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MHCA Area Directors' meeting minutes

Minutes of the monthly Midvale Heights Community Association Area Directors' meeting.

April 2016 Area Directors' Meeting Minutes

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jgchipault Saturday June 25, 2016

Midvale Heights Community Association Board Meeting
Tuesday, April 26th 2016 – 6:45 p.m. – Sequoya Branch Library

Area Directors present: Jim Thoreson, Ed Rogers, Wendy Weber, Jenny Chipault, Steve Fitzsimmons, Gregory Fischer, Paul Haskew, Mary Jane Armstrong, Peter Schell, Chuck Kreimendahl, Denise Lamb, Tim Trapp, Tom Jarvis
Other neighbors present: Bill Slater Jr., Ceri Jenkins

Call to Order & Introductions - E Rogers
1. Introductions done.
Prior Minutes Review/Approval - Board
1. We have two months' worth of minutes to approve because we did not have a quorum last month.
  1. J Chipault to amend the March minutes to make "bike pad" into "bike maintenance pad."
2. Motion to approve February minutes, seconded, approved.
3. Motion to approve March minutes as amended, seconded, approved.
Treasurer’s Report - R Rotter
1. R Rotter couldn't be here but he provided hand-out of treasurer's report.
2. E Rogers gave it a quick scan. The only thing that stuck out was $200 spent for special events, which was for Music in the Park.
3. R Rotter also previously gave E Rogers information on continuation of our insurance coverage, which would lapse June 1 is not acted upon. R Rotter has been looking into continuance and has information. Currently have general liability that we pay $651 for per year but, in talking with insurance consultant, while we could keep going at this same rate, we should get directors' and officers' coverage. It's not enough that our organization is covered, but we ourselves should be covered for any actions or mistakes we might make and that extra coverage would amount to $450. R Rotter was also able to get cover sheets for these quotes. E Rogers read them. These do not specify what's insured, they specify modifications to what's insured, lots of modifiers but doesn't specify what's going on. We could go one of two ways: we could trust that this is a good quote or we could have someone investigate an alternate quote. Our next meeting is in May so could get another quote and could go with that before our June coverage deadline.
  1. D Lamb asks if it's the same company
    1. J Thoreson thinks that 's what R Rotter said at last meeting
  2. G Fischer asks what we'd be worried about?
    1. E. Rogers reads from form: things such as membership and voting notice, policies issued by us, exclusion for harassment, molestation, sexual misconduct, terrorism.
      1. G Fischer says this coverage excludes molestation?
        Right.
  3. We should see what's actually covered
    1. E Rogers relays that R Rotter thinks we should get the extra coverage but we could request more information from him.
  4. J Thoreson asks if Jake Keyes (contact on insurance) could email the board.
  5. D Lamb wonders whether or not baseball league has own coverage
    1. Yes, and they sign a waiver
    2. E Rogers says general part of insurance includes a policy about baseball or softball. But that's just from a cover sheet.
  6. T Trapp says cover letter looks like we're changing companies.
    1. J Chipault recalls that our company was done doing business so they recommended us to another company
  7. MJ Armstrong will follow-up with R Rotter and talk to her agent to see what they say and ask Jake Keyes to email to the board.
    1. D Lamb suggests letting R Rotter know that we'll be contacting Jake.
  8. E Rogers says this will need an up or down vote at our next meeting because we don't want to be without coverage.
    1. MJ Armstrong says it's entirely possible that if we cancel we could get prorated money back if we decide to switch. She'll ask about that too.
  9. E Rogers asks to be cc-ed on any emails that are sent about insurance.
Legislative Reports - Maurice Cheeks/Carousel Bayrd
1. Not present
Ash Tree Adoption in our Parks - E Rogers
1. E Rogers recently joined Nextdoor.com and one thing that our neighbor, Ceri Jenkins, brought up on the site was an exchange about the trees in our parks, specifically the ash trees. You've probably seen the spray painting that's been done. E Rogers took pictures at Slater, Odana Hills, and Piper Parks. There was a lot of interest on the website and people wanted to know what could be done. Ceri lead the charge and got information from Madison Parks. To summarize, it sounds like these ash trees, if nothing is done, will die. The emerald ash borer (EAB) is in the city of Madison. There is a treatment protocol that the city has been reluctant to engage in; it's rather expensive if done city-wide. Parks has said it will create an adopt-a-tree program where individuals or organizations can request that certain trees be saved. Trees have to pass a certain threshold of viability. The trees marked with yellow paint are too small to save. Also, if trunk damage or if EAB has taken out over 40% of it already, it will not survive. We won't know which trees are savable until June because that's when enough leaves are out. The treatments are $10-$15 per diameter inch of trunk so for an 18 inch tree that's about $200. Each treatment lasts about 3 years. So we would have to do it again in 3 years unless another treatment comes out that's better. Essentially, Parks is leasing trees for the rest of their lives. E Rogers went to Segoe, Slater, and Piper Parks and counted the ash trees. He also took a look at Odana Hills Park but it merges with Odana golf course, which has too many trees to count. Slater Park is really going to be devastated by this; it has 9 ash trees that are disproportionately around the playground equipment which will remove shade from playground equipment and we already have a playground at Segoe Park that isn't shaded. If we don't act, we'll be losing some trees. C Jenkins and E Rogers communicated and it sounds like she'd be willing to help us by coordinating an effort by the neighborhood if people wanted to donate funds. She could help take the lead on something like this. Not sure how the neighborhood association would like to contribute. E Rogers says a lot of people not here tonight were on Nextdoor.com chiming in and saying they would like to contribute and would put money toward saving trees in our parks. There seems to be earnest desire to get this done.
  1. MJ Armstrong asks if there is any information about how long the EAB is expected to be problematic. Does it have a cycle?
    1. D Lamb understands that you have to treat it long enough for the EAB to move on to a different area and once it has killed all the local ash they would move on because there's nothing to eat.
    2. E Rogers says the chemical used is called TREE-age. Parks said each tree would need treatment for the life of the tree. Treatment was originally thought to be more acute but it seems Parks is satisfied now that TREE-age can last for 3 years. Parks will not be doing any administering of the pesticide, but instead they'll provide a permit for contractors who have city right-of-way paperwork already worked out and allow them to do it. There's 8-9 contractors with this type of permit.
  2. MJ Armstrong has a big tree and had it treated and it's doing very well. She was originally told it would need to be treated every year.
  3. D Lamb says all we have to do is pay these guys, we don't have to supervise?
    1. E Rogers says there are two steps: go to Parks and fill out the adoption form. Parks makes sure the tree is still savable, then you go to the private contractor and coordinate the work
  4. C Jenkins says the city has said a few neighborhoods have done a tree plan and with this issue it might be wise to do so. We could look at the 9 trees first and see what's viable and if they aren't viable then what might we want to replace them with. Someone at Nextdoor.com said we shouldn't have just one kind of tree and perhaps we should replace with fruit trees. C Jenkins is interested in that too. Realistically some trees will die, but C Jenkins think there's space here for thinking of a long-term plan.
    1. MJ Armstrong says in Slater Park we have 9 significant trees, so if we sort of did every other one, that would that be a significant thing to do or should we do all in one area?
    2. C Jenkins said Parks would be willing to talk with us about which trees. They've done a lot of work on terraces so they aren't new to this work but just new to this work in Parks. We could stand at the playgrounds in June and see what the shade looks like. Could wrap in planting of trees in Segoe Park into tree plan.
      1. They have marked every ash tree so it would be easy to see which ones might be gone.
        MJ Armstrong thinks small ash trees already taken down.
  5. E Rogers says Odana School Park has 4 ash shading the parking lot that he thinks are all marked in yellow. Parks says it's going to be slow-going taking them all down because have to remove 10,000 ash trees in the city of Madison.
  6. C Jenkins asks if we would want to pay someone to remove a tree and then be able to plant a new tree? The forester she talked to brought up that having a variety in canopy, different heights, would be good. Anyone who has to spend time pushing a kid on a swing would give some money to have some trees there.
  7. E Rogers thinks it sounds like we could ask neighbors to contribute, but as neighborhood association do we want to collect funds?
    1. MJ Armstrong wonders if we want to match funds up to a certain amount.
  8. J Thoreson asks if someone should come talk to us to provide more details.
    1. E Rogers says forester said he's be happy to talk to us. He lives down Midvale near Summit Woods Park. He could give presentation. Infected trees were found on Manitou Way and near the library so the EAB is here.
  9. S Fitzsimmons wonders about raising our membership fee from $15 to $20 and if we raised it we'd bring in $2000 per year for trees.
    1. D Lamb says problem is when would we add another $5 for this good cause, there'd always be another good cause. We've had good responses to putting line-items in the membership applications. Plus, we have sufficient funding. Midvale Heights could pledge and ask people to pledge and certainly people involved can pound on doors.
      1. Mary Jane thinks it would do well as a line-item on the membership form.
    2. J Thoreson says even if it's a separate meeting that the forester wants to do, J Thoreson would like to hear more about it. If we get the money and we're waiting what would we do?
      1. C Jenksins says the trees would be assessed in June but they have to be treated by August.
      2. E Rogers says we probably need to raise money before we know how many trees we'll be acting on. Say we lose 95% of our trees, we could do more treatments to ones that survive or we could allocate funds for planting new trees. As long as we're up front while collecting money then we're giving them a healthy canopy in their parks so if we're replacing trees that are gone, they'd probably agree with that.
  10. D Lamb asks, in theory, how many trees do we have to treat? In Slater, which is dark in summertime, could we live without some? If we put a line item in the membership form for donations and put a bucket out at the picnic then we'll know in July how much money we have and we can add MHCA funds to make up what we need.
    1. MJ Armstrong says when you drive by Slater Park there's always something going on there. It's a heavily used.
    2. J Thoreson asks if we can get a number from the park on how many could be saved
      1. E Rogers says they won't know until the end of June how many are affected.
  11. MJ Armstrong says it's treatment every 3 years so it's not like we'd have to treat every year
  12. D Lamb says they'll still be chopping down small ones so we could use money to replace those.
    1. E Rogers Parks is prepared with adopt-a tree program but when it comes to planting new trees, we'll have to coordinate with Parks Department landscape architects. They'll want to be involved.
    2. C Jenkins understood that they wouldn't do the planting if we were to replace trees. They don't have any funding for this.
  13. G Fischer point out that trees create a lot of property value.
  14. MJ Armstrong thinks this is a significant thing and that we should pick a dollar amount. And that we should have a tree plan. If we do $5,000 then that would get us through Slater Park trees and if we have matching funds maybe we could look at Odana Hills Park.
    1. E Rogers says line item on membership form is a no-brainer. We should add it there. E Rogers also likes the matching funds idea, with a cap.
    2. D Lamb says by August we'll know what contributions are going to be like so we'd have a sense of how much money we could invest every three years.
  15. W Weber asks if it would be helpful or confusing to have someone at that meeting with the forester to also talk about new tree planting.
    1. E Rogers says maybe ask Parks could send a landscape architect.
    2. W Weber says maybe they could talk to each other beforehand so they're both aware of what the issues are and we'd know what each departments would do.
      1. C Jenkins's impression is that forestry is operational and Parks is more about the planning. The west side Parks person would be the person to come. To have them both there would be great. That's another question she has; she's a long-term resident of this neighborhood and having worked with enough community organizations, she knows that being involved in a community organization is better than going rogue. Whatever happens with the Nextdoor.com group could be organized through this group.
    3. D Lamb asks if we could get someone for the May meeting? We could put the May meeting in E Rogers newsletter article so that anyone interested in hearing what these people say could be here.
      1. E Rogers will ask those people to see if we can get together a team willing to speak at our May meeting.
        C Jenkins asks if this would be more general information for the public.
        If yes, we'll broadcast and have the public come. We're all super enthusiastic when an enthusiastic neighbor takes up a good cause.
  16. J Thoreson asks if yellow and orange labels are decoded on their website; Segoe all the way to Hilldale is yellow.
    1. Think yellow is going to be taken down and orange is a maybe. Under 10" inches diameter or trunk damage or other diseases or under a powerline means that trees will be taken down.
    2. MJ Armstrong say it's not just ashes, she had a maple taken down.
    3. G Fischer thinks it's decoded on the city website
  17. T Jarvis asks how we get notified when they decide on the "maybes"?
    1. J Chipault says C Jenkins will likely be in touch with them.
    2. E Rogers might just call them mid-June
  18. G Fischer says there three issues: 1) are we doing the adopt-a-tree program, 2) do we want to set up an endowment fund, and 3) what is the city's plan for replacement of trees.
    1. C Jenkins says she doesn't think it will cost money to replace trees but it might take a while. There are 3 staff members to remove trees city-wide.
      1. J Thoreson wonders what the forestry tax line-item that's $3 is going toward.
    2. E Rogers says we should add a line-item on membership form (tax deductable), as for creating a matching fund scenario this is something to put a motion and vote on.
      1. MJ Armstrong motions that we create a matching dollar fund up to $5,000 to work on ash trees and tree plan going forward.
        J Thoreson asks where she got the $5,000 figure.
        MJ Armstrong says by taking trees in all the parks that E Rogers mapped and assuming $300 per tree, but there's still a lot of trees in Odana Hills that we could work on with matching funds. If we only spent some this year, then a couple years down the road, we would have money to continue treatment or planting.
        C Kreimendahl feels too uniformed to support the motion. The city has studied this extensively, they have a lot of information that we're scratching the surface on. C Kreimendahl doesn't know what long-term success of inoculation is, don't know what the answers of some of the other questions that were raised, don't know what $5,000 would do, if someone adopts a tree then would they be up in arms if we don't' select that tree. C Kreimendahl suggests that we have this meeting forthwith would be a good idea.
        J Thoreson suggests tabling the motion until we hear from the forester and have the follow-up meeting. Doesn't sound like city is sure how to tackle it.
        MJ Armstrong says we've been talking about trees in parks for years. Even if we don't' do any ash tree saving, it seems like a reasonable investment to make in our parks.
        D Lamb says us planting trees is a whole new can of worms.
        P Schell says didn't we try to plant trees at Segoe Park and they denied us.
        E Rogers says we have to have consent of landscape crew at Parks. And there's also the wrinkle that only the neighborhoods of means get nice parks so that's why they're reluctant to take our money and plant the trees we ask for because other neighborhoods want trees too.
        C Jenkins thinks since we're replacing ash trees it might be something different. It's not new in many parts of the country. Some people in Nextdoor.com were concerned about bees but ash trees don't flower, and kids won't be exposed to the pesticide because way it's injected. Think it would be helpful to talk to the city but she was pretty convinced. The research on this pesticide seems really sound.
        E Rogers says J Thoreson made an amendment to table the $5,000 motion.
        D Lamb seconds that.
        P Schell asks if we can do an amended motion without a dollar amount attached to it? Can we fundraise and let people know that we can keep money in our nonprofit account. And can keep the money for years until the next treatment is needed. Another thing we could provide is seed money for whatever treatment is needed. P Schell is picking up on the fact that there's a time-sensitive nature to this task and fundraising takes time. People in our neighborhood are passionate about this and we could raise money for years, but as an association we could provide seed money. P Schell is in favor of doing this, but not comfortable attaching a dollar amount. P Schell wants to remove the dollar amount and make a motion.
        G Fischer reminds us that it's matching funds and could go up to $5,000. This is a time sensitive issue to set up an adoption plan.
        MJ Armstrong thinks we should move forward with the tree plan.
        D Lamb says we could float $5,000 to do it at the last minute and then fundraise to get that money back.
        Decision to table matching funds discussion until after the May meeting.
  19. J Thoreson notes that we don't want to shoot down Nextdoor.com group, so they can feed us information.
  20. MJ Armstrong says a lot of people are using the parks and using them because their kids are little now. Would be nice to get an idea from the parks for new plantings.
  21. E Rogers will put it in the newsletter. Asks C Jenkins to communicate that there's no promise of anything yet from the neighborhood association but we are looking into contributing to the effort.
    1. C Jenkins asks if people can start sending checks to us?
      1. P Schell says there's an online form.
      2. J Chipault makes a motion to allow checks for adopt-a-tree program to be sent to MHCA in support of saving ash trees in Midvale Heights parks and planning for replacements those trees that will need to be removed.
        Motion passes.
Neighborhood Picnic - C Kreimendahl
1. C Kreimendahl has couple of people likely to coordinate the picnic this year. They are meeting this Saturday at 1pm at the library. There are probably 5-6 volunteers altogether, including people who signed up on the membership form. If you know anyone else who's interested, they don't' have to be worried about being asked to do something they aren't prepared to do. C Kreimendahl says we've all supported the picnic in the past and there's $2,000 in the budget for it. Last year there were some negotiations and we approved $1,200 but then HyVee said they'd have to adjust their price up. They talked to the manager at HyVee and whittled it down to what it had been before.
  1. D Lamb says HyVee check was $1,050 last year.
  2. C Kreimendahl suggests we approve $1,500 for spending on the picnic this year in case HyVee comes in higher.
    1. S Fitzsimmons notes that last year we ran out of food.
      1. C Kreimendahl thinks planned for 200 last year and it was well-attended.
  3. D Lamb says she'll put something in the newsletter and we'll send out postcards again to remind people, right?
    1. Technically everyone in neighborhood is invited so think everyone gets a postcard
  4. Date is June 23rd, Thursday. Rain date will be next Thursday, June 30th.
  5. J Chipault motions that we approve $1,500 to be used for the 2016 picnic.
    1. Seconded.
    2. C Kreimendahl says we don't usually vote on budget items but since it's a big ticket item, perhaps we should vote. R Rotter puts $2,000 in the budget.
      1. Motion approved.
Summer Concert Series - D Lamb
1. D Lamb sent letter to about a dozen bands. Some from neighborhood. She asked them to keep Saturday open as a rain date and got a lot of push-back on that, so trashing that idea. Last year we only did 2 concerts so would have been a bummer to be rained out, but this year we have 4 bands so if we get rained out on one it's not a big deal. Maybe could look for indoor venue to use in future years. We have to have a permit for amplification ($100 to city), paying $400 to each band, and they'll play for 90 minutes. Some advertising needs to be done; flyers to hand out at July 4th and the picnic and putting something in the newsletter.
  1. J Thoreson will email his friend to see if could play
  2. C Kreimendahl asks when we hope to have commitments from the bands
    1. Two of them will do it. Is there some sort of one-page contract we should have them sign? ####C Kreimendahl suggests talking to Dave Blouin from Westmorland.
  3. E Rogers says to tag on to concerts, Make Music Madison is June 21st. This year it's on a Tuesday. E Rogers can only be there from 5:30 to 8:30, so he put up 3 one-hour slots for music and they filled up right away. If someone else wanted to start the show earlier, we could do that but need someone to babysit the inverter and make sure the bands leave on time. If not, he'll just show up at 5:30 and get things started. Don't' remember name of all the bands but we are 3 years running with the Sultan of Squeeze, but this year he's changed his name to Squeezebox Paradox.
    1. D Lamb got a request from church on Mineral Point, which are also hosting Make Music Madison and are serving food. Do we have an indoor venue?
      1. E Rogers says we are canceling in case of rain
2016 Membership Campaign - D Lamb
1. E Rogers says the membership campaign will be coming up. His sense for this year's membership drive is that things went well last year so perhaps just do an encore but if others think that something needs to change, he's open to hearing about it. Current plan is to create a Membership Messenger, have it delivered by block captains to everyone on their block, and Tom did discount cards.
  1. D Lamb says we need new a line item for trees in the membership form.
    1. T Jarvis says we should remove Kids Clubhouse since that program has been discontinued.
      1. D Lamb took out Kids Clubhouse, added the neighborhood watch and music in the parks. We now have a master gardener working on Bison Prairie. There's an article on the prairie burn at Odana; Marcel Wuethrich wrote an article and took pictures for the Messenger.
  2. T Jarvis says E Rogers has brought up allowing people to register for multiple years at once, which would mean the form would need to be changed.
    1. E Rogers says we could try to push for this here or we could discuss via email. T Jarvis came up with good points such as what about one-time donations to line items? Or could we do subscriptions. What if someone leaves town, do we pro-rate? Questions that we could probably come to a consensus on but perhaps not this year.
    2. D Lamb says we used to have two-year memberships and we were out of money at the end of the second year. People move in and out of the neighborhood.
    3. T Jarvis says we're still collecting per year but people could pay for multiple years at a time.
      1. E Rogers brings up something like a magazine subscription that hits the credit card
        T Jarvis notes that might be hard to program on the website.
    4. J Thoreson thinks it could be nice, but logistics would be difficult and people might forget about us.
    5. D Lamb notes that we would still need to send discount cards for every year.
      1. T Jarvis is putting number and name on card and could put an expiration date.
        P Schell says could still send them a new card every year, which would help us reach people who just forgot to renew so this gives people a chance of "hey, we have your attention, do you want to just pay $45 now?" Would have to mark that they paid for future years.
        T Jarvis said might have to remind them when they're about to expire.
    6. J Thoreson asks if we should survey the association to see if people want it.
      1. T Jarvis thinks that 1-2 people have written in that they would like it. If 85% said they'd like a two-year membership, then we could prep for it
    7. C Kreimendahl echos P Schell's point that we do lose people.
      1. D Lamb says still would have a drive every year. For every person we lose, we'd get new people.
    8. J Chipault suggests we wait until next year
    9. T Jarvis says have added expiration to database.
Announcements - Board
1. E Rogers relays that Dave Blouin says Sunset Village has approved up to $500 in support of the July 4th celebration. Current budget projects double what they usually lose, so $4,000. Primitive Culture is the main band. They did get insurance for bounce house, dunk tank, and petting zoo.
  1. D Lamb says he wrote a newsletter article. She attended a July 4th celebration planning meeting. She thought it might be easiest if we're just responsible for one event, e.g., dunk tank. Has he said anything about fund raising and getting sponsors?
    1. E Rogers knows he brought up that we could use our connections to seek sponsors, but he hasn't given us target fundraising goal or a menu of options for sponsoring.
      1. D Lamb says our newsletter advertisers duplicate their newsletter advertisers up to about 90%. We could go around to people who accept our neighborhood card. She did make sure that sponsors of any amount would be on t-shirts made. She gets emails about the planning.
  2. J Thoreson makes a motion to donate $500 toward the Westmorland July 4th celebration.
    1. D Lamb says that, historically, the July 4th celebration has been funded 40% Westmorland, 40% Midvale Heights, and 20% Sunset Village so we might want to do $1,000.
      1. P Schell says 40% of $4,000 loss would be $1,600.
    2. J Thoreson amends motion to be $1,000.
      1. Motion stays at $1,000 and passes.
2. There is a master gardener willing to take on upkeep of the Bison Gateway Prairie
3. There is no one slated to take over the coordination of the neighborhood garage sale.
  1. D Lamb notes that it has been getting smaller year-by-year. Should we combine with Westmorland?
    1. C Kreimendahl will pass that thought along.
Meeting adjourned at 8:42 pm.

