Minutes of Mosaic Commons General Meeting
December 17, 2000, 3:30-6:30pm

Location: RCN, Marlboro
Facilitator: Dwight
Notetaker: Stephanie & Dave
Present: Dwight, Rosa, Scott, Liz, San, Kai, Dave, Cat, David H., Pascal, Zach, Anna, Brokk

Decisions:

We will not contract for further consulting work until we have more equity members.

Incentive Policy Proposal: Use $15,000 and $35,000 as the threshold numbers. A more specific proposal will be written up and addressed at the next meeting.

Consensus: "Walking distance to town center or amenities, while maintaining green space on our own property."

Toner cartridges for Homeport's printer was replaced, Cat's asking the group to reimburse her $50. This was approved by consensus.

Action Items:

1. Brokk will work on comparables for Framingham and Concord.
2. Cat and San will get together at some point between meetings to work on coordinating committee issues.
3. Cat and Steph will talk about keeping the discussion log up to date on the website.
4. Cat still needs to get regular reporting going for the website.
5. Cat is going to check up on what's up with the survey form.
6. Cat is going to talk to Andey about faxing to newspapers.
7. Cat suggests that this issue [non-members participation in consensus and how to word that] be thought about, and folks come back with some ideas later.
8. Cat will clarify what our contract with Chris is doing right now - and based on those answers, we'll figure out how to assign resources for the list
9. Cat will summarize the discussion that needs to happen re: membership policy, and mail it to the list. - to be discussed Jan 21.
10. Cat will talk to Chris to see if there is a real date on when the tunnel site in Framingham will be finished.
11. Dwight will write letter to the editor in Worcester.
12. Dwight will get developers names that he spoke to in CA to Chris
13. Dwight will write a more specific proposal (including cash calls) and rational for the incentive policy which includes the 15/35 numbers agreed to.
14. Dwight will help Cat with orientation on January21st.**
15. Dwight will pick up the key and will call Dave by 3pm on the Friday before a meeting to confirm he has the key.
16. San and Kai need to do their bios for the website.
17. San will talk to SV about the journal.
18. San will talk to Zoe about babysitting
19. San will follow-up on professionals for a process workshop
20. San will provide the agenda for the first January meeting to Stephanie, even though she and Kai will not be at the meeting.
21. Steph and Dave will come up with a process whereby notes will be turned into minutes / discussions posted to the website
22. Steph to follow-up with orientation list
23. Steph offers to facilitate the next meeting
24. Steph will do follow-up work with prospective members.
25. All should think about how to word the issue of non-members participating in consensus so that we can have a more productive discussion about it in the future.
26. All should put up 5 flyers in separate locations. Let Cat know where you've put them up so they can be changed in 3 months.
27. All need to come prepared to discuss the creation of bylaws

Discussion:

Opening Activity: Candle lighting, introductions, activity: talk about siblings

Approve minutes from last meeting

Steph went through the minutes from the last meeting... Steph gives a small cheer for getting the minutes out from the meeting within 3 days of the meeting itself. There's a bunch of action items that have been updated. San asks what is the procedure for keeping action items up to date? They get posted to the website, then what? Steph will take responsibility for keeping the action items up to date. Cat raises the question about the verbosity of the minutes - wondering if they need to be that detailed, showing all the give and take during conversations.

** Steph and Dave will come up with a process whereby notes will be turned into minutes / discussions posted to the website. Perhaps the 'discussion' will be posted to the list, and the 'summary' gets posted into the website as the minutes. Minutes approved.

Today's Agenda approved.

Chris's report

The Wayland space won't work at all. No dice. Framingham has 2 potential spots - north of the Turnpike at the tunnel construction space, and somewhere downtown. Sudbury is right out.

Dwight refers to Mass law 40b, re: affordability which gives a builder the ability to build just about anywhere, but would result in an adversarial relationship with the town. Cat also says there's no reason the town would allow 'attached' housing, even though they're allowed to 'build'.

Cat mentions we need to talk to Chris about some work that hasn't been completed re: jurisdictional stuff.

Dwight suggests a roundtable on the topic of "rural vs. urban".

• Brokk: towns like Concord are great as 'suburban' towns - doesn't want downtown Framingham.
• Cat: "not interested in downtown Framingham" "potentially in downtown concord (better feel)" - happiest would be 'nice walking distance to concord center'. Cat would be happier to be further out than further in.
• David H: trying not for absolute rural as that would be too far away and too detached from people. The tunnel site or west Concord are good. They're close enough to towns to be workable. Living in 'urban' situations isn't ideal, and would prefer something to balance that out, such as very low costs - some give or take.
• Dave: mostly stated in email. Would prefer to be near small town - walking distance to commercial - tired of driving.
• Steph: preferring 'rural/suburban' - within 1/2 hour of a city. She is not interested in apartment or big building living. The Saxonville site looks really good. She also feels Framingham is likely to be more affordable than Concord.
• Dwight: has a high regard for urban building (example: Old Oakland, where they are -very -committed to the local area) - Not interested in doing an urban building without having a commitment form the group for that sort of connection with the community.
• Rosa: Agrees with Dwight and Dave - is interested in being close to where things are happening, and likes to avoid using a car.
• Scott: "Less than an hour from a major airport. That's about it."
• Liz: "More of a city mouse than others, but agree with Dwight" - public transportation, store, local restaurant by walking / or a short bike ride. Agree with the 'committed to the community' - thinking that urban developments are too 'isolated'.
• Kai: Doesn't like Framingham downtown - feels it is ugly. Saxonville or Concord look good for the 'close to a small town'.
• San: In agreement with 'walk / short bike ride'. Doesn't want to live right on main street - takes 10 minutes to walk to real things. Any space requires 'real outdoor space' - play areas, etc.
• Anna: Likes the 'local community' feel... folks know you, visit and say hi. 'suburban'. likes the 'not drive to pick up the dry cleaning.'.

