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HomeMy WebLinkAboutFBMINUTES030707Friends of West University Place Parks Fund, Inc. Board Meeting Minutes March 7, 2007 Friends of West University Place Parks Board met on Wednesday, March 7th, at 11:30 a.m. at the West University Place Recreation Center, 4210 Bellaire Blvd. The following were in attendance: Board Members Joni Fichter Vicki Grams Judy Bouillion Sue Hanna Sue Jensen Lynne Goddard Margaret Wallace Maria Elena Herbst Executive Director Donna LaMond WU Parks Staff Tim O'Connor Susan White Others Penny Grams Joni Fichter called the meeting to order at 11:40 a.m. President's Report - Joni Fichter ■ What a wonderful PLB! Thanks to Vicki Grams & Penny Grams for all their hard work and to their great committee. I won't steal their thunder so will let them report on net proceeds, etc. but we have one more gift for yall. • Donna & I went to Texas Recreation and Park Society conference in S. Padre with Marc LaMond and Mark Fichter Feb. 23, 2007 to accept our state award for best civic club. Again, a special thanks to Tim and Parks & Recreation (P & R) staff for nominating us for this, We had a great time and were so proud to accept this on behalf of all of you. You've earned it! Show award. ■ Thanks to Tim and the P&R staff for treating us to lunch today, too. So nice. • Donna and I went to the luncheon in League City to accept the Citizen of the Year award in early Feb. Thanks to all of you for this honor and I truly share it with you as you have contributed so much. Show award. ■ Great press on all these things! ■ Donna and I met with Susan Sample who is an attorney with Fulbright & Jaworski and we think she will be an asset to our board. Her name will be submitted to council and upon appointment; she will work on Development and Marketing. We've restructured this a little and moved Membership to Sec/Admin. Susan, if appointed, will attend our next meeting so we will welcome her then. ■ Katy Holt has resigned. We wish her well and thank her for her service. ■ I've attended Pocket Park meetings and we are progressing. This should be finished in the fall so we will have a ribbon cutting at that time. We might do a groundbreaking, too. That gives us press and recognition and updates all to the fact it is finally happening. ■ Donna, Sue Jensen, Leah Ragiel and I had a breakfast meeting with Mayoral candidate Bob Kelly and council candidate Bob Fry this week. Both are very park-friendly. When others declare, we hope to talk to all and give you information about each so we can vote wisely. We addressed our concerns (bond issue for Colonial and Rec Center, getting these done, alcohol waiver, etc.). Approval of the Minutes and Sign-In Sheet - A motion was made by Lynne Goddard and seconded by Margaret Wallace to approve the February 7, 2007 minutes as sent. The motion carried. Executive Director's Report - Donna LaMond Since last regular board meeting on January 3, just about everything has been focused around the 2007 ball. We did have the Jan. 5 party for the Friends Board, Parks & Rec board, and Advisory Board at Joni's home where we collected wine for the PLB07 wine cellar and took lots of good pictures. We also held a wine gathering social for the PLB committee at the home of Sherry Gift on January 11, On Jan. 121h, Joni, Tim, Cece McCann, and I met with Nick Ro of Kelsey Seybold Clinics to discuss some ideas that Nick had for developing the Rec Center. Nick is the Chief Legal Counsel for Kelsey-Seybold. This was an idea tossing around type meeting and Tim can elaborate more on any developments that have occurred since our meeting. Attended a luncheon with Joni in Texas City on February 1, where Joni received her Citizen of the Year award. On February 8, Dick Yehle and I drove out to Comcast's (formerly Time Warner) office and met with them about a $25,000 donation. Mr. Yehle is to be commended for taking the initiative to get the meeting scheduled. We believe the money will come in, once Time Warner becomes Comcast on paper. We anticipate this to be sometime over the summer. Fortunately, we were able to meet the Lewis match without this contribution. Traveled to S. Padre Island on February 23 and joined members of the West U Parks and Rec Staff there, plus Joni and Mark Fichter, and Marc LaMond. We were honored to accept the Top Service Club Award in the State of Texas by the Texas Recreation and Parks Society on behalf of the current Friends Board and all past boards, including our advisory boards. The award will proudly be displayed in the Community Building in the glass cabinet that sits in the main hallway. Vicki has agreed to help with the display. Thank you to the City of West U for its support. Met with a reporter retained by the City to write the press releases for the award Joni received and the award Friends received. Joni, Sue Jensen, Leah Ragiel, and I met Bob Kelly and Bob Fry on March 5 to hear their views on issues pertaining to their running for office. Mr. Kelly is running for Mayor and Mr. Fry is running for a council position. They requested the meeting to hear about Friends and what our priorities are. We are hopeful that we have the opportunity to meet with any other mayor and council candidates. Joni and I also met with a prospective new Friends Board member, Susan Sample. She is a tax attorney