BOARD MEETING MINUTES – Monday, September 19th, 2016 – 7:00 p.m., Fuller Park
Board members present: Dan Williams, Andrew Buss, Ryan Fisher, Joy Gottschalk, Joy Glasser, Lauren Anderson, Mary Jane Mitchell, Kathy Kornblum, Briana Daymont
Board members absent: Sandra Bartsias, Eric David, Dick Wager, Dick Fiala, Steve Bieringer, Justin Wills
Also present: Abby Rowan (TNA coordinator), Stacy Sorenson (City of Minneapolis NCR representative), Councilmember John Quincy, Tjody DeVaal
Called to order: 7:03pm
Officer Reports:
Secretary – A motion to approve the August 2016 minutes was made, seconded and approved.
Treasurer – Justin and Michael Wilson (City of Minneapolis) prepared the TNA FY2016 Charitable Trust Financial Statement and requested board approval. Joy moved to approve, Lauren seconded. Voice vote, all in favor, none opposed. Motion approved.
Partner and Other Announcements
Councilmember John Quincy reminded the board that the 11th Ward Neighborhood Summit would be held on September 28th from 6:30 – 8:00 at Windom community center and encouraged board members to attend.
Leaf Raking
TNA is partnering with Master Water Stewards Kristine Maurer and Brittany Faust to hold a neighborhood leaf raking event on Saturday November 5th. During the event volunteers will help rake the lawns of residents unable to do so. Sign-up deadline will be October 29th. Volunteers will meet at Fuller Park at 12:30 for a short training on etiquette, grab cider and cookies, then pick up rakes (if needed), placed in teams of 4 and assigned a location. Volunteers can return with their leaf bags, where there will be a water quality information fair starting at 1:30 at Fuller Park that volunteers and neighborhood residents can attend, with the Minnesota DNR, Pollution Control Agency, and other organizations. Kristine and Brittany have written an article on the raking event for the fall newsletter.
TNA also needs volunteers from 12 – 4 to help coordinate the event and fair. Andrew, Dan, Kathy, and Claire volunteered.
Before the raking event, there will be an evening water quality forum Tuesday Nov 1st with a speaker from Freshwater Society and refreshments.
The Sustainability committee request a budget of $600 for leaf bags, compostables, printing, food, and rakes. Lauren moved to approve, Ryan seconded. Voice vote, all in favor, none opposed.
The board discussed and agreed to drop storm drain stenciling in combination with the leaf raking event, but agreed to gague interest and have sign-ups at the water quality fair. Somebody should reach out to the Washburn Green Team to see if they are interested.
Newsletter Topics (responsible person in parentheses)
Leaf raking – (Lauren) this will be the main front-page topic for the newsletter.
Ogranics Recap – (Lauren, Joy) Kathy suggested adding a “for more info email” bit to the newsletter article and based on responses we could hold a follow-up educational session about composting over the winter, perhaps in late January.
4th of July Recap – (Ryan) TNA also thanks Andrew’s wife for taking1600 photos of the event!
Charlie Siftar Tribute – (Mary Jane) a short article about how the tribute was represented at the 4th of July event
New board members – (Tjody) Joy will send the group picture – each new board member will pick something from their bio and send that to Tjody, she’ll send email to board about what she wants.
Sustainability Lead – (Kristine Kvamme) Announce handover from Lauren to Kristine and regular meeting date, time, and location to make it easier for new members to join.
Crime & Safety – (Andrew) 4 sentences about new police precinct commander (if there’s space)
Kids Vote Minneapolis – (Ryan) Call for volunteers with contact info, Ryan will forward info to Tjody
Website – (Joy) A short article about recent and future changes to the TNA website
Halloween – (Tjody) a short article about the Tangletown Trick or Treat group gathering
Ryan asked that we get a scope-of-work form from Tjody for newsletter editor fees, and moved that we budget $650 for the newsletter work, which is in-line with past editing budgets. Joy seconded, voice vote, all in favor, none opposed. Motion approved.
The board discussed moving to an e-newsletter instead of a print version, or adding an e-newsletter in addition to the print version. No action was proposed yet because the print newsletter is still a good option for reaching many residents instead of adding yet another email that people might just delete. Also, it’s difficult to convert the existing PDF-based newsletter workflow into a web-based one that’s flexible enough.
