Mosaic Commons Minutes 3/4/01

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

Location: Parmenter Health Center
Notetaker: Dave
Facilitator: Steph
Present: Rosa, Dwight, Brokk, Elisa, Steph, Leslie, Kai, San, Catya, Dave, Kathy.:

Decisions:

Approved the proposal to bring Chris out in mid-April for 2 days worth of land search and group meetings.
The start date for implementing Equity Membership has been changed to March 18th.
Change wording in the marketing flyer quote to "People in cohousing generally come from..."
Retreat to Maine weekend of May 19/20
Language change/clarification: "Only Associates and Members can fill Treasurer and Secretary roles"

Action Items:

Coordinating

Cat will gather headcount for Maine Retreat.
Cat will poke Kelly for more documents and check to see if this is the level of formality that is typical of groups.
Cat will post to the mailing list when the documents we've approved are online.
Cat will talk to Kelly about chalking a short time with Chris for a pep-talk sort of thing.
Dave will adapt Oak Creek Commons’ wording of decisions outside of a meeting, including the definition of fair attempt - section V-4
Dwight will commit to bring his computer to general meetings for notetaking.
Dwight will coordinate a meeting with Joani Blank.
Dwight will pick up the key for each meeting.
San will go over the FAQ to see if it needs to be updated.
Steph and Dwight will bring their video tour of Tierra Nueva Cohousing for the March 18th meeting.
Steph will follow up with Parmenter for dates of future reservations.
Steph will setup tours of existing area cohousing groups

Secretary

Steph will talk to Lisa about getting the old minutes

Membership and Marketing

Cat will add vision statement and section numbers to the Operating Agreement
Cat will change the quote wording in the flyer
Cat will draft a postcard for SVS Orientation
Cat will get together with Leslie re: marketing ideas
Cat will let us know at the next meeting what the to-date contribution levels are for members.
Cat will put a document together for us to sign when becoming an equity member
Everyone should send comments to list to continue work on the Operating Agreement
Rosa will also research Senior Centers.
Rosa will research other schools since we seem to have a lot of return from this (Montessori, etc.).
San will go through documents to look for other things to add to the Operating Agreement
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.
Steph will look into how other groups have done unit selection prioritization
Steph needs to call Annie again to get an update.
Steph will add a timeline showing what we've done / where we are / where we're going.

Finance

Brokk volunteers to research those affordability facilitation groups and further research.
Cat will clarify how the APR is actually paid at the end of the project

Land/Site

Kai will continue to contact NESG and tunnel people

Professionals

Dwight will apply for the FEIN.
Dwight and Kai will draft the LLC certificate and send on to Cat.
Cat will take the LLC draft to legal folks she knows for approval.

Discussion:

1. Opening Activity

Rosa brought "The Question Book" "Would you rather play a game with someone more or less talented
than you, and would it matter who was watching?"

2. Approval of Minutes

Approval was put off until after break.
Minutes were approved after break with addition of remaining action items from Feb. 4th meeting.

3. Approval of Agenda

Approved

4. Committee reports

Coordinating

Cat will get together with Leslie

Cat will get in touch with Kelly this week

Dwight is okay taking the next orientation meeting (3/18)

Cat and San -actually- talked on the phone to coordinate plans. :) :)

Discussed bringing Chris Scott-Hansen out again: APPROVED. "Bring Chris out in mid-April for 2 days worth of land search and group meetings"

Steph is collecting information about touring cohousing sites nearby. Schedule for mid to late april.

Dwight brings up that Joanie Blank will be in town 2-3 weeks end of march, and asks to come visit our group and talk.

Steph and Dwight have a video of their tour of Tierra Nueva Cohousing in California. They'll bring it and we’ll watch it at the next meeting.

Membership and Marketing

Leslie brought sketches for T-shirts, will look at during the break. They were excellent. A few changes were made and will be reviewed again at an upcoming meeting.

Journal ad is in place - San did it.

SVS said yes to using their mailing list., but San is trying to get an electronic version of it. San says it's about 400 addresses. Postcard? ** cat will draft a postcard.

Cat points out we're out of color ink for making flyers. $30 for a new cartridge (runs about 120 copies)

Rosa researched senior centers, but nothing up yet.

Equity memberships are starting on the 15th of this month. San suggests moving the date to the 18th to correspond with the meeting and a 'document' will be put together by Cat for signing.;

Cat will let us know at the next meeting what the to-date contribution levels are for members.

Finance

Brokk is not getting answers from people re: email about affordable housing stuff. He's gonna call.

Dwight and Cat need to schedule the 'catchup' meeting for transferring treasury responsibilities over. They set a meeting date for Wednesday, March 7.

Land/Site

San says re: Framingham - still not getting clear information. Person suggested contacting owner of New England Sand and Gravel, or call Framingham to see if they've granted permits.

Briefly discussed the recent news of uranium deposits in Concord and whether this could impact our desire to search for land there. Too early to tell.

