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HomeMy WebLinkAboutFBMINUTES110106Friends of West University Place Parks Fund, Inc. Board Meeting Minutes November 1, 2006 Friends of West University Place Parks Board met on Wednesday, November 1, at 11:30 a.m. at the West University Place Recreation Center, 4210 Bellaire. The following were in attendance: Board Members Joni Fichter Leah Ragiel Vicki Grams Margaret Wallace Executive Director WU Parks Staff Donna LaMond Tim O'Connor Others Penny Grams Joni Fichter called the meeting to order at 11:42 a.m. Chairman's Report - Joni Fichter ■ An overview of the bond issue, meetings, discussions, articles in the papers, responses to letters, etc. was provided. Attended all city council and open house meetings. Spoke at West U Little League meetings. Joni encouraged all to get out and vote. For any in favor of the propositions passing, yard signs have been provided by Bob McLamb and anyone is welcome to have one. She also encouraged all to help clear up misconceptions about the bond issues. We feel it would be in the best interest of the community for the propositions to pass so that we have the opportunity to develop the Rec Center and Colonial Park. Michael Ross and Tim O'Connor do an excellent job and will certainly listen to the community input. If the propositions do not pass, our hands are tied until we are presented with a modified plan and the whole process starts over. ■ Thanks to Donna, Vicki, & Penny for all the hard work on the letters for PLB. We've written, edited, printed, written personal notes, signed, and mailed or will mail. Additional, thanks to Susie Boyce and Sandy Howard and their auction committee for their hard work. Same for entire PLB committee. • Anne Steacy has resigned from the Friends Board due to increased work load with her company. ■ Thanks to hosts and hostesses of Spooky Party. It raised over $3,000 and that figure will be doubled by the Lewis match. ■ Article on the new Friends Guild was in the local paper. • City Currents article on PLB looked good. Approval of the Minutes and Sign-in Sheet Sue Jensen had noted at the October board meeting that a change needed to be made on the Sept. 6, 2006 Minutes. Page two, bullet two, change Sue Jensen to Sue Hanna. However, quorum not present so minutes change and approval deferred to November 1, 2006 meeting. Both the September and October meeting minutes were approved, motion made by Margaret Wallace and seconded by Vicki Grams. The motion carried. Executive Director's Report -Donna LaMond ■ Spooky Party was held on October 21 and was a big success. Over $6,000 was raised from this event, which includes matching funds from the Lewis Grant. Vicki can elaborate more on this. We developed a good spreadsheet for this event, which will be useful for Spooky Party II. Donna prepared and sent out a press release after the event, including pictures of the contest winners. ■ Underwriting campaign is starting to pay off. Donna has received some payments and commitments already. She is entering payments into Auction Tracker and providing copies to PLB Chairs. She has not finished entering what has been received yet, but will do that and get copies to chairs. Penny and Vicki and their crew are working hard to get the next batch of underwriter letters prepared. They can report on that. Donna reviewed a spreadsheet of the corporate underwriters and Joni has reviewed it too. ■ Donna is continuing to receive Friends memberships and sending out acknowledgements with amenities associated with each level of membership as appropriate... Some have been received through the website. Diana Brown has ordered the pavers for those memberships that qualified for a paver. ■ Donna attended the Infrastructure Celebration last Friday evening. She visited with Carol and Ross Frazer. They are excited to be our Honorary Chairs for PLB07. • Donna responded to IRS notice for a Schedule B, a result of our tax return that was filed a while back. She worked with Walter Thomas to provide proper response to IRS. ■ Sue Hanna could not be here today. Donna has copies of her report so be sure to get a copy. Sue was looking into other possibilities to serve our banking needs. Joni contacted two banks that we have relationships with. No decision has been reached that Donna is aware of. We do need to focus on this and go ahead and make the change if that is what is decided. ■ Donna followed up with Linda and Phil Lewis regarding the matching grant for $111,812.25. This amount will be matched pending approval at the Foundation's November board meeting. As a reminder, the invoice to the Lewis's was mailed on June 7 and Phil Lewis called