Steering Committee Meeting Minutes 2018-07

Humboldt Park​​ Dog Park

Steering Committee​​ 

Meeting Minutes

July​​ 2018

7pm Tuesday July 10,​​ 2018

• Welcome / Introductions

• Approve June​​ Minutes

• Approval process

  • Petition Drive

    • Brainstorm ideas of how to encourage people to sign up and do it.

      • BMF suggested a Contest w/ prizes

        • BAH suggested t-shirts

        • Maybe alcohol thru a donor

        • Other donated prizes? ​​ Need partners.

      • BAH suggested doing it as an event

      • Alexandra suggested to run a poll

      • PJW to organize a poll​​ 

        • Following poll, we will issue a​​ date to the group

  • Letters of Support Drive

    • PJW shared a Google form that he had created to empower supporters to show their support.

      • All agreed this is good!

• Community Meeting Schedule

  • HPAC meeting summary

    • BMF recapped the first meeting

      • Becky presented our plans and asked for community feedback, which was entirely supportive of the DFA, including its location.  The only critical feedback was that the DFA should actually be larger than it currently is proposed, but Becky explained that we are limited by the city's guidelines of maximum size of 15k sq ft.

    • Group discussed how to track / record public commentary

      • PJW captured notes during the community meeting and will create a document to reflect the discussion.  We will do the same for each community meeting and include these summary documents along with our final proposal package when submitting to CPD

  • Next public​​ presentation meeting:

    • United Blocks of Humboldt Park August 2, 7 pm, Association House (1116 N. Kedzie) Parking unfortunately not available

  • Discuss how to host Third public presentation ​​ meeting:

    • Host at CAPS? – ​​ next one appropriate for location

      • BMF – to follow up​​ 

    • Host at HPAC? – July 26, 2018?

      • preferable

    • Host own meeting?​​ – date TBD

      • Pick a date – BMF to ask Jesus​​ about use of Field House

      • Group not in favor

  • Follow up with Puerto Rican Agenda​​ (PRA)​​ – 1st​​ sat morn of every month

    • Aim for October 6th​​ –​​ 

      • During our initial visit to PRA several months ago, some had concerns that the location may conflict with other park uses and they would provide contact information of people from PRA that we could meet with separately to discuss those concerns further.  Becky has reached out to the PRA leadership​​ since that visit to see if this is still a concern and to try to address it. No responses have been received yet so this may no longer be a concern but Becky will reach out again.

      • Separate from the above, our committee would like to share the same presentation to PRA to provide that group with a progress update and ask for any additional feedback.

• HPAC Dog Park Committee

  • Meghan sent BMF a list of HPAC -

    • Invite HPAC members to attend HPDP board meetings.​​ BMF will send email.

• Data Collection

  • Off Leash Dog Stats

    • Ongoing collection – whole team​​ – all times of day, all days of week

    • BMF to send links to Alexandra

  • Informal surveys

    • Ongoing by whole team

    • PJW to edit survey document

      • PJW asked why names had been removed from the informal surveys.​​ – BMF informed the group that it was requested by HPAC

  • Next formal survey

    • Peter to upload May survey

    • Bryan to conduct next formal survey (July)

      • Will review against​​ times still needed and choose a time to conduct survey accordingly.

  • Minutes on website

    • Bryan to generate first 6mo of meeting minutes

      • And to upload to Slack​​ –​​ files

• Public Relations

  • Add Block Club Chicago article to Website

    • Peter to upload to website

• • Admin access to Wordpress tools​​ –​​ Website

    • Peter to grant access to Becky and others.

• Fundraising

  • Friends of the Park (FOTP)​​ status:

    • Peter gave an overview of relationship to the group

    • Peter provided updates​​ about adjustments to language of the agreement

    • FOTP to review the language proposed by Peter

    • FOTP offer help to assist / provide support online

      • Adding members on Facebook?​​ – PJW to review / survey

      • Other thoughts?

    • FOTP to host a meet-and-greet

    • Peter informed the group that he had asked for a letter of support. FOTP indicated there's a process for this that will begin when Peter submits a written request for the support.  We plan to wait for this until we receive the HPAC letter of support since it'll be important to FOTP to see that the local park is on board.

  • Goals / Strategies/ Ideas​​ 

    • BAH suggested linking Facebook fundraiser to FOTP.

    • BMF​​ to add a​​ link / reminder to email​​ for fundraiser when established.

    • BMF​​ suggested setting up a​​ recurring payment​​ system, like a ‘sustaining membership’ where donors could set up automatic deposits of a few dollars each month.​​ 

    • BAH​​ -​​ suggested​​ looking​​ for​​ corporate​​ sponsors to match​​ donations, which has been known to encourage support for other non-profit pledge drives (such as NPR)

    • The group also discussed some ideas for fundraising events, such as movie nights ​​ (show dog-themed family friendly movies, admissions for dog park funds).

    • BMF suggested holding​​ Dog Treat bake sales

    • BAH suggested selling T-Shirts

    • LL-M to investigate potential to utilize TIF Funds

    • BAH to look into the potential for other grants

  • Tracking / documentation

    • Google doc for ideation / planning​​ /​​ etc. by PJW

• Discuss Bylaws – legacy going forward

  • While not urgently needed, the group agreed it would be useful​​ to create bylaws in the near future, for current and​​ future members

  • BMF to piece together bylaws – group to review and discuss next month

• Board Members

  • The group is looking to recruit new​​ members​​ to the board, and will need​​ to begin to assign​​ steering committee leaders for things like fundraising​​ & events planning.

• Other items

  • Petitions to Facebook group & Website​​ -​​ PJW

    • Tentative dates for event – All weekends in August.