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HomeMy WebLinkAboutFBMINUTES090104Friends of West University Place Parks Fund, Inc. Board Meeting Minutes September 1, 2004 Friends of West University Place Parks Board met on Wednesday, September 1, 2004, at 11:30 a.m. at the Rec Center. The following were in attendance: Board Members 1. Joni Fichter 2. Vicki Grams 3. Maria Elena Herbst 4. Cece McCann 5. Sue Hanna 6. Whitney Walsh 7. Lynne Goddard 8. Stacey Speier 9. Cindy Hassler Executive Director & Staff Donna LaMond Tim O'Connor Chairman's Report - Joni Fichter The September meeting was called to order at 11:40 a.m. by Chair Joni Fichter. A report was given and the following items covered: A motion was made by Maria Elena Herbst and seconded by Vicki Grams to approve the May minutes. Motion was passed. Lewis Challenge Letter appeared in the City Current. Lewis' will not match an in-kind donation. They would match something like a donation from the Rotary Club at the Rec Center. Children of the Bohme family did a lemonade stand and gave half their proceeds to Friends for the Rec Center. A lunch was held with Jeanette Baughman of Encore Bank. Encore will contribute $5,000 for underwriting of the PLB. After ciis )r~ about the Rice Pocket Park and the desire for the A&M students' renderings to be refined so that a plan can be developed, a motion was made by Stacey Speier and seconded by Cece McCann to reserve funds of wL3.000 to help the city get started on an architectural plan and initial layout of funds for the Rice Pocket Park. Once a landscape plan has been created, the plan and budget will be presented back to the Friends Board for possible additional consideration of funding. Motion passed. Executive Director Report -Donna LaMond The Lewis Challenge Letter has been completed. The Lewis' put the letter on their letterhead so that Friends can begin using it to promote the matching $500K grant opportunity to the public. The thank-you letter from Friends to the Lewis' Foundation has been completed and mailed. The clock is ticking on this three-year window to raise funds for matching by the Lewis Foundation, effective February 1, 2004, through PLB 2007. Friends board members were asked to please help promote this "double your money" opportunity by word of mouth. The Lewis Challenge letter was submitted to the City to include in City Currents as well as information about Friends membership and the search for new board members to replace those who have resigned or rolled off the board. Friends has received a nice response to the letter with just under $3,000 in donations which amounts to almost $6,000 with the matching grant. Also included in the information in City Currents is a save-the-date announcement about PLB05, noting the new location and the fact that the ball will be on a Friday night instead of the traditional Saturday night. Press releases about the open positions on the Board as well as the second annual membership drive have gone out. A number of responses have been received from residents interested in joining the Friends Board. To date, the Board has received four applications. Joni Fichter and Donna LaMond have interviewed some of them, Leah Ragiel has interviewed one, and Katherine Kardesch recommended another. Still, a few positions remain open. Donna requested that the Board help in filling these positions. Donna also will continue to work to secure new board members to fill the vacant positions. A press release covering the donation made by George Boehme's kids from the lemonade stand has been sent out and was published in The Examiner. This was another great opportunity to publicize the Lewis matching grant because the donation was designated for the Rec Center. Cheryl Hoyal (from Parks Board) completed the donor recognition tiles for Colonial Park this summer. The tiles look great. Cheryl Butler was very instrumental in helping to get this project finished. A personal thank-you note, from Friends, was sent to Cheryl and several of her friends who helped with the project. Other volunteers who assisted Cheryl were: Cathy Winter, Johanna Hefley, and Janet Cook. Letters to all Colonial Park Donors notifying them that the tiles are in place were mailed out in July. Now that school has started and vacations are over, a press release will be sent out about the tiles. A photo and article about the tiles have been submitted for the next City Currents, due out in October. Donna assisted Shannon Gardner in launching the second Annual Friends Membership drive. This included placement of banners at two parks, advertisements on the marquee at the Rec Center, generation of letters and information packets which were mailed out to the current database. Friends received a great response to this campaign. Membership acknowledgement letters and packets will continue to be sent out. Shannon worked on putting together additional packets to have on hand. Donna will continue to generate letters and packets, and mail them out. About $30,000 donations from inception of the membership program to date from the membership drive. PCB 05 A core group of Board members met in August to begin plans for the Ball. A new strategy was generated. In recognition of the Lewis Family Charitable Foundation Matching Grant, the group decided to theme the 2005 ball, A Match Made In Heaven. Joni and Donna have talked to Linda and Phil Lewis about becoming the Honorary Chairs for the 2005 ball. This has not been confirmed but we are hopeful. For 2006, the group came up with the theme, Crystal Ball, looking to the future - of the Rec Center - and then the third and final year of the Grant matching opportunity, the group came up with the theme, Double or Nothing, possibly a casino-type ball. A preliminary fact sheet was presented to the Friends Board about the ball as it was thought a new approach would be needed this year. Instead of a Ball Chair or overall Ball Chairs, it was recommended that the PLB be chaired by David Klutts and A Chorus of Friends. The Chorus of Friends would provide assistance through an underwriting leadership committee and an auction leadership committee. Friends will continue to add members to each of these committees, but the board will provide the leadership. This prevents one person from being overwhelmed. Donna will coordinate and assist with mailings, etc. Underwriting letters will need to go out in a few weeks. This mailing will initially go to last year's underwriters and prospects. New underwriting prospects need to be added to the list as well. Donna will work with the underwriting leadership committee to orchestrate this. Ticket prices will probably remain the same as the 2004 tickets. Sterling McCall was asked to underwrite the expenses of the valet parking. They want to stay at their same level of $2,500 and not the $5,000 as hoped. Board members were reminded that the sooner someone commits