Notes recorded by J Chipault, secretary

March 2016 Area Directors' Meeting Minutes

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jgchipault Sunday April 24, 2016

Midvale Heights Community Association Board Meeting
Tuesday, March 22rd 2016 – 6:45 p.m. – Sequoya Branch Library

Area Directors present: Jim Thoreson, Gary Poulson, Jenny Chipault, Steve Fitzsimmons, Gregory Fischer, Ron Rotter, Jonn Lager, Chuck Kreimendahl
Other neighbors present: Nan Lager, Cathy Rotter

Call to Order & Introductions - S Fitzsimmons
Prior Minutes Review/Approval - Board
1. We have 8 board members present, which could be a quorum, but we have 2 area directors from the same from the same area (J Chipault and G Fischer both from Area 12). Wait and see if other members show. No vote on minutes.
Treasurer’s Report - R Rotter
1. Handed out hard copy of report. Have $41,000 in main account, $3,000 in PayPal.
2. T-ball is starting. Price has been raised, think to $50, and then deduction if you have a second kid.
3. Our insurance isn't expired until June so probably won't hear back until end of April. Paperwork is at under-writers right now. If anyone else wants to get a bid, feel free.
  1. G Poulson asked who it goes through?
    1. Get it through Hausmann Johnson, Midwest
  2. J Lager asks if we'll be sure it won't lapse
    1. R Rotter will not let it lapse. Not sure we have board of directors' insurance, just liability. Think we'd be covered under homeowners policy, but if we want directors' insurance in case we're sued, something to think about. Our biggest liability is probably swinging bats, food poisoning, etc. For t-ball, they sign a waiver.
  3. J Thoreson asks if the insurance guy looked over the waiver that Michael Pressmen sends out?
    1. Yes
4. R Rotter might have new estimate by our April meeting.
Legislative Reports - Maurice Cheeks/Carousel Bayrd
1. Not present
Summer Concert Series - D Lamb
1. D Lamb not present
Odana Road Safety Issues - S Fitzsimmons
1. S Fitzsimmons says person was killed a couple of weeks ago crossing Odana at HyVee. E Rogers and S Fitzsimmons talked about it and wondered about asking for traffic study in that area again.
  1. G Poulson recalls that we raised the issue before and thought Maurice Cheeks said he'd look into it.
  2. R Rotter says it's been bad intersection for a long time, even before HyVee.
  3. C Kreimendahl says no-stop turn lane on Whitney Way can be problematic
  4. G Poulson says person hit wasn't in a cross walk
    1. R Rotter says no cross walk at Odana Lane
  5. J Thoreson asks if driver was making left into Hyvee?
    1. C Kreimendahl says north on Whitney way and east on Odana
  6. J Thoreson says not well lit. Brings up LED lights on University that light up nice but not real aggressive.
  7. R Rotter says city should look into it automatically because there was an accident
    1. J Lager says people were there measuring
  8. G Poulson says free-turn lanes put in to save gas and now jeopardizing safety
  9. General agreement that there's a lot going on right there
  10. Person hit was wearing dark clothing and around 8:30 so dark out.
  11. J Chipault says we talked about this with Maurice Cheeks a couple of years ago and believe we were told that they were going to do a study while school was in session so that they could monitor traffic flow with public buses, schools buses, pedestrians, etc.
    1. Maybe we should ask to get reports
  12. Tyberius Terrace new now.
  13. S Fitzsimmons will send a letter to Maurice Cheeks to see if there has been a traffic study at that intersection and get back to us next meeting.
Announcements - Board
1. C Kreimendahl has been in touch with a couple of people to try to find a picnic coordinator. If someone is not willing to coordinate but will volunteer to help and have another possible person helping, that might work. Think by next meeting we'll have to decide what to do. If someone will take it on, have them meet with Jill.
  1. K Rotter asks for tentative date.
    1. 23rd is Thursday in June. Rain date of following Thursday. 4th of July celebration going to be on the 4th.
2. S Fitzsimmons asks about bike safety fair that we were thinking of doing for Midvale Heights, did you have a contact?
  1. C Kreimendahl doesn't know about it.
  2. S Fitzsimmons thinking of doing something at neighborhood watch meeting.
  3. R Rotter asks who was on bike maintanence pad group for city
    1. Laura Brown and Mark Shahan
      1. G Poulson doesn't think Mark on City's Pedestrian, Bicycle & Motor Vehicle Commission anymore. Can't be on for more than a decade.
  4. S Fitzsimmons just looking to see what we would need to do to do it.
  5. G Poulson brings up Madison Bike Federation as a place to check with, too.
  6. Arthur Ross is city's bike safety person.
3. C Kreimendahl saw T Jarvis recently and there's some concern with family health. He might be able to continue tech stuff, but kind of wondering if we should be training someone else to know what he knows in order to help out.
  1. J Thoreson asks if E Rogers does computer work
    1. J Chipault says she thinks he knows some coding and has done some website work
Meeting adjourned at 7:05

Notes recorded by J Chipault, secretary

January 2016 Area Directors' Meeting Minutes

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jgchipault Saturday February 20, 2016

Midvale Heights Community Association Board Meeting
Tuesday, January 26th 2016 – 6:45 p.m. – Sequoya Branch Library

Area Directors Present: Chuck Kreimendahl, Ed Rogers, Greg Fischer, Jenny Chipault, Steve Fitzsimmons, Denise Lamb, Paul Haskew, Jim Thoreson, Ron Rotter, Tim Trapp, Jonn Lager, Peter Schell

