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ACM minutes Feb 8, 2023

Topics: conflict support information, Maintenance Committee, civility.  Proposal:  Project Management

Decision:  The Management Committee will turn over all maintenance responsibilities to the Maintenance Committee.

All-Community Meeting, Wednesday February 8, 2023, 7:00-9:00 p.m.

Present: Laraine, Ben, Jorge, Robin, Linda, Kerry, Mike, Kay (notes), Vicky, Victor, Vinnie, Cheryl, Eliza, Lynda, Marina, Myste, Mary, Amy, Coleen, Alex, Mike has proxy for Cyd. [attendance amended 2/12/23]

Check-In: Where did you go to high school and what was your favorite subject?

Length of ACMs

In November a straw poll suggested we shorten ACMs by 15 minutes as an experiment.  We did that for several ACMs.  Lessons learned: Be flexible on length of meeting, depending on intensity of discussion and so on.

Conflict Support

Members: Laraine, Lynda, Alex, Eliza, Laura.

The committee posted information on the wiki about tools for working on conflict. 

An example is the six-step model on conflict, from the book Cooperative Culture, written by Yana Ludwig and Karen Gimnig.

  1. Emotions don't equal logic and don't have to.
  2. Encourage self-honesty.
  3. Share the triggers for the conflict.
  4. What's at stake or why is this important
  5. Reflection and mutual understanding
  6. Proactive options

The committee would like community members to offer other documents for consideration for posting on the wiki.

Fire Pit

Jorge and Robin are interested in cleaning up the fire pit and disposing of the half-burnt logs.  Victor thought the best way to clean up the fire pit would be to burn the logs. Mary remembers that Fire Dept said our pit isn't legal because it isn't a barbecue, and gave us a month to change it, which hasn't happened; Vicky has a different memory.

Maintenance/Project Management Proposal

Second discussion of proposal. 

Issue:  Management has a lot of responsibilities which get due to concentration on maintenance. Management membership is limited to a subset of residents. 

The proposal is to turn over most maintenance issues to a Maintenance Committee, as a six-month trial.  For projects over $500 they will still be under the direction of Management.  Maintenance can decide among themselves if project management should be integrated into the committee or be a sub-committee.

The CCR requires a two-thirds majority vote for Management to delegate its responsibilities e.g. to a management company.  This is delegating only one subset (albeit a big subset), and we've had a maintenance committee previously. It is judged that the proposal can be approved by consensus as usual rather than requiring a vote. 

As with other committees, changes in usage or procedure will need community approval, whereas tasks being done in an accustomed way won't.

All current Management members are also on Maintenance at this time, but having meetings devoted to just that topic plus more heads and hands to work on it should move it forward better than Management has been able.

The buildings are more than twenty years old and requiring more care than when they were new.  In a sense, everyone is on the maintenance committee because everyone needs to keep their eyes open.  If you see something, say something. 

An online reporting form for maintenance issues may be set up.

Comments are all positive. 

Consensus with one stand-aside:  Mary is concerned about the possibility of burn-out of the people doing maintenance, based on experience with earlier Maintenance Committee.

Maintenance Committee meetings on second and fourth Tuesdays at 6:30 p.m. Vinnie is the convener. Maintenance is aiming at half an hour max.  Management meets first and third Tuesday at 6:30 p.m. and is reducing its meeting length to an hour.

Civility and Communication Guidelines

Read four of our community values that appear to apply:  Integrity, Trust and Honesty, Support Growth and Reconciliation, Commitment

We are a different community than the mainstream culture. We are designed to have more interaction.  To collaborate and build trust, we need to think of each other's feelings.  Conflict reverberates through the whole community and affects our ability to be productive and happy.

Round robin with "talking stick" heart-shaped paper doily.  Grouped into themes by note-taker.

Imperfection and Improvement

  • We aren't discussing this because we're good at civility, we're discussing it because we're imperfect.  We can be better.
  • Don't always have the skill set to handle things well.  Refreshers, reminders, and guidelines help.
  • Nobody knows it all but we tend to think we do.  It helps to look at what we're doing and why we're doing it.

  • Often imagine that others have it all together.  When you know them better you realize they don't.

  • People have an ideal of who they would like to be and who they try to be, but things happen that throw that off, so they don't bring their best.

Competitiveness

  • Americans are taught to be competitive.
  • Win-win is still thinking in terms of competition. 
  • In American culture, sometimes examine another's efforts in order to compete, when other cultures look to admire and support.

Handling confliict

  • If you step away from conflict, it is still with you.  Might as well be part of it.
  • Support people in conflict.  Acknowledgement can itself ease a problem a little. 
  • Civility means that when we have issues, we remember the kindness more than the differences.

