Category: Minutes

Present: Sam, Roger, Nathan, Sherry, Jim, Brian and Charlotte
Minutes from October meeting approved with minor corrections.
Treasurers Report Approved – funds from all accounts (savings, signs, trees, beautification, checking) $3528.45
• Savings $1062.66
• Signs $1299.93
• Trees $151.92
• Beautification $506.95
• Checking $506.94

1. Sub-area Planning – The Charter was shared with the CNA. They were very supportive. Stacy from the City of Olympia recommended that the core team get together in early January to discuss next steps. There is a recommended planning process available to follow. The Thurston Regional Planning Council and City of Olympia will work together to provide the demographics for the plan based on census data. There is a preference for our plan to provide information about the neighborhood profile that goes beyond the census. We may be able to get some additional information from the work being done on the Missing Middle.
a. Neighborhood Conversation Report – It was held on November 15th from 6:30 to 8:30p.m. at the Elks Lodge. There were about 48 people attending including the staff from the City of Olympia. Information from the meeting will be used to create the upcoming survey. The need for sidewalks was the biggest request. Also important to participants was neighborhood connections and events in the neighborhood. The meeting remained positive. There were very few negative statements. Attendees included a teenager who provided good input. The facilitator did a good job keeping the meeting on track. Questions asked included: Why do you live here? What matters most about your neighborhood? What concerns you? And What are your priorities? Participants were given a chance to vote for their priorities using sticky dots. There was a lot of input and it will take time to go through it all. The board approved re-paying Roger for the fee that he paid to the Elks Lodge. Names from the meetings sign in list will be added to the ENA mailing list. Handouts about upcoming events (caroling and winter window walkabout) were made available. Jim drafted a thank you note for Paul Horton for facilitating the Neighborhood Conversation meeting. The Board approved the letter. Jim took the ENA symbol and put it on the letter to Paul. The board liked it and discussed making it our official logo for future letters.
b. Sub-area Plan Survey – Board discussed using Survey Monkey for the survey and spending $34 a month for three months to pay for it. That pays for analysis of the data and graphics to help present the results. All board members voted in favor of paying the 3 month Survey Monkey membership to be able to use the tool. The board agreed that we should include another option for anyone that does not want to participate in the survey on-line. Sherry volunteered to help people who don’t want to go on-line to participate. Participants will not have to sign in to take the survey. Electronic messages about the survey will be posted/sent out. That will be followed by a mailing.
c. Mailing – Brian and Sheena are working to create a note card with information about the survey and a link to participate. They will provide it in a digital file which will be taken to the City of Olympia who will make 1,100 copies for us. Sam volunteered to create labels and process the card for the mailings. The goal is to mail out the post card by the end of the month. We will have to buy physical stamps for the mailing. We will make all labels out to “current resident”. A draft letter which would be included with the mailing was shared during the meeting. It will include information about the ENA dues which will be on a sliding scale. Luke will change the information about dues on line. Neighbors will be directed to go to the ENA website to pay or to put the payment into a drop box. We will add that “You’re support goes to …” to the letter. If you are a sustaining member you get a sticker with the visual image shared during our last meeting. Sam has already bought the stickers at $80. He’d like to be reimbursed if they help to increase membership/available funds. It was suggested that we add information about the neighborhood conversation in the letter. We should also include event calendar information that is on the website, printing it on the back side of the letter. This will include the February 7th meeting (at the New Bridge Church), and the Picnic on August 4th, at Lion’s Park. Nathan will draft something and send it to Sam. We may also include information about how to sign up for Nextdoor, the address for the ENA webpage and the ENA Facebook page. We can ask people to give us their e-mail address if they want to be on our mailing list and get a regular newsletter. There will be two pieces of paper in the mailing. Sam will organize an envelop stuffing event for the board at Beer Works.
