Woodlawn Neighborhood Association General Meeting 

Minutes (draft until approved at next meeting)

Agenda for December 1st, 2021 – 7pm meeting (zoom info at bottom)

Agenda:

7:00 – 7:10 Welcome and Introductions-Meeting is recorded

Attending: Board members – Melody Randolph, Beth Heins, Dennis Kennedy, Nancy Flynn, Barbara England, Anjala Ehelebe, Thelma Diggs, Keith Baich ; not present: Chida Chaemchaeng, Shirley Minor 

Community: Liz Kennedy, Maria Gould, Ross Danielson, David, Jan

Move to approve last month’s meeting minutes: Dennis moves, Beth seconds; all in favor.

Move to approve tonight’s agenda: Dennis moves, Nancy seconds; all in favor 

7:10 – 7:20 Follow up from last meeting’s action items:

• Dennis will report on previous donations done by WNA – Dennis researched what we’ve done since he took over as treasurer in October 2018; total donations from WNA is $2300 since that time. 
  • Of that, $800 went to the farmer’s market; 
  • the other $1500 was: 
    • $900 to Meals on Wheels;
    • $200 to community garden; 
    • $200 to SEI; 
    • $200 to Across Culture. 
    • Looking 3-4 years earlier he sees $300/year (likely to Meals on Wheels); also another $600 but can’t tell who it was donated to. $300 we think was to the PTA one year. Possibly another $100 to the community garden as well. 
• Dennis & Melody will work on getting Venmo/PayPal set up – getting approval from the bank
• Melody will investigate Amazon Smile – will still look into that. Melody contacted Friends of Trees and is waiting to hear back. 
• Barbara: will check into Fred Meyer for how to get on their donation recipient list. – She’s coordinated the application, there’s still a form to send in. People can link their Fred Meyer reward card to the Neighborhood Association; that will result in small donations based on their spending. 

7:20-8:00 Fundraising ideas, meeting in-person again, other topics?

Meeting in person: we have received a donation of a projector and a screen so we can still have online participants join us in a hybrid format. 

• Because Classic Foods distributes food to hospitals, they can’t host us at this time. 
• Other options: 
  • Gretchen at Woodlawn Coffee and Pastry: can host us but the space is smaller. 
  • Woodlawn Elementary: waiting to hear back from the district to be sure it’s okay. At one time Anjala recalls that it used to cost us money to meet at the school since there were extra cleaning times involved; Melody will check about that. 
  • Oregon Public House can’t host us on Wednesdays as they have a game night that night. 
  • After discussion: we’re willing to change to a different night (first Tuesday, first Thursday) if it would mean meeting at the Public House in some dedicated space. We’d like to also check capacity for the odd meeting when we have a big turnout. 
  • Anjala: I make the motion that we meet on Tuesday nights, same time, 1st Tuesdays, if OPH is available; otherwise first Thursdays; will ask if they can commit for 6 months-one year. Ross seconds; all in favor.  

Fundraising: 

• Last time we talked about buying gift cards and then having a raffle. Could spend $50 to Black Rose Market and a few other businesses, but how would we then sell the tickets? 
  • General consensus is we don’t think a raffle would be very profitable. 
• We could also just tread water for a while and hope that businesses come back, city cleanup coming back. 
• Could we do a creative neighborhood cleanup? On a smaller scale than the city-sponsored ones. 
  • We’d need someone willing to organize it, no volunteers at present. Nancy will do some research and will report back in January. If anyone has information they can send it to her at Nancyflynn55@gmail.com
• What kind of long term solutions do we have in mind? Asking for money once Venmo/PayPal get set up. 
  • Barbara also thinks we may still see more grant opportunities may work out. 

Other topics: 

• Black Rose Market: https://gofund.me/cdbce51b
• Liz volunteered to adopt a block

8:00 – 8:20 Board Business

• Treasurer’s Report-Dennis Kennedy – No news – $500 moved as planned over to the farmer’s market as planned. Balance: $6794.05. 
  • We need to remove Maija from the Neighborhood Association checking account. Chida agreed to serve as vice-chair though she’s busy for the first few months of our year so we don’t want to add her just yet. Currently Melody Randolph and Dennis Kennedy have signing authority. Motion to remove Maija Spencer from the Woodlawn Neighborhood Association checking account; Beth seconds the motion. Only board members can vote – passed by a majority. 
• Land Use and Transportation-Anjala Ehelebe – no updates
• Farmer’s Market-Erin Cooper/Keith Baich 
  • holiday market will happen Saturday December 11, Village Ballroom (above Oregon Public House) 11am-4pm; vendors, raffle, live music including the jazz trio Blue Door; Bryson the fun DJ. 
  • Money: a little more than $8000; hoping to raise money at the holiday market
  • Season is over; activity resumes in March. They’re also brainstorming fundraising options. They’ll be creating a DEI statement and inventorying their equipment. 
  • Nancy mentioned: food pantry St Andrew Emergency Food Pantry (8th & Alberta) really needs fresh produce, if the Farmer’s Market has any connections. Keith will pass the word along. 
• NECN-Dennis Kennedy – director’s position is still open
• NET – no news 

8:20 – 8:30 Final thoughts, announcements, other upcoming events

Ross: is very interested in the NE Killingsworth and MLK, what used to be the Reflections Coffee House; would like to try to revive that location. If anyone is interested, get in touch with him. He’ll keep us updated if he finds anything. Contact Ross: 503.875.1362 

Dennis: He heard that the marijuana shop 50Trees on NE Dekum closed today – there’s a sign in the window. 

8:30 Meeting adjourns – see you in January!