Steering minutes: 2020-11-28

Agenda:

Great Oak Cohousing
Steering Committee Meeting
11/28/2020

Facilitators: Amy & Dan (sharing Facilitation & Tech duties)
Minutes: Catherine


Present: Susan (Membership), Gail G (Common House), Debbi (Steering
Convenor), Malcolm. (Grounds), Amy (Finance and Legal), Eric (Buildings &
Meals), Patti (Process), Suzette (Work), Catherine, Syndallas, Dan, Olas,
Annie, Megan, Mary K., Marta



AGENDA
Welcome & Agenda Review
Very Quick Thanksgiving Poll
Step back in preparation for temporary revision of 2014 Steering Mandate
during COVID-time:
Request community approval for Administrative Controls Proposal on 12/2 -
Info/Disc
CH Common Areas Opening Plan - disc/decision
Game Room Data Analysis and Explanation - update
CH Game Room Opening Plan - possible decision
Reporting to the Community on 12/2 about Steering’s CH Opening decisions to
date - identify presenters - Champions?
Exercise Room -
Kitchen/Meals -
CH Common Areas?
Game Room?

Next Meeting
Evaluation and Thanks

Minutes:

DECISIONS & TASKS FROM TODAY’S MEETING

DECISION: CH COMMON AREAS OPENING PLAN CH Common Areas Opening Plan

DECISION: Megan can continue to use the game room under her current
agreement until we can resolve the questions that came up today.

DECISION:
TASK: COVID Ad Hoc committee: track suggestion for discussion of postal
workers using the common house (or task another body to discuss)
TASK: Helpful to remind people about the COVID Caring Committee--Syndallas
will review and it could be included in the Steering Mandate
review/discussion
TAKS:


WELCOME AND AGENDA REVIEW
Tremendous amount of work has gone into preparing for this meeting.
Sharon’s COVID report will be at Wednesday’s business meeting.

ICEBREAKER: Quick poll about favorite Thanksgiving food, for fun! (PIE was
the winner!)

STEP BACK IN PREPARATION FOR TEMP. REVISION OF 2014 MANDATE DURING
COVID-TIME:
2014 Steering Mandate

REQUEST COMMUNITY APPROVAL FOR ADMINISTRATIVE CONTROLS PROPOSAL ON 12/12
Administrative Controls Proposal

We realized that the community needs to think through our document for the
Steering Mandate now that we are in COVID times. Document has been shared
but not discussed/revisited. Today we want to see if the current plan makes
sense to the Steering Committee and also to consider what the reaction of
the community might be.

We don’t have any guidance for what would happen if Steering has agreed on
the document but the community doesn’t agree. Assumption is that consensus
by the whole community would be the way to go, but there is not clear path
outlined for this in the Steering document.

Steering’s mandate is to make decisions for the community in rare instances
that there is not time for the community to make a decision. However,
perhaps Steering making decisions as the COVID opening response team may
not be the way the community wants to go.

One perspective--Reasons the community may want to continue as is: Steering
committee is a stable group that has been meeting for months with regular
updates and has a shared knowledge base. Community meetings don’t have the
same commitment for attendance and it would take longer to bring anyone up
to speed.

Another perspective--Does this mean that every decision related to COVID is
the purview of Steering even if not time sensitive? And how do we decide
what is time sensitive?

Clarification: This week we want to bring this question/discussion to the
community: Here’s what Steering has been doing. We’ve created an adhoc
committee to think about reopening. We want to check with the community to
ask whether we should continue as is.

Ad Hoc Covid Committee is not making decisions--is bringing info to
Steering for decision.

Important to note that Ad Hoc COVID Committee is informing Steering.
Steering is deliberately made up of reps from every standing committee in
the community for a variety of perspectives. We are doing this in COVID
times, to have the info and guidance about what we are required to do by
the Health Department or the State of Michigan.

Maybe I represent “the masses” a little bit because I didn’t know what the
role of Steering was. Did the community agree to give Steering this role?