Other neighbors present: Andrea Domek

Call to Order & Introductions - E Rogers
1. Did introductions.
Prior Minutes Review/Approval - Board
1. C Kreimendahl suggested amendment via email that J Chipault already made live on the website. The change was to capture the fact that the officers as a slate were elected (not just vice president).
  1. Motion to approve minutes as amended. Seconded. Approved
Treasurer’s Report - R Rotter
1. R Rotter handed out hard copies. Almost $42,000 in the account.
2. Question about where PayPal account information is?
  1. P Haskew found it under "Other Accounts"; has $2,000
  2. E Rogers suggests maybe once a year have a maintenance withdrawal of about $2,000
3. Still have about 20-30 cases of history books to sell
  1. D Lamb suggests could give to new neighbors
    1. P Haskew says we could include them in new neighbor packets
  2. C Kreimendahl brings up Oakwood Village resident got a Westmorland book and loved it so maybe other retirement centers would like them donated. C Kreimendahl can ask
  3. R Rotter says we could put them into little libraries
    1. J Chipault suggests adding a membership form into the history books
4. E Rogers asks if Mike Pressman is starting t-ball registration
  1. D Lamb says application is usually available sometime in January/February. Will do big thing in the paper next time.
Legislative Reports - Maurice Cheeks/Carousel Bayrd
1. Not present
Santa Visits Recap - P Schell
1. Quick recap. Went really well. Had slight increase in every category compared to last year: more Santas, more kids. Last year P Schell stepped in and it was his first time heading it. Last year there were around 22 kids and this year had closer to 30 kids. Went more smoothly this year. Getting the message out to more people. Had some new volunteers, expanding volunteer base and the families that use it. And financially, was well under budget of $500; spent a little over $100 this year. Improvement was to make it more fun for the volunteers by having pre-suiting-up party with some refreshments and got together afterwards and that made it extra enjoyable for volunteers. 4 new people volunteering. Think program has the potential to grow in the coming years
2. S Fitzsimmons says we need to advertise more. Can help get word through media when he talks about neighborhood watch, but have to make sure to do it so as not to tip the hat
  1. Missed the newsletter this year
3. P Schell says historically, it has always on same day (Thursday the week before the week before Christmas) and last year he was emailing the volunteers to see when they were free to figure out how to pick a day so it helps to just do it that day.
4. P Schell says had some broken zippers so might spend some money to fix or replace suits before next year.
  1. R Rotter asks how many suits we have
    1. About 10, they look old, but they're ok but they are starting to show age (e.g., zippers and elastic in wigs)
      1. J Chipault suggests volunteers to repair
      2. J Thoreson suggests using the alterations company on our neighborhood discount card
      3. D Lamb has friends that are on Monroe St. that use a local tailor
      4. J Thoreson suggests ask Mallatt's for repair or to buy new ones.
Neighborhood Watch Update - S Fitzsimmons
1. As many know, up to 482 members. Kudos to T Jarvis for his help on the website.
  1. T Jarvis says had many people that didn't click on verification link. T Jarvis sent them a follow-up message indicating that they had dropped off so T Jarvis offered to re-send the link.
    1. S Fitzsimmons says can change wording to indicate that they should click verification link right away
2. Just set out crime alert today because cars broken into just this morning. Mostly it's open doors, open garages, and if they find remote access within the car then they take it the next step. We have about 25% of neighborhood involved in the neighborhood watch. Making a difference though because people are helping police catch the bad guys, which is raising our property values and lowering our insurance costs. Have volunteers now helping with neighborhood watch, allowing it to expand. When we first started watch, the main goal was to reduce crime but it's morphing into a caring community of citizens watching out for each other. Lot of positive feedback from people coming to meetings. They want us to do more. There's a lot of potential there. There's crossover between MHCA and neighborhood watch and we should be conscious of that. One of the things that he would like to ask for is something we talked about last year and that is either a way that we could raise money for ourselves through 5013c in Midvale Heights or do we have to get a raffle license so that we could raffle off tickets for restaurants, etc.. Looking to raise a couple hundred dollars. Don't need thousands yet. Would like to raise some of our own funds. Want to give things out to people. Like to give community member a star every time they come to a meeting and then after they come to several meetings they get a mini flashlight or something that costs minimal. But if they attend, they could help us fight crime. Can we budget something like this within MHCA. S Fitzsimmons feels strongly about this. People have brought up that it might help get people interested.
  1. E Rogers really values what S Fitzsimmons has been doing with the neighborhood watch and acknowledges that it's of value to the neighborhood and he feels comfortable with this association giving financial assistance. We have a line item for the neighborhood watch in the budget because we want to help you succeed. Personally, reluctant to give out small fungible tokens of appreciation insofar as you should want to reward people for attending but they're mostly there for the benefit it incurs on them by helping them take part in their community and being helpful to others. Think we should be careful with benefit someone gets for showing up. That said, if raffles make meetings more fun, maybe that's an avenue.
  2. D Lamb notes that we don't reward other volunteers for working on gardens or organizing picnics. They're coming to neighborhood watch meetings because of the advantage they see for themselves.
    1. E Rogers acknowledges that for gardeners on Tokay, they don't all live on Tokay and don't benefit
    2. S Fitzsimmons says that they benefit their community by showing up to the meeting. Can teach things about identity theft, voting, fires. And can bring people into the community. This is not an investment in volunteers, investment in people who come to the meeting. Screenwriters club he was in used to give away screenplays or movie tickets. Bird watchers club does giveaway too.
  3. R Rotter says we used to give away ice scrapers or keychains. R Rotter would always volunteer but it's the other people that won't necessarily be there without incentive that you want to get to attend. For example, annual meeting is the same 50 people every year. Maybe we should buy Midvale Heights flashlights or something. We have ample funds. You want people to attend these meetings. That will bring the people in but then they'll keep coming. Want more people at these meetings for when group like canine team comes to make it worth their time. S Fitzsimmons has done such a fantastic job, we've been trying to get this going for years.
  4. Question if S Fitzsimmons would spend money in his line item in the MHCA budget; has $1000 left
    1. Yes
      1. E Rogers understanding is that we allocate money and let you decide on how to run that program. Neighborhood watch is sort of your domain
        S Fitzsimmons notes that if it doesn't work we could look at other reward programs
      2. P Schell says that S Fitzsimmons has tapped into something special and we want him to do what he needs to do to keep enthusiasm going, which includes being creative and making meetings fun. Regarding money, the way he believes the money works is the board approves the budget for the program and then S Fitzsimmons doesn't need an approval to spend within that budget. R Rotter does a review process by looking at receipts. You don't need pre-approval for spending within budget.
        Group agrees
  5. R Rotter says we could make a motion to increase Neighborhood Watch budget
  6. Going to incorporate Midvale Heights Community Association into watch meetings so that could get word out
  7. J Thoreson brings up that we could possibly help fund speakers because we have a hard time getting members every year and if neighborhood watch is getting people that aren't in MHCA, we get exposure.
  8. S Fitzsimmons is for sending postcards to whole community and could advertise both entities. Need to make it an ongoing thing every year.
  9. D Lamb asks if the watch program is separate from MHCA. Sponsored by MHCA, right?
    1. Yes, but there's not a lot that ties it together. J Thoreson says we'll now incorporate an introduction to MHCA at the watch meetings. Want to keep the two entities working together.
    2. Name of watch is Midvale Heights Neighborhood Watch
  10. Do you have to be MHCA member to see website?
    1. T Jarvis says no, but not many people log in. There is additional information on the website that is only available if you are logged in to the website and you have to be a MHCA member to log in.
      1. So can join neighborhood watch email list without being a MHCA member? No requirement for MHCA membership?
        J Chipault thinks this is appropriate. Don't want to put financial burden on people to participate in watch.
    2. J Thoreson says have troubles keeping block captains and have trouble getting word out about break-ins. We should be working together.
      1. S Fitzsimmons says car that was broken into on Coney Weston last week found out about neighborhood watch from neighbors.
  11. The other thing that S Fitzsimmons needs is with regard to new neighbors to Midvale Heights - how to reach out to them and give them welcome packet and introduce them to the watch. It's a way to keep the numbers growing on both sides
    1. E Rogers says hold this thought for our later agenda item
  12. J Chipault wants to make sure we're clear on budget. We approve budget and you spend within that. What would be best frequency for budget review: every 6 months, every year?
    1. S Fitzsimmons thinks annual budget is good.
      1. R Rotter notes that currently have $1,700 MHCA funds tagged and in the past twelve months spent $950 so if you spent at same rate and did $300 for speakers and $100 raffle prize, still be in the black. I think it is your sense and don't' think we need motion because it's a line item. But if at any point it needs to be adjusted, let us know
        S Fitzsimmons does want to purchase some sound speakers for use at meetings
        R Rotter was talking about people that S Fitzsimmons invites to speak, but sound speakers a good idea too
  13. T Jarvis says when people register we ask them for an email address and even if they gave us an email address they could sign up for the watch with a different address. There's 482 in neighborhood watch and 259 of those match email addresses of current MHCA members. 283 match an email address that we have so possibly not current members so ~20 people that had been members that aren't now. Over 50% of our members are in the neighborhood watch group.
  14. P Schell asks about fundraisers? Is there an issue for S Fitzsimmons hosting fundraising. If checks are written to us then it's tax deductible but are there laws against that
    1. T Jarvis says have to have license to run a raffle.
    2. But totebag style if you donate $100 dollars you get a totebag should be fine. Need to note who got gifts.
      1. R Rotter thinks it's up to them to deduct things like totebags.
  15. R Rotter says we could perhaps buy speaker system for MHCA and it would come in handy at the picnic. Music doesn't provide speakers.
    1. J Chipault notes that if in the future we did art in the park could have speakers for announcements there too
Westmorland July 4th Celebration - E Rogers
1. Westmorland started celebration in 1941 so this year is 75th annual and they wanted to "blow up the budget" on this one. Dave Blouin from Westmorland neighborhood association had a pretty convincing case that in decades past this event was quite the show. Talked about how they had fireworks until the late 1980s, until Elver Park took over. Had a beer tent. Softball games. In times past it wasn't just Westmorland running the show but it was us and Sunset Village, too. Dave Blouin is hoping that we can co-sponsor this event and, when pushed, financial support is welcome but not the only way we could support. He also talked about providing business sponsors or if we wanted to help promote this event (newsletter). It's going to be a big two-day plan of tents going up July 2 and big band concert on Sunday July 3 (them is back to the 1940s when this celebration started). Also throw-back games. Hoping to bring back the fireworks. They were thinking of having a Ferris wheel. They are trying to make it big. They are looking into insurance and riders. Their budget right now is fluid. Previous year's events that have been much smaller (essentially just a morning celebration) they've been $2,000-$2,500. There's no motion, in that we don't need something done, this is more just a heads up that Dave Blouin hopes to come to our February meeting and wants this seed planted. He has done some digging into old paperwork and he found document that says that Westmorland paid 40% of budget and MHCA paid 40% and Sunset paid 20%. If you want to get involved in this discussion, Dave and Ed and Sue (from Sunset Village) are emailing each other
  1. R Rotter says fireworks stopped because it scared the zoo animals
  2. D Lamb thinks it's a great idea but wonders if there's some way to agree to run a booth or sponsor a performance, especially if we come up with some good throw-back events. Maybe between now and when Dave comes to the meeting we could come up with some defined part of the event that could be from Midvale Heights
    1. E Rogers says that he mentioned that in previous years we've had Pizza Extreme come and that's not been so great for vegetarians so this year they are rolling a food truck up to the park. This caught E Roger's ear because we want to know how that works. It's the first Sunday and Monday of July and every Friday later in July we'll have concerts at Segoe so we should see how it goes
  3. P Schell thought it was just for people in the neighborhood.
    1. Always open to everyone
    2. T Jarvis says we started in 1963 listing it as a function we sponsored.
    3. R Rotter says used to give money and volunteers
    4. Last time we gave is 2001
  4. If want to get involved with the discussion, email E Rogers
New Neighbor Welcome Packets - E Rogers
1. C Kreimendahl has been sole distributor over the past few years and E Rogers thanks C Kreimendahl and notes that sometimes we let this go. E Rogers looked through the packet and notes that we put a Midvale Messenger in the packet but maybe we could just create an undated messenger that's a welcome to say what the MHCA is about. And maybe a similar note from the neighborhood watch.
  1. D Lamb suggests maybe the membership one that's done annually
    1. R Rotter says how about things we always do
    2. C Kreimendahl says what was in there was a photocopied membership messenger and membership form
2. E Rogers says in a previous life he did some computer programming and he put together something that hopefully should send an update from the city assessors website that will let him know when properties change ownership and it's set up as a newsletter for anyone that signs up for the monthly notification.
  1. T Jarvis didn't set it up as E Rogers described. There's no place we can go to subscribe. He forwards it to, right now, just E Rogers but other people can email T Jarvis to get added to distribution list
  2. Is the MHCA areas mapped?
    1. E Rogers says its' only Midvale Heights based on addresses.
    2. T Jarvis can provide a look-up table to E Rogers and he can divvy it by area
    3. T Jarvis says doesn't want to send 15 emails but can tag each line of data with area
3. P Schell says the undated membership messenger could then be used not only in packet but also music in the park, neighorhood watch, picnic, etc.
  1. D Lamb can print out some copies of what she did last year and we can think about what should or should not be included.
    1. J Chipault suggests emailing them out ahead of time.
Announcements - Board
1. P Haskew says that tucked behind Rushmore at Research Park there is something earth-shattering in its impact. Company is working on cloned skin for the armed forces and after that for burn or other victims where skin graft seems appropriate. Generated at Research Park facilities that in the past was under high security because was producing toxic stuff; new facility needs security because of its potential impact so they're happy to take over this facility, which isn't very big. Like small ones at end of Manor Court. Don't need a great deal of space but what they do is extremely pure. If you were paying attention to admissions because this building has an enormous amount of hardware on the roof, not that this new company is no longer toxic, we don't have to worry about all. Stratatech is name of company. They got a nice grant from the feds to get going on this. That's the news from the design review board of Research Park; he represents the neighborhood on that board.
2. D Lamb contacted parks board for getting permit for this summer's performances. Haven't heard back. Expect it to be pretty painless. $100 last year and probably in that ballpark this year. Putting together list of bands but if anyone has suggestions, let D Lamb know. If anyone knows of an Irish group, that would be good. Hopefully will have acts lined up in time for picnic and fourth of July events and Make Muisc Madison so can advertise. If know who is coming and dates can do better job of advertising.
  1. E Rogers says Make Music Madison had 6 bands. E Rogers says half of them were interested in doing summer concert series at Segoe.
  2. D Lamb wonders about how to vet bands
    1. E Rogers says this year if someone does Make Music Madison we could do last-minute vetting of the band.
Meeting adjourned 8:00

Notes recorded by J Chipault, secretary

November 2015 Area Directors' Meeting Minutes

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jgchipault Thursday January 21, 2016

Midvale Heights Community Association Annual Meeting
Tuesday, November 24, 2015 – 6:45 p.m. – Sequoya Branch Library

Area Directors Present: Chuck Kreimendahl, Jane Sherwood, Ed Rogers, Greg Fischer, Jenny Chipault, Steve Fitzsimmons, Denise Lamb, Jonn Lager, Paul Haskew, Jim Thoreson, Ron Rotter, Tim Trapp, Wendy Weber, Tom Jarvis, Peter Schell