Communications Committee
The committee held strategy meeting on Monday September 12th. The committee wants to add a events calendar widget to the website that pulls from a Google calendar, and restructure the site layout and article tags. The committee also wants to be more strategic and intentional about social media with regular updates for TNA, city, and other local events. Ryan is drafting a scorecard that we would use to identify which things to post and which are not appropriate for TNA. Abby suggested regular bi-weekly website and social media updates, and that whenever something is posted to the website it should also go out on social media like Facebook and Nextdoor.
It was suggested to kick off more active website and social media posts using modified versions of newsletter articles.
Nicollet Open Streets
The Windom neighborhood coordinator asked if TNA would like to partner on a Nicollet Open Streets 2017 application. Councilmember John Quincy noted that it is complicated to participate; it’s not a cost factor for neighborhoods but is an organizational challenge for the City and the Minneapolis Bike Coalition which manages the event. There were 9 neighborhoods this year. A large goal is economic development, so proposals must make sure businesses are involved. The event hasn’t historically worked well in South Minneapolis as there’s not as much commercial property along Nicollet Ave, and 46th Street is the furthest south the event has gone. There are traffic challenges on cross streets for freeway access like 46th and 54th, which need police presence for traffic direction.
Oct 10th is the deadline for applications. Ryan will take point and respond to Windom; Dan will help. An endorsement from the Southwest Business Association would help.
2015 Annual Report
Abby completed the TNA 2015 Annual Report and is ready to submit it to the City. Dan moved to approve it; Lauren seconded, voice vote, all in favor, none opposed. Motion carried.
NCR Neighborhood Board Survey
Stacy from the City passed out the board survey for board members to fill out. The City compiles the information and makes available for analysis and diversity enhancement.
Title Boxing
This was a board and neighborhood engagement idea Joy had presented at a previous meeting. She suggested that we drop the idea as there is now a cost associated for glove wraps (for sanitary reasons) and the reason it was initially attractive was that we thought it would be free.
Facade Improvement Grants
TNA has a Business Fascade Improvement grant program which matches 1/3 of funds up to a maximum of $1000. For example, a $600 improvement would get a $200 match. Even though lots of education and mailing was done, response is always slow. TNA has given grants to about 10 businesses so far but to get more we need more promotion and publicity. We’d like to renew our NCR contract under which the funds have previously been disbursed, as there is $1800 left in the NCR contract and $2000 left in the general NCR strategy that could be added to the NCR contract. The board previously agreed to contract the left-over NCR money for the grant program but has not officially voted on it. The contract amendment takes about a month and would be done through Stacy from the City.
Organics Recycling Wrap-up/Review
Joy gave a review of the past year’s Organics Recycling initiative in support of the City’s Organics program. Useful resources from the effort were posted to the tangletown.org website, including cart sign-up information, a list of accepted materials, home setup examples, compostable product buying guide, a cart delivery schedule, and more.
The Sustainability Committee organized a Kick-Off event in March with the Lynnhurst neighborhood including presentations, informational displays, games, hands-on activities, which was attended by about 215 people. An estimated 97 adults from Tangletown, 87 from Lynnhurst, and 19 from other neighborhoods attended. The presentations were recorded and are posted online, and both neighborhood organizations provided free compostable bin liners and lawn-signs to attendees.
The Committee also developed and launched the Organics Captain program, including four training sessions for the 25 Captains signed up for Tangletown. Those captains who reported back reached 80 residents via block gatherings and informational sessions, and further neighbor-to-neighbor education likely continues beyond those gatherings. Lynnhurst had 41 captains report back, reaching 155 residents. 25 Organics Captain lawn signs and 40+ resident signs were distributed to Tangletown residents.
The board also provided free compostable supplies to block captains for National Night Out parties. 32 block captains picked up compostable kits, reaching approximately 1200 residents (as estimated by block leaders). A Tangletown Organics Captain (and board member) made rounds of block parties that received kits to check in and answer questions.
Before the Organics initiative about 45% of residents had signed up for the program and by September 12 that had risen to almost 53%, an increase of 124 more homes in the program. The initiative also grew the partnership between Tangletown and Lynnhurst, and increased community building between residents within and between both neighborhoods.
Adjourned: 8:40pm
Minutes submitted by Dan Williams, TNA Secretary