MHNO Board of Directors Agenda for Monday August 8, 2016 6:00

 MHNO Board of Directors Agenda for Monday August 8, 2016 6:00-­‐8:00 pm Hill House -­‐ 92 Congress St MHNO Board of Directors Guests Jay Norris, President; Laura Greenstein, Vice President; Lindsay Rowe, Secretary; Linda Bancroft, Treasurer; Directors: Colin Apse, Doug Fillmore, Ned Chester, Nick Johnson, Paula Agopian, Elise Loschiavo, Joan Sheedy, Elaine Mullin, Austin Sutherland Hon. Ethan Strimling, Mayor of Portland; Jason Shedlock, City of Portland; Will Savage, Principal, Acorn Engineering; Ryan Sanatore, Architect, Sanatore Architecture Item Discussion Time Leader 1. Welcome & Introductions, Quorum setting/excusing absent members Jay Norris 2.
June meeting minutes addendum/approval Lindsay Rowe 3.
Treasurer’s Report/Discussion Linda Bancroft 5 minutes 4.
President’s Report: Jay 5 minutes 5.
Committee Reports: Round Table Updates on Events, CommComm, Safe & Livable, Development/Fundraising, Membership Mayor Ethan Strimling Laura, Paula, 10 minutes Austin, Jay/Nick 30 minutes 8.
Presentation on proposed development of 155 Sheridan St.: Planned project is a 34-­‐unit residential urban infill project on steep south slope of Munjoy Hill. Proposal includes three workforce-­‐housing units with a terraced foundation into the slope. Parking for 34 units will be on two separate levels with individual entrances from Sheridan Street. Open Discussion / Other Business Will Savage, Acorn Engineering & Architect Ryan Sanatore Board 9.
Adjournment 6.
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45 minutes MHNO Board of Directors Meeting Minutes Monday, July 11, 2016 6:00-­‐ 8:00 pm
Hill House-­‐ 92 Congress St
In attendance: Jay Norris (President), Laura Greenstein (Vice President), Paula Agopian, Colin Apse, Linda Bancroft, Ned Chester, Doug Fillmore, Nick Johnson, Elaine Mullin, Lindsay Rowe, Joan Sheedy, Austin Sutherland Absent: Elise Loschiavo (Excused)
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Introductions (6:11-­‐6:12 pm): Jay Norris and all board members present •
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There is a quorum Board members introduced themselves and Jay Norris welcomed guests Elise Loschiavo is excused as she will be away travelling for a few months No corrections to minutes from last meeting Jay Norris moved to accept minutes from June meeting. Linda Bancroft seconds and all board members are in favor. Treasurer’s Report (6:13-­‐6:22 pm) – Doug Fillmore •
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Approximately $16,000 in MHNO accounts (checking, savings, paypal and petty cash combined) No large expenses anticipated in the near future Doug Fillmore is stepping down as treasurer and will help new treasurer with transition Jay Norris explained that we received a $10,000 anonymous gift and that Nick Johnson works at Apple and Apple has matched the time that he spent working on the Observer website which resulted in approximately $2,000 and other funds have come from increased memberships and easement payment Monthly expenses are about $500 including utilities, website, Constant Contact and small miscellaneous operational expenses, insurance payment is quarterly so some months are higher Annual expenses are approximately $6,000 Events Committee raised funding for Funjoy Fest so did not come out of general funds MHNO is placing an emphasis on transparency in terms of budget Paula Agopian requested monthly printout of financial statement At previous meetings, treasurer provided printout of Quickbooks report but was not reliable so stopped providing it but going forward the new Quickbooks should make it possible to provide an accurate monthly financial statement Lindsay Rowe asked if insurance money was refunded for Funjoy Fest as insurance was purchased for bouncy house liability and insurance did not cover bouncy houses so we were not able to have bouncy houses at Funjoy Fest and insurance was not needed, Jay Norris explained that insurance payment was approximately $430 and has not been refunded 3.
