NACA co-president Randy Teich called the meeting to order at 7:10PM

Dave Davis moved to approve last month’s minutes. Davi seconded the motion. Minutes were approved unanimously.

Brian LaCour presented April’s treasurer’s report.  

As of the end of April 2024, we had $397.41 in the General Fund. Our Beautification Fund investments were valued at $10,195.89, and an additional $3,562.48 is available for spending. Membership is currently at 103.

Note: This month’s balance is unusually low, owing to the fact that $662.27 was spent on gun safety flyers. We have, however, met all of our major financial obligations for the year (i.e., insurance, domain registration, and post office box) and will no longer be paying for Google Workspace (yeah!), so we should be all right. We also haven’t yet seen the impact of the membership drive, which should boost income and membership significantly.

We have $397.41 in our general fund that’s a lot less than you would normally have this time of year but that’s because we spent a bunch of money on printing Flyers to raise awareness of reckless gun fire which has been distributed out heard about that last week nevertheless we’re in good financial health I as I mentioned last time we are now 501C3 organization and things we’re not paying hundred plus dollars every month to Google or a web services and we basically paid all of our bills. For the $10,000 Beautification Fund. $10,195.89 is our investment fund. Our membership 103 and that’s before we’ve seen the full front of membership drive so I expect those numbers will go up. We’re in good health. 

I also wanted to mention as a follow up from our discussions last time you know we have been working on developing a proposal to develop a gunshot localization system here in the NACA neighborhood and I’m working with my colleagues diligently to put that together. That proposal was submitted on May 1^st. We have earmarked $10,000 for NACA to host a workshop to discuss how the program would be implemented can help with outreach requirements and so forth we have to myself there are four other colleges that are signed on to the program. Prof. Ledinsky who is from Vanderbilt and his colleague would be the principal investigator of the project. We also have Prof. Loffler from Pennsylvania University, and XXXXX from Texas State to help with the qualitative assessments of the program. We’re planning to hear back from NSF sometime around August, so hopefully we’ll have an announcement by the August meeting.

Settlement Home mission statement presentation by Lucinda Cassidy.  Been a long time collaborator with NACA, setting up a beautification project of flower beds on Payton Gin.  They collect donations for drop off at specific times during the week.  Able to donate directly to kids throughout the week; Arts and Crafts, pens, things to create stuff, swimwear/goggles/sunscreen, not very used clothing.

Membership Update from Randy Teich. Still many sectors that need to be completed. Still looking for volunteers. Sector 1 almost finished. Sector 4 needs volunteers. Trying to get it done in May, but okay if bleeds into June. 

Quail Creek Plant Stand presentation by Robin will be postponed to next month.

Beautification Fund proposal by Susie Millam. Saw a book at the library called “Plastic Sucks: How you can reduce single use plastic and save our planet.” How plastic gets in the ocean and stays there. Shows the most commonly found items which she regularly sees in the neighborhood. How do we teach the kids there’s another way to do it. It’s written for Junior High age kids. Librarian at Burnet Middle School. She’s excited about this, speaking with colleagues to purchase roughly 25 books. May not do this until next school year. It’s a project in the works. Would come out of Beautification Fund. Paperback version costs $12.50 on Amazon. Hardback is $26. Wait to see what the school asks for. Would be good to put it to a vote for the June meeting.

Vote on Settlement Home Memorandum of Understanding (“MOU”) (on file). Randy Teich reads the MOU responsibilities to the members. 

Brian LaCour moves to approve Settlement Home’s MOU. Dave Davis seconded the motion. Concern about not losing relationship with the YMCA. Members regularly attend the YMCA. They understand the changes to the facility are not conducive to meeting our needs. Motion approved unanimously.

Jared Noble gave an update on the Redfield Apartments. Unfortunately Santa Maria pulled out of the contract due to excessive mold and asbestos precluding them from making the necessarily remodeling with the budget and timeframe they required. The are looking at another building in the neighborhood. Residents on Redfield will be sending an email to Chito and Ramey expressing concern about the ongoing safety and health of the building and concern about the area spiraling toward more criminal activity again.

Floor nomination by Brian LaCour for Jared Noble to be Secretary of NACA. We’ve been missing a Secretary for a few months. Linda Davis seconds the motion. No discussion. No other nominations. Approved unanimously. 

John Fletcher is not present for an update on the Flood Remediation project. 

Cook Elementary fence around school including the park. When will those gates be locked and unlocked? What’s the balance for safety and community access? Access should be made available after school hours. Hopefully we’ll get an update from Mark Grayson soon.

Concern about low attendance at the meeting. We do membership drive to increase awareness. We could announce the meetings and give the zoom link on the website. Not sure that would draw more people, but doesn’t hurt to restrict people from attending online. “Zoom bombing” is not as much of an issue. Melinda has created a Facebook event in the past. We leave the meeting open to anyone who comes through the door. We’ll work on better audio solution for Zoom attendees. Running slim on the budget for equipment. Lawn signs worked. Back in the day we distributed newsletter everywhere. Was expensive and time extensive. Switched to mailing newsletters knowing we would lose attendees to the meeting. Would like to see more volunteers and people being active. Maybe there’s a way to incentivize younger people moving into the neighborhood. Coupon partnerships with local business (i.e. ice cream). 

Caro announced new park on Jamestown. Vote is taking place soon. She thinks they need a splashpad. 

Erica Hannan gave a school parks update. Can send us the link for distribution to the members. Fence is permanent. 

Brian LaCour moved adjournment.  Davi seconded the motion.  Approved unanimously at 8:29.

Respectfully Submitted

Jared Noble

Secretary

Treasurer’s Report

As of the end of May 2024, we had $1,322.78 in the General Fund. Our Beautification Fund investments were valued at $10,426.39, and an additional $3,562.48 is available for spending. Membership was at 126.

I will note that 22 of the 126 members (17%) are new, and several others are “lost sheep” (households whose membership has lapsed for a few years). This tells me the membership drive is working to bring in new members and regain previous ones.

Interestingly, this is the first year in which Venmo payments dominated, especially for new members. I think this reflects a younger, more tech savvy population moving into the neighborhood. It also suggests that including envelopes with flyers may be losing its magic. That’s probably a good thing.