Butler Committee Meeting Minutes, February 02, 2009

Submitted by Nancy Jones, Recording secretary
Committee Members present: David Jorgensen (Butler Chair), Dante Ricci (External Relations Rep), Anna Frost (dolly/Butler life coordinator), Nancy Jones, Nicole Jui (gardening co-coordinator),Tao Long (gardening co-coordinator), Ed Matteo (Treasurer), Bronwyn Smith (Community Room Coordinator)

Community members present: none

Meeting called to order at 9:07pm.

Reports from committee members.

David (chair)- Began by doing the reports on behalf of Bo the webmaster and Rachel social chair.
Bo (webmaster)- (The following was received yesterday by e-mail)
Sorry I can't attend the meeting tomorrow since I am still in China. So I wrote this email to you. Here are the outlines:
1. Online sign-up system for gardening
2. maintenance of our website
3. officer history web page

My first month as webmaster is interesting and exciting. Following Jeff's suggestion, Nicole, Tao and I constructed the online sign-up system for the gardening, which worked very well (though one resident had a little problem.). This seems more efficient than the old email system, and I think next year we can continue using it without too many changes.

I just updated the gardening page as Tao suggested. So if you need to add/edit any information of our website, please email me after the meeting. Nancy, you can send me the minutes of this meeting when you have time. Andrew will come back next week and we will talk more about the maintenance of the email list and web site.

Jeff suggested constructing a web page of our committee history as shown in GSG's web site (http://gsg.princeton.edu/main/History). I think this is a very good idea. You guys could discuss what format you like to present the officer history list. After I come back this weekend, I can add this information page to our web.

I'll probably see you guys on Sat.


Rachel (Social chair)- Chinese New Year celebration, scheduled for Saturday, Feb 7. Fliers were sent to Dante to post around town. Rachel will not be back until just before. She said she has people who have volunteers to help... but we'll be sending around a sign-up sheet anyway. Just to make sure we have the help for the event. Bronwyn cleared the calendar that night. The event is to be from 7-9, but we have the calendar cleared for set up, clean up, etc.

The point was brought up again, that when communicating to the committee members, we need to respond/reply to ALL in Butler-Comm.

There is some concern that the food may not be ordered, and other things taken care of.

Anna (Butler Life coordinator)- Suggesting a "cleaning party" to clean and disinfect the play corner and toys. Providing some refreshment as incentive to get helpers. It is long over due for a good cleaning. Suggestions were made to send out an e-mail to ask for volunteers. Cleaning supplies were also discussed as well. Money for pizza is possible. Old/broken toys will be tossed. All agreed.

The chairs in the corner are stacked too high. The issue of re-organizing and bringing a storage bin from outside to store inside for the toys. She didn't want to put a damper on the space for yoga. Everyone agreed that yoga is being allowed to use the room, so whatever we need to do they will have to work with.

She mentioned a possible security concern: Anna's husband was in the computer cluster when there was a man lingering, not really cleaning all that much, and on a day that wasn't the normal day to clean it. He was concerned that he wasn't the actually employee. Also mentioned that the computer cluster door wasn't latching properly, and can be a safety issue.

She asked about the new financial plan for renovation. Basically we don't know all the details just now.

Move out issues: Anna e-mailed the residents who are moving out about organizing their "throw-away" items to donate. Anna & Jeff Dwoskin talked with the director of building resources. They have a few different options. But anything involving additional storage requires approval from the university.  The other issue was informing the move-outs of what they can and can't throw out. (IE: mattresses, air conditioners can NOT go in the dumpster to be picked up by the garbage truck) We want them to be informed of how/where to discard them properly.

Tao asked if Salvation Army will schedule a pick up? Dante suggested informing them about Craigslist and Freecycle.

Bronwyn (Community Room)- Has a concern about who is in charge of cleaning the kitchen.
David said he talked with Dwight about many different concerns. The problem is that Dwight has had to re-train temps and they are only here 3 days a week instead of 5. Dwight encouraged David and any others to make suggestions/complaints to Matt Ferry. Olivia will speak to Dwight's boss, Matt Ferry.

