Category: Minutes

DRAFT

Started 7:01

Guests: Beth, Katie Stoll, Mark D.

Present: Nathan, Jennie, Chad, Elaine, Ann, Bev, Sam

– general meeting planning
– garage sale
– ping pong tournament
– new business

Madison/Avanti school garden: were looking for our assistance as sponsoring organization for their grant. We will be on their initial letter of intent to apply. Brainchild of Avanti principal to cooperate, has gotten to be much more than just small . Landscape architect Curtis Roberts (ENA resident), also design/builder for fence, will be assisting. First Methodist has been helpful. Do we still have access to fund related to an item at Madison Park? Grant to United Way, we don’t have the right status, but this should get their foot in the door. Discussion of that money. Design is in phases. Nathan & Beth will work out letter signing. Elaine moved, Chad seconded, all aye. Different ways to involve community in the garden. How much interest do we think there is in pea patch by neighborhood residents. Chad suggested garden walk tour, Katie mentioned plant exchange. Think of ways to keep people interested, some discussion. Bev asked about scout involvement, he said that there are scouts who might be interested, they’re out of First UMC, can bring it up. Has a lot of friends who went to Lincoln, and they tend the garden, including chickens. (!) Huge involvement. Bev visited a school garden in Sacramento, her 90 year old brother in law was the only person maintaining in the summer! Sam suggested having annual picnic at the garden this year. There was a lot of interest. Groundbreaking work party on February 6. Background check: must have arranged by Wednesday prior. Tuesday after that is day of service for Avanti, will be working with Grub & Madison kids, Olympian will be there.

Jared – soapbox derby – boy scout from troop 48 – might be Eagle project, but will do any case. wants to bring All American Soapbox Derby association to Olympia. kids do most of the work themselves. has called together associations that he works with. Thinking about using Legion, Nathan suggested 10th, it has to be approved by the association for insurance purposes. Legion is very smooth. Would bring in a lot of people from out of town, but no semi trucks. Spectators, pits, and starting area. Has talked to Kathie Butler. Wants to make this a race city. (more races per year) Would be two days on a weekend: May 1 & 2, from All American. Elaine asked if marathon conflict. Katie didn’t think so. Questions about specific starting locations. What is he looking for? Support? Wants to make sure that we know, wants to be polite. Coordinate with a garden day? How many people? 35 cars at a sizable race. How many hours during each day? worst-case 8am – 6pm, total closure time. awards could be held elsewhere. Silverdale would be legally in charge, on their charter. stock 8-13, super-stock & master 10-18, would mostly be stock and super-stock. wants to get a Rotary club involved to sponsor/own the cars. Need an accessible route for the vehicles come back up to the top. Wants our involvement to help get people engaged. Nathan suggested holding a second picnic at the Madison/Avanti garden at that same time. Would include time for non-racing kids to try out the cars. (Salem has been holding these events for more than 50 years.) Elaine mentioned timing of newsletters, but also that we can do email/website promos. Nathan will write to Kathie and indicate our support. Nathan suggested that if we do end up working out a picnic, we should have an earlier newsletter.

Bread & Roses work party – to clean up front yard – First UMC.

General meeting February. location? Chad recommended light & life, have community cafe beforehand. Will also be running Imagine workshop before the meeting. Pizza? Chad is working on getting donations from the co-op of healthy snacks. He’ll get everything handled. Meeting pushed back to February 18 to give enough time for producing the newsletter. Articles now due by February 1. Chad mentioned the idea of getting it inserted into Olympia Power and Light. Elaine is no longer able to handle the advertising aspect, and would also like some assistance in the project management aspects. Jenni thinks we need more volunteers to do this well. She can take on some of the advertising piece. Chad wants to shift away from paper distribution of the newsletter. Ann thinks we don’t get that big a turnout for general meetings from the newsletter. Bev thinks it’s a real strength, though, we need it. Sam says that it’s the reason he’s involved. Re Oly Power & Light, would need to have something on the outside that says it’s ENA. Chad will continue the dialogue with them; Sam isn’t sold but needs more information. Olympian now has a single page pull-out on a heavier paper, more noticeable. Bev has worked on many newsletters, not eager to do that again. Chad thinks we could do a color (glossy?) for the same price we’re paying now. Jenni asked if anyone would be willing to join working on newsletter: Jenni, Mark, Chad, others? Newsletter meeting will be on February 11, 6pm at Bev’s, bring food.