The current Steering Mandate empowers Steering to make time-sensitive
decisions on behalf of the community. At the beginning of the shut-down,
there were important, technical, time-sensitive decisions to be made, for
example the laundry room and the common house. Steering created the admin
controls document and shared with the community. Under the Steering
mandate, we didn’t think the community was required to give input. GO has
been much more effective than our sister community with our approach. It
has made us much more responsive to the community’s needs, although it
might seem to some that Steering is less responsive.

We reconvened Steering at a community meeting so there was discussion.
There was an "emergency" meeting of the community on 3/21/20 that 7 ppl
attended. Here are the notes http://www.gocoho.org/boa/?id=minutes&num=4489



We have had no success historically moving the timing of community
meetings, so this timing issue also affects the issue of time sensitivity.

A lot of our discussion at the start of the pandemic was about the common
house. Now much of that discussion is happening in the COVID reopening
committee. In the AdministrativeAdminstrative Controls proposal, it might
be more clear if we can separate common house questions from what we are
asking related to Steering decision making beyond the common house (other
shared amenities and other things that might come up in relation to our
shared lives together related to COVID. There are two things happening
here.

Agreement that Steering is doing much more than thinking about the common
house. Important to clarify that Steering’s mandate to meet and make
decisions on time-sensitive matters pre-dates COVID.

The purpose of this item today is to prepare for discussing at a GO meeting.

Another piece for the community to consider is sifting through guidance and
how it relates to Great Oak. I wouldn’t want to do this work with people
who were not leaning in to understand the guidance and requirements. It
takes a body of people pushing from various directions to make decisions.
Some of the guidance is very specific and other areas are grey, with a
continuum of risk. The community as a whole is not in a place where
everyone is looking carefully at the guidance.

Suggestion to provide a clear history of the timeline of how we got here
would be helpful for the community.

Self facilitating, open to all members, community is making an investment
of community hours to build knowledge. The hours being given now are not in
the current mandate--good info to include for community.






CH COMMON AREAS OPENING PLAN
CH Common Areas Opening Plan

This is a great example of how many minds have been at work to make plans.

We are going to put in two work positions for opening plan. We’ll check in
with CH committee to see if they need support. Much of what is in the CH
opening plan is already being implemented.

Sanitization instructor/supply manager will also be verifying that the
sanitization is happening.

Champions will work with the CH committee and AD Hoc COVID committee to
come up with cleaning plan for the cleaner that we hire. Also need to work
together to hire the cleaner.

Ventilation is pretty much all set.

Some signage that the champions will need to put up.

Contact tracing is pretty simple right now because we know who everyone is
who is coming into the common house.

Emergency response work--Catheirne has gotten supplies and Syndallas will
place them. Polly working to find an emergency clean up person.

Social Distancing and Capacity issues are easy now, but would need to be
revisited when we begin having more than one household in a single room.

Clarifying questions:

Q: For contact tracing, I don’t think we would be notified if a postal
carrier got sick. We need a plan for if there is a positive case at GO.
A: We were thinking about going in the other direction...how to let people
know that there has been a positive case at GO.

This is a funny balance point with the contact tracing. We originally were
proposing to use a QR code for people to do a health screening and there
was a lot of push back from people in the community who do not want their
movements tracked.

We have good will of the community going for us. We have people on deck who
would reach out to someone who would check in with them, and supplies
purchased.

Q: This presupposes that we have decided to hire someone. Has that decision
been officially made?
A: We passed a budget with the amount needed to hire somebody to cover the
deep cleaning plan.

Question about postal workers using common house--discuss in future?

There are still questions about how to handle contact tracing--the extent
of it and how to implement. Maybe we agree on this and bring it to the
community with openness to changes going forward.

Agreement reached. No blocks, no stand asides.

