoleum. It needs to be cleaned/sealed/
waxed much more frequently than it seems we have time for. We
brainstormed making this a regular work position, and the person would
be responsible for doing it once a season (assuming 4 work seasons).
It is too hard to do it on Community work days, because it prevents
other jobs from getting done. So, if anyone is short on hours and
would like to take this on, please contact the CH committee. We also
talked about just hiring it out. Rachel is going to get a quote on
how much it would cost to hire it out.

Office Available
Dale will be vacating his office sometime late this year, so that
office will be available for rent. We discussed whether or not we
even want to keep it an office. Some of the ideas we floated were
swapping it with the guest room; making it into another guest room;
making it another sitting room; and finally making it a sitting room
that could also be a 2nd guest room if needed. We liked the last
idea the best, but then looked at how much revenue we currently get
from the office rent ($2400/year). This money goes into the entire GO
fund, and we don't want to take that much out if we can help it. So,
we decided we will try to rent it, and if nobody is interested here,
we would see if anyone from the other 2 communities is. If not, we
will turn it into a 2nd sitting room/guest room until such time as
someone wants an office.