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Minutes of Mosaic Commons General Meeting
February 4, 2001, 3:30-6:30pm

Location: Parmenter, Wayland
Notetaker: Dwight
Facilitator: Scott
Present: Catya, Scott, San, Steph, Dwight, Rosa, Leslie Johnson, David H

Decisions:

  1. The Initial Organizing Agreement expiration date is extended until the LLC is formed, without further need for interim renewal

  2. Approved the new wording for the Cash Call Protocol (needs link)

  3. Effective March 15, 2001, households wishing to become Equity Members must meet an initial threshold contribution amount of $1500 and make monthly payments in the following amounts until 5% of their unit cost is met. Exceptions may be made by the Finance Committee on a case by case basis. Policy to be revisited September 15, 2001.

    Unit Type
    Monthly
    Contribution
    1 bed
    $ 500
    2 bed
    $ 550
    Small 3 bed
    $ 675
    Large 3 bed
    $ 850
    4 bed
    $1000

  4. Associate membership will remain at same dues level when the new Membership Policy takes effect.

  5. After a Cash Call is met the names of households meeting the call will be disclosed in a general meeting, with a reminder that further details can be had from the finance committee.

Action Items by Committee:

Coordinating

Secretary

Membership and Marketing

Finance

Land/Site

Professionals

Action Items By Member

  1. All members are requested to consider an appropriate joining ritual for new members
  2. All should put up 5 flyers in separate locations. Flyers need to be posted at various locations frequented by the populations we seek to attract. Let Cat know where you've put them up so they can be changed in 3 months.
  3. 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.
  4. Brokk volunteers to research those affordability facilitation groups and further research.
  5. Brokk will find out if state requires some legal entity other than LLC.
  6. Cat and San will get together at some point between meetings to work on coordinating committee issues.
  7. Cat is going to check up on what's up with the survey form.
  8. Cat will change all of the web site pointers to YahooGroups instead of eGroups
  9. Cat will clarify how the APR is actually paid at the end of the project
  10. Cat will draft an answer for the FAQ question of "How much will it cost?"
  11. Cat will find out how much her attorney will charge for doing the LLC filing - can get this information to San or to Kai.
  12. Cat will fix the links to the legal stuff.
  13. Cat will make the changes proposed to the Welcome Kit, put it on the website for feedback and we will approve at the next meeting.
  14. Cat: will do an ad in the SVS Journal next month and possibly a special intro meeting specifically for those people.
  15. Catya will discuss turnover of Treasury duties with Dwight
  16. Dwight must get the key to the orientation on 2/18
  17. Dwight will add a D2/28 explanation to the incentive policy. (Explain that it would be proportional to the value of the unit, point out that the trial budget reflects similar (but not identical) numbers.)
  18. Dwight will commit to bring his computer to general meetings for notetaking.
  19. Kai will come to the next orientation.
  20. Kai will continue to contact NESG and tunnel people
  21. Legal committee (Dwight and Kai): review the docs from Cat's lawyer make sure standard language is ok.
  22. Legal committee: figure out if we need to do anything else before February with regard to forming LLC.
  23. Rosa will also research and put flyers up at Senior Centers.
  24. Rosa will bring Book of Questions to next meeting
  25. Rosa will remail her intro to the vision statement.
  26. Rosa will research other schools since we seem to have a lot of return from this (Montessori, etc.).
  27. Rosa will write a cash call protocol example
  28. San and Rosa will locate the language to put in the bylaws that refers to an operating agreement.
  29. San will get an example of operating agreement from Kelly
  30. San will go over the FAQ to see if it needs to be updated.
  31. San will rework the wording in the Incentive Policy and will bring to the next meeting.
  32. San will send something individually to members on the various lists who are not likely to still be interested, warning them of their imminent removal from the list.
  33. San will talk to some people to determine what's best, and how much it will cost to do a process workshop. Will try to set it up for late Spring/early Summer.
  34. San will talk to Zoe about babysitting
  35. Steph will look into how other groups have done unit selection prioritization
  36. Steph will put something on the group web site calendar indicating formal reconsideration of the equity membership numbers in August (6 mos).
  37. Steph will setup tours of existing area cohousing groups

Discussion:

1. Opening Activity and Check In: One guest present: Rosa has decided to join as a member.

2. Minutes will be reviewed during the break and a decision for approval will be made then.

3. Today's Agenda: Approved.

4. Process Concerns:

? Steph brought this up related to minutes being late, due to her sense of being daunted. Cat frustrated by lack of forward progress, but not burned out. Steph fears burnout. Recommendation that joining the national cohousing mailing list might help recharge. Steph felt positive stuff about seeing the add'l member prospects respond to the mktg efforts. Rosa suggest possibility of concentrated community building activity. **Steph will setup tours of existing area cohousing groups.

