EPIC
Board Meeting Draft Agenda
March 5, 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: Karen Townsend, Mary Gonsior, Steve Sandberg, David Ingold, Laura Dale, Nikolas Winter-Simat
Board Members Not Present: Cassandra Holmes (E), Shontal Lajeunesse (E), Earl Simms
Members: LaRon Young
Guests:
10:09 Review vision and mission
Welcome guests/intros
Approve agenda, NWS,
MG, Approved
Approve minutes, NWS, KT, Approved
Reminders:
●
Next
Community Meeting will be: Thursday, March 10 from 6:30 to 7:30 at East
Phillips Park and online (link to join meeting can be found at
eastphillips.org)
o
The
topic will be: Strategic Planning
●
Next
Board Meeting will be: Saturday, April 2 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
●
The
board received the February Financial Statement via email
● Annual Meeting is March 26!
10:05 Report/Update
from Executive Coordinator
1) Report/discuss planning
for Annual Meeting
○
Those
up for re-election: Laura Dale, Nikolas Winter-Simat, David Ingold, Karen
Townsend
i)
Earl resigned
(1) A Director may resign
at any time by giving notice to an Officer of the Board. Notice may be in any
form. The resignation can be deemed effective immediately without formal
acceptance by the board. If a resignation is provided with a later effective
date, then the Board may fill the pending vacancy before the effective date and
the new Director will be seated on the effective date and will serve out the remainder
of the resigning Director’s term. If
less Directors will remain after the resignation than is mandated as the
minimum required by these bylaws, then the resignation must not be effective
until a successor is elected so the minimum number of Directors is maintained.
(2) Vacancies in the Board
of Directors are filled after a published call for applications by a vote of
the majority of the remaining Directors at a properly called meeting. The
interim Director appointed will fulfill the remainder of the term for that
seat.
ii)
Nikolas Winter-Simat, David Ingold and
Karen Townsend are running again
(1) Everyone who is running
will have a couple of minutes at the Annual Meeting to share about themselves
and why they want to be on the board or their vision for East Phillips – come
prepared!
(2) Bios will also be
posted on the website for those voting electronically
iii)
Laura will not run for re-election
○
Nominations received
i)
You all should have received the
nomination form for Laron
ii)
Please reach out to anyone you know who
might be interested in being on the board! They can be nominated from the floor
of the Annual Meeting
(1) Make sure they know
they need to have attended a Board Meeting or Community Meeting within the last
six months - one more chance to fulfill this - March 10 Community Meeting
iii)
One seat yet to be filled
○
Outreach update
i)
You all received a purchase request for
printing to flyer about the Annual Meeting, board election, nominations from
the floor
ii)
Sarah plans to flyer starting on March 17
○
Host/facilitator/MC?
i)
Mary, Steve, David, Karen, Nikolas
(1) Ask Cassie
○
In person location
i)
We are able to use East Phillips Park!
ii)
Question about estimate of how many
people will be attending
(1) Sarah estimated 35,
Jeanne wondering if that is a low estimate
(2) Maybe 50
(3) Help setting up? Friday
night or Saturday morning?
(a) David, Steve, Karen -
come early
iii)
Details of how to serve food
(1) People who are not in
the same family/household need to be 6 feet apart when eating (otherwise masks
must be worn)
(a) Can serve food to
people as they leave - not conducive to community building over food
(b) Can serve in gym and do
presentation in the atrium
(c) Other ideas?
(d) Meeting 45 mins; food
before; election at end
(e) Food: gym or outside
○
Food
i)
Planning to purchase churros, fruit and
coffee
2) Job Descriptions: Outreach
Workers
○
Would like to add this to flyer for
Annual Meeting as I do outreach for this
○
Ready to post??
i)
Plan to post on MN Council of Nonprofits
as well
(1) Free posting with our
membership
○
Interviewing - Employee Handbook says:
i)
The Executive/Personnel Committee has
delegated to the Executive Coordinator the responsibility for performing
initial screening interviews and makes hiring decisions for all prospective
EPIC employees.
ii)
The Executive/Personnel Committee will
conduct second interviews with candidates and will be responsible for all
employment decisions, including but not limited to,
(1) Director (Mary) is
responsible to interview, hire, train, evaluate, promote, discipline and
terminate, except as otherwise noted in this handbook.
(2) The Executive
Coordinator shall work in consultation with the Executive/Personnel Committee
to make personnel decisions.
(3) The Executive
Coordinator provides all day-to-day supervision of employees.
