Minutes of Mosaic Commons
General Meeting
July 27, 2002, 3:30-6:30pm
| Present: | Rick, Kim, Rosa, Dave, Roxanne, Joan, Greg, Catya, Sarah, Virginia, John, Judy, David, Cathy |
| Location: | Parmenter, Wayland |
| Facilitator: | Rick, Rosa |
| Notes: | Dave |
| Process Observer: |
Have a standing CR team, which is a subgroup of 2-4 people in the Facil team
Passed Budget Change Proposal, with Proposal 1 under Scenario 2.
Same as last meeting, plus:
Greg: Send matrix to members list
Catya: Update policy on finance changes, Add Joan to members list, Name
Tags.
Opening
Addenda to agenda:
Announcements:
Minutes approved from July 7th meeting
Landsite update from Kim
Sarah's update of Bucket Money and affects of increases of the budget
5% minimum numbers have gone up - so what happens when the budget changes?
Scenario 1 (folks made their 5%, but haven't done any bucket 2) - passed.
Scenario 2 - 2 proposals. Reason for it is they didn't think it was fair for folks to continue earning interest on bucket 2 money when their original 5% was not met.
Only 300 or so into bucket 2 right now.
Cat is in favor of having the choice.
Cards called for both proposals, there were reservations on the first call
Second proposal called, only Cat had yellow card (this call for information purposes)
Cat feels strongly that we don't want to discourage activity into Bucket 2.
Sarah responds that part of our rules is we make folks finish their bucket 1 before putting into bucket 2, so that should carry over into a budget change.
Virginia: we're talking about small amounts of money, but what would be the relative impact of these 2 choices in the future?
Sarah: depends on the persons behavior. If they don't balance out their values immediately into bucket 2, they just start losing interest payments on the balance.
Virginia: is there an impact on the group in general?
Cat: from a self interest point of view, the group would pay interest out of thebucket 2.Sarah: doesn't see a major change in the future, so the real numbers are actually quite small.
Virginia: if we're in the construction phase, are either of these proposals still relevant?
Cat: at that point, we've filled bucket 1 and 2, so they don't matter anymore.
(Referred back to bucket diagram from intro)Greg: will this change if we go with Framingham?
Cat: unclear
Rick: the issue is that the 'bar has moved' - eg, people -have- made their bucket 1 money... If the total gets to be significantly large, it'll be a problem
David: Special cases? Penalties associated with equities?
Sarah: this is all cash, shouldn't really come up.
Rosa - called the question - Proposal 1 goes ahead.
Rick asks if the equity members not here get a say - can they recall it?
Cat - yes, 2 weeks to re-call the question if they have issues with it.
Scenario 3 - folks making payments on their original schedule against 5%
Passed.Scenario 4
PassedItem 7 - Landsearch process.
Rosa intro - email sent around - bring up time for folks to talk about the landsearch process in the meeting. Take about a half an hour about this.
Rick - when first heard about Kelly's comments, thought Kelly overreacted about where we're at. I (Rick) don't feel like we're in jeopardy.
Dave - lot of community warm fuzzies
Cat - responding to Dave and Rick's comments. Kelly was talking "if you don't have land, you can't have a cohousing community". doesn't think kelly was out of line. Kelly and Cat talked - cat's frustration "if this is about the group not understandingthe risk involved in 40b, why weren't we better informed about it?" - Kelly says Chris was making too many assumptions about how much the group knows about 40b. - Cat to Kelly - that really is unacceptable - its a bad businessrelationship. Kelly's input was that this landsearch is so long, compared toother groups, that in other groups it hasn't gone longe nough for this type of issue to come up.
Joan - recap what Kelly said?
Rosa - recaps Monday and Wednesdays' meetings.
Kim - read the actual notes from Kelly
Cat points out that Kim's reading is what came out of the Monday meeting. Wednesday discussed more of what we're going to do about it.
David points out that a large part is the area we're looking. Welcome to Boston.
Rosa - much of it is the zoning.
Kim clarifies 40b for David
Rosa nudges us back on topic.
Sarah asks why does Kelly think we don't get 40b?
Greg - part of Kelly's concern was the fact that Cohousing Resources is actually a partner of ours, and there was a significant risk to their business as well.
Sarah agrees.
