June 2019 - Ucol-shareholders

Tomorrow night's meeting and background material
by Anne Thomson 26 Jun '19

26 Jun '19

Hi all, Tomorrow night's meeting will be the "special meeting to consider legal representation" - this will be the only item on the agenda. The meeting will have a different shape from our regular meeting. Gay, Jan, Frances and I take responsibility for the conduct of the meeting, since we proposed it. We will begin with time to listen to each other as we respond to the questions: "What are the issues that are important to you as you consider this decision? What are the factors and concerns that inform this for you?" This is a time for listening carefully and respectfully, without interruption or response or asides. When everyone has had an opportunity to address these questions (if they wish to do so), Gay will summarise what has been said. We then move to discussion, seeking to reach consensus about the way forward. The questions to consider at this time will be "what have you heard that would help us reach consensus?" Out of this time we will formulate a minute on which we will make a decision using the cards. We do not expect that this will be a brief meeting. But we also believe that it is time we made a decision on these matters. We will do our very best to ensure that we come to that point tomorrow night. Attached is a document in which I have brought together the responses we have received from the lawyers to whom we have addressed questions. Please take the time to read this through before you come to the meeting, so that we can proceed on the basis of shared knowledge - we all know that this is what we all know. Thank you to the 'red card' people who have sent through their reasons, as requested. If others wish to do so, please do. At the end of this, we also need to think about what has happened over the past couple of months, and what we need to learn from this, so that the next time we face an issue on which we are divided, we have improved our processes in the light of this experience. Please come with a quiet mind tomorrow, and open ears, ready to listen to one another. There is an injunction I know which is a good piece of guidance- 'be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to anger'. Go well - see you tomorrow! Anne

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My reasoning for remaining with McMillan & Co
by Donald Shand 26 Jun '19

26 Jun '19

Kia ora korua As a shareholder I want to take an objective and informed approach to the choice of law firm to undertake our unit titling, settlement of sale and purchase agreements and the holding of funds in trust for UCOL. The question I ask myself is “which law firm is fit for purpose for these tasks? I believe it is critical that the lawyer undertaking this work has the capacity, systems and experience to execute a complex task promptly. In my view Helen’s capacity to undertake this work is considerably diminished by her leaving McMillan and Co. I also need to be as confident as I can that our lawyer demonstrates sound judgement. Helen’s poor decision making in two recorded instances is a factor that I must take into account, particularly in regard to the administration of trust funds on behalf of UCOL. It is for these reasons that my strong preference is to remain with McMillan & Co. Nga. Donald

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(no subject)
by Miriam Frances 26 Jun '19

26 Jun '19

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re some thoughts ahead of the 'special meeting' 27th June
by mariannequinn＠xtra.co.nz 26 Jun '19

