Category: Minutes

Attendance

• Board Members:  Andrew & Katy Beattie, Brad Archibold, Roberta Golden, Whitney Bowerman, Bev Kooi, Pat Bayle Nathan Allan, Sandia Slaby
• ENA Residents: Stan Butler

ENA President

Luke Bowerman resigned the ENA Presidency effective Friday August 15. The Board met to discuss this issue and clarify current expectations of the ENA President.

There were no nominations for the replacement President. The ENA Vice President, Brad Archbold, expressed willingness to serve as Interim President, and his offer was accepted unanimously. He will serve as Interim President until the next Board elections in February 2014. Brad can be reached at pr*******@**************ia.org.

Since the issue of the “People’s House” low-barrier shelter arose, Luke was spending vastly more time on ENA President duties, including actively reaching out to Interfaith Works, the City and other project stakeholders. The Board agreed that it would be difficult for any one person (in light of other responsibilities – work, family, etc) to continue to spend this much time on this volunteer role. It was unanimously agreed upon that an acting/interim ENA president, at this juncture, would fulfill the following minimum responsibilities (these responsibilities were already being fulfilled, in addition to many more):

• Act as the communications liaison between the City & the ENA, keeping the Board apprised promptly of all correspondence to the ENA from the City and from other parties, and forwarding information necessary for residents to Whitney for posting on the ENA website. Residents can sign up for digest emails on the ENA website – eastside-olympia.org.

• Attend Olympia Coalition of Neighborhoods Association meetings monthly, or ensure our Board is represented at them by another ENA Board member.

Low-Barrier Shelter

The Board takes no position on the “People’s House” (Interfaith Works) proposed “low-barrier” shelter. Information received by the ENA regarding the shelter will be posted on the ENA website.

ENA Annual Picnic

The ENA annual picnic that was held on Saturday August 17 was reportedly successful, with about 45 people attending, although it ended with an altercation. This occurred between a few attendees (~6) that had never been seen at any ENA activities before, who arrived toward the end, and who were speaking quite aggressively, loudly & verbally assaultively, about the “low-barrier” shelter & some opposition to the proposed shelter that this group had heard from ENA residents. The group made many verbally assaultive accusations towards ENA residents as a whole, and specific attacks towards a certain household.

Thank You

The Board of Directors expresses much appreciation of & thanks to Luke Bowerman for the extensive service he contributed as our Board President over the last 6+ months & accepts, with regret & understanding, his resignation as President due to the reasons he explained in his August 15th resignation letter.

Other Topics

It was noted that the delivery systems we’ve used this year for disseminating information to residents (postcards or new letters) both have plusses & minuses, as does the portion of the neighborhood who is on the the social network, Nextdoor.com. Bev noted that the success in reaching residents & getting residents to engage with one another & in ENA activities is currently the greatest she has seen over the 27 years she has lived here. Sandia advocated that we continue outreach via either news letters or postcards to continue reaching out to include/invite those without computer/internet access; to not assume that even most of our residents have internet access. Sandia agreed to get together with Ruth Middlebrook to get info about the system that the ENA has used to distribute our newsletters over the years, so the Board understands it, including the list of distributors & areas/mapped. Whitney advocated that the newsletter routes be looked at and revised if needed, and that the route and volunteer information be more widely understood so delivery can occur even if Ruth is out of town.

Bev showed us examples of ENA Business cards for Board members that she is willing to make for us on the computer, telling us that if we want some, each of us needs to get her our contact info to put on them.

Bev also mentioned a topic for a later meeting: outreach, generally, and specifically to seniors.

Sandia requested that our meetings be managed according to Robert’s rules of order, as they have been in the past, to ensure all voting members have a chance to discuss understand & decide on each decision made.

Meeting adjourned at ~ 1:10 pm

Attendance

• Board Members:  Sandia Slaby, Sherry Chilcutt, Luke & Whitney Bowerman, Roberta Golden, Nathan Allan, Jenni Fleming, Andrew & Katy Beattie, Rob Campbell, & Bev Kooi

Previous Meeting Minutes

Read and ratified June General Meeting Minutes

Garage Sale

Second annual ENA simultaneous garage sale. Lee Bickle, coordinator, reported where she’d advertised (MIXX 96, KAOS, & KGY radio, Olympia Power & Light Newspaper). Sandia did not report this at the meeting, but she put an ad in the July issue of Works In Progress.

20 homes are participating

Discussion of sign placement & agreement that balloons would be purchased to place on signs. Two sandwich boards that Mitch made are available & decision made to place.

Summer Picnic

Saturday, August 16, at Lions Park, 11-2

Confirmation of provided foods: dogs & burgers & condiments with BYO potluck or side dishes & desserts & beverages; discussion & agreement about food & shopping & who would do what about them.

Luke announced that a post card-size announcements would be printed but that mailing it was prohibitive, thus he’d be contacting Ruth to clarify the delivery routes for the newsletter delivery over the last decade +. On the announcement, it was decided, would also be a statement to encourage membership & how to pay for that.

Decision was made to suggest folks attending to bring an item to donate to the Thurston County Food Bank, as it was reported that the summer is a time that contributions are scarce.

Community Garden

Roberta opened the discussion expressing interest in there being a community garden in our neighborhood that would include more of a community building component, possibility supported or sponsored & maybe ‘housed’ by one of the churches. She cited the efforts she has seen at the one in the north eastside neighborhood area – the Capital Vision Christian Church. Nathan reported his historical experience with others on the ENA Board having interest to create such a garden in the Eastside 2-5 years ago at the old Madison Scenic Park property. He spoke of one big draw back being the lack of water access at that site, the city’s level of interest & support being minimal, and that there had been conflict among Board members during that time that was not helpful in moving that idea forward. Luke commented that he thought there was not enough energy in our ENA Board to spearhead such a project without other identified & active partners. Sandia mentioned that the Avanti School, with their interest in agriculture, might be one such partner if this idea were to get moving again. Roberta reported her experience over the last 4-5 years at the 13th Ave. & Central St. community garden & invited board members to go over there after this meeting, as it was only on block away, for a tour (which three of us did).

Business cards for Board members

Bev offered to make these for each member on her computer if there was interest. A few members welcomed them, one stated it would be nice to have them by the neighborhood picnic in August.  Bev asked that whomever would like cards to get your contact info (phone, email, whatever) to her.

Meeting adjourned at 7:30.