La Reunion Cooperative

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====== November 26, 2023 ======

Present: Lorenzo, Dwain, Corey, Bernard, Kate, Cory, Joshua, Russ, Stormie, Logan, Beryl, Paul (minutes), Len, Philip, Zandria, Jose, Leah, Graham, Leo

===== Meet and Greet =====

No one for meet & greet.

===== Review of Minutes =====

Minutes approved.

===== Wiki Updates & Announcements =====

No updates.

===== Agenda Item 1 =====

(Corey) Ban Jose and Zandria from making purchases with coop funds due to making false representations by omission of the items intended to be purchased for their personal benefit.

Corey: First of all, I appreciate all the work on maintenance in 208, that’s not what this is about. These items crossed the line from maintenance to renovation. Eleven gallons of paint, in color. We don’t buy paint in color, that’s always been our standard. That’s way more than a unit needs to get painted, too. An entire case of caulk was bought. Expensive, designer plate covers. This was all done by misrepresenting the situation to the maintenance coordinator, and that’s not OK to me. We’ve got a history of saying “no” to things, and they knew that and routed around the people who would tell them no.

Zandria: We weren’t vague about it - we emailed, but Kate didn’t respond quickly. The co-op had silicon, not caulk. We did communicate about those things, and felt ignored. We were told the paint was OK. A gallon won’t even cover a wall. We went to other people who were going to listen.

Kate: The email was vague about paint and what it was for, was vague about the caulk and what it was for, and baseboard supplies we wouldn’t normally grant requests for anyway. I did not see the email until after they had already gone to the store.

Corey: The email isn’t asking for permission, it’s saying “I’m getting these”.

Kate: It’s good to get really specific in requests for supplies. Like, you said “mold supplies” but not which kind of mold supplies.

Corey: A gallon of paint covers the entire small room. Eleven gallons could probably paint a unit two times over. What they thought was mold was HVAC dust coming out of the system.

Beryl: When you send a message to an officer, you shouldn’t go to other officers immediately when there’s no response.

Zandria: We weren’t going to keep the paint, we were going to put it back in the maintenance closet. We can pay for the paint if necessary.

Corey: It’s not about the money, it’s about their irresponsibility in how they dealt with being allowed to use the co-op card.

Logan: All the officers have personal & also officer emails. We’re not necessarily dialed into our officer emails constantly. I check mine when it’s relevant, before meetings, etc. The Steward keeps specific office hours. If you don’t get a response within a few days, you can knock on their doors or try other routes. As far as maintenance closets, we have 4 maintenance closets and I don’t know how people would peep in quickly.

Stormie: Maybe the card should only be used by officers unless there’s notice to the Treasurer. Maintenance, grounds, food buyer.

Kate: I do check maintenance multiple times a day. I don’t always reply to requests unless they need specific information, but I add requests to the Trello task tracker.

Zandria: We weren’t doing anything bad in the maintenance closets.

Paul: It sounds like Cory & Kate said you were going to other people because you knew you would get a “no” from them, and then after that you said you were going to other people who were going to listen. It sounds like you confirmed that.

Point of information: The purchases were made 4 hours after the email was sent.

Kate: I did not tell them no about the store items. I had told them no about other things.

Len: I apologize for giving them implicit permission to purchase items after they told me they sent an email.

**Concerns / friendly amendments**

Joshua: I do believe this has been a terrible experience for Jose and Zandria all around, and we should consider that.

Suggested Amendment: Ban all non-officers from using the card without Treasurer approval.

Corey: That sounds like more of a policy, and if people have objections to that policy they wouldn’t have been warned about it. It might be a discussion worth having, though.

Corey: I do feel this was an abuse of the privilege they were given. Trust was placed and misused and we shouldn’t give that trust again.

Zandria: We weren’t buying the expensive version - inflation is real.

Russ: It’s not just about getting simple approval. This is a co-op. It’s OK to slow down and have a conversation and make sure everyone is on the same page.

**Agenda item approved.**
===== New business =====

Bernard, labor czar: I’ll be posting a member review about someone behind on labor. There’s a situation with someone who can’t do physical labor. I don’t like it when someone says they can do labor and then can’t, especially when they’re partying sometimes.

Paul: I strongly disagree. You can’t see someone hanging out a little and conclude that they can do labor. Your job is to work with people who need accommodations.

Zandria: Everyone says they can do labor when they’re coming in. It’s not fair to other people.

Leah: The board is working on a “reasonable accommodations” form that will allow people to officially lay out that what accommodations they need. We should not be in the business of checking on whether someone’s issue is real or whether they are telling the truth.

Bernard: I’m compassionate. I’m not against helping those with needs.

Beryl: My husband has a progressive degenerative illness. Physical exertion makes it worse. When you say they were partying, do you mean sitting and talking? Please be compassionate.

Logan: Keep in mind that chronic illness can be highly variable. There are up and down days. We can’t see a little bit of someone’s illness and conclude that that’s their baseline.

Paul: Our rules state that we must accommodate members with disabilities. The labor czar can make reasonable adjustments or create labor positions for specific people, and labor credit can be granted with house approval. We also have legal requirements to accommodate people with disabilities under federal Fair Housing law.

Corey: We’ve got to work with people and what they can provide for the community. If we can’t find work for them that they can do, that’s on us, not them.

Russ: I think you should take people at their word.

Stormie: It would be good to find places where we can have extra backend/office work that a less mobile member can always do.

—

Bernard: Someone wanted to do grant work.

Paul: I think that work is wonderful & necessary but it’s probably so variable you should assign her regular labor and let her claim extra labor when grant work is done.

—

We’re still trying to get Jarod in 208’s income disclosure form. We’ve contacted him multiple times. He’s got the form, he just needs to return it.

—

Kate: Didn’t get roaches done while we were dealing with the fire department inspect/recertification of the extinguishers. I’m calling ChemFree tomorrow. There’s still a chance to email maintenance if you have roaches.

Kate: We got a bunch of smoke detectors for replacing old & disappeared smoke detectors.
La Reunion Cooperative

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