as an underwriter, the more publicity they will get. Regarding the auction, there has been discussion of scaling back on the quantity of items for this ball and focus more on quality. It was suggested by Leah Ragiel that Friends look at a company called Silent Partners at www.silentpartners.com. They have a system (database) in place. Friends provides them with letters and this company would mail them out to their database. The company guarantees that Friends would make back at least what is paid in for their services. Donna has placed a call into them to find out more. The current understanding is that their fee is approximately $5-6K. Friends has never tried this approach before, but may consider trying it. Friends also is looking for someone to be responsible for receiving auction items. Storage USA has offered to store the items again this year at no charge. However, Friends needs to have a name and address for auction donors to send their items and forms to. Stacy Speier offered his name and business address for the auction items, as long as it was short-term. The Tootsies manager was contacted about providing items for PLB or for pre-ticket drive. The manager said they had cut back on their philanthropic donations. The owner would need to be contacted since they do not have one person who handles internal marketing for them any longer. Board members were asked if they knew the owner. It was suggested that Friends contact the Village - about supporting the parks - for a special West U shopping night or a special discount for a week of shopping in December. Friends felt it would be good to call on the advisory board to assist with underwriting efforts. The contract with Intercontinental Hotel was executed for PLB 05 which will take place on Friday, January 21, 2005. The deposit has been paid. Cece McCann has offered to be in charge of the PLB 05 invitation design. Renelle Cadena's company, Trademarks, has agreed to comp the design for PLB. Friends will need to look for someone or a business to underwrite the cost of printing and mailing the invites. Cece presented a couple of potential designs and also discussed a couple of other options. Cece plans to let Trademarks develop a couple of professional designs for the Board to review. David Klutts is out of town, but has been stayed in touch with Joni and Donna via phone and email regarding the PLB and other parks matters. He is working on securing a band for us. The bands under consideration so far: Twist and Shout, Front Street Band, Password, and Commercial Art. David, Donna, and possibly Joni, will be meeting next week to discuss the Ball in more detail. Financial statements were handed out to the Board from the CPA for review. Lynne Goddard announced that there were some unclaimed items still available from last year's ball. She will contact several of these companies to see if they will extend the expiration date so that the items can be auctioned again in 2005. Treasurer's Report - Sue Hanna Report from year to date. Funds are growing. $175,000 available. Major expenses were $12,000 for payroll. Report attached. Board Reports E-store No Report Admin/PR Committee - Katherine Kardesch Donna covered this information in her report. Development Committee Chair - Charlie Henke - Chair, Stacey Speier No Report Membership & Marketing Donna covered this information in her report. Special Events & Projects - Whitney Walsh The Stork program continues to go well. Whitney has received numerous ideas about how to raise additional funds for this program. West U Place Parks Tour of Homes will occur On Oct. 23 and 24 and 30 and 31 st. Eight homes in West U and Bellaire. Friends will be the only group that can sell tickets for the tours. Friends will have to staff all the homes eight hours a day. Can make up to $20,000. Homes are not furnished and are provided for the home tour by the builders. Friends can designate the funds to go towards the Rec Center and double the money. Donna will prepare a press release to send out about the home tour and include a request for volunteers. Whitney Walsh will be the contact. Wish List/Giving Tree - Vicki Grams and Maria Elena Herbst Trying to get a list of Wish List items compiled - would like to have a nice form for the Ball and other events. Tim O'Connor was asked if Friends could use any of the new displays at the various parks. Tim said there was some available space on some displays. He will get with Vicki and Maria Elena and let them know which displays are available. Business Partners - Lynne Goddard ix Working on getting some new partners. Plans to approach JMH. Lynne mentioned a program at Katz's Deli where you could bring in a certificate and get 10% of your bill donated to a charity. Block Captain Liaison - Lynne Goddard No report Contracts, Nominations and Bylaws Committee Several new people were nominated for positions on the Board: Claudia Holmes - Sue Hanna nominated and Stacey Speier seconded. Motion Passed. Katy Holt - Stacey Speier nominated and Cece McCann seconded. The motion passed. Margaret Wallace - Marie Elena Herbst nominated and Lynne seconded the nomination. The motion passed. Jeannette "JB" Baughman - Sue Hanna nominated and Vicki Grams seconded. The motion passed. These new Board members will need to be approved by City Council. Donna will get this on the next City Council meeting agenda. Parks & Advisory Liaison Chair - Cece McCann Several new people were nominated for positions on the Advisory Board: Carol Burke, Ann Graves, and David Crowe Cece McCann made the motion for the nomination of the three candidates to the Advisory Board. Maria Elena Herbst seconded. The motion passed. Parks & Rec Report - Tim O'Connor A RFP comprehensive recreation center need phone survey has been launched. The city has allowed six to eight weeks for completion. Bubble is in its 10th year of a 10-year life. City has identified how many individuals use the facility on a regular basis for lap swimming, water exercise, etc. 640 total individuals have used the facility from September through May at varying times. A workshop will be held later this month to discuss the situation and discuss options on what to do. Options available are in The Examiner today and Tim's email address is in there for questions, comments, etc. Park and Rec Board Report- David Klutts Joni, Donna, and/or Tim covered in their reports. Other Business The next meeting will be held on October 6 at 6:15 p.m. at Cece McCann's house and will include members of the Advisory Board. Although Advisory Board members are welcome at all Friends Board meetings, this meeting will be the first joint meeting. Future plans will be to host a regular joint meeting each fall. Cece will advise Friends as to what to bring. Adjournment Marie Elena Herbst made the motion to adjourn and Vicki Grams seconded the motion. Motion carried and the meeting was adjourned at 1:00 P.M.