and asked for a copy of the canceled check so that he could present it at his November 2006 board meeting and we will get their check after that. Donna made a copy of the image of the check to show that we did what we were asked to do and forwarded that to Linda and Phil. They did get it and hopefully we will receive that check later on this month. • Donna attended Street Captain's Block Party on October 27 for RUSKIN Street, hosted by Lisa O'Conner. There was a good turn out and Donna took pictures. She will send out a press release to help create further awareness of the campaign. ■ Donna prepared minutes from October 4 Friends Board meeting. We need a board member to assume the Secretary position and take minutes on a regular basis. Perhaps a new recruit could take this position. It has also been suggested that another City staff person attend Friends board meetings specifically to take minutes for us. However, there is not anyone available at this time to handle this. So, we keep scrambling. ■ Donna continues to field lots of inquiries regarding the propositions on the upcoming ballet. ■ Lynne Goddard has picked up a check from Molly Brechtel with Shape Express as part of our Business Partnership with them. Lynne had a picture taken of her accepting the check. Donna will do a press release to accompany that picture to help promote similar partnerships within our community. The amount of the check in unknown at this time. ■ Anne Steacy has resigned from the Friends board due to increased work related responsibilities. She said she is happy to continue to help in any way she can. • We are working to recruit new board members with help from other board members. Donna contacted Sandy Howard to submit an application, and Margaret and Maria Elena recommended July Bouillion, so Donna has contacted her and asked her to submit an application as well. Ross Frazer, a former board member, and one of our Honorary Chairs for PLB07, has suggested a neighbor of his whom he believes would be a good candidate as well. Donna will follow up on that and see what happens. There have been some other names mentioned as potential candidates as well. Mary Ann Detmering is someone that Margaret Wallace has approached and that needs to be followed up on as well. ■ It continues to be a high priority for Friends to recruit some capable people and get them nominated for the Friends board. If you know anyone interested, please refer them to the City's website, www.westu.org, or the Friends website, www.westuparks.org, to download a board application. They can also be picked up at City Hall, 3800 University Blvd. Donna will prepare a press release to send out about this as well. Board Reports Treasurer's Report -Sue Hanna Report distributed by Donna LaMond since Sue could not be at meeting today. PLB -2007 - Penny Grams • Block parties off to a start with four parties having been held and others scheduled in next couple of weeks. Some of totals so far reported are: ALBANS with Jacki Taten and Carrie Hart as Captains with $400.00 brought in; RILEY with Angie Tsertos and Cheryl Butler as Captains with $500.00; RUSKIN ST had a party as well and so did CASE with Lisa Watson as Captain. ■ Signs have been printed to post in yards of everyone that has donated to the ball either money or time. A discussion followed about when to put the signs in yards. It was decided that they would go up in early January as part of a big PR blitz to highlight the ball. There will also be an article in City Currents, which will reference the signs, and other press in local papers. Will put in all Board members yards as well. A sample sign was shown. • We are finalizing our printing options on the invitation, with our Underwriter information going in, as an insert at last minute, if necessary. The invitation mock-up was shown. ■ Penny has been finalizing the details on the playhouse that is to be donated by Aziza homes. It is a $15K value. It can be modeled after your home, or as a gardening shed, storage house, craft house, owners retreat, etc. within the specified dimensions. It must be built within city limits and will be constructed in the winning bidder's yard. It will be one of our Big Board Items. Photos were shown. ■ The 1 st annual West U Spooky Party was held and was very successful with good attendance, great costumes, etc. It will be held again next year and we have learned some ways to improve it. ■ We met with Joyce Sandweiss who is working on new sociables for the ball. We are trying to work on getting waivers on alcohol so that we can hold more of these at our own facilities. ■ Individual Underwriter letters have gone out and Corporate will go out this