Present: Linda, Michael, Mike, San, Kai, Catya, Joel, Lisa, Andey, Todd, Ann, Neil, Maren, Zara, Emma, Pascal, Zach, Ryan, Joa, Kielan

San. People said what they are currently reading.

Linda.

Linda, round robin. Here are some of the things people said: Andey stated she felt disappointed, that it seemed many things in the design weren’t good for creating community, such as the space between buildings. She thought the houses were too large and the common house was too small and did not feel warm, and she wanted to see more attached houses. She didn’t see anyone out, wasn’t aware of people in houses, lights on, etc., which was all disappointing. Joel went a few years ago to New View, and was really struck by their priorities in making their houses larger so that they didn’t have a common house for many years. Catya stated that Pioneer Valley was much closer to what she envisions as cohousing. New View did not feel economically diverse, felt on the as-mainstream-as-you-can-get side of cohousing. Was interesting, but not what she is looking for. Linda walked through at another time and noticed that the houses were very spread out, not tight or cohesive. She thought Pioneer Valley had a nice feel, and really like Muir Commons in Davis, CA, 26 units on 3 acres, well designed. San: Thought New View was too spread out, the common house did not resonate with her, isn’t beautiful enough, kids’ room is too small and the common house did not seem well oriented for children, ie. a large stairway right inside the front door.

Linda, round robin, then discussion. Mike presented the statistics from the web-based survey, which 8 people had filled out by meeting time. Some of the ideas presented in the round robin were: large window between children’s play space and dining room; what we have is a good first step toward programming; top-burning masonry stove; a couple people said that the statistics presented captured their feelings fairly well; some space near dining/living room for little kids & some farther for teens; at Pioneer Valley space worked well, at least for older kids; at Muir Commons a small child could be in the living area adjacent to the dining area, just a half-wall to separate; need to plan for space for older kids and teens who need privacy; suggestion that people bring pictures or text descriptions of what appeals to them so the group can look & discuss; how do we design in flexibility; would be great to get a floor plan and improve on it; if we keep spaces pleasant, ie. dining room, they will be used for other purposes; if we’re going to hire someone with a lot of coho experience, design of CH would be good use; remember when you hire the coho professionals, the earlier you do it the more you will get their biases; we want someone with experience designing this kind of space; would like to know from people now living in coho what they would like to change about their CH.

Linda, round robin, then discussion. Some of what was mentioned: Lisa: summarized long timeline email of 2-29. Andey: catch-22 about needing to be clear on where we’ll be & needing a large group to tie up land. Linda: land acquisition is a natural time for a group to split & a split is okay, a developer who saw the potential for land could help. We need to work on the group now more than we need to work on designing a CH, etc. We’ll need those things, but the group needs to be healthy & deal with process issues. San: We also need to be bigger to get stuff done that we need to do before we get land. Once we have a site, we will need a timeline; do we want a timeline now? Likes having social gatherings between general meetings, but we don't want people to feel that they have to come to all of these. So that folks don't feel that they are missing critical discussions, we should have informal agenda items at these gatherings only once a month, at most. Maren: Proximity to commuter rail would be major issue. Todd: Design of houses & CH might not work on a site if you design them first. But design with larger group & timeline can be harder.

Lisa. Two spectograms were created, including one on an urban to rural continuum, and one indicating location preference vis-à-vis Sudbury Valley School (N-S-E-W & how far). The secretary was not able to record many details of these discussions, as she was facilitating. There were fairly widely divergent opinions and many people missing from the discussion (ie. Catya, Dave, Scott, Laura, Robyn, JB, Andey & Janet). A suggestion was made that a survey similar to Mike’s web-based survey be created with ranking of preferences such as: 5 –10 – 15, etc. minutes away from commuter rail; 5 –10 – 15, etc. minutes away from SVS, etc.

Site/Land/Building. Mike. Much time has been spent determining what people want in a CH, now we should all take the results home and get a feel for what we really need and what we’d like. They have zoning maps and have a feeling for which towns might be impossible, ie. Mike believes Framingham may be out. Land is pretty expensive in Sudbury, but they support clustered homes which may work for us. Sites may be available in West Concord, Marlborough, and Sudbury.

Website. Catya and Mike. Lisa made document listing all our decisions to date, and it’s up on the web at www.mosaic-commons.org/Official_Documents/decisions.html. Things that should be completed before the next meeting are at www.mosaiccommons.org/work.shtml#nextmeeting.

Coordinating. San. The initial IOA was slated to go through next meeting. The coordinating committee proposed to extend the IOA another 2-3 months and revisit it then. Lisa will post the question to the email list. If people discussion topics or changes to suggest in the IOA, they should post a response to the email list before the next meeting. After a brief discussion, consensus was reached on extending consensus as our decision-making process indefinitely.

Diversity/Affordability. San & Andey. The committee still needs help.

Membership. Catya. Question of where to hold orientations, whether there are objections to holding them at Homeport. Some thought the location should be more central. Committee working next on recruitment. Brainstorms should be posted to the email list.

Finance. No report.

Professionals. Linda. Rob Sandelin is doing a tour, looking for invitations. Will be at Pioneer Valley weekend of June 3, weekends on the east coast are all booked, but we might be able to get a weekday evening on one side or the other of June 3^rd. $40/hour = fee. Some asked if we might be able to listen to some of his presentations to other groups. Todd put himself on the professionals committee. There will be a May 4-6 cohousing network workshop on project management in Boulder, Colorado, if anyone would like to go.

March 19^th, 3:30-5:30, location TBA

Social next Saturday, March 11^th, 5:00 p.m., Homeport

Some comments or questions: How do we get the complete focus of the adults? This was a particularly difficult and distracting meeting; some people in our contend with hearing impairments and find it quite difficult to hear when there are numerous conversations. Every meeting has been in a different space and that’s hard for the little ones. Should we identify particular meetings to be held without little kids? Or portions of them? We will then often get only one of two parents. Can we be flexible in our agenda and notice that we have a lull or calm moment, and use that to skip to the really difficult items, perhaps those with stars. The adults should also figure out how to be more orderly and wait to get called on by the facilitator.