Common House minutes: 2008-12-21

Minutes:

CH meeting, 12/21/08

Present: Becky, Rachel, Nera, Judith, Mac

Agenda
*Treadmill
*hot water dispenser
*doors
*insulation quotes
*update on vacuum?
*update on buying mats?
*sharing with Touchstone - Laundry/kid supervision/work
*creating our own kid supervision policy

DECISIONS:
1. We will go with the Novi Insulation company to do the attic.

2. Mac will talk to someone he knows in commercial building to see if
it is worth getting one more quote on the doors. If not, we will go
with Jeff.

3. We are ordering a new hot water dispenser tank, hopefully will be
installed end of the year.

4. We approve spending the money to have Sears come look at the
treadmill, and approve up to an additional $300 to fix it.

5. CH is going to purchase a 3rd washer/dryer set in 2009 because our
own use calls for it.

6. The laundry room is changing over to be FRAGRANCE FREE for all
machines - we simply have too many people with sensitivities, and it's
healthier for all of us.

7. We are starting the 2 committee process for creating a child
supervision policy in the common house. See below for details

8. We set our mtg schedule for next work season - 1st and 3rd
Saturday's at 11am.


Announcement:
Family Farms sent us a nice card and a donation of $250 towards the
common house. The card is posted for folks to read.

MEETING DETAILS
1. we received 2 quotes for increasing the attic insulation and
covering the ductwork. Farmers was $2400 and Novi was approx 2800
(they overestimated the number of souffet baffels we need, and will
credit accordingly. By going with Novi, the infrared company comes
back out and follows along, so we all felt that was a better value.
Becky will coordinate getting the work done with Melisa's office
availability.

2. We received 2 quotes on the doors (which have to be custom
sized). Both use doors from Fingerlee's. There was a small concern
that we should check with someone Mac knows to see if there are other
sources just to compare. Mac will email that person, and we will make
a decision by Friday. Ideally we would have the work done before the
end of this year because they simply don't close properly and that is
costing us money.

3. Hot water dispenser is broken. Newer models are all stainless
steal. Elph agreed previously to order part and filter. Thanks Elph!

4. High quality treadmills are pretty expensive, so we agreed to the
$96 service call fee, and up to $300 for repairs of the existing one.
Becky will email jillian with the go ahead.

5. Check in on previous tasks : Mac is still planning to get the
mats for the exercise room to address the wet feet from the hot tub.
Rachel said Sarah got the vacuum fixed awhile ago.

6. Sharing the CH with Touchstone. We talked at great length about
this and broke it into smaller sections.
A) Money - we believe that F&L is handling the money portion. It is
our opinion that they should NOT be paying the same as us because we
do not believe they will actually be using it as much, and they don't
have the same rights as we do.

B) Laundry Room Concern. our laundry room is already very congested
on the weekends. So, we are going to buy a new set of machines in
2009. Side discussion started that we really need to make ALL of the
machines fragrance free. We simply have too many people with
sensitivies in the community, and people STILL sometimes use scented
products in the no-scent machines. It will be healthier for everyone.
Rachel will email separate notice to folks.

In addition, Judith will work to redo the laundry sign up board to
include weekend hours. If Touchstone joins, they will need to use the
board as well.

C) Touchstone Child Supervision. This was a concern for many at the
last community meeting. Therefore, it seems wise to say that any
children from Touchstone under the age of 13 need to be supervised by
an adult in the common house. This is primarily for safety reasons.
Many kids of younger ages may be mature enough to handle being
completely along - but in emergency sitiuation, or when faced with
other young kids, may not be ready. This also spawned a lengthy
talk, detailed below, about us needing our own policy.

D) Touchstone Work - since they are likely joining mid work season,
we plan to schedule 2 mini-work days in the CH for them to come and
clean and do extra projects. For the following work season, we could
either do the same, or split some of our regular jobs into more
"shifts" and give them some. Judith will work their CH person to
discuss this in more detail.

7. Creating our own child supervision policy. In light of our
discussion around Touchstone, it became apparent that it is time we do
this ourselves. There are many reasons we need to do this: Safety
(do young kids truly know how to respond in an emergency?) , Clarity
(it is hard to know currently which kids are allowed and which are
not), Respect (this is not your own house - it is a shared space), and
others.

We debated back and forth on several ways to do this, and ultimately
we came up with this. Once a child becomes a teen member of the
community, with BOTH rights and responsibilities, then they can be in
the CH unsupervised. So, as an empowered committee, we are officially
starting the 2 committee mtg (NOT community) process for passing
this. Our next 2 meetings will be: Jan 3rd and Jan 17th at 11 am.
Becky will send out a separate email with the same information so
everyone is notified, and probably put it in people's cubbies too.

While we frequently make decisions as an empowered committee, this
will be the first really big one. If you have strong feelings about
this either way, PLEASE COME!


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