UCOL Meeting Thursday 11 April 2019.

 

 7.30pm at Centre for Sustainability, seminar room, 563 Castle Street.

Chair: Juan                Notes: Jan

Apologies: Donald and Miriam, Michael and Roz, Anne and Geoff King, Maurice and Rosemary, Dennis, Karen and Sander, Jess, Claire

Present: Sara, Gay, Catherine, Rainer, Marianne, Pauline, Anne, Alex, Min, Sue T, Frances, Sandy, James, Tim, Susan, Karen

Round of appreciations:  Good weather, Agenda being done, Aurora going sweetly, Rainer/Alex/Maria’s time and effort, James for being here tonight.

PCG report/updates                                                                      Rainer

Site meeting 2 weeks ago.  Nothing to report.  Sewer is in for High Street Block.  Concrete to be poured in three lots.  Hole at end of Alva Street is for where our concrete will go. Conduit for sewer and the hot water pipes are poking up

Sara asked about the possibility of a visit outside working hours.  Tim and Rainer explained that it will be more interesting once the panels go up (about three weeks) and we’d still only be able to look from footpath.  Rainer will ask about it at site meeting tomorrow. 

 

Chorus (for internet)                                                                     Alex

Maria has invited Alex to attend a meeting with Chorus next week. We have applied to them so now we have joined the application queue for getting a quote.  The expectation is that Chorus will hook up every unit but will probably want us to sign a contract for them to put it in and we pay for the cost.  We need to have these services in to get council sign off, but it makes sense to get them put in at this stage to future proof the units.   Sandy asked about option like “Skinny” where no installation required however James pointed out that wireless options like Skinny have considerably slower internet speed.  Stevenson and Williams have costed for fibre installation, with their putting in of ducting approximately $7000.  If we get an agreement with Chorus, this could reduce the amount that we need to pay to Stevenson and Williams.

 

BCG report/updates                                                                      Rainer

BCG meeting postponed until next week.  S&W will be asking for $500,000 approx in the next instalment.

For the windows we have now paid 100% but it was quoted with a particular exchange rate. Changes to the exchange rate could affect this, depending on what it was at time of payment. Potentially Ehaus could send us an invoice for the difference.

Currently in our bank we have approx. $673,000 on call but only $29,000 in regular account with $300,000 able to be accessed readily.

Directors meeting next Thursday

 

Did Aurora revise quote?                                                            Alex
Alex met with Bruce from Aurora and the contractors.  It was soon clear that the 2^nd Aurora quote included all the extra work involved with trenching.  If so, the cost is quite acceptable.  Since the discussion at the meeting did not match with supplied paperwork Alex will email them back to confirm that the trenching (as discussed at the meeting) is included in the quote.

 
Update on Lawyers                                                                       Susan

Alex, Donald Rainer and Susan decided to approach Helen and McMillan&Co for quotes for all the rest of the legal work needed.  Survey cost (explained in paragraph below) will be included in quote, and Helen also gave a comprehensive list of other possible issues. .Helen has responded with her quote but nothing from McMillan as yet because Simon Milne wanting to talk to surveyor before giving us a quote.

 

Also asked Nicola to look at what already spent.  Legal expenses in our budget a little confusing so she suggested needing more clarity with some of the line items.  In summary there is about $130,000 still unspent in budget for legal fees.  If we leave McMillan&Co  we will have complications because DCC deposit in their trust fund and retentions.  However Helen knows the project well now, but works in a small firm with only two lawyers at present.

 

When it comes to issuing unit title we may have issues with underlying titles. Mark had rang to talk about underlying integrity of early surveyors.  Limited as to parcels – boundaries are not really accurate at this point so may need to complete reset and resurvey to get accurate rather than using historical data to be able to divide into separate titles.  Kiwibank required a survey report earlier than we had anticipated, which triggered the early survey requirement.

 

Variation costs for specific client requests                           Rainer

Variations that happen because of a client request are paid separately, not part of the whole contract.  S&W will not be able to take these things out of the contract to invoice people so it will be up to UCOL to separate the costs out and invoice the individuals as these costs occur.  It is important that they are paid by the person concerned as soon as the variation cost has been agreed so the project is not carrying that ongoing cost).  Nicola will need to put in another line for individual variations.  UCOL will invoice and then get reimbursed by the individuals.

