All-Community Meeting Minutes, Wednesday, September 10, 2025

Topics: Trial, use Discord for community communication, proposal.

Decision: Six-month trial period, starting October 1, shut down the GoogleGroup listservs and use Discord. (Also refrain from using texts.)

Present: Lynda, Joe, Ben, Kathy Elgin, Kerry, Caroline from Vermont(?), Laura, Starla, __, Laraine, Linda, Michael, Emily, Kay (notes), Coleman, Victor

Activity:  Write something that nobody in the community knows, fold it, and put it in a basket. Pass the basket, take a paper, read it, and guess who it is. 

Announcements & Committee Reports

Three beautification work parties, 11-1 this Saturday, September cleaning team. 

Bee-pollinator planting. Renae got a grant. Will be planted near Unit 1, 800 square feet of native plants. Sunday Sept 21 10-noon.

Proposal, Adopt Discord for community communications for a six-month trial period

Handouts, consensus process, proposal v. 10, 8/24, unchanged from previous meeting.

Clarify process, present proposal, questions to clarify proposal, open discussion, call for consensus, list concerns, group concerns, resolve concerns, call for consensus, restate remaining concerns, questions too clarify concerns, discussion limited to resolving one concern at a time, call for consensus.  Alternative consensus options: stand aside, send to committee, declare block. www.consensus.net  

Q. What happens to the GoogleGroup (G.G.) archives? They will continue to exist, but sending messages will be disabled.

Q. What happens at the end of the trial period? A. Discussion to adopt Discard or return to G.G. Possibly a proposal to permanently adopt Discord. 

Q. Is Discord commercializing its product? A. They already have a premium paid tier, but we will be using the free tier.

Q. "No more recreating group chats" -- don't see how this is necessary now.  A. This is referring to group text messages, rather than G.G. Adding people or removing them creates a new 'group'. Texting doesn't have an archive that new committee members can read.  Keeping groups straight is difficult. 

Don't have to be part of a committee's G.G. to see their messages. Can see all the archives.

If we pass the proposal, when does the proposal go into force? (When do we shut off G.G. & expect everyone to use Discord?) Do we want more time to get people signed up or another training?

Q. What about the moderation tools? A. We have no agreement to use moderation tools. (Our email policy is not a moderation tool.) G.G. has moderations tools but we haven't used them.  Discord also has moderation tools, but we won't be using them unless we agree to.

Asked who is not yet signed up on Discord. Kay hasn't because she doesn't remember her password from fourteen years ago & didn't see how to reset it.

Put the opening page on the monitor so people who haven't used it can see it.

Q. Do we have an emergency channel? Do I need to opt in to it? A. We have an 'urgent' channel. You can @everyone in this channel & only in this channel. 

The 'Server feedback' channel is for suggestions.

Kellie & Ben will help people who bring their devices to cafe. 

Concerns?  

• The name of the program, Discord. Names have weight. 
• Getting overwhelmed by notifications. Email has a subject line that you can make a quick decision to read or delete.
• Still don't see how Discord is any improvement.

As long as G.G. is still live, some people won't be motivated to try Discord.

How about October 1st as the date we turn off G.G.?  Agreed.

Stand-asides.  Linda: People won't learn to use it & will miss out on community communication. Victor: Don't feel informed enough to make a decision. 

Reminder: Until October 1, double-post G.G. and Discord.

Have a lot of stucco work to be done, probably $200K, multi-year process.  For crews to access stucco, need to get close to all the walls. Need to trim back shrubbery, remove vines etc. Will change how things look in the community. Landscaping work is likely to be $30K if we hire it, so we will be discussing doing it ourselves. Most trees & shrubs can be tied back, so it's mostly vines that are concerning. (Kay noted that her unit has the most vines, and Mary is working on removing them.).