Butler Committee Meeting Minutes

June 5, 2007

Submitted by Jane Phillips (Recording Secretary)

Committee members present: David Inglis (Community Room Coordinator), Juan Melli (Webmaster), Laura Soltesz (Social Chair), Shannon Hughes (Chair), Nicole Jui (Garden Co-Coordinator), Patrick Ross (Bugle Editor), Dante Ricci (GSG Rep), Jane Phillips (Secretary), Agatha Letartowicz (Garden Co-Coordinator) Rodrigo Casassus Coke (Dolly Coordinator).

Community members present: Tara McCartney, Bronwyn Smith, Gregory Schwartz, Jeff Dumanski and Kristan Flynn, Andrew Owen, Audra Pompeani, Kelly McAllister.

Meeting called to order at 9:31 pm.

Shannon (Chair): Laundry carts are back; they appeared back on their own, so Shannon did not send out email. There should be 4 there at all times. Also, the next meeting is scheduled for July 3, so it was moved it to July 10. Shannon mentioned the possibility of organizing a yard sale in Butler this year. Last year it seemed to go well, and was not difficult to put together; suggestions from last year were to extend hours to have it earlier. This year, will start 10 am, go till 2pm. Agatha suggested that we send out emails to residents and also to the Committee to ask for volunteers for setup/cleanup – Laura will follow up. Laura will also make flyers. Community Room will be rain location.

Tara McCartney says that we should plan to submit the Major Maintenance requests by mid-August, so we need to start planning what to put on it for the year. Everything over $5000 should go on the requests. Tara suggests that we put the laundry room on the list for this year.

Nicole and Agatha (Garden Co-Coordinators): All is well with the garden. There has been some turnover, but the garden is pretty much full now from people previously on the wait list. Nicole and Agatha have outstanding receipts from expenses for the Garden, and this will be handled by the new Treasurer, Patrick, after he talks with the former treasurer, Kelly Krantz.

Rodrigo (Dolly Coordinator): Dolly is busy, but all is going well.

David (Community Room Coordinator): Community Room is busy, but all is going well.

Juan (Webmaster): Survey this year had 139 respondents. Big issues are: 1) laundry room, 2) insulation. There were a lot of write-ins this year. Juan thinks it would be good to ask for input several times per year. He thinks it is important that we make clear to residents what can and cannot be done in the apartments, as far as maintenance, etc. Audra noted that the survey should specifically say that it comes from the Committee, rather than the University. Juan mentioned that laundry room issues seem worse this year than in past years. Committee has decided again to attempt to get these comments through to Housing so that they know that laundry is an issue in Butler. Tara mentioned that laundry rooms in other apartment complexes are better than at Butler. Tara and Jeffrey Dwoskin will meet with Patti Smith to talk about the concerns with the laundry room. List of comments from the survey about laundry should be given to Tara – Shannon will follow up. Tara suggested that Butler residents call 8-8000 to report broken machines. Butler Committee could put up a sign about this in the laundry room – Shannon will follow up. 54% of people said that they would be willing to contribute $5 per year to Butler social events. Opinion was also split on Maintenance, some people were happy and some not. Laura suggested that different maintenance departments may have different response times. The picnic tables outside the Community Room have bees – a maintenance request has been placed. It was suggested by Andrew Owen that there should be some sort of giveaway for completing the survey in future years.

Laura (Social Chair): Many people in the community know about social events but do not attend. Some want more child-friendly events, some want less. Survey showed that people are dissatisfied that food runs out early at social events. The last social event was good, total was $643.81. Laura has photos of the event; she will send to Juan. Laura will organize the yard sale. Laura suggested that we put into the email Shannon will send out (see below) what the Committee would do with an extra $5 per person. Tara will follow up to make sure that we are allowed by the University to impose a Butler Social Events fee. Laura will wait until next month’s meeting to talk about her ideas for events. Laura has sent her receipts for the last event to Tara.