with Fulbright & Jaworski. She has agreed to head up our PR and Marketing/Development efforts. Following today's board meeting, I will submit an agenda request to get on the agenda for the March 26t' Council meeting. She will be interviewed by Council prior to the regular meeting, and then appointed during the regular meeting. ■ Katy Holt has resigned from the Friends Board to pursue other interests. We appreciate all that Katy has done for Friends during her tenure. Since she did the membership newsletter in the past, this job is now open. Joni and I have talked about it and have asked Judy Bouillion to consider taking this on. As you know, Judy also serves as our Secretary. The membership program is a well-oiled machine, but needs someone other than me to champion it. It primarily involves the writing and mailing out of the annual newsletter and then following up to be sure acknowledgement letters and packets are sent out. ■ PLB 07 - Generated reports from Auction Tracker more frequently than in years past, including ongoing generation of auction thank you letters. Assisted the ball chairs with the invitation, the program, reservations, mailing out underwriter packets (with help from Sue Hanna... Thanks, Sue!) Will work now with ball Co chairs to generate the underwriter thank you letters and additional auction donor thank you letters. I am working on collections of underwriter commitments and ball auction purchases. Auction Tracker can generate invoices and statements, so that has been useful. Sue Hanna and I have been working closely with each other to keep track of the receivables. I have a report here today showing outstanding underwriter balances. So, keep in mind that the numbers that Sue's report shows do NOT include the commitments we will be getting payment on. Invoices have been mailed out. Payments are trickling in. • Finalized City Currents post-PLB07 article and submitted it along with pictures for the next issue. • Working with Sue Hanna to finalize number that we will invoice the Lewis' for. Congratulations to Friends for orchestrating a powerful fundraising campaign that was able to meet the Lewis Match, Thank you to Penny and Vicki for the MAJOR role they played in helping us achieve this victory! ■ Took care of sending out acknowledgements and packets for new memberships that have come in. ■ Will work with Sue H to move/deposit Friends money at Bank of River Oaks with Andrew Lane. I will also check in with Walter Thomas to be sure that Friends receives the funds (or credit for the funds) generated by interest on the money we wrote a check to the City for the Lewis match. Usually, we keep the restricted funds in our accounts so that we can collect on the interest. This was a special set of circumstances requested by the Lewis Family Charitable Foundation. ■ Arbor Day is coming up on March 31 at Colonial Park from 11:00 until 2:00. Friends will be selling pictures with the Easter Bunny again this year. Proceeds are 100% donated to the Friends. We also need volunteers to help with the Easter Bunny pictures and to help "man" the Friends booth. We will be selling Friends t-shirts and beach blankets. Vicki and Maria Elena are coordinating the pictures part, but they do need a few people to be on hand to help them. This is separate from the Friends booth, I propose two shifts, one from 11:00 -12:30 and 12:30 - 2:00. A sign up sheet is being passed around. We need your help! Auction Tracker is now resident on my machine once again and is no longer accessible remotely. I am signed up to attend a Best Boards conference at Rice Univ. tomorrow. I will provide you with info following the conference. Board Reports Treasurer's Report - Sue Hanna Report Distributed. Sue and Donna reported that the Lewis match was met. Ultimately, we will get $500,000 in total from the Lewis Grant since we did match that amount. This includes amounts already invoiced and received. The amount remaining to be invoiced is $314,336.40. PLB07 has thus far netted $314,463,76. More money from PLB07 commitments continue to come in, in excess of the amount needed to meet the match challenge. Therefore, the net number will increase. Park Lovers Ball - 2007 - Pennv Grams and Vicki Grams PROS OF CHANGES IN PLB • No seated dinner- preferred food stations and people eating in their own time frame, Gave people more opportunity to look at auction items, game, etc. People truly enjoyed the food. • Big Board v/s Live Auction o Different a More exciting o Longer opportunity to bid o Don't have to stop party to get everyone's attention ■ With this setup band can play longer-get your moneys worth from having a band. ■ Liked the more casual attire ■ Paying for valet services (if you don't have Underwriter) proved not to be a problem. Would make sure not more than $8.00 per car. • Street Captain Project- worked well, would recommend at least 2 people heading up, separate from auction people. CONS OF CHANGES IN PLB ■ This particular venue did not have space for more large tables. Only complaint from the $2500.00 UW not having a reserved table. ■ Some issues with check-in, not having some packets available for walk-ins and some not on list. ■ Check-out an issue with someone leaving with an item, that wasn't the highest bidder. ■ Costs were higher for food, venue, gaming, etc. some due to last minute change in