2. Winter Window Walkabout – Nathan put stuff on the web about it. Roger put out a post. Jodi Sobier will also do a post. There is 1 person who’s signed up to do a window. The deadline for signing up to paint your window is December 27th. The event will start at the Swan Town Inn. Roger will send the locations to Brian who will make maps. We will put the map on Nextdoor and on our Facebook page. We will include Light-Straveganza as one of the spots on the map. Nathan will provide hot chocolate, and cookies. We can work on reimbursement later, but it will be no more than $50. Brian will bring cider. The notice needs to remind people to bring flashlights or head lamps.
3. Caroling – The Caroling will be held on December 15th (Friday night) at 6:00p.m. Tara Wickham has volunteered to lead it. It will start from her house at 902 Boundry. There are 29 copies of the Christmas music booklets/sheets. Only 2 people are signed up, but several members of the board are planning to attend who have not yet signed up. There may be others.
4. Missing Middle – This is a new housing initiative for Olympia being considered for all areas that are within 600 ft. of transit (almost all of the ENA). It will allow for new tri/four-plex apartments and more density in the neighborhood. It is expected that our neighborhood will be heavily impacted. The change will signal to developers that our neighborhood is where density will happen. There was concern that if new building in the neighborhood is mostly fourplexes than developers will be the only ones that will invest in our neighborhood. As this happens most of the new people that move into the neighborhood would live in rentals. The city is moving fast with the initiative. There is a public communication document that was drafted to help explain it. We talked about having a sub-group go through the plan to prepare formal feedback about the document from the ENA Board. Roger, Sherry, and Jim volunteered to go through the it and prepare specific comments. The letter to the City with our recommendations would also request a timeline that will allow for our sub-area plan work to be completed before the Missing Middle changes are finalized. All of the board were encouraged to take the cities missing middle survey. We will discuss this at the February ENA General Mtg. Leonard from the city has been invited to attend that meeting.
5. February General Meeting – Leonard Bauer will do a Missing Middle presentation and allow time for discussion. We will do an update on the sub-area plan at the meeting and may also want to have a sub-area plan event before the business part of the meeting. It would be good to have the survey results if possible. Or open the survey right before and use the meeting to advertise the survey again.
6. Kiosk Project – No progress has been made. The original design was drafted. It’s like the Garfield nature trail kiosk. It will have cedar shingles and a sliding or hinged window that will open. The site at Lions Park hasn’t been decided yet but a spot near the shelter is preferred. No power or lighting will be needed. Sam will finalize the plans for the 6 by 6 kiosk. He can do some of the work and will need help for other parts. There is an Iron Works person in the community that Jim knows and will ask to help. Sam will ask for an extension for the grant from the City.
7. New Neighborhood Grants – Applications will be out the first of January and due March 31st. Katie, City of Olympia, is running the grants program. We are not eligible if we are still working on an extension for a previous grant. Grants can be up to $5000 if they are a joint project between two Neighborhood Associations. A kiosk for Madison was suggested for the 2018 grant. Another option would be a grant to pay for training and other administration efforts. It was also suggested that we ask participants attending the General Meeting what they might want.
8. Round About – Our new plants died. It looks like one flat succulent now. Mulch will be put out in early 2018. We may want to re-plant and could ask Margaret for ideas or what to plant.
9. Talent Context Event – Suggested for the Spring maybe in March or April at the Elks Lodge or another community venue. Roger volunteered to help plan it.
10. January Meeting – The next meeting will be held on January 17th from 7-8p.m. at the Elk’s Lodge.

Present: Sam, Roger, Nathan, Sherry and Charlotte
Minutes from August and September meetings approved with minor corrections. Nathan will post them.
Treasurers Report Approved – funds from all accounts (savings, signs, trees, beautification, checking) $3417.70
1. Website – There was a request to put upcoming events (see below) on the website. Roger is willing to help with this.
2. Sub-area Planning – On November 15th there will be a sub-area plan town hall “Eastside Neighborhood Conversation – Building Our Future Together” meeting from 6:30 to 8:30p.m. at the Elks Lodge. Bonnie and Roger are putting a communication piece together for it. It will be done in a World Café Style. Paul Horton will Facilitate. Board members agreed to help spread the word about the meeting. Make sure that we send out thank you notes afterward. The mailing with the survey will go out in December. It will also include a calendar of events. It was suggested that this be printed on a magnet and that Elks, Storman’s or Big Tom’s may want to advertise on. Sam checked with the city and they will not be able to help with the mailing. If it is done bulk mail it may cost as much as $1,100 for the stamps.