GAME ROOM DATA ANALYSIS AND EXPLANATION UPDATE
Game Room Data Analysis and Explanation

Megan is grateful for support to find a way to use game room for her work.
Her perception is that the game room is rarely used by individuals.

Question about whether Megan’s use was making people uncomfortable and
that’s why they weren’t using it.

For the year and a quarter before March 2020, there were only two
individual sign ups. Other signups were for groups, which is not an option
now.

During COVID, use by individuals went up. Megan concludes that her use of
the game room does not deter other individuals from using.

It was never Megan’s desire that the game room only be open for her. Others
made the suggestion however.

New proposal is for Megan to reserve game room for six hours after using it
without a mask.



GAME ROOM OPENING PLAN
CH Game Room Opening Plan -


The original proposal was based on a modified opening plan specifically for
Megan. Now we have a plan for anyone who wants to use the game room for
individual or pod use.

Megan will wear a mask anytime she is in the game room except when
teaching. She will also sanitize the room every day, even when she is not
using it.

Ventilation plan is a draft, created with input from Dr. Kardia and are
very open to discussion. Windows will be open with a fan flowing out. This
is really the meat of the proposal.

See opening plan above for more details.

Questions/Discussion

Q: What is the reason for the $15 donation? Several people felt not
necessary.
A: Because so much of the time in the game room will be allotted to Megan,
she wants to demonstrate gratitude and fairness.

Q: Sharon mentioned that she asked for a risk analysis,but doesn’t see it
in the proposal.
A: Megan is willing to create this but would want help with that.
Syndallas: what if the ventilation gets accidentally changed and it doesn’t
get noticed? What is the risk to the person who comes in next? The time
buffer allows for errors like this--for the times when the safety plan
isn’t fully implemented. Wouldn’t want to create a risk analysis now in
this meeting--it needs to be discussed deeply.

I appreciate how this plan has developed. Suzette volunteers to help with
the risk assessment. I think this should be a community decision because
it is taking a step back from the safety of the community.

Q: Could we go back to the 24 hour clearing time (meaning exclusive use for
Megan Tues-Friday) to get past the question of the risk assessment?


Comments from Chat:
As far as I know, this (risk assessment) is a new request, and hasn't been
asked for anything else.

Let’s investigate the question of whether masks are required in single use
rooms in rec buildings in the state of michigan. I’m thinking about music
practice rooms.


I have read the gym proposals in preparation for the opening of the
exercise room.
There is no single use rec room

And for the protection of the piano, could we tarp it for the duration?
Cover it with plastic against alcohol?

We could come up with a number for rental (fee) if that would ease the
sense of injustice

Might there be some additional requirements for Megan: regular testing,
quadrating, etc that might help to ease fears?

Agreement: Megan can continue to use the game room under her current
agreement until we can resolve the questions that came up today.


Susan, based on her participation in multiple GO committees, knows that
there is some pushback on this based on other people’s desire to work in
the common house.

Please send additional questions/concerns to Megan and Mary.




REPORTING TO COMMUNITY ON 12/2 ABOUT STEERING’S CH OPENING DECISIONS TO
DATE--IDENTIFY PRESENTERS/CHAMPIONS

Exercise Room - Suzette
Kitchen/Meals - Eric
CH Common Areas-Syndallas
Game Room?--not presenting proposal yet--but should we have discussion? We
could think about it as a refreshing policy moment. It also opens the door
for people to bring their urgent needs to Steering. I also think we could
ask people what they need if they are feeling like they aren’t being cared
for


Helpful to remind people about the COVID Caring Committee--Syndallas will
review and it could be included in the Steering Mandate review/discussion


EVALUATION AND THANKS
What went well?
Appreciate people working together so deeply when it’s not much fun.
People were very well prepared for presentations.
Dan great facitlation
Appreciate use of the chat
Working together trying to help each other out
Substantial conversation
Amy’s facilitation--time, keeping us on track, helping things run smoothly
Poll instead of the icebreaker

Things to change:
No comments
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