Buildings Committee Mandate

Buildings 2018-01-19

Summary:

The Buildings Committee is a standing committee responsible for maintaining and improving the physical infrastructure of Great Oak community. Their mandate includes ensuring the short and long-term maintenance, regulatory compliance, and safety of the buildings and related infrastructure, coordinating renovations and repairs, and working with other committees as needed.

Proposal:

Buildings Committee Mandate
January 19, 2018


Mandate summary: What did the community ask Buildings Committee to do?
Buildings committee is a standing, empowered committee, and it has a budget. It is responsible for the short and long-term maintenance, improvement, regulatory-compliance, and safety of our physical infrastructure.

Subcommittees: none

Building Committee's Mission: What is our global task in service to the community?
To keep Great Oak's buildings, including elements of individual units, the common house, garages and workshop in good repair, attractive, and in compliance with local building regulations, so that Great Oak is a place where community members can thrive now and in the future.

Goals: What are we responsible for?
1. Catastrophic buildings-related-event response--helping owners with vendor coordination such as when a sprinkler fails, leaks, a fire, etc.
2. Long term preventative maintenance
3. Short term buildings exterior maintenance and repair
4. Tracking and scheduling of Reserve-funded maintenance
5. Develop and maintain a calendar of regularly scheduled maintenance and inspections for our buildings and related infrastructure, especially safety-related items such as:
(a) Smoke Detectors: Maintenance and replacement
(b) Fire suppression: Annual inspection and maintenance
(c) Backflow inspection: Annual inspection and maintenance
(d) Radon remediation systems: Ensure units are in working order and perform periodic radon testing on individual units
6. Reviewing and approving renovations, additions, and repairs as specified in our community agreements:
(a) Coordinate buildings exterior replacements and repairs as needed;
(b) Maintain and prioritized a list of needed repairs, adding new items as they are brought to the attention of the committee;
(c) Review, provide feedback, and approval (if required) for renovation requests by GO members for structural changes to their units (as per any approved Great Oak policies), and assist owners in obtaining the necessary permits and inspections to comply with building codes. Make sure that any proposed renovations that change the exterior appearance of the building are also publicly posted for the community to have time to respond, and voice any concerns;
(d) Evaluate and assess for any needed repairs of Limited Common Elements per the Master Deed (contact the Great Oak Finance and Legal Committee to review the current Master Deed). Inform owner and track completion.
7. Work with other committees as needed, including coordinating with:
(a) Reserve study periodically to anticipate upcoming requirements and tasks, and to advise F&L of unforeseen Reserve needs;
(b) Grounds and Common House on areas of overlapping responsibility and any necessary work;
(c) Finance & Legal on insurance, budget (including an allocation framework to correctly assign maintenance items to one or more of the following funding sources: Buildings Maintenance fund, homeowner, insurance deductible, or Reserve) and legal issues related to Buildings.
8. Limited pest control as determined and defined by subsequent community policy.

What infrastructure elements are we responsible for?
Anything specified as association responsibility per the Great Oak Master Deed.

What infrastructure elements are we not responsible for?
1. Items designated in the Master Deed as "owner-responsibilities."
2. Buildings is not responsible for arranging the maintenance or repairs of owner-responsible items. However, depending on workload, Buildings may be available to help coordinate group purchases per community request.

What is expected of committee members?
Committee members are expected to attend meetings (usually once or twice a month unless there are extenuating circumstances), complete their assigned tasks between meetings, and read and respond to Buildings-related email.

Each work season, create, remove, or update Buildings-related work position job descriptions; pre-assign as needed.

What is expected of the convenor? The Buildings Committee convener will ensure that the following tasks occur (some or all of which may be delegated to another committee member):
> meeting dates are set;
> meeting reminders sent to committee members and go-talk inviting folks to attend;
> an agenda for the committee meeting is prepared;
> the meetings are facilitated;
> minutes are taken at meetings and communicated to the community in a timely manner;
> assigned tasks are tracked and communicated;
-->> be aware of who is working on what and remind people as needed;
-->> record tasks in meeting minutes and review at each meeting so the group can evaluate and revise as needed;
> committee reports are given at community meetings, if needed;
> shared responsibility for accomplishing agreed upon tasks

How will the committee make decisions?
The committee will take a collaborative approach to making decisions in committee meetings with a priority on consensus among the committee members. The committee will seek community input via a variety of methods, including surveys, straw polls, and formal proposals to which the community can react.

How will the committee make monetary decisions?
Buildings will follow the community's approved bidding practices in non-emergency maintenance situations. In urgent or emergency situations where delay would be dangerous, or result in additional damage and expense, we will use trusted vendors who have previously provided fair pricing and good service whenever possible. All Buildings Committee expenses and allocations will be shared with the community annually, as part of the budget process.

How will the committee communicate with the community?
> Notices will be sent to GO-Talk in advance of the meeting.
> Minutes will be sent to the community-wide "Buildings-Minutes" email group (buildings-minutes@gocoho.org) within one week of each committee meeting.
> We will acknowledge or answer all incoming email from Great Oak members to our group email account within 72 hours.
> In addition, at least once a year, the committee will give an in-person report at a community meeting to review the past year's accomplishments, to outline the tasks and goals planned for the coming year, and to seek community feedback.

Process Comments:

No stand asides, no blocks.