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HomeMy WebLinkAboutFBMINUTES050708Friends of West University Place Parks Fund, Inc. Board Meeting Minutes May 7, 2008 Friends of West University Place Parks Board met on Wednesday, May 7, 2008, at the West University Place Recreation Center at 4210 Bellaire Blvd. The following were in attendance: Board Members Executive Director Others Staff Joni Fichter Donna LaMond Chuck Guffey Tim O'Connor Susan Sample Stephanie Roman Judy Bouillion Russ Schulze Sue Jensen Vernon Tyger Susie Boyce Janine Schuepped Leah Ragiel Elizabeth Karkowsky Lynne Goddard Joni Fichter called the meeting to order at 11:38 a.m. Chair's welcome - Joni Fichter • First of all, congratulations to Susan Sample and Vern Tyger for a job well done on the Garage Sale! We netted $5100 and the exposure to the need of improvements at the RC was terrific! We hope Susan is enjoying her pretty plant and wine and that Vern enjoyed his gift card to Home Depot. Gift cards to Starbucks and notes of thanks were sent to the 3 committee members. ■ Welcome to new board member, Elizabeth Karkowsky as her appointment was approved at a recent council meeting. She has jumped in on the PR role and other things. Please welcome her and if you have PR needs, get with her. If Donna has not yet given you a notebook complete with a copy of our charter and by-laws, she will. Elizabeth, can you tell us a little about yourself and your family? • Donna and I went to lunch with prospective board member, Stephanie Roman last week, too. We have presented her to council and look forward to her joining our board. Thanks to those of you who have recruited these new members and given us the names of a couple of others. If you have not thought of friends to recruit as board members or PLB 09 chairs, please search your brain and blackberry for names and let me and Donna know! ■ Welcome to Parks Board members Russ Schulte and Janine Schubert who will talk to us a bit about the proposed parks plan later on. The full plan is available on line so take a look and spread the word. • Per Sue Jensen's request, Donna is providing you each with a copy of the by-laws and charter. Thanks for reviewing these and following the guidelines within. I am probably preaching to the choir but we need to fulfill our obligations such as attendance and support of all responsibilities listed. • Congrats to Diane and Dorothy for their work on PLB, Marti and Helen from Parks Board, and John LaMond for his park related Eagle Scout work on receiving the City's Star Award at council last week. Also, congrats to Daryl and Jennifer plus all of us for our regional recognition of Fathers & Flashlights Excellence in Programming and the Friends over all for our regional recognition. Thanks to those of you who came to cheer us on and help accept the honors. ■ Thanks to the Leah for putting together the Guild meeting regarding the parks redevelopment plans. Thanks to Katy Halt for hosting at her home. We need to do these more with all our friends to get them support passing a bond in the fall. Janine and Russ can help as needed. I have shared the info with the president of each Tri-sports, soccer, softball, and baseball so they can talk this up with their groups, as well. We attended a workshop on Wier Park, several on redevelopment of RC & Colonial, and more. We've been busy! Susan, Donna, and I have been working on the conflict of interest statement and will get to each of you after the city approves it. Carolyn Sacchi had surgery and we sent a card. She sent a sweet thank you note. Approval of the Minutes and Sign-In Sheet - Judy Bouillion A motion was made by Leah Ragiel and seconded by Sue Jensen to approve the April 7, 2008 Minutes as sent. The motion carried. Executive Director's Report - Donna LaMond ■ PLB updates - 2009 chair, band considering is Password, 2/21 at ZaZa. ■ Elena Walton Memorial (need to talk to them about Wier), Prospective board member Stephanie Roman appointment this coming meeting; water bill stuffer explaining Friends, Parks Board, Task Forces, and noting that donation can be sent at anytime; Web site, E-store; list of prospective grants ■ Need to address Sue Jensen's suggestion about donor recognition at Wier ■ PLB08 - The grand finale for PLB08 was the recent presentation of Star Citizen Awards to Diane Cain and Dorothy Kaldis for their tremendous efforts on the ball. Their photo appeared in the local paper this week. • PLB09 - I have executed the contract with Hotel ZaZa for the 2009 ball and a deposit in the amount of $3,500 was mailed in. The date is set for February 21, 2009. 1 am currently working on recruiting 2009 ball chairs as well. Thank you to those of you who sent me suggestions for ball chairs. An email was sent out yesterday asking for comments, etc. on people who have been suggested. I did get some feedback from some of you. Thank you. Some names that were suggested are: Debbie Crow, Lisa Heim, Marilyn O'Brien, Johnna Dimuzio, Michelle Bickman, Meredith Harris, and Catherine Chandler, Elaine Day, Katherine Kardesch, Katy Holt, Kelli Luce, Mary Enerson, Sandy Howard, Laura Black, Susie and Nick Ro. Does anyone have any additional comments one way or the other on any of these suggestions? Names to add? • PLB 2010 - Since venues are so difficult to come by, I have already tentatively penciled us in at the Houstonian for Feb. 13th 2010. 