5. Update committees:

? Treasury: Dwight will take it. **ACTION: Catya will discuss turnover with Dwight.

? Coordinating Committee: Initial Organizing Agreement: San says we've been operating without an agreement for some time, since last agreement expired on 18 June, renewed on 17 July 200 through 17 September 2000. Had been renewing every three months; we missed the last couple of renewals. Some copies were passed around. This is an informal agreement, though signatures are required. This document is on the web site. ***This is extended until the official operating agreement and LLC is formed, without further need for interim renewal. People who have not signed should do so. **All members are requested to consider an appropriate joining ritual for new members.

6. Incentive structure and cash call policy:

? Kai's new draft of each were passed around and discussed. This is proposed to replace Dwight's wording. **ACTION: Rosa: please write a cash call protocol example. ***Kai's new wording for Cash Call Protocol accepted.

? In "Why Join Now" (Early Incentives), Kai has clarified difference between unit costs and project costs; rewrote section of Financial Rewards to eliminate the ambiguity between terms "return" and "reward." Dwight pointed out that all of the discussion in previous meetings related to who pays the reward (late-coming members). San explained a nuance: (a) reward comes off the unit cost, for tax consequences and to make it clear that reward is not payable to members who do not purchase units. Scott proposes that we calculate the 5% figure for buckets based on the initial unit cost unchanged by the reward for early money. **ACTION: San caught changes in the document wording, from which she will be reworking and reissuing the document for approval at next meeting. To clarify: the reward levels were always 100% and 50% (which has been expressed, confusingly, as 200% of the money and 150% of the money). Kai points out through San that 15% APR (reward beyond meeting the 5% minimum contribution in first bucket) is 52% (but taxable) when stretched out over three years. The group felt that this was alright, as it's customary in forming groups. **ACTION: Cat will clarify how the APR is actually paid at the end of the project. Scott noted that this is all retroactive, and that we have already blown through the most of the first $15,000 proposed as the 100% reward level. **ACTION: San will compliment Kai on a job well done.

7. Last Week's Minutes: Approved without further discussion.

8. Membership Policies:

? Question is basically what the monthly equity members' contribution should be. Last meeting various numbers were minuted based unit size (see previous minutes). Cat says: Goal today is to get people to their 5% figure and still have members. Scott: We should put a clause in that these numbers are to be used unless something different is agreed upon between the member household and the Finance Committee. Discussion on the numbers ensued. Numbers proposed:

Threshold: $1500

1 bed: 500

2 bed: 550

3 bed: 675

3 lg: 850

4 bed:1000

? **ACTION: Steph will put something on the group web site calendar indicating formal reconsideration of this item in August (6 mos).

? ***DECISION: Above numbers approved, with caveat that the FC can determine exceptions. Question about effective date:

? ***DECISION: effective date of March 15th approved, moving reconsideration 15 September 2001.

? ***DECISION: Associate membership will remain at same dues level.

9. Committee Reports:

Web site:

? **ACTION: Cat will change all of the web site pointers to YahooGroups instead of eGroups.

Finance Committee:

? Nothing to report.

Professionals:

? San wonders whether the need for a process meeting has changed. Scott: Doesn't think we need it. Dwight agrees. Cat: If we're lucky, there will be an influx of new members, and that influx may call for a process meeting. **ACTION: San will talk to some people to determine what's best, and how much it will cost.

? Chris has researched impact fees in our priority towns and has found that they vary greatly. Nobody seems to know exactly what they would cost and it seems to be influenced by "who you know". Chris has not been able to get a determination. This is impacted greatly by who the developer.

Secretary

? At the end of the meeting we will all be asked if we would like our names to be left off any discussion documentation for the minutes.

? Action items will be organized by committee.

Marketing and Membership:

? Cat: Lots of interest in the group lately due to the flyers that have been posted. ***DECISION: **ACTION: Cat: will do an ad in the SVS Journal next month and possibly a special intro meeting specifically for those people.

? **ACTION: Rosa will research other schools since we seem to have a lot of return from this (Montessori, etc.).

? **ACTION: Rosa will also research and put flyers up at Senior Centers.

? **ACTION: San will send something individually to members on the various lists who are not likely to still be interested, warning them of their imminent removal from the list.

? **ACTION: Rosa will remail her intro to the vision statement.

10. Misc. Items

? Cash call disclosure was discussed (leftover from previous meetings): **DECISION: Announcement will include names of households meeting the call, with a reminder that further details can be had from the finance committee.

? Community Building: 19th, 20th May tentative for retreat in May.

? Meeting dates: In April, 2nd mtg would be on Easter, so that's rescheduled for the 22nd.

? Rosa, Dwight, and Stephanie signed the IOA.

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Last modified: October 3, 2001