3. Candidate Forum – Over 100 people attended. It was good to work with the other neighborhood associations. We got positive comments from the participants and the candidates. There was concern that ENA may not have been properly credited for the event. Roger offered to put a de-brief about the event on our website and he will include a thank you to those who participated. He has already thanked the candidates. There was a discussion about including other neighborhood associations next time. That will depend on the venue. St Michael’s was suggested as a possible venue in the future. They are doing a $4 million-dollar construction project and they want to be good neighbors. Next time we will want to send out thank yous earlier.
4. Winter Light Night – Nathan reported that the VOLKS-Walk group will not be joining us. It was suggested that the City of Olympia Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Committee may be interested in the walk. Nathan, Roger, Jodi and Sheryl are the planning team for the event. They will meet next week at Nathan’s to do more of the planning.
5. Caroling – The board agreed to change the date to December 15th (Friday night) at 6:30. Jeanne has song books already, some that could be copied. We can do it like the block parties with multiple starting points happening at the same time. We will ask Brian to lead a group. Sherry and Roger will also lead groups. We will ask Whitney if she will lead a group as well. We will ask people (on next door) a head of time to let us know if they want to have a group of carolers come to their homes.
6. Kiosk Project – Sam has not made any progress yet. He is looking for someone to help. He cannot use high school students because of liability issues but is looking for adults who will volunteer to help.
7. President position – Sam will not be able to continue as president next year due to other commitments. He asked that others start thinking about their interest in the position for next time.
8. November Meeting – The next meeting will be held on November 8th from 7-8p.m. at Nathan’s place.

Present: Nathan, Brian, Sam, Sherry, Roger and Jim

Location: Eagles Club
1) Discuss replacing missing neighborhood signs – Nathan is looking into it. National barricade (Aug-Oct research)
2) CNA
a. Sort term rentals recommendations March
b. Downtown strategy – character areas, parking strategy
c. CNA joint meeting with planning com 9-11 nuisance ordinance, housing – missing middle, CRANA and Bigelow want to coop w/ Candidate forum
d. 1% Thriftway – lots of money
3) Subarea Plan – Roger, Nathan, Jim and Stacy are the Core group. Charter is on the website – defines all roles – City is likely to accept it! Goes to council Aug 15th With an opportunity to accept and approve, they are moving forward. Communications plan is in the works and waits for August 15th approval after which a larger group will be involved in how outreach happens. Community outreach and community meetings, single topic meetings (brainstorm phase). Asking Sheena to join core group. Planning meeting just before ENA monthly meeting.
4) Candidate forum – Elks Lodge available 1st and 3rd Wednesday, 1st Wednesday 4th of October Candidate forum. Co-host with CRANA and Bigelow. Subarea meeting on 18th 5-10 minutes before candidates. Roger knows candidates, Sam knows people/speakers working on initiative.
5) Subarea Plan needs approval from ENA board to nominate add core and planning group – approved unanimously.
6) Treasurers report:
a. Savings $1062.28
b. Grants for:
i. Signs $1299.50
ii. Trees $506.70
iii. Beautification $506.70
c. Checking $349.16
7) Picnic – August 27th 4 to 7 PM, 225 patties from Big Tom’s (Nathan), Beerworks – Beer Garden, volunteers honorarium, Band, Bian Coop, Ralph’s
8) Block party – permits submitted, put out signs the week before! $250 may total block party 5-8. Handout rebates, due payment handout.
9) Sherry and Roger Activity Dates – Handout for block party, outreach and membership dues – sustaining members talk to WSECU – payment processing. Envelopes, Tax Status – Sherry 501? Nextdoor dues invitation! Look for cards ENA

Present: Sam, Roger, Jim, and Charlotte

Location: Eagles Club
Minutes from August will be edited and approved by e-mail.
