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HomeMy WebLinkAboutFBMINUTES101205Friends of West University Place Parks Fund, Inc Board Meeting Minutes October 12, 2005 Friends of West University Place Parks Board Met on Wednesday, October 12, 2005, 11:30 am., at the West University Place Recreation Center 4210 Bellaire. The following were in attendance: Board Members Executive Director & West University Joni Fichter Park Staff Diana Brown Sue Hanna Katy Holt Vicki Grams Margaret Wallace Lynne Goddard Leah Ragiel Maria Elena Herbst Stacey Speier Susan Boyce Anne Steacy Donna LaMond Tim O'Connor Advisory Board Kim Wilson Chairman's Report - Joni Fichter The October meeting was called to order at 11:42 by Chair Joni Fichter. This was a rescheduled meeting from Oct. 5, 2005. Welcome to Sue Jensen who was appointed to the Friends board at the Sept. 12th City Council meeting. After a brief Council interview with Sue, Donna asked City Council to appoint her and they did! She is a great asset to our board and has been a long time supporter of Friends. She has been involved in past balls for us as well. She will be assisting Sue Hanna with Treasurer responsibilities, particularly during Sue's ball co- chair reign. Thanks to Tim for treating Friends to lunch compliments of the City. Tim and Donna have ordered a bench for Mrs. Dorothy Lurie in memory of her husband. She has paid for the bench, $1000, and it will go beside the tennis courts at Colonial Park. Another bench will most likely be ordered through Mrs. Lurie for her Professional Women's Association in memory of Olga Flores who died recently, lived on Case. The bench order brought to light the fact that we need a "standard" for such items. Donna and Tim are investigating a standard for orders such as this so that cost, item, plaque it other inscription, installation, and additional funds left over for parks general fund is included. Tim and Donna are going to work on developing an improved online brochure for parks items, such as benches. Tim has a staff member who can assist with this as well. When these benches are installed, we will do a press release and photo to help increase awareness of the type of fundraising for parks. Joni asked Donna to work on ABC Channel 13's Hometown Live story and try to get us some press there. Joni left word for Jennie and Gabe Raymond 713 349 9990 about sitting on the Pocket Park committee and/or serving on our board or PLB. No word back yet. Approval of the Minutes and Sign-In sheet - Cindy Hassle absent - Thanks to Anne for taking minutes. A motion was made by Diana Brown and seconded by Sue Hanna to approve the minutes as sent to all from our last meeting. The motion carried. Executive Director Report - Donna LaMond Donna wrote letter to Lewis Family Charitable Foundation acknowledging their matching check we received in the amount of $73,852.00. As a reminder, we have postponed publicizing this wonderful donation to Friends in light of the situation regarding Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. Joni did an email a thank you/acknowledgement to Linda Lewis immediately after we received the check and told her about our plan to postpone press releases, etc., until probably later this month which is when the Lewis family will be back in Houston. We will do a photo and press release in late Oct. and the hope is to coincide with the new Thermometers going up showing progress to date on fundraising for the match. Donna has not heard back from the City in regards to her efforts to obtain the City's list of vendors and list of approved contractors so that we can approach these companies for underwriting funds for the ball. Tim O'Conner has offered to help Donna get this list too. The Friends membership sign up form is included in with current issue of City Currents that was recently received in West U households and Donna expects we will have another great response this year with the membership campaign. Plus, Friends had an article in Currents. Donna will work with Katy Holt to get current newsletter mailed to major underwriters of PLB05. Donna is working on updating our database and acknowledging new memberships as they come in. Donna is continuing to work with David Klutts and Tim O'Conner to get our "matching" thermometers replaced outside City Hall and at the Rec Center since they have faded and need to have the numbers updated. The thermometers that were on display have been removed since they looked bad and had really become more of an eye sore. The goal is to have this happen at the same time as when we make the announcement about the first check we have received. Donna is in touch with Kay Stueve, the current West U Elementary School PTO President, in attempt to secure a WUE PTO board member to serve as the Friends board in a liaison capacity. Donna hopes to set up a meeting to explore how we can compliment each other and work towards common goals. This liaison was suggested initially by John Wessman of Encore Bank when Donna met with him last May. Treasurer's Report - Sue Hanna Total Current Assets as of Oct 12 2005 $358,234.01 There was discussion about restricted and unrestricted funds, and how much Friends can be invoiced for from the City to fulfill pledges and other commitments. Board Reports PLB 2006 - Sue Hanna and Diana Brown There has been some activity regarding the ball since our last board meeting. Diana Brown was out of the country for a few weeks and Sue Hanna was out of town some too. Susie Boyce has been getting some auction items in, she can report on that. There was a PLB meeting at Diana's home on Thursday, Oct. 6. Among other things, Donna is working to help secure the host committee, help print out letter and labels, etc. Susie and Donna are also doing a little research on online auctions for future balls. On Oct. I I", Donna met with a rep from a company about offering cruises for our auction. Donna is asking Susie to