Woodlawn Neighborhood Association General Meeting Agenda & Potluck
Tuesday, March 5, 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: “Tell us one thing about you that no one here knows.”
7:15 – 8:00 General Business
- Approve February meeting notes
Minutes to be corrected to reflect that Dennis voted “no” on the donation for the Woodlawn PTA Jazz Night. Melissa made a motion to approve amended minutes. Melody seconded. All were in favor, minutes approved.
- Presentation by Matt Roberts from U of O at Concordia Campus
Associate VP for Community Relations at U of O. Works statewide. Based in Eugene. Up here every week. Two campuses. Downtown in White Stag building. 2021 felt the need for a campus. Remodeling entire campus so can bring all programs from downtown to this campus by Fall of 2024. Ballmer for Children Behavioral Health—new profession Bachelors level degree holders to work in MD, hospital, schools and be specialized in this area as a preventative approach. Pioneering this program from scratch. U of O PDX will host the last two years of this program. 200 students in this/50 a year. Lots of updates on what will be happening over the next 18 months. Public library outpost currently there now while the North Library under construction. Zoning change issues are what is affecting the community use of the field—should be in place by October 2024. U of O is a public agency so has issues around with “free” meeting spaces for community groups.
- Easter Egg Hunt – volunteer signups – David S
Volunteers needed for filling of the rest of the eggs. Stuffing the eggs party will be held on March 16th at Barbara’s house at 10 AM. Need volunteers to work before/after the day of the event. A sign-up sheet was passed around.
- Donor Fundraising – Letters & Forms to volunteers – Barbara
We need your help to hit up local businesses for operating funds. There are 55 of them! More volunteers needed to go around and drop off letters and donation forms. Funding will go toward neighborhood events like our annual Night Out, to keep the association “floating along.”
- Updates on current projects as available – Neighborhood cleanup, DIY Movie night, Neighborhood Socials, any others. See below.
T-Shirt Fundraiser—T shirts ready for next meeting for picking up. $25 per shirt. Venmo, cash to Shelby. We will have extra shirts for folks who didn’t get around to ordering them.
Youth Board Member—Shelby reached to educators, guidance counselors, etc. and no response. Targeting age 14 to 17. Poster available.
Movie in Parking Lot—need to nail a date soon at For Good and Company. Will happen by the April meeting. Melissa will soft-block three dates and we will vote on movie stuff.
Another Dumpster Day at For Good and Company—Melissa reported that it will be June 29th Woodlawn, King, and Sabin and will be a drop-off for bulk items. Linde will be trying to plan a neighborhood cleanup/pickup around that date as well. The city will promote this. SOLVE to be a partner. Adopt-a-Block has resources too. We also have some resources here in our WNA storage room at Classic Foods.
Neighborhood Social—we plan to do another one in April 2024 at a different venue. The recent first one at Tough Luck was a resounding success.
- We still need a lead volunteer for Neighborhood Night Out in August!
Who wants to be the lead on this? The annual NNO event is First Tuesday in August, this year the 6th. Melissa will manage the food service. We still have our grillmaster. Melissa has been reaching out about musical options for NNO entertaintment. Seeking a PTA liaison to Woodlawn Elementary School.
- Ask for a vote on using NECN funds to purchase the Meeting Owl.
Seeking a refurbished Meeting Owl for our meetings. And to use the NECN funds for this. The Owl is a way to streamline our meetings. Shelby makes a motion. Melissa seconds. Motion passes with board members only voting. $1000 = new. $650 to $800 = refurbished. Only available to non-profits and people who aren’t super-rich get this deal.
- Ideas for next meeting guest speaker – Hopefully, City transition presentation in April or May. Barbara is working on getting someone who can give up more information about ranked-choice voting.
- Time for Neighbor open comments
How is everyone feeling about the District Coalition Offices and their joining up with N Portland offices? Chaos. (See below for more updates in the NECN report.)
One new attendee said it was his first meeting and heard about WNA because he had been doing Adopt-a-Block trash pickup. Noticing areas that could use beautification and the city isn’t going to do this. Stumbled across Go Woodlawn website and decided to come check us out.
8:00 – 8:20 Board Business
- Treasurer’s Report & spending discussion – Dennis—Dennis was not at the meeting. Barbara gave the report. $5000 will be the new total. Need $3500 to do Night Out.
- NECN Report – Anjala
Anjala is one of the people designated by Woodlawn to go to NECN and is also on the board. The City has assigned the four non-profit district coalitions to take the lead in combining their different NAs and community groups. NECN is expected to fold in 17 other entities along with Dignity Village and other non-profits. NECN the responsibility of leading and working with many neighborhood associations and other non-profits to design the new District 2 in accord with the voters’ wishes to change city government to be more representative. Seems like the city is already creating new bureaucracies to come between residents and the city. Linde is our second “champion” from the Woodlawn neighborhood.
- Secretary Report – Nancy
Transition to updated “backbone” for our Go Woodlawn website. Will be working with Shelly Caldwell to make this happen. Hopefully no one will notice it when they are using the site – it is all backroom stuff.
- Outreach and community engagement Report – Linde
555 signups total! Woodlawn Parents FB page. Post flyer for volunteer opportunities there. District 2 champion updates on the newsletter as meetings progress.
Mutantis (the brewery/cidery) will open their doors to offer free space for meetings.
- Land Use and Transportation Report – Anjala
Anjala heard after the meeting from Mr. Matt Roberts that TriMet line 8 will not serve greater Woodlawn. It is being diverted to serve the new U of O Portland campus and rebuilt affordable housing at NE 27th despite the U of O asking them not to. WNA and Anjala wrote lettters to TriMet against this change. Not sure when this change will be effective.
- Farmer’s Market Update – Keith/Erin—Hiring a market manager yet again. Part-time, start now and then in April to 15 hours, then during season up to 20 hours. Runs through October. Job must be done on Saturday the rest of the hours are “flexible” and spread out over the week. Market opens first Saturday in June.
- Neighborhood Emergency Team (NET) – Erin
Under reorganization. Erin will have updates when things get sorted. Erin will come at some point and be our guest speaker.
8:20 – 8:30 Additional agenda items and announcements
Angela T. will reach out to get the Kenton guy to be a speaker about houseless cleanup stuff.
