SHNA Executive Committee Meeting
Sunday, August 16, 2020, 6:30 pm
Via Zoom Videoconference

Meeting Minutes

Participants: Bill Arick, Dillon Heter, Marlene Merrill, Mariana Nieto, Chris Ostrander, Matthew Paul, Gary Webber, John White

1. Approve May 7th, 2020 minutes: Motion by Ostrander, Nieto second, minutes approved.
2. Treasurer’s Report – $1255.75 beginning balance, $1,308.75 ending. 124 current members. Only 1 landlord did not re-new. Household renewal 73%, landlord 94%, combined 76%. Bill Arick was elected Treasurer of SHNA via email in July and will take over all duties in September.
   1. Bill thanked everyone on the EC for their involvement in the neighborhood. Bill is from South Bend Indiana. Went to South Bend – Indiana University (Accounting & Finance). He is a Master Gardener & Master Naturalist. Formerly Manager of Regulatory Compliance, AM General Corporation, manufacturer of Humvee (and others). Then Senior Finance Manager – School Bus Division, Navstar. Married with 3 kids, 6 grandchildren. Many varied interests.
3. Old Business
   1. LAN update (Webber): Webber has not attended last 2 months. LAN is meeting via Zoom, and discussing K-10 & South Iowa development, Eastern Lawrence development, and Social Justice issues among other items. Minutes of all LAN meetings are on the LAN website. Webber asked if Dillon would be willing to be the SHNA representative to LAN.
   2. Website update (Webber): The Website is evolving. Paul complemented the recent graphic changes.   Paul renewed hosting for next 5 yrs. Webber encouraged Paul to send an invoice to Arick and be reimbursed for WordPress fees.
   3. Plan for Annual Meeting and Picnic (all): Webber stated that he believed we need to meet to nominate Arick renew Paul and Merrill to the EC and to report to SHNA. Webber suggested we should do Zoom meeting. We need 12 members for a quorum. Late September? Merrill agreed this was a good idea, not many are comfortable with in-person meetings. Nieto agreed. Arick asked if there was a time limit for holding an annual meeting? Webber stated no, but that we are out of compliance as of April – we need to meet in the calendar year. The 12 households quorum is inclusive of EC members. Suggestions and discussion of Tuesday, September 22 at 7:00 – 8:30 pm. Merrill moved and passed by acclimation.
   4. Membership rates for businesses and households (all): Paul discussed that he was not necessarily advocating increasing business rates but rather adding flexibility of different levels of support from business members. Marlene advocated not increasing dues because of economic concerns. Arick agreed with Paul about donations from businesses. Webber proposed leaving By-Laws unchanged and convening a subcommittee to work on business memberships and donations campaign in 2021. Merrill stated that she is in favor of recruiting new business members asking for donations, but that such a campaign should include plans for spending the additional funds. She recommended no changes to the By-Laws.
4. New Business
   1. Update on storm shelter in Unity Church – Paul & Webber have talked to Unity Church regarding opening the basement to Shwarz Acres for Tornado Shelter. However, there is no room for social distancing. We will table this initiative and try again next year.
   2. Update on Centennial and Ludlam Parks – Webber reported that we have cleaned both Centennial and Ludlam parks. Paul suggested we ask about signs in the parks advertising that we had adopted them and including our web address. Webber will investigate.
5. New agenda items from participants
   1. Invitation to annual meeting for September 22^nd at 7:00 – Webber will send out a draft agenda and request people to take sections. No guest speakers for the annual meeting.
   2. Nieto asked about Bill doing a gardening article for the SHNA newsletter.

Adjourn meeting at 7:10