Attendees

Board of Directors Meeting Minutes

Jan 19, 2021

Zoom Meeting

 

Attendees

  • Kelleigh Eastman
  • JR Lee
  • Scott Kashnow
  • George Kleb
  • Jane Shaab
  • Abigail Breiseth
  • Jane Buccheri
  • Chuck Callahan
  • Sonia Eaddy
  • Edith Gilliard-Canty
  • Gregg Herlong (absent)
  • Heather Kangas
  • Rich Shores
  • Nancy McCormick
  • Donnell Nance
  • Richard Parker
  • Dan Rodenburg
  • David McGill

Adjunct Committees

  • Lou Packett
  • Khandra Sears

 

  • Welcome and Introductions

Richard Parker opened the meeting and welcomed everyone at 7:07pm

Ashley took attendance.

 

  • Approval of the Minutes
    • Motion by Jane Shaab to approve the minutes from December – 2nd by Abigail All others in Favor – the motion passes.

 

  • President’s Remarks
    • Board should be encouraged to attend one community association per month to get in touch with other neighborhood needs
    • Mt Clare will be January 2021, others will be announced
    • Board Governance Training – not mandatory- is scheduled for Friday, January 29th in the evening
    • RFP for Diversity/Equity/Inclusion training was issued by the SWP
  • Tony explained Ebony Nicholson, Adar Ayira, Steve Robbins, and Verna Myers were all approached for consultation. 
  • Ebony and Adar worked together to send back recommendations- Baltimore Racial Justice Action and/or the Pacific Education Group
  • Kris Hoellen asked is we are still taking recommendations for trainers- Kris has a few others to recommend
  • Tony asked do we want to narrow our scope to just Racial Justice or also add in Board structure, managerial expectations
  • Scott Kashnow- Thinks we should take it all on, but questioned what that does to scope and cost- Is there a piece that we could do first? How do we set up processes, transparency as an organization…so not just how we as individuals, but also how do we operate as an organization. 
  • Lou Packett questioned where all of these other components- where did that growth happen? Where did all of these other components come from? It should have come from Abigail’s education committee conversation.
  • Richard asked- “What was the original scope” – How long is the RFP? Can you please read it, a summary?  Assist the org, rolls and responsibilities of stakeholders, transparency, review org processes to improve the efficacy of the organization. 
  • One response from Ebony who recommendation of others who could do this work- but not her directly
  • Patti Hogan recommended the Baltimore Community Foundation
  • Ashley questioned- whether we should do the individual training versus the organizational development piece
  • Abigail, the issue was that the board doesn’t communicate well about these issues but also to the public
  • Richard said again, let’s just send the RFP back out to the groups suggested and see what we get back.
  • We had set aside $10k and then Adar’s training came back at $20k
  • Jane Shaab suggested ABC’s website to look at these 10 questions for Board of nonprofits
  • Kris recommends keeping is broad, but the trainers know how best to structure this after discussing with the staff
  • Richard- can we give Tony an additional month to get this together so that at the next Board meeting, he can present a more 
  • Donnell – have we considered sending someone to get trained in this work and then bring this back to the Board and be our “internal trainer” so they can work with the staff. One we looked into was $3600 to get person trained
  • Scott, keep that on the table, but do think there is a benefit if we do it together so we have the constitutional memory of doing it together.
  • Paulette, mentioned that Adar didn’t think we were ready…that we weren’t going to turn “pro black” and we are a bunch of unknowns. Her community doesn’t know any of us
  • Abigail, agrees with Scott that going through the training altogether can be a team building activity, deep relationship building. She also added that her committee has been recruiting young people from the neighborhood who are teenagers/ high school/college to figure out how to be a better presence in the community. 
  • Donnell agreed to help merge the “train the trainer” and the board training into the February recommendations
  • Board agreed to let Tony go back to reach out to the recommendations from Patti/Ebony/Kris/Jane S and bring back to the next meeting
  • Two new board members- Fund Development Chair, Lou Packett and a new Governance Committee Chair in George Kleb

 

