EPIC Board Meeting Minutes
June 4th 2020, 8pm – 9pm
EPIC web address: eastphillips-epic.com
Email: epic.ssantiago@gmail.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: Mary Gonsior, Carol Pass, Steve Sandberg, Sarah Santiago, Laura Dale, Rosie Cruz
Board Members Not Present: Cassandra Holmes (E), Abah Mohamed, Shontal Lajeunesse
Members: Brad Pass, Michael Green,
Guests:
7:25 Agenda Approval, Approved
Minutes Approval, Approved
7:30 Announcements
· Next Community Meeting will be: Thursday, June 11th at 6:30 at East Phillips Park or virtually via Zoom-TBD
· Next Board Meeting will be: Thursday, July 2nd at 7pm at the EPIC office (2433 Bloomington Avenue) or virtually via Zoom-TBD
o Board Meetings are open to the public
· Next Executive Committee meeting will be: Thursday, June 18th at the EPIC office (2433 Bloomington Avenue) or virtually via Zoom-TBD
o Executive Committee meetings are open to the public
o Board members please send agenda items (for both community meetings and board meetings) to Sarah before executive meetings each month
· Summerfest is cancelled this year
· Clean Sweep is yet to be determined
· EPIC has a new housing program! 0% interest! Fix up your home or buy a new home in East Phillips – Check your email for the brochure or go to: mncee.org/eastphillips
· If you smell a foul odor around Smith foundry or Bituminous Roadways call 311 to report
o Write down your incident number
7:32 Dead End alley sign on the 28xx block of 16th Ave
· Community concern brought to EPIC
· Contact the transportation department
· Shouldn’t need funds
7:39 EPIC’s response to the murder of George Floyd
· Sarah is proposing that EPIC immediately stop inviting the 3rd precinct to our community meetings
· Board member shared that we need a place other than police to report things
· Will have this discussion at the June meeting
· We will not have the 3rd precinct at our meeting in June
· Some other options to discuss the important issue of safety in our community was sent to the board in an email, including:
§ 1) Inviting alternative organizations such as Black Visions Collective, Racial Justice Network or Reclaim the Block to discuss safety in our community at our EPIC community meetings;
§ 2) Has SCOUT's Peacemaker program begun work in the larger East Phillips community? Would it be possible to connect with this program? Or are there other restorative/transformative justice efforts in East Phillips that we can invite to our meetings to discuss safety?
§ 3) Host trainings on de-escalation, self defense, disarming, medic, narcan response, first aid etc.
§ 4) Training or community discussions on the following topics (Sarah has edited this from Molly Glasgow):
- Retrain yourself and those around you to not reflexively call or suggest calling the police if you have not done so already. Speak up every time it is suggested ESPECIALLY if you are white.
- Constantly do the work to dismantle racism and anti-blackness in ourselves and our communities. Unravel patterns of white supremacy in our minds, actions, and systems. White people especially, but everyone. Threads of white supremacy are deep and need to be constantly challenged and unlearned. Take on the work of doing this in your identity groups.
- Establish networks of community safety. Collect the people you call if and when something happens. Build trust with those around you. Be discerning. Be expansive. Balance the need for privacy and security with making space for people who may not have deeply engrained networks. Normalize leaning on each other.
- Follow the money. Divest from police and invest in community strengthening initiatives, programs and resources.
- Practice. Practice what you would do if someone needs help, if something happens, if someone is [truly] threatening you or someone else. I'm serious, practice. Figure out what you would say, do. Save the numbers you would call. Save a group text. Inventory skills. Study de escalation. Research first-aid. Learn how to disarm someone. Practice weapon safety. Know your limits. Build your strengths.
- Look to young people, look to elders for models we can follow when conflict emerges. Address conflict early. This is especially necessary in cultures where passive aggressive niceties, often embedded in racism, are deeply engrained. It may take generations to fully undo, but we can. Start now. Leave space and time for messy responses, acknowledgement, and change. Not excuses, manipulation, or invitations to allow future harm, but for true, vulnerable, accountable growth. You can repair with people and still choose not to have them in your immediate circle.