26 Jun '19

Morning all. As one of the trio who showed a red card in response to the straw poll around legal representation, it was suggested that we send something ahead of the meeting about our reasons for this. ( I'm also interested in hearing from those who registered Orange cards about their serious reservations). I'll do my best to be brief. a. I'm assuming that all those who've registered an opinion about our legal representation have read the summary column put together by Alex. It's my observation that as a group, we may be looking at the same set of 'facts and opinions' but we are 'weighing' this information differently. Eg while it is interesting to learn more about our former lawyer's role in managing complex individual property purchases in the past, to my mind, that has little bearing on our current situation: that all 24 transfers of money to the bank along with titles to be issued, covenants applied, etc for a brand new development need to be completed at the same time in order for us to discharge our obligations to Kiwi bank and be able to move in to High Street cohousing. Any delays or muddles around these processes have significant implications for us all: for one thing, we have all signed a contract with Kiwibank that we are responsible for our own loans and that of the rest of us to the amount that Kiwibank has agreed to lend. On the scale of 'Stressful life events', moving house is right up there. A number of us will be timing the sale of our properties to hopefully line up with the move in date; others are already renting. Any delays have significant financial implications for us as a group. Some of you may be able to cover an additional $20K plus were that required - we are not in that happy position. And none of us need to be put under that stress if this transaction is handled efficiently, accurately and to time. Which brings me to the matter of the resources required by whatever law firm manages this complex transaction. This is not a 'one person' job. It is going to require the dedicated attention of a small team over days and possibly weeks to have this all lined up and ready to go. In my view, we need to allow for the predictably unpredictable; staff illness/ absence for what ever reason. Again, a 'one or two person' operation doesn't provide that. As shareholders, we have a responsibility to act cautiously for the good of us all. b. Irrespective of capacity and past performance, in this sort of matter, I want to know I can rely on the judgement of the person representing my interests. While we can all make mistakes, and hopefully learn from these, when errors of judgement occur, and especially recur, it makes me pause. Many things can affect cognitive capacity, as my aging brain is only too aware. Again, in my view, it behooves us to be cautious. There is no satisfaction in ' I told you so', as we, along with the rest of you, face expensive delays and additional fees due to factors we considered and decided to set aside. Again, as shareholders, we have a responsibility to act cautiously for the good of us all. Several people registered Orange cards in response to the recent straw poll. I would like to hear more about their serious reservations too. c. My third issue relates to the process around the discussion about legal representation. In my opinion, this discussion has become embroiled in a confusing mix of loyalty conflicts, muddles around roles, and proposals that reflect a wish to either reward one party or punish another ( neither of whom are shareholders in this project). Directors have a responsibility to shareholders and need to act with the best interests of that whole group in mind. I've already spelled out something of our obligations to one another that are set out in the Kiwibank contract. Over this process, most of us have experienced considerable discomfort, wondering what we got ourselves into. People have used words like 'manipulated';' furious'; 'too embarrassed to talk about this with family, knowing what they would say' etc etc. Discussions ( Lobbying?) have gone on by phone or over coffee cups with some, while requests to meet to talk through differences with others have been declined. This is not how the kaupapa of co-housing was presented to me and I expect it is not the picture attendees at our most recent induction work shop were given either. We need to be willing to walk our talk. Quite a bit of this has bought to mind the book 'Emotional Blackmail: when people in your life use fear, obligation and guilt to manipulate you'. The author describes how a fear of others anger (or our own) can produce what she describes as a 'FOG' made up of fear, obligation and guilt that muddles our thinking, makes it hard to focus on the facts and interferes with good decision making. If we can't see conflict as 'growth trying to happen', we can instead fall into a pattern of shutting it down at all costs, or agreeing with anything to make it go away, and then paying the price inside ourselves for acting against what we knew to be in our best interests and/ or those of the group. I'm hopeful that as a group, we'll get through this issue in a sane way, and that we'll use this experience to help us build our resources for other issues that we'll face together down the track. Best wishes and see you on Thursday - Marianne. Marianne Quinn Level 3, 115 Stuart Street, Dunedin P.O. Box 20, Dunedin 9054 ph +6434773115 or 0211612050

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PCG minutes
by Catherine Spencer 21 Jun '19

21 Jun '19

hi all, attached are the PCG minutes form the last PCG meeting held on Tuesday. Catherine ******************************************* Catherine Spencer Director, Urban Cohousing Otepoti Ltd +64 3 4536043 +64 21 1221421 www.highstreetcohousing.nz

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Action on site
by Maria Callau 21 Jun '19

21 Jun '19

Maria Callau 021 1847490 Sent from my iPhone

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Site meeting
by Rainer Beneke 21 Jun '19

21 Jun '19

Hi all Not much to report today. Building is coming along nicely. The cladding has been decided, as all alternative options that Tim explored were to expensive. We will have the painted ship lap look plasterboard that we decided on last Christmas. As we were leaving today, they were pouring the concrete footing at the end of the Alva Street block! We talked to Bill the foreman and thought we might have a group site visit sometime next month. We will talk about it at our first UCOL meeting in July. Regards Rainer I check my emails once a day. Please call me if you need an urgent reply. Rainer Beneke +64 21 144 7700 www.rainerbeneke.nz

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Fwd: Suggested signage
by High Street Cohousing 21 Jun '19

