BPA Board Meeting Minutes – provisional until voted on at next Board Meeting : Jan 15, 2013
Attendees: Markus Fromherz, John King, Lydia Kou, Art Liberman Gwen Luce, Lynnie Melena, Doug Moran, Linda Elder
Absent: Nancy Hamilton, Christian Kalar (arrived but due to family issue had to leave during #3.)
Guests: Greta Olbrich (Barron Park School PTA President), Winter Dellenbach (BP resident – LaPara), Bob Moss
1. Agenda Additions: None.
2. Minutes for October 16, 2012: Approved unanimously. Art proposed that future Board meeting minutes be posted on the website after email changes, but before final approval at the next Board meeting.
3. Buena Vista Mobile Home Park (BVMHP) Redevelopment (Lynnie and Art)
At the last meeting we voted to host a community meeting to which we would invite the developer, Prometheus, to present their plans. Lynnie and Art met with the developer. For a summary of the meeting, see Update on Buena Vista Mobile Home Park. Art and Lynnie also posted on the website recent information from Curtis Williams (City of Palo Alto Planning Department Director), Update: City Process on BV Closure Application.
The timing and format of the community meeting needs to be clarified. Markus pointed out that the issue of the proposed development and closure of the BVMHP are really two distinct issues and should be handled in separate meetings. Doug motioned that we not plan a meeting about the closure until we hear from the people at BVMHP or other supporters and that we should plan to have the community meeting on the proposed development before the City Council study session on the Prometheus’ pre-application. Art seconded it and added that we set the date by email. Approved unanimously. Mary Ann Welton notified us that she may have a conflict of interest and cannot facilitate the community meeting regarding the proposed development. The Palo Alto Mediation Program Project Sentinel would be another option meeting facilitator. Winter will pass the information along to the BVMHP residents/organizers. The tenants are organized and meeting regularly with the help of concerned supporters in the community. Greta said that the Barron Park School (BPS) PTA facilitated the use of BPS rooms for these meetings. Remarkably, 16% of the students at BPS live at BVMHP.
4. Annual Meeting Date and Topic (Lynnie)
The meeting date was set for 2/10/2013. The above topic, the proposed development project, will very possibly be the main topic. A general discussion about development trends in Palo Alto or the Grand Boulevard were dismissed as too broad.
5. New Board Members and Officers (Lynnie)
There is currently no one to step up as President. The president’s job is very broad and not clearly defined. There is no progression to move up to president, so the President (and most officers) ends up with virtually no term limit which leads to burn-out. Linda mentioned that some organizations have a President Elect, President, and Past President with clearly defined roles, essentially splitting up the duties of President in a defined manner while gaining or using experience to meet the demands. Lynnie will write a job description for President and we can look at spreading it out in Presidential roles or among the other board members. Markus expressed an interest in being President (depending on the job description) and Lynnie expressed an interest in being Secretary. In the meantime, Board members are encouraged to invite people to engage in the board meetings – the hope that a personal initiation will work better than a general announcement for board members.
6. Email Lists (Lynnie)
The question arose, is it appropriate to use BPA-news for disseminating opinions? Linda made a motion that BPA-news be used for announcements without annotations, opinions, links or other references. This was seconded with the amendment to encourage any commentary or discussion in BPA-issues email list. 6-Ayes and 1 Nay (Moran). The current email list descriptions, written by Doug, were deemed appropriate. Doug pointed out that these descriptions had been written to give list subscribers a sense of what to expect and that they had never been discussed, much less adopted, as a policy. As the dissenter, Doug said that it was inappropriate for him to announce this result, and Lynnie agreed to do so.
7. Agenda Setting: deferred to next meeting.
8. Newsletter Articles: not discussed. Deadline is December 1.
9. Ongoing Activities:
a. Green Team: Doug Graham gave a talk on Barron Park creeks on November 8 with about 50 people in attendance. And the Green Team planted more native plants at Bol Park on November 10.
b. Traffic: Not discussed
c. Civic Affairs: Not discussed
d. Environmental: Not discussed
10. Native planting, Bike path, Strawberry Hill: Not discussed
11. Introduction of items for future agendas:
a. Boy Scout Sponsorship
b. Status on Matadero Benches
12. Adjourn: 9:15PM
13. NEXT MEETING Tuesday, January 15, 2013.
Respectfully submitted,
Linda Elder, Secretary
11/25/2012- Revised 11/28/2012