Call to Order & Introductions - C Kreimendahl
Prior Minutes Review/Approval - Board
1. Notes from annual meeting are a lengthy account of speakers. Business was recorded.
  1. Motion to approve. Seconded.
    1. Motion to approve carries
Holiday Caroling - J Sherwood
1. Someone on J Sherwood's block approached her about using the neighborhood association as a way to get people together to do Christmas caroling, perhaps to visit shut-ins. Could suggest names to her if know people who appreciate caroling. Woman willing to spearhead this lives Odana and Wedgewood. Just started talking about this so might not have time to do it this year. Have we done it before?
  1. T Jarvis and R Rotter don't remember the neighborhood association doing caroling before
2. She knows her daughters would like to do it too so could do an afternoon over the weekend and make it a family event
3. D Lamb says it's a great idea. If don't have enough shut-ins could just wander and sing
4. J Sherwood suggested piggy-backing on Santa visit program somehow but could also put it on website or through word of mouth to recruit people. The idea is trying to get to a few houses of elderly or other people who can't get out for the season.
5. Does she anticipate any costs?
  1. No
6. E Rogers recalls from when he was a kid that they could put a candle in the window if wanted a caroler to stop
7. D Lamb brings up the fact that Midvale Heights is a huge neighborhood so would have to drive from place to place. Might make sense to split into groups
  1. P Schell says for Santa visits they get a room from the church and meet and get suited up and then head out in cars. It'd be fun to have more people there when suiting so it would be more festive. Have done it both weekend and week night, not sure what's best. Could do hot cider or cookies at church
  2. D Lamb asks if they use the church kitchen
    1. Not last year.
8. Does the Neighborhood Association support this?
9. Can give person willing to organize this P Schell and C Kreimendahl contact information
10. J Chipault brings up that it might be best to not promote it as singing to "shut in"s because people might not want to be labeled that way.
  1. Could just sing as travel
11. P Schell says they don't have to meet at the church for Santa visits because it was a small number of people. A house might be a better environment than an empty church. Used to be that a red light bulb in the porch light would bring Santa to your house, similar to a candle.
12. J Sherwood asks if there is a flyer that goes out for the Santa visits
  1. It's in the newsletter (but not this year). And emails get sent to people we know have kids. Used to send out postcards but didn't do that last year.
13. J Sherwood suspects if she does anything this year it would start small.
14. P Haskew has some objections to using association as a vehicle for Christmas caroling. Ok to have private project announced in the newsletter. Can have private individual write it up for the newsletter. But caroling has a religious basis.
  1. Could make all songs secular.
  2. J Chipault agrees with P Haskew's concern
  3. R Rotter says it has come up in the past regarding Santa visits
  4. C Kreimendahl disagrees. And thinks can use our newsletter and website to get the word out. Not endorsing anything religious per se.
  5. Seems easy to not dissuade volunteers, but not stamp it with neighborhood association brand
  6. P Haskew says we just might want to be cautious about the way it's announced so we're not beating drum for Christianity.
  7. D Lamb says if it's a group from the neighborhood organizing it, seems fine
  8. J Thoreson doesn't want to discourage it
  9. W Weber says she hasn't been in the neighborhood all that long but has there been a letter ever to the neighborhood saying that we have a lot of activities and we recognize that there are activities that some of you might object to so that we're addressing it up front. Just might be a way to clear the air.
    1. R Rotter says there's been complaints about the Santa visits but there are volunteers that do it. If someone wants to have a menorah lighting or Ramadan celebration, then they can do it.
    2. D Lamb says only complaint she's gotten was about a church that ran ads in the newsletter. Doesn't think we need to write a letter to address it
    3. W Weber wasn't just thinking about this issue
  10. J Lager suggests we can invite people to join a wassailing walk around the neighborhood. If we wanted to, the association could provide some wassail drink.
  11. R Rotter says we invested money in Santa suits at one point. Bought them a long time ago.
  12. T Jarvis asks if someone writes something up and gives it to him for the website, then it would it be "MHCA news" or "other news"
    1. Multiple people suggest "other news"
Treasurer’s Report - R Rotter
1. R Rotter handed out hard copies. We have about $42,000, minus any bills to pay.
Legislative Reports - Maurice Cheeks/Carousel Bayrd
1. Not present
Officer Elections - C Kreimendahl
1. Made nomination for E Rogers to be president and he also inquired about other positions. R Rotter and J Chipault willing to continue serving. S Fitzsimmons offers to be Vice President. Open floor for further officer nominations.
2. J Chipault points out that she's giving her one year notice on being secretary, only because she does this 3x per week at work.
  1. Motion to nominate slate of E Rogers, S Fitzsimmons, R Rotter, and J Chipault. Seconded.
    1. No opposed.
      1. Motion carries.
Santa Visits - P Schell
1. Reaching out to see how many Santas he's got. Haven't contacted families yet. Will go out week before Christmas. Has been a week night in the past but he's interested in trying to do a weekend, or offering two options. Limited by Santas' availability.
2. D Lamb asks how many suits there are
  1. Lots. Hanging and boxes. The thing that is true is that once you get the bells ringing and it's dark out, it looks like Santa. Very effective for kids of a certain age. Doesn't matter what you look like with the suit off. It's BYO pillow. Would like to expand into Mrs. Santa so won't turn down any eager female volunteers
3. S Fitzsimmons asks what they do
  1. You show up at meeting place, you suit up, you get in a car with a driver, and you have a list of about 8 houses to visit and then on the way to each house you get coached on the note sheet of the names or some information about the kid that you get from the parents. Dropped off a few houses away and ring your bell, sing, and say "ho ho ho" as you walk to the house. Parents know when to expect you. Say you're there to inspect the chimney or the tree. Say hi to the kid and ask what they want. Give them small gift. In and out in a couple of minutes. They visited his house and he heard later from his wife that the kids couldn't believe it and it was all they could talk about for weeks. His son still knows exactly which toy he got from Santa. Some families have been doing it forever. Santas have visited family with kids in their 20s.
4. Is Pete still doing it?
  1. P Schell says he IS Santa. He fills his yard with sheep - 1 new every year. Been doing Santa since before P Schell was born. His daughter comes with him as an elf now.
5. P Schell says get a bit of an adrenaline rush when doing this so would like to add a pre-party and after-party. Mention it to anyone you know that has kids that might be of a good age. Would like it to grow.
  1. S Fitzsimmons says could add this to the neighborhood watch newsletter
    1. Might also be good to note that people shouldn't call the police on Santa
    2. P Schell notes that you have to word it in code.
6. P Schell's wife will help him organize it this year
Neighborhood Watch Update - S Fitzsimmons
1. Growing still. 472 members. Bookings into January with canine unit giving a talk, February it's identify theft, March's topic is domestic violence. Another busy year. Couple of good things. Now have more volunteers helping T Jarvis with website. People with new and fresh ideas taking reigns to get meetings and speakers arranged. They become more involved and active. Being approached by people who want to help out. Doing tours of training center and 911. Getting interest from other neighborhood associations, like Hill Farms. Talked to Hill Farms last week and talked about merging neighborhood watches a bit so when we have meetings at church, they could join. Could also share cost. People from 2-3 associations interested so that might build it into more. We've got by far the best neighborhood watch in the city. We're also the victim of our own success because when crime goes down, interest goes down. Meeting attendance is 35-40 and up toward 100 when chief is there.
  1. R Rotter says meetings are always good. Good speakers and he learns a lot.
    1. S Fitzsimmons says he is looking to educate and empower neighbors. And then we end up getting in the newspapers because we actually did something instead of pretending like nothing is happening. S Fitzsimmons gets calls from neighbors too afraid to go outside. This is a learning experience because you interact with all types of people.
2. Now on the radio at 9am and 12pm every day. Low power station that is 2-3 miles from Midvale Heights. Sent email to the chief to see if he could go on radio too. Don't know how many people hear it.
  1. 99.1 FM. J Thoreson gets it at his house. P Schell and D Lamb don't.
    1. S Fitzsimmons would like to tape it for youtube, our website, etc.
Park Concert Series - D Lamb
1. We need to do more advertising this summer. Had 35 people at first concert last year and then maybe 80 people at second concert. Part of it was working things out with the city. City is understaffed and there was confusion about what she was able to do; that will be resolved so she can look for groups sooner. Also, it was probably too late in the year and the last band that played was packing up in the dark. Thinking of doing three concerts on consecutive Friday nights. Do it in July for longest days of the year. Still will ask if they do it on Friday if they'll save Saturday for a rain date. Cut it to 90 minutes; 7-8:30. Try offering $400 since smaller time slot. Advertising: if we know the dates and groups early on we can do a better job of advertising and piggy-back on Make Music Madison and the picnic. Can put flyers in the library. Maybe buy a banner to put on Segoe Thursday afternoon: "Live Music Here, 7:30pm, Friday". Thinks she can get three groups lined up early. Can ask them for tapes. The husband of the head of the Friends of Library has a bluegrass group and wants to play. Might look into doing food carts.
2. J Chipault wonders about doing 4 concerts, to fill a month and make it more of a big deal. Looked at calendar and, if skip Friday July 1, because that's 4th of July weekend, then there are 4 more Fridays in July
  1. Would cost more
  2. No objections
Announcements - Board
1. After the annual meeting in October, someone at the library was commenting on the newsletters - they're always running out of copies at the library. We used to print 500 but as more and more people want just online version, we cut back.
  1. D Lamb is convinced that we were sending 75-100 to the library but Kelly counted 35 this last time. Don't know how many library would need. Area directors get 3 extras in case one blows away and D Lamb keeps 5-6 for archives. Would like to send at least 75 to the library. Over last couple years, we've printed 500 but there are more people who want it online. Could kick it up 50 for next time and count how many she has leftover.
    1. J Chipault wonders if area directors use 3 extras
      1. Yes, give to neighbors
  2. D Lamb would like to do profiles on new board members W Weber and T Trapp for upcoming newsletter. D Lamb will send them a few questions.
  3. Each newsletter costs $0.66.
  4. J Thoreson says he reads the newsletters of other neighborhoods and asks where ours is when they've been gone at the library
  5. Would be nice if on the box that the library puts our newsletters we could list our website in case the hard copy is out
    1. D Lamb might look into that
2. S Fitzsimmons wants to reach out to new neighbors. There was talk at last meeting that C Kreimendahl took over on that. Is there a process to getting outreach material?
  1. It used to be more formal. Charles used to read the property sales in the newspaper and approach new neighbors; now could use Zillow or Trulia to get that information. C Kreimendahl put it on Area Directors to notify him that there was a new neighbor in their area if they wanted a welcome kit. He's heard from very few people over the last couple of years. Possibly 20 packets went out. Lots of sales this last couple of years now that recession is over. He didn't have time to take the step to contact all those people but does try to keep packets up to date. Packets have information from the Chamber of Commerce, Hilldale, etc., basically pamphlets from different organizations. Was throwing in a bumper sticker when we had a stack of those.
    1. P Haskew says still plenty of bumper stickers.
3. C Kreimendahl notes that people who live on Orchard contacted Parks Dept this summer because they noticed that at Piper Park in particular the rubber tire chips they use had either never been enough or had worn thin and they were concerned that it was a safety hazard under the playground equipment. Her husband brought this to attention of Parks who told them surface is fine, they sent a picture, Park sent someone out to dig up ground with a shovel, after several more emails still no progress. They contacted Maurice Cheeks and he didn't respond. They called "Call for Action" which is a TV station that tries to get government agencies to respond. Parks says the playground equipment is slated to be replaced in 2020. If they have rubber left at end of season, they'll put it down, don't know that they did. C Kreimendahl brings it up not because we necessarily need to take an action but he does want to respond and wonders if have suggestions.
  1. E Rogers knows who to cc on emails to get the attention of Maurice Cheeks and Parks. C Kreimendahl can give her E Rogers's contact information
  2. P Haskew brings up Friends of Parks Foundation - have they tried that sort of approach?
    1. E Rogers says for individuals it can be useful to use a foundation because if you have funds that you want to give for a parks project you can give it to this group, which makes it tax deductible. While individuals can get a tax deduction by donating to the Friends of Parks Foundation, MHCA has no such incentive, since we are, ourselves, a 501(c)3 nonprofit. Friends of Parks don't have any pressure to respond to requests. Do we want to fund a couple of hundred dollars for shredded rubber and have volunteers put it there?
      1. C Kreimendahl says that would probably be a liability issue.
  3. J Thoreson thinks rubber is toxic and disgusting and really they should put in something else
  4. J Thoreson asks if there is someone from the Common Council at each monthly Parks meeting?
    1. E Rogers says board is 6 reps, at least 2 of whom are alders, designated by mayor and they discuss and vote on matters related to parks. Superintendent of Parks and Vice Superintendent of Parks are also there. Public comment opportunity exits but Board chooses topics to discuss for the month; some is handed down by Common Council but they often will start each topic by asking the Superintendent what is going on with the agenda topic and he'll lay out where Parks is and what the city plans to do and what questions they have and then Board gives suggestion.
Adjourned 7:52

Notes recorded by J Chipault, secretary

October 2015 Area Directors' Meeting Minutes

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jgchipault Sunday November 22, 2015

Midvale Heights Community Association Annual Meeting
Tuesday, October 27, 2015 – 6:30 p.m. – Sequoya Branch Library

Area Directors Present: Chuck Kreimendahl, Jane Sherwood, Ron Rotter, Gary Poulson, Wendy Weber, Jim Thoreson, Ed Rogers, Greg Fischer, Jenny Chipault, Denise Lamb, Paul Haskew, Jonn Lager, Tim Trapp, Kay Reuter-Krohn,Tom Jarvis

Guest Speaker
1. Gary Poulson introduces guest speaker.
2. Topic of schools came up when MHCA board was talking about who to invite for our annual meeting. Schools have been a big topic in the news lately: safety, discipline, voucher, charter, graduation rates, equity for students, war on teachers, dual language immersion. Recent articles about medical experts telling us we send our kids to school too early in the morning. Education is a topic that's been talked about for the past few years, so we invited Jennifer Cheatham back in September and were told she might have been conflict in schedule. Gary was an alderman and was city school district liaison and knows there are lots of knowledgeable people in the school district. Tonight's speaker has been very involved with elementary education in Madison. Been with the district for 3 years. Came from Chicago. Welcome Nancy Hanks from Madison Public Schools.
3. Good evening. Happy to interact and meet with people to talk about what's going on with our district. Excited about work we're doing. There are challenges that we face but she's extremely hopeful and optimistic. She is Chief of Schools for Elementary schools; there are 32. Counterpart to her does same similar work for middle and high schools. She's a former teacher, coach, and mentor, and 3K to 8th principal. She believes strongly in transformative power of education. Grew up west side of Chicago; poor, single parent, dad incarcerated most of her life, and yet she's chief of schools now because of the support of caring adults in her life, high expectations, and opportunities they provided her. She comes with that background to try to make it a reality for all students in our community. She will share progress of two years of superintendent's strategy. There's a sense of urgency to do something, but we have got some indicators that we're moving in the right direction. Also got a good idea of what you can do to help us on this journey. We want to improve outcomes for all kids and are on a quest to prove that public education can work and does work.
4. PowerPoint slide: "Strategic framework: Every school will be a thriving school that prepares every student to graduate from high school college, career, and community ready"
  1. Want to raise achievement for all students and close the gaps in opportunity.
5. PowerPoint slide: "Excellence with Equity: We must hold all children and all adults to high expectations and provide the unique support they need to meet and exceed that high bar. With high expectations and strategic support, our students will rise to the challenge of college, career, and community readiness."
  1. We don't serve any child or adult well by lowering expectations. Every school should have unique supports that they need. 32 schools that she serves are all unique. Part of process is tailoring the strategy and not giving one size fits all approach to all schools.
6. PowerPoint slide: "Moving the Needle: Sustainable improvement is a journey, but we are moving the needle on key metrics in our schools."
  1. Lot of work that goes on is maybe not public but instead is providing foundation behind the scenes. We're defining what great teaching is as a district because we never had a common definition that is culturally and linguistically responsive. All of our professional development is now aligned to that common definition.
  2. Attracting good teachers to our district also happens behind the scenes.
7. PowerPoint slide: "10 percentage point gains in literacy and math in elementary schools. Student growth in literacy and math far above the national average on almost every measure. Specific student groups starting to see positive results. English Language Learners saw improvement on almost every metric"
  1. We need to make sure that both students behind or accelerated continue to grow to reach their potential. Metrics are elementary reading, graduation rates, math, etc.
8. PowerPoint slide: "Graduation rates going up for almost every student group, with pockets of accelerated results. Four year graduation rate for African American students at La Follette increased to 75%. ACT participation 25% above the national average with ACT scores above the national average."
  1. Seeing increases in number of students taking ACT to get into college.
9. PowerPoint slide: "Reclaimed 1900 days of lost instruction, 1200 for African American students while still receiving high marks on safety"
  1. You probably read a lot about this, but it demonstrates our values. We're moving away from punitive and toward restorative. But transitions are bumpy. We regained days that would have been lost to suspensions, etc. Disproportionate practices might impact some student more than others (e.g., African Americans). Parents rated schools a 4 out of 5 for safety. Tweak and learn along the way to make sure the implementation is stronger year-to-year. She does 150 school visits and she wants to see everything and get a feel for each school. She wants to know where the struggles are so the districts can support.
10. PowerPoint slide: "Next steps: focus on reading in K-2, focus on middle schools, strengthened support for 9th grade transition, support with students with disabilities, strengthening partnerships with families."
  1. Staying with current plan and strengthening the implementation instead of switching plans. ###On state assessment for early literacy only 72% performing at proficiency. These are basic skills so could indicate some struggle for them in their academic careers. This year, we're bringing Kindergarten through 2nd grade teachers together quarterly to dig into K-2 literacy and we're seeing a lot of innovation and cooperation.
  2. Middle school is the area that has been flat so we're looking into what has been going on in middle schools and building strong cohorts for kids in elementary to make sure that they can make a nice transition. Need to understand adolescent learners that need patience and a community of support. Need to keep in mind that they don't make good decisions, so need help with that in addition to the curriculum for success. Might need to change not only content but the environment.
  3. Work toward improving graduation rates will be stalled if we don't pay attention to 9th graders. Need to pay attention to success in 9th grade. Every student who is a 9th grader is creating an academic career plan because they don't necessarily see the relevance of high school to what kind of life or career they want to have. Has to be individualized to their own interests. This is the first year that they'll have that plan and they'll grow that program in the future. Next board meeting, this Monday, will look at these plans. Board meetings are televised.
11. PowerPoint slide:"Call to Action: youth leadership, mentoring and tutoring, services and supports to high-needs neighborhoods. mmsd.org/action"
  1. Youth leadership - one of the things we've realized in our plan was that we didn't have a plan for being proactive for how people can use their voice. Our community is struggling with the death of Tony Robinson. She was supervising students who had walked out of school that day. She wasn't in the front giving them orders, but instead she was behind them allowing them to lead her. We're not involving kids in the change process and not allowing their voices to be heard. This is a missed opportunity. There is now a group of students involved in minority student achievement network and they are crafting an achievement framework that will be lead by the youth. Once the youth identify what they're interested in then they need our support and us affirming their ideas. Memorial will be a key place where we'll be doing targeted work and there will be more to come.
  2. Mentoring and Tutoring - important that every child has a supportive adult, doesn't need to be a parent. Now have a common tutoring program in our district and a clearance house for best practices and we're bringing everyone under one umbrella.
  3. Services and supports to high-needs neighborhoods - we've been exploring and learning in the last year about a certain approach to schooling in high-needs neighborhoods so that families get support they need integrated into the actual school building. Families are already at the school so why not put other services too so that they don't have to seek them out in other areas of their community. Have a committee to work on exploring the idea to see if it's feasible. The public can make financial contributions to continue this work. If the family is better supported the kids will certainly do better.
12. Questions:
  1. Q: Who is monitoring the plans the 9th graders are making?
    1. A: Principal and school-based leadership team (teachers, administration, counselors) that have data dashboard that monitors 9th graders. East High School has 9th grade academy housed in their school. Next week they'll all be at the Sheraton to look at metrics and they do that on a quarterly basis.
  2. Q: We sometimes try to push all society's problems onto schools and wonder why they can't fix it. How we zone housing and affects transportation and might affect how kids learn or not learn. Have you assessed access and safety so that not creating pockets of poverty?
    1. A: This is at the top of our minds right now. This year for the first time in a while we're engaged in professional development and conversations about just that, not just technical work but equity. How our communities and families are situated to resources and how that impacts school's ability to support them. Transportation, health care, library, it matters a lot. She encourages us to dig into this.
  3. Q: Many of our kids go to Lincoln/Midvale pair and several months ago it was suggested that pair be dissolved. Has anything started at district level on that topic?
    1. A: She had asked how pairing came about and it was like she dropped a bomb. Those were complicated decisions at the time. They are engaging in review of master facilities because they don't have a long-term facilities plan in the district. Research will take about 18 months to look at facilities and where we're situated regarding resources. It will comprehensively look at the city (not just Midvale and Lincoln).
  4. Q: Schools are a target in Madison because of politics, but do you interact with Milwaukee school districts to learn from them?
    1. A: Yes, we interact with them and understand overlap and differences. Problems we have are not unique. Also looking at Twin Cities and Middleton and Verona.
  5. Q: How does school look at voucher program and what makes you think students will pick this district?
    1. A: We try to recognize it for what it is but not let it paralyze us as a threat. Focus on how do we make ourselves a world class district so that when people have choice, they want to choose us. Think about innovation, facilities, access to technology. We all have limited energy so we could choose to fight against things that are a tax on our schools or we can focus our energy on making schools better.
  6. Q: What are you doing for teachers?
    1. A: Climate matters. Teachers need support. They need to be heard. They also need compensation and wellness packages. Just launched an RFP for an organization to look at our compensation and benefits package. No one goes into this field to get rich, but we need to make sure compensation ad support is competitive. Leave, sabbatical, etc. make for a healthier climate. When she was an elementary school principal she saw it as her responsibility to create the best environment for kids. Teachers are in the classrooms with the kids every day.
  7. Q: There are new ideas on how to teach but how do you figure out or plan for professional development to implement the bright new idea?
    1. A: Some ideas are new but a lot are not. We find ourselves going back to the practices that have been tried and true for years. Try to imbed professional learning within the structure of the school day. Try to promote balance. Offer classes on weekends but recognize that's the time teachers might need to rejuvenate, study, or go abroad. Last year we had lots of negotiation with the teachers union to open up more time for teacher planning. As a district we have to be mindful of the sense of urgency, but not going into initiative overload. Be targeted and focused and use time you have in a smart way on high leverage strategies.
  8. Q: Speaking of high leverage strategies, one is relationships and partnerships between the schools and the city, county, and private sector. Can you talk about what you hope to see or are currently seeing regarding partnerships.
    1. A: For the community schools approach, what you do is work with the community to assess their needs. Ask what resources would be most beneficial to the students in that school and work with city and county to make the school the hub of those resources instead of having families have to find all those resources scattered.
    2. Partnership with UW is another example. Partner with them in a number of ways but trying to up intensity.
    3. Cuna Mutual provides funding. All new teachers receive mentors and education support, as well as new principals. Have instructional coach in each building. Use it as first position to go to prioritize resources.
    4. We have a supportive and resource rich community but need to work to coordinate.
  9. Q: Who was the adult that was instrumental to her?
    1. A: Her Mom, of course. But also Sharon Horwitz, who was her third grade teacher and she was a tough cookie. She drank Royal Crown cola and smoked cigarettes in the parking lot. She wore penny loafers and jeans. She held her to extremely high standards. She had started to check out a bit and was not working up to her potential and Sharon kind of leaned in to that. Sharon taught Nancy how to write. Gave Nancy the ability to see beyond. Nancy was showing up because Sharon believed in her. Everyone needs at least one adult like that in their lives.
Call Business Meeting to Order - C. Kreimendahl
Board of Directors Election - C. Kreimendahl
1. This year the odd-numbered neighborhood areas have directors up for election. We have dedicated directors and almost all are willing to serve again. The only change is that Jason Butler has resigned from Area 13 but there has been a nomination for Steve Fitzsimmons to be a co-director with Mary Jane Armstrong for that area. Rules allow for nomination from the floor, with that said he'll open up the floor to nominations for area directors in odd number districts.
  1. Movement to close the slate and elect the slate of candidates as shown
    1. Second
      1. Motion carries.
Elected Representative Reports
1. Carousel Bayrd with Dane County
  1. This is her tenth year on the county board. Tough life these days to be in politics but local politics in the place to be because even though they're cutting our funding, our values are being represented. So think positively about the fabulous things local government can do and still does.
  2. Two main areas of focus are criminal justice reform and cooperating on education
  3. Racial disparities in Dane County are unacceptable and divisions are worse than we've ever seen. We don't know how difficult and discouraging it is in the neighborhoods predominantly African American, and vice versa, because there are two worlds. Working on huge criminal justice reform. Released drafts. Had community-lead teams that included the sheriffs. Three workgroups: alternatives to incarcerating, length of stay, and mental health. From these workgroups came 31 recommendations and 1 overarching idea that everyone agreed on: we need more data. Can't analyze what we don't know. We have anecdotal information about what's causing problem, but that isn't good enough. So we're hiring two data people to analyze trends. Crisis intervention ties back to youth having crisis troubles and not getting mental health but instead going into juvenile court. Now can call crisis team instead of calling police. Program expanded to all Madison middle schools. Now the police can even call the crisis team because they're not social workers. Doing implicit bias training - we all have it and you can't help it. Having conversations about solitary confinement - it will make your mental health situation worse. Unacceptable. We still need segregation in the jails (gangs, etc.) but it shouldn't be choice between general population or scary black box. Remodeling and changing jails that because it's unacceptable. She has spent more time on this than anything else in her ten years on the county board.
  4. Cooperating with schools. Madison public schools need our help. She doesn't know how to run a school but she knows to support them. Chipping in to schools, outside of school time, for after school programs. Surround them with services that the county knows about.
2. Maurice Cheeks is alder for district.
  1. District 10 includes Midvale Heights, Nakoma, Allied Drive, Orchard Ridge, Dunns Marsh, Meadowood; it's a sociologically and economically diverse district.
  2. After 2 years of service (re-elected this past spring), he is now president pro tempore (VP, essentially) of city council. So now your alder spends more time with the mayor.
  3. We've been speaking about schools today. He started public service as a volunteer tutor in the schools (algebra at Memorial). If you're interested in seeing alder embarrass himself, he'll be supporting fundraiser next Friday that is a lip sync for schools. Doing a Jimmy Fallon style lip sync.
  4. His priority on the council is to help the city of Madison be a national leader on a few things, including closing the opportunity gaps. Madison is very clearly one of the best places to live, but we have ton of room for improvement. Can be a model for what it's like to close the gaps between the "have"s and "have not"s. Also could be a national leader in engaging the public and transparent government. Third, it's critically important for us to get serious about planning for expected growth. It worries him when he sees signs that we are not adequately preparing for that growth.
  5. This year the council joined him in an effort to close food deserts. Wanted neighborhood to respond. Looked for grocery store. But neighborhood already had cooperative established and partnered with Willy St and the university and solved their own problems. Just getting started, but already seeing national attention.
  6. Board of estimates supported yesterday increasing funding for summer youth internships. Ton of crimes are happening by youth who just aren't engaged. Youth jobs immunizes young people from that life style for up to 14 months. Having opportunity to feel engaged and empowered and make a bit of money for themselves and their families can change a life. We are going to be almost doubling the number of students we're serving this year: it's been 250 but now have additional funding so at least 350.
  7. Interested in expanding cities across the country that investing in local broad band. Doing an early stage, pilot study in thinking about internet access as a utility and making it available to low income neighborhoods.
  8. Engaging citizens: last year at this meeting he talked about effort in participatory budgeting, which is something that calls for elected officials to give over some power and trust constituents. Colleagues didn't support that, but it did start conversation about how to do the city budget and now there's traction toward outcome-based budgeting. We think about it as a cost-to-continue budget, but we should think about what outcomes we want to see and plan budget based on that. It's not just keeping police on the streets, but how do we keep neighborhoods safe. Want to move us into 21st century in terms of budgeting - not 100 page PDF, but website with filters.
  9. Regarding planning for the future, one of the things he'll talk about over and over is the need for us to continue to expand options for housing. Cost of housing goes up and taxes go up. Rate at which your neighbors can sell their house goes up. Our community is growing faster than we can keep up with it. We are severely under-sourced for apartment housing. That makes it harder for average working folks to afford places to live. It makes it harder for seniors to stay in their homes. Our city is going to continue to grow and it has already grown to the west and now our west police district is the largest in the city. 1/3 of Madison lives in our police district, which is one of five. He's excited to support keeping Midtown police district on schedule for development to keep our families safe.
Announcements
1. Area director Paul Haskew brings ups that Midtown police station has been delayed because of Judge Doyle Square. West police station is way overcrowded . It was designed for 58 and there are 90. There are no interview rooms or secure spaces. Station is assigned to more residents per officer than any other station. There is land that has been purchased on Mineral Point Road and it needs a bit of lobbying effort. We've been contacted by local homeowners association and various organizations a lot like this one and Paul wonders if someone in this room would like to see Midtown station as serious agenda item and possibility of district-wide organization that would form and they'd like to represent Midvale Heights in the formation of that group to pay attention to our agenda but also group that relates to District 10 on the west side of Madison and represent us in the formation of that. If so, let Paul know you want to be involved.
  1. Question to Alder Cheeks: Did Judge Doyle Square delay Midtown station?
    1. A: No direct or immediate effect. It's been described as an either-or in the press but mayor is proposing delay to Midtown just as part of his choice of priorities. Board of Estimates (essentially joint finance committee) added it back in and there will be a vote.
2. Steve Fitzsimmons is head of neighborhood watch. He has signs available that make us feel a bit safer and advertise our neighborhood watch to our community. We enjoy beautiful landscapes and safe neighborhood and great people and neighborhood watch is a positive thing. Neighborhood watch meets once a month, usually second Tuesday. Try to educate so have speakers like Chief Koval, FBI, canine unit, mounted patrol, speakers about personal safety, to help you learn and get more comfortable with your surroundings. Send out crime alerts once a week to let people know to be aware. Simple thing to remember is to just lock your doors (car and house). Last year we had more break-ins than this year. Neighborhood watch grew from 10 people to 500. List of notes go out once a week or more frequently if there's a stolen car or break-in. Not vigilantly, just helping each other stay aware and working to break down barriers of communication. Ride-along program allows people to get to know officers. Can Google Midvale Heights Neighborhood Watch or go to Midvale Heights website or website is on the yard sign.
3. Next week they start having meetings on beltline study, including the environmental impact process, and there are a number of meetings, some in Fitchburg, Monona, etc. You can log in to DOT to see schedule and it might also be on city's website.
4. Public library system is doing a long-term planning and they have a web-based interface through which soliciting input for long-range plans for the libraries.
Adjourn: 8:10pm
1. Next MHCA Board Meeting: November 24, 2015 6:45 pm Sequoya Library

