Date/Time
Date(s) - 13/08/2013
7:00 pm - 9:30 pm
Location
Makespace
Category(ies)
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Apologies for being late with this and thanks to Chris W for help with the notes. This was a members meeting held at Makespace. The next members meeting is Sept 10, also at Makespace. The meeting tonight at OP is a business meeting.
Regards,
Robert.
Attendance:
- Chris Wilson
- Christie Nel
- Sandeep Tailor
- Adrian French
- Michal Stefanow
- Lautaro Vargas
- Kiu Li
- Jo Archer
- Stephen Conrad
- Craig
- Christiane Meckseper
- Robert Copcutt
- Rhona Maclean
- Richard
Introductions
Great meeting with 14 members and observers. Apologies from Liz and Neville.
Q & A session
Michal volunteered to work on marketing.
Lat asked that we be conscious of the need for some members (eg. social workers) to not have their identity and photos publicly revealed.
Michal will put a link to us on the wikipedia page about cohousing. It was suggested we ask Wendy’s advice about creating our own wikipedia page, and it was also suggested that she might be a good person to write it; as a non-member and hence more impartial. CW to discuss this with
her.
Photo call report.
Fairly quick and efficient. Hopefully we will also have some photos that can go on our website.
CW has posted a photo from the photo-shoot (on which we have copyright). There are more photos, including one bought from Cambridge News, which was used for the poster. (done)
Report on meeting with HCA about seedfund.
We had a meeting at the local HCA offices, with Becky Ashley (Area Manager – Strategy and CaSSH) and Des Wain. They wanted to be sure that K1 membership is open and that our community will benefit the wider community. Stephen (SH) advised that we modify the Memorandum and Articles of Association of the company to meet the HCA criteria. The legal team subgroup (so far John, Robert and Chris) will probably have to liaise with SH about this.
Richard has experience of setting up a co-op and suggested that we read the template Arts and Mems for cooperative societies.
We may need to hold an EGM to change them (but our constitution doesn’t require it).
We will probably need to say that “we will promote the social well being of our members and the neighbourhood.”
Michal suggested that we get a .coop domain name, for example K1.coop, as it’s shorter and easier to remember.
Lat mentioned that Future Business offer up to 12 hours of free advice for new businesses. He offered to see if this was appropriate for K1.
Christie asked: what is the benefit in being a member? Answers were: voting at meetings, influence over the design, maybe a reduction in house prices due to sweat equity earned by early members.
The grant application could delay submission of the planning application. We need to be sure that the city council are happy with this. It was agreed not to ask them for a loan if the situation remains the way we believe it is now.
AF said it was more important that we learn how to communicate with each other and make decisions, than to submit the planning application at the earliest opportunity.
Several people offered to help distribute leaflets – Lautaro, Sandeep and Jo.
EGM
All agreed that Email voting is the right thing to do.
Quorum was 9 at the time of the meeting.
For the EGM we need to make sure all paid members are active on the k1-members@googlegroups.com mailing list.
CW to send a reminder to the email list about voting, proposals and joining the mailing list (done).
Voting will be on the K1-members list but conversations about the EGM to stay on the Cambridge-K1 list.
RC asked what people felt about him becoming the Design Champion. Someone asked what that meant. RC replied that the role is to study design options and make recommendations to the group about which to choose.
RC asked what people felt about the proposal to elect HF as chairperson. AF said that he wanted to block it and explained his reasons: most of the new members have never met HF as she’s been away, and might be surprised by her suddenly appearing as the chairperson of the group. ST
agreed and suggested that we elect by vote instead of nomination. No final decision was made; RC remains chairperson for now.
After dropping 2 proposals, 3 proposals remained for the EGM:
- Fee to £250 after 1st Sept.
- RC to Design champion
- AF to Spokesperson.
Open meeting planning
OP community centre booked from 6:30 to 9:30 on 29th August. Chris collating who will talk when.
Thanks to Wendy for writing and distributing press release.
Chris asked for help finishing off poster. Kiu offered to help print them.
Christianne and ? will organise the food.
RC to bring literature to put on a table and name badge holders. It was requested that the badges make it clearer who is a member and to have the K1 logo on them.
CW to make name badges with K1 logos on them, and RC to print them. (done)
Michal offered to create a slideshow to use during the opening 20 minutes before RC’s welcome talk, which was agreed.
ST will look into getting us mentioned in the local OP newsletter. He also knows people with the Guardian and FT and will see about getting us mentioned there. (No longer needed considering our almost full membership.)
KL asked about the member who wanted to self-build. RC and AF explained what happened.
PH visits
Visit to passivhaus in Cambridgeshire delayed because the house was struck by lightning.
KL brought along a brochure for the Seven Acres development. Rather than organise a group tour the meeting recommended
that members independently visit the development.
Design brief
Jim has asked for final decisions on the design brief. RC will Email a summary of the situation. (Done)
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