ENA Board Meeting
April 14, 2026 7:00 PM
Swantown Inn, 1431 11th Ave SE
Minutes
Board members present:
Karen Sweeney (Vice president & CNA representative), Jim Sweeney (Secretary), Nathan Allan, Abigail Twombly, Therese Vogel, Josh Elliott
1) Approval of March Minutes
The March 10th minutes were approved as submitted, with the addition of Josh to the list of Board members present.
2) CNA report
Karen reported on the following topics from the April 13th CNA meeting:
- Peter Guttchen had to step down from the chairmanship; the CNA will vote on a new chair in May.
- Meetings are on Zoom.
- Max Dejarnatt presented an update on the sidewalk repair program; the City is hiring a dedicated 4-person crew.
- There was a presentation about the Dispute Resolution Center.
- Several CNA members staffed a table at the March 28th ‘No Kings’ rally.
- The City hasn’t yet decided where to move the Japanese Garden; Nathan suggested Madison Scenic Park.
3) RNA grant proposal
Jim S. talked about the neighborhood matching grant program which is on tonight’s Council agenda for approval. Earlier he emailed a staff report and the City’s recommendations.
4) Recruiting new members and rebuilding membership list
The Board previously decided to post signs around the neighborhood asking people to sign up with their email address on the ENA website. Abigail brought 5½” by 8½” signs and she previously emailed the sign if you want to print your own. Karen said she has a laminator if anyone wants to laminate their signs. Suggested locations include utility poles, schools, churches, parks and businesses.
We applied for NMG funds to mail postcards to all Eastside residences. The postcards will include the ENA logo and a QR code link to the website, and it will encourage people to sign up to receive monthly newsletters. Nathan, Abigail and Jim S. volunteered to help draft the postcard.
Nathan suggested posting the flyer on the ENA Facebook page. Josh suggested posting events on Nextdoor as well.
5) Walking map
Jim and Josh will work together to outline walking map ideas for discussion at the next Board meeting.
6) Technical stuff
We discussed how to make it as easy as possible for people to sign up on the ENA website. In response, Nathan was able to create a new post titled “Sign up for the Email Newsletter!” and pin it on the home page. He also updated the 2026 Events calendar.
It was generally agreed that taking a few minutes at the end of the meeting to talk about the website was well worth our time, and that we should continue the practice by adding a “technical stuff” item to the end of future agendas. Board members can then bring up technical issues, the group can discuss and, if feasible, these problems can be fixed quickly and easily.
7) Other
It was suggested we print a large Eastside map or photo and have it mounted so we can display it at the annual picnic.
Sherry will be out of town for most of April and May.
Nathan will be gone from May 9 to May 28.
We will need to find a meeting place for the May 12 Board meeting.
The meeting ended at 8:30 PM