EPIC Board Meeting Minutes
Saturday, November 6,
2021, 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: Laura Dale, Karen Townsend, Steve
Sandberg, David Ingold, Nikolas Winter-Simat, Cassandra Holmes
Board
Members Not Present: Mary Gonsior (E), Shontal
Lajeunesse, Earl Simms
Members:
Devika Ghai, Paul Dale, Carol Pass, Brad Pass
Guests:
10:00 Review vision
and mission
Welcome guests/intros
Approve agenda, NWS, DI, Approved
Approve minutes, NWS, KT, Approved
Reminders:
●
Next Community Meeting
will be: Thursday, November 11
from 6:30 to 7:30 at 2613 Bloomington Ave and
online (link to join meeting can be found at eastphillips.org)
●
Next Board Meeting will
be: Saturday, December
4 from 10am to 11am at the EPIC office and
online (link to join meeting can be found at eastphillips.org)
o
Board Meetings are open
to the public
Announcement:
Nichol Dehmer Beckstrand, on behalf
of Scottie Hall, has appealed the decision of the Zoning Board of Adjustment
denying a variance to increase the maximum combined floor area of all detached
accessory structures for construction of a detached accessory dwelling unit at
2827 18th Ave S.
This matter will receive an
additional public hearing before the Business, Inspections, Housing, and Zoning
Committee (BIHZ) of the Minneapolis City Council on Tuesday, November 9, 2021 at 1:30 p.m. During the declared local
public health emergency, Minneapolis has transitioned to an electronic format
for its public meetings and hearings, authorized under Minn. Stat. Section
13D.021, to minimize the risk of exposure to or potential spread of COVID-19.
The public may view the public hearing using the following options: Watch on
Comcast Channel 14 or 799, CenturyLink Channel 8001 or 8501, or live on www.minneapolismn.gov/tv/citycounciltv.
For
further information or to express support or concern, contact:
Alex
Kohlhaas, City Planner – 505 S 4th Ave, Room 320, Minneapolis, MN 55415
Phone (612) 673-3950 E-mail:
Alex.Kohlhaas@minneapolismn.gov.
For reasonable accommodations or
alternative formats please contact 612-673-3710. People who are deaf or hard of
hearing can use a relay service to call 311 at 612-673-3000. TTY users call
612-673-2157 or 612-673-2626.
Attention: Para asistencia 612-673-2700 - Rau kev pab 612-673-2800 - Hadii aad Caawimaad u baahantahay 612-673-3500.
10:13 Report/Update from Executive Coordinator
● Review Strategic Planning Proposal
○ Devika Ghai - supports groups in creating
strategic plans
○ Strategic plans: orgs typically have-
values, vision, mission, strategic road map, theory of change (approach to
creating change around your mission)
○ Devika thinks that a lot of the hard work
is done - work on vision, mission
○ Goal would be to look at the strategic
road map
○ Strategic plan gives us an idea of what
to focus on
■ a lot of pulls on our time - something to
guide us as a rubric of what to focus on
■ also helpful to look at as we do
evaluation
■ helpful for fundraising
■ good for residents to have an idea of
what EPIC is working on
○ most of the work within the proposal
would be done by Vision and Mission Department, along with Sarah
○ Encourage residents to be specific in
their suggestions so they are useful - step 2
○ Step 3 - look at capacity i.e. funding,
staff time - whole board does this work
○ Step 4 - look at this ^ and draft medium
and short term goals
○ Step 5 - get feedback from neighbors on ^
○ Pro of someone from outside the board: we
don’t have to facilitate and participate at the same time
○ Con of someone from the neighborhood: how
to ensure that consultant is being biased - facilitator bias
■ Devika: everyone has facilitator bias -
whether internal or external; good facilitators have their own working
principles; to ensure Devika’s bias doesn’t influence the process - usually
there are open input moments (step 2 and 5) where we get input from neighbors
and Devika would ask the group whether they want her input
○ Idea to do a request for proposal from
the neighborhood - other practitioners
○ Proposal: approve spending of the
■ executive committee - three weeks -
publicize that looking to contract out strategic plan
● little blurb in normal channels - express
interest, put in proposal
● calling for proposal to help with
strategic planning, feel free to share outside of East Phillips - looking for
someone with experience with strategic planning; include resume with experience
of strategic plan + other Devika requests
○ set December 2 executive committee
meeting
■ executive committee reviews proposals and
delegates appropriately
● Executive committee reviews proposal
prior to December 4 board meeting
○ 3 board members are okay going either way
- not necessary to get several bids according to our policies and procedures
○ 3 board member feels strongly that we get
other bids
MOTION: The EPIC board moves to announce a call
for proposals for a facilitator to lead EPIC in developing a strategic plan.
