EPIC Board Meeting Minutes
September 7th, 2019,
10am – 12pm
EPIC web
address: eastphillips-epic.com
Office: 2433 Bloomington Ave., Minneapolis, MN 55404
Phone: (612) -280-8418
Board Roster: Rosie Cruz, Laura Dale, Mary Gonsior, Cassandra Holmes,
Shontal Lajeunesse, Abah Mohamed, Carol Pass, Steve Sandberg, Sarah
Santiago.
Board Members Present:
Laura Dale, Sarah Santiago, Steve Sandberg, Mary Gonsior, Carol Pass, Rosie
Cruz, Cassie Holmes, Shontal Lajeunesse, Abah Mohamed
Board Members Not Present:
Members:
Brad
Pass
Guests:
Shirley Heyer,
10:06 Approved
the amended agenda CP, RC, approved
Approved the
August minutes LD, RC, approved
10:08 Announcements
·
Next
Community Meeting will be: Thursday, September 12th at 6:30 at East
Phillips Park
·
Next
Board Meeting will be: Saturday, October 5th at 10am at the EPIC
office (2433 Bloomington Avenue)
o
Board
Meetings are open to the public
· Tuesday September 10th 6:30-8pm (612)
673-2839 – call
o Training for new block leaders at the 3rd
Precinct
10:15 Crime
· Need to put in another request for officers to attend
our neighborhood meetings
o Cassie will contact 3rd Precinct about
attending our meetings – tell them we have invited them to come and they have
not attended
· Crime has been really bad recently in the
neighborhood
10:20 Rodeo Night Club
· Extreme brutality happening
· Night club is in Longfellow Neighborhood, but that
neighborhood organization doesn’t have anybody paid to deal with crime
· Fire hazard – too many people being let in
· There is not much EPIC can do unless someone comes to
us and asks us to do something specific
10:24 Stacy Sorenson
(NRP/Finance Specialist) would like to help EPIC get a housing program in place
o
She
would like to attend an upcoming meeting to discuss this
o
If
we’re swamped, she offered fall
o
When
works for us?
§
This
has already been dealt with
o
We
have housing money left over, it’s a state grant
o
This
money has to go into housing
o
Tell
them we have already done this
o
Carol
has talked to Bob Cooper about it, we need to sign the contract
o
Homebuyers
and rehab assistance
o
Ask
them the next step
o
Signing
policies – need a policy on this
10:30 Mailbox
Notes from July Board
Meeting:
o
Any new communication
going forward will be directed to the office
o
Eventually as Carol
wraps things up and shifts things over, the mail will go to the office
o
Office (2433
Bloomington Ave) will become new address for EPIC
Take
this up again in September – by the end of the year EPIC will change its address officially
to 2433 Bloomington Ave for taxes and other official purposes
o
What needs to happen
with this now? Who is point person for this?
§
From today’s board
meeting:
§
Brad will purchase a
mailbox – one with a key (or several keys) and work on attaching it to the
building
10:35 EPIC
office utilities – Mary
·
Tony has not gotten
utilities since EPIC moved into office
·
No easy way to figure
out difference in utilities between before EPIC moved in and after we moved in
·
For heat do it on a
square foot basis
·
For electric – look at
what we have here – lights, air conditioner, fridge, copier, coffee maker,
alarm system
o
There is an electric
calculator online – if you know wattage and how often you use it can estimate
cost
·
We have several
options:
o
Splitting option –
40-60 or 30-70
o
Same utilities each
month
o
Excel energy audit to
tell us how much energy we are using
o
Ask him what is bill
is and what do you think is fair?
·
Mary will sit down
with Tony and figure out how to split and what he thinks is fair. Figure out
how much we owe for the past (beginning of 2018) and how to do it going
forward.
o
Mary will communicate
with EPIC what they decide
10:47 Insurance
o
Updates on Nonprofits Insurance Alliance
§
FROM
CAROL: “We have our general liability insurance from the Alliance for
Nonprofits. I signed the agreement on Thursday. I need to pay the premium to
activate it.”
o
We need a digital copy of our policy
of our insurance
o
Carol will send it to Mary
o
Carol is the only one receiving
communication from the insurance company
11:16 990
Taxes
·
Carol will send over
e-mail – everyone needs to respond to email and say they read it by Monday
morning
11:19 NCR Meeting
o City wants a neighborhood group
that is sustainable for the long run
what is the plan that works best for
the community?
