Executive Board meeting minutes

February 8, 2017‑minutes approved by email

Yuki’s report

Treasurer position; given Amy’s resignation, we need to announce the position open in the newsletter. Diane shared some ideas for relieving the burden on the treasurer by appointing some chairs to take some of the responsibilities of the treasurer, i.e. managing the ads, the restricted funds, the events, etc.

Yuki did approve these chairs: an Ad Manager, a Restricted Funds Coordinator and an Events Coordinator to handle the income and outflow for community events like the Art Walk.

Yuki also suggested making the offices a one-year term instead of a two-year term. There was not agreement on this as there is a learning curve with some of the positions. An officer can always choose to resign after one year.

Ad Hoc committee

John, Tracy and Diane to meet at Tracy’s on the 15th to review meeting attendance lists for possible helpers.

Yousef

Yousef was unable to attend. Diane reported difficulty signing in to add the amended bylaws to the online document.

Newsletter report: Diane

• March issue deadline: 2/13/17

• Have not sent letter to restricted fund chairs as no report yet; getting calls

• Have not sent info to advertisers on website ads; waiting for site to go live and folks will be able to see the courtesy ads Yousef is placing there.

• Sent renewal letters to lapsed dues folks; got many renewals, apologies, thank yous and some donations 2013-2015. Added bonus: got free notice of folks who have moved. Post office charges $2.47 per returned newsletter but first class mail notice is free.

Parks

John reported the sudden death of Cass Turnbull, founder of the nonprofit Plant Amnesty and the more recent political action group TreePac. An effective speaker, she was able to create an interest in the best pruning practices through slides and humor. John attended the annual Forterra gathering of forest stewards and was able to do some networking. John has been the chair of the Friends of Streetends since 2001 and has been working on a response to an EIS proposal. Karen Daubert has expressed interest in returning to FOSE since her retirement and Marty Oppenheimer is also a longtime member of the group but both are away and deadline for EIS response is tomorrow. Feb. 18 work party is at Charles Street shoreline park (Charles and Lake Washington Blvd.) where the primary task is removing blackberries to open up the view. The cherry tree has died and John will be looking for a replacement and hoping to find a rare specimen. There are funds for this in the restricted funds.

March program

Discussed asking Bob Shimabukuro re: his book Born in Seattle and his fight to get government redress for the Japanese relocation during WWII. Also considering Coll Thrush who has written on the native history of this area. Group expressed interest in immigration given the current climate; Diane to contact ACLU.

~Respectfully submitted by Diane Snell