Present: John Barrett (until 4:30), Catya Belfer-Shevett, Dave Belfer-Shevett, Zach Belfer-Shevett, Janice Carduner, Rosa Carson, Judy Dempewoff, Stephanie Doss, Dwight Ernest, Sarah Florreich, Virginia Fry, Michae Hanau, Greg Hellyer, Roxanne Theimer, San Tunstall, Christie White, Delia Windwalker, Tamara Lwanson, Nancy Braus, Laura Geidel, Ben Blum, Nancy Frost
Location: Parmenter
Facilitator: Rosa
Notes: Stephanie
Process Observer/Time Keeper: Dave

Decisions

• Sarah Florreich joined as an Associate
  
• There is a 60 day deadline for submitting receipts for reimbursement from the Treasurer. This impacts items purchased from this date forward.
• The babysitting hours for general meetings have been extended to 3:15-6:45. This is an additional 30 minutes of payment to the babysitter.
• Approved a reimbursement to Catya and Dave from year 2000 which was not previously credited or presented for reimbursement: $300 for joining The Cohousing Network, and $280 for Domain Name Registration for mosaiccommons.org.

Action Items:

Discussion:

Agenda
1. Opening Activity
· Discussed what we want out of this activity and how best to achieve it. Several ideas were considered. We'll try a variety of different options in upcoming meetings.
· We broke off into pairs (preferably with people you didn't know very well) to talk for 3 minutes and came back together to share any important information with the group.

2. Review of Colored Cards and Ground Rules
· Rosa did so.
· Cat made up large colored cards to put up on the wall for reminders. Thanks Cat!

3. Announcements and Approval of Agenda
· Steph apologized for not having the folders this time.
· Sarah wishes to join as an associate today. She has met the requirements and presented Dwight with a check.
· Ben, Greg, and Janice announced their desire to join as associates. They were encouraged to talk to other folks about taking over some action items and raising their hands to take on action items during the meeting so that they can meet the requirement to join as an Associate.
· Agenda Approved with minor changes.

4. Review and Approve minutes from previous meeting
· We will wait to approve the minutes until next meeting as there were several changes and errors brought to Steph's attention.
· Cat suggested that proposals should be cut and pasted into the minutes when they are discussed.
· Delia suggested that it should be noted in the minutes why proposals were sent back for reconsideration.

5. 15 minute discussion among Associates and Equity Members only
Confidential

6. Follow-up to Facilitation Workshop
· Rosa would like to see a discussion about what the facilitation team would look like.
· Rosa would like to see a discussion about how this will impact how we run the meetings
· San would like a discussion about how it went as a workshop, do we want to do more of this type of event.
· Janice was left with wanting to know more - she would like us to do more investigation into more of this.

How did we feel the workshop went? Would we like to do this workshop again?
· Dwight felt it was very useful. Doesn't think we've been doing anything wrong, but did find several suggestions helpful. Is very much in favor of the facilitation team approach - that team working together to learn better how to facilitate.
· John also found it helpful. He took away from the workshop that it would be a good idea to have facilitation teams.
· Cat enjoyed the workshop, was worried during part off the workshop that we wouldn't get out of it what we needed, but we did end up getting what we needed. She felt like more time would have been helpful - if we do it again, she'd like to have an all day workshop.
· Judy took away the importance of listening to the minority. She felt like the popcorn structure wasn't helpful in our group and would ask him to structure that better in the future.
· Dave took away an appreciation of how we currently do things, likes the idea of expanding into facilitation teams, likes the exercises of visually showing what the group members' opinions are (spectrum). Isn't sure how a 2nd workshop would be helpful unless we were very specific about the structure.
· Christie left the meeting with a feeling that perhaps there wasn't as much substance as she would have liked. She would like to consider having him observe one of our meetings and critique so we could take away some more substance.
· Delia thought it would have been better for him to have used a cofacilitator and to have used some visual aids. Also, perhaps it would be helpful for us to go observe him facilitate a meeting.
· Janice thought there were lots of other ways that we could use him in the future.
· San clarified that we should be talking about how to go about integrating new people into the group.
· Rosa thinks it would be helpful to have a future workshop like this, specifically about bringing new people into the group. She finds these kinds of workshops very useful in skill building and relationship building.
· Cat thinks it might be a good idea to have a conflict resolution workshop.

