Armatage Neighborhood Association Meeting

Meeting was called to order at 6:30 pm by board vice president Kelly Falsani

ANA board members in attendance: Kelly Falsani, Sarah Broich, Judy Vecere, Jeff Forss, Bri Keeney, Laurel Luxenberg, Steve Johnson, Tara Brown

Others in attendance: Nikki Lindberg- ANA Coordinator, Councilmember Linea Palmisano, Matt Perry, 3 interested neighbors- Ryan, Dave DeNamur, Mary Curtain

City Council Update

Councilmember Palmisano attended meeting. She began by reminding us that she welcomes communication through 311 or email. She described her role and role of her staff. She stated they try to have a representative from the Ward 13 office at every 2 of 3 neighborhood meetings.

Updates:

City Council adopted 2016 budget last week- Councilmember stated she works hard to be accountable with tax dollars. She is especially pleased with: money toward Domestic Violence Initiative (pilot of this was successful- now the program can continue), increase for auditor’s office- will help with better, more secure technology services, 13 million to affordable housing, money toward employment programs/job training/alternatives to college, extra training for police, extra money for next presidential election to prevent long lines, make the process efficient (also added 2 new precincts), money for additional housing inspectors in construction code services dept.

Voted 10-3 to scrap working families agenda in October. Instead, established workplace regulations partnership to create recommendations for the council; they will report back to council by end of February. The first meeting was last Friday; was not well publicized- council office will get schedule of future meetings out- these are public meetings.

Committee Updates

Community Engagement

  • Think about working definition of community engagement for ANA- Bri shared the current language of our Bylaws
  • There was a discussion about what we mean by community engagement (follow through, action, spectrum of community engagement, inclusiveness- reaching out to different groups
  • Talked about keeping in mind the larger context of the city’s definition
  • Maybe focusing on underrepresented groups
  • Discussed specific goals and ideas:
    • Targeted speaker each month- to attempt to reach out to different communities of folks; track attendance and follow up with folks who participate- get contact info; Perhaps a theme for each monthly meeting
    • Emergency Preparedness might be a topic of interest for an event- Jeff thought this was brilliant (CPR could fall in this category)
    • 2x a year social hour for board/meet the board happy hour
    • Continue welcome bag/packet for new residents
    • Idea to personally introduce ourselves to new neighbors
  • Bri would like to finalize goals at our next meeting

Park Update

  • Warming Housing not open- rink dependent on weather
  • Lake Harriet Kite festival is weather dependent
  • Fire on Ice is 1/22- will adjust to weather accordingly
  • Online basketball registration went well

Coordinator Update

  • January Newsletter- send newsletter ideas to Nikki. Nikki will email draft out to board before printing. Some ideas suggested were: organics, blurb on community engagement, “New Years resolution” proposal to the neighborhood to get more involved, ask neighbors to give reasons they love the neighborhood, For new residents: map of neighborhood small businesses
  • Matt Perry talked about SWBA (provides this the neighborhood small business info already)- suggested a note about this in newsletter and talked about a new app that SWBA has developed (Experiencesouthwest.com/xswapp)
  • Encourage folks to use # (most popular is #armatage)

Secretary Report

November Minutes were approved via email

New Business

Matt Perry gave update on working families agenda; he clarified some things about the workgroup- it is only about paid sick time. Matt is collecting feedback from local businesses regarding this (predicts this will be burdensome for small businesses and new businesses). Will present findings at a future meeting.

Reminded the group again that the new SWBA app is available

Nikki L announced she is now also Windom’s coordinator.

Laurel motioned to adjourn; seconded by Tara. Motioned carried. Adjourned at 7:25.

Armatage Neighborhood Association