La Reunion Cooperative

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====== March 3, 2024 ======

Present: Paul (minutes), Graham, Richard, Yarrow, Kate, Cory, Beryl, Stormie, Len, Russ, Bernard, Shelby, Logan, Lorenzo, Alyssa, Leah, Jennifer, Dwain, Tiff, Jarod, McAllen, Philip, Maggie (NASCO), David (staff)

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

Katie-Jo (second meeting, approved)

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

Minutes approved.

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

Len and Stormie are NOT moving out!

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

(Automatic) Monthly officer reports

Stormie, outgoing steward: Josh said they’d be here to pick the car next week. I don’t see the purpose of towing it. I stepped down from Steward and Beryl picked it up, and Russ has signed up for bookkeeper. Russ would love to train a replacement.

Beryl, incoming steward: Still learning steward. I haven’t found nomination sheets.

Corey: if you make a template for nomination sheets, put it in the shared Google drive.\\
Yarrow: Search the steward email account in the sent folder.\\
Beryl: I can just make one.

Len, treasurer: I will be handing off the card to people for the 6-12th, since we will be out of town.

Alyssa, food buyer: Going good. Getting double toilet paper going forward. I’ll be working 10-6 now so I’ll get deliveries early or in the evening.

Point of Interest: We could get a CostCo membership.

POI: The co-op used to have one, but it lapsed with a past food buyer.

Len & Stormie: We could take you with ours.

Kate, maintenance: 109 electric issue with some lights. Plumber’s coming for the 108/208 situation. Next week David is getting a camera snake through the sewage pipes to see what’s wrong with them. Stormie has offered to help with maintenance emails, the Trello task list, and contractor coordinating. Hopefully it won’t be too bad but they’re old pipes.

Clarifying question: Would that identify the issue in the commons bathroom?

Kate: Maybe. I need to replace the hot water handle too.

CQ: Are we sure the 208 issue is from the pipes?\\
\\
Kate: It’s definitely the pipes, I saw where it was leaking.

Kate: Should we elect Stormie in some capacity to do maintenance coordinator support?

POI: That doesn’t seem necessary.

Bernard, labor: I do need to get reports from maintenance about who’s getting no-showed for not doing labor.

Kate: We need to patch rat holes in the commons. We need to finish the laundry room wall. We need to deep-clean the commons. I’d like to get a wheelchair ramp on the newly-functioning other commons door.

Bernard, labor: Labor holiday next weekend! All this and more. Saturday and Sunday. You’ll need to sign off on labor. There will be provisions. We’ll get a keg. I will provide smoked brisket & potato salad. I will make vegan & veggie food as well. We need to talk about fixing the DCU problem. No one wants to do it, and several people have left.

POI: I think people should just be assigned DCU, and if there’s no DCU there should not be dinner that night.

Bernard: I don’t want to assign labor to people if they don’t want to do it. When people want to switch jobs, what do we do in that case?

CQ: Is that a disability, or not wanting that labor, or a schedule conflict?

Bernard: All of the above.

POI: If they just think dishes are yucky they might have to just deal with it.

David: We should try to get everyone assigned labor they can do, and I’m happy to help organizing for that, either for the labor holiday or the regular labor program.

POI: Let’s propose some possible changes for DCU at next week’s meeting.

Bernard: Would it be possible to combine cooks & their cleanup?

David: That is a proven thing that does work in other co-ops.

POI: Labor czar has the power to create and modify labor.

Russ, bookkeeper: There’s 9 payment plans and a number of them are voided. There are 9 people who owe more than $250. It’s mostly under control. A few more people are signing payment plans. The people who are moving out haven’t gotten notices to vacate. Some are staying, some are going, some are on payment plans, some are not.

Russ: I haven’t been filing no-show fines, because I haven’t seen no-show reports from Bernard that I can parse.

Bernard: Reminder that you shouldn’t be doing other people’s labor. Please just no-show them.

POI: You can claim credit if you do it after the deadline has passed.

Philip, grounds: Everything’s good.

Logan, membership: I’m training Phoenix to do membership coordinator when I depart. I’ve been trying to move people in. Pickles has signed the lease and paid first month’s rent but she’s hard to get in contact with and I don’t have her email. I need to know what lease term she wants.

POI: It’s good to teach people. We’ll still need an election.

Logan: About the Lloyd Doggett project, we’ll be talking at 9 pm on Thursday. I’m planning anyone who wants us to participate to join us in the commons or the courtyard about the affordability crisis and low-income housing, hear our input on local ways to curb the crisis.

POI: Talking about tax credits for co-ops or low-income housing would be grand.

POI: That there are more incentives for new housing instead of repurposing old housing, where the affordability is.