There was discussion about the need for an extra fee added to cover the extra expenses accrued by the project for Nicola’s time etc. This extra fee (based on Nicola’s costing for the first one) will be added to the base cost of a variation (S&W adds on $50+GST).

Budget Control Group meets next Wednesday and they will bring a proposal to the next meeting.

 

Request from Crystal Filep                                                         Sara

Lecturer in Urban Design keen to take her students on a site visit and UCOL representative(s) to present at one of her lectures. 60 students so suggesting splitting into two streams for a powerpoint presentation plus site visit.  Sara to get back to her with suggestion that they can do the visit on the outside, but invite someone to come in and do ONE guest lecture to their group at a lecture theatre at the University. Payment would be expected.  Sara to pass on our ideas with copy to Catherine and Tim.

 

Next induction workshop was scheduled for Sat 20 April 2-4pm.   Anne

But Jeanette Wilcox is the only one coming and she is staying with Ann.  Arriving on Good Friday and leaving Monday.  Decided that Induction will be low key at Anne’s place – with a special invitation to Ann and Geoff or any other cohousers to join them at 2pm on Saturday. 

 

John Dalgarno interested in the two/three bedroom unit and will come to hear Ann Zabaldo on Thursday. Also conversation had with Kevin Stevenson and Gwenda but didn’t seem like any commitment would be forthcoming.

 

We need to focus on making it easy for people who are keen on the unsold 2/3 brm unit to find out more, while being aware that attending a scheduled induction workshop via skype is an alternative option for overseas visitors who wish to “drop in” while they are in Dunedin. Low key meet up with a few cohousers (similar to that organised for visitor on 14 April) is an easier option than organising an induction workshop each time.

Ann Zabaldo Wed 17 April 6.30pm                                                       Jan

In addition to the 9 hands that were raised, Stephanie Woodruff, John Dalgarno, Todd Whitcom and Lisel Mitchell expected to attend.  Jan will ask Ann if we can record her presentation.  No need to offer payment, but a thank you bottle of wine would be appropriate.

 

 

Maori name inquiry:                                                                                  Susan

Sue approached Ron and he thought it was a great idea.  He will talk with (?missed the name sorry), who came to the ground breaking ceremony.  Sue made it clear to Ron that we would be keeping High St CoHousing as the name but looking for a Maori name to go alongside (rather than being THE name). He thought this was fine but will check.

Mid-level flooring update                                                                         Tim

Not urgent at the moment.

To Do List:
- Unit numbering system                                                                         Tim

Not urgent at the moment

 

-  Investigation of aerial/satellite dish options:                                Pauline

Pauline met with audio visual company manager, Glen Stapler, who said it would be good to get it sorted now.  He examined our site plan and said we could do the entire site with just one satellite dish and/or one aerial.

However Pauline has moved from being pro-satellite/aerial to believing that it will not be necessary. TV now available on the internet and that is the way things are moving.  The prediction is that aerial/satellites will be obsolete within a decade. We need to know WHO WANTS TV AERIAL/SATELLITE?  At meeting Catherine and Sue keen to explore further, but there may be others.
At the moment cable is included in our plans; to go from TV jack in each unit to roof. If we choose not to use aerial/satellite there is a possibility of getting this credited back.

Pauline will go back to get a rough idea of cost.  Tim to check on plans to look at possibility of having it taken out.  If anyone who wasn’t at the meeting wants aerial/satellite please let Jan (or someone else) know or come to next meeting for follow up.

Open Forum

Catherine had checked the google docs list and noted that not all units had been changed to telescopic but Tim reassured group that he had taken the google docs list as a base but updated it to include the telescopic rangehoods.  It was this updated list that was given to S&W.

Next Meeting would be ANZAC Day so postponed to 2 May.  On 2 May we’ll decide whether we can once again go 3 weeks before the next meeting.

At last site meeting a box of flooring tiles and carpet samples was presented to us by S&W.  These are from Flooring Centre, at the meeting tonight and to be held at Tim’s office.  The are the ones we can choose from; differing slightly from what we had.  Some of our options had been deleted and some new options added. Lino also in that box.

NOTE: Meeting moved to 2 May.  But need to watch and respond to any emails sent out.

Meeting finished at 9.35pm