Meeting Minutes April 6th, 2008

House Meeting Notes - Sunday April 6th, 2008

Hypes & Gripes:
J~ G: O & S are not here, very sad.
H: Trees. 40 trees planted in two days. More trees coming on Thursday. Weather is good. Batizado is coming up in less than 20 days. Reading a good book now. Potluck on the 12th. Peter is visiting.
D~ G: O & S are not here.
H: Starting a new "secret class" on Monday nights. Saturday morning "secret" event. School is close to being done. Trees are planted.
B~ G: No Gripes.
H: Trees are planted. Job is going well. Arborist exam on the 17th.
M~ G: No Gripes.
H: New ideas for short stories / books. New writers group starting soon. Trees have been planted. Life in general is cool, happy.

Last House Meeting Notes: approved

Chores (rotation, etc.):
M: Bathroom, Common Laundry, Laundry Room
J: Commons Upstairs & Downstairs
B: Trash & Porch
D: Kitchen

Stewardships:
J: Create signs to facilitate guest worm bin use and composting, etc. Everyone is paid for April.
M: Two more pieces of trim in commons to go.
B: Note taking, website. Preparing house for recycling. B can take recycling to work.
D: House Meeting Enforcement. Call A & P for house meeting. Spreadsheet for volunteer hours logged, email to Johnathon for printing.
J & D: Food buying process and discussion report.

Completed Business:
1) Fruit Flies. Keep basement door closed. J & B moved the bins outside.

Old Business & Reminders:
1) Leftover food from the refridgerator. Someone ate Michael's leftovers. Write your name on personal items. Food discussion topic.
2) Toaster Oven - clean out toaster oven otherwise it will catch fire. Easier to clean immediately after use.
3) O is missing her keys. 4 keys on a purple caribeener.

Ongoing Business:
1) Pan underneath Hot Water Heater to catch in case of spill.
2) J's friend is coming back from Argentina in April. Possible extended guest stay in J's room. (Everyone approves)
3) Chin up bar.
4) Stencil art in bathroom
5) Concrete Mixer.
6) Cob Wall, Foundation, etc.
7) Gray water system. Electric 3-way valve.
8) Lights in Basement area.
9) Logging volunteer hours on website.
10) Blacktail Zine discussion. Proposal to use commons for Zine meetings. (everyone approves) D proposes notifying everyone in the house prior to meetings so they have option to participate, etc.
11) Recycling. Barrels of recyclables must be cleared out before we can consider recycling. Recycling in the past has failed.
12) Make it easier for guests to participate in trash sorting (i.e worm bins, etc.) - through signs, guest awareness, etc. J offers stewardship of making signs.
13) Potluck April 12th: approved.
14) Pictures on CD-ROM from J.
15) Lot of boxes around the house. Upstairs common area full of clutter. D offers to sort the stuff.

New Business:
1) Food Discussion (see below)
2) Trash & Porch are now one chore.
3) House cleaning before House meeting. Spring cleaning - April 19th & 20th.
4) Where is the LCD clock? (B has been using.)
5) Missing Walkie-Talkie?

Food Discussion:
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Food Purchase Proposal:

Goals:
Optimal health for people in the house by optimizing nutrition
Optimal health by balancing the social ecology of workers who produce the food.
Optimal health of the Earth
Financial effectiveness

Human Health:
adequate supply of veggies and whole grains
vegetarian purchase
legume purchase
potential guidelines for shopping
% of veggies to grains
methods for purchase
1° Robbie, 2° United Natural Foods
organic & local
what is local? Bioregional -> Berry Patch Farms
Subsist as much as possible within the Bioregion. Go outside when warranted.

Bioregional Methodology:
Start in bioregion and move outside as warranted. Move to closest place outside for desired foods.
Food may not come off Turtle Island (North America)
- no cane sugar!: including products containing it.

Substitutes: beets, sorghum, malted grains, fruit

- Zapatista coffee
- Tea and mate?
- What are we willing to give up?
- minimize packaging

Financial Effectiveness:
we should make things as much as possible as opposed to purchasing them with money. Utilize raw ingredients.
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Comments for on-going discussion
J: This is a good process. J & D will go to committee about meat & snack food.
D: This is in line with our goal of sustainability. Maybe we can make our own ice-cream, for example.
B: Likes the discussion.
M: Good discussion.
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* meat? J & D to meet again to discuss meat & snack options.
* cane sugar discussion.
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Next House Meeting
April 13th, 2008