Minutes:20061029

From EcoReality

Sunday, 29 October 2006: Finance Meeting

Meeting brought to order: 10:43
- Present: James Cowan, Shannon Cowan, Jan Steinman, Carol Wagner.
- Facilitator: James
- Recorder: Jan
Check-in: "presence level", personal appreciation, and a few words about yourself
- Shannon: 8.5, grateful for Carol's always offering help, has an awareness of self-resistance, and a commitment to work in that area.
- James: 10, grateful to Jan for broad knowledge and willingness to share it, in the mode of finance after struggling with budgets in his job.
- Jan: 9, grateful to Shannon organizing food and planning meals and group care, fractured over recent travels and a full personal agenda.
- Carol: 9, grateful to all: Shannon for planning, James for cooking, Jan for being her buddy, distracted by her cold and so many things to be done.
Proposed agenda approved by all.
Review of EcoReality finance structure:
- share structure reviewed -- income from shares are normally to be used for capital investments, not for operational expenses.
Review of EcoReality expenses and income:
- ACTION: Carol will come up with a proposed monthly expense assessment by the November meeting.
- Discussion over cost of meals and accommodation for people who are not working
  - AGREED: we will charge non-working, non-relative guests for meals: $2 breakfast, $4 lunch, $4 dinner.
  - AGREED: re-affirmed our previous agreement that non-working, non-relative guests pay $10 per person per night for indoor accommodations, and $5 per person per night for outdoor accommodations, children under 12 free.
- Work trade guidelines
  - AGREED: we set work-trade value at $15/hour
  - ACTION: Jan will look into self-entry system on wiki (Jan Steinman)
  - AGREED: we will send our hours to Carol via email once weekly by Saturday midnight. Hours unreported over two weeks are lost.
  - Shannon: how do we decide what work gets done?
    - ACTION: Jan will implement a task priority system on wiki (Jan Steinman)
- (lunch break)
- Improvement budgets and plans
  - AGREED: we will make pages like those on Category:Projects for project we would like to see done. These projects will follow a template, and include entries for:
    Need
    a brief statement describing the problem to be solved with this project
    Description
    a fairly detailed description of what the project involves
    Goal or deliverable
    a description of the desired outcome, stated in a way that allows measurement of success
    Timeline, schedule, or end date
    a description of major milestones
    Plan
    a bullet list of intermediate actions required to accomplish the project goals
    Financial budget
    what it will cost
    labor budget
    specific labor amounts required of specific individuals or skill sets
- Farm planning
  - Carol touted as farm steward
  - should farm steward be a paid position?
    - Carol: willing to volunteer until it doesn't work
    - Jan: need to watch out for burn-out
  - Carol will come up with a preliminary 2007 farm plan by February 3 meeting. (Carol Wagner)
Closing
- James will facilitate next finance meeting
  - unscheduled, any member can call for a finance meeting as needed
  - James will "vibes watch" for the need for such a meeting
- Circle Check-out/Feedback/Appreciation
  - Carol: 9.5, didn't sleep well, but enjoyed discussion: "I love working with all of you!"
  - Jan: 9.5, glad for clarity, so many things are clear in his mind, and he appreciates other's questions.
  - James: 10, good meeting, summarized many past discussions
  - Shannon: 9, a bit tired, appreciative for time and attention everyone put in, all have clear interest in finances, great starting point, great time to have our own "house in order" with a new resident coming.