1 have also emailed a date hold request for Feb. 13th, 2010 to the ZaZa. Big announcement for PLB 2010! Daryl Hoover and Jennifer Gatto have approached me about chairing the ball in 2010. Unless there are any objections, I certainly would like to go ahead and firm this up. They have been our chairs for the Fathers & Flashlights, for 2007 and for 2008. 1 think they bring a fresh perspective to the ball and will do a great job. ■ Thank you to Katy Holt, a former Friends Board member, who opened up her home last Friday for an impromptu Friends Guild Coffee. Thank you, Leah, for putting it all together along with the rest of the Guild regulars, including Vicki Grams and Susie Boyce. ■ Garage Sale on April 19th was a huge hit. We netted $5100 thanks to the hard work of Susan Sample and her dynamic team of volunteers, many of whom are sitting at this table. Vernon Tiger was a great co- chair with Susan. Susan will elaborate more on the event. We need to talk about whether or not we start planning for the second annual Friends Garage Sale. Sue Hanna has offered to co-chair the next garage sale. She has a co-chair prospect in mind as well. ■ The 2008 Fathers & Flashlights event planning is well underway. Underwriter solicitation letters are being mailed out this week to the 07 campers, and then we will send underwriter solicitations letters out to the 07 underwriters who participated last year. Daryl and Jennifer have also come up with a new underwriter/sponsor prospect list which we will send a separate batch of letters to. We have already drafted the letters for each mailing. The plan also includes sending out a priority registration postcard to the 07 campers. The date is set for Oct. 4, 2008. Daryl and Jennifer have already recruited 2009 F & F event chairs, Ann Freeman and Courtney Archer. They also would like to chair F&F in 2010. ■ Welcome to Elizabeth Karkowsky, our newest Friends board member. Elizabeth got our attention by doing such a great job with the publicity for Fathers & Flashlights last year. She will be handling that again for the 08 event, plus doing all PR for Friends. Elizabeth will also be helping us focus on reviving our membership newsletter. We are delighted to welcome Elizabeth and her many talents to our board. ■ We have another new board member prospect waiting in the wings, Stephanie Roman who is here today. She was originally recommended by Katy Holt, and then found out Sue Hanna and Kim Wilson both know her as well. Joni and I met with her last week. She is on the agenda for appointment at the Council Meeting on May 12. We look forward to having her on the board. • I will prepare a Friends notebook for Elizabeth and Stephanie.. Kari Greenwalt and Vicki Grams have another board prospect for us as well ...JoAnn Philpot has expressed an interest in serving on our board and I have forwarded an application and other information to her via Kari. • I was contacted by Ernest Stevenson of Instant News Network about reciprocating links from their soon to be online website to West U Parks. They have an active site, www.fortbendnow.com, and the West University site will follow the same layout. This could be a business partnership opportunity and I will work with Lynne Goddard in moving forward with this. • Colonial Park Tree - I got a phone call from Nancy Heagley who wants to purchase a tree in memory of a recently deceased friend. She is willing to donate $500 and she has requested that the tree go at Colonial Park. Tim and his staff are working on making this happen. • Since there had been questions from time to time about exactly what Friends funding can be applied to, I did get the current copy of our bylaws and have made copies for everyone. Please replace any copies you might have in your Friends notebook or elsewhere with this copy. This should help eliminate any future confusion. • Still trying to get information from Richard Cole of AT&T about seeing what can be done to have some kind of ceremony honoring Kyle Janek before he leaves office, which I believe is June 2 or somewhere thereabouts. As a reminder, AT&T donated $20,000 for the 2007 ball in honor of Senator Janek and part of our commitment includes being part of the ribbon-cutting event upon the opening or dedication of the "New" Rec Center. Since this type of event is still a ways off, he asked if we could go ahead and arrange to do something between now and June 2. Since our underwriting benefits for AT & T also include a tree planted in Senator Janek's honor and a paver to be installed in their park of choice, we could arrange a press type ceremony in conjunction with the installation or dedication of either of these items. I will see what I can do about getting this project off the back burner. ■ Other news, Carol Burke, a member of the Friends Advisory Board, has moved from Gardere Wynne to Pillsbury, Winthrop, Shaw, Pittman LLP effective May 1. So, we have ourselves a new underwriting prospect! ■ 1 forwarded a draft of a proposed Friends conflict of interest statement to the City Manager and City Attorney for review on April 25. 