Woodlawn Neighborhood Association General Meeting Agenda
Tuesday, January 9, 2024, at 7:00 pm
Please make every effort to join us In Person at Classic Foods: 817 NE Madrona
Or online on Zoom: https://zoom.us/j/3014662210?pwd=d3VKbXkzVldqYzNWU2RwVm9OUkZyZz09
Meeting ID: 301 466 2210
Passcode: WNA
Also online at Facebook Live
Welcome and Vision: “In the future, Woodlawn will be a place where people live harmoniously, respectfully, and in support of one another. The neighborhood will be a clean and thriving community… All Woodlawn residents will share and pursue the common values of health, efficiency, beauty, equity, and justice.”
7:00 – 7:15 Introductions
- Please share name, pronouns, & what brought you to tonight’s meeting
- Quick share: “What is one thing you would love to do someday?”
7:15 – 8:00 General Business
- Approve December meeting notes. Dennis made a motion and Melissa seconded it. Minutes approved.
- Presentation by Jan Zuckerman, a retired Portland School teacher. She talked about the risks associated with the critical energy infrastructure (CEI) Hub where 90% of the liquid fuel for the State of Oregon is stored. Jan reviewed the risks associated with the CEI Hub. The slides of her presentation are here. What can we do? Educate ourselves and take action individually and as neighborhood associations. NAs are invited to sign on to a letter to public officials saying we need them to be more proactive in protecting our health and safety re: these hubs and their toxic contents. Asking that all communities be informed of these dangers. To monitor cumulative pollution and mediate. And develop a new storage plan with community participation. Companies involved must take responsibility for these dangers and the consequences of any disasters. Also Zenith must be monitored. Goal is to have 40 NAs sign on — 26 have signed on already. We will also post copies of the slides and the letter on Facebook. MOTION: Linde offered a motion that we all take time to read the proposed letter and then take a vote at the next meeting re: signing on with WNA’s support. Julian seconded. All in favor. To be added to the February agenda.
- Report on youth board member(s)
Shelby has worked on a proposal. Important to make it beneficial to the potential youth board member. Educational, skill-building, interviews. Need a level of flexibility for the position too. And trying to have it be a win-win for the board and the youth representative as well. ACTION ITEM: Shelby will share with a broader board group for additional edits.
- Report on T-shirt fundraiser
T-shirts are ready to rock and roll. Shelby circulated information for folks who want to order. $25 per person. $15 profit for WNA. Off-white with streetcar on it. Generic adult sizes. Once we get 20 orders we can place an order and get the ball rolling. If there is an interest in children’s sizes, we can also work with that. We will be spreading the word widely! ACTION ITEM: Shelby will be sharing a link for T-shirt ordering very soon! Nancy will post on Go Woodlawn and Linde will include in the newsletter and on Facebook etc.
- Solicit leadership teams for Easter Egg Hunt and NNO/POP
Egg Hunt on March 23rd — ACTION ITEM: David will take leadership role. James will explore options for interacting with the Woodlawn PTA too. Nancy will inquire at the next Woodlawn Site Council meeting as well.
National Night Out arrangements need do be done ahead of time. Barbara and Liz have detailed information and timeframes available to guide someone who would take the lead. ACTION ITEM: Melissa will help with that but can’t take the lead on it. Liz and Barbara will also help.
DIY Movies in the Park—Melody has found two companies that will do this. She will be sending information out to the board about this.
Neighborhood Cleanup is usually done in the spring. ACTION ITEMS: Linde & Matt will take a leadership role and come up with ideas for cleanup options. Melissa will reach out to the city to see about Dumpster Days for 2024.
- Announce transportation meeting – January 7, 2024, Good Neighbor Pizza. Here’s the agenda, click on the link: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1bafMwP50h1C_lbJ3ZIwT8eA8daEqxaxp7pDjuSPXAAo/edit?usp=sharing
- Review of plans for 2024 and begin work on Donor Drive
- Do we want to plan Neighborhood socials at neighborhood businesses each month or so? ACTION ITEM: Julian will figure out a time for these, neighborhood mixers.
