HomeMy WebLinkAbout15 05 FMinutes Friends of West University Place Parks Fund, Inc. Board Meeting Minutes Wednesday, May 13 , 2015 Friends of West University Place Parks Fund, Inc. (“Friends”) Board met on Wednesday, May 13 , 201 5 at 11:30 AM at the Union Kitchen Res taurant , 4057 Bellaire Blvd, Houston , TX. The following were in attendance: Board Members Mark Prescott Christine Parker Christi Young Robin Murray Megan Morris Mat t hew Foytlin Michelle Huth Christina Mi lligan Anna Stewart Susie Boyce Kristine Martinez Ting B resnahan Jeth Jones Advisory Board Members Steve Primrose Joni Fichter Executive Director Donna LaMond Staff Tim O’Connor City Council Mayor Bob Fry Joan Johnson Dick Yehle Susan Sample Guests Kelly Butler DeAnna Villalobos Michele Still Comfort Cheng Judy Cheng John Young Adrienne Vanderbloemen William Vanderbloemen Ashley Gumbert Dee Dee Gilder Michele Marvin I. Call to Order The mee ting was called to order at 11:43 am. II. Welcome, Opening Remarks and Approval of Minutes (Mark Prescott) APPROVAL OF MINUTES A vote to approve the April 8, 2015 board meeting minutes was called by Ting Bresnahan and seconded by Anna Stewart . It was approved by unanimous vote. Announcement of PLB2016 Ball chairs – Judy and Comfort Cheng and Michele and Paul Marvin. As you know, Judy and Comfort were the F & F 2013 and 2015 co -chairs and Michele Marvin was the PLB2015 Underwriting and Sponsorship
Chair. These couples bring a lot of experience to PLB and we are very excited about having them lead the 25 th anniversary celebration of the ball. Some changes on the Friends board: Christina Milligan’s term on the board expires at the end of August. She has opted not to renew her term because of family commitments, but will continue to help through Friends’ committees and then possibly reapply to the board in the future. We’d like to thank Christina for serving on the board since December of 2012. Susie Boyce is moving out towards Katy and is resigning her position on the board after at least ten years o f service. Susie joined the board in July of 2005 and we are very grateful for all that she has done for Friends over the years. She has served in many capacities and will be greatly missed in the West U community. We will also miss her husband, Lance, who has very graciously served as Santa at Friends holiday parties over the years. Please note that you do not need to live in West U to attend Park Lovers’ Ball, so we hope to see Susie and Lance continue to attend the annual gala. I am pleased to ann ounce that we have other board members who are renewing their terms on the board: Jeth Jones Christi Young John T. Young, Jr. Kara Schaefer I am also pleased to announce that we have three new board applications that we would like to recommend for appoin tment on the Friends board. They are Judy Cheng, Michele Marvin, and Liz Boyle. For those of you who may not know Liz, she is the wife of Parks and Rec board member, Kevin Boyle. All in favor? Yes. Any opposed? No. These recommendations for Friends board appointment s and reappointments will be on the May 18 Council agenda. III. Treasurer’s Report (Christine Parker) See attached reports. Distribution of Balance Sheet as of May 11, 2015 and Profit and Loss January 1, 2015 through May 11, 2015. A check has been written to the City in the amount of $87,371.50 for J udson which is for the post -tension tennis court, engineering services, and project management.