No Treasurers Report
1. CNA Report
• There was a joint planning committee meeting about nuisance houses and code enforcement issues. There was consideration for increasing fines. There was also a suggestion that the City use volunteer code enforcers. There was interest in addressing addiction and homelessness and investing more money in sidewalks. Currently homeowners are responsible for sidewalks. Developers can also put funds into a bucket that can go towards sidewalk projects at other locations. A sub-area plan will help direct city spending of those funds. The City is still accepting input on their Missing Middle website. The last town hall meeting about it will be in Oct/Nov. They are wrapping up that effort.
• Sub-area Plan – there was a meeting today. There is a need to get names added to the Google group. There were 5 new people at todays meeting. George’s wife may also join. That would bring the number to 14 people. The plan is to do a mailing in October and a “Town Hall” meeting the week of November 13th. Probably at the Elks Lodge. The board asked for a list of names of people on the sub-area plan group. Possible catch phrase for the mailing – We know you think globally now’s your chance to act locally.
• Development near San Francisco Bakery – There will be a meeting at the Bakery on Sunday about it. There is a proposed new building that will be constructed across from the San Francisco Bakery. It will have businesses on the bottom and apartments on the top. The intent is to create a neighborhood center. Mike Drexel will hold a facilitated vision exercise for the property when the hazardous materials issues are cleared up. There is concern that some citizens may not want the development. A sub-area plan would carry weight with the City for that type of development or any type of development that is in the plan.
• Candidate Forum – The Candidate Forum will be at the Elks Lodge. There will be 8 candidates there and there will be people to talk about the two issues on the ballot. There is a need for a moderator. There is a need for $50 donation for the event. It would be to pay the Elks or for a moderator. A motion was made for ENA to spend $50 in support of the Candidate Forum. The motion was approved. The forum will be held on October 4th, information about it will be posted on the web and on Next Door. They are not planning to put a notice about it in the Olympian. The steering committee which is made up of representatives from the participating neighborhood associations will find a moderator.
• ENA Annual Meeting – The meeting will be held on February 7th 2018, probably at New Bridge. New Bridge has agreed but they are remodeling and my not be finished with that work in time.
• Picnic – The 2018 Picnic will be held on August 4th. The park is being reserved with the city. The picnic was not as well attended this year as it was in 2016. We will hold the block parties 3 weeks before the picnic.
• Winter Night Lights – Nathan has offered to host at his place. We should advertise in November. Winter Night Lights will be held on January 5th, a Friday night. Nathan will provide food. Jody Fobare has offered to help. She lives up the hill from Sherry. We should advertise it in the mailing. Nathan is contacting the Volks-March people. We will need a theme.
• Caroling – Jeanne will be the organizer. We’ll hold it on December 8th. ENA will help advertise. May need to provide song booklets. Ask people if they want carolers to come to their houses. Tell Jeanne we can print stuff using the printers at City Hall if needed. Sam will put information about the caroling on the ENA website.
• Mailing – The mailing will provide information about upcoming events (winter night lights, caroling and annual meeting); it will include a survey and an ENA summary explaining that ENA is funded by donations (sustaining member = $25/year). We’ll need to include return envelops so they can send back the survey and money. We can offer that people who return the survey/money will get a window cling with the ENA logo. Sam will get 100 of the window clings. They will be smaller than 4 by 6 inches. Maybe in color. Other parts of the mailing will wait for the planning committee.
• Downtown Neighborhood Association is ceding Plum St, West to… ENA is exploring a transition that would include that area in the ENA. Sam will talk to the DNA by phone and then send them a formal letter about the transition. Sam shared a draft of the letter ENA would send to the DNA. Eastbay is not included. All agreed that Sam should send the letter and contact the DNA.

Present: Nathan, Brian, Sam, Sherry, Roger, Jim, and Charlotte
Minutes from July approved Treasurers report see attachment. Approved
We have a little money.
1. CNA Report
• There is a new system on the Smart Gov website that provides information about permit requests in Olympia it will also provide information about code violations in Olympia. There will be a hard launch in September. The city plans to digitize all past permit requests.