21 Jun '19

A response below from Rob Cunningham about the proposed eHaus signage. (Somehow my draft email got lost in Trash while I was in Melbourne so it was only sent last night) Is our sign a bit damaged or completely unusable? Is it fit to reinstate as is? Then we could ask them to put it back up while they are mounting theirs Anne ---------- Forwarded message --------- From: Rob <rob(a)stevwill.co.nz> Date: Fri, 21 Jun 2019, 8:48 AM Subject: Suggested signage To: High Street Cohousing <ucoldunedin(a)gmail.com> Cc: Stefan Box <stefan(a)reececonsultants.co.nz>, Calvin Beel < calvin(a)stevwill.co.nz> Hello Anne Lovely day out there for building. We are happy with the wording of the proposed sign and worked with Baden to put it together. We are the eHaus licenced builders working on this specific project and we were introduced to the project through eHaus. We intend to attach the existing sign to the scaffold on the High Street elevation. Rob Cunningham Reg.QS Managing Director Stevenson and Williams Ltd PO Box 4007 St Kilda Dunedin Ph: (03) 455 4034 *From:* High Street Cohousing [mailto:ucoldunedin@gmail.com] *Sent:* Thursday, 20 June 2019 10:57 p.m. *To:* Rob Cunningham <rob(a)stevwill.co.nz> *Cc:* Stefan Box <stefan(a)reececonsultants.co.nz> *Subject:* Suggested signage Dear Rob, At our UCOL meeting on Thursday 6 June we discussed the request to erect an eHaus sign at the High Street Cohousing site. The wording of the sign generated considerable discussion - "eHaus is proud to be building the first Passihaus Cohousing project in NZ". You (Stevenson & Williams) are our builders, not eHaus. According to our understanding, something like "eHaus are proud to be part of the first Passivhaus Cohsouing project in NZ" would be more accurate. We would like to know whether Stevenson & Williams agrees with the suggested wording. We are also aware that the sign we had erected has been blown down and damaged in recent winds, and we would not be happy to see an eHaus sign replacing it. Perhaps eHaus would be willing to reinstate our sign and then could put an eHaus sign alongside it. Warm regards Anne Thomson

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Fwd: Cans desperately wanted by Landcare research.
by Anne Thomson 19 Jun '19

19 Jun '19

For all those cans you otherwise have to put in the recycling..... I could offer to collect cans at UCOL meetings, if people want to bring them along. ---------- Forwarded message --------- From: Clair and Phillip Scadden <pc.scadden(a)gmail.com> Date: Mon, Jun 17, 2019 at 4:00 PM Subject: Cans desparately wanted by Landcare research. To: <a-rocha-dunedin(a)googlegroups.com> Wanted: 400/450ml empty tin cans Why? We are researching rat behaviour in non-beech forests to increase effectiveness of predator control with the goal of having *More Birds in the Bush!* Your empty tin cans will be used as dens/refuges in live capture rodent traps being run in the Hollyford Valley – the cans (lined with foam) will be used to keep the rats snug and warm while they await wrangling by a Manaaki Whenua Landcare Research field team. Please help us collect 400 cans by the end of June 2019! Cans can be dropped off at Landcare office, Dunedin Research Centre, corner of Cumberland Street and St David Street. Leith Valley people can give them to Phil Scadden at church. [image: image.png] [image: image.png] Hayley (Manaaki Whenua Landcare Research) Ricardoh(a)landcareresearch.co.nz 0220146332 -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "A Rocha Dunedin" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to a-rocha-dunedin+unsubscribe(a)googlegroups.com. To post to this group, send email to a-rocha-dunedin(a)googlegroups.com. To view this discussion on the web, visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/a-rocha-dunedin/CACr5C3DX43VjxTAd7hhgOD5c… <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/a-rocha-dunedin/CACr5C3DX43VjxTAd7hhgOD5c…> . For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.

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Change of ownership and Interest on Loans
by Maria Callau 19 Jun '19

19 Jun '19

Hi everyone, I just want to clarify two things adding to the discussion about the waiting list/incoming owners. CHANGE OF OWNERSHIP Kiwibank said they are happy for the 2 units to be sold and are happy to deal with the change of ownership, guarantees, etc. As expected and discussed this will have cost implication for the incoming owner - mainly legal costs. This has bee informed to the new owners in the induction workshop. BUT Steven Edge was very clear to say that he DOES NOT expect and WILL NOT BE HAPPY if we change ownerships of more units over the build. The idea is to stick to the current owners list until the end… People will then be free to sell their units when we finish our build and pay back kiwibank loan in full. The case of these two units was different because we always knew they were helping the project move forward and Kiwibank was informed about this and is happy to see new owner stepping in. iNTEREST TO BE PAID to the loans of people leaving HAS BEEN included in our budget: we are all paying this interest as part of the price of our units; therefore there is NO impact for the incoming owner as it has been included in their price. Interest for ALL LOANS are embedded int he budget (we all pay for it). This has to be clear to all of us… so there is no confusion. Hope this clarifies. Thanks, Maria Kind Regards, Maria Callau 0211847490 SUR Architecture Limited ASB House, Level 6, 248 Cumberland St. PO Box 5510, Dunedin 9058 www.sur-architecture.com

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Ucol-shareholders June 2019