Consensus: "Walking distance to town center or amenities, while maintaining green space on our own property."

The issue of consensus and a desire to clarify how non-members do or don't participate in consensus was raised. This is at another place in the agenda, but decided to move it up now. Many people offered thoughts and ideas, and the nutshell is an exact wording of 'how to do this' is going to be hard to come to. ** Cat suggests that this issue [non-members participation in consensus and how to word that] be thought about, and folks come back with some ideas later.

Back to site agenda item:

Cat notes that the Saxonville site may not be available until 2003. Kai says the tunnel will be complete in 2003, but says there are various press releases and the like that fluctuate the dates. We need more information on the timetable for this. ** Cat will talk to Chris to see if there is a real date.

Liz suggests that any site under state control and contracting construction really should be looked at carefully as a potential site.

Proposal: find out more about Framingham to see if the Saxonville site is feasible or if there are other non-downtown sites available (issues are: time when the site will be available and environmental concerns) -Carried by consensus with two blue cards

Chris

Discussion ensued about whether to hire Chris again soon. We feel it is too soon to spend more money hiring him until we have more equity members. "Don't contract any more consulting time until we have more equity members." - consensus! Chris will be told that we will not be hiring him to come out in January.

Concord vs. Framingham

We discussed our preferences for each of these towns. We agreed to pursue them in this order:

a) Is Saxonville feasible, and what timeframe will it be available?

b) Are there other sites within Framingham that are feasible?

c) If not, then lets go whole hog concentrating on Concord.

** Cat will clarify what our contract with Chris is doing right now - and based on those answers, we'll figure out how to assign resources for the list.

5, 6, 7 tabled because we're missing the above information.

--------------------------------------------- Break! ---------------------------------------------

** Cat will summarize the discussion that needs to happen re: membership policy, and mail it to the list. - to be discussed Jan 21.

Committee Reports:

Coordinating Committee:

• San, no news. San still needs to talk to Zoe about babysitting.**
• Note: San and Kai won't be in the next meeting, but will provide the agenda.**
• Steph offers to facilitate the next meeting **
• Cat and San will get together at some point between meetings. **

Secretary's report:

• Steph is coordinating with Lisa for secretary stuff. Steph will be filing the paperwork, and is taking the notebooks.
• Cat and Steph will talk about keeping the discussion log up to date on the website.

Marketing Committee (Cat):

• A couple from northwestern Connecticut came to the introductory meeting. Cat has had follow-up emails with them, and they're very interested.
• Also got email from someone in California at 'info@mosaics...'.
• Steph will do followup work on prospectives. **
• Cat is going to check up on what's up with the survey form. **
• Dwight still needs to write a letter to the editor in Worcester. **
• Cat is going to talk to Andey about faxing to newspapers n stuff. **
• San will talk to SV about the journal. **
• San and Kai still need to do their bios for the website.**
• Cat will hand out fliers - each member should sign up for posting, and keep a record of where they're being posted. She suggested putting it up at work. What about general places where housing is listed (places like housing bulletin boards at universities, etc.). It doesn't' cost us much to put up flyers.
• Toner cartridges for Homeport's printer was replaced, Cat's asking the group to reimburse her $50. This was approved by consensus.

Diversity:

• No report.

Website:

• Cat sent mail about the status of the BCN site and hasn't heard anything back.
• Cat still needs to get regular reporting going for the website.**

Finance (Kai)

• No report.

Land/Site

• Dave not present to report on this.
• Brokk has agreed to work on comparables in Concord/Framingham.**

Remaining Action Items:

Cat did work on welcoming document - we'll work on it later in this meeting.

Dwight did work on the vision statement - we'll work on it later in this meeting.

Cat did speak to her lawyer about bylaws 7.

Incentive Proposal (Dwight)

Dwight presented the proposal (see attached). Scott raised possibility of changing the amount risked to be associated with milestones and not concrete numbers. A long discussion took place around these two proposals (Dwight's and the alternative/milestone).

Proposal: Use $15,000 and $35,000 as the threshold numbers and that a more specific proposal will be written up and addressed at the next meeting. Approved by consensus.

We came to these round numbers to make it more simple - a compromise number.

Dwight will write up the proposal and rational.**

Cash Call Policy: raised the problem that there is a good possibility that we'll have cash calls that make us go over the $50,000 incentive policy. We discussed the fairness of various cash call policies at length. Proposal by Dwight is that all cash calls will be proposed at a general meeting and bids will be solicited from all equity members at that meeting and that the finance committee will determine how much each household will contribute. The "fairness" is determined by proportion. What about folks that come in later and have money and want to "catch up"? Proposal made to take those on a case by case basis with some guidelines to support the process. Brokk points out that we should have a pretty specific policy that says "this is what we should do - we can make exceptions if need be." Formal proposal for the policy: Cash calls will be published by the finance committee at the next available membership meeting at which time bids from all equity members will be solicited ... the finance committee will review the bids and will apportion the bids proportionally to how they were received.

This was tabled to discuss more fully at the next meeting.

8, 9 and 10 agenda items were tabled due to time.

Dwight will help Cat with orientation on the 21st.**

Dwight will pick up the key and will call Dave by 3pm on the Friday before a meeting to confirm he has the key. **

Social event on 1/14 is an anniversary celebration at San and Kai's.

11. Processed the meeting. Cat proposed that when a person is bringing a formal proposal to the meeting that they pass on facilitation to another member.

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Last modified: October 3, 2001