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HomeMy WebLinkAboutFBMINUTES040506Friends of West University Place Parks Fund, Inc. Board Meeting Minutes April 5, 2006 Friends of West University Place Parks Board met on Wednesday, April 5, at 11:30 a.m. at the West University Place Recreation Center, 4210 Bellaire. The following were in attendance: Board Members Joni Fichter Sue Hanna Sue Jensen Susie Boyce Executive Director & West _University Parks Staff Donna LaMond Tim O'Connor Advisory Board Kim Wilson Chairman's Renort - Joni Fichter Congratulations to Tim O'Connor on being recipient of the Fellow Award from the National Recreation and Parks Association Southwest Region. Noted appreciation for City placing tribute to Friends on electronic marquee thanking Friends for 15 years of service and raising $2 million. Joni met with Tim O'Connor and Michael Ross regarding matters that will be mentioned later in meeting. The City has presented Friends with an invoice requesting reimbursement for $23,852.10 for start up items at the Rec Center. Friends had previously (in another board meeting) approved reimbursement up to $25,000. Donna will handle processing check request and being spureved payment is made. Approval of the Minutes and Siqn in Sheet A motion was made by Sue Hanna and seconded by Susie Boyce to approve the minutes as sent to all for our last meeting. The motion carried. Executive Director's Re ort -Donna LaMond Eight pavers that had been ordered came in. Installation is complete and acknowledgement letters have been mailed to all. The pavers included some PLB benefits, for Encore Bank and Phelps Dunbar. Acknowledgement of special thank you acknowledgement to Friends on the marquee. Submitted post PLB articles to local newspapers, which highlights major underwriters, and includes pictures, etc. Also submitted articles regarding the Arbor Day Photos with the Easter Bunny, which will benefit Friends. Acknowledged that Katy Holt helped post some April 12th Friends Rally posters and signs around the neighborhood. Thank you, Katy. Copy Dr. printed them for Friends. The Friends Rally is set for April 12 at 11:00 a.m. at JMH. Jim Reid is donating coffee and munchies for the event. Donna is sending out emails and making phone calls to generate interest and attendance. Board members are encouraged to continue to do the same. Donna will have auction donor forms for PLB07 available at the rally, as well as Lewis match letters/forms. Penny and Vicki Grams will be introduced and they will say a few words. Donna asked Tim O'Connor to be prepared to provide a brief recap of progress regarding plans for the Rec Center and how the money will be applied. The purpose of the rally is to get everybody together and encourage residents to join us in raising the funds for the match. Still collecting on some receivables from the Ball. Continuing to enter payments into Auction Tracker. Vicki Grams and her hosts/hostesses for sociables are continuing to sell slots for parties that did not fill up at the ball. So numbers will be inching up as far as total income. The next scheduled sociable is April 29th the Crawfish Boil. Vicki Grams is heading up a sociable in Roundtop this week, which is why she is not at the meeting today. Donna is helping the sociable hosts with gathering addresses for the invitees. Donna and Tim O'Connor met with Brent Gallagher of West U Fitness on March 23. He has approached the City with the idea of a 5K fun run for next October benefiting Friends of West U parks. They are working on setting a date at this time as well as a few other initial issues that have to be taken care of. The Parks and Rec Dept will be coordinating efforts with Brent. Tim can address the fun run more directly during his report later in the meeting. Donna and Susie Boyce got the auction donor thank you letters out. Underwriter acknowledgements are still on the to do list. Cindy is traveling a lot with her new job and has not been able to devote any time to this project. They are meeting next week however, to address this and get the letters done. We will print the letters out once they are finalized and offer board members the opportunity to hand write an personal when we mailed the underwriter letters out. There will not be as many, of cou se,eso it should not be very time consuming. Donna will coordinate other underwriter benefits with Anne Steacy. Anne has been traveling a lot with her business as well. Higher level underwriter acknowledgements were sent out prior to the ball along with guest invitations, but final thank you letters will be sent as well. As a reminder, a date has been set for next year's ball. Saturday evening, February 10, 2007 is the date. Donna has tentatively booked the Discovery Ballroom at the InterContinental Houston Hotel, no money has exchanged hands. This will save Friends $10k, and give us that larger hallway outside the Discovery Ballroom for our silent auction. The Discovery Ballroom will accommodate 400 plus people. Numbers ended up around 350 this year, which is about like last year. Talk of it becoming a sold out event again is out there and that is how it (the ball) got so popular in the first place. Plans are already underway for the next ball and as Joni mentioned in her report, we have recruited two very capable women as our PLB07 Co-Chairs. We are doubling up on everything, including Grams! Sister-in-laws, Penny and Vicki Grams are joining forces to help us make the most of the Lewis match. The theme