sheena

December 2015 Board Meeting Minutes

Swantown Inn Bed & Breakfast, 1431 11th Ave SE (corner of Central)
Wednesday, December 16th, 2015, 7:00PM – 8:00PM
Monthly Board meeting of the Eastside Neighborhood Association
Board Members in Attendance: Nathan Allan, Brian Brannies, Sheena Pietzold, Rita Sammons, Sherry Cillicut, Susan Herring

Minutes

  • Dog waste bag stations update
    • Supplying bags will cost the ENA around $500 a year. This is not sustainable unless we have more dues-paying members. We have had a lull in members paying dues, so Nathan made laminated signs to attach to the dog waste bag stations to solicit members to pay dues.
  • Newsletter
    • We’ve had numerous comments regarding how long it has been since the ENA has put together a newsletter. One option is to do a postcard advertising our upcoming general meeting and perhaps things we have accomplished over the past year.
    • Brian will send the address spreadsheet we have to the group so we can check the addresses by foot. Each board member will claim an area of the neighborhood to walk and double check to see if actual houses match the street addresses in the spreadsheet. Hopefully this effort will increase the accuracy of the addresses and reduce mailing cost waste.
  • Matching grant update
    • Brian has a meeting set up with the City on Friday, December 18th to sign paperwork for the matching grant to improve traffic calming devices (round-abouts and bump-outs) throughout the neighborhood. The City will be paying for general liability insurance to protect the neighborhood association in the event of a lawsuit. All volunteers will need to sign an agreement with the City to protect the ENA. The City is allowing us to carry the funds over until the end of 2016.
  • General meeting
    • We’d like to try to have the general meeting January 27th. Topics could include Olympia School District Superintendent speaking about the proposed school levy (special election vote scheduled for February 9th), Thurston Transportation Oriented Development (TTOD) presentation, soliciting for volunteers to improve traffic calming devices for the matching grant, soliciting for new board members, and electing new board of directors.
  • Treasurers Report
    • $169.26 in Checking
    • $1360.83 in Savings
    • $1297.87 in Neighborhood Signs fund
    • $151.49 in Legion Way Trees fund
    • $505.76 in Community Beautification fund

 

Minutes submitted by Sheena Pietzold, Joint ENA Secretary

Nathan Allan

November 2014 Board Meeting Minutes

Attendance

  • Board Members Present:  Nathan Allan, Whitney Bowerman,  Brian Brannies,  Sandia Slaby, Pat Bayle, Jim Longley, Mitch Dennis, Sheena Pietzold, Katy Beattie
  • Board Members Absent: Kara Randall
  • Other Attendees: Roger Horn, Eddy

Dog waste stations

Church will help with dog waste stations; There are still troubles Getting a hold of people; Locations of sites were discussed;

Purchasing bags….biodegradable bags are they worth it? Cost effective? Sandia would like to look into the cost difference and what that means for ENA. Cost of bags (Nathan added to minutes when he found the details relevant);

$138.18 for 4000 Biodegradable bags (funny thing only considered so in 49 states not CA)
Shipping did cost.
What Aly found on Amazing is basically $31.38 for 1000 bags. So about the same.
Nathan searched around a little and did not find an alternative that works.

Future of the board

Join the ENA board! Four members are not continuing, possibly five. Become an active advocate for your neighborhood. Once a month meetings, and accomplishing tasks like the dog poop bag stations, food bank donations, etc.
February is goal for annual meeting.

Newsletter

  • Some neighbors have said they miss it.
  • Idea to send postcards directing people to read more at the website.
  • Print a few newsletters for those who may request it.
  • Brian is willing to print off postcards; ENA may still have credit at a local printshop.
  • Brian is willing to spearhead getting this accomplished.
  • We hope that mailing list is more accurate than in the past. A lot of effort has been put into verifying addresses.

CNA

It seems the focus of the CNA is less about working together and more about listening to presentations.  ENA has been represented in some capacity at almost every meeting this year. Representatives are wondering about the effectiveness of the CNA and the overall purpose of it as it seems to be very much concerned with big picture issues like city planning. Our presence is valued at the CNA meetings is that our voice is then reported back to City Council. CNA can, and has been in the past, be an effective voice.

Treasurers report

  • Sherry was absent from the meeting but reported $750 in checking.
  • Nathan still needs to get on the account as back-up.

Madison Holiday Store

Madison Elementary PTO Representative, Eddy, says they are looking for donations for kids to purchase for presents for their families.

Report from City Council

  • Providing $250,000 for downtown plan
  • Talk of changing code to work on creating neighborhood centers like Westside coop or San Francisco street bakery
  • Putting money into hazard trees which would affect legion way