o What does EPIC want from the city
for training etc.
o Cassie wants training in language
that is understandable and wants to better understand CPP dollars
§ Do training every May for new
board members and other board members who want a refresher
§ City wants to meet with EPIC
board between September 16th -23rd – can ask about
training then
o Letter says we will be reinstated
as a neighborhood organization – we were never told we were no longer a
neighborhood organization
o Cassie will contact Steve
Gallagher to set up meeting at 6:30 on September 17th at LERA
o Brad will bring copies of our
annual report to this meeting and CPP copy
11:43 Board
Communication
o
How
do we assure that the entire board is getting updates?
o
We all need to be involved more
o
We need a filing system in the
office – need paper copies accessible
o
Need a contact database
o
We need access to the website
o
We should get a desktop computer
with a cloud space for backup
o
We need a central e-mail address
that isn’t just Carol’s address
§
Somebody needs to look at this daily
§
Central e-mail address where we can
all see what comes in
§
Put message in Carol’s runbox for
people to e-mail central e-mail address if trying to contact EPIC and to allow
two business days and if it’s an emergency contact blank email address
·
STEPS: Carol will scan and send
Xfinity bill to Mary to see if we can get e-mail address and cloud storage
through Xfinity
o
Sarah
will be putting the agenda together and making copies for meetings so any
agenda items should go through her
o
Website
o
We
need someone to manage/maintain our website and social media – need a job
description for this
§
Abah
will write a job description
o
Need
a policy for website and social media
11:50 CPP
application
o
The
board voted on and everyone should have copies of our CPP application. We
should all read this. It lists most of our ongoing projects and also those that
have been short-term. It describes EPIC's method of operating up to this time
and makes some commitments for the future. It is pretty open ended but is
a guide to our spending.
o
Read
and discuss in October at board meeting – write questions about it
11:55 Temporary Employee issue
o
FROM
CAROL: “We still need to find out if we can set up a way to pay a
temporary employee. EPIC has been, but may not be able to remain an
all-volunteer organization. We have not run projects where we have employees,
which require us to do the bookkeeping and financial management of payroll,
unemployment insurance and Workers’ Comp. We need to find out what it costs and
how to do it. Someone needs to research this and try to put it together. I have
found a source, but neither Mary nor I have the time to put this together.
Takers?”
o
There
is a company that takes on responsibility of hiring and can get worker’s comp
etc. from them
o
Carol
was told she either has to be an employee or have own insurance
11:58 Clean
Sweep
o
Make
motion to provide $999 for event
o
MOTION: EPIC
will provide $999 for the Clean Sweep. LD, CH, approved
12:04 October
Harvest Party
o
Do
we want to expand this? - no
o
Low
key event
o
Make
motion to provide funding?
o
MOTION: EPIC
will provide up to $500 for the October Harvest Party. LD, AM, approved
12:04 CLOSED
MEETING FOR LEGAL DISCUSSION
12:33 REOPENED
MEETING FOR LEGAL DISCUSSION
12:33 Cesar
Prado – local remodeler
o
Would
like to work with EPIC about crime and possibly help with violence prevention
grant
12:38 Violence
Prevention Grant Committee update
o
Have
you met again?
o
Or
any follow ups from last meeting?
o
Still
in limbo with insurance
o
Still
have question about whether Devika is employee
o
We
have a contract but there is a question of whether we should sign contract if
she doesn’t have insurance
o
Need
an agreement with Devika, need certificate of insurance and need to figure out
how to pay stipends
o
Possibility
that she purchases general liability insurance and we reimburse her for it
o
How
can she pair with SCOUT to get this going – but SCOUT grant is a federal grant
12:50 Reflection
on Community Meeting discussion of the Development on 17th Ave
o
Issue
of agenda items being sent to secretary
o
Should
we have a form for them to fill out, asking them how long they will need; will they
be doing a presentation; are they asking for money or approval/EPIC support;
are you requesting a motion?
o
MOTION:
We will create a
policy for community members to request agenda items for both the board and
community meetings which will be published on the EPIC website and sent in
response to any request. We will have a copy of this policy at each meeting as
well. CH, SL, approved.
12:59 Adjourn
