Location: Telemeeting (via Zoom)
Time: 7 to 8:25 p.m.
In attendance – John Wooding, chair; Richard Carr, vice chair; John Reese Thomas, Treasurer; Alison Raffalovich, Secretary; Taylor Youngblood; Bart Jacob; Bart Glaser; Marta White; Ted Herr; Koreena Malone, Preston Tyree, chair ex oficio. Not attending: Ed Dorn.
Items:
1. Greetings and Pleasantries [John] (5 mins)
2. Previous minutes have been approved and posted
3. Treasurer’s Report – John Reese Thomas – We received $60 in membership dues and expenses included a Zoom licenses and internet services for a net negative of about $70 for the month.
4. MNA Committee Updates and Reports:
4.1. Neighborhood Engagement and Inclusion [Koreena Malone] Mueller Housing Engagement Team – This team is working lockstep with Catellus and Housing Works in a creation of a Right-To-Return policy for the resale and revamping the new sales process. Both organizations have agreed to allowing the team review the policy before implemented. We are looking to Housing Works to help us revamp policies to encourage more pathways to home ownership in Mueller for people of color. We’re hoping for improved policies in both new homes and resales in Mueller to provide that access, and discussions continue.
The candidate accountability session is Saturday October 17 via Zoom from 11-noon. We’ll record the session, and some community stations have agreed to air the recording. We’ll aim for a script and flow by September 20 and can formulate questions for the candidates from that. We’re inviting candidates from District 1 and 3, and many kids from Mueller go to schools in District 1. They have distributed flyers in Aldrich, Jordan and other apartments that we think would have school-age children living there. Bart will add it to the social calendar based on the suggested text from Koreena, and John will include a blurb in the newsletter. Koreena also gave Kathy copy to include in the Front Porch Flyer. We will also use the MNA Zoom account and Koreena will do the Zoom hosting. We’ll do some test sessions with recording to ensure optimal quality at the event itself. We’ll also upgrade our Zoom account for September only to accommodate more than 100 people if needed.
Change Consulting and the People’s Institute are two candidate firms Koreena’s assessing for potential Steering Committee training on racial awareness and combatting racism. Koreena will try to get ballpark budgetary estimates.
4.2. Front Porch Flyer – Google Drive – Taylor Youngblood – Koreena, Kathy Sokolic and Taylor met to discuss the Flyer files; going forward these will reside on the MNA Steering Committee Google Drive rather than just Kathy’s Google Drive. We’re trying to increase interest in advertising, which will allow us to provide more content, and more writers to help attract more contributors and some new voices in the content.
4.3. Nominations [Discussion] – We’ll need to conduct elections online. John will research Zoom mechanisms and Alison will research Survey Monkey.
4.4 MNA Processes Documentation – Bart Jacob – Bart is systematically compiling all our processes and documents related to conducting the Steering Committee and MNA business. If you haven’t already documented your function and processes, you’re encouraged to do so and contribute it to the Steering Committee on our Shared Drive.
4.4. Transportation & Urban Planning – Propositions A and B[1] [John] (10 mins)
– Discussion and Possible Action. There was discussion about whether to provide a statement of support on Proposition B. There was a motion to endorse Proposition B, which passed with 7 in favor, 1 against and 2 abstention.
Proposition A is related to Project Connect for increased mobility. There was a motion to endorse Proposition A which passed.
5. Hancock Golf Course – Hancocksurvey.com [John] – There’s a request for the MNA to share the link to a survey asking Austinites what they think should happen with the land. The survey will close in September. The committee agreed to share the link via a Facebook, Instagram and website posts. John will draft and Bart and Taylor will share on social.
6. “About Us” Photo on Website [Taylor Youngblood] – Currently the people featured are not all currently in leadership roles, but were very influential in our history at very important junctures. WE talked about keeping that photo to honor their leadership and then add snapshots of each current Steering Committee to have next to our names or rotating in display.
7. FAN Representative – Update and Discussion [John] – A couple of people expressed interest via social posts; Taylor will follow up. Richard or Joan is available as a fallback.
8. Marta requested usage permission from Mueller artists on featured Catellus pins, and we got permission from the artist who did Nessie and the Spider, and she also offered to help us do additional mask designs.
9. September General Meeting Agenda [John]–
9.1. Treasurer’s Report
9.2. POA Review
9.3. Mueller Commission
9.4. Local Business Spotlight: TBD Frost provided a video but asked to postpone to the October. Bart Glaser will check with a couple of other local businesses to see if they want to be featured in September.
General Meeting 9/19 10 a.m.
Steering Committee Meeting 10/7 7 p.m.
Respectfully submitted 9/12/2020
Alison Raffalovich, Secretary