Minutes of Mosaic Commons general meeting
Sunday, October 1, 2000, 3:30-6:30 p.m.
Location:
Parmenter Health Services in Wayland
Meeting facilitator: San
Notetaker: Steph, then Lisa
Present: Dave, Cat, San, Kai, Steph, Dwight, Sarah, Rosa, Scott, Lisa, Andey,
Joa, Zach, Emma, Pascal
Decisions:
1. Minutes from the last meeting were approved.
Action Items:
1. Dwight: Post the 2 sets of bylaws from Massachusetts to our group.
2. Dave: Draw Chris’ timeline out so we can make it a handout, and post it on the web.
3. Dwight: Call all the towns on our list.
4. Scott: Contact AARP contact.
5. Steph: Research meeting locations along the commuter rail from Framingham to Wellesley.
6. Dave & Michael (& Langdon?): comparables.
7. Cat: Call Joel and ask about bylaws.
8. Michael: Copies of bylaws and ordinances, zoning, subdivision, town plan if available.
9. San: Add other people as web subscribers to the interest list so that we can post to the list.
10. All: Email discussion of what do we do with people after orientation? Idea of a half-hour Q&A session before business meetings. May want to do something more extensive later on.
11. Cat: Compile list of people whom we haven’t heard from in several months and bring it to the next meeting so we can divide it up.
12. Cat: Ask people what will be helpful in terms of follow-up to orientation.
13. Cat: Draft language (with Rosa’s help?) for inviting people to business meetings, and send it to the list.
14. Sarah: Send Cat information on advertising in the Senior Times.
15. Dwight: Contact New View & Cambridge and ask if we can mail to their waiting lists.
16. Cat: Draft a paragraph or two for the Boston Cohousing Network web site.
17. San: will add change of location to calendar listings.
18. Cat: will post to interest list that the event is coming up, details to follow.
19. Cat: will ask Chris and Kelly what happens if the group doesn’t have 5% of project cost at the start of construction.
20. Cat: Ask Chris & Kelly: How does this structure get enough money to make the project work?
21. Cat: ask Chris & Kelly how they’ve handled late-coming equity members.
22. Cat: send scaling process around again.
23. All: Email Cat with any questions people have for Chris & Kelly.
24. All: contact Cat with amounts they can put in towards the next engagement with Chris.
Unclaimed Action Items:
1. Check local communities for newspapers & other publications from the towns on our list.
Upcoming Events:
Meetings: Oct. 1, 15, Nov. 5, 19, Dec. 3, 17
Orientations: Sept. 21, Oct. 22, Nov. 12, Dec. 10
Social event: Nov. 12
Discussions:
1. Minutes: People liked the new format for the minutes. There was discussion of whether we want our names published as part of round robin discussions. Possible that people may not want this. Possible we’ll decide as part of each discussion whether names should be used or not.
2. Committee reports by action items from last meeting.
1. Cat check with Michael the lawyer about doing real-estate LLC. Usually $500 legal and $500 re-registration: Cat sent email to lawyer, but has received no response yet.
2. Dwight posted to the national list asking for bylaws, has received 5 or 6 bylaws from other groups, very helpful, 2 are from Massachusetts, which is especially helpful.
3. Dwight put bylaws into place and bring to first meeting in November: Dwight wants to discuss this with Kai before moving forward. Need to keep in mind that these are very individual group by group. There are some things we wouldn’t put into formal bylaws, very important to have formal agreements, especially about conflict resolution, solving disputes. See action item #1. Dwight recommended that we read a post by Rosewind Community that talks about a difficulty they experienced and how the bylaws helped and hurt them in their process.
4. Dave draw Chris’ timeline out so we can make it a handout, and post it on the web. Dave has not done this yet; reposted.
5. Cat re-do towns exercise, adding Ashland. Cat posted, but not many people have voted on town priority. Members present completed the exercise at the conclusion of the meeting.
6. Cat sent around proposals for the wording of the ad on the cohousing.org website. The ad is paid for. We don’t know if it’s up yet.
7. Subscribed magazines: Dwight & Steph: New Yorker, Loving More, Flying, Family Networker. Rosa: Harpers, Atlantic Monthly. Cat: Vegetarian Times, Mothering, Loving More, BBWN, Simon’s Rock. San & Kai: Vegetarian Times, Martha Stewart, Wired. Scott: Utne Reader, Simon’s Rock News. Sarah: Family Tree, BBWN. Kynvi’s: Mothering. Wishlist for subscriptions: Mother Jones.
8. Cat posted to the national list saying we’re looking to recruit senior member and ask if anyone else has had success doing this. Answers she has received say we should just provide basic information to seniors where they are in community.
9. Post flyers. Cat wants to focus on seniors first, then move on to other diversity outreach. Steph raised question of reaching out to churches and religious groups. Good places to get seniors. Discussion ensued about marketing to religious groups. People are reminded to tell Cat where they’ve posted flyers.
10. Scheduling orientation. Several groups have had good success having orientation on the same dates as meetings, but earlier. Then people can stay for the meeting if they want to.
11. Location of meetings: stay at Parmenter, or move? San liked the location of Chris’ talk, but fee too high. Libraries? Community colleges? Near commuter rail? * *Worth asking civic league for lower rates if it’s regular. Public library in Framingham? Has to be a non-profit to be at library. Worth asking the Danforth Museum and the Performing arts center. Let Steph know ideas. Framingham State?
12. Dave & Michael: comparables. Probably nothing has been done. Add again to action items. Sarah volunteered Langdon to help with it, too.
13. Michael: Copies of bylaws and ordinances, zoning, subdivision, town plan if available. Add to action items again. Michael has been extra-swamped at work.
