Location: Aldrich 51 @ 2604 Aldrich Street
Date: Wednesday, April 3, 2019
Time: 7 p.m. to 9 p.m.
Attending: John Wooding and Ty Preston, Co-chairs; Chair Ex Oficio Lila Valencia; Richard Carr, Vice Chair; Penny Brandt, Treasurer; Alison Raffalovich, Secretary; Maria Salas; Bart Jacob; Dan Updegrove; Joan Quenan; April Geruso; Suzanne O’Malley
Incoming Block Captain Chair – Taylor Youngblood
Not present: Bill Kirwin, Bart Glaser
Items:
1. Greetings and pleasantries [John & Preston]
2. Approval of previous meeting minutes [Alison Raffalovich]– have been approved by email and posted on the MNA site.
3. Treasurer’s Report [Penny Brandt]– Kathy Farley wants to be a sponsor but hasn’t said at what level, so Penny will contact her to discuss sponsorship level and invoice her. See Treasurer’s Report below at the bottom of the minutes.
4. Digital Receipts [Penny Brandt]– Some people have requested the ability to provide digital receipts to Penny for grant expense reimbursements, etc. Penny plans to make people aware that digital receipts are an option and the Steering Committee motion to allow that passed unanimously. Similarly, we can give people the option to be paid via PayPal or Venmo if their terms of service don’t present concerns. Penny will look at both and make a recommendation at the May Steering Committee meeting.
5. Committee Updates:
5.1 Egg Scramble and Audit [Joan Quenan] – Joan will make the volunteer sign-up form available publicly soon. She is lining up 4 face painters. We’ll use the remaining HEB gift cards for breakfast tacos (a mix of vegetarian and non-vegetarian, and bean and cheese seem to be popular with children), bananas and tangelos. HEB will have the food at a table with HEBuddy on hand. They’ll also provide water jugs with compostable cups. The band will be about $400, which Joan is arranging. Lila reminded us to give the sponsors visibility associated with their sponsorship level. Quackenbush and Colleen’s will be on hand with goodies, and L’Oca d’Oro and Alamo are providing gift cards. The MNA will have a table to provide information, accept memberships, etc. There will be an Easter bunny as well. Tiny Tails and (via the Eastside) YMCA the bounce house provider needs to list us as named on their liability insurance.
Joan summarized the recent audit conducted March 14 by the Audit Committee – Joan, David Overton and Aaron Frausto; records were very organized and thorough. Some procedures have been updated to simplify tracking Strip and PayPal transactions. The Audit Committee reviewed the ledger of in-kind contributions and T-shirt inventory and sales. T-shirt inventory is low so we may want to reach out to Marta White for help reordering – her daughter owns a print shop so if it’s essentially a re-order it may be feasible to get new inventory in time for the Egg Scramble. Ty is talking to a neighbor in the business for a quote about potential coffee mugs by then as well. The committee moved to accept the audit report as submitted by Joan, David and Aaron.
5.2 New Chair of the Block Captain Network [Taylor Youngblood] – Taylor was formerly with the City of Austin. Kathy Sokolic and Dennis Mick provided great transition information. Taylor plans to combine information and try to get more engagement from apartment residents and build better awareness of the MNA among the neighborhood generally and focus on communication with block captains. When Taylor is a bit more up to speed, Maria and Alison (Neighborhood Engagement Committee), John (Block Captain liaison) and Taylor can get together and discuss future block walks, etc. The block with the condos along Mattie includes one block with 76 units, which needs to be subdivided. Taylor plans to get an updated map from Google Earth and will look at norming on 30-ish residences at most for each zone.
