Present: Stormie (facilitator), Leah, Paul (minute), Lorenzo, Beryl, Ivy, Dwain, Graham, Kate, Russ, Richard, Jared
Rayna (first meeting), Joy (first meeting), Leta (second meeting, accepted)
Minutes approved.
We have a contract for compost pickup! Surprisingly reasonable all around.
Jared: I’m moving out by the end of October.
(Stormie) Refund Len his half of the deposit upon move out. We paid a deposit together when we moved in but we pay rent separately and it just wouldn't be fair to Len for him to forfeit his deposit while I’m making my payment plan.
Settled by finance officers already
(Stormie) Vote on new by-law amendment
Proposed extension to Article IV, Section 3 of CHEA Bylaws: “Member Directors shall be elected in accordance with their respective house election processes. Non-Member Directors and all other positions elected directly by the general membership of CHEA shall be elected by simple majority ranked choice, with ballots distributed by each house's officers to its voting members in good standing in accordance with their house ballot distribution process.
“Ranked choice voting” shall entail: Ballots shall be distributed by which voting members in good standing shall rank nominees from most to least preferred (including an option for No Confidence), and if when first-ranked votes are totaled no nominee has won by a simple majority, the nominee who received the lowest vote total shall be eliminated and ballots cast for them counted for each voting member's next choice on their ballot, repeating this process of elimination and recounting one nominee at a time until a single nominee receives a simple majority of the vote & is elected.”
Stormie: Our last multi-house election, for a NASCO properties board representative, was rough, partially because we didn’t have rules like these codified. This needs to be voted on by both houses to become part of the CHEA by-laws.
Leah: I’d like to amend this to add “simple majority” to the quoted part of the last paragraph, to match the “simple majority ranked choice” language.
Amendment passes.
Amendment: Let’s clarify that we’re OK with this this slightly-different language or the original language probably being passed by Sasona tonight.
Point of information: It’s not a substantial change.
Amendment passes.
Agenda item passes as amended.
Stormie, NP board rep: NP had a board meeting today. There are still financial issues. The outgoing NP President had some choice words about making sure that our members can afford the rent. NP and CHEA are both low on liquid funds right now. They love us because we’ve been paying our rent. We might not be able to do that in the next month or two. They’ve been trying to sell other properties. There might be interest in selling our property as well.
Point of information: That’s something we need to know about ASAP, so we can make other plans.
POI: There’s a lot of avenues to explore before anything like that happens. The point is that NP is facing a financial crisis.
Clarifying question: Could non-NP co-ops help out? Stormie: I’m not aware of any efforts there.
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Stormie: NASCO Institute is coming up in November! There are scholarships - for the NASCO entry, not travel or room & board, but there’s probably an ICC or CH bus, and many co-ops will offer room spaces for free. If you’re NP board rep your travel expenses are paid for. Elise is a good person to talk to if you’re interested in ideas for improving the co-op.
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POI: Philip has been talking about grounds labor not doing labor again.
Labor czar: I know there are grounds workers who don’t ever sign off on their labor. I’ve no-showed some of them. Keep in mind even if you’re assigned to grounds or maintenance that you might not get 4 hours of labor from it, and can also do labor on the “flex” list to complete your hours.
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We were looking at buying an electric lawnmower and other electrical equipment for Philip, but given our current financial state we should delay that until later.
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ACBA Co-opportunity Fair on the 23rd of October, at Black Star. Everyone’s welcome. We could reserve some space.
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It is decided by officers that Kate, as maintenance buyer, should take ownership of the purchasing card with the departure of the current treasurer.
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No nominations for MemCo or Treasurer yet, so special elections for those are ongoing.