SRCC EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE MEETING Minutes
MONDAY, October 20, 2014 6:30 PM
Opal Divine’s
3601 S Congress Ave, AUSTIN, TEXAS
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CALL TO ORDER/APPROVAL OF MINUTES
1. 6:30 Meeting procedures, etiquette, welcome & introductions of new members, new Area Coordinators, new Committee Chairs.
Presenter throughout: Sounthaly “Tune†Outhavong, SRCC President, unless otherwise noted.
2. 6:35 Membership & voting announcements. Reminder that SRCC current dues status is required to participate in SRCC business and actions such as voting and making motions.
Presenter: Carol Martin, Membership Chair
11 neighbors in attendance.
3. 6:40 Approve minutes from June 16, 2014 executive meeting.
Reminder: schedule for Executive meetings: February, April, October 3rd Monday of the month; 6:00pm – 7:30pm in conference room at GUMC (unless at Opal’s). Reminder: committee meeting rooms available
2015 dates: Feb. 16, 2015; April 20, 2015; October 19, 2015
MOTION: Garret Nick / Gretchen Otto – to approve the minutes from the april EC meeting = PASSED
NEW BUSINESS
4. 6:45 Presentation of a) 3rd quarter financial reports; b) Review of Key Financial Dates to be completed during 2014
Presenter: Nancy Byrd, Treasurer
Handouts were made available with all the Treasurer’s information.
5. 6:55 Finance Committee Report – draft Financial Forecast for 2015 for review. Status of capital projects funded by ACF account.
Presenter: Sam Martin, Finance Committee chair
Handouts were made available with all the Finance information. Instead of a budget we have created a forecast so as not to imply that there is an open checkbook available. Newsletter expenses are based on printing four times a year at $500-600 each time. This month’s newsletter cost approximately $750 because it was larger than average at ten pages. $750 a year is spent on reserving the space at GUMC for general and executive committee meetings. We are in the process of correcting our IRS classification. $100 to each public school in our boundaries. New meeting signs might need to be made if our location changes.
MOTION: Sam Martin / Mike Sledge – to approve the 2015 Financial Forecast with an increase of the signage funds to $600, $250 for possible IRS legal fees and $100 for the Communications Committee = PASSED
6. 7:10 Update on Heritage Oaks Park improvements.
Presenter: Carol Martin, Membership chair
Towards the end of the year we are hoping to secure an Austin Parks Foundation grant to complete the improvements to the Heritage Oaks Park.
7. 7:15 Committee Chairs: Check-in on goals/issues
1) Parks- David Todd, Schools- Sheri Ancipink, Environment- Marty Christman; –
2) Planning & Zoning- Jean Mather;
3) Transportation – Michael Sledge, Jeff Kessel rep to Project Connect; & Public Safety- new volunteer STILL needed for Raymond Sinatra; – Restriping of Woodland/Annie is moving along and should be finished before long. Riverside and Oltorf interchanges on I-35 will be reconfigured. At the Pedestrian Advisory Council an issue came up about setting our sidewalk priorities. It was suggested to refer to the Neighborhood Plan as that effort identified locations where they are needed. Proposition 1 is a 1 billion dollar bond with Federal matching funds for $600 million of it and another $400 million for road projects. This is the money that would be used to upgrade I-35. *check the newsletter for more details.
4) Norwood- Wolf Sittler;
5) Historic District- Michele Weber;
8) Finance- Sam Martin;
9) Rep to ANC Austin Nbhd Council- James Bilodeau;
10) Communication– switching to Justin Chang from Carol Martin, discuss handoff/training; – Justin introduced himself and expressed his desire to improve all communication channels to increase membership and inform residents. It was suggested that existing committee members all meet to plan out a strategy.
11) Quality of Life– Proposal to let Quality of Life committee officially be declared done and no more by Gretchen Otto;
MOTION: Gretchen Otto / Claudette Lowe – to disband the ad hoc QoL committee = PASSED
12) Rep to South Central Waterfront– Garret Nick – The newsletter has all the latest information about this project. The main points to note are that the city has funded the next stage with $200,000 to hire consultants to flesh out the details of what the community has identified as the desired direction of the waterfront. The goal is to work with stakeholders to develop the area as a whole under new guidelines rather than as individual plots under the existing Waterfront Overlay with the result being a better development by all measures. The tradeoff is going to be in allowing some variances on height in the form of spires or towers so that it is not visually imposing.
Presenter: Sounthaly Outhavong, President, and Committee Chairs
8. 7:40 Structure for increasing involvement and better distributing efforts on key issues. Discuss idea of having Google Groups for each Area.
Presenters: Gretchen Otto, Vice President; Garret Nick, Secretary
We have been exploring better ways for each Area and Area Coordinators to communicate including Nextdoor, Google Groups, Yahoo Groups and just traditional email chains. It was suggested and agreed that we use Area1 as the testing ground for using Google Groups. Gretchen Otto volunteered to be added to this group as a co-moderator along with the existing Area1 Coordinators.
9. 7:50 Report from BCNA meeting, discussion of best practices.
Presenters: Sounthaly Outhavong, President
Tune described what she experienced at the BCNA general membership meeting, how often they meet and what committee chair responsibilities are. They voted to support the AISD opposition to the variance. Discussion about school enrollment was a hot topic. Historic designation for part or all of the area has been considered. Their voting process is somewhat different than ours. They have a monthly happy hour, six newsletters a year and an election committee. BCNA has an official logo but SRCC does not and we should consider doing a contest to develop one and have the membership vote on it. Possibly shoot for the next newsletter to announce it. Should we ramp up the newsletter to four times a year and should we re-consider selling ads? Tune suggested we search for an Events Committee Chair to coordinate neighborhood events like the March Election Potluck, July4 picnic, October Neighborhood Night Out and a December holiday potluck.
10. 8:00 SRCC position/form letter for alcohol waivers. In 2002 SRCC voted to ask the AISD board to have a consistent policy that opposed all future variances. We supported and voted to request a standard policy from ANC and AISD on alcohol waivers, but we ourselves didn’t vote to have a standing policy that we could communicate in a form letter when these issues arise? Or this information was lost over the years?
Presenter: Sounthaly Outhavong, President
No policy was brought forth but it was discussed and agreed that we should vote on a case by case basis. We’d rather give each individual issue fair thought than “rubber stamp†a position. Are there any circumstances where this would be ok?
11. 8:15 Discuss having a Holiday Potluck in December
Presenters: Sounthaly Outhavong, President
Concerns about how late this would start unless we moved it to a Tuesday and possibly confused the meeting date and time.
12. 8:20 Announcements: Call for volunteers for public safety chair, events comm chair, Area 3a
Presenter: Gretchen Otto, Vice-President
We are still looking for a Public Safety Chair and spearhead the Neighborhood Watch effort. Area 3a is without a Area Coordinator.
