Steering Committee Minutes – July 10, 2018

Steering Committee Meeting 07.10.18

In attendance:

• Georgina Stevenson
• Laura Kogan
• Omar Elhagmusa
• Lydia Yoder
• Susan Colbert
• Matt Adair

Meeting start time: 6:43 pm.

Weinland Park Festival Update​ – Laura Kogan

• The festival will take place Saturday, August 18, 12-4 pm.
• Most of the vendors at the festival are non-profits; festival organizer Laura Kogan requested that steering committee members contact any local businesses and see if they have an interest in being a vendor at the festival. There is also a need for items for the raffle, such as $5 or $10 gift cards. Feel free to give out Laura Kogan’s email to any local business contacts, or email her with any ideas.
• Matt Adair emailed Erin Prosser requesting she send out an email blast to the South Campus Gateway businesses to get them involved at the festival.
• Matt Adair will design a flyer to promote the festival.
• Laura Kogan created a volunteer sign-up link that she will post soon.
• Laura Kogan and Steve Sterrett are trying to decide what to do about the need for bathrooms at the festival.
• Susan Colbert suggested the festival have a Back to School Drive, giving backpacks and school supplies to kids. Laura Kogan thinks that a collaboration between the Weinland Park Elementary PTO and 7th Ave Baptist Church to do this drive would be a good option, and she will contact both groups to ask them about it.
• Kroger donated $300 for food at the festival, and the Veritas and 7th Ave Baptist Churches will be in charge of serving food at the festival.

The next Weinland Park Festival Planning Meeting next Tuesday, July 17, 5:30 pm at the Godman Guild.

Growing Weinland Park Follow-Up

We briefly discussed ideas for the next Growing Weinland Park event:

• Organizing a plant swap instead of a plant sale with neighbors contributing starts of plants from their own gardens.
• Need for providing assistance for elderly neighbors. Georgina suggested we contact Katie Beaumont At Home by High to spearhead this effort, and also contact Amy Gingerich of Veritas to ask for contact information for the elderly community members who received assistance previously at Roots and Roofs.
• Changing time back to morning work hours instead of afternoon because of the heat.

Joint Meeting with Community Connectors and Steering Committee

Omar and Susan proposed the Steering Committee and Community Connectors meet on Saturday, August 4 at 10 am at OSU Extension, 99 E 9th Ave, to meet each other and possibly find ways to collaborate since we are both organizations seeking to build community in Weinland Park. The first half hour of the meeting will be an introduction to Community Connectors, and the remainder of the meeting will be the Steering Committee meeting agenda. The Community Connectors are invited to participate in the Steering Committee meeting if they choose to do so. This meeting will take the place of the regularly scheduled steering committee meeting on the second Tuesday of the month. All in attendance were in favor of this collaborative meeting.

Rally in the Alley

At last month’s Steering Committee meeting, concern was expressed by some that the Rally in the Alley event was not entirely suitable for children. Georgina Stevenson, co-organizer of the event, shared with the Steering Committee meeting that a neighbor promoted a rappers contest on the same day as the Rally in the Alley, and this neighbor ended up using the stage Chester Jackson had set up without informing Chester of his intent to do this. The rap music performed was often inappropriate for children. Georgina also gave the feedback that the event did not start on time because the set-up started late. For next year, it would be helpful to have the event start on time.

If the Steering Committee has any feedback to give to Chester, Georgina Stevenson is willing to do it, and would a be a good person to give feedback since they worked together to plan the event.

Outstanding Neighbor Nominations/Awards

After the Rally in the Alley discussion and recognizing and praising the vision and the hard work Chester Jackson had to pull off this event, Omar brought up the idea of giving out an
“Outstanding Neighbor Award” to neighbors who go above-and-beyond for the neighborhood. He also suggested the nomination/awarding could be a possible topic to bring up at the Community Connectors and Steering Committee joint meeting next month.

WPCCA Monthly Meeting July 25

Georgina Stevenson will provide the food for the meeting.

Here is the proposed plan for the July 25 monthly meeting:

• Announcements: festival update/volunteer sign-up, upcoming housing committee meeting,
• Request that Erin Prosser can print maps for tree suggestions/community garden. One map to be placed on each table, along with arrow post-it notes, pens, and paper to write on.

1. Community Garden Exercise: Place a sticker on the map on your table on the closest community garden. The leaders of the gardens will be invited to the meeting to share about their gardens, or share information to get connected to the gardens. Pass around sign up sheet for those interested in being involved.
2. Tree Exercise: Place a post-it note arrow with contact information and address of a desired location for a tree. Invite Kennedy from FLOW to share about their tree planting services. Also have information about requesting a city tree in the tree lawn.
3. City Services Exercise: Have discussions at tables of any concerns/questions with the neighborhood, each table will designate a writer to take notes and designate a speaker to share the top three concerns/questions mentioned at the table. Have tables write down their questions so they can be addressed at later meetings if necessary. Invite the city liaison at the Neighborhood Pride Center to answer questions and concerns.

Email Newsletter​ – Matt Adair

Matt Adair created an e-newsletter to be sent out to the WPCCA email list. The newsletter will include an upcoming events column and brief updates from the civic association meetings. The e-newsletter will hopefully be a recurring, monthly email.

Meeting end time: 7:54 pm.