venue and not having bargaining power, with that short of notice. ■ Gave too much to each couple for gaming. Instead of $5K chip should have been $1500.00 (if your minimum bid is $100.00) This mistake cost us valuable revenue with buying chips, raffle tickets, viewing auction (too much time gaming and not buying chips or bidding on items) ■ Would have pushed raffle ticket sales more, during and before gala. Also since this was tied to gaming and winnings, not as easy to clarify how to win and ticket buying. ■ Would have had servers walk around and push specialty drinks, we sold a lot more when we personally did this. ■ Would have done the same thing with t-shirt sales. ■ Would get the mailing for Southside and Sunset Terrace straightened out. ■ Get details in Auction tracker updated (Penny can detail) (include email addresses) Rethink invitations; very high cost, really didn't need if you pre-sell and market ahead of time. Be able to reserve tickets, tables online and then use email addresses to remind as event nears. Simplify auction, we had too many items. Auction would have been more successful with our previous plan at ZaZa not so spread out. At the Houstonian we had to fit auction sections wherever we could. Also timing very critical for auction. We had to move our closing times later, so people would have more opportunity and time to bid. Alcohol waiver would have helped with our sociables. Would have liked to see more support from City of West U in having us be able to use the Rec center for some of this, as opposed to using Southside. Wrap up party: Kim Wilson has offered to host Friends Board, Advisory, Honorary Chairs, PLB committee and Street captains. March 29th at 7pm?? Plenty of spaces available on some sociables. Items still available for purchase. Parks & Rec Report - Tim O'Connor Rice Pocket Park: • Final Construction Documents are being prepared • Prior to construction beginning, staff will present final plans to council and request that the project be fully funded and not phased-in. • Anticipate beginning construction in May 2007 with an anticipated completion date of late summer 2007 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. 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: • Finalized a Spring Classic Concert Series, three performances total, to be conducted at Colonial Park in April/May 2007 • Finalized the First Annual West University Place Tennis Tournament to be conducted April 13 through 15, 2007 • Parks Planning Sub-Committee has received Council approval for the City Manager to engage the services of Carter & Burgess Inc. to facilitate a complete review of the Park Master Planning Task Force Report, the November 2006 Bond Election & Results and to formulate an action plan for moving forward in the preparation for a future bond election, for the redevelopment of the Colonial Park Swimming Pool & Recreation Center and the West University Recreation Center. Process will involve public meetings and a final Town Hall Meeting with City Council and Parks Board, with a final recommendation being presented in May 2007. The Parkland Acquisition Sub-Committee has begun work on investigating potential park properties, between Edloe & Buffalo Speedway / Bissonnet & Bellaire, for the development of a future neighborhood park. 2 million in funding was approved in the November 2006 Bond Election Friend Board: x Donna and Parks Director developing a five-year park improvement plan, for the period beginning 2008 through 2012, to allow the annual Park Lovers Ball to promote definitive park and playground improvements at Huffington, Colonial, Judson, Wier and Whitt Johnson Parks Miscellaneous: • Update on the two new full-time positions - Parks Caretaker I: approved and filled and Recreation Specialist tentatively approved for Council review in July 2007. • Susan White promoted to Administrative Manager. • Mike Anders promoted to Parks Crew Leader. • Staff is increasing the maintenance levels at all neighborhood parks, with plans involving repainting fences, improving mowing & landscape maintenance, playground maintenance and implementing various park improvements. • Judson Park Tennis Court is being completely renovated and should be back-in- service by mid-April 2007. • Summer/Fall 2007 Leisure Guides to be printed and mailed to all WUP residents by May, 1, 2007. • Staff is preparing an updated Fee Schedule for all PARD facilities and activities, which will be presented, reviewed and approved City Council, after Parks Board review, in the Fall of 2007. E-store - Diana Brown No report. Admin Committee - Margaret Wallace No report. Sponsorship/Development Committee No report. Membership & Marketing/PR No report. Special ProiectMish List/Givinn Tree Maria Elena Herbst Brief discussion regarding arrangements for Arbor Day. Donna passed around a volunteer sign up sheet for Friends to work at the Friends booth at the March 31st event. Photos with Easter Bunny will benefit Friends. Business Partners -Lynne Goddard No report, Contracts, Nominations and Byiaws 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. Parks Guild - Leah Raiael No report. New Business The next meeting will be Wednesday, Apol 4th at 11:30 a.m, at the West U Rec. Center There being no further business the meeting was adjourned at 12:30 pm. Respectfully Submitted, Judy Bouillion