CNIA Quarterly Board Meeting and CNIA-CI Joint Discussion

January 28, 2017

In attendance: Katherine Dirga, Dan Thompson, Peyton Stinson, Jocelyn Chen Wise, John Dirga, Katie Butler, Karin Kane, Paul Freeman, Chris McCain, Alexa Mosely

  1. Introductions
  2. Katie Butler – interest areas 1) increase membership of CNIA 2) consider merger
  3. Katherine Dirga – more inclusive meetings
  1. Budget
  2. 2016 Revenue: $8,700 (ads) + $1,700 (Crawl) + $250 (License plates and donation)
  3. Expenses newsletter $8,500 (breaks even)
  4. For 2017, estimate budget about $12,450 total revenue. Budget $12,430 total expenses.
  5. Board voted to present this budget at next CNIA meeting.
  1. Committee Updates and 2018 Plans
  2. Membership – working on online registration and yearly renewals for residents
  3. NPU–many emails come to NPU representative, would be more appropriate to shift many communications and/or social media contact. Cabbagetown by-laws are due to NPU soon. NPU by-laws also need to be approved by neighborhood, must be posted on our website for 2-3 months for neighborhood review. NPU and Natalyn’s office will want list of NPU alternates. Open position for Candler Park Conservancy, they are a brand new organization. NPU $50 dues are due soon. CSX/Hulsey Yard Visioning, soccer field in greenspace?
  4. Public Safety
  5. CSX grant of $5K will go to public safety, check written to CI and then to CRISP
  6. Funding mostly generated by on-going sources: APD and Natalyn’s office
  7. Exploring why city has been stalled on getting trees trimmed to improve lighting on Wylie
  8. 600 Memorial (Boulevard & Memorial) - filed complaint with Code Enforcement to have court allow neighborhood to have mural painted. There will be meeting on Feb 7 regarding this.
  9. Historic Preservation and Land Use
  10. Monthly meeting schedule has changed so there will be more time to review potential projects
  11. Could limit number of projects to be presented each meeting
  12. Could put in by-laws that if building project owner does not show up to meeting, a letter to UDC would automatically go out
  13. Transportation
  14. NatalynArchibong’s office granted up to $12K for traffic study, will include input from surrounding areas and north Grant Park
  15. City said traffic calming funds could not be a stipulation for building on Memorial and Pearl, but property will still give $75K for Reynoldstown for traffic calming
  16. Hospitality
  17. Karen Russian will organize two new neighbor parties per year but would like someone else to be Hospitality Chair
  18. Communication/Social Media
  19. Discussion with Toolbox about merging CI and CNIA website. Focusing on HP Guidelines, Community Guideline, Chomp & Stomp. Toolbox quoted very discounted rate of $20/hr, totaling about $3K for webpage rebuild.
  1. CI Members Joint Discussion – Lunch
  2. Introductions
  1. Draft Strategic Plan Summary
  2. CI worked with Terri Tyson, nonprofit consultant, to do some strategic planning. Drafted Strategic and Tactical Plan, noticed much overlap with CNIA initiatives.
  1. Merger: Benefits and Challenges
  2. Task Force: Volunteers for task force: Katie Butler, Alexa Mosely, John Dirga, Chris McCain, Katherine Dirga
  3. Challenges
  4. Legal designation (501c3 getting funding)? Is the City allowed to have an MOU with a neighborhood association? Some organizations are averse to granting money to a neighborhood association because it’s perceived as a homeowner’s association. Could pose question to Barrett Krise at Community Fund.
  5. Is there a way to stagger meetings for CI and CNIA? CI could change their meeting time.
  6. CI/CNIA merger could explore how to better prioritize projects
  7. Benefits
  8. Better use of time for board members and reduce redundancies
  9. Committees
  10. Governance
  11. Budget/Finance
  12. HPLU spawns a Planning Committee?
  13. Could break HPLU into HP and LU separately?
  14. Transportation
  15. Public Safety
  16. Engagement with other neighbors is key to safety
  17. Hospitality into “Neighbor Outreach?”
  18. Hospitality
  19. EPL Fund or other Service Grants Committee
  20. Fundraising
  21. Parks
  22. Perhaps Parks makes sense as a CNIA committee that reports to CI
  1. The Way Forward
  1. Next Steps and Action Items
  1. Candler Park Conservancy needs to fill a position, is looking to a Cabbagetown volunteer to sit on board as a non-community member. Benefit to Cabbagetown is to learn how a larger, more well-funded neighborhood operates, i.e. overrun by festivals.