Tara: New furniture for the Community Room is forthcoming, with no definite date, but will hopefully be delivered sometime over the summer. Shannon says that we can apply to the GSG for funding to spruce up the Community Room and do some minor repairs. Shannon wants to talk more about this at the next meeting. Tara will look into bolting the new bookshelf in the Community Room to the wall.

Ideas for an email to be sent to Butler residents: Agatha suggested that we put a pull-out paper in the next Bugle about issues brought up in the survey, or maybe put out email with clear subject heading so that people can read about things that happen because of the survey. Follow-up email will be sent with survey results – Shannon will follow up. Shannon will also put link to minutes in email.

Bronwyn mentioned that Butler residents should be better informed about 1) what the Butler Committee does, and 2) safety issues in Butler. Committee members responded that the Committee cannot always inform the community, only because the Committee is not directly informed by the University. Residents should instead contact Public Safety with any safety concerns. Tara mentioned that Public Safety makes decisions of whether to put out emails about safety concerns, and they do not always include detailed information because of concerns about causing panic and revealing personal information about students and other residents. Bronwyn suggested that all community members should be informed that they can contact the Committee with any concerns. Tara suggested that Community members should get an email every semester stating that they could be contacted with any concerns – Shannon will follow up. Andrew suggested that the Committee put up notices in the laundry room saying the same.

Dante (GSG Rep): GSG is hosting a furniture drive.

Patrick (outgoing Bugle editor, incoming Treasurer): Princeton account has -$270 because we have not gotten refunded for the Summer Kick-Off event. Garden account total is not known exactly, but should be at least several hundred dollars.

Shannon: Initiated a talk about dog issues. Tara says that this particular issue (one individual dog attacking a person in Butler in May) has been resolved permanently.

Kristan Flynn mentioned that she would not want her personal information to be put into a mass email to the Community, and is afraid that this will happen to other people in Butler (as happened with the email sent on May 18, 2007 from Lisa Wynn and David Inglis, which contained some information about the attack and personal information about the dog owner). Kristan also mentioned that misinformation should not be spread by members of the community; she mentioned this because there was misinformation contained in the email sent on May 18. She (Kristan) showed the email to the Township Animal Control officer, and he stated that it was not the information he had given. Jeff mentioned that he thinks that this email has the potential to set a bad precedent. Additionally, dog-owning residents are concerned because other residents now seem afraid of their dogs unnecessarily.

Tara mentioned that the University was slow to respond (their first email regarding the issue also came out on May 18), mostly because there was no precedent for this issue. Kelly McAllister mentioned that the University cannot supercede Township law (information she got from the Animal Control officer). Tara says that there is “no official word on what is going to be done” as far as what would happen in the future regarding Butler pet policy. Audra mentioned that she is uncomfortable with being emailed, as a privacy issue. Agatha suggested that we put information in the beginning of year email so that people know they can take their information off of the Princeton directory. Kelly stated that all dogs need to be on-leash in Butler by law, which is true according to the Princeton Township laws.

Juan mentioned that the Committee had drafted an email with more information on May 21, but it was not sent out because the situation had been resolved (the dog owners had been asked to leave Butler by Housing). Jane mentioned that the email sent to the Community by the abovementioned individuals on May 18 was in violation of several policies contained in the Rights, Rules and Responsibilities of the University and OIT guidelines. David mentioned that in his and his wife’s email, they were attempting to let residents know what was going on in Butler. Laura, etc. mentioned that people should be aware that they need to register their pets.

David suggested that Butler have a policy that “potentially dangerous” pets should not be allowed to live in Butler, but Committee members stated that the Committee does not have the jurisdiction to handle this, plus the owners of this particular dog were in fact kicked out of Housing.

Kelly suggested that we put out fliers or emails, etc. to remind people of responsible pet ownership. Patrick or new Bugle editor will put information in the next Bugle as well. Kristen suggested that a position be created on the Committee to specifically deal with pets. Committee decided to talk about the possibility of starting this position at the next meeting.

Meeting adjourned at 11:05 pm.