Common House minutes: 2012-09-08

Minutes:

*9/8/2012 CH meeting minutes *

Present: Heather, Becky, Paddy, Aditya

*Agenda:*

- 2013 Budget requests
- Maintenance items
- Touchstone share proposal
- Exercise room

*2013 Budget Requests*

Discussed budget line items and anticipated expenses/needs for 2013. First
proposed set of numbers needed for September 19 plenary. Becky will email
our budget request to the budget committee.
*Improvements*
Insulating blinds for the offices and guestroom to lower energy costs and
increase comfort. These rooms have a total of 8 windows. (Laundry room and
play rooms still need blinds and it would be nice to cover the small, high
windows in the dining room - wait another year on those rooms. Perhaps
artwork/stained glass for dining room windows) We need good light
blocking blinds for the guest room
Jim and Gail went to Deluxe Draperies and got a total quote of $3345 for
all 8 windows, which is $418 per window. The 3 media room shades cost
around $100 per window. Becky researched Lowe's ready-made blinds, and
they cost around $80 per shade. If we go with higher quality than what we
have in the media room we estimate around $150 per window plus installation
and some cushion in case it costs a bit more. Ask for $1400.

Ceiling fan for the media room. Air circulation in the media room is very
poor and if the door is kept closed the room is stuffy and stinks. The
blower vent and return are next to each and do not effectively circulate
the air; Elph suggested having Roberston Morrison give us quote on moving
the ducts, but this sounds expensive. For now, let's install a nice
ceiling fan like we did in the game room. A nice, high-end fan costs around
$150, and we would need electrician to install it because there is no
existing.mount. Ask for $350

LED lighting. We are planning to replace the existing recessed lights
with LED lights. Adi has purchase four kits to retrofit existing cans,
but need help installing them (he can't remove the ballast from each can).
We made need an electrician for this. The four we already have cost $160
total; lets not budget for more in the coming year, but wait to install
these and see how they perform.

Light timers for halls - wait on this. Several folks don't like the light
going out unexpectedly and don't want timers so we will wait on this.

These planned improvements total $1750. We will ask for $2000 in the
improvement line to cover other unanticipated needs.
*
**Maintenance:* 2011 budget was $5500 and we spent $5300. This year we've
spent $2200 so far, but we are due to have the furnaces serviced before end
of year, and we need to hire someone for installing the LED lights, but
will probably come in under this year's budget. Ask for $5000
*
**Utilites:* Last year we increase our electricity estimate 5% and
everything else 3%. So far this year we've spent all of our electricity
budget. For gas we've used half our estimate. Let's do standard 3%
increase.
*
Income and tax: *includes guest room, donations (Familiy Farms,
Zingerman's), office rent, and TS share.
Zingerman's is going to stop using our facility, but FF plans to continue.
Estimate $800. Estimate $600 for Guest Room based on past years use.
Office rent has not ever been raised. Although the commitee has resisted
raising rent until now, it makes sense to increase it in-line with rising
utility and maintenance costs. Rent will increase by 3% and we will
estimate 80% occupancy for budget. Heather will notify tenants of the
increase, which will take effect January 1, 2013.
Touchstone sharing - Main uses are laundry and meetings. Based on survey
of both communities, TS laundry usage is about 25% of total, and they use
CH rooms for meetings half as much as GO does. Still proposing $200 per
month. Becky will present the numbers and proposal at the September 19
plenary.

*Reservation System:* Have a $500 line item for online CH reservation
system - this project has stalled. Adi has created an online system we can
use at no cost, but there were concerns about having another system
dependent on one person in the community for monitoring, upkeep, etc.
Heather will check in with Debbi Schaubman to see if we can get it moving
again and get a sense of the annual cost and if it will actually happen.
Adi's system is Plan B.

*Maintenance Items:*
Door stops are needed for the play room and media room. Heather will
notify Elph.

*Touchstone Share Proposal:
*We now have some usage stats to include in our proposal to lower the
amount we charge TS to share our CH. Becky will update the proposal and
present at the next plenary. We are sticking with the proposed amount of
$200. (See above section in budget discussion.)

*Exercise Room:
*The CH committee will buy an elliptical machine for the exercise room.
There is $1500 in the Reserve fund for exercise equipment replacement in
2013. We are close enough to the new year to move forward with this now.
We would like to get a maintenance contract with any new machine.

*Monkeys:*
TS proposal - Becky will update proposal and email it to committee and
present.
Becky will send past minutes to the archived mailing list
Heather will follow up with Debbi regarding the reservation system

*Next Meeting:* September 22, 10:00 am, CH sitting room

- Need to track items to add to reserve and sent to F&L
- Follow up on TS proposal
- Follow up on budget discussion
- CH reservation system
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