Chad mentioned email he’d seen about complaints to city about equipment at Lions Park, and he reminded city person that ENA continues to be interested.

Board composition discussion. Bring to general meeting to change number of board members to 5 to 15, and then focus on having more people in committees. Chad also volunteer to serve as president, but wants to have someone step up to be vice-president. Jenni might be interested. Discussion of Coalition of Neighborhood Associations. Amendment will go on the website, in the newsletter, and to the email list.

Chad will get a new map from the city.

Ann will bring some refreshments to the general meeting.

Adjourned 8:30pm

Review October General Meeting Minutes – Bev moves, accepted.

Reeves Middle School Community Dinner (Aaron Davis & Maurine Bailey) – Maurine talked about having a community event, a dinner with neighborhood groups, service organizations, located on Quince. Ruth’s kids went there, most Eastside kids go there: all Madison, Roosevelt, [missed other school names]. Some community members right in that area have had issues with speeding, also issues with homeless people in the area, though not much they can do except keep them off campus during school day. Discussion of timing with general meeting. They’ll be connecting with other neighborhoods. (send CONA site) Although sometimes difficult to get people to meetings inside the neighborhood! Kirk likes the idea, would like to see facilitation to help with networking. Open mic for announcements, etc.? Opportunity to share what communities are doing. Tim is working with some youth groups that might want to be involved. We agreed that we’re interested in participating.

Community Forum (Ruth Middlebrook) – idea builds on what they were talking about. She was formerly on the board, when it was in more of an advocate role. She’s been thinking it would cool to have a community center in the neighborhood. Ping pong tournament? Community cafes at Avanti and [missed school name] for discussions, talk about how to become better neighbors. Talk about a question for 15 minutes then rotate to another table, focus being building community. Mentioned that Chad & I daydream about something in Lions Park, she’s talked to “powers that be and they’re interested.” Bev said the Methodist church used to do a week-long “arts alive” program, teaching all different kinds of arts. Tuesday/Thursday evening exercise class? Jenni suggested just doing the ping pong tournament or other events, and seeing who’s interested. Tim had all the stuff for doing community cafes, Elaine also interested in organizing. Kirk brought up the idea of a community time bank. Bev mentioned her ideas re: tool sharing & assistance in swap. Tim will write article about time bank for the February newsletter; Ruth’s events will also be listed. Bev moved that we support Ruth in running these activities, Jenni seconds. All agree.

Madison/Avanti Garden Project (Nathan Allan) – The two schools are starting a community garden project on the school land, don’t need the same approvals as the park. They want to start ASAP. Are thinking of doing it on the side of the building? Have to go to the facilities manager. About 15 people were at the meeting. Garden will be worked by Madison kids, Avanti kids, and community members. To be designed by Avanti student working with GRUB, GRUB will build, talked about materials, fundraising, etc. One raised bed per grade level at least. Community involvement, esp since school isn’t in session during prime growing season! Katie Stoll, who was previously newsletter editor, is very involved. Will keep list for the email. Will start building on February 6! Bev thinks we should have an official ENA representative, but not her. Kirk will go, since he was going to go anyway. Elaine suggested outreaching to people on our list who are already interested in gardening. Discussion of fruit trees via Neighborwoods around New Bridge. Chad mentioned that there has been lobbying to get neighborhood gardens as a goal in the comp plan. Side note re: Scenic Park project – Joe Hyer said to Nathan that he wants to see the city focus on community gardens.