POI: Tax credits for transferring ownership to residents instead of selling to a new landlord that might just evict all the residents.

POI: Called the right of first refusal.

POI: Meet an hour or two before to discuss what we want to talk about and nail down questions?

Logan: I’ll send out an email too.

Yarrow, board: Well, we’ve got the NASCO staff joining us this weekend. I wrote a letter supporting a low-income housing community a little south. There are some stalled board projects. This weekend in discussion has given me energy to pursue more at the board level. We’ll start the budgeting process probably next month. We’ll need to pass a budget in GMM, hopefully smoother than last year. NASCO might help us with some bigger projects this year, which is exciting.

===== Agenda Item 2 =====

(Paul) Katie-Jo is proposing using our commons kitchen for a project feeding the homeless. They'd be bringing their own food, cooking overnight, and cleaning up before the morning.

Point of Interest: I think the main expectation is that you’d clean up after yourselves.

POI: It’d be cooking during quiet hours, so we’d ask you to keep the noise levels down.

Clarifying question: How is the food delivered? Will things be stored here?

Katie-Jo: I don’t plan to store things here, but we’ll probably use Food Not Bombs appliances that are here. There are unhoused people who shelter nearby who will help. I have a Yeti cooler in my car.

CQ: Do we have a contract with Food Not Bombs?

POI: Just a verbal one, and we have lines of communication to them to communicate about cooperating around the space.

Katie-Jo: We can use cleaning supplies here to clean the space?

POI: Sure.

**Agenda item passes.**
===== Agenda Item 3 =====

(Zandria) To request a new payment plan.

Zandria: Work has been slow, and we haven’t been making enough money. I’d like a new payment plan.

Russ, bookkeeper: They went on a payment plan in December and said they’d pay in January. They haven’t paid the rent or a payment plan.

Leah: We need to see some goodwill.

Zandria: I plan to pay a little extra soon. I’m putting in extra time. I get paid in tips. I don’t make a lot of money.

Leah: Will you be able to pay a higher payment plan than the one currently in place?

Zandria: Yes. We’ll be able to pay on time.

Clarifying question: When does their lease expire?

Point of interest: November.

Russ: $1700 means that would be over $200/month. About $700 with rent.

CQ: Shouldn’t they have gotten a notice to vacate in January?

Russ: We didn’t do that because there was a reporting issue.

POI: If we grant a payment plan, procedurally it would void a notice to vacate.

CQ: Did you know a payment plan missed payment means a notice to vacate?

Zandria: I do now!

Russ: This would mean you’d have to make your first payment by the end of March. Let’s get together to sign a new contract before then. 

**Agenda item passes.**
===== Agenda Item 4 =====

(Logan) Lloyd Doggett's secretary and I were able to work out a date and time for the meeting! It's unfortunately pretty late in the evening, but his availability is mostly at night this week. It will be at 9PM this Thursday and it will be over the phone. If anyone has questions or comments for Rep. Doggett but are unable to attend (understandably) feel free to write them down and send them to me and I will make sure you at least get to participate in the conversation that way.

**Discussed in officer reports.**
===== Agenda Item 5 =====

(McAllen) I would like to break my contract early and move out——effective Tuesday, March 12th. I have just become aware of a situation regarding family members who live in Irving, TX that requires my immediate attention. I feel that it's important for me to relocate there for a few months as soon as possible.

McAllen: My dad needs extra support. In addition I’m burned out of teaching special-ed. It’s best to go in a different direction, and I need to relocate. I wouldn’t give short notice if it wasn’t for my dad.

Clarifying question: Do we have people to fill that spot?

Membership coordinator: Oh for sure.

Clarifying question: That means waiving the contract break fee, yeah?

McAllen: I’d like that.

**Agenda item passes.**
===== Agenda Item 6 =====

(Logan) Jesus and his partner are here to talk to us about a journalism project they want to do about our co-op!

Jesus: We’d like permission to do interviews with members here, maybe slice of life or filming people new to the co-op getting used to it.

Logan: I can take note of everyone here who wants to interview with them. There are more than a dozen.

Corey: We could also take note of everyone who definitely does NOT want to be filmed. There are a few.

Clarifying question: Is it interviews or film interviews?

Izzy the partner: We’d like to get as much video as possible. We’d love to film inside a unit. It’ll be next Saturday.

===== Agenda Item 7 =====

(Steward) Josh's black Ford SUV is still here, let's discuss whether Steward should contact them to follow up on what should be done about said car.

**Discussed in officer reports.**
===== Agenda Item 8 =====

(Steward) Discuss codifying the standard about officers notifying the house for new/removed members.

**Discussed in officer reports.**
===== New business =====

Does the computer in the commons work? Do people use it?

POI: Yes and yes.
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