Glen Ellen Forum Board of Directors Quarterly Meeting

October 16th, 2023 6:00-7:30 PM, London Lodge Dining Room

In attendance: Debbie Lammers, Amanda Shone, Mary Guerrazzi, Katie Everidge, Melissa Dowling, Nancy Padian, Pat Carlin, Bean Anderson, Nick Brown, and Laurie Pile. 

1. Call to Order and Introduction – Debbie Lammers at 6:10pm

1. Secretary’s Report – Katie
   1. July’s meeting minutes were sent via email and approved over email.

1. Treasurer’s Report – Mary
   1. Q3 Financial Summary: $28,907.00
   2. Other donations this quarter: $4,330.00
      1. $4,000 from Sonoma Land Trust for Dunbar Point
   3. Committee account balances:
      1. Clydesdale: $100.00
      2. Steering Committee: $0.00
      3. Commerce and Tourism $50.00
      4. Communication Community: $901.00
      5. Dunbar Point: $8,468.00
      6. Engagement Committee: -$792.50
      7. Projects Committee: $1,671.00
      8. Community Preparedness: $202.00
      9. SDC ad hoc: $0.00
      10. The remainder is in the General Fund
   4. Board approved:
      1. Moving the remaining $100.00 in the Clydesdales fund to the general find. 
      2. Fully funding the Engagement Committee to get it out of the red. 
      3. Set up Dunbar Triangle under its own expense category. 
2. Committee Reports (BRIEF <5-minute look back and forward to next quarter and beyond – also describe any funding needs you expect to have for the next quarter)
   1. Steering Committee – Nick 
      1. Meeting attendance numbers for August: 55 people
      2. Upcoming Speakers/Planning for November’s in-person meeting:
         1. No one nailed down yet.
         2. Bean recommends Grant Davis with Sonoma Water
            1. See if Sonoma Water has any input of the new housing developments in the area. 
         3. Nancy had arborist recommendation. She will email Nick with it. 
         4. Have the Glen Ellen/Rotary Club provide an update about their fundraiser.
         5. Kevin Padian to speak on the topic of an Independent Traffic Study. 
      3. Confirm with KSVY on location and date of November’s meeting. 
         1. Nick will confirm with Bob.

1. Status of posting recordings to website (August’s meeting) – Melissa and Laura. 
   1. List of recordings needs to be put in the same place as the other recordings on the website. 
   2. When is the Kenwood Press deadline?
      1.  10 days before the issue date. 

1. Communications Committee – Shannon
   1. Has anyone been agreed to take over for Shannon as chair of the committee? Not yet. Debbie has a potential candidate in mind. 
      1. Newsletter is going out next week.
      2. By the end of December, someone needs to actively come on as the email administrator and put out the monthly newsletter. 
         1. Should we mention the opening position at our November meeting?
            1. Let’s try and recruit someone before the next meeting, otherwise we will announce at the next meeting.  
      3. Glen Ellen/Kenwood Rotary has asked us about mentioning their Crush Polio campaign. 
         1. Have Rotary provide a byline and a link to their website. 
         2. We can invite them to the November meeting to announce during the general comments portion. 
         3. We can reshare their Facebook post on our Facebook page. 
      4. Again, our website is stagnant, because there is not the manpower to make it dynamic. 

1. Projects Committee – Laurie
   1. The community bulletin board at the market needs a refresh. Debbie has some suggestions. 
      1. Debbie and Laurie to work on cleaning it up. 
   2. Update on the town clean up:
      1. Glen Ellen is 185 pounds lighter!
      2.  14 volunteers. 
      3. Need more supplies for the next round of clean ups. 
   3. Set up and alter for day of the dead. October 31st and take down November 3rd. 
   4. The committee plans to plant $150 worth of daffodil bulbs on Sunday, November, 19th at 9am along the edges of the Post Office parking area. 
   5. Send Shannon blurbs to incorporate into the newsletter for: Town cleanup, Day of the Dead, and bulbs planting. 300 words or less. Send to [email protected].

1. Community Preparedness Committee – Nick 
   1. No updates.

1. Commerce and Tourism – (Laura not in attendance) Update provided by Melissa
   1. Good supplies of map
   2. Add Passaggio and all new business during next print. 

