Board Meeting Minutes 03-09

March 9th, 2013, Saturday, 10:00 am

East Phillips Park Cultural and Community Center

EPIC web address: http://www.eastphillips-epic.com/index.html

Office: 2536 18^th Avenue S., Minneapolis, MN 55404

“The world needs dreamers and the world needs doers,

but most of all the world needs dreamers who do.”

Present (board):  Linda Leonard, Carol Pass, Mary Gonsior, Earl Simms

Not Present (board):  Rosie Cruz, JoeLuis Villasenor, Chiffon Williams, Sherdl Kordian, Jenny Bjorgo

Members:  Brad Pass

10:00             Introduction:

·     Approval of Agenda –  passed with addition of garden report

·     Approval of Minutes from 2/2/2013 EPIC Board Meeting – passed with corrections

o   Delete item 11:10 completely.

o   Correct spelling of “Pass”

Motion: Meeting as a committee of the whole.

10:10    Announcements: 

·      EPIC Membership Meeting: Thursday, March 14th, day, 6:30 pm, the East Phillips Park Center

·      Annual Meeting, April 27th

·      Website expansion

10:15             Greenway Heights Apartments: Progress..Design endorsed by Midtown Greenway Coalition, Working on additional grants. Motion for funding to help with the Balconies. $35,000?

**Second board vote for review at this monthly meeting, then goes to Annual Meeting. Fund the Balconies. $35,000 temporarily from Phase II NRP to be replaced by CPP.
(MG, ES) passed.

10: 30            Garden Report – choose a garden rep

The garden committee is working on getting the 2013 garden schedule up and going. It would be really appreciated for the sake of continuity if one person plus an alternate would commit to attending the garden meetings. CP suggested that each board member might commit to attending one meeting per season. LL feels that we need to have the same board member present also, so that they can “track” what is happening in the garden. EPIC owns this property and needs to be present and accountable. Brad distributed the schedule; the first steering meeting is March 23 here at the park. The group collected enough money for operations last year through fees, and made some repairs through donations. Everyone is invited to the first steering committee meeting on March 23, and the first general meeting on April 13. Residents wanting to garden should contact Brad Pass.

MOTION: EPIC will provide sufficient funds on an annual basis to pay for the East Phillips 17^th Avenue Garden property taxes. CP, LL) passed.

10:40            Housing Programs: Brochure in Spanish, Report on meeting with CEE and Doug. Marketing:  Door knocking, explaining, Tracking, Focus groups, Who should, would help? Jennie, Chiffon, Carol, JoseLuis, Rosie??

1. Ask CEE to provide us with a periodic diversity report on who is applying and receiving funding.

2. Develop an appeal process with CEE.

3. Paying Jenny to door knock, interpret; answer calls, respond to inquiries in Spanish; CP to write an agreement for a stipend. Agreement to be for a specific period, and renewable as needed.

4. Chiffon may be able to outreach to African American residents; CP to write an agreement for a stipend. Agreement to be for a specific period, and renewable as needed.

5. We don’t need to do Nepali focus groups – they don’t own houses. We need to do focus groups for Latinos, Somalis,

6. Distribute on e-News.

7. List in the Alley.

10:55        Annual Meeting is on April 27th, Saturday at 9:30….meeting starts at 10:00 am –

                Food – Shirley Heyer, Linda?

MOTION: (LL, ES) EPIC will provide $250 to Shirley Heyer to organize food for the annual meeting. PASSED.

Board Members

Board Members elected Last year Jennie, Carol, Rosie and Jose Luis won, This year Mary, Linda, Earl and Sherdl will run. Chiffon? Even if all these run, we need one more. Suggestions? Invite potential candidates to our next general membership meeting.

·      Norm (Jenny B.)

·      Cam and Tila, come and bring some relatives.

·      Naomi (Banyan)

Regular General Membership meeting in April? YES, April 11.

Ad in the Alley – Have you ever thought about serving your community by serving on the neighborhood board? Come to EPIC’s April 11 meeting and learn about neighborhood boards and board governance.

Bylaw changings? We need to change the “30 day notice” to "the next General membership meeting or at least 21 days"

            

MOTION: (ES, CP) We want to change our bylaws to require a notice that is from “meeting to meeting” instead of 30 days. Too often there are not 30 days between meetings, and this is not sufficient. PASSED unanimously.

MOTION: (CP, ES) Board attendance; propose changing bylaws from “must” to “may” requiring removal of board members who have missed too many meetings. PASSED with one opposed.

11: 10            Youth Soccer Saturdays – See Flyer – Funding Support. Need to check on what’s happening…

Still waiting for more information.

11:30            Alley Advertisement: April Pool (vs. April Fool).

Phillips Parks Initiative is working on a community wide outreach to update residents of the four neighborhoods and present a united neighborhood support group for the pool. The Park Board on March 6, did pass an endorsement of support for raising the funds needed for operations and construction needed for the pool. 

MOTION: (LL, CP) EPIC will give the April issue of the Alley $250 toward a 4 page insert about the pool. PASSED.

11:35             CPP funding qualification

Discussion of removal of 20% participation on internet survey for neighborhood planning/funding.

11:35            Plans for the rest of the NRP Budget, Look at Phase II Plan: Ideas??

EPIC leadership needs to suggest and determine needs (Neighborhood Priorities) and what we can handle…to receive any more money… A task force job? Focus Groups?

HOUSING: What have we gotten done?

·      We have contracted out 100% of our housing budget.

COMMUNITY ENHANCEMENT: What have we gotten done?

·      We have contracted out $25,000 to Fund the Phillips Community Center Pool.

·      Wrote “Policy for EPIC’s Collaborative Funding Agreements”.

RESERVE FUNDS: What have we gotten done?

·      We have contracted out $1,243,000 to fund East Phillips Common, Village In Phillips, Little Earth of United Tribes, and Bii Di Gain Dash Anwebi projects.

MOTION: (MG, LL) EPIC will adopt the “Policy for EPIC’s Collaborative Funding Agreements”. PASSED.

11:55   We need an office for EPIC…Thoughts??

Where could EPIC rent an office? Linda knows of a company that builds portable buildings complete with insulation and wiring.

Linda: Ugly barricade on 25^th Street. Banners and beautification of neighborhood.

11:50            Adjournment