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HomeMy WebLinkAboutFBMINUTES110304Friends of West University Place Parks Fund, Inc. Board Meeting Minutes November 3, 2004 Friends of West University Place Parks Board met on Wednesday, November 3, 2004, at 11:30 a.m. at the Recreation Center. The following were in attendance: Board Members 1. Joni Fichter 2. Cece McCann 3. Lynne Goddard 4. Leah Ragiel 5. Cindy Hassler 6. Charlie Henke 7. David Klutts 8. Katy Holt 9. Sue Hanna Executive Director & West University Parks Staff 1. Donna LaMond 2. Tim O'Connor Chairman's Report - Joni Fichter The November meeting was called to order at 11:30 a.m. by Chair Joni Fichter. A report was given and the following items covered: A motion was made by David Klutts and seconded by Leah Ragiel to approve the minutes as sent to all for the October 4 meeting. The motion carried. Special thanks were given to Donna LaMond and all who volunteered for the WU Festival of New Homes Tour. Executive Director Report - Donna LaMond Friends made approximately $7300 off the West U Festival of New Homes Tour (October 23 & 24 and October 30 & 31). The tour was a major fundraising project for Friends and involved coordinating 64 volunteer shifts at eight homes for four days. Special thanks to the many volunteers who helped make the project a success for Friends. One hundred percent of the ticket sales go to Friends and since the funds have been designated for the Rec. Center, they will be eligible for the matching funds from the Lewis Family Charitable Foundation. A booth was organized at the recent West U Elementary School Carnival. Friends handed out information on the Park Lovers Ball and offered some items for sale. Thanks to David Klutts, the Friends booth certainly had the best signage. Friends received lots of good publicity at this event. Friends has been offered the out-of-service WUP street signs for fundraising purposes from the City. Friends plans to sell these signs at the PLB auction at a set price. From the proceeds, Friends would reimburse the City $2 per sign, which is the salvage value. Friends would then get to keep any proceeds beyond this amount per sign. There are more than 550 of the signs. Friends will share these signs with two other community organizations, West U Elementary and West U Little League. Both organizations will sell the signs for the same purpose at their auctions, and will reimburse the City $2 per sign, plus a percentage of their proceeds will be given to Friends. Donna has provided a written agreement with the City so that Friends could take possession of the signs. Some memberships continue to come in, and donation responses to the Lewis Challenge letter that went out in the last City Currents are still trickling in. There is still a backlog of acknowledgement letters that need to be generated and mailed out. At the suggestion of Mayor Ballanfant, Friends has posted a chart of the progress made on the Lewis Challenge in the form of a thermometer drawn on a white board and placed outside City Hall and at the Rec Center. A thank-you to David Klutts for getting the signs made and delivered. David also had some other signs made for us and they have been placed in prominent locations around the community. Sue Hanna took one to Compass Bank. There are more signs available that need to be delivered by board members to highly visible locations. A few paver orders have been received. Cheryl Butler will work with Claudia to help her process these orders. PLB 05 Thanks to assistance from some board members, Friends has mailed out the main thrust of the underwriter solicitation letters. Leah Ragiel was particularly instrumental in this process. Cheryl Butler also helped us merge letters and generate labels for the mailing. Donna continues to send out more underwriter letters as prospects are introduced. The auction solicitation letters have gone out as well. Auction items and certificates have started to come in. The Auction Leadership Committee is meeting next week to get better organized and start inputting the items into Auction Tracker. The next step will be making direct phone calls to underwriter prospects to follow- up. Members of the board will be recruited to help with this effort. Please send any underwriter leads to Donna. She will prepare the letters and packets, and get them mailed out. An early commitment incentive has been offered again this year. For all commitments received by Nov. 10, there will be a drawing for a room at the hotel the night of the ball. Payment won't be due until January 10. This is a good excuse to email friends about signing up to attend the ball. Cece is working with Renelle on the invitations for the ball. Cece showed the first draft layout for the invitation. The