Butler Committee Meeting Minutes March-02-2009

Submitted by Nancy Jones, Communications 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), Bo Xu (Webmaster), Ed Matteo (Treasurer), Bronwyn Smith (Community Room Coordinator), Rachel Galvin (Social Chair)

Community members present: Laura Nielsen, Jeff Dwoskin, Olivia Martel, Ying Li, Bing Quin,

Meeting called to order at 9:06pm.

David began the meeting with reports from committee members.

Anna (Butler Life coordinator)- Cleaning party for playgroup toys. Invite public, possibly have pizza. Bronwyn expressed an annoyance that the toys were put outside for cleaning of the room, but weren't brought back in. They became ruined by the elements. They will bring in a bin to store the toys in the corner.
Anna addressed Jeff with the Recycling issue. Jeff said they're coordinating an effort with John Baer & Shauna Weber. Specifically an electronics recycling. The idea is to resolve the problem of dumping things that shouldn't be put in the garbage.
Butler/Stanworth project: Anna, Dante, David, and Jeff had the 1st meeting. Discussed a proposal to re-naming the Butler committee to become Stanworth committee to make the transition on the future and current residents easier. Dante explained that designing an amendment to the bylaws to be presented to this committee, to be submitted, voted on, and approved in May by the committee. To be discussed further in the April meeting. 
Olivia mentioned that the exact time of when Butler will be changed to Stanworth. She explained that it is so far out, that it could be pre-mature planning on the part of this committee. Other persons present stated that there is a "rumor" that Stanworth is being put on hold. There is no official statement on it. There is limited information on the subject.
Nicole mentioned that working up a task force and creating plans could lose steam because its so early. She proposed to plan to make a transition.
Jeff said they want there to be a committee in place to take on the task when the time comes that its needed. He feels it important to plan now while there is no personal bias. Jeff proposed that the work would be spanned out appropriate to the timeline.
David feels that by changing the name of the committee now says that we represent current Butler and future Stanworth, that the task force was voted into place to take on the work. And can be in place to advocate for certain plans/needs in residential life.
Bronwyn feels that we need some concrete knowledge that Stanworth IS going to happen before we move forward. She mentioned that there have been rumors for years and years that Butler will be torn down, and its still here so far.
David explained that the Stanworth construction is waiting for the go ahead for building to start, but nobody knows anything. Olivia has no information, no one has given any confirmation.
The question is then, do we put so much work & effort into the part of this task force.
Rachel suggested that the task force go ahead and work on things, but not propose an amendment just yet.
Jeff said that the task force can move forward without needing a name change.
Rachel asked that if the name is changed does that mean the Stanworth residents need to be involved in the committee or task force planning.
Anna said that it would be open to all the grad students involved.
Dante asked, will this work be in vain if eventually Stanworth does NOT happen... should we organize a "what if" task force?
David said we can delay the amendment and work on things we need to take care of anyway, regardless of Stanworth. Things that are and will be needed here in Butler.
Jeff mentioned that after the amendment was in place, there would be an open invitation for other residents to participate.
Laura suggested waiting to see what happens before involving others.
David suggested including a reminder in the meeting announcements for residents to read previous minutes from meetings, so they could know about the "maybe" task force. But without mentioning what is in the minutes.

Bronwyn (Community Room)- Had a piano tuner come and fix the piano.  Nancy reported that the resident who requested the service was very grateful. The tuning service man mentioned that the piano is VERY old and shouldn't be near a window. The committee mentioned that there aren't a lot of places to move it too. Suggested that it be shifted down a little against the wall.

Nancy (secretary)- no news.