What we would like to see implemented from the workshop?
(We did a go around)
· More small group work.
· Specialized facilitators that know people's styles
· Facilitation Team
· Listening to the minority
· Music
· Chimes to bring people together
· Taking different views of situations
· Mixing up dynamics
· Take away the tables
· Trying new things
· Willingness to experiment
· Spectrums
· Fitting the approach to the problem
· Focus on community building
· Heart centered process

· Rosa is going to head up the facilitation team, which will mean helping people learn how to facilitate, help them learn how to respond to different styles in the group.
· San would like to have a mailing list put together for the facilitation team.
· Ben offered to lead a song after the break.

7. Hot Topics: Spiritual & Political Issues (except guns)
· Rosa suggested that we do the first portion of the action items, break, and then come back to Hot Topics.
· We took 10 minutes as small groups - talked about feelings about the issues at hand.
· The issues on the table for discussion were: Political Signs, Evangelizing, Solicitation, and Holiday Decorations.
· We decided not to include the discussion about state and local laws until we have a clearer framework for this.
· Rosa suggested that a couple of people from each small group post the small groups on email

8. Team/Committee Reports and Action Items
· Sarah brought in an action item report and passed it out - very helpful! The items in bold are the ones that are actually updated.

Land/Site
· Dwight updated the group about the conference call with Chris this last week.
· Chris is doing initial feasibility on the newest property: how many units can we build on it?
· No proposal has been put in yet because we're not sure if it would fit our group yet.
· Chris has been working on this new site for about 2 weeks. He just got ahold of the landholder this last Wednesday. The land is currently tied up in a contract with a real estate agent until the end of March, but the owner doesn't want to renew the contract and is very interested in talking with us.
· The land has been viewed by some members and it appears quite doable.

---BREAK---

9. Process Check-in
· Ben led us in a song.
· Christie and Ben are going to put together a MC songbook.

10. Team/Committee Reports
Coordinating
· Rosa has joined the coordinating team
· We need to coordinate a closing person for Parmenter. Roxanne will do it with Cat and Dave tonight. Steph will write up a list of things to do for the closing.
· Cat proposed that we extend the babysitting hours from 3:15-6:45. Approved.
· Greg will take over the bag of papergoods.

Finance
· There are two items from fy2000 that we think the group approved to reimburse, but can't find documentation to do so: Dwight is asking for group permission to reimburse Catya and Dave for the following: $300 to The Cohousing Network, and $280 for Domain Name Registration for mosaiccommons.org
· Dwight proposes that there be a 60 day deadline for requesting reimbursement. All agreed that this is an acceptable deadline.
· Dwight reminds people that it is required to have receipts for reimbursement - this is for the IRS.
· Sarah published an income and expense report for February's expenses. Dwight explained how to read this report.
· Dwight reminds people to review their monthly statements carefully and bring any errors or discrepancies to the attention of Dwight and/or Sarah as soon as possible.

Marketing
· Cat sent out a request for someone who might be interested in taking over the marketing stuff - keeping track of where we are advertising, when things need to be renewed, etc. Judy will take this over.
· Cat has been talking to a person interested in homeschooling - they might be joining us at the next meeting.

Secretary
No report

Website
· Steph asked if the search engine has been fixed - no, it hasn't and won't be until Homeport's server is updated.
· The decision log has been updated and reformatted.

11. Review/Establish Time, Place, Agenda Items For Next Meeting And Social Event
· Retreat: No date has been set. Rosa is researching alternative places. Rosa will propose some dates online.
· Cat is thinking of hosting a Passover Sader at the end of March. Many people expressed interest.
· Social ideas: Game night, music evening, hiking
· Judy will propose dates for a Game Night on email.
· Rosa will propose dates for a Women's Social Spa Day
· April Social idea: Neffa will be held in Natick

3/17/02 1:00-3:00 Intro meeting - Cat to run, Dwight to backup (Dave and Steph to help with childcare?)
3/17/02 3:30-6:30 General meeting at Parmenter
4/7/02 3:30-6:30 General meeting at Parmenter
4/21/02 1:00-3:00 Intro meeting - Cat to run, no backup yet
4/21/02 3:30-6:30 General meeting at Parmenter

12. Review the meeting
· Judy really liked splitting out into small groups.
· Folks like the energy brought by the new people.
· Greg and Dwight thought more time in the smaller groups would be helpful. Found it easier to talk.
· Distracting to have to work at hearing people - this room has higher ceilings.
· This space as become less ideal since we began using this room. Time to look for a new location?
· Dwight proposes that we split up the meeting into business and process - first part of the meeting is done at the tables, second without. Discussed this and folks would like to try a meeting without tables at all.

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Last modified: March 5, 2002