- Responder for neighbor requests from social media. Linde and Anjala are responding to Facebook messages.
- Commissioner Dan Ryan will be speaking at the February WNA meeting. Big Picture Question—What is the timeline for changing neighborhood coalitions? Desperately seeking more details so we can be as proactive as we can be. In March, we will hear from Matt Roberts about the progress on the new U of O Portland campus. Linde also included a survey from U of O re: how to get feedback from the community in our recent newsletters.
- Time for Neighbor open comments
8:00 – 8:20 Board Business
- Treasurer’s Report — We spent no money in December. Still at $5789.90.
- NECN Report – Anjala
One role of the district coalition is to train new board members in NAs. They will be offering board member training later this year. Anjala takes minutes as a contractor and now she is the Secretary of the NECN board. Also, Jona Davis, Interim NECN director, is very interested in the eleven neighborhoods in our area getting better prepared for potential disasters. NECN approved small grants; details to follow. There is also some talk about changes about district coalitions because of the reorganization of Portland’s governing structure. Stay tuned.
- Land Use and Transportation Report (LUTC) — Anjala, Chair.
LUTC has meetings as the need arises. We get notices about demolition of historic properties. Can interact with the city and they must listen to us. 15 issues that we have as transportation in Woodlawn: 1) traffic is going too fast on Dekum 2) traffic is going too fast on Durham and Dean, too and 3) adults and kids driving people in condos crazy with skateboarding. We need volunteers willing to take these issues and run with them. Also traffic on NE 15th is speeded up en route to Lombard—a long-term priority to address this. ISSUE: Can we get a push-button blinking light re: crossing to the park on Dekum? Allegedly the city has no money for these. ACTION ITEM: Letter to be sent to be sent to PBOT about this issue.LUTC PBOT LETTER 01102024(1)
City said if we want crosswalks we have to work with volunteer organizations and paint them ourselves. ISSUE: Tri-Met = good idea to not have #8 come down Dekum anymore. Many people could be adversely affected by this. Drafted a letter to send to Tri-Met. City wanting to improve safety on the MLK Corridor; now there are speed cameras there. ACTION ITEM: Letter to be sent to Tri-Met opposing the changes to the #8. LUTC Letter to Trimet 01102024
Liz makes a motion to have these two letters approved and sent to PBOT and Tri-Met. Melody seconded. Motion passes.
Anjala welcomes more folks getting involved with LUTC.
- Secretary Report – Nancy
—Working on locating and (if/when found) re-posting our missing WNA agendas and minutes. Next step is to check in with Jona at NECN where (fingers crossed) there may be copies.
—Working on highlighting the various neighborhood businesses who have donated funds to us generally or for a specific activity. The idea is to profile each one of them on the Go Woodlawn website in the coming months.
—Working on a mini-PR campaign to remind WNA residents that our website is GO WOODLAWN.com.
—Thanks to Shelly Caldwell earlier today, PDFs of the WNA By-Laws and the 1994 Woodlawn Neighborhood Plan now linked on our website.
—Our website uses WordPress and is dire need of updating to the latest version that will also make it simpler to update and use. For $300, we can contract with Shelly’s assistant who will make these changes for us. MOTION: Anjala makes motion to get WordPress updates. Linde seconds. Approved.
- Outreach and community engagement Report – Linde
No updates.
- Farmers’ Market Update – Erin
Hiring new market manager. We need more volunteers otherwise this may be the market’s last year. ACTION ITEM: Recruit volunteers for setting up, sessions during the market (two shifts) for SNAP match, and volunteers to taking stuff down. Ideally, two hours once a month would be helpful to keep the market open. June to October.
- Neighborhood Emergency Team (NET) – Erin
The NET structure is changing, in the process of being decided. There will still be NET training and teams and members. More opportunities for training for affiliated volunteers. Online and lots of information. ACTION ITEM: Nancy will add posts about NET to the Go Woodlawn site.
8:20 – 8:30 Additional agenda items and announcements
A YouTube recording of this meeting is here.