board liked the inside of the invitation. The outside of the invitation needed some additional design work. Size of the invitation was discussed. It was felt that the invitation needed to an off-size so as to catch people's attention. Cece will work on revisions to the invitation. x Vicki and Maria Elena are meeting with the decorator the hotel has retained for our ball decorations today and therefore, are not at the Friends board meeting. Treasurer's Report - Sue Hanna The report is attached. We made $1150 from the Double Your Donation Letter and $7308.00 for the West U Festival of Homes for a total of $8458.00 in matching funds. Board Reports E-store Claudia will be taking this over. No report this meeting. 111111m %eummittee - nainerine Kardesch/Margaret Wallace A meeting will be held sometime next week about the auction details. Margaret will be entering the auction information in Auction Tracker. Development Committee Chair - Charlie Henke The committee will meet soon to go through list of underwriters, sponsors, and other big groups. Broken committee into sub-committees. Group plans to meet in a few weeks and divide up tasks. Membership & Marketing- Katy Holt Plans to focus on writing press releases. Would like to have additional photo opportunities - perhaps people who sent in their money early for the Ball. Donna mentioned that she had a photo of Phil/Linda Lewis which could be used since they are the Honorary Chairs for the PLB. t It was suggested that a press release be developed on the new thermometer sign what it's for and means for the Rec Center. Suggested that Friends get a photo of the mayor next to the thermometer for a PR opportunity. Special Events & Proiects Still looking into a stork at JMB. Look into getting a number on or attached to the stork so people would know where to call to get a stork. Whitney has resigned from the board due to a growing family situation. Wish List/Giving Tree - Vicki Grams and Maria Elena Herbst Waiting to get with Tim on what's available at all of the parks so they can create wish lists. Business Partners - Lynne Goddard Received some money from Randalls. Lynne Goddard made the motion to designate any of the business partner income over the next three years to the Rec Center and Sue Hannah seconded. Block Captain Liaison - Lynne Goddard No report Contracts, Nominations and Bylaws Committee Need a person to take on chairing this committee Parks & Advisory Liaison Chair - Cece McCann Thanks to all for attending the last board meeting and welcoming the Advisory Board to the meeting. Several of the Advisory Board helped out with the New Homes Tour. The Advisory Board is aware that they will be called on to assist with other events/projects. Parks & Rec Report - Tim O'Connor On Oct 26, a master planning workshop was started with City Council. There will be more workshops to come - five specific areas to focus on which include the West U Rec. Center master planning and other properties to purchase. Have some definitive plans for the Rec. Center which should help with future fundraising for the Rec. Center. Colonial Park pool has been closed and will be open with the bubble in place on November 15. Staff has done a great job of promoting all the activities available at the Rec. Center. Exxon Mobil will start their basketball league at the Rec Center. Should bring-in about $10,000 a year. Looking at some volleyball leagues as well. Several other teams are using the facilities a few times per week. Approached by a number of folks for use of the green space at the Rec Center. Have a gentlemen's agreement with TRI Sports on the green space. Holding a Parents Night out at the Rec. Center. It's a lock- in and has been a big success - more than a 100 kids participated at the last one. Spook Spectatular was successful. There were more than 1100 to go through and it raised more than $3,000. Proposing a round-up program where residents can round-up their utility bill amount to the next dollar. This should help with some recreational programs for the Parks Fund. There is a balance of about $10,000 remaining in the fund. John Lucas has a private business where he offers physical rehab for MBA players and is using the Rec. Center. There is a reciprocal agreement in place where Lucas oversees the youth program for West U in exchange for use of the Rec. Center. Tim would like to set-up a meeting with Lucas and some of the Friends Board members to look into how to approach these MBA players for raising some money for the Rec Center where they have received rehabilitation. The Task Force for the pocket park has been appointed and will meet soon. Stacey Speier is still working on the animal recreational facility (ARF). Adjournment Cece made the motion to end and Leah seconded