Minutes from D1 Board Retreat

The District 1 Community Council Board met for a retreat on April 28 at the offices of Saint Paul Youth Services. (quorum established at 6:10p; business begun 6:34p.) The evening began at 5:30p with a meal and social gathering of new and returning board members. After an introduction by new board President, Paul Sawyer, and a round of introductions of those present, the Board moved to appoint Rose McDonough as Secretary to fill the vacated position left when Mohr was elected Vice President at the March Annual Meeting (nominated by Mohr, seconded by Barrett, unanimous approval). The Board heard a discussion of organization finances and approved its third quarter financial reports (moved by DeLaTorre, seconded by Mohr; unanimous approval).  

Discussion of our Purpose/Mission/Vision – With the change in leadership, and following an organizational assessment that highlighted a lack of general communication and understanding of the work that we do, we are beginning an explicit discussion of our work with the purpose of becoming more effective. The organizational assessment pointed out specifically that we have not been effective communicating what we do around efforts to include and be relevant to the many communities within the district. Our district is over 50% people of color, almost 50% renters, 28% youth under the age of 18, and 10% elders over the age of 65. Our organization and our work, should reflect this dynamic reality. With our recent election, seven of our 15 board members are people of color; we have several members who are renters (though far less than 50%); we have a range of ages on the board, and all four of our neighborhoods are represented (though it is noted that we do not have representation by local businesses on our board). NOTE: our efforts this year to form a Youth Council are being made in attempt to find a means for those under 18 years to have a voice in determining the future of this area.

In what will be an on-going effort, we began by discussing the general categories of work that we do. These include land use, the environment, safety, youth, and neighborhood identity or community building. The primary purpose for each of these categories is to PLAN for a vibrant future for everyone. As an organization, we also PARTNER with other groups and organizations to make sure that services are available within the community. Finally, we do a minor amount of PROGRAMMING ourselves – mostly in the form of specific events (such as National Night Out, the Community Clean Up, and meetings about specific issues). We provide information, resources and connections among people and organizations; we are NOT a service provider in the sense of doing programming around housing, youth or senior activities, developing entrepreneurs and so on. In the language of nonprofits, we are STRATEGIC CONNECTORS, bringing together people and resources that already exist in order to generate activity.

The discussion then centered around how board members fit into this organizational model. We asked for examples from among our longer-term members about how they have worked as board members – overseeing the viability of the organization – and as volunteers to the work the organization does in the community. Peterson, our Land Use Committee chair, discussed the kinds of development and zoning cases that the committee has worked with over the last four years. During that time, the committee has moved from working on small-scale, site-specific cases of homeowners wanting to change things on their properties (adding rooms, splitting a lot, paving a driveway), to larger-scale, longer-range planning efforts around transportation, greenspace, environmental issues, recreational services and commercial development. With her background in planning, she has guided us through developing the first community-led transportation plan fully approved by the city.

Westerberg, our Treasurer, talked about his experience working with the local block nurse program on a survey of seniors about their transportation needs. Wilder Foundation worked with all the eastside block nurse programs to design a scientifically valid survey so that they could have detailed data when trying to address seniors’ needs. Westerberg single-handedly did all the surveying in District 1 (the only area to have completed its sampling to date). He was recognized for this work at the city-wide Neighborhood Honor Roll. This type of data-gathering is important in the planning work that our organization does, as well as for the block nurse programs.

Mohr, our former Secretary and current Vice President, spoke about his volunteer work for National Night Out, and the Community Clean Up. He enjoys meeting people from all across the district at these events. He especially likes the openness of the board – its acceptance of all points of view – a place to hear those divergent views and to talk them through.

Fuehrer, our long-term editor of the newspaper (he has also served as President, Vice President, Secretary, and on the Finance and Land Use Committees, and regularly works the Community Clean Up) talked about his commitment to giving back to the community. He sees the newspaper as a vital means for us to reach every household in the district. He produces three issues of the paper per year, which has articles, opinion pieces and general community updates included.

The meeting concluded with a discussion of how this discussion would continue at our May meeting. We will outline the work of each committee, think how those committees can best operate, and look to assigning members to each one.