Process minutes: 2008-09-04

Agenda:

Process cmtee
9/4/2008
7-8pm, CH sitting room

AGENDA
1. checkins
2. monkey review
3. budget 2008 check-in
4. budget 2009
5. quorum
6. next meeting

Minutes:

Present: Gail, Catherine, Jillian

2. Monkeys/Cooler/Freezer items from previous meetings:

MONKEY and COOLER: Process to ask minute takers to come to a process
meeting at the start of each work term to talk about the full minute
taker job description, and talk about the using names issue so they
are aware of some of nuances.

COOLER:
Discussion about how CRC members are chosen, is that working ok?

COOLER: Naming names in committee meeting minutes, periodically
reread current guidelines, make sure they're ok for both committees
and plenary

Ongoing MONKEY: CRC should talk about the fact that they can't all to
rotate off at the same time. What are the current CRC members each
thinking about their terms, who is willing to continue? If everyone
wants to continue for a while that's great, its just that when folks
do want to rotate off it needs to be staggered.

MONKEY: Catherine will check in with the two groups of folks who said
they'd be willing to work on the kids and the CH issues and bring it
back to the community.

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MONKEYS from this meeting:

MONKEY: Jillian will send out an email reminder about Member
Resources fund being available for classes/workshops, maybe remind
people about NASCO?

MONKEY: Catherine will put out an email about Member Resources to
talk about the library: if anyone has come across a book or game that
the think would be of use to GOers and good to have in the Community
library to let process know, could be related to all kinds of topics
(gardening, cooking, energy, etc) not just process.

MONKEY: Jillian will see about making a few photo prints, look at
anniversary group shots.

MONKEY: Jillian will look back at what else we wanted to mount on
whiteboard. She can lay out our vision statement in Indesign and
provide to Catherine.

MONKEY: Catherine will get the vision document put onto a whiteboard.
First Catherine will look into multiple colors and how that would
affect size/format we provide.

MONKEY: Catherine will pick up another flip chart pad.

MONKEY: Jillian will check in with Grounds about a date for their
planning day, and also make sure they know that the full amount of
money is available to them, $1700.

MONKEY: Jillian will email proposed 2009 process budget, to, who?
budget at gocoho.org?

MONKEY: Gail will look back at the original Quorum agreements.
Including double checking that renters can be part of the budget
discussions and quorum for that, they just can't block. And Gail
will check in with Sarah, did she do some quorum counting in the
past? Infoco said they thought it might be useful to have some data
about how much we have reached quorum over the years.


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3. BUDGET 2008 CHECK-IN

We have spent very little of our budget as of yet.

MONKEY: Jillian will send out an email reminder about Member
Resources fund being available for classes/workshops, maybe remind
people about NASCO.

Keep an eye out for new titles or games that could go in the
Community Resources library in the sitting room. We should expand out
from it being only process-related books.

We could put out a call to see if anyone has come across a book or
game or something that they think could be of use to GOers - does not
have to be process-related, could be, native plant gardening,
cleaning with natural cleaners, energy efficiency. Could be lots of
things.

MONKEY: Catherine will put out an email about this to talk: if anyone
has come across a book or game that the think would be of use to
GOers and good to have in the Community library, could be related to
all kinds of topics (gardening, cooking, energy, etc) not just
process.

Are people using the library? Not sure. People forget to look at it.
What if we did book talks at meetings? That's one of the best ways to
get someone to read a book is briefly show it and talk about it
enough to pique there interest.

We'll have more community meetings this fall! So short, it could be
almost an announcement. The blessingways book, etc, people don't
recall what we have and don't look at the list on the bulletin board.

Seems like we might want to have the "classic" books too, the
Cohousing handbook, the Cohousing book. If people suggest other books
we could buy several at the same time and save on shipping.

Archives - would be good to have more print photos in the archives.

MONKEY: Jillian will look into making a few prints for Gail, esp
maybe the group shots.

MONKEY: Jillian will check in with Grounds about a date for their
planning day, and also make sure they know that the full amount of
money is available to them, $1700.


4. BUDGET 2009

Should we expand the "meeting supplies" line to include "treats" for
meetings, like chocolate for icebreaker tastings? This has been
asked of process several times in the past. We want to avoid the
"paying for snacks for every meeting" idea, and what can happen in a
church setting is a snack competition builds up! But it could be
case by case. Also if an alternative, or regular, meeting needed
something - an art supply, etc. Let's rename it, "general and
alternative meeting supplies". Since we're spending less on paper
and using the whiteboards more, let's leave the $300 as is and just
include the broader scope.

Meeting archives could go down to $50 if needed, but when we do need
an item like a photo box or acid-free binder its usually a pricier
one. Seems fine to ask for $100 and then rebate it if not needed.

So the main question is should we ask for the same amount again for
what we got for an event for 2008? We had originally asked for money
for two kinds of events for 2008, an outside facilitation should we
need it, and a training event. And the community decided to fund one
of those but not both.

Maybe we should just ask for funding for just one, basically what we
got for 2008. But we might need to look at some costs for inflation,
e.g. travel costs and food costs are going up. Maybe just $100 more,
in case food or travel go up. That would be $1800.

Basic breakdown of expenses, for one 8-hour day of training or
facilitation (inclusive of the trainer's time in prepping) is as
follows:

$300-350 travel
$900 presenter's fee (includes any prep)(we have also paid $1000)
$240 childcare (with two workers at $15/hour)
$100 snacks/bagels/coffee
$150-$200 subsidizing lunch
-------
$1790

So, our 2009 budget request as of now is same as 2008, just $100 more
in the Community Training/Outside Facil line, and, rename General
Meeting Supplies to General and Alternative Meeting Supplies.

Process Proposed 2009 budget

- General and Alternative meeting supplies: $300
- Archives supplies: $100
- Member Resources: $300
- Display Materials: $100
- Community Training/Outside Facil: $1800
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Total: $2600

MONKEY: Jillian will email proposed 2009 process budget, to, who?
budget at gocoho.org?


5. Quorum

We need to think about how to bring quorum up at a community meeting.
Its not a sexy topic. But it has come up at several meetings
recently. Eg, clarifying that renters count toward quorum, and if a
house has essentially two households in it do they all still just
count as one household; some households have opted out of coming to
community meetings ever so do they still count against quorum, etc.
Process just needs to write this up and bring it for discussion.

MONKEY: Gail will look back at the original Quorum agreements.
Including double checking that renters can be part of the budget
discussions and quorum for that, they just can't block. And Gail
will check in with Sarah, did she do some quorum counting in the
past? Infoco said they thought it might be useful to have some data
about how much we have reached quorum over the years.


NEXT MEETING
Process decided to change to meet the 2nd Tuesday instead of the 2nd
Wednesday. Jillian is still working on organizing an infoco meeting
night, but people are waiting to find out about dinner clean
schedules.

Our next meeting, 2nd Tuesday in October would be 10/14. We may need
to meet again before that depending on budget needs.

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