Core Team Meeting Notes 11.17.11

Attending: Robin Morris, Kate Stephenson, Kinny Perot, John Connell, Kathy Meyer

The purpose of the meeting was to primarily focus on scheduling and executing the following initiatives.

• Permitting - Waitsfield Design Review Board, Dept. of Transport and Agency of Natural Resources.
• Site Survey.
  
• Communication - transparency and open to feedback.
• Expert Review - further research and design on topics of wastewater, surface water and solar access.
• Funding
• Design Process - (John Connell's "design amigos").

1. DRB application. Goal is to have an application with the DRB in time for January 2012. Next Step. RM to meet with Waitsfield ZBA to review application. JC to complete SketchUp and PDF renderings of master plan. KS to present to DRB.
2. Site Survey. Proceed with Peter Lazorchak's proposal. Next Step: RM to discuss survey and south boundary with PL, KM to document easement for spring access for PL. RM to introduce JC to PL.
3. DOT curb cut application. Next Step. KP to research application process and report back to Core Team.
4. Communication. Personal discussions with abutters by Dec 15th.
   • JC - Eugene and Claudia
   • KP - Peggyann Noel
   • JC - Sugarbush- Margo Wade and Win Smith
     
   • KS - Bundy- Mike Millstone
     
   • KP - Marbles
   • KM - Punchbowl- Duke Freeman
     
   • KS - Abutters to North (DC)
   • KP - Lisabeth Magoun
5. Webinar - Next Step: JC and KS to set date for Webinar for faculty/YM community presentation of plan and Q&A in early December.
   
6. Faculty Input- Next step: KS to write email to faculty (and greater YM constituency) requesting written input by Dec 15. Kinny Perot is key contact for input and will summarize for Core Team. (Who is getting back to Dave Sellers?). Also KS to update blog with recent minutes and notes.
   
7. Expert Reviews
   • Surface Water. KP to contact Andres Torizzo.
     
   • Solar. JC to complete sun shading models.
     
   • Waste Water. KS to email Pete, Harold, Barton and Peter.
8. Funding of planning effort. Current requirement $3,000 to complete survey.
   
9. Design Amigos. JC to draft invite letter to "Design Field Team".

Info Packet for 11.5.11 Board Meeting

Master Plan Summary Overview

Date: October 28, 2011
From: Core Team
To: Yestermorrow Board of Directors

To facilitate the Board’s review of our Master Planning efforts to date, the following brief overview outlines the process which is detailed further in the full report linked below. There is still much to do, of course, but we have made impressive progress in the little time provided. From a foundation of teaching at Yestermorrow (3 years!) and personally interviewing a great number of the community members, Regenisis then went on to study the land, the watershed and above all, Yestermorrow’s Mission and Purpose. All this and more is reflected in the documents submitted here. And yet this is not a finished study nor should the drawings be interpreted as a final site plan. Rather, this is a “principled gesture” or bubble diagram of where natural functions and educational activities should be accommodated and placed on the land, based on our Purpose and Principles.

We started by asking “What is the Mad River watershed?” and how has it unfolded since the Beginning? What accounts for the resilient character of the inhabitants of this place? And, is this place congruent with the Yestermorrow School’s Mission? The result is a Master Plan that reflects both the place as well as the people. It is rooted in the dynamic flow between the essence of the school (revitalizing place-makers) and the essence of the larger community (seeking self-reliant innovation).

As a board, we have done the hard work of developing our core purpose so that it resonates with all our disparate members: “The Yestermorrow Design/Build School’s purpose is to learn
together, through shared inquiry and hands-on experience, the ways of making human habitat,
In a way that expands our understanding of who we are and how to live in beneficial interrelationship with the earth and each other, So that we all can thrive in a world with limited resources and unlimited potential.”

Along with Regenisis, the Core Team has developed Design and Process Principles (see pages 14 and 15 of the Yestermorrow Master Planning Grounding and Process Report) so that as we move forward with the actual design and building, we can continually ground ourselves in these
Design Principles. This will allow us to make certain that each of the five stakeholders in the “Pentad” benefit (Grounding and Process Report page 13-14). This is how we embrace the largest, evolving vision without becoming misguided or inflexible as time passes.

Some may be surprised to learn that we are not presenting a final design for your approval or modification. Rather, we are offering a means of distilling Yestermorrow’s Purpose and Principles into the built form of its campus. By approving the “principled gesture” (bubble diagram) presented, and the process by which it was articulated, we will have taken the first and most difficult step in creating our school’s future in this valley.