○
Timeline:
i)
Publish job description early March - NOW
ii)
Hire by April
iii)
Train April
iv)
Outreach: May-October
3) Report on
progress of Equitable Engagement Fund programs/initiatives
●
Job descriptions for Garden
Coordinator and Outreach
Workers - see above
○
Note gardeners want to
discuss the Garden Coordinator job description and determine whether to hire -
likely won’t decide until April
●
Development: Strategic
planning process - topic of our March Community Meeting
○
Vision Committee has met
twice and came up with: this
document
○
Full board needs to review
and approve because this will then be brought to the community for them to figure
out the HOW behind these long term goals
●
Getting better grasp on
what CPP rollover funds can be used for - board
needs to be thinking about how to use CPP rollover funds: $140K
○
Robust outreach, reaching
communities that have been underrepresented will be key in deciding how to use
funds
○
Thoughts on how to approach
this?
○
Briefly touched base on
whether to apply for the Collaboration and Shared Resource Fund
■
Board members were not
ready to commit for this year
■
Would like to consider for
next year’s funding, particularly for
●
Translation services
●
Shared space?
●
Maybe for staff (concern
that $20,000 wouldn’t go far for staff time)
■
Seward and Longfellow have
secured a space in Hi Lake
●
They are working to develop
lots of different levels for organizations to plug in
●
Sarah has done outreach to
businesses for donations for our Welcome Bags for our New Neighbor Welcome
Program
○
Mark Welna has said that he
will offer gift cards, needs to discuss with his son and will get back to us
about how many and how much money
○
Household items with EPIC
on it
■
Notebook
■
Magnet
■
Wrenches
■
Seeds
■
Printing local businesses,
services, skills
■
History of East Phillips
book - contract someone - Peter? - Walking tour
○
Brainstorm session
●
Sarah has sent letters to 4
property managers/owners of buildings with 20+ units to request access to for
doorknocking/flyering
●
Searching for grants for
food, entertainment, artists and healers at larger community meetings; garden
upkeep (tree removal, money for replacement tools, hoses etc.)
○
Applied for a Resilia
Microgrant ($1,000) and Minneapolis Foundation Microgrant ($5,000)
4) Update on
OPS workgroup:
○
Document
that was requested for outlining staff time and printing expenses
○
Article in Star Tribune - coming
out this weekend?
○
Translators on Wage Theft
form
5) Garden
Updates:
●
Garden Steering Committee
has been meeting monthly over the winter and has several documents and changes
they are proposing to gardeners, including:
■ Draft of charter
■ Draft of garden contract
and waiver
■ Draft changes to garden policies
■ Garden Coordinator Job
description
■ Flow chart of proposed changes to the way
garden committee works:
● Want a structure that gives more
power to gardeners
10:40 Report from Departments
MOTION: Approve changes to chart of
accounts: DI,
MG, Approved
MOTION: The EPIC board approves V4 of the 2022 EPIC Budget, DI, LD, Approved
2022 Annual Meeting - Financial Position
Draft presentation:
10:45 New business and delegate to proper spaces
(work group, department etc.)
●
Do we want to add funds?
●
David proposes that we
should use up our NRP-1 and get it added to CEE ($16,094.78).
●
This would require a board
and community vote
●
Proposed that targeted for
home loan programs and East Phillips residents or narrow scope of emergency
repairs - talk to Stacy Sorenson
●
Alignment with community’s
values: stable and healthy housing is something that we heard as a priority of
neighbors in last summer’s survey
MOTION: The EPIC board approves of using
$16,094.78 of NRP-I funds for our CEE housing programs, DI, MG, Approved
●
Look into: designated for first time home
purchases and critical repairs by existing residents in Phillips
(East Phillips, Midtown Phillips, Phillips West, and Ventura Village) for homes
in East Phillips.
Touch
base on this again in a year - make sure not too restrictive and people aren’t
able to use
2)
Create
bylaws committee (stated in policies and procedures) to start reviewing items
need to be done - TABLED
3)
Board
members interested in helping to develop Micro Partnership Program?
a)
Form
subgroup?
b)
Nikolas
4) Sign on to Phillips
West Neighborhood Organization letter to council member regarding encampments? Or write our own?
a) They are planning to
send it March 18
5)
Invited
to partner for an online Listening Session with Jason Chavez - March 24 at 6pm
a)
He
will put a plug in for our Annual Meeting and Board Election at the listening
session
b)
Please
pass on any creative ideas you have for this to Sarah!
6)
Mark
your calendars - Open Streets on Lake Street will be on Saturday August 13!
a)
Sarah
is meeting with the coordinator soon
b)
Let
Sarah know if you have any ideas about how the event can best serve East
Phillips
11:00 Adjourn