More Garden Stuff (Kirk Hanson) – about month ago talked to TJ Johnson about the community garden in NE neighborhood. Sustainable South Sound is working on series of workshops that they wanted to support. Perhaps we could generate synergies? He sent to Kirk list of workshop topic ideas. Kirk would like to act as liaison. Some of the ideas: controlling pests, food preservation, native plants, beekeeping, square foot gardening, composting, seed saving, year-round gardening, soil testing, tool sharing, gleaning, raising chickens. [missed a few.] Discussion of whether Kirk should become a board member. Kirk will send us the list, could send out as a survey. Elaine will work on the technical aspects. Chad asked if there are any opportunities over the winter for grant-writing, etc.; none that Kirk is aware of. Side discussion: Bev is concerned about large trees in her area that might blow over; can we as a group support getting help with “suspect trees” — Chad said that Urban Forestry can help. When we have the information about how that works, we can put on website, too. Kirk asked Bev about community kitchens at churches (re food preservation), partner to use kitchen during off hours? Doesn’t know of any previously, can check with them.

Tool-sharing project update (Jenni Fleming) – met w/Elaine & Bev last week, talked about how to make it go live. Discussion of the particulars. Nathan suggested testing it before loaning. Looking for more ideas about what it would take. Meta brought up the idea of things running down faster than they would ordinarily. Fundraising specifically for that purpose? A lot of other organizations doing similar things own the tools and run it like a lender’s library. We’re thinking of starting with inexpensive things and see how it works. Issues of trust-building over time. Can’t address fears until more people are together. General principle of agreement: you break it, you bought it; don’t borrow beyond your means, either financial or skill-wise; don’t loan something you would freak out about losing; release liability both to lender and to ENA. Some anonymity through web form. Will be reviewing with lawyer. [note: I was fairly involved in the discussion, please let me know if I missed anything important!]

Standards of procedure for the letters that the City of Olympia sends (Jenni) – we receive many letters on planning-related topics from the city, what should we do with them? Jenni suggested scanning and sending to the board and see if any items need to be sent on further.

Olympia Comprehensive Plan (Bev Kooi) – Bev mentioned things from the Imagine Olympia event, city wanting to do neighborhood-level events. Tim has done something similar, city wants folks to dream big. Do at a general meeting? Chad will be the comp plan liaison. Event will be at next general meeting in February. Start meeting 1 hour early, potluck + pizza. will work out over email.

ENA Business cards (Bev) – proposing to make 10-20 business cards for each paid member. To use for meetings with church groups, the city, etc. Wants any design suggestions. Elaine will try to track down font used in logo on signs, etc.

Grants (Chad Akins) – some discussion of how we might do future grant-writing. [note: this is where my laptop died. Anything else to add?]

Finances (Jenni) – Discussed the sign fund, think we can use it for the yard signs that go out before the meetings. Moved to put $1000 of sign fund in 12-month CD, all aye. Voted to use $100-$150 for meeting signs.

Adjourned approx. 9pm

Minutes taken by Elaine Nelson, Secretary, October 15, 2009
Called to order 7:01 pm

Opening remarks by Nathan, thanks Carol & Bill of CoG for letting us meet here.

Volunteering: Nathan Allan

ENA relies on volunteers. Always want people to help on the board, we try to do one big project a year. Lots of other opportunities, don’t have to turn up all the meetings to participate. Newsletter delivery, routes of 20 – 80 newsletters. Garden walks, 2 last year, need help organizing, unless we have people to run it, hard to put together. Annual picnic, 7 or 8 years now, this year with grill donated from Party Outfitters, always need volunteers, plus free food!

We need to replace president, he took it on because there was no one who would, a new person can volunteer now and learn the ropes before taking over in full in February. Our n’hood is one of the most active, people in other associations say we are the only one w/regular newsletters, annual picnics. Bev mentions grants, which we’ve received in the past, including Healthy Lifestyles, Safe Routes. You may be thinking: don’t have time or skills, but really enthusiasm is the most important aspect!

Treasurer’s Report: Jenni Fleming

Checking: 818.24; Savings: 1554.05; Signs fun 1286.71; 75 paid members

Open Mic

Woman with rain barrel from Gardener Supplies, french rain barrel, turned out to be too big for the space. Willing to sell for way less than she paid!

Candidates’ Forum

Candidates who spoke:

• Two port commission candidates (don’t have names recorded)
• Karen Rogers
• Karen Veldheer
• Steven Buxbaum
• Jeannine Roe
• Joe Hyer
• Tony Sermonti

Adjourned for snacks and conversation.