Full Question:
Conference/meeting rooms (one future, 1- 18x14, 1-12x11, one -32x24, Board room for 100). What is the justification for one huge Board room? Is this a GVSUD support building or a community gathering center? If your plans are to have others use the conference/Board Room, what is the supporting data (monthly usage, who would use it, and what fees would be collected) to justify this large amount of square footage that would remain empty or unused most of the time?
It should be noted that meeting room and public space requirements in the original facility design were done before social distancing became the apparent norm. How social distancing will prevail in the medium and long term is a guess. It does seem certain that providing additional spacing rather than less is prudent behavior.
The safety of all Green Valley's constituents is of prime importance.
Green Valley hosts an array of meetings throughout the week, month, and year. It is common to have multiple sessions co-occurring throughout the day. Teamwork within the company, teamwork with the many partners we work with, and teamwork with the customers we serve is a high priority.
At the same time, it is common to discuss items with these constituents that is best done in private. Meeting rooms are a great facilitation tool to foster this teamwork and at the same time provide privacy when needed.
The Boardroom is intended to accommodate large groups for various meetings, including monthly Board meetings, public forums, and our partners' meetings (water, electric, municipal, and others), etc. As the district grows, so does the participation in Green Valley meetings. At our first public forum, held this past January, we had 56 attendees (and valid comments were received that more would have attended if they had received notice earlier).
It would have been impossible to house a group of that magnitude at the current facility, especially given the current social distancing climate. As we move forward and begin to open facilities to the public for attendance, we expect these numbers to increase.
Note that with the current social distance guidelines, the room's maximum capacity is diminished from the initial estimates.
Public meetings with several "break out" areas scattered around a large room are currently not possible in Green Valley facilities but would be of great benefit. This room would facilitate this function for GV and others to use.
While the kitchen and board room's primary purpose is as stated above and below, Green Valley is a good community citizen and plans to allow other organizations to use the space if it is available. Terms, conditions, and fees associated with such use have not been established.
There are two conference rooms included in the design. The larger of the two is intended to house employees during weekly staff meetings, larger development meetings and provide a space for presentation preparation. The second, and smaller of the two, is for weekly, sometimes daily, meetings with developers, engineers, consultants, etc.
Again, it's important to note that we often have an overlap of group meetings and need adequate space to host those. It is also common when working with a series of large drawings and maps that these get spread out over a large area, sometimes using additional portable tables. Sometimes when dealing with complex situations, it is desirable to leave materials out and undisturbed in a meeting room for several days as discussions progress.
The smaller, "meet me" room is designed to give customers a private, quiet space to speak with customer service or billing employees regarding private or financial matters. Employees can also use these for small ad-hoc team meetings.