evaluate as well. Meetings: The next PLB meeting is scheduled for Oct 27 at Sue's home, at 9:30 am Underwriting: The underwriter letters are being signed today and will go to Cindy Hassler for mailing before the end of next week. All board members are encouraged to sign letters and add personal notes to any that they know. The calls will start the following week. Print deadline for adds in the program is November 11, 2005. Kim and Reid Wilson have committed to be a $5,000 underwriter for the ball on behalf of Reid's law firm. Kim reported that she'd had some good results from recruiting host committee members, including Diane and Jim Cain. Donna is working on several articles and press releases. Diana Brown, Sue Hanna, and Kim Wilson met at her office on Monday afternoon to take some fun pictures for articles associated with the ball. We also took one of Diana holding up the new Friends beach blanket we are selling. The plan is to have a press release and/or some article each week until the ball, Katy will help Donna with this Underwriting follow up: Anne Steacy reported that the Phelps Dunbar paver has been ordered leaving only Recycle America to receive their amenities from last year's contribution. Auction: Susie Boyce reported that the auction item deadline is the day of the Ball, but sooner is better. Each board member is expected to get 3 items for the auction. The Auction letters went out in Sept., more auction letters, approx 200, will go out next week. Anne Steacy offered to locate two AKC puppies for the live auction, one large breed and one small breed. Sociables: Vicki Grams reported that she has three arranged already and has a meeting scheduled to work on putting together more. There is a need for some "manley sociables" so if you have an idea, tell Vicki. Entertainment: Entertainment is under contract, Phantasia is the band. Reservations: Margaret Wallace will be handling reservations this year for the ball. Gayle Jackson will help her. E-store & Pavers - Diana Brown Diana Brown had requested that someone take over paver sales and processing during her tenure as Ball Co Chair. She currently has some outstanding paver orders that she needs some help with. Cheryl Butler, a former Friends board member, has been wonderful to agree to take on the paver orders while Diana is ball chairing. We just got another paver order in the last few weeks, plus another paver that came with a $500 membership. As Donna stated at our Sept. meeting, we are ready to start selling the new beach blankets that Diana Brown had designed and made for us. We have 100 in our initial inventory, which we will sell out of Colonial Park and the West U Community Center for $25 each plus sales tax a total of $27.06. Vicki and Maria Elena have agreed to help with this project by setting up the sales display at each of these locations. Tim and Donna will take care of the consignment of the blankets to these locations and collecting the monies. Donna would like for the board to each come by her office and pick up 3-5 beach blankets and sell them to friends and neighbors. You will be given the blankets on a consignment basis and then you will just turn your money in to Donna once you have sold them. The blankets will also be added to the Friends website. Joni mentioned that we need to do an inventory of E-store items to balance the account. It will also be very important to keep the tax $ separate from the cost of goods. Donna will do this merchandise inventory. Sue will set up an account to track the sales tax. Admin/PR Committee - Margaret Wallace - no report Development Committee Stacey Speier Matching List -Donna has a long list of leads to Stacey identifying community members for donations Lisa Grotten Boren Memorial to Family is proposed to be placed at the Rec Center Parks and Wildlife (work with Tim) Centerpointe Kenny Mercado, Lewis Family Charitable Foundation Identify major neighborhood donors - contact, kick off some type of estate planning/early giving campaign. NFL Grant, Savvy Award try Foleys, Chase Award, Astros Hometown Hero Membership & Marketing - Katy Holt - No Report Special Events & Projects - no report Wish List/Giving Tree - Vicki Grams and Maria Elena Herbst no report Business Partners and Stork Services- Lynne Goddard Efforts are underway with Anne Steacy to coordinate the commitments we make with area business/community partners in exchange for their donations to Friends. This is in the same arena as underwriter commitments. We are making an effort to fine tune these commitments and be sure we are consistent and cover all bases. Lynne and Donna have provided her with the current selling tools for comparison. They will meet outside the board meeting and come back with recommendations. Contracts, Nominations and Bylaws Committee - no report Parks & Advisory Liaison Chair - Cece McCann - no report Council Report - no report Parks & Rec Report - Tim O'Connor Neighborhood park improvements, utility poles painted, Tennis courts blasted and painted and parks looking good. Pool cover at Colonial will go up the week of 11/1, this should be its next to last year of service. Pocket Park -setting interview with four prospective design/build's. Tim Hansen Clark Condon & Associates White Oak Stinger & Associated, The presentation to City Council has been pushed to Feb 2006. Need to have a capital campaign for this park, not to interfere with the "Hype" for the Lewis Family matching funds for the Rec Center thru Feb of 2007. Park Master Plan Task Force- Cindy Hassler Tim reported that the task force since 2005 has used $30,000.00 in donated services local forums completed Parks Board Liaison - no report Old Business: Sue will review matching funds from the Lewis Family and report on the available funds for the pocket park earmark at the next meeting. New Business: Next meeting will be Nov. 2 at 11:30 at Re Center. Adjournment: The meeting was adjourned at 1:50pm