Present: Paul (minutes), Beryl, Len (facilitator), Tiff, Jennifer, Cory, Kate, Dwain, Chinhae, Bernard, Lorenzo, Keen, Jessica, Graham, Robbie, Stormie, Philip, David (operations manager)

Isaiah (second meeting, approved)

Minutes approved.

Bernard is stepping down as the labor czar. Thank you Bernard.

Election ballots for events coordinator are due tonight in the rent box or turned into the Steward. We’re still looking for an accepted nomination for membership coordinator.

Maintenance walkthroughs happened for most of the first floor. They took longer than expected. We’ll probably have another walkthrough soon. Email maintenance about time restrictions.

(Treasurer ) Tiff would like to be reimbursed up to 80 dollars for food purchased to cook on their assigned night.

Treasurer: There was a miscommunication to cooks and a lack of education about labor here. This will be a one-time thing. It was a total of $73.53 for Tiff.

Tiff: I’d like to be able to purchase something for the co-op, since there’s not much there. I’d like to cook more meat.

Point of interest: We can’t routinely do reimbursements to people because it looks the same as employment money and our accountants yell at us for doing shady tax stuff.

Clarifying questions: Even with receipts?

POI: Even with receipts.

POI: The food buyer makes purchases once a week, but that wasn’t happening for a while since we didn’t have the card. Should be better now.

Concerns / friendly amendments

Agenda item approved.

(Steward) Member review for Keen Mazza for destruction of co-op property

Beryl facilitates.

POI: This is about destroying the door and the bathroom door in the commons, and the couch. All three doors there have holes in them.

Keen: Yeah, the couch fell apart while I was using it. A lot of things went wrong with my mental health disability accommodations. Basically an extreme ongoing mental health crisis. I did want to clarify the episodes are only when something is wrong, and I do try to address those things before it gets to the point of self damage or property damage. It’s about finding the least harmful thing at that stage when I’m not even conscious. Those doors are cheap to replace, like $70. That can come out of my security deposit. It’s been ongoing a few months at this point. It wasn’t controlled. It’s not something I intend to continue. It’s something blame-worthy but it’s an extreme symptom of who I am. It’s not my choice but I understand it’s not an ideal situation.

POI: I understand that it wasn’t a conscious action, but it can’t happen again. Those doors were extra-wide accessibility doors, a weird size that we can’t just get at the hardware store. It’ll be expensive to replace them.

Clarifying question: What are you doing to prevent this from happening in the future?

Keen: I’ve been trying to avoid bad situations and get the healthcare I need.

CQ: Do you have a plan for when you’re out of control? Do you have specific items you can smash instead?

Keen: Yes, I do. I have practical alternatives and ways to mitigate the psychiatric causes of it.

POI: I don’t feel safe. I come from an abusive situation where someone blacked out and threw me through a wall. Being in a cooperative situation is about being in control. Those broken doors remind me of trauma every time I see them.

POI: People have mental health situations, but I do have concerns. There have been tantrums in the commons in the past where Keen was kicking doors in anger. I’ve never seen co-op property destroyed in this manner before. I don’t want to see people displaced, but my concern is about the safety of the people here.

Keen: This has been a lifelong issue, and I’ve never hurt anyone external to me.

POI: Since Keen has been here, Keen hasn’t hurt anyone else. I don’t think there will be continuations now that Keen is out of the commons.

POI: There are situations that can be out of our control. I need to know that if SWAT is screaming through a microphone for 8 hours across the street, we won’t have another $1000+ loss situation.

Keen: I was upset about something specific to my healthcare needs. It was a period of prolonged stress paired with reduced coping mechanisms and reduced ability - to eat, to sleep, other things.

POI: We want to communicate that this cannot happen again. We also want to support and help. We’ve discussed the possibility of behavior contracts. People have brought up the concept of safety. I don’t know that destruction of property or self-harm means in any way that someone is going to harm someone else. That doesn’t prevent people from feeling unsafe - I can feel unsafe from people yelling at me, but it’s not destruction of property. We need to consider that too.

Keen: I feel like safety concepts are unequally applied here. I think safety should be considered more important, across the board, for everyone here.

<We explain the membership review and behavioral contract processes.>

CQ: Would you be OK with a behavior contract item that said, “No destruction of cooperative property.”?

Keen: Yeah. I’m just not sure how that is practical & preventative. I’d like to know exactly what behavior is forbidden. Clarity is important.

<Keen leaves, and we discuss options.>

POI: I see Keen moving forward on mitigating factors.

POI: I still don’t feel super-safe, but I’ve got optimism that he can make some improvement with it. I’ve been through some of that sort of thing, and I know that’s up to him, and breaking your own stuff doesn’t fix that. I didn’t hear a plan that included fixing the problem. He needs a safe place, and access to food, and maybe he can stabilize.

POI: He did state that he was in a fugue state of sorts, that he was not conscious of what he was doing. How do we prevent that sort of thing? What if he enters that state in the courtyard? What further could happen?

POI: That’s what a behavior contract is for. We can’t predict the future.

POI: I don’t know that it’s our job to determine individual stressors for members or action items to try to mitigate those stressors.

POI: I had a problem with the idea that Keen was “doing the least harmful thing” in the moment. That means you were aware and making decisions there. What if I’m the least harmful thing in front of Keen at some point? I do have a lot of safety concerns there.

Straw poll to discuss behavioral contract is unanimous.

Behavioral contract terms:

Suggested term: Behavioral contract should be permanent, for all future contracts. “In perpetuity for all contracts with CHEA”

Term accepted.

Suggested term: Keen will refrain from damaging or destroying property not owned by Keen, including but not limited to cooperative property.

Term accepted.

Suggested term: Keen will reimburse the cooperative for the cost of the doors.

POI: In the past we’ve just eaten the cost of broken windows and the like.

Term withdrawn.

Behavior contract accepted.

(Steward) Announcing the results of the Special Election for Events Coordinator

Jennifer wins the events coordinator election!

No new business.