Kim - was at the landsite meeting where Kelly put Chris on the spot to come up with a rating for the 'risk' involved with 40b. There are a lot of people telling Christhat its really complicated and/or its really uncomplicated. But no less complicated than going to a town meeting asking for a rezone. Short answer,Kim disagrees with Chris's assessment that 40b is that much of a risk.
Cat brings up that she thinks that the group was actually 'enabling' Chris - putting him in a position to easily drop into that role.
Virginia - 2 observations. When Chris says 'critical' or 'negative' things to the group, he
tends to say them in quite indirect and general ways. The way he says themmeans we as a group really miss the content. 2nd, Kelly made 2 commentsabout why we're in jeopardy. One is 40b - long term. The other part of the problem was competing geographical expectations. We haven't talked about thatenough in the group. To me (Virginia) its the crux of the issue.
Rosa - can't talk about about the geographic question without a couple of the member households (San and kai are not here) Steph and Dwight as well.
Cat - spent a little while talking to San (with Kim as well) - they are comfortable talking further west, but this is not for this discussion. 2nd comment - Chris is notdeliberately leaving us astray, or is incompetent... but it is a screwup. butChris is basically an optimist.
Greg - uncertainty is not quantifiable. Better to look at things in an ordinal way - safer / less risky / more risky. If you come up with numbers, "twice as risky" itsreally deceiving.
Go-around called.
Rosa - very glad we renegotiated with Cohousing Resources brough attention to the search process, and feels like they're now more invested in teh job. Feels like meeting Kelly broughther really into the process and the contract is now with Cohousing Resources, not just with Chris
Dave - ditto with Rosa - lot of stuff about Kelly's relationship.
John - many mixed feelings. Kim's taking over landsite makes it more focused. Struggles with how Cohousing Resources does business, questions accountability. "Paid a substantialamount of money out, and have only made 1 offer? 2?" (Kim corrected to 4)
Kim - nothing to say.
Rick - forgotten how angry I was when I first heard what Kelly said. '2 months?!?' A lot was ameliorated by the Wednesday meeting. Feel really optimistic. Used to have a problem with Cohousing Resources relationships, but is feeling a lot better asmore of the details come to light.
Roxanne - Chris is basically a 'big picture guy' - and Kelly seems to be a detail person. Thinks we need both in the process to get a clear picture. Wishes she had beenmore involved earlier. I don't know anything about 40b, but don't think its quiteas risky as Kelly makes it out to be. Do have some reservations because ofthe Framingham location - loss of control of our project. Financials are goingto be very different.
Virginia - "I agree with everything everyone is saying." :) Understands the struggles that are going on bringing the community in our heads to reality. Should be willingto listen to the bad as well as the good.
Greg - Also echoing what folks are saying. Good thing we renegotiated with Cohousing Resources Thinks Kelly brings a great perspective to it. A reality check to Chrissometime over-optimism. Looking forward to working with S&K about feelingsabout location.
Cat - since I chat with Kelly a lot on various things, knows that Kelly has been involved in the process for some time. Thinks Kelly's involvement complicates the picture,but does it in a good way. Feeling on 40b, issue is not the risk of whether wesucceed or not, worried about the shift in focus to dealing with beaurocracyand towns and state programs, and having to deal with lotteries. Worried aboutthe impact on our group having that sort of thing involved. A rezone may be risky, but not as emotionally risky. Personally does not want to do a 40b for not a very easily articulated reason.
Sarah - glad to see Kelly at the meeting - good to see how they work together, and she brings a great balance to Chris Well briefed on how risky the 40b is, butfar more concerned about the lottery, and location is critical. Not more or lessoptimistic about the search, but feel better about the process.
Kim - issues that she's thinking of - Kelly was saying things like "is the group aware of the timeline / runout time?" (ed note: lost much of this, noise in the meeting)
Cat quick comments: in no scenario are we the ones who gets the construction loan.
Kelly's job IRL (in real life) :) is project manager.