Christine Parker is being added to the Friends Frost Bank brokerage account. IV. P art y on the Patio Concert Series 2015 (Grace Ebaugh and Michelle Huth) The concert series starts on June 5 with The Chromatics; June 12 is Yelba’s Variety Band; June 19 is The Fab 5; and June 26 is Grady Gaines and The Texas Upsetters. Thank you to the West U Parks and Recreation staff for handling the logistics and concert details and a special thank you to Frost Bank for being the concert series sponsor. V. Fathers & Flashlights 2015 (Kristine Martinez, Kara Schaefer, Kelly Butler) Co mmittee Chairs met with Susan White, Donna LaMond, Anthony Hagan and Lisa Cearfoss from the Parks Departments in April to define roles/duties and finalize dates. Returning Camper Registration will be August 18 and New Camper Registration is August 20. Sc out House has been reserved for documentation check on August 27 from 8 a.m. - 1:30 p.m. and 5:30 p.m. - 7:30 p.m. Event committee has been finalized. Some re turning volunteers and some new. The Chairs are in the process of finalizing donation/underwrit ing levels. These levels have not seen an increase in years. Registration will not be increased. Committees are in the process of reaching out to all past donors and sponsors for their first right of refusal on past sponsorship. First mail out for Unde rwriting/Sponsors will go out the week of May 18th. If you know of a business or person who is interested in sponsoring this year, please have them contact Kristine Martinez. If it is a food related donation/question, please have them contact Kelly Butle r. VI. Other Reports and Announcements (Donna LaMond) Donna asked if there were any other reports before starting on her report and Tim thanked the Friends Board for their approval of $25k for the design specifically for the redevelopment of the west end of Colonial Park. He reported that it passed unanimous ly by the Parks Board on May 6th and will go to Council for formal
approval on the 18th. Design Task Force will be formed and beg in work sometime in June. Three Friends Board members are needed to serve on this task force. PAVERS – Matt Foytlin --- Following several requests for pavers at Wier Park, we explored creating a space additional pavers and obtained a proposal from Pro Modular, our paver installer, to install new blank pavers for purchase and inscription. The City accepted the contracto r’s proposal. The new area will be located directly in front of the Wier Park gates on Sunset Boulevard. The City has also decided to replace the aggregate (pebble -studded) concrete on either side of the new area. Another contractor was performing that work and it may have already occurred. The new paver area will measure 8x7 feet, with the contractor installing 6x12 pavers in Antique Terra Cotta. I spent some time trying to figure out how many pavers will be available for purchase. I can only say t hat it will be a lot. The contractor is shooting to have the blank pavers installed by the end of the month. So, we will update the Friends Web site so that folks can now order pavers at Wier Park. Thank you again to Frost Bank Party for being the sp onsor of the Party on the Patio Concert Series coming up Friday evenings in June. Thank you also to Grace Ebaugh and Michelle Huth for continuing to be the Friends liaisons for the concerts. Fathers & Flashlights 2015 – Thanks also to Kelly and Sean Bu tler, Kristine and Joaquin Martinez, and Kara and Curt Schaefer for chairing the next Fathers & Flashlights. They have some big shoes to fill as seems to be the case each time we have new chairs. As their report indicated, they are kicking things into hi gh gear with the underwriting and sponsorship campaign. I have started getting phone calls and emails about registration. Thank you to Christi Young for continuing to oversee the online registration for this event. It is very exciting to be working with Judy and Comfort Cheng and Michele and Paul Marvin on PLB2016. They have proven track records and I have no doubts that they will present a remarkable event for all to enjoy and will raise lots of money for our neighborhood parks and green spaces. We have already met a few times and next week will meet to really get things started. Be on the lookout for auction donor forms so that we can all start working on bringing in those awesome auction items. We have had a few more stork orders recently in cluding a stork from the PLB2015 auction. I would like to take this opportunity to thank the City for hosting our star citizen awards luncheon today following our board meeting. It is very nice of the City to show its appreciation of the Friends Board and our wonderful volunteers by hosting this luncheon and recognizing our star citizens. Ting has prepared a press release
draft about today’s awards luncheon. Thank you, Ting. We will get that finalized and out ASAP along with photographs captured by DeAnna Villalobos. As a reminder, we typically do not hold board meetings during the summer months, however, we will continue to have committee meetings and keep up with our fundraising activities. We will email out the meeting dates for the next school year soon so that we can get the dates on your calendars. For the most part, we will continue to hold our meetings on the second Wednesday of each month starting in September. P lease continue to refer to the weekly reports that you receive via email for an ongoing update on other Friends activities as well as all Parks and Rec activities. This concludes my report. VII. Adjournment The next meeting of the Board will be in September, date to be announced . There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 11:57AM . Respectfully submitted, Donna LaMond Standing in for Secretary , Katie Hill