week. We need all board members to take names and make follow up calls. ■ We met with Danielle Kernell to get articles out for City Currents and other venues that will hit after first of year, promoting uniqueness of the ball. We will work on articles that can be released each month highlighting special auction items and underwriters as received. ■ We are going to really push to get Friends Board, Advisory, Parks & Rec, City Council and anyone else to help us with procurement of Auction Items and/or financial donations. This is after all OUR BIGGEST FUNDRAISER. Everyone should do their part for our community. E-store - Diana Brown No report. Guild Report - Leah Ragiel Leah is working to get this established. She has outlined areas for involvement, such as administrative assistance to the Friends, special events, PLB support (set up, pick up auction items, etc.) Leah reported that she has gotten lots of ideas from Tim O'Connor. She will explore the implementation of some of the ideas. Development Committee No report. Membership & Marketing/PR - Katy Holt No report. Resident Decorators/Special Proiect/Wish List/Giving Tree - Maria Elena Herbst No report. Business Partners, Storks - Lynne Goddard No report. Parks & Rec Report - Tim O'Connor • Colonial Park Shade Project: o Both artificial shade systems are installed & full operational o Trees will be planted in November 2006 - three or four in the playground proper and four around the pavilion. ■ FIBAR Upgrades: o Colonial Park has been completed at a cost of $9,000.00 o Judson and Whitt Johnson Parks have been completed • Rice Pocket Park: o Final Construction Documents are being prepared and we are waiting on the Geo Physical Testing to be completed before we move forward o Prior to construction beginning, staff will present final plans to council and request that the project be fully funded and not phased-in o It is anticipated to begin construction in December 2006/January 2007 with an anticipated completion date of late-Spring 2007 o Staff is preparing a proposal to Council that the park be named FRIENDS PARK, in honor of the many efforts of and contributions the Friends have made to the Parks and Recreation System over the eighteen years of their existence (May 1988) o We will plan a formal Park Dedication Ceremony and ribbon cutting once all the work is complete. An "official" date and time for the ceremony shall be established by the Friends Board. ■ Parks Board: o Finalized a Spring Classic Concert Series, three performances total, to be conducted at Colonial Park in April/May 2007 o PARDner s program is tentatively scheduled to "kick-off" in the Spring of 2007 at Wier Park o Liberty Hill Beautification Program is to be completed on Saturday, November 4, 2006. There will be a seed planting at 10:00 a.m. on 11/04 and everyone is welcome to participate. Project includes removal of Pampas Grass, painting sculpture, planting a wildflower cascade along the top of the "hill" and planting some additional ornamental trees. This has been facilitated as an Eagle Scout Project for WU Resident Greg Sills. o Next Project: Island on Weslayan @ Riley ■ Library: o Formal Re-Opening Ceremony was conducted on September 28, 2006 o Library has re-opened and the comments have been very favorable • November 7, 2006 Bond Election: o Proposition I: 13.5 million for Colonial Park Aquatics Center o Proposition II: 12.5 million for West University Recreation Center Re-Development o Proposition III: 2.0 million for future parkland acquisition and development, specifically between Auden and Buffalo Speedway ■ 2007 Budget Preparations: o Requesting two new full-time positions - Parks Caretaker I: APPROVED and Recreation Specialist: TENTATIVELY APPROVED FOR JULY 1, 2007 o Requesting Promoting Susan White to Administrative Manager: APPROVED o Requesting Upgrading Mike Anders to Parks Crew Leader from Parks Caretaker III: APPROVED o Total fiscal impact: $93,000.00 ( salaries and benefits ) o No capital dollars for park improvements and building maintenance issues were included in the 2007 Budget o Staff is preparing an updated Fee Schedule for all PARD facilities and activities which will be presented, reviewed, and approved by City Council after Parks Board review in early 2007 ■ Colonial Park o Bubble is going up Old Business The recruitment of new members was discussed and board members were encouraged to look for prospective new members and follow-up on those previously mentioned. We have gotten some recommendations and will proceed with follow-up. New Business Next meeting - Wednesday, December 6th at 11:30 am., WU Rec Center Adioumment With no further business the meeting adjourned.