1. Landscape and Environment Committee – Ellie and Mark (No updated provided)
   1. Dunbar Point update (Debbie)
      1. $3,200 spent to clear the dead leaves and limbs. 
      2. Leaving the property alone for the season to let everything grow. 
      3. Big shout out to Rory Pool and John LemMon. Rory trimmed the trees and John tilled the property. 
   2. Firehouse Triangle landscape estimate update (Mark) No updated provided. 
      1. Katie to reach out to Mark for update. 
         1. Update:  I (Katie) spoke to Mark at the Holiday Party and he told me he submitted the landscape plan and is waiting to hear back from the county. It took several attempts to find a landscaper willing to do the project and bid on it. Mark found someone and was able to get paperwork in before the permit expired. 
2. Engagement Committee – Vacant 
   1. Holiday Party set for December, 11th at 6:30pm at the London Lodge Dining Room.
   2. Projects Committee will deal with the food. 
      1. Ideas for food:
         1. Catering from a Mexican restaurant
            1. 3 types of tacos (including vegetarian)
            2. Rice, beans, salsa, chips, and guacamole.
         2. Mary has a recommendation for a Mexican restaurant. 
         3. Water jugs and hot cider for beverages.
         4. Cookies and cupcakes to be purchased.
         5. Alt. options Mary’s pasta and pizza.
            1. Board preferred the Mexican food direction. 
      2. Debbie has decorations from last year holiday party. 
         1. We need volunteers for set up. Day of 3:00pm setup.
         2. Clean up committee to take everything down. 
      3. Band members Melissa Dowling, Emily Robledo, Stacey Villas, and Laurie Pile will preform at the party. 
         1. They will prepare seven songs and preform at least three. 
         2. Laurie will prepare sing along song sheets to distribute. 
         3. Plan to have a Bose speaker for music and the PA system used during the Forum meetings. 
         4. Community members can bring an instrument to play along.  
      4. Debbie to get a blurb for the holiday party to Shannon for the newsletter. 

1. Old Business:
   1. New sign/ banner for events. 
      1. Nice looking sign that we can reuse. Sandwich board size. 
      2. Debbie still looking into this. More information to come at our next board meeting. 
   2. Explore a website overhaul.
      1. The committee does not have the bandwidth to do such an overhaul. It would require an outside company and funding. Need to determine if this is where we want to put our money. In the meantime, send any inaccuracies you find to [email protected] and CC Laura. 
   3. Continued conversation about bringing back a Farmers Market at Jack London Village. If you know of people who are interested, please send emails to [email protected].

1. New Business
   1. Update from the Glen Ellen Village Fair
      1. $130.00 money raised for signs.
      2. The stickers were a success. Plan to produce more of them. 
      3. We received 15 new email sign ups. 
   2. Debbie submitted a grant application to the Jack London Yacht Club for $900.00 to help cover the cost of videotaping the in-person quarterly meetings. 
   3. Professional Independent Traffic Evacuation Analysis  
      1. The email for this quarters draft agenda included a summary of a Traffic Evacuation Research done for Kensington, CA and an imperative letter to the community from resident Kevin Padian.
      2. Can the Forum’s email distribution list be used to send out an email informing the community of this initiative?  
         1. They would not have access to our email list, it would be sent by the Forum’s communication team as an email blast. 
      3. This initiative would like to ask the Forum to provide our 501(c)(3) status for the funding of such an initiative, by using the Forum as receiver of donations and issuer of funds to cover the cost of the analysis. Is this something we are willing to do? 
         1. Before the board can answer this question, we have need to review further. Questions that came up during the meeting included:
            1. How does the Glen Ellen Forum participate in this initiative? 
            2. Do we want to contribute to the funds for the cost of the study?
            3. Board members believe an academic analysis is better than a professional analysis (paid consultants). Need to research further.
            4. There were concerns that if the Forum backed this study would it be seen as trying to influence politics and working outside of our 501 (c)(3) status. It was determined that it would not be, since this study is information gathering and not political. 
      4. Are we ready to present this at the November meeting and have Kevin speak about this? 
         1. Board believes yes to start the dialogue with the community. 
         2. Nick to reach out to Kevin to see if he is interested. 
         3. Nancy will put together a package to present at the meeting and distribute to the board. 
      5. How can the study effect the SDC development:
         1. How would this impact decisions for the SDC development?
            1. If the lawsuit wins, then the data can be useful for a new EIR. 
         2. Who are the decision makers that we can influence with this Evacuation Report?
            1. Kevin was a part of a governmental civil group that was leading this and was able to implement changes in Kensington.
            2. How do implement changes in this situation?

1. Conclusion:
   1. Discuss it at the November Forum meeting. Make sure Kevin can present something to the community about it. 
   2. Distribute information about it in our newsletter and on Alice’s website eldridgeforall.org. 
   3. Have a separate meeting outside the quarterly board meeting to discuss further and see about creating an ad hoc committee for the study. 

1. Insurance policies are being renewed. 
   1. One ~$600 (liabilities) and one ~$900 (errors and omissions)
      1. Need to make sure Sonoma Land Trust is an additional insured. 

1. Public Comment (2 minutes per person)

None

Carole Martinson (Passaggio) was in attendance. 

Adjourned: 8:19pm

Upcoming Board Meetings:

Monday January 15, 2024 6:00 p.m.

Monday April 15, 2024 6:00 p.m.

Monday July 15, 2024 6:00 p.m.

Monday October 21st, 2024 6:00pm

Upcoming Forum Meetings:

Monday, November 6, 2023 6:30 p.m.

Monday, February 5, 2024 6:30 p.m.

Monday, May 6, 2024 6:30 p.m.

Monday, August 5, 2024 6:30 p.m.

Upcoming Forum Events:

Holiday Party: Monday, December 11th, 2023 at 6:30 p.m.