April 2018

BOARD MEETING MINUTES – Monday, April 16, 2018 – 7:00 p.m., Fuller Park

Board members present: Dan Williams, Briana Daymont, Valerie Hurst, Kathy Kornblum, Gabe Moreno, Joy Gottschalk, Steve Wohlford, Justin Wills

Board members absent: Dick Fiala, Ryan Fisher

Also present: Sally Bauer (TNA Executive Director), Jeremy Schroeder, Rachel Hoban (Fuller Park director), Stacey Sorenson (Minneapolis NCR Neighborhood Specialist), Sara Gangelhoff (Senior Policy Aide for Jeremy Schroeder)

Called to order: 7:07pm

Officer Reports:

Secretary – Steve made a motion to approve the March minutes, Valerie seconded.  Voice vote, all in favor, motion approved.

Treasurer – Justin presented the 2017 Minnesota tax forms which now require an explicit approval from the board and sign-off of two officers.  Kathy moved to approve the documents, Steve seconded. Voice vote, all in favor, motion approved.

Fuller Park Update

Newly added spring activities starting the first week of May include pickle-ball and a badminton league.  Sally will share these via social media.

Councilmember Jeremy Schroeder

Jeremy gave an update on plowing and the snow emergency. If residents have concerns (eg alleys not being plowed or plowing isn’t happening fast enough) he asked them to call 311 and/or Jeremy’s office to let the City know.

Jeremy has been meeting with the City about small businesses; if TNA has suggestions for types of businesses or notices locations becoming vacant let Jeremy know.  Steve asked about the former Xcel power substation at 4700 Nicollet but nobody knew its current status.

Jeremy also shared an update on the iMatter group’s push for renewable electricity which was presented at a TNA meeting earlier this year. Jeremy introduced a new resolution co-authored with Cam Gordon and Steve Fletcher calling for 100% renewable electricity in the city by 2030. While iMatter’s resolution called for a renewable electricity by 2025, Jeremy’s resolution reflects the reality that the City cannot meet a 2025 deadline due to critical infrastructure like backup power, water treatment, and water pumps that have no current solutions without fossil fuels.

Jeremy introduced Sara Gangelhoff from his office who is focused on ensuring that diversity, equity, inclusion, and affordable housing is baked into everything he works on. She is also working on increasing opportunities for small businesses.  Jeremy noted that if TNA knows of a business location looking for a tenant he can connect us with the City’s site business development staff who can help connect that location with somebody looking to site a business in the city.

Neighborhood 2020

Stacey Sorenson presented the City’s public Neighborhoods 2020 roadmap document for which comments are due April 30th via phone, email, mail, etc.  The City will start four workgroups this summer (Future of Neighborhood Programming, Future of NCR, Advisory Boards, and Citywide Engagement Policy), bring conclusions back to neighborhoods in late 2018, and finally seek council approval for changes in 2019.  Four options/models are currently being considered, including “impact/assessment”, “pooled resources”, “CPP”, and “TBD”. Steve asked about funding proposals as only the CPP model had detailed funding proposals, he wanted to avoid a “rich get richer” problem in that well-organized neighborhoods start off on the best foot immediately.  Stacey replied that this isn’t the intent but that Steve should send that concern to the City as part of his comments. ncr@minneapolismn.gov

Joy and Sally suggested the board should individually send comments on the document.  Sally also included her personal thoughts in the board meeting packet. Sally also asked what the workgroup makeup would be and how would those people be selected, which Stacey indicated was still being decided.

Nominating Chair for Board Leadership

TNA elects new board members during our May annual meeting followed by officer elections as the June meeting.  Joy suggested developing a plan for continuity given TNA will have three officer positions open. Steve asked which seats will be open and which officer positions will be open. Joy indicated that president, vice-president, and treasurer positions will be open; Dan is happy to continue as secretary unless somebody else really wants to do it.  While all non-officer board members stood for election last year and board members serve two-year terms, Steve and Gabe questioned continuity if all members were up for election at the same time.