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Nomination & Election of Secretary and Treasurer (6:23-­‐6:27) •
Jay nominated Lindsay Rowe as Secretary. Linda Bancroft seconded. All board members in favor. Nomination confirmed. •
Jay Norris nominated Linda Bancroft as Treasurer. Colin Apse seconded. All board members in favor. Nomination confirmed. •
Jay Norris moved that the organization remove Sean Turley and Doug Fillmore from the Munjoy Hill Neighborhood Organization bank account at Norway Savings bank and replace their names with Linda Bancroft as signatory. Paula Agopian seconded. All board members in favor. Motion passed. Events Committee Report (6:28-­‐6:33) – Lindsay Rowe •
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Funjoy Fest was very successful, we were not able to have bouncy houses because insurance purchased did not cover bouncy house liability but we were able to use deposit for bouncy house for games, in addition we had food trucks, Eli’s soda truck with free samples, bubble demo, a band, facepainting, free popcorn, lots of families came and liked that it was free, food trucks sold out so was successful for them as well, hopefully it will become an annual event Linda Bancroft suggested that in the future we try to involve the local community and have a parade to recognize the local community with students from East End School, Munjoy Hill residents, police and fire department, as a representation of people in the neighborhood to open the event and celebrate residents of Munjoy Hill and as a way to bring people from the community together The Events Committee is seeking a new Committee Chair Hope to have a forum in the fall for candidates for state representative and state senator President’s Report (6:34-­‐6:57 pm) – Jay Norris •
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Jay Norris asked everyone to sign the conflict of interest paperwork and return to Secretary Lindsay Rowe by the next meeting. Lindsay Rowe will collect them and give to Jay Norris, everyone should change the date on the form to July 2, 2016 and June 30, 2017 and initial Annual meeting went well, about 60 people in attendance Need chairs for committees Austin Sutherland has agreed to lead Membership Committee Jay Norris will lead Communications Committee which includes letter board, Facebook updates, newsletters, constant contact, Observer, how we message organization, website maintenance, Twitter, we have more than doubled social media presence over past year Development Committee needs chair, previously chaired by Jay Norris responsible for researching and getting traction on fundraising, new ways to raise money for organization Colin Apse suggested that Membership and Development Committees should be combined Paula Agopian will lead Safe and Livable Committees •
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Committees chairs will present 6 month plan for committee at next meeting Elaine Mullin leads Home on Munjoy Hill, Elaine explained that historically there a service committee that did Clynk, fuel assistance, Christmas baskets, camperships, etc. At Home on Munjoy Hill used to be part of that and now At Home on Munjoy Hill is the only service effort Discussed that Clynk efforts are continuing and money has been donated to the Locker Project, explained that Events Committee assisted with Trott Family Christmas and donated a portion of funds raised at raffle/auction for Funjoy Fest to the Locker Project at East End School Jay Norris suggested that we have an ad hoc committee to replace By Laws Committee with Organizational Policy Committee Colin Apse proposed a Policy and Advocacy Committee to deal with next crisis associated with major development and figure out if/how to advocate and plan forum for it Jay Norris suggested that the board be that committee and use the Observer as tool to keep the community informed Ned Chester suggested that we have another retreat to decide basic committees and discuss it more at retreat Linda Bancroft asked if summary of last year’s retreat can be distributed to all board members, Jay Norris will send it to all board members Will coordinate a retreat date for after school starts Jay Norris provided an update that community policing has vacated Hill House, Jay worked with the chief to propose that rent be increased from $67 monthly to $300 monthly as board has approved, explained that we have expenses with electricity and heating and that we used to receive grant to help with expenses but grant ended We received a donation to cover the cost instead of raising the rent and notified the Chief but he made it official that they are moving to the Cummings Center, decided to move out of Hill House immediately but did not explain why Jay Norris proposed to use the space for storage/office purposes for MHNO Observer is not going away, just different medium, hope to have a physical issue in December, some people have gotten in touch and are concerned because they do not have internet access so will figure out plan to print out website version With online Observer, can anonymously track how many people are visiting, where people are going, how long they are spending on each page and can take data and sell ads, working on promoting new Observer Still difficult to get content, everyone wants to write a column but need news as well, when people suggest column, decide if appropriate and ask that they write a news article as well Sidewalk audit is done, Jay is meeting with volunteers early next week and will use it as a tool to advocate with city manager, all board members will get copy of report Mayor messaged Jay Norris asking for more details about housing issues Sewage treatment facility is doing something to eliminate smell issue Water District is putting in new pipes Jay Norris asked if anyone has used new Metro app, Colin Apse said he has and it is helpful but hard to navigate Open Discussion/Other Business (6:58-­‐7:19 pm) – Jay Norris •
Paula Agopian explained that there is a meeting on July 20th at East End School to discuss the possibility of piloting permitted parking for specific area from Atlantic to •
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Mountfort (but not including Mountfort) and Monument to the Eastern Prom, MHNO should advertise meeting to Munjoy Hill residents Need more signs so that cars are not parking so close to the corner of the street at intersections because it is a safety issue, supposed to be 20 foot buffer but not being enforced especially on the weekends, corners need to be monitored Colin Apse asked about city’s re-­‐assessment and comp plan because everyone is worried, there was a city comp plan presentation and survey at previous MHNO meeting that was interactive, then sent surveys to Munjoy Hill residents and Jay Norris commented that he received feedback that Munjoy Hill had the largest amount of responses to surveys of the various city neighborhoods Paula Agopian said she thinks they want to come do an additional presentation and Jay Norris said he would follow up Discussed what hat role MHNO should play as an organization Ideally, Munjoy Hill would be mixed income Changes in zoning need to be revisited Densify and intensify is not the answer, need affordable housing MHNO is attempting to partner with other neighborhood organizations for advocacy Adjournment (7:20-­‐7:22pm) – Jay Norris •
Jay Norris motions to adjourn the meeting. Ned Chester seconds. All board members in favor and meeting is adjourned.