Process Observation - John's Birthday
John - seeing a lot of low energy in the group today;
Kim - agrees, it is hard to keep up motivation in the summer - feeling frustrated;
John - compliments to Rick on being entertaining;
Community Building Exercise - a go around talking about why you are here and what you want out of co-housing
Rosa - please be brief; - she is here largely because of the people, a city person who likes the folks in MC - likes the idea of being in a shared neighborhood, not excited about having to buy a car;
Cat - here because she is stubborn - she has been living in an intentional community since '93-'94 in NJ - they decided to found Homeport - she loves Homeport and has mixed feelings about MC - will be more stable than Homeport - awful when change happens at Homeport - too hard to deal with transitions in such a small group - need to have a larger group with a wider age range - Cat and Dave have never lived together as a couple on their own - interesting to see how it will play out - it is the right thing to do
Kim - saw how her grandmother spent her last years and the emotional repercussions - she wanted all the folks she cares about in one place - will be closer - wants the support and to be supported and to share our joys and despairs;
Virginia - living in community will be antithetical to how she has lived her life until now - she has been reexamining her life and through personal visioning work she realized co-housing was calling her - she intuitively clicks with MC folks, even though the land search is significantly west of where she would prefer - she appreciates our mutual respect - logically it doesn't make sense, but it does emotionally - not completely sure
Joan - didn't have a goal of a community living arrangement - she is a reader - it really clicked with her when she saw what it was about from reading the green book on cohousing - she appreciates on how folks treat each other - there is an important quality of genuineness;
Roxanne - came reluctantly at first at urging of another person - seemed like a really good idea - folks in the group are genuine, honest, intelligent, warm people - not many people in life are like this she has found - living how she does now she could go several days not speaking with anyone - we are social creatures - it is in our nature - it will be a given in MC - when she wants to see a friendly face she can just walk out the door
Rick - my wife made me come to MC - it did click with him in the Intro meeting - in Idaho they had talked about the ideal of a community of folks they cared about;
Judy - she is an only child and has lived a lot of her young years by herself; when kids were there it was great but she misses them - it is not easy to connect with friends - she wouldn't want to live alone - she wants to have people around as she ages - she wants to share - having children around is important
John - heard about cohousing at Omega - considered it a pipe dream - hsi wife made him go to the first meeting - what made it seem realistic and doable was a tour of Pioneer Valley - looking at their future they don't want to wind up living only with Seniors - like Judy she wants a multi-generational community - it challenges his personal boundaries - can he accept people with different lifestyles and still care for them and like them - knows it will continue
Dave - my wife brought me - kicking and screaming - Pioneer Valley made real sense - they have been living communally for 7 years - now he is grownup there are societal expectations that could isolate him - wants to see a larger community of friends
Greg - when selling house a few years ago, didn't want to live off alone. Saw pioneer valley, consistent with my own values. Enjoys the 'pushing boundaries' thing. Folks here are great. :) Age diversity is very attractive in the group (both the grown up kids and the little kids)
Action items -
Folks need to send Cat their action items.
*** Action item for cat - find a replacement for yourself as action item manager
*** cat's response. Graphic. :)
Remaining team and committee reports:
Coordinating:
nothing to report
Marketing
working on the updates to the website (cat). Sanitzed 'mainstream'version. Folks should review their bios. Virginias is up. Folks should checkeht entire site and see if there are things she's missing.
Membership
(Virginia) Met a month ago, another meeting coming up soon. Christie isworking on a promotional video. Teaching a cohousing course at an adult-edschool. Virginia is researching alternative medicine / etc avenues. Greg sayshis church group wants to do a community meeting about cohousing. Probablyhappen in the fall.
Cat - membership is now a separate team, Judy is the head - goal of membershipis to bring folks from intro to membership. Rosa would like to move from marketingto membership. Need for someone in membership to take on the role of coordinating social events.Judy - heading up mentoring. Tried to get some info from Jim and Abby, but hadn't gotten a response.
Facilitation
Kim/Rick/Rosa met on Thursday. Nothing to report.
Website - see Marketing.
Conflict resolution - John
handout " Conflict Resolution Team Report "
how do we constructively mediate conflict in the group.
Question - do we need a standing conflict resolution team, or should it be folded into the facilitation team?
Kim - facilitation has enough to do. Suggestion about cat's comment on the list about a 'troubleshooter'
cat - I think we should have a standing conflict resolution team. Should most likely be smaller. (2-3 people?) should be 2 roles. Process of becoming an equity member where the CR team could come in. should be a responsive side andand active side. Thinks we're good on the responsive side, but not on the active side. troubleshooter role wold be more in the active role.
