Check-in:

Lorax—Jasmine, Katie, Nicole, Sybil, Sean, Abel, Trip, Chris, Melanie

Janet Smith—Eric Shamay, Katie, Erich, Thomas, Luke, Mary

Campbell Club—Heather, Becky, Ruth, Ann (by proxy), Max

Membership: awesome tabling today, another tabling event on Friday, future events listed in email.

Maintenance: 2 proposals from Luke/J.S.:

1)Fire system (all 3 houses have same set up for grease fires in their kitchens and the Janet Smith used theirs to stop a fire this summer)--a new system is going to be installed to the hood over the stove in the Janet Smith House kitchen, and for reasons I've already forgotten it is expensive. They got a bid for $2950.00 from the fire-prevention people, and the permitting process is already happening now. Discussion and general comments: the next time the hood-fire prevention system goes off/is used at either the Lorax or Campbell Club Houses, they will likely face a similar bill.  Other houses should practice pulling off the fire extinguishers so they don't break them off the wall (as happened at the J.S.) because this might save money.  Perhaps other houses should even have regular fire drills.

Proposal: to take $2950.00 from Corporate Maintenance Funds to use for the J.S. fire system: passes.

2)Space between the roof and ceiling of the J.S. is ventilated and has a screen that rusted/decomposed/was obliterated--which formerly kept critters such as birds and squirrels out of their attic/crawl space betwewn roof & attic ceiling. Additionally part of the eves are rotting on another edge of their roof. Several people tried various tactics to fix this during the summer but the critters clawed the co-opers' repairs appart and moved back in, and began (or continued) procreating. Maintenance people eventually came to the conclusion that it needs professional repairs.  Two contractors were consulted and estimates ranged from $7000 to $2050.  They may consult an additional contractor but it needs to get done soon before the squirrels' offspring begin nesting in the J.S. roof.

Proposal: to take up to $3000.00 from Corporate Maintenance funds--Passes.  If more is needed this will be reproposed at another meeting. This leaves $7261.21 in corporate maintenance funds for the term.

3) Heart of Now will be having a meditation workshop sometime soon (ask Ruth when)

4) Drugs "awareness" Workshop will happen Monday around 8pm at the Campbell Club.  Strongly encouraged for all new members/Required for new members of Lorax/CC.

--it ought to be funny and informative, with round-table discussion (so if you know more/want to tell stories please come and contribute even if you're not a new member). Will cover THC, alcohol, cocaine/salvia, date-rape drugs, E/Molly/etc etc, cigarettes, hallucinogens, etc.  and include what ones' body and mind looks like after 1, 2, and 3 hours on the drug, abuse warning signs, health hazards, what the drug actually is doing to your body and why it feels good.

5) SWARM PROPOSAL:

After much discussion about the benefits and drawbacks of a new co-operative housing group becoming a subsidiary of the SCA, the possibilities of using NASCO funds to help buy another co-operative house, the risks to the SCA involved in providing the up-to-$500,000.00 equity for a loan to the SWARMers, etc. etc. We approved the two proposals which follow:

"The first proposal by the swarm group has three parts:
  1) That the SCA desires to expand before the 10 year maturation of our current expansion fund through the formation of a separate expansion organization e.g. the swarm group. (Expansion through the swarm group in no way effects the current expansion fund).
  2) That the SCA conditionally approves of this organization being a subsidiary of the SCA. (Formalized legal documents defining this relationship will be considered at a later date).
  3) That "the SCA is willing to consider conditional approval" of a loan of up to 500k toward the creation of a new coop. "

2)The second proposal, made by Erich Chapman:
That the SWARM project go forward on the first 3 steps of the plan stated above, andThat  SCA approve use of up to $200 from the corporate "Professional Fees budget" [to help the new group pay paperwork fees necessary for registering with the State as a legal coop corporation, and help pay lawyer fees for the creation of a legal contract between the SCA and the new co-operative entity].  This paperwork should formalize the SCA's role in working with the new co-operative group, establish various financial and legal controls over the new co-op's membership, etc.

The SCA/Swarm expansion group will be a regular agenda item at this years' corporate meetings, with brief ~5 min. check-ins to the board each week to keep us updated.     

Next, the SWARM group will begin making a list of things desired in the SCA-new-co-op relationship, and posting this information on the SWARM website.

Or, to quote the most recent email from SWARM folks, "At the next corporate meeting and in general over the next week before the meeting the Swarm group will be soliciting input and feedback on an INFORMAL, "working document" that would express the relationship between the SCA and Swarm. The goal of this informal document is to make sure that the SCA will be legally capable of, having access to all the new coop's finances and legal documents, monitoring and regularly reviewing its financial status, and ultimately being able to take over temporary or permanent management of the new cooperative given certain triggers. Once co-written by the SCA and Swarm this informal document will be FORMALIZED into "legalize" by a lawyer and presented back to the SCA and Swarm for final ratification."