To move ahead, the Core Team should be board authorized to oversee the continued work on the Master Plan. The purpose of the Core Team is to hold the core principles of Yestermorrow, making sure all the stakeholders are not only represented but nurtured. The Core Team
would provide guidance for a Design Committee that would lead the Design discussion and oversight at Yestermorrow (see page 27 of the Grounding and Process Report). Central to the Core Team’s responsibility will be continual review and alignment of the built Master Plan with the School’s Purpose and the Design Principles derived from it.

As always, the board’s and Yestermorrow community’s insights and suggestions are needed and welcomed.

Sincerely,
Kinny Perot
Robin Morris
John Connell
Gillian Davis
Kate Stephenson
(2011 Core Team Members)

This downloadable PDF packet includes:
- Regenesis' Master Planning Process- Executive Summary 10.15.11
- Appendix: "How to Start A Design Conversation at Yestermorrow" by John Connell
- An aerial photo of the YM campus site to provide context
- A copy of the "working site plan" version 10.19.11
- A "bubble diagram" detailing the different zones, access etc

You can also download the full Grounding and Process Report prepared by Regenesis which provides additional detail and notes from board meetings and workshops held throughout the spring and summer of 2011.

Questions from Faculty Meeting

Staff Meeting/Masterplan Unveiling Questions

October 1, 2011

Embodied material/energy

Why are buildings/functions in the hill shadow (4)

Interaction between school and natural resources on process

Design team expectations of next step

What other users considered in this future that aren’t on the plan?

Where are the gardens?

Parking as a monoculture?

Entry sequence?

Experience from route 100 (perception, noise, views)

Permit issues – Waitsfield

Phasing strategy

Frisbee/outdoor recreation zone

Where are main points of human exchange

Universal access?

Heating

Storage and material location – proximity issues

Solar panels – where are they

Snow dispersal and maintenance

Amphitheater purpose?

Animal grazing location – soil builders

Wild animal habitat

Where does the water leave the site?

Key #s coordination

Energy use – surface area/volume ratio

What are site surface areas

What is the physical invitation to the larger community

Impact of outdoor construction areas on studios (noise)

How to pay for it (budget)

Sewage system/permitting

Nature of armature

Eupsychian structure? (memory)

Why are we getting rid of this building?

Do interns/instructors have privacy?

Why is everything the same size?

Mad river path location

Where is large outdoor gathering space

Are there additional camping places

Function of logging road/scale

Density on dialogue and impact on/to the past

Will plan satisfy strategic plan of 2006

Intimacy and scale issues

Will students participate in design and construction?

Performance metrics

Deconstruction materials

Current structures use – What’s not there

Experimentation sand box

Impact on plan by Bundy property

Economic zone (enterprise zone)

Forestry – lumber management plan

Utilities planning – power/data/waste – flexibility

Bus stop/transportation – bikes/trails

Repurposing of site (exit strategy)

Site evolution over 50 years

Way-finding

Connections to MRV

Occupancy capacity vs. current –occ/sf

Is move uphill a retreat or advance?

Physical output (food, products, etc)

Can you see what we do from the road

Video from Faculty Meeting

At the Yestermorrow annual Faculty Meeting held on October 1, 2011, facilitator and faculty member Joel Glanzberg asked the question to the room: "why is it that Yestermorrow matters to you? What are we serving in the world?". The following video captures some of the many responses.

John Connell Introduces Master Planning Process at 10.1.11 Faculty Meeting

Joel Glanzberg on The Story of Place of the Mad River Valley - VIDEO

Joel Glanzberg presents the Story of Place of the Mad River Valley at the Center for Whole Communities in Fayston, Vermont on June 23, 2011 as part of Yestermorrow's master planning process.

You can also view the slide presentation with annotated notes (download PDF).

8/29/11 Update

Dear colleagues,

On Monday and Tuesday last week the Core Team met with Bill Reed and John Boecker for the first of three workshops. We covered many program issues over the two days and the consensus at the end of the workshop was that good progress had been achieved. The attached notes pdf and spreadsheet provide a detailed overview of the issues covered and I would ask you each to review the notes and provide any thoughts, comments, ideas or alternatives by mail to me and I will circulate with the core team.

Regards

Robin Morris, rsmorris@cimark.com

Download notes PDF

Download programming spreadsheet