- Remember the times, places, or spaces you have felt the safest. What can we do to recreate that? What can we do to make it better? What can we do to make sure it's not limiting you? What can we do to make sure it's not compromising someone else's safety? Distinguish comfort and safety.
- Identify separate emergency services
§ 5) Prioritize healing-sustain, develop, and uplift spaces and resources for healing. It is necessary to work to undo generations of harm. Respect resource spaces exclusively for black healing, for indigenous healing, for cultural healing, for POC healing, for queer and trans healing. Build and support spaces for men's healing. Get men the resources they need to do and lead their own work. Practice your medicines. Remember who you are. Counseling resources-there’s a list of therapists of color attached to your email.
· This is also a conversation we should/can have at the community meeting next week
· If we do decide to do these two things – stop inviting the police to our meetings and move toward these alternative modes – Sarah proposes that we write a letter to the community as well as the 3rd precinct outlining our decision and our future plans – use this to frame our discussion – document our goals and our hope for an outcome – strengths, weaknesses, opportunities threats, work it into a plan moving forward – send to WhatsApp group
· Check budget to fund some of these trainings and healing processes
· Option to hold a separate crime meeting from the EPIC community meeting
· Partner with other neighborhoods to host joint trainings with an organization doing this work
· Mary and Sarah will have a meeting via Zoom this weekend to set an agenda
8:10 Re-building our community and honoring George Floyd
· How to support small businesses that were affected
o The Minneapolis City Attorney has approved neighborhood funds to be used for protection of businesses.
§ Items such as tape, plywood and fire extinguishers are an authorized expense in neighborhood strategies such as businesses development, corridor improvements, business improvement and general administrative funds. Items such as ammunition, baseball bats, or personal protection are not an eligible expense.
o Other ideas?
· How can we help get healthy food and prescriptions to community members without Cub and Target at Hiawatha/Lake?
o Sarah has sent out a resource list to the EPIC email list
o EPIC Facebook page access
o What else can we do?
· Invite Prospect Park in our communication about the indoor urban farm
· Youth leadership fund in name of George Floyd
8:26 Brad purchased a Zoom Account for the use of EPIC, EPNI & Brad and Carol to fill an immediate need. He discovered after the fact that only he has access to scheduling meetings, a job he does not want.
o Does anyone know how to assign other schedulers & moderators?
o If not, we should consider purchasing our own account with the more expensive option of several schedulers & moderators.
o We could consider sharing the use and cost with EPNI, but that would make scheduling difficult if the two organizations needed to schedule meetings at the same time.
o Give username and password to someone else or sign up for an EPIC one separately
o Mary and Brad will discuss
8:29 ADA Compliance and Sexual Harassment Policy – Mary check-in
o Mary has started this work, plans to have more of a final draft by the executive committee meeting
8:34 City Covid-19 fund update – wealthier neighborhoods donated to the pot and they have made masks and handed out hand sanitizer
o Do we want to reconsider donating to this pot or doing something on our own/partner with an organization to do Covid-19 response work?
o Note that people at Little Earth are making masks and giving them out for free
o We have not changed our minds – we will not
8:38 Ideas of ways to increase turn out at Zoom virtual community meetings
· We discussed at executive committee meeting that we will be posting zoom meetings on the website to hopefully increase turnout
· Sarah plans to describe in more detail how to access Zoom in the email with the Zoom invite
· Invite people on WhatsApp to our meeting next Thursday
· EPIC Facebook page access - Carol will figure out and add Mary and Sarah
8:39 Hiring update
· Go over job description
· Not a contract, should be at will
· Must put any physical requirement listed for ADA compliance
· Continue to review
CLOSED MEETING TO PUBLIC
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OPEN MEETING TO PUBLIC
8:52 Additions to community meeting draft agenda
8:54 What do we want to put in EPICs Alley post?
· Housing program information!
· Any decisions we make at community meeting we should post in Alley
8:57 ADJOURN
