Dec 26, 202012 min read

Active Bethel Citizens Executive Board Meeting – November 18th, 2020

Active Bethel Citizens Executive Board Meeting Minutes

Online

November 18th, 2020 7-8:38pm (PST)

Members in attendance: Lin Woodrich, Tai Pruce-Zimmerman, Ed Farren, Travis Johannes, Sarah Warren, Emily Pyle, Kimberli Holmquist, Amie Anderson-Forbis, Madison Hibler, Suzanne O’Shea, Jenny Boyd, Ethan Clevenger

Meeting was called to order at 7:02 by: Tai Pruce-Zimmerman

7:03 – Agenda provided in earlier email approved

7:04 – Approval of meeting minutes –

The Minutes from previous meetings on 9/23 and 10/21 were put forth and approved:

Meeting minutes by Ed Farren for 9/23 approved by Sarah Warren and seconded by Emily Pyle.

Meeting minutes by Sarah Warren for 10/21 approved by Suzanne O’Shea and seconded by Travis Johannes.

7:08 – Open Floor Comments

– Suzanne O’Shea provided a brief follow up from the 10/23 meeting about Showers for the People. Under this program the Shower facilities are open Monday, Wednesday and Friday from 1 – 4pm. Supplies are provided.

Question asked by (Ed) if services were free to community?
Suzanne answered advising services are free.

Bylaws update (Tai and Ed):

Set for follow up during the next meeting in order for further research to be completed.

7:09 – New Business

Emergency Preparation business: (Ed) – Brief review of Emergency Meeting with C.E.R.T. (Community Emergency Response Team) focused on fire fuel reduction within community. Looking for volunteers to join initiative with Eugene Wildfire Preparedness Coalition. Meeting on 11/19 at 5pm.

Map your Neighborhood initiative: (Lin) – brief introduction to the Map your Neighborhood project and steps needed to start moving forward with completing one for the Bethel area. This program would help to highlight the resources and point people for each designated neighborhood section including, but not limited too: learning where gas lines are, HAM (amateur radio) radio operators, general resources, etc. Additionally Lin is currently working to develop a list of local HAM operators. As this mapping project takes time to build community members interested in taking part will want to begin to develop a protocol to both gather volunteers and begin gathering the data needed. While COVID is still an issue looking for ways to safely and responsibly begin mapping at present.

7:23 – Motion to start Mapping process put forth by Lin- Will also note this project within the newsletter (both Lin and Madison will work on the newsletter).

– (Suzanne) – Concerns raised about how to meet for this project. Suggested using format such as Zoom in place of person to person or house to house.

– (Ed) – Need for Zoom Meetings that could be used when discussing Disaster preparedness (such as what disasters are possible for our area, help raise awareness, steps to take to reduce vulnerability in Bethel, etc.).

– (Lin) – Suggested having a short topic discussion at next meeting to work towards clarifying steps needed for Mapping Project.

– (Emily) – Question raised as to what specific commitments (time, days, responsibilities, etc.) were expected for Mapping Volunteers?

(Lin) – Advised Needing a way to determine Volunteer pool which would then be able to help provide a jumping off point for elucidation of structure and protocol.
(Tai) – Proposed using general meetings and newsletter to help recruit volunteers in addition to clarifying the needs/expectations for community members who might be interested in helping with this project.

7:23 – Social Equity Committee update – (Travis) Committee working on Equity work proposal to help make neighborhood/community more welcoming and inclusive. Copy of proposal provided during Zoom meeting for review. Committee will continue to meet 1 – 2 times per month. Progress updates to be given each monthly ABC meeting.

– (Lin) Question raised if ABC board would need to approve?

– (Tai) Advised that ABC Board will need to vote to approve.

Social Equity work proposal put forth for approval by the ABC board.

Madison approved, seconded by Emily. No one opposed.
ABC approves above proposal.

7:37 – Community Recovery topic – (Lin) Email sent out as well as a power point presentation link. Community Recovery efforts are working to get neighborhoods to put in place projects to help promote recovery (i.e. from wildfires, COVID, etc.). As a way ABC could assist in this project would be looking for ways to encourage people to buy local. In place currently are the Coupons for the Bethel Business Alliance, Scavenger hunts, etc. ABC members asked to think about when in a local business to reach out to see if that organization is aware of or is interested in joining the Bethel Business Alliance. Suzanne is continuing to work on the directory.