Notes recorded by J Chipault, secretary

September 2015 Area Directors' Meeting Minutes

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Ed Rogers Tuesday September 29, 2015

Midvale Heights Community Association Board Meeting
Tuesday, September 22, 2015 - 6:45pm - Sequoyah Branch Library

Area Directors Present: T. Trapp, D. Lamb, W. Weber, G. Fischer, R. Rotter, C. Kreimendahl, P. Haskew, T. Jarvis, G. Poulson, P. Schell, E. Rogers
Also Attending: Steve Fitzsimmons

6:47pm Meeting called to order

Introductions
1. W. Weber to take F. Stautz's seat for remainder of 2 year term
Previous minutes approved
Treasurer's report
1. Only about $390 of activity
2. Garage sale made about $190
3. There may be a few outstanding checks for special events
  1. Special events column in report to be zeroed out after accounts are settled
Membership drive debrief
1. Tom sent an email to the board, subject line: "Information about MHCA registrations" 9/22
  1. C Kreimendahl asks if Area Directors could follow-up on the comments from registrants in their Area
2. Tom sent a 2nd email, in response to E Rogers request, subject line: "MHCA Registrations after the Reminder Cards were sent out"
  1. The weekly registration totals indicate that reminder postcards sent to the neighborhood certainly cover the cost of production and postage
3. P Haskew thanks T Jarvis for his industrious effort getting so much done this year
  1. Board gives a round of applause
4. T Jarvis describes difficulties presented by the printing company
5. E Rogers asks whether there would be value in sending out a 2nd round of cards
  1. T Jarvis believes there might not be enough sign ups to make it worth a 2nd round
6. D Lamb mentions that it's not much additional labor. The additional cost is primarily in printing and postage
Annual meeting : 10/27
1. G Poulson gets Superintendent J Cheatham to agree to attend at 6:30, speaking first
2. C Bayrd and M Cheeks have been invited to attend
  1. M Cheeks will be late
  2. C Bayrd sends her regrets
3. D Lamb is asking board members to bring treats (cookies, etc.) to annual meeting, as in year's past.
4. D Lamb can get postcards printed by the end of this week. She will be out of town and can't help with slapping on labels and mailing.
  1. C Kreimendahl offers to help
5. C Kreimendahl mentions elections are pending
  1. J Butler is resigning from co-director of Area 13
6. G Poulson offers to buy coffee
7. D Lamb offers to bring cider
8. R Rotter asks whether we have the room booked
  1. Mary usually does that at the beginning of the year
S Fitzsimmons has Neighborhood Watch business
1. We need $150 for the church that hosts our meetings ($25/meeting)
2. Could we also donate $100 for K9 unit? Previously approved by board
  1. Donation will be presented to “Capital K9s” at the next NW meeting
3. S Fitzsimmons will be speaking on the radio (local LPFM station)
  1. Crime updates and recordings of Neighborhood Watch meetings
4. T Jarvis suggests mentioning the radio broadcasts to neighbor who doesn't have computer and wishes to see crime updates included in the Midvale Messenger
P Haskew proposes a motion that MHCA expresses regret to each alder on Common Council that the proposed police station on mineral pt road may be delayed due to downtown development
1. G Poulson asks to abstain due to mention of “downtown development”
2. R Rotter proposes amendment to motion:
  1. MHCA emails each alder on Common Council expressing regret that the proposed police station on Mineral Pt road may be delayed.
3. Amendment accepted by P Haskew & second
4. G Fischer mentions that delaying this project will be costly in terms of rising costs, inflation, etc.
5. S Fitzsimmons mentions worsening staff & resource shortfalls
6. Motion as amended passes.
T Jarvis mentions that Neighborhood Watch has hit 457 members in September
1. Equal to the number of Madison Police Department officers

Meeting is adjourned at 7:28

August 2015 Area Directors' Meeting Minutes

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Tom Jarvis Tuesday September 1, 2015

Midvale Heights Community Association Board Meeting
Tuesday, August 25, 2015 – 6:45 p.m. – Sequoya Branch Library

Area directors present: Chuck Kreimendahl, Denise Lamb, Floyd Stautz, Greg Fischer, Ron Rotter, Jim Thoreson, Gary Poulson, Kay Reuter-Krohn, Tom Jarvis, Tim Trapp, Peter Schell, Mary-Jane Armstrong, Jonn Lager, Ed Rogers

Also attending: Cathy Rotter, Steve Fitzsimmons, Randy Peterson

Call to Order & Introductions
June minutes approved w/o alteration
Treasurer’s Report
1. New & Improved Report
  1. Money has moved around among the various accounts
  2. This month’s report has the new balances side-by-side with the old balances.
2. No questions
Membership Drive Update
1. T Jarvis closes online registration
  1. Mailed in registrations are still pending entry
2. Room for one or 2 more addresses in the directory
3. Directory is ready to go to EconoPrint
  1. Haven’t submitted to EconoPrint yet
4. C Kreimendahl asks what will we need to do for directory delivery.
  1. MHCA volunteers will stuff envelopes
  2. MHCA will pay extra for varying weight mailings
  3. T Jarvis requests that envelope stuffing happen at his home.
5. D Lamb asks if we need to worry about Membership Cards having expiration date of 9/1/16
  1. Should not be an issue
6. T Jarvis has received some complaints from residents who have not yet received their cards
  1. We’ll get them out ASAP
7. C Kreimendahl asks for volunteers to keep some availability to stuff envelopes at the end of the week or over Labor Day weekend
8. Mary-Jane Armstrong asks what our plans are regarding more reminder postcards this year
  1. T Jarvis wishes the reminder postcards had a full membership form included
  2. Gary Poulson asks if reminder postcards have once again paid for themselves with memberships
    1. C Kreimendahl says we don’t know yet, but will check before next meeting so we can decide
9. T Jarvis notes that this year may be a bumper crop of registrations; MHCA already has nearly 500 members
  1. Selection of Midvale Messenger delivery via e-mail has doubled since last year
10. T Jarvis notes that we are very close to benchmark 457 members of the Neighborhood Watch email newsletter
  1. S Fitzsimmons notes that 457 is the number of officers in the Madison Police Department
Neighborhood Annual Meeting Plans
1. D Lamb calls for suggestions for speaker
  1. Gary Poulson talked with Alder Mo Cheeks, suggests we consider Superintendent Jen Cheatham
  2. C Kreimendahl suggests WI author Jerry Apps
  3. R Rotter suggests travel writer Gary Knowles
  4. G Poulson suggests Sarah Day of American Players Theatre
    1. Her performance schedule may not accommodate the meeting this year
  5. R Peterson asks if the neighborhood has a mission statement
    1. E Rogers finds brief statement of purpose on the MHCA homepage:
      1. The Midvale Heights Community Association was incorporated in 1954 to "...provide an organization through which the members are better able to deal with the civic problems in the community as well as to provide an organization to promote the recreational, educational and social life of their community."
    2. R Peterson suggests we choose a speaker who forwards our mission.
  6. MJ Armstrong suggests YWCA director Rachel Krinksy
  7. C Kreimendahl asks for vote by show of hands (voting as many times as you like), Area Directors only
    1. Top 3 vote getters are: Jen Cheatham, Jerry Apps, and Rachel Krinsky
2. Gary Poulson asks the event start time
  1. D Lamb remembers 6:30 or possibly earlier. She will check her notes from previous years
3. C Kreimendahl mentions the date will be October 27
4. D Lamb proposes we create a bulletin board of what we’ve accomplished with photos
5. J Thoreson suggests we invite Officer Pailing to the meeting
  1. Not necessarily to speak, but to give him a chance to put it on his calendar
Garage Sales
1. C Kreimendahl reports that Jill has set everything up and the sales will be on 9/4 & 9/5
2. T Jarvis notes that the number of sale locations has fallen from years past
3. C Kreimendahl reports that Jill is retiring, is happy to hand off all materials to a successor
4. J Thoreson asks how many people are volunteering to help with the garage sale on the membership registration forms
  1. T Jarvis finds 2 people. One of whom is Jill
5. R Peterson suggests we move the garage sale to an earlier weekend
Concert Series
1. D Lamb reports 35 people at the Jazz concert and 80 people at the Cajun band
  1. Worth doing again; many people requested more performances in the future
  2. Should have no trouble getting 3 bands next year
  3. Permitting process should go more smoothly and simply next year
2. D Lamb believes the event should be moved back from 6:30 start to 7pm
3. D Lamb also believes moving closer to Solstice for later light would help
4. D Lamb suggests a generic “Live Music Friday” banner to advertise to the street
5. E Rogers thanks D Lamb for all the great work
6. MJ Armstrong asks if we can invite a food cart, paying whatever permitting fees are required
  1. R Peterson suggests we have the food cart park in a neighbor’s driveway across from the park
7. J Lager notes that Research Park has open parking lots in the evenings
Midvale Messenger printing
1. D Lamb notes that we print 500 per issue, when nearly 200 members request e-mail delivery only
C Kreimendahl introduces R Peterson
1. Thanks him for his work with plantings under our new neighborhood sign
2. R Rotter makes a motion:
  1. MHCA will donate $200.00 to landscaping on sign on Odana Lane
  2. Motion passes
3. R Peterson reports that this city has not given him any trouble with his landscaping
4. D Lamb suggests a mowing friendly ground-cover
Low Power FM Radio Station
1. T Jarvis received an email regarding the relocation of a 100 Watt FM radio station to the 600 block of Orchard Dr
2. S Fitzsimmons wonders if they can promote the Neighborhood Watch
F Stautz is moving
1. MHCA will need to find a replacement for Area Director for Area 10
R Peterson suggests we consider having a neighborhood harvest season bonfire
Meeting adjourned at 8:20

