Common House minutes: 2010-03-06

Minutes:

CH meeting minutes, 3/6/10

Present: Becky, Rachel, Malcolm, Jim, Mary, Tom from TS

Agenda:
*work assignments for next season
*update on Jim & Becky's mini meeting re 5 yr planning
*Unscheduled TS Discussion with Tom

TS and our CH
At the beginning of the meeting, there was a question about whether or
not TS was officially sharing the CH yet. Specifically, folks had
noticed that one TS family had started using the laundry room.
Unfortunately, they were also leaving the laundry there for awhile.
Tom from TS happened to be in the CH, so we invited him in to the
meeting.

TS has NOT officially started the sharing of the whole CH. At this
point, they are only renting the office. Some of their members are
enjoying coming to meals. Tom and Maggie will hold off on doing
laundry here until the official sharing begins. However, Tom shared
his personal frustration over this whole situation. We tried to go
through them.

Tom and Maggie are over here the most, but that also makes them the
'target' for any frustrations GO folks are having. GO folks, it
seems, have assumed TS folks just know what our big issues are and
they don't. They feel we are being very harsh and unwelcoming. Becky
will put together of list of what some of our historical hot spots
have been and share them with TS so they know what especially to be
sensitive too (thinks like leaving laundry too long, not picking up,
parking issues, etc). TS folks are also getting blamed, as a group,
for messes left in the CH, when in fact we don't really do such a
great job ourselves. It was a very hard, but good conversation.

We all realized that a huge part of this problem is not many GO folks
know the TS folks. We need to have some parties/social events so we
can start to see them as individuals. We will work together to come
up with ideas. Anyone in the community should feel free to send
suggestions to us, or the fun committee!



Spring Summer Work Season

Pre-Assigns and reactivation

1. Aquarium Cleaner = Eric M
2. Convener = Becky
3. Counted Members = Katie, Rachel,
4. Shopper = Debbi
5. Reactivate sandbox cleaner
6. Reactivate Ch patio cleaners
7. Pre-assign CH maintenance to Elph

5 YEAR PLANNING UPDATE
Becky and Jim met separately to figure out next steps. We spent a lot
of time reviewing all the info we gathered from the 2 community
meetings about this. The number one space that folks want improved is
the kitchen. We have decided that the best way to proceed is to
coordinate with Meals, get a comprehensive list of problems and
wishes, and then consult with a kitchen design specialist. The goal
would be 2 fold: 1: what can we do short term/low cost to help, and
2; come up with a longer term plan that we might need to save up for.

The other issue is that many folks said certain rooms are not working,
and suggested changing locations. However, some of the suggested
changes don't really solve the problem. IE many suggested moving the
guest room to where the media room is to help with noise, but that
would put it right by the laundry room. We have many folks who do
laundry late at night, so that really doesn't help with the noise.

Another concern we have is this: many people say and think they would
use the common house more "if Only X....." were true. However, a lot
of these same people work long hours and have really busy lives. So
if we make all these changes, will people REALLY use the CH more, or
is it just a hope?
More discussion needed.

MONKEY: Becky will contact Mary, the Meals convener about setting up
an initial meeting about kitchen planning.

MONKEY: Rachel will email our community and Touchstone about no food
in kids room, reminding folks about parking issues, and remembering to
use the sign out book for events.

Mary King wants a locked, storage bench for game room where they can
store kettle bell weights. We gave the ok if it is under $100. Needs
to be placed close to the piano to hep with space issues.