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GENERAL MEETING 6
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Present: Apologies: Facilitator: Jane Ward Timekeeper: Sharryn Muir Minutes: Paula Jorgensen 1. Process Group Report (Hamish and Paula) The Membership application, with changes, is ready for use. It will be updated as research into other communities’ membership processes is completed. Meeting process, as discussed and ratified at the last general meeting is being used, as of tonight. 2. Finance Group Report (Noel and Jane) The Expression of Interest form was passed around for revision and ratification. It will go out via mail and e-mail in the next week in order to demonstrate the level of intent to interested developer/architect. Options for financial structure will be presented at later meeting. We need to come together in some sort of formal structure so that we have some official way of working. -Noel thinks we can come up with the structure and just do it. -Sharryn suggested we follow the example of other organisations A bank account needs to be opened to accommodate membership fees. For that we need officers and signatories. It was decided to open an account with two signatures required on a cheque. Those who agreed to be signatories are: Sharryn, Paula, Noel, Maya Still have not met with Bronwyn Pike, however one of her staff has been in contact stating that they have started investigations and requested additional info. A good sign. 3. Communication Group Report (Paul) We now have a web page on Vicnet with words and images 4. Education Group (Adam and Jane) An information day has been planned for Saturday, 1st of July at 2:30, at Australian Conservation Foundation, 340 Gore Street. Hans will facilitate. This will be perhaps a monthly event, casual and child friendly, for people to find out about cohousing. 5. Open Forum with Urban Ecology The forum was a brainstorm session. Paul and Maya made a brief from the ideas and information presented to use with their meeting with David Oppenheim, architect. The brief contained ideas, both concrete and philosophical, and were based on: - a cohousing community of 24 homes, 1, 2, 3, and 4 bedroom - an eco-village of 36 homes Urban Ecology collected input and information to use in designing a potential urban cohousing to enter in an international competition. Their proposal may or may not apply to Merri Cohousing but certainly will give us a start in envisioning the design and structure of our community. 6. Meeting with David Oppenheim On Friday, 17 June, Noel, Paul and Maya met with David Oppenheim who is an architect who expressed interest in designing/developing Merri Cohousing. Briefed Oppenheim about the vision and ideas of Merri Cohousing, including concept of eco-village. He responded positively; "it can be done" and requested a brief. >From the brief provided after the forum with Urban Ecology, Oppenheim developed a cost scenario. No design or philosophy was included. The costs are high, and work on the basis of a 20% profit for the developer. At the meeting, ways to reduce the cost were discussed. It was decided just to be frank about this concern with Oppenheim since he seems sincere in his interest. Another meeting with him is scheduled for Friday. Maya, Paul and Noel will aim to understand the info in Oppenheim’s report and to get an idea of what is feasible on the site; eco-housing, self-finished interiors, how does the cost of building affect the cost of owning. They will use the expressions of interest to figure the cost of homes that are likely to attract members to the community. Oppenheim has offered to run a "charette" on speculation. This is a day with all the players and experts in a room together to thrash out the plan. (developer, council, architect, buyers) It gets done in a short time what normally is a long and expensive process. Scheduled for 28th of July, it will be no charge to Merri Cohousing except for providing lunch. Discussion: - Jane asked if this means we are committed to Oppenheim. There is no obligation. - It was suggested that his method may be to go ahead and pull us along with him. A degree of caution is required. - It was agreed that after the charette we could decide if he’s our guy or not. - We have to make it clear to him that we want affordable, not luxury housing - We can secure him to our way of seeing the project with the expressions of interest - If we don’t go with Oppenheim, we can still use the information gained via the charette. We will record the process, regardless. - It is OK for us to invite our own professionals - Jane suggested we ask him for his resume so we have an idea of what he’s done, what he’s about. 7. Upcoming Events: General Cohousing Information Saturday, 1 July, 2:30 - 5pm Australian Conservation Foundation in Fitzroy. It is casual, children are welcome. 8. Other Business Sharryn has researched developer built cohousing; there are many, including a developer that has built several in the United States. She has a document about working with a developer from a 1997 cohousing conference and another about working with professionals. She will e-mail them to those interested. Meeting Closed.
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