Attendance

• Board Members Present:  Sandia Slaby, Nathan Allan,  Whitney Bowerman, Sherry Chilcutt, Whitney Bowerman, Kara Randall, Mitch Dennis,Sheena Pietzold, Brian Brannies
• Board Members Absent: Katy Beattie
• Others Present: Around fifty neighbors in attendance.

The meeting was opened and it was noted that minutes of the last years meetings are available on this web site.

Report of President

Dog Poop Bag Stations

Nathan talked about how the ENA had successfully installed most of the Dog Poop Bag Stations around the neighborhood. Still waiting on a couple of volunteers to come through on following up with 811 before placing the stations. There is also one spare station that is felt best suited to the upper part of the neighborhood that currently does not host any.

If you would like to host a station contact the ENA. The ENA provides all the equipment, pole and bags. You simply call 811 to have the site checked for utilities. Then you agree to maintain the station.

ENA vs. NextDoor

As comes up often on the Nextdoor website for our neighborhood. Nathan discussed the difference as follows;

• The ENA is your recognized (by the City of Olympia) official neighborhood association. As such it can advocate for the neighborhood and gets a seat at the Coalition of Neighborhood Associations. All residents of the ENA are members of the ENA.
• Nextdoor, is owned by an independent for profit entity. It is a tool used by the ENA for communication. Only 20% of the neighborhood are members of Nextdoor.

To help stop this confusion the ENA board voted to change the Nextdoor name to “Eastside”. This would bring it in line with other neighborhoods. Our lead with Nextdoor, Whitney Bowerman, will contact Nextdoor to make the appropriate name change.

What do you want the ENA to achieve in 2015?

Nathan asked those in attendance what they wanted for 2015. Nothing was brought forward at this point, but once a later topic of Neighborhood Matching Grants was discussed we had some ideas discussed (noted in that section).

Report of Treasurer

Treasurer, Sherry Chilcutt, noted the current balances in the ENA accounts.

• Savings $328.87
• Checking $549.82
• ENA Sign Maintenance Fund $1297.02
• Legion Way Trees $151.29
• Community Beautification $504.27
• CD $1030.71

She noted online payment on this web site has aided in keeping the ENA solvent.

Election of Board Members

Nathan called for nominations for new board members. It was noted that officer positions are voted on by the new board the following month. It is also noted the board will need a board member to act as Secretary.

Four of the most wonderful neighbors you could hope for stepped up and forward to lend their enthusiasm for our great neighborhood to the ENA. They were elected unanimously, with great fan fare and praise. (it should be noted  others voiced their consideration and are welcome to attend the next board meeting as well). The new board members are;

• Susan Herring
• Ted Braid
• Melissa Bluestein
• Rita Sammons

Bread and Roses

Meta Hogan of Bread and Roses presented information on the new format Bread and Roses has taken. They have been in our neighborhood since the 1980’s and it is noted that a few people in attendance voiced their experiences with the organization. Many had volunteered  in work parties and the like to help.

Meta has provided more information in the form of this Bread and Roses newsletter. Which mimics the information found here.

Food Project – Update

Whitney Bowerman, Neighborhood Coordinator for the Thurston County Food Bank gave us an update on the success of this project in our neighborhood. There was a call for more Neighborhood Coordinators and neighbors who wanted to participate.

More information and how to sign up can be found here.

Change the Bylaws for the Board

Nathan discussed how in May of 2014 a subcommittee was formed and met to discuss updating the By-Laws of the ENA for the first time since 1992. The current and proposed By-Laws can be found on this web site here.

The changes made were mainly to reflect changes in technology (the Internet was not even really around  in 1992), they are as follows;

• The expansion of the definition of membership to be inclusive of businesses , not for profits and religious organizations.
• The requirement for a membership vote to changes dues (which are voluntary anyway),
• Some tightening of the wording and methods for replacing an Officer who is no longer doing their duties
• The removal of the requirement to actually submit and register yourself with the association (by default you’re a member if you live int he neighborhood).

It is not a requirement to show the membership the proposed changes, as the board can approve them. However the committee and board felt it was the right thing to do before doing so.

It was noted that “Churches” should be changed to “Religious Establishments”.

It was also suggested to lower the number of board members required. The committee had felt this would make it too easy to not actively recruit new board members each year.

City of Olympia Matching Grant Program

Brian Brannies, Vice President, discussed the Neighborhood Matching Grant Program. Opportunities exist to fund projects within our neighborhood. Suggested projects included;

• The beautification of traffic circles and bump outs int he upper part of the neighborhood. Brian will take the lead on this.
• The expansion of the Annual Picnic. There was some discussion on this. The possibilities included adding live music, a bounce house, and vendors. Also there was the possibility of moving the start time to 4pm. All in attendance seemed to be quite excited at this prospect. Nathan and Brian will work on the project together.