BPA Board Meeting Minutes: January 15, 2013

BPA Board Meeting Minutes – provisional until voted on at next Board Meeting : Feb 19, 2013

Attendees: Markus Fromherz, Nancy Hamilton, Christian Kalar, John King, Lydia Kou, Art Liberman, Gwen Luce, Lynnie Melena, Linda Elder

Absent: Doug Moran

Guests: Winter Dellenbach and Gerry Masteller, BP residents (LaPara), Soroor Ebnesajjad, BP resident (Florales), Bob Moss, BP resident (Orme)

Call to order: 7:20 p.m.

1.     Agenda Changes: None.

2.     Minutes for November 20, 2012: Approved unanimously.

3.     Brief Status Update of the Closure process of the Buena Vista Mobile Home Park (BVMHP)  and Proposed Prometheus Development Project (Lynnie and Art)

The residents of BVMHP have just started to be contacted individually by relocation and appraisal consultants. The closure process is following the schedule announced by the City’s Planning Department in December. The city is preparing the Relocation Impact Report and it is expected out in April.  The Prometheus development proposal is on hold and there is no information beyond what was in the BPA newsletter article. (Winter issue 2012-2013). Prometheus has assured us they will participate in a community meeting with Barron Park residents before presenting their proposal to the City Council. The issues of affordable housing for some of the displaced residents of BVMHP and of some affordable units in the Prometheus proposal remain unsettled.

4.     Annual Meeting Date and Topic (Lynnie)

There is too much up in the air regarding the BVMHP and the Prometheus proposed redevelopment for it to be the annual meeting topic. There was no enthusiasm by Board members for any of the other proposed speakers or topics   Lydia contacted a dance troupe/event planner who will organize a Lion Dance in celebration of Asian Lunar New Year. They are available to perform on Saturday, February 9 at a cost of $1100. We noted that since we have discontinued the Welcoming Gathering and Christmas caroling this new event was warranted and the suggestion was warmly received. Lydia is still looking into a City grant to support this kind of cultural event. The event planner will take care of promotions and reaching out to Barron Park schools. We agreed that any promotion would be limited to the Barron Park vicinity. John moved to hold Barron Park’s Lunar New Year Celebration in lieu of an annual meeting and approve the $1100 expense. All were in favor. The dance will be held outdoors if weather permits and move indoors if not. There was some concern about the short lead time, but we decided it won’t be necessary to send out post cards. Gwen mentioned that the Welcome Gathering did not use them. Sharing of Asian foods may be a part of the celebration. The event time will be from 2PM – 4PM. Lynnie and Lydia will book the Barron Park School immediately.

There will be no business meeting associated with this event. In fact, Lynnie pointed out that an annual meeting is not required by the by-laws. Some Board members felt it was important to have face time with the neighborhood and let people know what we are up to.

5.     New Board Members and Officers (Lynnie)

There is currently no one to step up as President and Lynnie will resign this summer. The minute-taking will be rotated among the Board members starting with the March meeting until a Secretary can be found. Assignments for minute-taking will be made at the February meeting.

Then we had lengthy but general discussion about our mission or purpose. Perhaps some members of the community wonder why we even have a BPA Board. Our value is clear to many of the Board members, but perhaps it is less clear to the others. Lydia and Markus will prepare a list of FAQs about the Board and its value to the neighborhood for the newsletter.

Markus nicely summarized our value in 4 areas. 1) Representing BP to the outside, 2) organizing neighborhood events, 3) providing information from the outside, 4) involvement in longer term projects.

6.     Agenda Setting (Christian)

Christian wanted to keep a Proposed Topics for Future Agendas item (like #8 below). This would be for controversial topics or those that may require prep time or gathering of background information, or were just waiting in the queue waiting for an opening on the agenda. These topics may be assigned to specific future meeting.

7.     Ongoing Activities:

• a.           Green Team: Not discussed.
• b.           Traffic: Not discussed.
• c.           Civic Affairs: Ernie’s will be out at the end of February, replaced by some kind of food market.
• d.           Environmental: Christian observed the settling pond work well during the heavy rains.
• e.           Native planting, Bike path, Strawberry Hill: Not discussed

 

8.      Proposed Topics for Future Agendas:

• a. Review of the BPA as sponsor organization of a Boy Scout Troop (Art): To Be Determined, but near term.
• b. Establishment of policy on authorizing funds for non-BPA organizations and events (Art): February
• c. Job Description for Business Liaison (Markus Fromherz): February
• e. Reconsideration of policy on BPA email lists (Lydia Kou): March

9.         Adjourn: 9:00 PM

10.        NEXT MEETING Tuesday, February 19, 2013. Lynnie will be unable to attend this meeting.

Respectfully submitted,

Linda Elder, Secretary   1/19/2013

Revised 1/22/2013 lve