Meeting 2009-11-17

Tuesday, October 17th, 2009

Called to order at 7:00 pm

Contents 1 Attendance 2 Approve past minutes 3 Reports 3.1 Finance committee 3.2 Garden committee 3.3 Housing committee 3.4 Maintenance committee 3.5 Petty cash report 3.6 Rent report 4 Swing arounds 4.1 Chores and contributions 4.2 Concerns 4.3 Announcements 5 Old business 6 New business 6.1 Christmas party 6.2 Reimbursement for Angela 6.3 Reimbursement for Colin for living room 6.4 Rent increase 6.5 Directors 7 Membership issues 7.1 Maria's mid trial review 7.2 Heidi Pridy's mid trial review 7.3 Andrew's mid trial review 8 Next meeting

Attendance

Chair: Umi

Minutes: Jack

Present:

• Alex
• Andrew
• Angela
• Colin
• Gary
• Heidi Kilsby
• Heidi Pridy
• Jack
• Marcela
• Melinda
• Norman
• Paola
• Tato
• Ty
• Umi

Absent:

• Elizabeth
• Liv
• Maria
• Rachel

Approve past minutes

Meeting 2009-10-19

Reports

Finance committee

$7,513.95 in checking account

$24,772.13 in plan 24, approximately $8,000 of which is owed to members in form of damage deposits

Haven't yet acted on plumbing

Garden committee

Housing committee

Committee members busy and not actively looking for new Coop members at this time

Friend of Heidi Kilsby's to visit tomorrow

Maintenance committee

Petty cash report

Rent report

Policy is for Marcela to have one year of postdated checks, but Marcela is afraid that she's been too nice

Marcela wants to commit to a deadline of completing the rent report by mid month

Marcela wants at least six months of postdated checks

If people want an exception, they should speak to the house, not to Marcela

Swing arounds

Chores and contributions

Gary - raking leafs

Paola - petty cash, veggie shop

Norman - Costco shop

Heidi Kilsby - Famous Foods shop

Alex - Costco shop, one and a half hours talking to Shaw cable guy

Heidi Pridy - dams in toilets, saving 500ml per flush! cleaned table cloths

Andrew - Famous foods shop, living room painting

Jack - fixed shower faucet, fixed 607 room 303 network jack

Ty - met with contractors

Colin - living room, painting is mostly done, still need to buy trim, hope to by done by Christmas party on Saturday, December 12th

Angela - finances, paint store

Melinda - Costco shop

Umi - Indo Fiji shop, milk and bread shop

Concerns

Announcements

Gary's friend is planning to hold a sale of Asian tribal wear at the New Westminster library

Gary will maybe hold a birthday party on Sunday, November 28th, depending whether he finds helpers

New task sign up sheet is posted on the fridge

Fall cleanup sign up sheet is posted on the fridge, sign up by this Friday, November 20th, or risk Angela signing you up on your behalf : )

Original plan was to complete fall cleanup by November 28th or 29th, but now plan to complete by first week of December

Thanks from Alex's mum Hafizah for a pleasant stay

Shaw is reviewing our cable vision, any changes will be brought to the house before they're made

Paola and Tato are pregnant!!!

Old business

None

New business

Christmas party

Planned for Saturday, December 12th

Alex found the Thanksgiving dinner a better number of people, instead a lot of work for few people

Heidi, can we separate a Christmas dinner from Christmas party?

Gary, with all the furniture in the living room we can't physically have as many people as in past

Suggestion that we limit the number of guests

No need to rent tables, we can bring plastic tables in from outside

Alex, people who invite significant numbers of people should contribute

Marcela offers to organize a sign up sheet

Norman can order turkeys if he knows of them soon

Reimbursement for Angela

Angela bought light bulbs for living room lamp and ceiling pot lights

Labeled and stored with light bulbs in basement store room

Bought test cans of paint for living room and 607 second floor bathroom

Bought new mop for 607 second floor bathroom

$87.00 total

Vote to reimburse passed

Reimbursement for Colin for living room

$514.12

Probably another $200 to come for trim

Vote to reimburse passed

Rent increase

Norman motions for no rent increase in 2010

Currently an automatic 5% increase each year unless we vote against by January 1st

Ty, we need to continue to have rent increases because one day we'll have bills for $200,000

One day our insurance will refuse to cover us with knob and tube wiring

Need to build up a large surplus

Alternative will be to go to the bank and borrow money

Marcela, we still have savings, about $20,000

Melinda, speaking to Ty's point, we need to decide what route, mortgage or increase rent?

Umi, we need a rent increase, this is the best deal in town

Jack, in favor of creating large savings but concerned that we spend money as fast as we get it and increasing rent won't change that

Not in favor of rent increase til we agree what is our savings goal and how we will achieve it

Ty had discussion with New Westminster electrical and any work will not be approved with knob and tube wiring

Marcella, the members haven't necessarily all had increases in income but we're planning to increase rent by 5% two years in a row

Had a mortgage til recently, that we paid biweekly, now it's going into savings

Alex, we haven't significantly increased our savings in last few years despite not paying down a mortgage

Heidi, we have the best deal in town and we should protect it

Andrew, bigger questions than rent increase, we may need a budget review, there may be ways to save money that are more effective than rent increase

Ty, we should set a fixed amount to go into long term savings

Angela, we may be spending more each month on food and other expenses, but reviewing the budget is a big job

Heidi Pridy, could we reach a medium? like a 2.5% increase?

Vote, six in favor of no rent increase, six against, motion tied and failed

Alex wants to give a break to full time students because they're not earning more and tuition fees are going up

Ty, there are several financial proposals, why don't we strike a committee?

Angela, when she took over the finances there was lots of talk but not much action on financial issues

Norman, we don't necessarily need a separate account, need to decide what money, or how much money each month we won't spend, but reserve for an emergency

Melinda, Alex, Andrew, and Ty offer to gather for a budget review and bring findings to next meeting

Directors

Current directors are Norman, Marcela, and Heidi

Membership issues

Maria's mid trial review

Marcela is Maria's buddy

Heidi Pridy's mid trial review

Liv is Heidi Pridy's buddy

Andrew's mid trial review

Jack is Andrew's buddy

Next meeting

Meeting 2010-01-17

Adjourned at 9:00 pm