is Double or Nothing as we will be concluding fundraising efforts eligible for the Lewis match with the PLB07 ball. Donna had a productive meeting with Penny and Vicki last week. They have lots of good ideas and are eager to get the Ball rolling. Donna has talked to Beverly Loftis about she and Jack being honorary chairs for the ball. Vicki Grams has also called and talked to her just last week in an effort to set up a meeting to make it official. Beverly has expressed an interest in sharing the honorary chair position with Ross Frazer, another former Friends board member, and current advisory board member. So, since we are doubling up on funds and Grams, perhaps we can consider doubling up on honorary chairs too and ask Carol and Ross Frazer to be our honorary chairs along with Beverly and Jack Loftis. Meet the City Day is this Saturday, April 8, at Colonial Park. This year for the first time, Meet the City Day is being held in conjunction with the annual Easter Egg Hunt. The time is 11:00 a.m. until 2:00 p.m. As Susan White's suggestion, we are offering Photos with the Easter Bunny alongside the Friends booth at the event. Thank you to Vicki Grams and Maria Elena Herbst for coordinating volunteers and making all the arrangements with Natural Expressions. They will offer Polaroid's for $10 each with 100% of that coming to the Friends, and they will also offer professional photography as well, with $10 per order coming to Friends. We have recruited volunteers to represent the Friends at our booth from 10:45 - 2:00. These volunteers include Sue Hanna, Lynne Goddard, Renelle Cadena, and Cece McCann, as well as Maria Elena and Vicki. If a conflict comes up and you cannot work your shift on Saturday, please take care of finding a replacement to work in your place. Also, Nes Tesno also asked Donna about her son's Boy Scout troop helping with the trees they will be giving away on Saturday. Donna is currently working on getting this volunteer group together. Received a notice from the City about the Friends having an option of hiring a new auditor. Sue Jensen will address this in her report. Acknowledged that Friends received an invoice from the City for $23,852.10 which is a reimbursement for the "start-up" purchases for the West U Rec Center. These are expenses that were incurred to open the Rec Center. Treasurer's Re ort - Sue Hanna/Sue Jensen Tres. Total Checking/Savings. $474,569.74 Blanket & Golf Shirt Inv. $2,611.00 Total Current Assets $477,680.74 Total Income for Quarter end March 31, 2006 $142,263.76 Net Income for Quarter $80,372.19 Board Reports PLB 2006 - Sue Hanna Closing comments and thanks to all. Mentioned upcoming appreciation party to be held at Diana's house. - uunna ~amond in lace of Penn Grams and Reference to this ball under Donna's Executive Director Report. E-store - Diana Brown No report. Diana not present. Admin Committee -Mar aret Wallace No report. Margaret not present. Sponsorship/Development Committee Sta.. ey Speier No report. Stacey not present. Donna will talk to Cindy Hassler about taking on this responsibility when they meet next week. Membership & Marketina/PR Katy Holt No report. Katy not present. Donna commented that she and Katy will start next membership newsletter and get it out before school is out Wish List/S ecial Pro'ects - Maria Elena Herbst and Vicki Grams Donna covered the Arbor Day activities in her report. Maria Elena and Vicki Grams not present. Joni suggested that we recruit someone to help Maria Elena with this while Vicki is PLB07 Ball Co-Chair. Donna will look into this. Business Partners Storks - Lynne Goddard No report. Lynne not present. Contract Nominations Bylaws - No report. Donna will check with Margaret Wallace about new board prospect, Candace Levy. Council Report No report. Parks Rec Report -Tim O'Connor Tim distributed the WUP Parks and Recreation Master Plan dated March 2006 to the board. Donna will distribute to board members not present via email. Tim would like any comments regarding the plan sent directly to him. Ultimately looking for Friends endorsement of the plan. Biggest issues seem to be parking and restrooms, along with spray ground only at Colonial Park with public restrooms. Tim talked about John Lucas's use of the Rec Center and how much time he spends there. Tim also mentioned that he would look into rubberized mats for underneath playground equipment and benches, including picnic benches. Tim summarized the meeting with Brent Gallagher of West U Fitness regarding the 5K Friends Run further. He asked to be advised of any potential conflicts with a date in October 2006, probably will be a Sunday morning event. Comments su part of this event. Marathon Kids was mentioned as a pose b eelink to his proposed run, that it could be part of their "marathon" that they run throughout the year. It was suggested that cumulative giving acknowledgements could be printed on the 5k shirts. Rice Pocket park meeting scheduled for tonight. Jim Patterson will be presenting his report. Meeting to be scheduled with Billy Burge to brainstorm about potential donors to contact to meet Lewis match. Meeting will include Joni and Donna and PLB2007 Ball chairs as well as Tim. Investigating adopt a park program for West U. Exploring project ideas for Eagle Scout projects that could help with Lewis Matching campaign. Old Business No old business. New Business Next meeting - May 3, 2006 at 11:30 a.m. at Rec Center. Adiournment• With no further business the meeting adjourned at 1:10 p.m.