Notes recorded by Ed Rogers

June 2015 Area Directors' Meeting Minutes

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jgchipault Thursday August 20, 2015

Midvale Heights Community Association Board Meeting
Tuesday, June 23, 2015 – 6:45 p.m. – Sequoya Branch Library

Area directors present: Chuck Kreimendahl, Ron Rotter, Floyd Stautz, Ed Rogers, Jenny Chipault, Denise Lamb, Kay Reuter-Krohn, Tom Jarvis, Gary Poulson, Peter Schell

Visitors: Steve Fitzsimmons

Call to Order & Introductions - C Kreimendahl
Prior Minutes Review/Approval - Board
1. Minutes for May meeting up for approval
2. T Jarvis asks if scheme for bullets is fine?
  1. C Kreimendahl printed out copy and bullets read different
3. Motion to approve May minutes
  1. Motion carries
Treasurer’s Report - R Rotter
1. R Rotter handed out hard copy of budget; ~$44,000 total
  1. Last page shows how much we brought in and how much we spent for month
2. C Kreimendahl suggests move money around from general fund to other specific funds so that there aren’t negative numbers
  1. D Lamb notes that once Membership drive is over, we should move enough money to Newsletter to cover the year’s cost
3. D Lamb asks what’s "meeting program" in budget?
  1. R Rotter says that’s our annual meeting or block captain meetings
  2. R Rotter can go through and put three years worth of money in each category. Most of our money should be in by August so can do it for next meeting
4. E Rogers clarifies that we don’t need to worry when there isn’t enough money in a certain account?
  1. No
5. C Kreimendahl says R Rotter can use his judgement because he’s familiar with what we spend on different things annually and how new members have allocated funds
6. D Lamb will give R Rotter ad receipts for past year so know how much to put aside
7. R Rotter asks about whether we want to suggest totals for different categories?
  1. D Lamb suggests create category for “special events” to cover Segoe concerts
8. E Rogers thanks R Rotter for the column of monthly balance changes in each report, and E Rogers hopes that column will continue to be produced after the fund reallocation.
  1. R Rotter will maintain this column
9. Question about "signs" as budget item.
  1. No more money needed for big neighborhood signs so can zero this out
  2. Garage sale signs were purchased last year.
10. R Rotter will create budget category for parks
Legislative Reports - Maurice Cheeks/Carousel Bayrd
1. Maurice was at our picnic last week (after a transportation meeting he had). No news to report.
Membership Drive Committee Update - P Haskew, Board
1. P Haskew not at today's meeting but we need to decide today about discount cards before next board meeting in August. After last year’s efforts, things are in place but T Jarvis will need help. P Haskew not seeking new businesses and assuming previous business are renewed. We haven’t had complaints. Business owners could say that they discontinued it.
  1. P Schell agrees, businesses could cancel whenever they wanted to. They aren’t obligated to honor the card
  2. D Lamb and M Armstrong don’t have a problem with businesses accepting it.
    1. C Kreimendahl this part of it seems fine.
  3. M Armstrong wonders if we should alert the businesses
    1. J Chipault says our business year is odd so it might throw them.
  4. T Jarvis brings up issue of weight during mailing – if the envelopes have different number of cards then USPS won’t take it bulk rate.
    1. E Rogers had previously suggested cards that said "thanks" as fillers to even out the weight
  5. 307 members currently, 19 gave 1 adult, 197 gave 2 adults, 9 gave 3 adults
    1. So can do two cards in 197 envelopes in bulk mail and put stamps on envelopes for others that need to be shipped.
  6. T Jarvis says Econoprint was upset with us when we took envelopes for separate pile.
  7. C Kreimendahl says annual membership has become task that swallows up lot of time, but he's interested in cutting down work involved.
  8. T Jarvis not sure what they print the cards on. When they got them last year, had to match identifier number to card number so had to put identifier on envelope
  9. Is there a minimum number for bulk mailing
    1. Might be more than 19, but doesn’t matter because could put a normal stamp on it
  10. R Rotter asks if names are on cards
    1. Yes, but not addresses
  11. D Lamb suggests we have block captains deliver them
  12. Random numbers were generated by T Jarvis last year to associate cards and envelopes.
  13. E Rogers suggests we should make this as simple as possible. Econoprint sounds like they are particular. We should get in touch with them and ask what we need to do so that we send can send them an email and they do the rest
    1. Problems with Econoprint happened because of multiple cards in different envelopes
  14. T Jarvis says they had to be zip plus 4 digits for mailing
    1. D Lamb says they don’t
  15. T Jarvis suggests unique directories with 9 house safety model pre-printed?
    1. Future project
  16. C Kreimendahl says, to keep it simple for mailing purposes, could put in one card and then say come to annual meeting to pick up extra cards
  17. R Rotter wonders if could mail separate postcards with membership cards embedded
    1. D Lamb says there’s limits on postcards
  18. Need someone to talk to Econoprint
    1. We want them to do the mailing work
  19. C Kreimendahl says idea is to mail these things of value so that they get to each household. Don’t want to stick them between doors and can’t put them in mailbox. C Kreimendahl asks if there’s a consensus to mailing membership cards.
    1. P Schell says can’t make decision without knowing the cost
  20. C Kreimendahl says get consensus decision via email after T Jarvis and M Armstrong talk to Econoprint
2. Membership Reminder
  1. We have sent postcards targeted to people who hadn’t yet signed up (last year sent it to everyone and it cost a lot of money) but we got 60 more people to sign up after the postcard (so we recouped cost).
  2. C Kreimendahl asks if they can do bulk mail from the printer
    1. R Rotter says mailed picnic cards for $260 to mail to everyone a postcard. So if get 20 people to register after postcard mailing ,you pay for the sending of the card.
  3. T Jarvis can extract those who haven’t enrolled yet.
  4. E Rogers says for every $1 spent, we get $3 so we should do this all the time
  5. D Lamb has postcard file
  6. C Kreimendahl gone in July so can’t do postcard this year.
  7. R Rotter is pretty sure Jill just emails Econoprint and they do everything
  8. S Fitzsimmons says he can put membership forms out at neighborhood watch meetings as a reminder, too
  9. D Lamb can pull up postcard and see what’s there. She’ll talk to Jill and if all she needs to do is send card to Econoprint and get address list from Tom, she can do it
  10. Seem to be doing good on members this year compared to where we were at this point last year
  11. T Jarvis thinks neighborhood watch is bringing in more people
Segoe Park Summer Concerts - D Lamb
1. Good news and bad news. Good news: sent application permit forms to Park district, as well as $100 check. Bad news: thought she had three bands but one band backed out. D Lamb went over to Segoe Park and sure band can fit under overhang and amplification seems fine. Need someone there with membership forms. Have people on the radar for next year that can’t make dates this year.
2. Make Music Madison at Segoe Park. E Rogers says it was a rousing success. There was plenty of shade, weather was perfect, used P Haskew’s inverter for power, bands that played were satisfied with amplification (loud enough that people could hear but zero neighbor complaints).
  1. J Chipault asked how many people there
    1. 7 hours of music and probably peaked at 50 people. Kids played while people played. No Name String Band was most popular
      1. J Chipault says, considering how many music opportunities there were throughout city, 50 is a good crowd
Garage Sales - Board
1. First the Picnic - Jill Carlson sent C Kreimendahl email saying that HyVee fixed prices and charged us what they charged last year. They compared billing from last year to this year and realized how we were charged last year. Total now $1050, which is closer to $4 per person.
  1. Great picnic turn-out this year
    1. F Stautz suggests more activities for kids at picnic – balloon guy, fire truck. Nothing but playground for kids this year.
      1. Can visit this issue early next spring
2. Garage Sale – Jill Carlson in charge of this, too. She said it’s not online yet to register but she has it set up so that people can send payment and then people deliver kits.
  1. T Jarvis says Jill usually sends T Jarvis the information but she hasn’t yet
    1. D Lamb says she has it for back page of newsletter
      1. T Jarvis can extract back page of newsletter as PDF for online form
  2. A few new members signed up for membership at the picnic (new people to neighborhood). Can’t pay online for garage sale – just can get form online.
Announcements - Board
1. Kids Clubhouse happened. C Kreimendahl got note from member who lives near there and she’s helping out to get things going this spring. C Kreimendahl got email around Memorial Day saying there were only 3 people but they got the word out and by a week or 10 days later they had 10 kids. Haven’t heard anything different so think it’s going.
  1. How many participants?
    1. Think last year was 12 regulars and every day was around 20 kids since drop-ins allowed
2. Someone at the picnic mentioned to C Kreimendahl that she thought “Why don’t we have a neighborhood Christmas caroling group?” and C Kreimendahl suggested she spearhead it and we could use the website to advertise. They could get a group of singers and go door-to-door.
  1. D Lamb says this would be a good excuse to invite people over to listen to carolers.
    1. Don’t think anyone got the name of the woman at the picnic that mentioned this idea.
      1. Could put it in fall newsletter that someone brought it up and we need someone to head effort
3. C Kreimendahl has been getting emails about Bison Prairie and Tokay Boulevard. Bison Prairie doesn’t look good (weeds). City mows it and isn’t consistent about what they do and there’s a rock circle so there’s a limit on where they take their equipment. Emailers proposed that the committee come up with a plan; but there is no committee. Someone else said Tokay Blvd doesn’t look good. These are people that used to do a lot of work on these projects
  1. D Lamb says some of the beds don’t look that great because done piece by piece but $100,000 plan that Nan Lager got from architecture students is too much money so what we can do. Could try to get people to adopt a block (instead of just their house) and put in ground cover so that city never has to mow? Maybe start on two ends of Tokay and work in?
  2. M Armstrong says they tore up the boulevard recently so it’s just recouping
    1. E Rogers suggests touching base with Alder Cheeks and to make sure they aren’t going to dig up median again soon before making bigger plans
  3. D Lamb got disposition on construction of Mineral Point road. In general there will be one lane going all directions but no left turns from soon until October.
  4. C Kreimendahl will communicate this to Nan Lager. We knew when Janice Gary retired that Bison Prairie would suffer a big loss.
    1. T Jarvis says there are registered volunteers – 17 for neighborhood planting/beautification and 24 donated money.
      1. D Lamb asks if names have been pass to Nan Lager?
        T Jarvis did earlier but list not final yet.
  5. M Armstrong says people that live at townhouses at Odana and Segoe do great landscaping and she asked if they would be willing to take on gardening around our new neighborhood sign and they would likely do it if had budget for plants.
    1. C Kreimendahl says have them contact Nan and him.
4. J Chipault gone August and September so will need substitute note-taker
Adjourned 7:55

Notes recorded by J Chipault, secretary

May 2015 Area Directors' Meeting Minutes

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jgchipault Sunday June 21, 2015

Midvale Heights Community Association Board Meeting
Tuesday, May 26, 2015 – 6:45 p.m. – Sequoya Branch Library

Area directors present: Chuck Kreimendahl, Ron Rotter, Floyd Stautz, Ed Rogers, Greg Fischer, Jenny Chipault, Denise Lamb, Kay Reuter-Krohn, Tom Jarvis