  • Budget Review 
  • Donnell presented the budget overview- difference of $14,000
  • Congrats to Elizabeth, she is our new Deputy Director! Yay
  • One of the vacant positions in now out for interviews
  • Kris, what does the marketing firm profiles do for us for $60K – Tony, they manage our social media accounts. Richard believes that we may want to revisit the contract with Profiles
    1. Scott thinks even if get rid of Profiles, we should keep the same amount of money for marketing because
  • Heather- CSC’s salary, is this the full amount- No Donnell, it is only half given the way the calendar falls
  • Heather also thinks we could give the social media to a college intern but agrees we need to do a better job promoting the Partnership
  • Dottie- What is Profiles- Richard, they are our marketing company, Dotie, they are horrible
  • Richard- can we just move that line item to “marketing” and not specifically with Profiles
  • Jane B asked about the contract with Profiles..Chris Bowling says we are in a contract with them but he couldn’t find a cancellation fee. 
  • Tony says he is meeting with them in a few weeks, but there is not a fee, it is month to month- but we will have to have a transition. We also have a social media intern starting this semester 
  • We agree to give Tony to freedom to coordinate with Profiles and others and make other recommendations
  • Laura Dykes- what is the line item for hardware? Tony says that much of the equipment was donated by Dan Morrison and we 
  • JR Lee was surprised to learn we have hired a Deputy Director. He is concerned about the lack of transparency yet again
    • Tony explained that it isn’t a new position…but yet still, JR feels like we need to be more clear about what Elizabeth’s role will be. But he really feels like he should have known since he is the VP of the Board and didn’t know that.
    • To JR’s point – I recall a conversation or two about giving Tony the latitude to do his own hiring, and that’s what filling the deputy position looks like. At the same time, communicating hiring decisions to the board, or at least the officers, as they’re happening in real time seems like the right thing to do.
  • Paulette is confused about what the SWP is accomplishing. Why isn’t Poppleton Now getting any money through this budget. Richard suggested that he and Tony and Richard meet with her one on one to take her through what the SWP can do to help Poppleton and answer Paulette’s questions.
  • Scott- Fundraising consultant- are we hiring someone full time or a consultant? Would like a little more discussion on that. 
  • Maintenance versus Repairs for Office Space- one is cleaning supplies, fire extinguishers, as opposed to repairs and maintained. 
  • Accounting line item- Scott thinks it very high, Donnell said it was because we are behind in our audits. So this is actually 2019 and 2020 audits. The firm is Walsh accounting. 
  • David McGill- Seems like the budget is an important issue for a lot of folks. Will the Board see expense/financial reports throughout the year so we can understand execution of the budget? Donnell will be sending out a monthly report. 
  • Sonia Eaddy- She has proposed that each community get a small amount for fliers and things that they need – Tony explained that there is a separate budget for printing in color and they try and give a discount
  • Richard, I agree with Sonia…can we please give each community a small budget for printing. We need to be here in a supportive role for the communities. 
  • Roger suggested SWP could produce a simple “Printed by Southwest Partnership” graphic for inclusion on in-house print jobs
  • Patty – agrees, but that can we ask those getting free printing, add the SWP logo
  • David M- Goldseker and some others- are there restrictions on how we spend their money? 
  • Scott K motions to approve the budget, 
  • Nancy 2nd’s the motion
  • Budget passes unanimously 
  1. Listening Campaign Update
    • Lou and Loraine presented how we can use a very small portion of the $ given to us by Lowes
    • Conversations with residents will begin in 2021 with community associations, committees, and individuals
    • Ashley asked for more coordination between the anchors and SWP on the surveys so we aren’t “over surveying”
    • All of the neighborhoods can benefit from this information- we need to broaden and deepen the connections and relationships between in the community and our SWP efforts
    • By Feb 24th – data you would like to collect and questions you would like asked- and then in March we will come together to finalize the approach.
    • This the link to the Community Listening Campaign: https://forms.gle/F4qYnh9a8JiiFHgT9 
  1. Committee Reports

Laura- no December meeting

Abigail- major young person recruitment, presentation and walk through/ brainstorming to connect young people to find some other young people

Scott- Historic Pre- signs are being ordered, story-telling effort to begin; Center West Development planning to demolish some perfectly good homes and that doesn’t make much sense. Doing more research and will report back next month

Heather/Housing- We have some properties in our Homeowner zome- mt clare on mchenry street- want to do some socially distant walk throughs; Habitat for Humanity is still trying to connect buyers to their properties in Pigtown; working to form a subcommittee to look at out of the box ideas around gentrification etc.; Rebuilding Together has begun doing home repairs in the neighborhood 

Dotie wants to make a home eligible course for “are you ready to be a homeowner”

Public Safety- JR reported we are wrapping up the 2020 gates and moving into 2021. Have some good gate projects going on. COVID vaccines- can we get our seniors 

Vaccine- 

CSC’s could help get the word out once we have a plan to roll out the vaccine in the neighborhood

Kris offered space at B &O for vaccination sites

Ashley and Jane Shaab will coordinate with JR and

Donnell- didn’t meet in December

Richard- Workforce – Figure out how to best pivot workforce in the Covid environment- also looking at workforce issues in Annapolis and will bring some ideas to the Board next meeting

  1. Executive Director’s Report
  • Tony will be giving a presentation on all projects soon to the board
  • New CSC at Steuart Hill Academy, Mark Byrd
  • Tony will be reaching out to neighborhood’s to do one on one’s and has been doing that with Staff
  • Richard had asked Tony and Michael to work together to present all of the projects and their status to make sure we are all on the same page. This will be a separate meeting from the Board meeting.
  1. Community Announcements
    • Kurt Sommer- New Emergency Department at Grace Hospital 1/25 at 11am virtual event/tour of the ED- a link will be sent to the Board
    • Renderings for a Resource Center to come to Calhoun Street
    • BPD Southern Crime and Grime meeting 1/21 Join Zoom Meeting 
    • https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89098706406… 

Meeting ID: 890 9870 6406 Passcode: 475637  One tap mobile +13017158592,,89098706406#,,,,*475637# US (Washington D.C)  Dial by your location        +1 301 715 8592 US (Washington D.C)  Meeting ID: 890 9870 6406 Passcode: 475637 

  • Paulette is concerned about the COVID crisis and wants a few more resources put toward this- Tony will follow up
  • Sonia Eaddy- Brian Greenan called Sonia to say there is an important meeting coming up regarding Poe Homes redevelopment 1/20 
  • Lamar Jackson and Lowes will be partnering on the Greater Model Rec project
  • Roger has an update on the Lord Baltimore theater project for the Board – date TBD
  • Adjourn 

Richard motioned to adjourn the meeting.

Scott K and Jane B  seconded, motioned passed unanimously 9:19pm

 

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