• The City has plans to extend West Bay Park but it hasn’t gone to the commission yet. They want to hire an artist and maybe involve the Squaxin Tribe. They want to build a path from Rotary Point to Westbay that would connect to Tug Boat annies. It would make a big W trail connecting Eastbay and Westbay.
• Candidate Forum (see below)
2. Sub-Area Plan meeting – Went OK. Last night during the city council meeting there was one concern was about the issue of the city getting information about the work from the planning committee instead of ENA Board. We may want to change the process to note that the planning committee’s work would be reviewed by the ENA Board but not arbitrarily changed by them. The Planning Committee is not accountable to the neighborhood, the ENA Board is. Otherwise they got full endorsement from the City Council. Next step will be an August 30th Planning Com Mtg. – to develop the outreach strategy. It will be held at Elk Lodge. The Sub-area core group will invite those who’ve singed on.
3. The downtown Neighborhood Association has ceded the area between us and Plum. There is a need to address this in the planning committee mtg. Our by-Laws say Eastside. It would be OK to include to Plum. The County “island” has been annexed by the city of Olympia. It makes sense to extend 2 blocks to Plum. We need to take steps to communicate with the city about it. Citizens that live there should have a say also. Note, the old department of revenue is going to be converted to apartments. Sam will draft a letter to the city and craft a plan for getting input from residents.
4. Summer Picnic – Ralph’s and Co-op were asked for donations. The Co-op OK’d $75-100. The money will be used to buy sides and condiments. Ralph’s will let us know later this week. We still need water, ice cream, juice, LaCroix and ice. Brian will bring his barbeque. Nathan spoke to Big Tom’s – he said yes, and he will confirm this week (1 box of burgers = 154 burgers – last year we got 2 boxes). We had some left over. The committee recommended asking for 2 boxes We need to pre-authorize $200 of spending for last minute needs – motion passed. Roger offered 24 vege burgers. Sherry will give Brian a gift card. Sam will gave Brian Co-op Goldcard for a 20% discount. Sam will help move the BBQ. Hank can bring speakers and maybe sing. We can hook the speakers up to an I-pod if needed. Got fruit and cut it up last time. Brian is looking for volunteers to help. We need to have subarea plan materials to hand out and maybe make an announcement about the candidate forum. We’ll need signs for the picnic, sign boards. Sam will prep a flyer and e-mail for comment. Sherry has 3, Nathan has others.
5. Candidate Forum – CNA people want to link up with us – Crana/Cane Road Neighborhood Association, South Capital Neighborhood Association, and Carlyn Neighborhood Association want to do it with us. Sam and representatives from those other Neighborhood Associations are meeting at 3:45 on August 25th to discuss it. Looking at a location and format. Maybe have prepared questions and have candidates answer questions. There was discussion about including speakers about the Home Fund, Public Safety, the port and school board elections? The group decided to focus on City Council candidates and public safety and home fund. Sheryl will talk about issues in favor. Counter point people will also be invited. Maybe do it at the Elks Lodge or New Bridge. The Board wants to do it in our neighborhood. We want to encourage collaboration between neighborhoods. One option for the forum is to give each candidate a table and allow people to walk around and talk to them. Schedule it for the October 4th mtg. at Elks Lodge; other Neighborhood Associations may have input about including candidates to talk about the port/school board issue. Roger will communicate with the candidates.
6. Continuing Business – Dog bag stations: PVC pipes could be used. Put them on the existing stations attached to the side. We could zip tie them up. Sherry/Hank will make them. The motion to purchase materials $10-30 per was passed. Jim volunteered to help. Bags that could go in the PVC pipes cost $150 from Amazon.
7. New Business – Winter 2018 Caroling and Walk Window Painting. Nathan’s place is a good jump off place for the walk. Volks-walk would be invited. January is an OK month. Could have more people. They need a new Volks-walk route in Olympia. It should be a 5k or 10k route. Spring event – talent show. Olympia Univ. Unitarians on December 9th are having a talent show. Roger will explore and let us know. Annual meeting in the Spring may be at Newbridge. Yearly cleanup day could be a Spring activity. Have someone from the Board lead that. Garage sale, thing should be picked up again