Visitors: Steve Fitzsimmons, Cathy Rotter

Call to Order & Introductions - C Kreimendahl
1. Have new area director for Area 7 (Tim Trapp) but not here tonight; maybe in June.
Prior Minutes Review
1. Motion to approve
  1. Motion carries
Treasurer’s Report - R Rotter
1. Passed out hard copy with details
  1. ~$44,000 total
  2. Provided details on what we’ve spent on picnic since inception (2005). Last year we spent $1000, with HyVee at $700. Was $475 two years ago. This year HyVee is charging $1600. Will discuss this later.
  3. Signed up 170 kids for t-ball, purchased first aid kits
  4. Bill for membership messengers sent to R Rotter by C Kreimendahl
    1. $167 for postcards and $264 for mailing charge (plus postage, we suspect) for the picnic
Legislative Reports - Maurice Cheeks/Carousel Bayrd
1. Not present
2. C Kreimendahl did hear from C Bayrd. S Fitzsimmons had neighborhood watch meeting where he asked crowd about sending letter of appreciation to Madison police. S Fitzsimmons edited it with advice from C Bayrd and sent to chief of police.
Membership Drive Committee Update – Board
1. Right now it’s pretty much just T Jarvis entering information from membership sign ups
  1. K Reuter-Krohn volunteers to help, and D. Lamb volunteers starting at end of month
2. There's link on website called “2015 member info” that breaks down information
  1. 99 registered members, 3 not verified as paid, 11 not members last year (but perhaps had been in years previous to that). 24 donations (total $650) – 9 for neighborhood watch and 11 for Tokay plantings. History books were purchased and C Rotter says they’ve been delivered.
3. T Jarvis has entered 19 memberships and then went to post office today and there were a lot more in post office box. K Reuter-Krohn, C Kreimendahl, and Rotters can enter data it. Tried to enroll E Rogers but didn’t work. Can’t register yourself if trying to enter data for someone else. Need to verify that address and check number are on forms.
  1. C Kreimendahl notes that it’s easy to register online so hopefully people do that.
4. C Kreimendahl thinks for now we'll just enter data and can talk about sending a reminder post card in June if we want to do that.
Neighborhood Picnic June 18 – Board
1. Jill contacted C Kreimendahl after he let her know that we approved $1200 for picnic because we thought that would cover food and other costs. But HyVee increased cost to $1600. This would be the third picnic that HyVee catered and they had given us a marked discount (something like 50%) and this year they want to do only a 20% discount on their service and goods. They provide the meat and the buns and the people to cook it, as well as silverware and plates. Jill thought it was wonderful because used to be a lot of work for volunteers. Assuming we had a couple hundred people show, that’s $8 per person for a partial meal, which seems expensive. But it's kind of too late to change so C Kreimendahl suggests we go ahead but board should talk about budget. Jill will make some adjustments in what’s offered based on past years and to reduce cost a bit. Might want to re-evaluate what we’re doing, but Jill would rather not go back to the old days of volunteers cooking.
  1. D Lamb thinks they start cooking burgers and brats because we had a hard time getting people to bring main courses. So it could be on us (board members) to bring meat dishes.
    1. E Rogers asks if we would we lose Jill if did that
      1. D Lamb says we could find someone else to cater the meat
    2. K Reuter-Krohn reminds us that there was someone who used to be on the board that brought up health inspection being an issue if volunteers do cooking
  2. R Rotter suggests bringing in a food cart
  3. T Jarvis was told that we shouldn’t ask for donations for the picnic because we pay for it, but maybe we should ask for donation.
    1. E Rogers says there’s a lot of things we do that we pay for that we also ask for donations for.
    2. K Reuter-Krohn notes that this event is not members only, so lot of people aren’t paying at all.
    3. G Fischer brings up that food has indeed gotten more expensive
  4. J Chipault says, big picture, we should be careful not to cheapskate it to the point where people stop attending; let's keep in mind that this is our big event for the year.
    1. E Rogers brings up that the picnic introduces people to the t-ball program – collateral advantages
  5. J Chipault suggests could cater meat via BBQ joint with pulled pork, etc.
  6. R Rotter wonders if Sentry would do it for less
  7. E Rogers says since we’re pretty much stuck this year he motions to increase budget to $1600
    1. R Rotter points out that we’ll need more like $2000 because $400 in printing
      1. Motion still stands for paying HyVee $1600
        Motion carries
  8. C Kreimendahl says will put finding a different vendor on agenda for the fall so that will give us enough time to shop around
    1. K Reuter-Krohn notes that maybe Jill might want to come to that meeting
Announcements – Board
1. 3 bands booked for Segoe Park this summer – third band is gypsy rock (lively but not too loud). One guy wrote to ask if we’d be supplying a sound system. We’re supplying power but they bring their own amps.
  1. If D Lamb gets more questions like this, can she forward to E Rogers?
    1. Yes.
  2. D Lamb went to park and thinks there’s enough flat space for jazz band. D Lamb wonders if they mow the grass?
    1. E Rogers says they do. They mow roughly once a week, just can’t keep up with current dandelions.
  3. Dates are 3 Friday nights in a row – July 17, 24, and 31 with the following night (Saturdays) being a rain date
  4. D Lamb encountered some confusion with the city because she got wrong number for person she needed to contact; there are a couple of hoops she has to jump through still.
  5. Will advertise in summer newsletter and get signs to put up. D Lamb says we talked about buying signs (like what we use for garage sale).
    1. R Rotter says send him what you want and he’ll set them out.
      1. Something generic like "Music this Friday 6:30-8:30" can be re-used
    2. J Chipault recommends running it in Isthmus because they have long list of stuff going on around town. Maybe State Journal does too?
      1. K Reuter-Krohn says there is a section but not sure if there’s a cost
  6. We can finalize who will be present with membership forms at our next meeting June
2. R Rotter says he’s been going to S Fitzsimmons' neighborhood watch meetings and encourages everyone to go. Speakers have been very good and are big names. Last speaker was 911 center, had a speaker before that was on CNN recently, they’re all in the news.
  1. S Fitzsimmons not sure how to get more advertisement
    1. Going to ask if could buy more signs (sold out of what he already had)
    2. D Lamb says this happens every time we start up a neighborhood watch meetings – starts off strong and then dies off. Need to be there for the long haul.
    3. S Fitzsimmons trying to get something together in next couple of weeks on self-defense (including internet safety). Will be extra meeting in June.
    4. C Kreimendahl can advertise at picnic and asks S Fitzsimmons to put together additional budget for more signs.
      1. R Rotter checks budget and notes that S Fitzsmmons has money enough to get more signs.
    5. T Jarvis says there’s a blurb about neighborhood watch in Membership Messenger that everyone gets
    6. 99 registrations and they can check whether they want to be added to neighborhood watch; 37 do (some are already on) and of the 99, 62 are members of watch email list.
    7. J Chipault suggests advertising Neighborhood Watch on NextDoor website. Pretty much every neighborhood in US has a section of this website now and Midvale Heights has one now.
    8. J Chipault suggests going to meetings every other month to avoid S Fitzsimmons burning out
  2. E Rogers says there was an email suggestion of free little signs (like the size of your palm) to give to neighbors that says this house is part of neighborhood watch.
    1. S Fitzsimmons suggests stickers for the car, because then know what cars belong in neighborhood and also increases advertisement as Midvale Heights cars move around
      1. D Lamb brings up bumper stickers we used to have that said I heart Midvale Heights
        We ran out of them
        C Kreimendahl says bumper stickers didn’t weather well and were $1-2 so maybe we should consider how much something durable would cost.
        Could have patches to hand out each year.
        G Fischer says people toss free things. Sell them?
    2. D Lamb says we should think it through a bit more and maybe have things at neighborhood meeting.
    3. C Kreimendahl wonders who wants to do leg work (check on costs and designs). T Jarvis recommends Café Press. S Fitzsimmons has a bumper sticker from there that has lasted for years.
Adjourned 7:45pm

Notes recorded by J Chipault, secretary

April 2015 Area Directors' Meeting Minutes

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jgchipault Wednesday May 20, 2015

Midvale Heights Community Association Board Meeting
Tuesday, April 28, 2015 – 6:45 p.m. – Sequoya Branch Library

Area directors present: Chuck Kreimendahl, Ron Rotter, Floyd Stautz, Ed Rogers, Peter Schell, Greg Fischer, Jenny Chipault, Denise Lamb, Jonn Lager, Kay Reuter-Krohn, Tom Jarvis

Visitors: Nan Lager, Steve Fitzsimmons, Cathy Rotter

Call to Order & Introductions - Chuck Kreimendahl
Prior Minutes Review
1. Motion to approve March minutes
  1. Motion carries
Treasurer’s Report - Ron Rotter
1. R Rotter passed out hard copy of account details
  1. ~$42,000 total
  2. T-ball money coming in, but no money has gone out yet for t-ball
Legislative Reports Maurice Cheeks/Carousel Bayrd
1. Not present
Membership Drive Committee Update Board
1. C Kreimendahl says they had a committee meeting about three weeks ago and came up with a plan based on discussions from last MHCA meeting but a couple of questions came up.
  1. D Lamb will put an article in the May/June newsletter that is going to printer tomorrow (back to her Monday, to homes next weekend). Talked about the idea of sending emails to everyone who is on email list so can cull some people from the hard copy distribution list. And can’t know how many Membership Messengers to print until know how many will respond.
    1. Plan is to send out email May 1st
    2. C Kreimendahl says if it works to subtract names from list that block captains will deliver to, great; but not spending money on mailing so ok if we print for everyone.
    3. F Stautz asks if email went out to block captains?
      1. Yes, C Kreimendahl sent email.
        T Jarvis explains that one computer program extracted the block captains and one the area directors, so it only sent it to 40-some block captains and 4-5 bounced back. Did not go to the directors.
        C Kreimendahl will send copy of email to area directors since some captains don’t have emails
        Can print out email that was sent to deliver to houses in person to give block captains more warning. Or if think they might not be around in mid-May, have them let you know. Most of them have 20 houses at most to deliver to so hopefully not too onerous.
      2. J Chipault asks if could get email for block captains
        T Jarvis reminds her that it’s on website
  2. Membership messenger will go our around May 15. D Lamb is almost done with it, might need someone else to pick it up.
    1. C Kreimendahl contacted Tyberius Terrace to ask about distributing newsletters because their building is secured.
      1. S Fitzsimmons says he can follow up with Tyberius since he lives nearby
    2. Others area directors that have apartments, if you think you need them, say so
      1. 1700 copies printed last year and ran out and some apartments didn’t get them.
    3. S Fitzsimmons asks if there’s an announcement for the neighborhood watch
      1. It’s in C Kreimendahl’s column on the front page.
    4. J Lager delivers to one member at Tyberius Terrace and best he can do is leave it with their name on it.
    5. S Fitzsimmons asks about putting flyers under wipers
      1. C Kreimendahl doesn’t like things on cars.
    6. J Chipault to talk to Janice about apartments in her area
    7. Registration open until June 30th.
  3. T Jarvis had K Reuter-Kahn test online membership registration but it wasn’t working. It loses the address. When goes to apply update to database, it doesn’t. Right now if you go there it will say sorry we’re working on it and you won’t be able to do anything
    1. C Kreimendahl asks T Jarvis to let us know when working
  4. D Lamb, T Jarvis, F Stautz, C Kreimendahl, and P Haskew met; don’t think they need to meet again
  5. D Lamb put all businesses listed on discount card in Messenger
    1. Is the list from last year?
      1. Don’t think we’ve gotten too many more companies over the past year.
  6. T Jarvis taking off the street view from website because too many errors
Neighborhood Picnic - Board
1. C Kreimendahl emailed Jill and she’s happy to do it again. Scheduled for June 18th. She’ll approach HyVee to see if they could do it again, suggesting minor tweaks. Last two years, we spent $1000 each year. Last year $700 of that went to HyVee. They set up the main course and plates and silverware, etc. We provide beverages.
  1. D Lamb thinks Jill buys beverages.
  2. R Rotter says postcard mailing was $300. $31 to Jill for miscellaneous, so that probably didn't cover beverages.
2. C Kreimendahl says Jill asked for help with set up and logistics.
  1. D Lamb has that in article about the picnic. Usually what happens is a few people turn up early and people help out when close.
3. Picnic starts at 6 until dusk at same park as usual (Piper Park)
4. Only big deal will be if HyVee says no or charges a lot more money.
  1. D Lamb makes a motion to provide up to $1200 to Jill to cover expenses for annual picnic.
    1. Motion carries
  2. On that same topic, S Fitzsimmons proposed to set up some things regarding Neighborhood Watch at the picnic
    1. C Kreimendahl warns that there’s not much space because usually t-ball going.
  3. R Rotter has 5 picnic tables that they set up.
Announcements - Board
1. D Lamb announces Cajun band on July 24th Friday (rain date Saturday), 6:30-8:30. Bring your blankets and dessert and come listen. Jazz group that her husband is in is playing but not sure when yet. Jazz group will need some kind of power because they have keyboard but neither group seems too worried about amplification.
  1. Calling it something like "Friday evenings at Segoe Park" because not too keen on Segoe a-go-go because she lived through the gogo era and this isn't that.
    1. J Chipault encourages group to come up with alternate catchy name because people probably won't remember "Fridays at Segoe Park" as a "thing"
      1. D Lamb says July/Aug newsletter will have printed schedule so need new name before then
2. N Lager says had Tokay clean up day on Saturday. A couple of people are interested in renovating some of the beds and there’s $1200 dollars in Tokay planting program line in budget.
3. E Rogers moves to authorize spending on Tokay median for up to $1200
  1. D Lamb amends motion to say that N Lager has access to whatever funds are available in the Tokay account (since it might increase after 2015 Membership drive) and bring in bills and let us know what she’s doing.
    1. N Lager says that last year city covered everything that they planted so didn’t use any MHCA money.
    2. Article in paper on Monday’s paper on adopt-a-median city program and we were mentioned. N Lager will bring the article in. Something that we’d like to put on website?
      1. Yes!
  2. E Rogers accepts amended motion
    1. Amended motion carries
4. Make Music Madison is coming along
  1. E Rogers listed Segoe Park as available between 2-9pm and 7 performers signed up back-to-back (they each get one hour). Take down and set up might be tricky.
    1. E Roger to send list of artists to D Lamb for newsletter
  2. E Rogers and P Haskew got together with car and inverter with guitars and microphones and E Rogers was immediately completely convinced that 400 watts available from a car will be totally sufficient to amplify bands
  3. C Kreimendahl asks if E Rogers will be around on Make Music Madison day?
    1. Yes, E Rogers will have a tip bucket and poster and he will go out 5 minutes before the show and find a tree to duct tape it to.
  4. D Lamb wonders if there’s enough flat hard space for a drum set, bass, and keyboard, or will she have to come up with some sort of a floor for the bands?
    1. E Rogers says there's 100 square feet of paved surface, but then mushroom in middle and bench around base.
Adjourned 7:30pm

Notes recorded by J Chipault, secretary

March 2015 Area Directors' Meeting Minutes

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jgchipault Sunday April 26, 2015

Midvale Heights Community Association Board Meeting Agenda
Tuesday, March 24, 2015 – 6:45 p.m. – Sequoya Branch Library

Area directors present: Chuck Kreimendahl, Jane Sherwood, Ron Rotter, Gary Poulson, Floyd Stautz, Ed Rogers, Peter Schell, Greg Fischer, Jenny Chipault, Denise Lamb, Jonn Lager, Tom Jarvis
Visitors: Steve Fitzsimmons, Sherwin Rudman