Sally proposed creating a nominating committee to handle the officer election process; she will send an email with position descriptions to board members who should reply privately with any interest in those positions.  The nominating committee would be responsible for recruiting officers. Sally doesn’t feel comfortable being involved in that process as she reports to the president. Joy volunteered to start the process and reach out to current board members now and new board members in May.  The board agreed Joy should begin this process.

Justin noted that he has cleaned up TNA’s financial processes greatly over the last year and that the treasurer role will be less technical going forward; it is now a proper treasurer role rather than treasurer and controller.

Mission Statement

Board members sent proposed mission statements to Sally who distilled them into a few options.  The board combined a few of the options into the following proposed statement: “The Tangletown Neighborhood Association exists to enhance the quality of life for those who live, work, or play in Tangletown through advocacy, community engagement, and neighborhood initiatives.”

Steve moved to adopt the second option as the mission statement, Kathy seconded.  Voice vote, all in favor, motion approved.

Board Member Expectations

Sally proposed a document to share with prospective board members that documents the TNA purpose, plan, and board member roles and expectations.  The board reviewed her proposed document and approved it.

Annual Meeting

Sally proposed the theme “The Future of Tangletown”.  The board decided that president will run the overall meeting, deliver the Strategic Planning overview, and call for nominations of new members from the attendees.  Our bylaws require a treasurer report, which will be done as part of the Strategic Planning report. Steve will deliver a rebranding report. Gabe, Bri, and Valerie will deliver committee updates.  Sally will give an overview of our ballot process; the board agreed to follow the same procedure as last year in which the ballot will show members not standing for election, known candidates with checkboxes for election, and blank spaces for write-in nominees.  Stacey Sorenson will count ballots as a neutral third party.

Steve requested that Sally be formally introduced as TNA didn’t have staff last year.

Committee Updates

Beautiful Purposeful Spaces: subcommittees were created for three immediate areas of focus: enhancing the water tower, increasing TNA brand awareness through signage, and alley cleanup/beautification events.  A longer-term list of additional priorities (including housing) will be run in parallel.

Innovative Environmental Leadership: the committee identified three priorities that members were passionate about and which fell within the scope of the strategic plan: connecting with CEE for loans on green initiatives, promoting subsidizing energy audits, and supporting inter-neighborhood collaborations.  

Engaged Welcoming Community: the committee agreed to shorten the name to “Community Engagement Committee”.  The committee came up with questions for a resident survey of neighborhood priorities, and will focus on institutional relationships (schools, churches, library, park) and community engagement.  Other areas of interest include determining what institutions people have relationships with right now, how residents engage with TNA online, and what communication channels work best.

ED Report

Water Tower: Sally relayed the answer to the sprinkler system question from earlier this year, which was that there is not enough water pressure for an automatic sprinkler system.

Roe Family Singers: the group is willing to perform at our 4th of July event for a fee of $600; Dan moved to approve a budget of $600 for this purpose.  Valerie seconded, all in favor, motion approved.

Promo items and signage: Steve and Sally suggested selling T-Shirts but we need somewhere to store them during the Fuller Park renovation. Steve volunteered his basement.  Steve moved to budget $4,000 for branded promotional items for sale or give-away. Justin seconded; all in favor, motion approved. Sally researched various branded signs (tent, sandwich, hanging, etc) and presented a quote for $1500.  Justin moved to budget up to $1500 for signage, Joy seconded, voice vote, motion approved.

Insurance: TNA’s current insurance does not adequately cover our events. Sally got a quote for $505 (inclusive of 5 events per year) that meets all city requirements.  Kathy moved to approve a budget of $505 for the new insurance policy, Steve seconded. Voice vote, all in favor, motion approved.

Adjourned: 8:57

Minutes submitted by Dan Williams, TNA Secretary