Professional

Discussion went around regarding our LLC status. Things have come up with 'non for profit' status all over the place. Decision made to hold on pursuing this, because there's really not enough
information.

5. LLC discussion - Kai/Dwight

Kai pulled information off the website, though he said it was very well hidden. :) Formation is very veryeasy. One form. $500 initial fee. Annual report of $500. Bylaws / Operating agreement do not need to be filed with the state.
2 steps needed.

We need to apply for an FEIN, and then put in the paper for the LLC at the commonwealth corporations. It's even suggested that we don't use a lawyer to do this (by several resources).
We fill out the form for the LLC:

Dwight will apply for the FEIN.

Form Entries:

"Mosaic Commons LLC"
File address is Dwight and Steph's house
Purpose: "To conduct any business allowable under something..." - Dwight will find the wording.
Agent: Dwight
Management: "The LLC shall be managed exclusively by all of its members."

Dwight and Kai will draft a certificate, and Cat will do a sanity check on it with folks she knows.

----------BREAK-------------------------------------------------

*. Misc. Issue

Kai brought up that phrasing in one of the quotes used in the marketing flyer: "People in cohousing generally are well educated..." - and everyone agreed that the 'well educated' statement. Change to "People in cohousing generally come from..."

6. Operating Agreement

Cat asks for commentary on the OA.
San asks questions about "what the OA should be - what sort of document is it / should it be? Legalistic? A list of comments / decisions?"
Dwight thinks the OA is in a good form now, because it describes where money is going, etc etc.
Cat says 'the 'what this is' element may be missing. Maybe adding the Vision statement?"
Leslie asks 'is the OA document fluid' - since it's not really written into the agreement, it should be in there that things can be changed / are dynamic.
Cat asks for absolute changes to go in: Rosa suggests the vision statement added.
Steph wants more time to look over Operating Agreement and give it some thought.
Steph would like it in more legal language
Steph brought up things that should be included in the future like: how do we live together/work together, etc?
Cat responded that things will certainly continue to be added to this.
Kai called for clear language, rather than legal or formal
San suggested numbered sections to clarify that.
San also suggested things like ground rules for meetings, etc
San will go through documents to look for other things to add
Cat will add vision statement and section numbers
Everyone should send comments to list to continue work on this

Language change/clarification: "Only Associates and Members can fill Treasurer and Secretary roles"

7. Biographies for new people or others that haven’t done them yet.

Kai von Fintel
Professor of Linguistics at MIT
Family: San, Emma, Pascal, lives with them in Cambridge.
Found out about cohousing from his wife, San.
Biggest hope for cohousing: build a great place to live.
Hobbies: web surfing, watching sports, cooking, listening to all kinds of music, mystery novels.
How long involved: since its inception in Jan 2000.
Any one thing everyone should know about you? No.

Rosa Carson
Research assistant in public health, but wants to do something with multiculturalism.
Currently living in shared apartment but not a household.
Found out about cohousing from Homeport.
Biggest hope is that we create a warm and welcoming community.
Hobbies: drumming, reading, skiing, mountaineering.
Involved with MC since October 2000.
Any one thing? No.

San Tunstall
Short for Susanne
Psycholinguist working as a QA engineer LingoMotors.
Lives with Kai, daughter Emma 6, Pascal 2, in Cambridge.
Found out about cohousing while living in Amherst, MA, during lots of press.
One big hope: to have fulfilling social life for herself and her family members.
Hobbies: Does like to sing, dance, garden, cook and play.
Involved with MC since about Octoer 1999.
Any one thing everyone should know: I really like water.

Kathy Knoblauch
Social Worker at Tewksbury Hospital.
Lives alone in Somerville, where I rent.
In process of adopting a child, possibly from Guatemala.
Found out about cohousing several years ago through groups in Central Mass.
Biggest hope: to live in community with mutual support and different generations, races and cultures.
Hobbies: I like to sing, play guitar, hike, kayak, and more.
How long involved? First meeting today.

These will be posted to the website.

8. Procedure for reaching consensus outside of a meeting.

Dwight reminds us - Chris is empowered by the group to make decisions on the spot - the project leads makes those decisions. (During construction)
Kai reads out from the oak creek operating agreement, people generally like the model. Dave will adapt it including the definition of fair attempt - section V-4
Rosa reminds us that we have to be careful about "associates" and "members" in discussions.

9. Commentary on Cat's 'how to get involved' document.

Dwight suggests capitalizing 'associates' and 'members'
Kai suggests replacing the 'Yahoo Groups' with something less corporate. San suggests a Happy Button!!!
Comments should be gotten to Cat by Friday the 16th.

10. Time / Place / Agenda items for next meeting

Meeting dates are okay.
San pokes folks to keep their yahoo groups calendar.
Approved dates for the retreat.
Cat will gather headcounts.
Steph will follow up with Parmenter for dates of future reservations.
Social Event for March 10th: Frog Pond ice skating at 2pm

Last modified: October 3, 2001