1 hope to have that in place in time for our next board meeting. ■ Last, but not least, Anne Whitlock contacted me Monday and told me that a group of children on the 3700 block of Georgetown had a lemonade stand on Sunday and raised $300. The kids asked to donate the money earned to Friends of West U Parks, specifically for the redevelopment of Colonial Park and the Rec Center, an even split. Elizabeth is putting together a press release. I met with Anne and the kids yesterday afternoon to take pictures and they gave me the check. ■ There are still some outstanding paver orders as well. Board Reports Park Lovers Ball - February 9, 2008 - Diane Cain & Dorothy Kaldis - no report PR - Elizabeth Karkowskv Trying to get up to speed. Wanting to do lots of PR. Will be working on F&F. Has contacted local newspapers. Good press on garage sale and PLB (Joni submitted prior to Elizabeth's appointment), info and photos have been sent on all recent awards, as well. Need to submit photo and story about Elizabeth appointment. Might be good to take a photo of Elizabeth with Stephanie and submit as a story since papers have not run the info from last week and Stephanie's appointment. Marketing & Development Committee/Garage Sale Event - Susan Sample $5100, community reuniting, Sue Hannah and Stephanie Roman have volunteered to handle the next garage sale. Received lots of great press. Think about feasibility for sale next year. Resident Decorators/Special Proiect/W!sh List/Giving Tree - Maria Elena Herbst & Vicki Grams - No report. Business Partners and Stork Project - No report. Friends Guild - Leah Ragiel. The last guild meeting for the year on May 2nd at the home of Katy Holt. Fathers & Flashlights - Daryl Hoover & Jennifer Gatto - No report. Oct 4 is the date, they have met with Donna and are on their way to another great event! Parks & Rec Report - Tim O'Connor Park Planning Project: • The park Planning Sub-Committee, PGAL, Carter & Burgess and staff, presented a preliminary conceptual redevelopment plan to City Council on March 10, 2008. • Council conducted a Special Town Hall meeting for April 23, 2008 at 6:30pm, for the purpose of publicly presenting the preliminary concepts for the redevelopment of the Colonial Park Swimming Pool & Recreation Center, the West University Recreation Center & Swimming Pool and the Community Building/Senior Center and eliciting public input/opinion on the same. Approximately 200 residents attended, with approximately 30 making public comment • An e-mail address, myparks@westu.org, was established to allow for citizen comment on the redevelopment concepts, with over 200 communications having been received to date. • The Sub-Committee has met numerous times and "tweeked" the proposed redevelopment conceptual plans, based on in-put from Council and the citizenry, and will be presenting this information at a Council Workshop on June 4, 2008. Wier Park Playground Renovation Project: • City Council approved the Friends recommendation for an approximate $156,000.00 renovation project at Wier Park, to include new playground structures, picnic tables, park benches, shade structures and trash receptacles. • A review committee was established and they determined the exact play elements, color schemes and styles of park furniture. • The project has been scheduled to begin on August 25, 2008 and will involve the playground area being out-of-service for approximately two weeks. Whitt Johnson Park Tree House Playground Element: • City Council approved the Friends recommendation for the purchase and installation of a $24,800.00 tree-house play element addition to Whitt Johnson Park playground. • Project funded through Friends and a generous donation from the Siegal family. • The project has been scheduled to begin on August 25, 2008 and will involve the playground area being out-of-service for approximately two weeks. Park Acquisition Sub-Committee: • Sub-Committee continues to investigate identifying potential parkland within the identified area of WUP. Friend's: • The Board has recruited and appointed two new members and is currently interviewing a third applicant for appointment in May. • The planning for the 2008 Friends - Fathers & Flashlights Event is underway. Saturday, October 4th has been selected as the 2008 date. Solicitation of corporate sponsorships is underway. Planning for event promotions, theme, meals, participant packets and entertainment is well underway, with Daryl Hoover and Jennifer Gatto serving as Event Co-Chairs. • 2009 Park Lovers Ball has been scheduled for Saturday, February 21 st at the Hotel Za-Za. • The First Annual Friends Community Garage Sale was conducted on Saturday, April 19th, with over $5,100.00 raised for Friends. • The Friends Guild enjoyed a tremendously successful inaugural year, meeting once monthly and having over thirty citizens participate. The group provide logistical and fiscal support for the Friends fundraising efforts and serves as a "recruiting pool" for future Board Members. • Search continues for a 2009 Park Lovers Ball Chairwoman. Daryl Hoover and Jennifer Gatto have agreed to serve as the 2010 Park Lover's Ball Co-Chairs. Parks & Recreation Operations: • Due to the arrival of