Oak Creek Commons
Cohousing
IME 270 Project Management
PROJECT CHARTER
PURPOSE OF THE DOCUMENT:
The purpose of this document is to communicate the goals and details of the project
SUSTAIN Students will be doing with Oak Creek Commons. It is intended that this
document may be modified, adjusted or added to as the project progresses.
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PROJECT CHARTER
Project Name: Oak Creek
Commons
Project Number: 001
Date:2/13/2013
Revision Number: 2
1.
PROJECT GOALS
Our SUSTAIN team has chosen to partner with the Oak Creek Commons Co-housing
Community (OCC). Our partnership goal is to help the OCC community benefit sustainably
with a project that is agreed on though consensus among all members of OCC and that also
fulfills the interest of each team member. Our SUSTAIN team, along with a few OCC
representatives, have agreed on a project of building a natural outdoor playscape. Because
of the unique structure of OCC, we are aware that it may take time to actually begin
building or implementing our project. Therefore, our current and tangible goal is to get a
design approved by the community.
2.
DELIVERABLES
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Have a discussion circle (At OCC on Sunday February 24th) to become aware
of all the questions, concerns, interests, and ideas, and how to properly
address them.
Come up with something to show the justification and reasons for having this
play area. (Ideas of why it’s good to play outside and the draw away from
electronics, as marketing for younger families to come to OCC, draw children
away from being too loud or disruptive in the common house).
Define the exact area of the potential project. Take photos and/or tag the
area so that all people involved have an accurate visual of what we are
planning to work with.
In a way that is easy to share and understand, provide reasons for why we
chose that area- The children already play there, younger children will be
able to be watched easier, it’s safer because it’s within earshot
Address the problem of accessibility. Currently the area is hard for adults to
access, so should we make the area easier to access? If so, how should we
address the problem of trespassers and unwanted visitors in the area?
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3.
Address how this area will affect the natural environment. What will the
visual impact be? How will the affect the creek? Will we do anything to help
restore and protect the watershed?
On March 3rd OCC has their next business meeting. We hope to have some
sort of proposal for the community to approve. We will most likely have a lot
of work to do still, and hopefully after the April business meeting we will be
able to begin building.
SCOPE DEFINITION
The project will include:
Working with our SUSTAIN team and members of OCC to come to a consensus on our project.
The project will not include:
Activities after Spring Quarter 2013
4.
PROJECT MILESTONES
2/24/2013 Discussion Circle at OCC to gather info, concerns, interests, ideas, etc.
3/3/2013 Monthly Business meeting at OCC. Hopefully we will have some sort of proposal
for the community to review and pass.
3/22/2013 Spring Break
4/6/2013 Monthly Business meeting at OCC
The project will continue until the end of spring quarter 2013. At this time, we do not have
any more specific dates of milestones.
5.
ASSUMPTIONS, CONSTRAINTS, DEPENDENCIES, & CONTEXT
Oak Creek Commons is a very unique community. Cohousing communities are small-scale
neighborhoods in which the residents know each other before moving in and in which they
play an active part in the creation and design of the neighborhood. At Oak Creek Commons,
there are 36 beautiful homes to make around 50-60 permanent residents.
Some goals of OCC are to...
• Celebrate, accept and welcome diversity.
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Communicate with integrity, respect and trust.
Support, encourage and be compassionate with each other.
Live in loving connection while respecting personal space.
Create opportunities for fun, laughter, play, celebrations and rituals.
Contribute time and talents within our community and beyond.
Respect the environment by being sensitive to the interconnections between all things.
To get any major project approved by the community, there has to be an official proposal that gets
passed through consensus. Consensus means that no one person rejects the proposal. If a single
person thinks the proposal will cause irreparable harm to himself or herself or someone else, they
can reject it, and the community will not move foreword. Because of the unique way OCC functions,
we acknowledge that our team may have to operate on a slightly different timeline than the other
SUSTAIN groups.
Part of our project is to find a location that the community is happy with. Almost everyone we’ve
spoken with seems to think the area down by the creek near the common house would be a good
location. However, since we have not officially run this idea by the community, we cannot say for
sure.
As far as relations of this project to SUSTAIN classes, there are a few. OCC’s goals of accepting and
welcoming diversity go hand in hand with the Ethnic Studies classes. The idea of working outside in
nature and potentially doing some native habitat restoration can be linked to ideas from Matt
Ritter’s classes. It is also very interesting to observe a community that is committed to sustainability,
as we have already had numerous discussions about what this word means and how to practice it. It
will be interesting to see our own ideas of sustainability grow and develop with our project and with
our conversation with community members.
We also acknowledge that there are going to be some scheduling and timing conflicts. We are a
large, busy group, OCC is located 35 minutes away in Paso Robles, only two of us have cars, and
some of us work on weekends.
There is a $300 budget from SUSTAIN and a $5000 Budget allotted to ‘Play Area
Development’ from OCC
6. PROJECT ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE
Identify the key stakeholders and team members by function, name and role.
Function
Name
Project Assignment
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SUSTAIN Team:
Project Manager
Dede Eckhardt
Project Manager
Team Member
Team Member
Team Member
Daryl Dingman
Bridget Garlinghouse
Ronnie Bourguignon
Jim Cole
Sue Aiken
Norma Cole
Nancy Scott
Chris Aho
OCC Team:
SUSTAIN Faculty/Alum
8.
Ning Jeng
Liz Schlemer
Roger Burton
Zachary Antoyan
PROJECT AUTHORIZATION
Approved by:
SUSTAIN
Team
Approved by:
Liz Schlemer
Date
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Project Manager
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Date