EPIC
Board Meeting Draft Minutes
January 8th, 2022, 10am – 11am
EPIC web address: eastphillips.org
Email: sarah@eastphillips.org
Office: 2433 Bloomington Ave., Minneapolis, MN
55404
Phone: (612)
354-6802
Board Roster: Laura Dale, Mary Gonsior, Cassandra Holmes, David Ingold, Shontal Lajeunesse, Steve Sandberg, Earl Simms, Karen Townsend, Nikolas Winter-Simat
Board Members Present: Steve Sandberg, Nikolas Winter Simat, Cassandra Holmes, Shontal Lajeunesse, Karen Townsend, Laura Dale
Board Members Not Present: Mary Gonsior, David Ingold (E), Earl Simms
Members:
Guests:
10:00 Review vision and mission
Welcome guests/intros
Approve agenda, NWS,
Approved
Approve minutes, NWS, Approved
Reminders:
●
Next
Community Meeting will be: Thursday, January 13 from 6:30 to
7:30 at East Phillips Park
(masks required) and online (link to join meeting can be found at
eastphillips.org)
o
Discuss
whether to keep hybrid due to Omicron variant
o Move to only online
▪
Notify community via email, facebook etc.
●
Next
Board Meeting will be: Saturday, February 1 from 10am to 11am online (link to join meeting can be found at
eastphillips.org)
o
Board
Meetings are open to the public
●
Annual
Meeting: March 26 2022
o
Those
up for re-election: Laura Dale, Nikolas Winter-Simat, David Ingold, Karen
Townsend
▪
Laura
will try reaching out to Earl - Nikolas and Sarah have not been able to get
ahold of him
▪
Nikolas Winter-Simat running again
▪
Please let us know by the next board
meeting
o
Are
you interested in running again?
o
Know
a neighbor who might be interested in running?
▪
Start
talking with them about the board, or give their name and contact info to Sarah
so she can reach out to them
o
Plan
for hybrid mtg?
▪
Plan
for hybrid but be flexible, may need to be only online
●
Try to secure gym at East Phillips Park
●
Look at wording of ballot - do you need to
have address to vote? What about our unhoused neighbors?
o Resides in, but do not
have an address
o
Interested
in being on the planning committee for the Annual Meeting?
Announcements:
●
Board
received monthly financial report via email
○
Also
find here and posted on website
○
Any
questions or concerns?
●
Board
motions passed via emails since last board meeting:
MOTION: The EPIC board approves of paying rent ahead for 18 months at
the current EPIC office (2433 Bloomington Avenue) using our CPP funds, passed, 7 board members emailed stating
they approved of the motion
MOTION: The EPIC board approves of purchasing office materials as outlined in the Purchase Request form for paper and ink, not to exceed $1700, passed, 7 board members emailed stating they approved of the motion
10:05 Report/Update
from Executive Coordinator
1) Greater Phillips
Meetings
Decided
to bring the following ideas to our various boards and see what aligns with
current project / organizational goals and capacity. We also talked about
picking a project that is strategic: one that helps us build power in our
neighborhoods and/or a sense of shared interest and identity.
●
Green space/ Phillips
garden tour
○
Could be combined with a
Phillips history and/or walking tour
○
A series of workshops
hosted in garden spaces across all four neighborhoods
●
Phillips-wide strategic
approach to dealing with developers
○
Developing a shared set of
expectations could give our neighborhoods more power
○
We could use/adopt/modify
the Green Zones scorecard
●
Shared traffic/ lighting
safety improvements
○
24th Street goes through
all four of our neighborhoods, could be a good project site
●
Safety - connect neighbors
who live on 2900 blocks all through Midtown, East and West Phillips
●
The Board participated in a
poll
○
Board members shared they
had a hard time choosing - liked all of them - some could go hand in hand
○
A few board members shared
that 24th Street could be good opportunity
○
Results of poll:
■
Project or event along 24th
Street - 2 votes
■
Safety - connect neighbors
who live on 2900 blocks - 2 votes
■
Open street - 2 votes
■
Green Zone - equitable
development scorecard - 2 votes
■
No votes: Lighting project,
traffic calming initiative
2) Contacted
by Mpls Parks to inform us that EPIC could sponsor public art mural on the
basketball courts at East Phillips Park
●
Would be really cool to be
able to do - mural on Franklin - heard stories from neighbors and incorporated
into artwork
○
Olivia Levins Morales? Tim?
■
Connect with? And ask to
apply on our behalf? Stipend for their time?
■
Use equitable engagement
fund?
■
Ask whether other orgs
offered opportunity in East Phillips?
3) Ameriprise
Grant
●
Read more here
●
Grants to revitalize
housing and neighborhoods and enhancing cultural awareness
●
Interested in applying to
help cover food and entertainment costs
●
Requires
an audited
financial statement or financial review prepared in conformance with Generally
Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP), completed within the last 2 years. Did
the audit that the city do fulfill this? The audit says that it was
"conducted in accordance with attestation standards established by the
American Institute of Certified Public Accountants."
○
If so, apply?
○
Board members are unsure - will follow up
with Mary about this question
4) Update on
Reimagining Safety Partnership opportunity
●
EPIC was selected for an
interview - Steve and Sarah attended on ⅙
●
Should hear early next week
if we are chosen
●
At last month’s meeting
discussed augmenting the stipend with EPIC funds or raising additional funds
5) NACDI/4
Sisters Farm is requesting a letter of support from EPIC for a MN Urban Ag
Grant to support start-up farming costs such as soil, water, tools, labor
expenses and a portion of staff time.
●
They would love to show
that we have the support of the community and partnerships with neighborhood
organizations such as EPIC
●
Sarah will write the letter
and get to the board for review
6) Reviewed Garden
Committee budget
7) Southside
Harm Reduction report
8) Social
Media Report - presentation
●
More Facebook data in this
folder 2021 -
EPIC Board Docs - Google Drive
●
View the Mailchimp report
here Mailchimp 2021 Report
9) Reviewed
MN Secretary of State filing
●
Will file in February
MOTION: The EPIC board
approves of changing the agent on the MN Secretary of State filing to Nikolas
Winter Simat, CH, LD, Approve
Report
from Departments
1) Vision Department
●
Strategic Planning
○
You all received the contract to review,
currently working with Devika to finalize and to set up the dates for each step
■
Devika came back and requested that due
to the uncertainty of COVID that we add a line to the scope of services below
the steps stating that
●
“The above is our proposed
timeline but there is room for flexibility as needed. For example, if someone
key to the strategic planning process gets COVID and there is a need to
reschedule a meeting, or if it is taking a longer time than predicted to get a
sufficient level of community input the timeline may need to be adjusted.”
○
Vision Committee will do a large portion
of the work for the Strategic Plan, with steps for the community and board to
give feedback
○
Vision Committee will consist of Vision Department
(Nikolas, Earl and Karen), along with any board members and one or two
community members who are interested
■
Who else is interested?
●
Sarah will try to attend as much as
possible
●
Shontal may be able to attend
■
Since we are forming a committee, our bylaws
state we need a charter - review
draft here
●
Changed charter to add ‘one or two’
community members as a part of the Vision Committee
○
Find
timeline with proposed dates for each step here
■
Step
1 is with the Vision Committee to
identify key areas for intervention for EPIC (i.e. housing, safety, neighbor
participation, etc.) and setting long term goals in these key areas. This is a two hour meeting (including prep time) and Devika
is proposing Feb 1 (weekday) or Feb 5 (Saturday)
● February 5 - afternoon
10:35 New business and delegate to proper spaces
(work group, department etc.)
11:00 Adjourn