14. Cat follow up with Sharad or Sharon who came to apple picking. Cat is in the middle of doing this.
15. What do we do with people after orientation? Idea of a half-hour Q&A session before business meetings. May want to do something more extensive later on. Add this again to action items. Idea suggested to call people whom we haven’t heard from in several months. Cat will compile the list and bring it to the next meeting and we can divide it up. Idea of asking on follow up phone call if person would like to hear from other members; idea is to meet people other than orientation. Cat will ask people what will be helpful. Dwight says contemplating coming to a meeting felt intimidating. Idea of Q&A, or something like it, prior to business meeting, seems to make a lot of sense. Different ideas: mixing with other people, or catching up on background information about the group. Cat will add a “this is what a business meeting is like” information section to orientation. Phrasing is critical; something like: “You’re welcome to come and participate as much as you are comfortable.” Cat will draft language (with Rosa’s help?) and send it to the list.
3. Orientation.
Cat had problem with the key, they forgot to leave it for her. There was a couple at orientation who seemed interested, and were vetting for three other families. No follow up contact has been made with them yet. One family is from the north shore area, one other woman present Cat couldn’t get a read on. San had a phone call from someone seeking information. Cat asked to revisit the issue of putting directions on the website. She would like people to have to RSVP in order to get directions. The group agreed to try this for a while. Website will still say date and time and in Concord. Feedback was good from people, they were fine not having a budget to look at. Next orientation is Oct. 22nd.
4. Marketing.
Cat wants to advertise in the Wayland Newspaper. Sarah suggested the Senior Times, they are cheap. Sarah will send Cat information on advertising in the Senior Times. We need someone to check local communities for newspapers & other publications from the towns on our list. Added to unclaimed action items.
5. Information.
There’s a new group on the cape that Cat is trying to contact so we can go visit them.
6. Boston Cohousing Network.
This is the group that’s taken over from Cohousing Nexus. Our group, Cornerstone and JP group have together funded a web site. We need to draft a paragraph or two for the site. Cat will do unless someone else would like to.
7. Upcoming Dates:
Schedule from previous meeting is reaffirmed, but October 15th meeting can’t be at Parmenter. Decided to have the meeting at Homeport on the 15th. Kynvi’s won’t be there, Steph will have to leave at 5:00.
Discussed having social event on Sunday before Halloween. This is may be San & Kai’s moving date, so they may host. Details will be worked out later.
Steph and Dwight will host a 5:30 or 6:00 social event after orientation on November 12th.
8. Membership structure:
Ideas from Chris & Kelly ScottHansen: Theirs doesn’t include monthly dues. Doesn’t have a friend membership level. Associates: there is a fee paid once, in sample is $100. Non-refundable and is applicable to full membership fee. Cannot block consensus. Doesn’t address whether $100 fee is annual or not. No provision for what to do with associates who want to make voluntary contributions toward what the group needs while the group doesn’t have enough equity members. If associates put in money beyond the $100, can this go toward their equity membership? When we read bylaws we should see examples of this.
Equity: comes with threshold. Starts with substantial payment to become member: $5,000 in one example. $1,000-$2,500 is another example. Membership: Getting over threshold, then making monthly payments until 5% of your projected unit price is reached. Their example is $1,000 a month until 5% is reached. If payments are stopped, then you regress to associate member until you are caught up. 5% is minimum contribution. Several households will have to put in more than 5%.
They find this structure works very well. Should we adopt it? We need to figure out our own money. What would happen if you didn’t have your 5% in by two months before construction? Different scenarios discussed. Idea of working from estimated timeline backwards, and of working from other way around: how much can we afford to put in, and let that determine the timeline of the project. Highest risk capital is in at the beginning.
Discussion of Chris’ model of high returns. Idea of high returns on first $100,000 was bounced around, like first $20,000 at 200%, next $80,000 at 150%. People generally agree on structure, issue is can we find the right numbers. What are criteria of putting in early money? Whomever gets to treasurer first? Andey remembers shouldn’t have more money in than we need at the time. Treasurer should make a call of we need $X. Quick poll is made: who has money available? If we find out three households, then the money divided between those three. We should make sure that this gets done fairly each time. How do we end up with the right amount of money at the right time? Perhaps scale to unit costs, ie. 1% of unit cost for threshold, 2% per year minimum works on a 24-month scale.
Concern expressed about late coming-in equity members. We can change definition of equity member over time; numbers could change every six months. We could scale equity members by ability to pay. We have a scaling process in place if we want to scale it. There are bridge loans that people can get if they need to sell a house to get their 5%. How do you pledge or commit the equity that is in a house that will be sold?
Equity membership documents are all geared toward raising money fast. Maybe this isn’t what we want to do? Email Cat with any questions people have for Chris & Kelly. Discussion tabled, Cat will ask Chris & Kelly questions raised.
9. Cash Call
Money for hiring Chris, $2,000 needed now. Homeport will pay up to $1,000. People will contact Cat with amounts they can put in.
10. Agenda Item for Next Meeting:
Conversation for next meeting: Where and how are finance committee decisions are made? Publicly or privately?
11. New business.
At Berkley cohousing, Dwight met project manager, Danny Millman, and she submitted proposal for project management. Dwight read letter. She suggested that we work with someone local. Group agreed that Dwight may ask Peter Jessop and John Abrams if they are interested in working with us, and in what capacity.
12. Sitters:
Problems have come up, especially financial. Current structure is group gets $6 per kid, $10 each minimum. If they get minimum, they make $3.33 an hour, and most of them usually get $6 per hour, and they say this is more work than their normal.
Proposal: Pay sitters $5 plus $1 per hour per kid (or portion thereof) per sitter. Passed.
13. Process:
Bring cards back, organize agenda by committee.
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October 3, 2001
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