Call to Order & Introductions - C Kreimendahl
Prior Minutes Review/Approval Board
1. J Chipault will stop printing minutes before meetings and simply send the link
  1. Group ok with that
2. C Kreimendahl wonders what motion passed about the park at least meeting? Seems a bit unclear
  1. J Chipault to review February minutes. Thinks there was a move to contact parks, but not put $600 in letter, then there was more discussion, so what motion passed probably got buried.
3. Minutes approved, motion carries
Treasurer’s Report - R Rotter
1. Not much activity this past month. $38,000 total. Provided hard copy report.
Membership Drive Committee/Planning Board
1. C Kreimendahl provided draft schedule for process from years past.
2. C Kreimendahl will talk with P Haskew about what specific schedule will be followed. P Haskew has said he’d be on a committee.
3. E Rogers suggests that if we have an opportunity to get together to stuff envelopes, he would appreciate a date set earlier (not last-minute) so that more people could get it on their calendar.
4. T Jarvis wonders if we can just put membership form in Midvale Messenger? D Lamb decided to do special membership Messenger. Plus mailing is the biggest expense we have so if block captains did it would save us money.
  1. J Chipault wonders if we'd be asking block captains to deliver to every door?
    1. Yes
  2. C Kreimendahl says when it was discussed in the past we decided people might pay more attention to something that comes in the mail than something that shows up on the door
  3. R Rotter says it's hard to reach apartments without doing mailing
    1. R Rotter notes that they're shutting down bulk mailing on the east side. Probably going to happen soon
      1. S Fitzsimmons asks if you can buy stamps
        No, it has to be stamped at facility.
  4. T Jarvis asks if he can first send an email to all membership and ask them to register online and then we don’t have to send a physical newsletter to those people
    1. C Kreimendahl says timing a bit tricky because people might put it off until end of month and we wouldn’t know to take them off the list.
    2. E Rogers brings up issue of people registering twice
      1. Some do but not many. Can notify
  5. T Jarvis lists membership numbers: 472 in 2014, 482 in 2013, 429 in 2012, 504 in 2011; in 1996 had 613, 685 in 1988.
    1. P Schell notes that it’s been holding steady for about a decade
  6. E Rogers suggests that we do online campaign that leads the mailing campaign and if we decide to that E Rogers would not just email but get message on the Facebook page.
  7. T Jarvis says had about a dozen email addresses that were entered wrong but counting the bad ones, we have 356 email addresses, ballpark.
  8. C Kreimendahl asks if anyone else shares concern about Membership Messenger which doesn’t include so much news but more focuses on accomplishments. Thinks these are printed in May. Last year there were follow up cards that followed Membership Messenger.
    1. J Chipault thinks if D Lamb willing to write it, don’t think need to change
    2. E Rogers notes that it’s about $600 in mailing so could save it but it’s a lot to ask of block captains and some houses might be hard to get to
      1. P Schell says he’s had block captains say they want to deliver to everybody.
      2. E Rogers notes that we do get rewarded; mail a bunch of stuff out and a bunch of checks come back.
  9. S Fitzsimmons says wants to get word out about neighborhood watch to everyone.
  10. D Lamb just arrived at meeting says most effective way to get word out is door-to-door in-person contact
    1. C Kreimendahl says if no one is home then just sticking flyer in the door
  11. C Kreimendahl says not sure there’s a consensus about what to do
    1. T Jarvis says good point about being able to reach apartment dwellers via mail
    2. S Fitzsimmons says could get membership materials on table during neighborhood watch meetings
  12. D Lamb out of town early May so Membership Messenger will have to be done by end of April
    1. J Chipault asks if she’s willing to do it
      1. Yes, just might need someone else to pick it up from printer and will need information
  13. C Kreimendahl says he could go either way regarding mailing or block captain delivery
    1. R Rotter says could email both membership and neighborhood watch lists
      1. T Jarvis says not much overlap in email lists
  14. C Kreimendahl says could still send mailing later in the year. Postcard cheaper.
  15. J Chipault says stressful for block captains to deliver big stack without much heads up and we have enough money to spend $600 on mailing
    1. R Rotter notes that $600 is 10% of $6000 that we bring in from membership
  16. C Kreimendahl Start with cheapest distribution and then do expensive later on will be suggestion to committee
    1. P Schell asks who is on the committee?
      1. P Haskew, F Stautz, D Lamb. C Kreimendahl also on committee. C Kreimendahl will send email to whole board with announcements about membership drive schedule
  17. D Lamb says she will put announcement in next Newsletter
    1. C Kreimendahl suggests maybe not distribute regular newsletter at same time as Membership newsletter
Santa Visits Recap – P Schell
1. P Schell had never coordinated this program before and it was a thrill. He drove a Santa around. Participation was similar to recent years, 20-something children. Had about same number of Santas as recent years as well. Was able to just use experienced Santas this year. He sees a lot of growth potential. Feel like there’s more kids in the neighborhood now. Experimented with new outreach methods. Stephanie Mikesell suggested that we don’t mail out postcards this year – used to do mail postcard and then families RSVP by mailing postcard back, which costs us $300. P Schell reached out through the newsletter and mommy email groups or play groups and got about same participation level as we did when sent postcards. Growth potential. He didn’t care if people were members of the MHCA or not but he did put plug for membership in the email and gave link to website. Tried to politely let people know who was doing this program. There was one long-time Santa volunteer that didn’t like not sending out postcards. Wanted to mention all of this to board so that we’re all aware.
  1. Previously just mailed postcards to members; it was a benefit of membership.
2. P Schell did hear one story that in years past there used to be so many Santas that if you wanted Santa to come you’d put a red lightbulb in your porch and there was no schedule making needed
3. P Schell also knew that historically we buy the kids a small gift. He did spend a few dollars per kid. He spent $88 total. But don’t know if whoever used to buy gifts submitted for reimbursement (candy canes, pencils). Not everyone was keen on the candy cane. Wanted to buy things at WHOOPS to keep money in neighborhood and potential sponsorship, but Hilldale toy store did the wrapping for free and were great. He’ll try WHOOPs again next year.
  1. Group in favor of P Schell being reimbursed for Santa visit toys
4. P Schell needs some help storing Santa suits
  1. C Kreimendahl can store them
5. C Kreimendahl asks if P Schell got list of people interested in volunteering for Santa visits during last year's registration
  1. Yes, it was pretty similar to Stephanie Mikesell list.
6. R Rotter says we have historically funded Santa presents.
Summer Music Series
1. D Lamb talked to someone at the Park department who was really nice and cooperative. Amplification is not an issue. Will have to pay for permit, but can lump dates together. Still working on third band. D Lamb talked with two groups and they all have day jobs so they’d rather do weekends than week nights. She’ll send emails after she gets things lined up. D Lamb rethinking June, July, August because of MMM and Picnic in June. Might make more sense to do them close together? Otherwise people might not remember what they are.
2. G Poulson asks if we’re paying the musicians?
  1. Yes
3. G Poulson asks if we’re thinking of passing the hat
  1. Could. Also membership forms and history books.
4. E Rogers put Segoe Park on the list for Make Music Madison. We’ll know final schedule by May 15th. Already we’ve got 3-4 artists saying that say they’re interested. E Rogers left a big window of time, 2 pm to 9 pm. One of the artists asked if we would be willing to provide PA speakers. We could provide power from a car. But I don’t know if we want to provide them or if that’s not our thing.
  1. D Lamb says one group that will turn up sometime for summer music series has keyboard so will need power.
5. T Jarvis says MMM website has half a dozen links to our website.
  1. When E Rogers put Segoe Park up he listed our organization name.
6. J Chipault thinks we need a good name for summer music series so people remember it and we can advertise
  1. P Schell says "Segoe a go-go"
    1. Done.
Neighborhood Watch – S Fitzsimmons
1. S Fitzsimmons would like to invite police to some of our events to help promote neighborhood watch
  1. J Chipault brings up that police have been there in the past
    1. Actually has been fire truck mostly
      1. S Fitzsimmons trying to reduce intimidation levels between public and police
2. S Fitzsimmons has heard suggestions of adding a park light for Segoe Park at Laub Lane.
  1. E Rogers has talked to MG&E and the city pays $25/year for contract of 5 years. It would have to go through whole formal budgeting process
  2. Probably want to reach out to these neighbors to see if everyone is on the same page, because many won’t want lights
  3. Neighborhood Watch is give back to the community, should have check box on our membership form.
3. S Fitzsimmons provided budget for neighborhood watch of $2,200 for 2015. Gave board hard copy to review and walked through it line-by-line.
  1. Smaller yard signs instead of big ones would make $2500 signs less expensive but would get the word out
  2. Maybe a flag or banner outside of church so if people driving by would see sign and come to meeting
    1. His concern is that we have 2000 people that live in community so we’re only at 10% involvement in neighborhood watch. There are some Madison neighborhoods that are losing the battle. Once a neighborhood gets one drug house established it's hard to get rid of and deteriorates neighborhood and reduces home value.
  3. Would like to do award ceremony at end of the year to award people who do something to help neighborhood watch
  4. Donation to capital k-9s because they do a lot of dog tracking on the west side
4. G Poulson asks if holding monthly meetings was suggested to S Fitzsimmons?
  1. Chief suggested every other month but people who attend say they like them every month and hard to guess when crime will hit.
5. Free space here at the library not available on consistent basis?
  1. Parking and space for 120 people is hard here. If membership always 40 then this is a good place to be but he wants to grow
6. F Stautz asks if he can keep a good rotation speakers for 12 months a year
  1. Yes, will have repeats after first year. Neighborhood officer will always be there. Every month there will be something to talk about. Tour of 911 center, tour of west police district, there’s a lot to do. We’ve only just begun.
7. C Kreimendahl had asked S Fitzsimmons to prepare this budget so that he doesn’t have to come in and ask for things one by one. We don’t do any formal annual budgeting here. Think we should discuss this more and approve this or give him guidance on items that are reasonable.
8. R Rotter went to last neighborhood watch meeting and K-9 unit was there. Suggests getting a bunch of yard signs to pass out that are vinyl/plastic. So maybe just put out whenever have a meeting to indicate, "Hey this whole neighborhood is still watching." Similar to Monroe Street "drive slow" signs that come out sporadically. If it saves one person from being burglarized, this money is worth it. Most criminals just get an ankle bracelet so they’ll be back in our neighborhood, not enough room in jails.
9. Next neighborhood watch meeting is April 14th. S Fitzsimmons passed out postcards
10. Motion to approve budget?
11. P Schell asks about booklets.
  1. Purchase 150 booklets at a time. There’s two types of booklets so he will alternate purchases.
12. R Rotter makes a motion that we approve the neighborhood watch budget as submitted
  1. Motion carries
13. We’ll invite S Fitzsimmons back to our meetings for updates
Announcements – Board
1. G Poulson reminds us about election April 7th at library. We had over 20% turnout for primary. No IDs required this time, but starting Feb 16th, yes will need them.
Legislative Reports - Maurice Cheeks/Carousel Bayrd
1. Not present
Adjourned 8:00pm

Notes recorded by J Chipault, secretary

February 2015 Area Directors' Meeting Minutes

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jgchipault Saturday March 21, 2015

Midvale Heights Community Association Board Meeting Agenda
Tuesday, February 24, 2015 – 6:45 p.m. – Sequoya Branch Library

Area directors present: Chuck Kreimendahl, Ron Rotter, Ed Rogers, Jenny Chipault, Denise Lamb, Mary J. Armstrong, Paul Haskew, Jonn Lager, Kay Reuter-Krohn, Tom Jarvis, Greg Fischer

Call to Order & Introductions - C Kreimendahl
1. Passed around informational document regarding a city planning permit for fixing up water utility brick building by beltline. Circulated document for board review.
Prior Minutes Review/Approval Board
1. T Jarvis says there had to be a high percentage of involvement in the neighborhood watch before a neighborhood watch sign would be put up, but we don’t know exact percent.
  1. J Chipault to remove percentage.
2. Move to approve, motion carries
Treasurer’s Report - R Rotter
1. Passed out hard copy of spreadsheet
2. Total of $38,000 and $108 in PayPal
3. Added another column to spreadsheet that shows how we’ve spent money for the year (well, last 12 months) for each category (with plus/minus). Easier way to see what we’ve spent money on for past year. Also still column for last month's spending.
4. D Lamb provided funding from newsletter advertisements
  1. D Lamb say ad revenue for each issue fluctuates a bit, but think the ads pay for about half the newsletter.
  2. R Rotter says spending less lately because printing fewer copies.
5. C Kreimendahl asks how our overall cash balance now compared to two years ago, or five years ago.
  1. R Rotter says just keeps going up. Without t-ball fees, we’d probably be breaking even, although membership dues might keep us in the black.
Legislative Reports - Maurice Cheeks/Carousel Bayrd
1. Not present
  1. M Armstrong says C Bayrd likely has meeting about jail tonight
Segoe Park Project Planning - E Rogers
1. Not too many updates since last meeting. He’s had some input from board members about what our priorities should be. G Poulson not present sent an email with guidance for a direction forward and he suggested we should send board-adopted letter outlining our priorities. Three ideas that have popped up above the rest are: trees near the playground, summer concert series, and work with MMOCA to do the art cart in the park. E Rogers has done some legwork on first two.
  1. Regarding trees, we can purchase potted for $50, plus $25 staking/supplements/mulch, volunteer labor to plant, can add $15 soil sample with UW Extension which will tell you if there’s a tree to avoid for the area (which would show due diligence to the city). So 5 trees would be $450. E Rogers got recommendations for species from a nursery (pending soil samples). Maple, aspen, and hawthorn are all fast growing. Step one would be wait for ground to thaw, then sample soil, then decide on what trees and, in parallel, get parks on board.
    1. E Rogers put together email for neighborhood grant to put in trees but was told that Parks would do that, even though they haven't.
  2. Regarding music concert series, D Lamb and P Haskew had discussions with E Rogers. Only cost would be paying the performers, approximately $500 per performance. So three times this summer would be $1500. Power for amplifier can be done from a car and musicians provide amps. We’d do advertising.
  3. Regarding Art Cart, D Lamb used to get notice from them and she’d put announcement in newsletter. D Lamb sends them a list of any park that people from Midvale Heights could attend.
    1. P Haskew says if we got good turnout could maybe get them in our neighborhood more times. We could advertise. They have all sorts of supplies, tutors.
    2. D Lamb says they cover city
    3. P Haskew think if a lot of kids would show up at a certain location, they would have a good time, and might inspire our neighbors to volunteer in the park as a follow-up.
    4. C Kreimendahl asks of P Haskew could see if MMOCA would be receptive.
      1. Yes, P Haskew will contact MMOCA.
  4. M Armstrong suggests we use sandwich boards or signs (like what we use for median clean-ups) for Art Cart and could use them for concert series too. Put them on Segoe and Tokay.
    1. D Lamb says could bring up events at annual picnic
  5. Back to music, D Lamb has two groups that are interested in playing (jazz and Cajun). Weekend night, or perhaps schedule for Friday and have Saturday night be rain date. Both leaders have expressed concerns about scheduling because it’s summer, but we can possibly just work around their schedule. Suggests 6:30 to 9 (because parks close at 9). Advertise in newsletter, put sign in park, tell our friends, then should be able to get group of 40-50, which would be fine. Concrete pavilion would provide some shelter for performers if needed in borderline weather. D Lamb will look for one more band that’s a different genre. We should have a small table with newsletters and membership information. Could have bottles of water available/for sale if really hot.
    1. M Armstrong wonders about doing it on a weeknight because people are out of town on the weekends in summer
      1. D Lamb will check around to see if there are days to avoid
        K Reuter-Krohn brings up concerts on the square nights
    2. D Lamb will check with Parks to make sure all this ok.
    3. P Haskew knows how to run power.
    4. M Armstrong moves to approve $750 per evening for summer concert series in Segoe Park.
      1. Motion carries
    5. R Rotter asks if we should check with people that live right by park
      1. E Rogers says it’d be the neighborly thing to do
      2. D Lamb says we can see what night they prefer, but should at least let them know.
      3. T-ball games – better to avoid or plan concert on same night as t-ball since people already gathered?
        Could go either way.
  6. Back to G Poulson's suggestion of a letter to Parks. We should mention concert series and have board-supported motion about trees.
    1. E Rogers moves to plant 5 trees to the south of the playground equipment at Segoe Park
    2. C Kreimendahl asks what if they are planning to replace all the park playground equipment
      1. Maybe our proposal should be two-fold: 1) we would like to have new equipment and 2) let’s get trees in for current equipment if it’ll be years before current is replaced.
    3. There are trees north of the equipment, there are some younger trees along Segoe Road and E Rogers did a bit of math and closest tree would have to grow over 100 feet to cast shade.
    4. M Armstrong brings up an awning or canvas.
    5. R Rotter says it’ll be a while before they replace Segoe equipment because it’s relatively new
    6. E Rogers says that letter could include thought about new playground equipment.
      1. J Chipault suggests deadline (e.g., 2-3 years)
      2. R Rotter says but we want trees now, regardless
    7. D Lamb says there were options: buy tree and plant, buy tree they plant, buy tree they plant and they do care… so might not costs us much to find a nursery that would plant a tree.
    8. Move to contact Parks in hopes of planting 5 trees for cost of $600 and express enthusiasm for any plans they have for new playground equipment
      1. R Rotter says they might say $600 is one tree. Suggests “we are willing to help finance” and then we can discuss whatever figure they give us.
      2. C Kreimendahl says Kiwanis has westside group that meets at local church on Fridays and he dashed off an email a week or so ago and mentioned that we have projects for Segoe Park that partially youth-oriented, but he hasn't heard back.
      3. R Rotter wanted playground in Odana Park years ago so he got petition going and asked people if they could provide any funding. Went door-to-door. City had a matching fund. Put in playground by golf course and he got to pick equipment. Suggests we go house to house to see if people will sign petition and/or give money.
      4. E Rogers says website indicates that they support neighborhoods getting involved in projects. Park Foundation might provide funds or support.
      5. Motion carries to send letter to parks 1) indicating that we want to plant trees and "we are willing to help finance" and 2) mentioning music series.
    9. C Kreimendahl and E Rogers will both sign letter to Parks
    10. Relevant to concert series, T Jarvis has information about T-ball schedule in Segoe Park: starting June 9, Tuesday and Thursday, 6 and 7pm.
Kids Clubhouse Sponsorship - C Kreimendahl
1. New program that started in Piper Park last year. Deborah Still says they’re interested in returning this year so we should formally sponsor it. It didn’t cost us anything, but we promote it. C Kreimendahl proposes that we support it again this year.
  1. D Lamb asks what the role of the previous neighborhood liaison was?
    1. Promote it, answer questions
  2. P Haskew asks if they make money
    1. Money all goes through KIVA and they provide coaches, porta-potties, etc.
  3. E Rogers wonders if there’s anything the board can do to enhance
    1. C Kreimendahl says it would be nice to have local contact in our neighborhood. We should scout for someone to be new liaison
  4. Afternoon program, think it was Tuesdays.
  5. Motion to support Kids Clubhouse in 2015, motion carries
Area 7 Director Appointment? - C Kreimendahl
1. C Kreimendahl hasn’t heard anything. He may have authority to appoint someone. He might call people who are members in that area to see if anyone available. This area is north of Tokay. Steve Graham had been on board briefly. C Kreimendahl has already contacted Charles Bunge (prior Area 7 director).
  1. T Jarvis says there are four block captains, one is not a member. Steve Graham is one, Charles Bunge is one, so one person who is block captain and a member.
  2. D Lamb got a new block captain by stuffing note into newsletters
  3. J Chipault thinks getting new person on board would be optimal for new ideas and to better represent that geographical space
  4. T Jarvis will send all the members in Area 7 an email to ask if anyone willing to be Area Director.
Announcements - Board
1. D Lamb wonders if anyone knows of any mayoral debates
  1. K Reuter-Krohn says there was one in the paper today
2. D Lamb says newsletter will be done this week.
  1. C Kreimendahl can put Kids Clubhouse write-up in if there is space
3. C Kreimendahl was at Midvale School because of referendum on school building and renovation in April. He posted information on the MHCA website because it’s of community interest. Fairly modest project, not a new building. They have plans for what they’re proposing to do for each school. Tax implications were 0.26 x 1000 x property value which is $60-80/year for 10 years.
  1. D Lamb says there will be an information session at the library on March 23 that CAST (Communities and Schools Together) will sponsor
4. Make Music Madison – E Rogers brought it up in early spring last year so perhaps next meeting we should discuss this more
  1. E Rogers will check on website
5. Emerald Ash Borer is here. They found it at park near beltline (Midvale, by gas stations). City refers you to state agriculture website that has information and planning guides for homeowners so if you have ash trees you should check these websites out.
  1. There will be article in newsletter about this too.
6. Dream Bikes contacted C Kreimendahl and they have a project through which they’ll come to neighborhood for free and repair bikes. They’re proposing to do this at many sites throughout the city. Think we should ask them to come to new Bison Prairie bike repair pad.
  1. J Chipault says if they put up sign there, they’d get a lot of publicity.
  2. E Rogers said it’s also advantageous because at border of four neighborhoods
Adjourned 8:00pm

Notes recorded by J Chipault, secretary

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