ACM minutes Feb 8, 2023
Topics:
Present: Laraine, Ben, Jorge, Robin, Linda, Kerry, Mike, Kay (notes), Vicky, Victor, Vinnie, Cheryl, Eliza, Lynda, Marina, Myste, Mary, Amy, Coleen, Mike has proxy for Cyd.
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
Posted some information on the wiki, tools for working on conflict.
For instance six-step model on conflict, from the book Cooperative Culture, written by Yana and
- Emotions don't equal logic and don't have to.
- Encourage self-honesty.
- Share the triggers for the conflict.
- What's at stake.Why is this important
- Reflection and mutual understanding
- Proactive opt,ions
The committee would like community members to offer documents they have found useful for consideration for posting.
Members: Laraine, Lynda, Alex, Eliza, Laura.
Storage Bin Items
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 membership is limited to a subset of residents. Management has a lot of responsibilities.
The proposal is the turn over most maintenance issues to the Maintenance Committee, with a six-month trial. They will still be under the direction of Management for projects over $500. Maintenance can decide among themselves if project management should be integrated into the committee or be a sub-committee.
The community has established patterns for doing maintenance on various things, and the committee wouldn't need to ask community permission to continue those. They would need to seek permission for things that would normally require a proposal, for instance, painting the doors of each unit a different color.
Ben originally interpreted the CCR as requiring a vote on this issue, because delegating Management's responsibilities requires a two-thirds majority. This is not delegating all of Management's responsibilities, only one subset (a big subset!), so it is judged that regular consensus is adequate rather than a vote.
All current Management members are also on Maintenance, but having meetings devoted to just that topic and more heads and hands to work on it should move it forward better than Management has been able.
Comments are all positive. 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.
May be setting up an online reporting form.
One stand-aside: Mary. Concerned about possibility of burn-out by members of Maintenance Committee, based on experience with earlier Maintenance Committee.
Maintenance Committee meetings on second and forthfourth Tuesdays at 6:30 p.m. Management is first and third Tuesday at 6:30 p.m. Maintenance is aiming at half an hour max. Management 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.
We aren't discussing this because we're good at civility, we're discussing it because we're imperfect. We can be better.
Being involved makes a huge difference in watching out for each other. This community is on purpose trying to build relationships.
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.
Win-win is still a competition. Americans are taught to be competitive.
Stepping away from conflict, it is still with you. Might as well be part of it.
Support people in conflict. Having it acknowledged that there's a problem itself can ease the problem a little. Apprehensive about civility being weaponized.
Building and rebuilding trust.
Civility means when we have issues, remember the kindness more than the differences.
Intent, context, and delivery can impact people as much as content .
Rule of diplomacy, say a thing only if it meets two out of three criteria: is it true? is it necessary? is it flattering?
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.
Imagine that others have it all together. When you know them better you realize they don't.
Each person needs to find balance within the community.
Can be 100% right, but because of losing your temper, be totally ineffective.
There's an ideal of who one would like to be and who one tries to be. Things can throw that off so one doesn't bring one's best.
Chose to continue discussion until everyone had spoken, and email committee reports and announcements.