Minutes, March 20, 2018

Minutes from the March 20, 2018 Board Meeting

Board members in attendance: Aubrey Carter, BJ Friedman, Paula Hern, Kim O’Brien, Chris Thomas, and Gregory Tran

1.    Approval of minutes from the February 20, 2018 monthly board meeting. Kim O’Brien, 5 minutes.

On a motion by Aubrey, seconded by Chris, the February 20, 2018 minutes were approved.

2.    Financial report and finance committee report. Rose Gabriel, Teri Taylor, 5 minutes.

Rose Gabriel was ill. Chris presented the financial reports. Our balances are healthy: $16,417 in checking, $43,020 in savings. We finished February with a net balance of $3,198.

The Finance Committee did not meet this month.

3.    Property management report. Rose Gabriel, 5 minutes.

All tenants are current on rent, and new tenants scheduled to move into 1011B Charlotte at the end of the month.

4.    Report on CCDC Membership Drive. Kim O’Brien, 5 minutes.

Kim reported that door-to-door flyers with membership information and notice of the April 17, 2018 Annual Meeting and upcoming board election were delivered last weekend. Also, information is posted on bulletin boards & the website. Last April, the board instituted the change that membership is now permanent—anyone who has been a member since 2014 is now a permanent member. Anyone who submits an application from this point forward will be a permanent member. The membership list form 2014-2017 is about 100 members. Kim also noted that she coordinated delivery of information to Sweet Home with Pastor Manning.

5.    Report on upcoming Board of Directors election (5 positions up for election; voting to take place April 17, 2018, prior to the Annual Meeting.) Kim O’Brien, 5 minutes.

Five positions are up for election: currently filled by Malcolm Greenstein, Paula Hern, Kim O’Brien, Mary Reed, and Chris Thomas. All have indicated their intent to run for another term. Anyone else who is interested in serving on the board needs to notify Kim by March 25 (this information is included on the Annual Meeting flyer delivered door-to-door and posted on bulletin boards and the website.)

6.    Report on efforts to obtain grant funding for Clarksville NHRD street sign toppers and expanded promotion of the Walking Tour. Kim O’Brien, 5 minutes.

Kim reported that we have submitted a grant application to Preservation Austin requesting funding to install 15 street sign toppers for the Clarksville NHRD, and $ to create and print an 11 x 16 poster promoting the Walking Tour. The total cost of project is $2380. Since Preservation Austin requires a 50% match, our request was for $1240

Additionally, an application was submitted to Visit Austin’s Heritage Grant program for the 15 sign toppers. No match was required so we requested the total cost of project, $2,250.

7.    Discussion of Local Historic District (LHD) next steps. Kim O’Brien, 2 minutes.

Kim presented the following report from Mary Reed, who was out of town: We’re still waiting for the COA to provide feedback to Alyson re draft design standards and application and then for Alyson to revise accordingly. Unfortunately, the Neighborhood Preservation Office is swamped and so the review and feedback process is very delayed. Other than that, the LHD website is ready to go.

8.    Update on FunFest 2018. Kim O’Brien, 2 minutes.

Kim presented the following report from Mary Reed: We have all Fun Fest activities underwritten and the checks are coming in. BJ arranged for Taco Flats to sell food at the event and the food truck is not requiring that it make at least X amt. of $ at the event so that's a really good thing.

Next big task will be to line up volunteers, but we are not going to need as many as in year's past because there will be no big kids bouncy house and we will not be selling food ourselves.

Aubrey stated that he would like for us to sell the RuthAnn Brown’s t-shirt at the FunFest. (This was the shirt RuthAnn had planned to unveil at her Block Party in November 2018.) There was some discussion regarding the best use of proceeds from the sales, a way to honor RuthAnn’s legacy. No final decision was made.

9.    Other Business

BJ reported that she contacted the Shade Project to inquire about financial assistance for additional shade structures at Mary Baylor Clarksville Park, but has yet to hear back from them. She will contact them again. Paula spoke with Tree Folks about more trees for the park. We will need to show approval from the City and a watering plan before they can assist.

10.     Executive Session (if necessary)

The Board did not meet in Executive Session