5.3 Transportation and Urban Planning Committee [April Geruso] – April will send the updated 2019 goals and objectives documents to the Steering Committee and post it on the MNA sites and Nextdoor. There will be a Transit Adventure April 25, starting at one or more bus stops on the 335 and going to Central Market for eats and to enjoy a band. Bike to Work Day is a Friday, May 17; Betsy Hilton is writing a Front Porch Flyer article on that. The TUP Committee is interested in getting together with their counterparts in adjacent neighborhoods to improve safety and connectedness. The TUP may also create a discussion series to help familiarize newer neighbors with the principles of new urbanism, core neighborhood design elements, objectives, etc. There will be a light rail discussion at the Central Library this coming Monday, April 8. There was discussion of geofencing on scooters and what the neighborhood’s stance and recommendations are. The scooter companies provide information on scooter ride origins and destinations and the data is publicly accessible. There is a fair amount of neighborhood chatter on some TUP topics such as protected pedestrian crossings on Berkman, Zach Scott, Airport, etc., which TUP monitors to see where they can be responsive and advocate where appropriate, and perhaps as a result better communicate and defuse some negativity with better insight. It may also be good to work with Catellus to remind people to park for free in the parking garage during the Farmer’s market on Sunday. Cap Metro provides Project Connect annually, and the new Cap Metro leader is very responsiveness. The TUP committee formerly advocated for the 820 bus to come down Berkman, because the 820 goes to the university and downtown. Cap Metro did not accept that request at the last Project Connect reconfiguration, but in June we have the opportunity to re-advocate for that change. The TUP will update the position paper submitted about three years ago, which at the time generated a lot of vigorous discussion. TUP will present proposed updates to the Steering Committee and ultimately the MNA general membership to ask for input.
5.4 Yard sale – April – the sale will be Saturday, April 14. A Goodwill truck be at Ella Wooten Park and a Salvation Army truck at John Gaines Park from 11:45-1:15. Ty will get the yard sale signs to April, who will work with Catellus to get them put up, and Joan will collect them afterward. April will remind people not to use alleys or garages.
6. POA Transition Committee [John] – Focus is on long-term governance as Catellus, with members from Master Board, Mixed Use Board and someone from the MNA suggested by the Steering Committee. We need to pick our representative by April 30. John approached Karen Sharp as chair of the MNA transition committee to see if she’s interested in serving, and Karen accepted our invitation.
7. MNA Meeting Signs [Preston] – Sam at UPS is producing the signs, one set with Wildflower and one set with Seton locations. He is a sponsor with giving us in-kind printing up to $1,000, and the sign printing is around $350. Ty and John will work with Bart Glaser to ensure we add the UPS logo, add them to the sponsor spreadsheet, the sponsor listings page in the Front Porch Flyer, etc.
8. Sponsors [Suzanne O’Malley] – Suzanne will ask Sam, HEB and Frost Bank whether they want to present at the May meeting and announce it in the Front Porch Flyer.
9. Insurance – Event and Directors & Officers [Dan Updegrove] – Dan is looking into liability and D&O insurance. Historically we’ve had event insurance for specific events in the $400-550 range. Dan is getting quotes from brokers to get a general sense of budgetary range. One bid is already in quoting $294 for general liability and D&O and $1400 for the 3 events. Ty will check with the Windsor Park Neighborhood Association to see if they have insurance; Cherrywood does not. For the Egg Scramble, Joan will ask the bounce house (via the YMCA) and Tiny Tails to list MNA as an additional insured on their own liability policies. Dan objected to having the bounce house and Tiny Tails at the event because of potential safety concerns.
10. Farmer’s Market [Joan Quenan] – they have asked if we can help promote the Wednesday evening market, which is slower than the Sunday market.
11. May General Meeting Agenda [John]
11.1 Treasurer’s report
11.2 PIAC notes – Michael Jones
11.3 Egg Scramble – Joan Quenan
11.4 4th of July Parade & Festival – Bill Kirwin
11.5 POZ Review – Bill Berman
11.6 Local Business Spotlight – TBD
| Mueller Neighborhood Association | |
| Monthly Treasurer’s Report 02/01/19 – 02/28/19 | |
| Frost Checking Account | |
| Beginning Balance | $8,036.53 |
| Revenues | |
| Membership Dues | $150.00 |
| Credit Card Fees | $0.46 |
| Catellus sponsorship | $250.00 |
| DMA Sponsorship | $250.00 |
| Envision Sponsorship | $1,500.00 |
| Total Revenues | $2,150.46 |
| Expenses | |
| G-Suite | $5.33 |
| Stripe Transfer (Electronic Debit) March 12 | $16.50 |
| Reimbursement to Joan (name tags) | $29.51 |
| Total Expenses | $51.34 |
| Ending Balance | $10,135.65 |
| Frost Savings Account | |
| Beginning Balance | $5,002.27 |
| Incoming | $0.00 |
| Interest | $3.08 |
| Outgoing | $0.00 |
| Ending Balance | $5,005.35 |
| Checking and Savings Combined | $15,141.00 |