Rachel (Social chair)- reported that the Chinese New Year went really well, and appreciates all the help with that. Gave two ideas for activities: a salsa lesson, and a s'mores party. Asked about a budget for that, and if it would work.Bronwyn suggested a community talent show.
Nicole brought up that the wine & cheese takes up a large portion of the activities budget. Rachel suggested a smaller event, which would cost less.  Sign-ups were suggested for the dance lesson, to keep the attendance small enough to work in the community room. Dante suggested finding out about a co-sponsor with the salsa club to go over better with theGSG events board. Every event is separate when asking for money in the budget. Olivia said that money in the budget should be used before asking for more money. Rachel will send Nancy the details of the Chinese New Year to include in the minutes.
Rachel is thinking about the 1st Thursday in April to do the dance lessons.

Nicole (gardening co-coordinators)- asked Bronwyn about setting up a garden kick off time. Will be scheduled between Bronwyn and Nicole outside the meeting.

Dante (external relations)- Raised an issue regarding housing, specifically dumpsters on Halsey Court. Residents have been leaving garbage on top of the dumpster lids or around the sides on the ground. The residents need to be reminded to put trash INSIDE the dumpster. Nicole says that another problem is that people leave out larger garbage or recycling (IE: cardboard boxes that need to be broken down). Dante said that he's contacted Dwight. Olivia will discuss it with Matt Ferry to draft a garbage announcement/reminder to the residents.
Anna says this is a good time to include the recycling of electronics, tires, paint cans, etc to inform the residents in that same e-mail. Jeff says there is a flier that explains that certain things can not be disposed of by the city garbage. Bronwyn suggested putting a link to that info on the website.
David said a dumpster on Halsey Crt has a big hole in it where the squirrels are getting in. The bin needs to be replaced.
Olivia said she can have Matt Ferry do a "tour" around the complex dumpsters to find out which ones need to be replaced.
Nancy asked about getting a sign to attach to the the dumpsters regarding what to and not to recycle. It was decided that it wouldn't be cost efficient.
Bronwyn  asked about having an Earth day to clean up our community. Olivia said we could do Earth day and S'mores! Something to think about and plan at a future time.

Bo (webmaster)- Discussed the issue for the child care list-serv that Nancy e-mailed him about this week. It shows no instructions on how to join the list-serv. Olivia said she will look into it, because she does send out info for it.
Bo mentioned that he tried searching for the list serv  on all the lists available and couldn't find it. The child-care list serv is managed by another organization, Olivia says it might be her.
Bo asked to be updated about the recycling and he will put it on the web page.
He updated the new shuttle system on the web page.
He also talked about putting up a history of the committee members to be viewable on the site. He needs information on how long each committee member has been serving on the committee.  Sent around a paper for each member to fill in that information.
Discussion about storing documents. Needing a place to store them for internal use among the officers. Jeff said it would be a password protected folder. Bo said he could set one up and give the password to those authorized, but it wouldn't be easy to access. Jeff said he has an idea and they can talk after the meeting.
 
Ed (treasurer)- He related to Rachel the funds available for extra small activities she is hoping to do.
All the revenue is squared away.
There was a mysterious equipment rental charge that no one knows where it came from. Olivia said often charges don't show up until several months after usage, so it could be multiple things that were rented for events.
Bronwyn said they will be using money in the budget for cleaning supplies and pizza for the toy cleaning room party.

Olivia- concerning the issue brought up in previous meeting about the kitchen being filthy. Dwight told Olivia that often he had to clean up after the residents post-activities. Bronwyn said she always checks the kitchen after events, and the problem is day-to-day cooking use.
The concern about the stranger/worker from last meeting... he's just Juan. A nice temp, no one to worry about. They are looking into hiring more permanent positions.
Blue light phones. Possibly location for one here in Butler would be near the bus-stop. The big issue is the cost. Olivia was told it "will take some time".

David (chair)- Went over the amended minutes for last month to reflect a few things.
Asked Nancy about the refreshments provided for playgroup, if they come out of community budget. No, Olivia provides them from her budget. 
Bio-bag issue for dog mess clean up was raised by a environmentally concerned resident through e-mail. It was discussed through e-mail. The resident contacted the bag company and seemed satisfied with their answers.
David asked that when we reply through Butler-COM, that we CC so everyone knows what's been said.

Meeting adjourned at 10:33pm