Announced by November 11 and proposals due by December 1, 2021. CH, KT, Approved
● The Alley rate increase of $50/month in
2022
● MPRB - aquatics funding
○
EPIC approved in February and March of 2020
○
NRP Phase II funds: Youth Programming Initiative Strategy
■
has $42,713 left on that contract
○
MPRB can invoice EPIC, paid by EPIC and then we get
reimbursed on that contract
Report from
Departments/Committees
● Community
and Board Engagement Department
1) Review event calendar for 2022
○ note date changes when meetings interfere
with a holiday
○ Annual Meeting date
■ whether to do Neighborhood Election Day
or our own Annual Meeting in March/April
● spoke with someone who suggested we sit
this one out and do our own and then ask a neighborhood how it went, whether it
was beneficial or not and whether the city’s advertisement efforts helped
■ Stick with March/April Annual Meeting
■ June 1 and April 17 - avoid
○ Community and Board Engagement Department
has the idea to shift the SummerFest towards a Carnival/Tournament/Contests
■
Carnival
games, Kickball tournament, block contests, tug of war, talent show, fashion
show, food contest, recycled material contest, environmental justice
idea/science fair
●
Week
long tournaments
●
Food,
present winners on final day, prizes
■
MIGIZI,
LERA, MPRB, AICDC, NACDI, Indian Health Board, the Alley, KALY radio, Carol
Lefleur (Metro Police), humanities commission (funding for telling untold
stories)
2) Proposes we take out ads in:
■ Vida y Sabor (a Spanish speaking
publication)
● small vertical banner (205x140 pixels) is
$40/month
● one time or ongoing?
○ just need to be clear about which dates
to run the ad
■ Sahan Journal (an Immigrant and POC
publication)
● Medium Rectangle banner (300x250 pixels)
$475
● Sarah proposes one time
■ KALY Radio (Somali publication)
● Garden
Steering Committee
1) Review events for the East Phillips
garden for 2022
○ Garden events
■ Spring (May) work day; Fall (October)
work day
■ Harvest party
■ Cherry picking festival
● Swap recipes, cherry recipes
○ Garden workshops, trainings etc.
■ Soil building workshop, tool sharpening,
Narcan training, fruit tree care (pruning workshop)
● Legal
and Finance Department
1) Quarterly financial report - add to CM agenda
2) David out on sabbatical for December and
January
a) Nikolas is approved as a signer, so we
need to get that setup at the bank so he can sign checks as needed in David’s
absence
MOTION: Approve update to the Chart of Accounts
of grouping the payroll categories under “Staff Expenses” See v2
Draft inChart of Accounts - Approved,
DI,
10:35 New business
and delegate to proper spaces (work group, department etc.)
●
Touch base about use of CPP funds -
building purchase etc.
○
At our September board meeting the
board laid out the following next steps
■
Set up a meeting with Community Land
Trust
■
Continue exploring Cedar and 27th
Ave
○
David reports on meetings with PRG,
City of Lakes Community Land Trust and Commercial version of CLCLT
○ We have these open contracts with the city which will expire on
Dec 31st.
|
|
Balance Remaining |
|
Active EPIC Contracts |
|
|
42,713.75 |
|
|
35,846.68 |
|
|
218,080.93 |
|
|
|
296,641.36 |
|
|
|
|
Rollover to 2022 |
63,214.06 |
|
Needed for rest of 2021 |
25,000-35,000 |
|
Youth Programming (extend it) |
42,713.75 |
|
REMAINDER |
155,713.55 |
○
David believes that we
will then have about $155-165K available this year. All in all, he thinks we
should aim to purchase the property. For long-term sustainability, taking rent
out of our funding needs will be incredibly valuable.
■
Keeping notes here
about purchasing ideas with regards to the Bloomington Office: 2433 Bloomington Ave Purchase
○
David has a meeting with Wits Reality
who does both feasibility assessments and also property management to look at
the property to help us determine if we can truly afford to purchase this
property over the long-haul. If anyone wants to join on Tuesday @2:30pm at the
EPIC Office, please join.
○
Maintenance costs - can’t get
through city funds - Land Trust is good for this
○
Improvements e.g. bathroom - would
be eligible for city
○
Nikolas will have a sit down with
Mark Welna
■
Nikolas has an offer from a real
estate agent to do the work for free
○
Carol will talk with David
○
Gas station is up for sale again
11:40 Paul Dale
comment on bylaws:
●
Citizen participation org for East
Phillips
●
membership - important to send
signal that they have meaningful opportunity for participation
○
as a moral position - do the
outreach as a support for voting - who cares enough
●
community engagement - there is
board privilege - white privilege - important to send a welcome message -
engagement that is unidirectional is inferior to true engagement
○
strong statement to have it in the
bylaws because policies and procedures come and go
●
Paul experienced a great deal of
racism - denied by school board in work to integrate; covenants not to sell to
people of color
○
experienced lots of procedural
injustice
○
would like to see it in the bylaws
rather than policies and procedures
●
What are the voting rights - when
does voting come into play - be explicit on website
11:54 Adjourn
