SRG BOARD MEETING MINUTES OCTOBER 2024

Nov 20

Wednesday, October 16, 2024 at 7PM

Minutes prepared by Abbey Bethel, Past President

PRESENT
Officers: Abbey Bethel, Past President; Adriano Martinez, President; Amanda Ramcharan, President-Elect; Neil Putz, FY25 Treasurer

Directors: Beth Bennett, Joy Christensen, Paula Dostal, Aaron Terry, Alan Ziegler, Wade Weistreich

REGRETS
Abby Goodson, Secretary

LOCATION
Soulard Station | 1911 South 12th Street

Call to Order/Opening Remarks

Meeting called to order at 7:00pm by Adriano Martinez.

Secretary’s Report

Abbey Bethel reported on behalf of Abby Goodson that a draft of the September board meeting minutes had been circulated with the board for review via email and asked for a motion to approve. Wade motioned to approve. Neil Putz seconded the motion. The motion passed unanimously.

Treasurer’s Report

Neil Putz shared that the SRG is operating three separate bank accounts:

Carrollton Bank Checking: $69,228.88

Carrollton Bank Savings: $10,118.23

Carrollton Bank Money Market: $12,613.05

Cash balance: $91,960.16

Committee Roundtable

Beautification: Wade Weistreich shared that Beautification made a net profit of $1,500 from their first Patio Crawl event. The Oktoberfest Beautification Fundraiser was a success including $7,177 in cash and checks with the money from Square still to be tabulated. On Friday October 18th from 11am-1pm, volunteers will be cleaning up the Sidney Triangle at 9th and Sidney.
Community Involvement & Events (CI&E): Aaron Terry reported that the final Movie in the Park for 2024 will be Hocus Pocus on Friday October 18th. This coming year, it is the SRG’s turn to select the Royalty for Bastille Day; The committee is working through the process for SRG members to nominate Royalty and potentially have them participate in the upcoming Mardi Gras parade. Aaron shared that the Haiku Hike is on the calendar for Saturday October 26th.
Communications (ComCom): No updates.
Development: Alan Ziegler reported on Oktoberfest Beer Booth Fundraising. $590 in cash tips were made and the SRG will know the final fundraising total including credit card tips in January 2025.
Historical: Neil shared the Historical Committee’s recommendation for the recipient of the 2024 Historical Award and requested the Board’s approval. Aaron Terry motioned to approve the Historical Committee’s Historical Award recipient and Paula Dostal seconded. The motion passed unanimously. In other updates, the Historical Committee is working on a time capsule project for the neighborhood with a goal of burying the capsule in 2025 so that it can be opened 75 years later in 2100.
Membership: Paula Dostal shared updates from the most recent Membership meeting, including discussions around requesting an increase to the current budget line item for the Welcome Wagon supplies.
Parlour Tour: Joy Christensen shared updates for the Parlour Tour, noting that the seventh location has been secured. The Historical Committee has begun their research and other event planning details are moving along.
Planning Review Team (PRT): Amanda Ramcharan reported no new updates for PRT and noted that their next committee meeting will be on October 17th.
Properties/Station: Abbey Bethel noted that Bonita had met with Kristina from the Franklin Room to discuss our revised Station Usage protocols; Abbey and Bonita will meet to make additional revisions to the protocols and will share final proposal with the Board to review and request approval by year end. The second Soulard Ladies meeting was held at the Station on October 8th and had attendance of roughly 20-25 people.
Safety: Wade Weistreich reported that the Safety Committee will cancel the Fall Safety Walk as there are still several items from the May walk that have not yet been addressed by the City, most notably overgrown trees blocking light on the sidewalk. The Safety Committee will be moving forward with their Camera Program pilot and will generate the proposal for a new budget line item ahead of the next Board meeting.

Old Business

None

New Business

AmeriCorps Fundraiser Request: Request was made by Jane Kersch, Outreach Manager at AmeriCorps to support the fundraiser they are having on Friday November 8th to support their homeless shelter services. They asked if a) a rep from the SRG is interested in attending, and if we had any Soulard themed merch we'd be willing to donate to be included in a Soulard themed raffle basket. Alan connected with Jim during the meeting and the board decided to contribute a hat and two t-shirts for the Soulard-themed raffle basket.
SLMPD Central Division Business Association Request: Joanie Thomas on behalf of the CDBA requested SRG to support their annual trivia night held at the Casa Loma Ballroom, located at 3354 Iowa Ave., on November 15. Money raised will be used to benefit police officers in several ways, such as providing scholarships for officers and their children, the Officer of the Month and Officer of the Year awards and banquet, a yearly gift for the officers during the holiday season, as well as new duty bags for every successful academy graduate who is assigned to the CPD as a new police officer. The board discussed and agreed to make a $200 donation to the event using the Charitable Donations line item in the approved FY2025 budget. Adriano will follow up with Neil to generate the check to donate.
Soulard CID Donor Agreement for Soulard Clean Team: Terry Hoffman emailed the SRG President thanking the SRG for its FY2024 donation of $5,000 to support operating the Soulard Clean Team in the neighborhood in locations outside of the current CID boundary. Additionally, there was a request to repeat our annual donation of $5000. The board discussed and agreed to make a $5,000 donation to the CID for the Soulard Clean Team using the Charitable Donations line item in the approved FY2025 budget. Adriano will follow up with Neil to generate the check to give to the CID.

Adjourn

Alan Ziegler motioned to adjourn at 7:58 pm. Wade Weistreich seconded. The motion passed unanimously.

Action Items

Adriano will follow up with Jim to coordinate giving AmeriCorps a hat and two t-shirts for the Soulard-themed raffle basket for the AmeriCorps fundraiser.
Adriano will follow up with Neil to generate the $200 check to donate to the SLPMD.
Adriano will follow up with Neil to generate the $5000 check to the CID for the Soulard Clean Team.