consistently warmer weather, the pool water heating system is capable of properly maintaining eighty-six degree water. All classes, swim lessons and public swim programs have returned to normal attendance levels and subsequently the revenues are on back on-track. • All seasonal summer personnel have been hired and trained, with all activities scheduled to begin on Monday, June 2, 2008. • The Facility Maintenance Managers position has been posted, but to date we have only received two applications for the position. We have re-posted and in the interim, Mike Anders has been temporarily promoted until the position is posted and filled. • Work on preparing a DRAFT of a Parks Naming Rights Policy for review by the Parks Board has been delayed until mid-summer of 2008. A Parks Board Sub-Committee was appointed to assist with this effort and each of those members has been provided with an information packet. • The remodeling of the Fire Department kitchen and dining areas has been completed. Kudos to the Fire Department for providing internal resources in many facets of the remodel, saving the City several thousand dollars. • The 2008 summer edition of the Leisure Guide was mailed to all residents the first week of April. • All 2008 Summer Programs and Camps have been posted and open, with a majority of them already being filled. • The concrete play bumps at Colonial Park have been re-surfaced and the dyno-pad was installed at the slide on the southwest end of the Colonial park Playground. • A new basketball goal and standard has been ordered and will be installed at Wier Park by the end of June. • A total of 168 Case-Tracker Work Orders were facilitated by the Facility and Park Maintenance Division. • The May through August 2008 edition of the Senior Newsletter - Hi-Neighbor was mailed-out to residents on April 7th. • The sport court at Whitt Johnson Park was resurfaced and re-striped in early May. • Judson Park Tennis Court was repaired in early May. • Tree pruning at Whitt Johnson Park was facilitated in late May, with special attention being given to the overgrowth affecting the immediate neighbors. • Second Annual Music Under the Stars Concert Series was conducted on Friday, April 11th , 18th and 25th. Excellent turn-out - special thanks to Charles May for assisting staff in coordinating this effort. The event continues to grow in popularity and planning for 2009 is already underway. • The Annual Party on the Patio Concert Series is scheduled June 13th, 20th and 27th, 7 until 9pm at Colonial Park. • The 2008 Independence Day Bike Parade and Pool Party planning is well underway! Friday, July 4th, 10am until 2pm. Other News: The Recreation Specialist position has been filled. Jeremy Veld started work with our team on May 5, 2008. Jeremy graduated from Iowa State University, majoring in parks and recreation administration with a minor in computer science. Jeremy comes to us with over three years of comprehensive municipal recreation experience, including a diverse background in senior programming. Jeremy has "hit the ground running" and has some wonderful ideas for expanding our active senior programs. Jeremy will also assume the responsibilities of managing the Parks and Recreation Web-Page. Park Planning Proiect: Registration in process John LaMond Whitt Johnson Park project, redo refurbish, and City P & R sport court and striping Judson Park, fence painting Weir Park playground equipment selection In future start 6 months out, sales, design, color, elements in community meeting. Updated quote, falls within budget. Keep parks unique, theme or identity. Key element to distinguish or identify each specific park. New issue - 2 weeks the playground will be out of commission. Installation in late August? Treasurer's Report - Sue Hanna - No report City Council Report - Chuck Guffey The increase in the city ad valorem tax for seniors and handicapped was deferred to the next city council agenda. I am asking for an increase from $110,000 currently to $185,000. The increase is justified to permit seniors who do not itemize their federal income tax to receive the same 28% tax credit that higher paid working Old Business - Copy of by-laws has been given to all. Please review. New Business - Sue Jensen recommended that Friends develop a plan to accept, recognize and communicate contributions made to Friends. A motion was made by Leah Ragiel shows that the Friends supports the Parks Planning sub committee recommendation to the Parks Board for the recommendation of Option C for the redevelopment at he May 12th meeting. The motion was unanimously seconded and supported by the Friends of West U Parks board. The Parks Board will be meeting tonight and reviewing the draft of the recommendations. They are at a critical juncture, a 16 month process to this point. Parks Board meeting tonight, City Council on the 12t of May. Thank you to Sue Jensen and Lynne Goddard for their service to the Friends board. Lynne 6 years, Sue 3 years. Next meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, August 6, 2008 at 11:30 at the West U Rec Center unless otherwise posted. There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 1:25pm. Respectfully submitted, Judy Bouillion Secretary 0