Nicole & Tao (gardening co-coordinators)- the online set up was a huge success! Tao said the garden will hopefully be plowed again this year before the gardening season begins.
Nicole says composter is broken again, but they can't unload it because its all frozen. Also, the university dumped the new mulch in a giant pile on the new concrete pad, and it wasn't placed in the correct spot. Olivia told them they need to talk to Jim at the university to correct that. They'll e-mail Jim. Fences are also needing to be mended.
The plot money will need to stay in the sovereign account and go through Ed.

Tao asked about getting the e-mail for the Chinese New year celebration.

Ed (treasurer)-  Went over budget for January 09.  The wine & cheese went over. All other areas were under budget. The budget will be posted on the website.

We discussed having a record on-line of all the events, the budgets, the places ordered from, etc. and how it could be archived accordingly for future committees. Idea examples: Scanned receipts opposed to spread sheets with more information, etc. Send information to Bo who would know how to archive it. Considering Bo would be willing to do it. Doesn't need to be made public, but accessed by future committee members. Different opinions were discussed about that. The need for a password to access the archives was mentioned. Listing what was used, what food/drink was liked best, what supplies were left over, etc that will be helpful information. That part would be the responsibility of the social chair.

Dante (external relations)- Money was received from the events board: $1,200. They have pens that have a roll out map of all the route schedules for the shuttles. They would appreciate feedback on the new shuttle systems and get it to the proper heads.
David mentioned that he's had the experience of the shuttles arriving early and leaving early. Anna mentioned that they aren't always stopping at the scheduled stops.
Bronwyn mentioned that they are still not pulling far enough up on King Street for ample room for other cars to pass. Dante said they all have GPS trackers.

Olivia- The university is evaluating the foot traffic of where is the best location to put a Blue-light emergency phone.

David (chair)- Housing draw was discussed. Housing priority goes by Seniority and need. David gathered info for all the current grad school year we are in: Bronwyn 5th, Dante 5th, Bo 6th, Rachel 5/6th? (not present to know for sure), Tao-3rd, Nicole 3rd, Nancy 3rd, Ed 4th, David 2nd, and Anna 2nd.  There were 8 slots to give out and 10 committee members. David and Anna (who have seniority over a lot of new people) voluntarily gave up their slots so that others with need could get them. 2nd year grad students are guaranteed housing.
    
All committee members must re-apply for housing and select your preference for housing (Butler).

Butler changing to Stanworth project: Task force will be chaired by Dante & Anna, with Jeff and David assisting in the project; by law changes; who will do the work; getting university recognition; all current members at the time of change would need to work to help carry it over to Stanworth committee; turning over all information, etc effectively; what Butler common spaces will be transferred (IE: garden, park, laundry, comm. room, etc).
By law changes early on will need to have the community voice involved according to the amendment procedure, thus getting feed back for the new residential life in Stanworth. The students interests need to be represented as not to lose anything.
Tonight we need to vote on which committees we need to involve to take on this project.
Anna inquired what amount of time is going to be asked of the committee members involved, like how many meetings a month, etc. David reminded that this is 3-5 year project, so we have a lot of time. A motion was made to form a task force for this project. Committee voted to create a Butler/Stanworth task force. Voting was unanimous among all present in the meeting.

Nancy (secretary)- a resident asked about the piano here in the Comm. room. She plays, and is inquiring about getting it tuned. Who takes care of that?
Jeff mentioned that it was tuned shortly after receiving it long ago.
Olivia said we can split her budget to help pay for the tune up. Bronwyn volunteered to take care of it.

Attendance for Monday playgroup has been low. I'd like to send a reminder through Butler-res that playgroups are still happening.  Do I need to have the e-mail approved?
It has to go through David because he's the only one who can send out to Butler-res.

Meeting adjourned at 10:39pm