Roxanne - yes on the standing CR team. Just keeping a barometer on any underlying tensions, etc. - similar to what facilitation is doing.
Cat - one of the roles of the CR team may be to take over the process observation roles from the facil team.
Greg - feels that some of the CR processes wouldn't have been helpful with Jim and Abby, but that was more from J&A's perspective. Feels that conflict is inevitable in thegroup, and as such feels that the standing group is needed. Thinks whoever ison the team has a professional side.
Rick - feels that the urge to reach out to professionals... mistrusts it. Feels that the current group has what it needs to keep 'in touch' .
Greg - no, not suggesting someone outside.... someone inside.
Rick: Oh! Okay.
John - mixed about having a separate team. We have a lot of these convos during the facilitation meetings. Suggestion: if we want a CR team, elt the scope be widened, and takes into account group development.
Kim - sees 'subteam' of the facil team, since facil is so large. 2 people from inside the facil team to do that.
Rosa - what Kim said.
Cat - Might be a good spot to bring this up on the mailing list. Didn't like the idea of the facil team as a whole to be responsible of it. Some step by step process needsto be put together for how CR handles things.
Rick - suggests bringing it to the list.
Cat - wants to call the question - forming CR as a subgroup of facil
John - facil should take CR as a 'forming' process. Not just as an individual interaction with individuals.
Roxanne - should the people on the standing team get some training?
Rosa - probably a good idea, but further down the road.
Judy - would be good to keep developing the skills.
Rick - asks for phrasing of question.
Cat - propose to have a standing CR team, which is a subgroup of 2-4 people in the Facil team. Passed.
Hot topics - solicitation
Virginia. Notes were written by Janice - Handout 'Solicitation Guidelines - First Draft'
Rosa - reviewing notes. Seems to reflect the mindset, but doesn't feel like these are particularly 'guidelines' - these seem to be just general feelings.
Cat - echos Rosa's comments. - should frame it as a statement of communitity values. opening statement something like "As part of treating each other with respect..."
Joan - Marty made a comment - re: solicitation outside the community - whatever our decision may be, that may be off-putting to the community around us.
Virginia - put phrasing regarding outside community impact into the statement.
Roxanne - would like to be a fly on the wall when jehovahs witnesses come by. 8)
Rosa - thinks we're going into too many specifics - which is further down the road. Kai is looking into legality of this sort of posting.
Cat - offers help if needed. Agrees with Joan's comments, but shouldn't be incorporated into the statement.
Rick - will revisit at a later date.
Next events / review.
Kim - scheduling drumlin farm outing - 1 afternoon a month thats free. Trying to schedule it for that day, instead of $6 a personTours - postponing rest of the tours, due to poor attendance on the MV tour.
Cat - would really like to see Pathways before out siteplanning workshop. Will go out and see it alone - this is to see how Mary and Laura do design, - site workshopmay happen right after we get land.
Roxanne - says MC has gone to a Pathways visit when the common house was complete.
Kim - will schedule ASAP as soon as we get a notification we have land.
Greg - timing for the ferry was difficult, though a lot of interest in seeing the site.
Cat - lot of the same, northhampton is easier to get to.
Rosa - maybe someone else could schedule the next set oftours, since Kim is looking so frazzled about it.
Kim - okay with scheduling, just want to see more folks going.
Virginia - intended to go, but had MC overload - too many MC events scheduled inside a few weeks period. Too many things scheduled makes it difficult.
Cat - will help with scheduling.
Roxanne will help out for the August intro meeting.
Cat may not be able to do the September intro meeting.
Rick - have the space at parmenter through september.
Cat - September 7th, dave and cat doin 5yr renewal of vows.
Rosa - social for rosa's birthday. July 29th. (virginias is July 27th)
Cat - applepicking in the fall.
Judy - sometime in the fall - do a new myers briggs thing.
Kim - there were retreats last year in the spring and fall, how about this year?
Rosa - not keen on doing the retreat again this year. Folks should think about dates.
Meeting notes - closing comments.
Rosa - folks on wednesday were really bad about using cards. Rosa will get much more direct about card usage.
John - Rosa did a _GREAT_ job on wednesday.
Cat - facilitation team - look at order of cards ordered? questions or comments take precedence?
 |
Last
modified:
August 1, 2002
|
![Copyright [dates], Mosaic Commons LLC](../graphics/copyright.gif)