Monday, August 7, 2016

Genuine Joe Coffeehouse

Meeting agenda

Attendees

Alysha Haggerton, President

Evan Gill, Treasurer

Roger L. Cauvin, Secretary

Matthew Armstrong, Director

Frank Harren, Director

Pete Gilcrease, Director

Board members not in attendance:

Ricky Hennessy, Director

Natalie Gauldin, Director

Brittany Morrison, Director

Meghan Skornia, Director

Proceedings

The meeting began with a discussion of possible citizens committee to nominate a replacement for Marc Ott. Roger suggested writing a letter to city staff and city council offering our input as a voice of neighborhood advocates. Board members expressed comfort with the idea as long as it was a general offer of input and didn’t necessarily endorse the formation of a committee. Matt suggested that the organization publicize the letter to draw attention to FAN’s important role in neighborhood advocacy. Roger will prepare and share a draft of the letter.

The board conversed about future venues for FAN meetings, and Alysha mentioned a venue under construction on W. 38th St. with many attractive features that may be available in October. The board agreed to use it for a future board meeting and assess locations on an ongoing basis, with the aim of more regular and predictable locations (if not just one). Alysha will reserve this location for an upcoming board meeting.

The board then examined the relationship among IRS tax designation, accepting membership dues or donations, and endorsing candidates. Roger proposed distributing a questionnaire to city council candidates, sharing the results with the membership, conducting a survey of the membership on candidate preferences, and sharing the results of the survey with the public (without “endorsing” candidates). Matt and Evan agreed FAN probably shouldn’t endorse. Members are discussing these topics in the FAN forum.

Roger suggested a very short (3 question) questionnaire for City Council members. Pete inquired why Roger picked that number, and Alysha proposed 5 - 10 questions might be better. Roger and Frank suggested basing the questions on elements of the FAN vision. Matt suggested a question on how candidates perceive Austin as a city, perhaps relative to other noteworthy cities worthy of comparison. Roger will draft a questionnaire and invite collaboration on it.

Pete suggested FAN raise money to use for sending US mail, pay people to write newsletters, and pay for social media ads. Pete feels the organization can improve its effectiveness if it raises money and spends it strategically.

Alysha participated on a RECA panel on how developers can approach conversations with neighborhood voices. Panelists drew attention to some basic resources that can be helpful, such as the community registry and neighborhood partnering program. Overall, Alysha felt that there were opportunities to shape future panel discussions to be richer and more structured.

Evan will reach out to contacts in West Campus and UT student government to explore formation of a FAN member organization consisting largely or completely of students. FAN’s mission strongly supports the inclusion and amplification of voices traditionally underrepresented in neighborhood dialog. Alysha will connect Evan to J.T. Havernick, a West Campus student who went through a challenging experience trying to get a variance. Board members offered ideas about a “University Area Neighborhood Association” (larger association of students) and other groupings, regional boundaries, and names.

Frank reported progress with Tarrytown NA as a prospective future member. Frank expected that there soon will be an organizational meeting; three founding directors will be Steve Buerlein, Roger Borgelt, and hopefully Cindy Brooks. Roger noted that he and Frank had met with a neighbor in the Old Enfield neighborhood and shared FAN’s “kit” on forming a new neighborhood association. The neighbor had suggested “Pease Neighborhood Association” as a name for the new organization, and indicated strong interest by others in the neighborhood in helping to form it. Frank also mentioned his presentation at Pemberton Heights, and Frank will follow up with Pemberton Heights board member Betty Trent on next steps.

Alysha and Roger summarized their appearance at a recent Dawson Neighborhood Association (DNA) meeting. The DNA took no action to join FAN at that meeting, but Roger will follow up with Greg Anderson to check on next steps.

The board discussed pros and cons of changing by-laws to allow residents in the boundaries of member NAs to be (voting) at-large individual members. Pete mentioned a possible concern about perceived “double voting” by such members (once in the neighborhood association vote and once in the FAN vote), but he personally does not see a problem. Roger offered that the change might help reduce confusion among members, though he still believes the two different types of membership will cause confusion. Frank asked whether anyone present believed FAN should eliminate either of the membership categories, and no one expressed sympathy for such a change.

Roger inquired about Ricky’s availability and interest in reviving his helpful participation in FAN. Roger will ping Ricky to find out more.

The board discussed ways of soliciting volunteers to help FAN. Pete will post to the FAN forum to solicit volunteers to help. Alysha suggested he also include an invitation to the upcoming tools meeting (on the FAN calendar), and the board agreed to expand the meeting so there would be more of a volunteer component (irrespective of tools). Evan will send an email to invite Skylar and Jessica, who ran in the last board election, to the volunteer meeting.