2021-02-08 Meeting

USTU Community Meeting Notes 2021-02-07:

Facilitation team: Josh (fac), KYLA (notes), Nils (tech)
Interpretation: Veronica, Julio 3.1.2

Present: Philip, Josh, Yuki, Nils, Carol, Natali, William, Lois, Lara, Rae, Gautam, Carrie, Joe, Maeve, Alana, Jessica R, Yolanda, Julio 3.1.2, Raquel, maybe not Becca, Jess B, Hartley, Beandrea, Aurisha, Austin,

Agenda:

• Opening (10m)
  • Language Justice & Meeting Agreements (Nils)
  • Agenda Overview
• Introductions - Favorite fruit; least favorite vegetable (10m)
• Provisional member interview for Gautam (Philip) - 15 min
• Continue with 3 USTU meetings per month (William) - 15 min DECISION
• Approve proposed framework for finalizing and implementing the Proprietary Lease (Lara) - 15 min Board agreement on a proposed work plan
• Intro to discussion on rental prices (Jess R, Rae, Leslie)- 15 min
• Next 4s (5m) –
• Facilitation - 2/15 HOLIDAY! 2/22/21 - Irma, Hartley, Joe
• Committee meetings -
  • MGMT tomorrow 2/9
  • Retreat committee - 2/9
• ONLINE Suppah Suppers -
  • Facilitation dinner 18:00 - 19:30
• DISTANCED Work Parties - N/A
• Evaluation (5m)

Decisions

• Consensus to continue to have 3 meetings per month. Will check in with the community at the end of August.

Notes

(expanded version with links to slides in 2021 Rolling Notes Google Doc)

Provisional member interview for Gautam (Philip)

• Gautum presents a slide discussing his interests and why he is a great candidate for LAEV
• Would like to see the process being a bit shorter or having an upper limit to the time involved. A check in on prospective candidates could be helpful to help folx from getting lost in the void
  Admits he has only eaten raw kale and never cooked with it (Jess R will help Gautam to learn to enjoy kale)
• Beatles or Stones - Beatles
• How you deal with conflict - not necessarily a bad thing. People have different points of view and conflict happens when points of view are not aligned. Can be bad when not dealt with properly. Tries to resolve conflict with patience. Think before you speak and try not to be controlled by emotions. Conflict is integral to research. Equals working to blend ideas or choose which way to go. Learned to deal with this in academia and has had success/experience with collaborators.
• Will you be active in the community land trust - will need to know more but has been learning some about it. Would like to know more ways to contribute. Looking for housing now closer to LAEV which would help him contribute more.
• Participation in Food Lobby- yes, would like to participate. Has been difficult before but has now been getting meals from Jess R and would consider participating with Food Lobby.
• Experience with cooperatives (e.g. housing) - Yes, has lived in community style housing in dorms as well as a student coop in Austin (contributing member) during his Masters. Really liked the experience and looked for cooperative style housing when moving to LA. Learned about LAEV from Lili
• How do you voice your needs - weekly meetings (submit agenda item)…best to resolve interpersonal issues amongst the folx with the issues

Continue with 3 USTU meetings per month (William)

• Recognizing that it the Zoom meetings can take a toll on Facilitators and Interpreters and trialed 3x/meeting per month
• Facilitators would like to continue with 3x/meeting/month
• Question: have the Facilitators considered other meeting times? And will this be for an X time period?
  • Will be having Facil dinner this Friday and can discuss further then, are open to discussing these when we can meet as a team (haven’t been able to in a long time)
• How do people feel about using the non-scheduled Monday for other fun community activities (that anyone can set up)?
  • Should be self-organized. Lots of emotional labor in facilitating.
• Question about items piling up and could we make the meetings longer?
  • Thus far, the community seems to understand when the need to go-over presents itself, on an ad-hoc basis. Keep informal rather than extend meetings, since that would be a lot.
• Is it possible to find other ways to consolidate the meetings (e.g. the introductions)?

Consensus to continue to have 3 meetings per month. Will check in with the community at the end of August.

Approve proposed framework for finalizing and implementing the Proprietary Lease (Lara) Board agreement on a proposed work plan

• Looking to hash out boilerplate items to discuss only the essential points in the Proprietary Lease, doesn’t want to bring every article to the greater community
• Wanting to approve the framework/process not the actual articles
  • Proposed that Renter and Owner Members come to agreement on the scope and content of the first list of Key Articles in meetings held during 2021 with the goal of adoption and implementation of the completed US/TU Proprietary Lease on January 1st of 2022.
  • Proposed that a Committee of Renter and Owner Members edit the second list of Standard Articles to conform with the US/TU Bylaws and the current Rental Agreement and submit to the US/TU Board for approval by July of 2021.
• Not clear on assumptions. Doesn’t seem controversial but not sure what we are saying yes to
• Separate the focus
  • work on the boilerplate part, tweak specific needs and approve.
  • Recognition of what kinds of changes are okay and what can be done on own, what can be done by approval of the manager or board (i.e, more weighty and should have input from the community. How to divide up these decisions and who should decide what.)
• Distinction of standard articles vs key articles
  • What is the distinction? Lara made the distinction and recommends not focusing on what is particularly in each distinction but to adopt the key framework and if, once work is being done, to move items from key or standard as needed
  • How would we discover that something was contentious? Anyone who would be looking over it and finds that there is a need for further discussion. Not trying to say that this is a definitive division of key v. standard
  • This is a general approach…not sure that it needs a consensus decision but is good to be clear and so everyone understands. Empower a small group to get through the small, easier things first sooner rather than later. Another tract is a deeper conversation
    • Ideally would like to see a faster timeline. Would like to see a dedicated time to get through some of these (e.g., the 4th Monday) and possibly have guests from other places who have done this.
• Thought that other Co-Ops have this and it seems uncontroversial
• An encouragement for people to volunteer. Would like to see Renter Member, Owner Member, and Board representation on this (if you have capacity).
• Did not make it to board approval and question as to whether this needs consensus

Intro to discussion on rental prices (Jess R, Rae)

Slides discussing current rent rates (posted to listserv and in 2021 Rolling Notes Google Doc)

• Questions about if the analysis took into account the utilities that the Terraces pay
• Would like to acknowledge that 116/117, 221 and 112 have the 4 most expensive units
• Discussion about AMI vs income and paying 30% or less income for rent, income based rent

Next 4s & Eval

• Next 4s
  • Facilitation - 2/15 HOLIDAY! 2/22/21 - Irma, Hartley, Joe
  • Committee meetings -
    • MGMT tomorrow 2/9
    • Retreat committee - 2/9
  • ONLINE Suppah Suppers -
    • Facilitation dinner 18:00 - 19:30
  • DISTANCED Work Parties - N/A
• Evaluation (5m)
  • Appreciation to a lot of prepared presentation. Thank you for putting the work in. Rental rates analysis was great.
  • Would appreciate knowing what the next steps are for the Proprietary Lease
  • Smooth and one time & item breaks; notes & tech
  • Tunde and Eli’s bday this week
  • To help Language Justice, it would be good to translate slides ahead of the meeting