Attendees:
Greg Thompson
Selwyn Polit
Colette Henricks
Tom West
Dory Grace
Cat Barron
Eileen Nehme
Becky Weaver
Suzanne Baker and Jim

JUNIOR MEMBERS: Hart Barron, David (Baker?)

AGENDA ITEM 1: Green Connection event

CAC was approached to do a presentation on cohousing as green building for a conference called the Green Connection. Becky is asking CACTUS for help putting this together.

Greg has a slide projector, carousel and screen we can use.

Selwyn has a TV with VCR attached, and Rene has a video projector.

Selwyn and Cat agreed to help Becky organize presentation.

Eileen noted that we should keep track of how many people attend presentation, so we can start estimating the # of people our education/marketing efforts have reached.

Becky will coordinate getting more information, and meeting with Selwyn and Cat to plan presentation.

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AGENDA ITEM 2 - March 3 Event - "Cohousing 101 ? Creating old-fashioned
community in a new way"

Dory has reserved the top floor of BookPeople for the Sunday, March 3
event, from 12-5PM.

Goals for event:

Recruiting new members for coho groups and CACTUS
Education
Draw in people who already have an interest in intentional
community

Brainstorm (Content)

Sign-up sheet (with check boxes for groups they're interested in,
including CACTUS)
Follow-up CACTUS event (social) to bring in new members
(approximately 3 weeks away ? date tentatively set at Sunday, March 24.)

Handouts
Presentations ? somewhere between 5-minute presentations every 15
mins, to .5 hour presentations every few hours on special topics such as

Psycho-social aspects
Financing
Sustainability
How coho differs from other types of IC
Overview of different groups in Austin, nationally and worldwide
Have video running on loop in quiet corner to bring people in to
room in an unthreatening manner
Have each active group set up an info table
Refreshments
Signage?
Promotional activities
Flyering (Fritz-delivered, two weeks before?)
Media (the usual suspects)
Radio (KUT)
Website
Write-up of "why we love cohousing" from Cohousing-L (see below)
Have the slideshow running on a laptop (in PowerPoint)

It was agreed that a "Content committee" will formulate the agenda and
let Dory know what kind of set-up we envision. This committee consists
of:

Colette, Greg, Becky, Tom, and Cat. Becky agreed to be the point person
who will set up meeting and coordinate with Dory.

Dory will coordinate refreshments, logistics, setup, and breakdown. She
will send out promo blurbs, but the content committee will write them.

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AGENDA ITEM 3 - Website

It's up, it's cool. The cactus now blooms.

People have been posting (on Cohousing-L) why they love cohousing ?
Selwyn is collecting this info and will post it on our website.

Cat will give Eileen a page to post about the Oak Hill group.

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AGENDA ITEM 4 - Cohousing Conference

501(c)3 Status:

Eileen talked with the Sustainable Building Coalition (SBC) about their willingness to act as our 501(c)3 umbrella organization. They are enthusiastic, but they do not yet have their non-profit status approved. They have no experience yet doing nonprofit financial management, which may not look so good on our grant proposals.

That being the case, Eileen is looking for another group that could act as our umbrella, that has more financial experience than the SBC.

If we have to apply for 501(c)3 status ourselves, or go with the SBC, we will probably have to postpone the date of the conference.

In light of this, it was decided to move the conference date to March 2003. We will continue planning the conference as before, and use the extra time to resolve our nonprofit status before submitting grant applications.

Anyone who has ideas for speakers, presentations, etc., send them to
Eileen.

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AGENDA ITEM 5 - Status report from Groups

Austin Rural Cohousing ? More people are joining their listserve. Sel wyn is asking them why they're interested in cohousing and getting lengthy, interesting responses. Tom has a flowchart of what needs to be done next. They will schedule a meeting soon.

Oak Hill group - Is having regular supper meetings every other week. They have 5 families. They are considering names such as Live Oak Commons and Oak Hill Commons.

Central Austin Cohousing - Is looking for a developer. Recently met with representatives of the neighborhood association in a promising neighborhood.

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NEXT MEETING

Tuesday, February 12, 6:30 ? 8:30.
Eileen's house (Directions TBA)
Facilitator ? Selwyn
Note-Taker ? Becky

Agenda:
Slideshow post-mortem
Cohousing 101 Planning
Conference
Status Reports

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ACTION ITEMS:

Becky

contact Rita Heck re Green Connection event. Coordinate with
Selwyn and Cat to plan presentation.
keep track of how many people see presentation
Contact Cohousing 101 Content Committee to set meeting time

Cat

Send Oak Hill web page to Eileen to post on CACTUS site.

Eileen

Promote Coho 101 event
Make flyers
Website
Write paragraph for PSAs (radio & print)
Continue investigating 501(c)3 options

Dory

Continue coordinating with BookPeople re: Coho 101 event.
More tables
Signage
Refreshments etc.

Selwyn

Post "why we love cohousing" on CACTUS website

Everyone

Send ideas for coho conference to Eileen
Coordinate with Eileen on finding nonprofit umbrella
Keep an ear out for developers for CAC