March 2015 Board Meeting Minutes

Swantown Inn Bed & Breakfast, 1431 11th Ave SE (corner of Central)
Wednesday, March 18th, 2014, 6:30PM – 7:30PM
Monthly Board meeting of the Eastside Neighborhood Association.
Board Members In Attendance: Nathan Allan, Susan Herring,  Melissa Bluestein, Rita Sammons, Ira Silberlicht, Brian Brannies, Sheena Pietzold, Sherry Cillicut
Board Members Absent:  Ted Braid (had volunteered at Annual meeting but did not show up), Mitch Dennis (we are confirming if he is continuing on as a board member)
Neighbors in Attendance: Roger Horn, Rhonda Davis, Josh Davis

Minutes

  • Welcome new board members
    • Susan Herring, Melissa Bluestein, Rita Sammons, Ira Silberlicht
  • Election of Officers
    • Slate of Officers voted on and passed unanimously.
    • President – Nathan Allan
    • Vice-President – Brian Brannies
    • Treasurer – Sherry Cillicut
    • The position of Secretary was discussed and Sheena and Melissa may end up sharing the duties.  This will be confirmed at the next meeting after they have had a chance to discuss.
  • Adoption of updated By-Laws as discussed at the Annual Meeting.
  • ENA Generic Business Cards
    • Nathan proposed business cards for the ENA with a cost of $20.47 for 500 cards.
    • Susan made a motion to approve 500 business cards at a cost of $20.47, Sherry seconded the motion and the motion passed unanimously.
  • Dog waste stations update
    • Call for volunteers to help on last installation.
    • Ira is hosting one of the last two to be put in. Nathan is going to work with him to make his happen on 7th and Edison.
    • The other has 811 approval and will also be organized by Nathan, with help from the home owner.
  • Traffic Circle Beautification
    • Neighborhood Match Grant applied for (by Brian Brannies on behalf of ENA)
    • $1500 in donated labor and materials
    • $500 has been asked for in the match
  • Annual Summer Picnic Update
    • Neighborhood Match Grant applied for (by Nathan Allan on behalf of ENA)
    • Shelter reserved through Parks Department (we require insurance to cover this)
      • We have a day insurance quote of $201 but Scott at Parks says there is a cheaper option for this. He is yet to fill us in on what this is.
    • $7954 in donated labor, materials, food.
    • $1480 has been asked for in matching grant funds.
  • Annual Garage Sale
    • Rhonda from New Bridge wants to have their Rummage Sale coincide with the Annual Garage Sale. The Rummage sale will have proceeds go to City Gate and their communbity outreach programs.
  • CNA – Report from attending CNA meetings.
    • Report from Tim Minarachi, who is representing the ENA until a board member can attend.
    • There was talk about not fixing sidewalks, complaints about the Okympian’s involuntary insert delivery, other petty concerns. I have one bit of info I will forward later on from a woman who wanted to give a presentation to the ENA of a park or planting program she’s involved with, I just need to retrieve the paper with her info on it. The most interesting thing is subarea planning. Subarea A is the experiment, that’s the associations in the northeast area. They’re going to be working on it for a while longer before it goes online, but you should be advised we are subarea B- which leads me to believe we’re next. Subarea B is simply the current territory of the ENA with the addition of the corridor between Eastside and Plum. All we would have to collaborate with the DNA over would be the area between Eastside and Plum, and we’ve been doing that the last couple of years anyhow. I think it’s a good thing.
  • Treasurers Report
  • Checking account $679.82
  • Savings account $328.90
  • Neighborhood signs $1297.10
  • Legion way trees $151.31
  • Community beautification $505.31
  • Long-term savings $1030.89
  • New business.
  • Brian asked for cleaning supplies and equipment to clean the neighborhood signs up on Boulevard. A motion was made by Brian for $100 from the sign fund to be used to purchase supplies and equipment to clean the signs. It was seconded by Ira and passed unanimously.
  • Roger Horn let us know about a proposed Bike Boulevard that will head down through our neighborhood to downtown. There was concern that the ENA should be in on the conversation for the route. Nathan pointed out that Brittany Yunkers has reached out to the ENA about one segment on the disused part of 9th. It was suggested we reach out to Sophie Stimson in Transportation at the city and become part of the conversation.

    • In the absence of a Secretary, these minutes are submitted by Nathan Allan, President.

     

     

    March 2015 Board Meeting Agenda

    Swantown Inn Bed & Breakfast, 1431 11th Ave SE (corner of Central)
    Wednesday, March 18th, 2014, 6:30PM – 7:30PM
    Monthly Board meeting of the Eastside Neighborhood Association.

    Agenda

    • Welcome new board members
    • Election of Officers
    • Adoption of updated By-Laws as discussed at the Annual Meeting.
    • ENA Generic Business Cards
      • Approve cost of $20.47 for 500 cards
    • Dog waste stations update
      • Call for volunteers to help on last installation.
    • Annual Summer Picnic Update
      • Neighborhood Match Grant applied for (by Nathan Allan on behalf of ENA)
      • Shelter reserved through Parks Department (we require insurance to cover this)
    • Traffic Circle Beautification
      • Neighborhood Match Grant applied for (by Brian Brannies on behalf of ENA)
    • Annual Garage Sale
      • Rhonda from New Bridge wants to have their Rummage Sale coincide with the Annual Garage Sale.
    • CNA – Report from attending CNA meetings.
    • Treasurers Report
    • New business.

    Please note you do not need to be a board member to attend. We start promptly at 6:30pm.

    2015 ENA Annual Meeting Minutes

    Facilitated by ENA President  Nathan Allan

    Wednesday, February 18, 2015
    Meeting started at 6:30 pm at the New Bridge Community Church

    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.