(Kimberli) Suggestion made to try Connecting with the Eugene chapter of the NAACP to both reinforce efforts for social equity and community recovery.

7:40 – Old Business

Airport update – (Kimberli) Update scheduled for next ABC meeting.
Advocating for small businesses – Can ABC post encouraging reviews for local businesses?
Currently businesses can list themselves and make updates on the Better Business Alliance webpage. (Lin/Madison) – possible use of a holiday letter to go out which also directs people to the Business Alliance.

7:48 – Announcements

Neighbors Helping Neighbors – Food drive on February 13th 2021. Gilbert Mall might be willing to allow use of property for location of food drive. Will need to reach out to Food for Lane County to see about requesting donation barrels. (Lin) Request to Panty Committee to see if they would be willing to spearhead this effort and work to put that food drive in place for this location.

– Amie advised had two volunteers that can assist with food drive.

Question raised regarding setting up a long term food drive for the area.
(Lin) Question as to how to pick up barrels?
(Travis) Advised has a truck and would be willing to volunteer its use to help pick up those barrels.
Safe Routes grant possibility. If ABC Board would like to participate Heather would be willing to help with the application. 12/18th confirmed as deadline to have application submitted.

(Lin) Will also need to determine which park to submit and how that park is to be used by the community (increasing accessibility, etc.). Parks proposed were:

Golden Garden Pond
Lark City Park

ABC Board leaning towards Golden Garden as a submission.

(Lin) – Requested a group of volunteers to go look over Golden Gardens Park.

– Volunteers Kimberli, Amie and Jenny

Lin will email with day and time to meet up at park for a tour.

8:03 – Baxter Community Engagement Group update

(Lin) No data as of yet – but email sent out about concerns and clean up efforts for the area. Important to know about this clean up work and how the community can be more apart of the solution/clean up. Area of focus is on Section 7 which has the worst pollution levels and air quality. Would like to find ways to encourage involvement from those residents in this effort. Lin will work to get a sector map to help provide people with an idea of area(s) impacted. Maximum of 20 volunteers needed for committee.

8:10 – Committee Reports

(Lin) Matching grants for Mapping Neighborhood ideas requested. Still on going for ideas.

8:11 – Question raised about where does ABC’s finances come from? Advised Human Rights Neighborhood Investment (HRNI) is what gives money to neighborhood committees for use on initiatives, outreach, etc.

8:13 – Financial review

(Suzanne) – reviewed briefly financial statement that had been emailed to board members. Discussed how HRNI allows money to be used and the role of size of households impacts monies designated to a committee. Suzanne also advised that she filed a complaint with PayPal regarding a $100 donation from December of 2019 to have this money released to ABC.

8:19 – Civic Engagement

Email sent out about success such as the Boo Barn, etc.

8:20 – Lin provided quick update relating to speech given based on proposal to the City Managers regarding possibilities to encourage growth in Bethel. Managers were positive in their response and acknowledged the importance of starting to help this area. As a reminder – all community members have the right to speak for change in their neighborhood.

8:24 – Public Safety

(Ed) – Issues addressed earlier in meeting. Please see notes above regarding Disaster preparedness.

8:25 – Beautification

(Travis) – Issues about Beautification still working on connecting with people about issues.

8:26 – Pantry Committee

(Jenny) – Quick introduction to Bethesda Church effort to provide food for the holidays for Bethel community. Community members in need can choose food from a donation table that they would like to take home. Proposed ABC work to help provide supplies to that church’s food drive.

(Lin) – Will reach out to Bethesda church to see if/how ABC can assist. Possibility of coordinating with local businesses to encourage allowing their property to be used as sites for collection barrels – could then also advertise in the ABC newsletter where barrels are located in the neighborhood. Oakshire Brewery recognized by ABC during meeting for helping to provide both barrels and buckets for food drives. Jenny, Amie and Madison volunteered to help with getting that project started.

8:34 – Recycling

(Emily) – Will reach back out to Bonnie about an update for program.

8:35 – Bylaws

To be discussed at next meeting.

8:36 – Social Equity

(Travis) – Three meetings have been completed as of this date. Still working out protocol as still in the early stages of committees formation. Next meeting set for 12/8.

8:37 – Motion to Adjourn by Tai

8:38 – Motion to adjourn approved by committee