What  is said and how it is said

  • Intent, context, and delivery can impact people as much as content.
  • There's a rule in diplomacy, to say a thing only if it meets two out of three criteria: is it true? is it necessary? is it flattering?
  • A person can be 100% right, but because of losing their temper, be totally ineffective.

Trust and trustworthiness

  • Being involved makes a huge difference in watching out for each other. 
  • This community is trying on purpose to build relationships.
  • Apprehensive about civility being weaponized.
  • Building and rebuilding trust.
  • Most people don't automatically trust others when they don't know them.  With knowing someone you can come to trust them, or learn you can trust them in certain ways with certain things.
  • Each person needs to find balance within the community.

Continued discussion until everyone had spoken.  Please email committee reports and announcements.

Emailed 2/11/2023.

Proposal: Delegate Maintenance to the Maintenance Committee

Proposal: Formally delegate maintenance responsibilities to the Maintenance Committee
Date: 2023-02-08

Consensed at 2023-02-08 ACM 

Proposed

Formally delegate all maintenance responsibilities from Management Committee to the Maintenance Committee on a trial basis, to be re-evaluated in 6 months

Background

The current structure of the Management Committee presents two challenges:

  1. Management must be legal Unit Owners, so the list of eligible members is small compared to the total adult population in the community.
  2. Management has a broad set of responsibilities and is overburdened with too much to do and not enough people to do it.
How this proposal intends to address the issue

Per the Declaration and Bylaws, Management has the legal authority to delegate a project manager to carry out most of its functions:

  • Per Bylaws section 2.14: "The Management Committee may carry out through a Project Manager any of its functions which are properly the subject to delegation"


  • Per Article X section d) of the Declaration: "The Management Committee, after obtaining consent and approval from at least sixty-seven percent (67%) of the undivided interests in the Common Areas and Facilities present, in person or by proxy, at a meeting duly called and established for such purpose, may delegate to a manager or managing company all of its foregoing powers, duties and responsibilities referred to in this Article X, Section c) above except: the final determination of Common Expenses, budgets and assessments based thereon; the promulgation of Rules and Regulations; the power to enter into any contract or debt instrument involving more than $5,000 in any one fiscal year; the opening of bank accounts; the power to purchase, hold, sell, convey, mortgage, or lease any Units in the name of the Association or to bring, prosecute and settle litigation. All such reserved actions will need the advice and affirmative consent and approval of at least a sixty-seven percent (67%) of the undivided interests in the Common Areas and Facilities present, in person or by proxy, at a meeting duly called and established for such purpose."

Under this new model, Management and the Maintenance Committee would have the following responsibilities:

Management Committee:

  • Must be made up of 5 Unit Owners per county records, as defined in the CC&Rs

  • Meeting times can be reduced to one hour (1st and 3rd Tuesdays of each month)

  • Delegate all maintenance to the Maintenance 

  • Assign large projects to the Maintenance Committee
  • Has oversight over the Maintenance Committee

  • Handle all legal matters

    • President shall sign all contracts on behalf of the Association

    • Adopt rules and regulations for the community

  • Handle all financial matters

    • Handle operating and reserve fund bank accounts

    • Prepare annual budget

    • Pay bills, sign checks

    • Provide final review and approval on all large spend amounts (> $500) from any committee, including Maintenance Committee

    • Late fees, pay or work exceptions, etc.

  • Further roles & responsibilities as per the CC&Rs
Maintenance Committee:

  • Any community member can be on the committee

  • Handle projects where maintenance work is done by external vendors (roofing, snow removal, etc.) as well as in-house maintenance projects

  • Take on maintenance tasks assigned by Management

  • Follow standard procedures for vendor payments as well as all large spend projects

    • Get Management signoff on vendor selection, project scope, and budget,  etc.

  • Meets at regular times, similar to ACM and Management meetings

    • 2nd and 4th Tuesday at 6:30 pm in Common House

  • Publish regular minutes

  • Has consistent members in roles elected by the committee
    • Note Taker (takes meeting notes, sends notes to community, and publishes them to the wiki)
    • Agenda Setter (publishes regular agenda before each meeting)
    • Documentation Manager (ensures documentation is updated and stored properly for each project)
    • other roles TBD
  • Can consist of project managers, as well as a list of "doers" in the community with specific skills (electrical, demolition, painting, sewing, etc.) who are willing to be called on for various tasks as needed
  • Creates, tracks, and manages a running list of routine maintenance tasks as well as maintenance requests from community members 
Pros:
  • Encourage broader participation in tasks that are critical to the functioning of the community
  • Reduce burnout of management members
  • Management becomes a less burdensome role, though still important to the functioning of the community
Cons:

  • ?

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