Minutes of Council Meeting Held December 9, 2004

SASYNA  Meeting Minutes – Prepared by Betty Chewning

Present: Dan Melton, Doug Johnson, Leslie Christopherson , Judy Olson, Mark McFadden, Michael Goodman, Mark Bergum, Karen Faster, Lou Host-Jablonski, Steve Klafka, Cassie Willyard

1. New SASYNA member Cassie gave an abridged version of her life story.  She lives on Union Street. Introductions

2. PMT (Project Management Team) meeting was on Dec. 8th.  They are going to do outreach with businesses, particularly the new businesses. The hope is the PMT will catalyze the formation of a business organization, not to form one or be one itself. (SARA Revitalization Organization is basically not going to be playing this function, but rather will oversee Barrymore, etc. Since their mission was to help with the revitalization and this is going well, they have already accomplished one of their main missions.)  So it’s good to start fresh. The PMT group will meet on the 4th Tuesday at 7:00 regularly. Idea of PMT was to have a group of people to watchdog implementation of the neighborhood plan during development projects and to further refine design decisions/standards.  Two big issues were identified last night: 1) There is no business association in this area; 2) Transportation in our neighborhood plan needs to be addressed.

3. Judy Olson ran through what we should know about.  Chatarra Restaurant plans are moving ahead and hopes to open in April. Second, City’s Urban Design Ordinance might be appropriate for Winnebago and Atwood streets. This would mean that if someone wanted to change the Kings Foot Gallery they would have to come to Urban Design (the door in the front is being changed to the back which is changing the character of the street). It would not take much to change this character.  Judy feels that it will be critical to involve property owners in this issue. Judy feels that if we create guidelines that are simple we can stop the most onerous changes.  As Lou pointed out a business association could look at the Schenk Atwood Business Master Plan and revisit it to make a recommendation as to whether it should extend down the rest of Atwood.  

4. We discussed decision making process as it relates to use of e-mail as a vehicle for consensus decisions. E-mails requiring group decisions should indicate that a response from all is preferred/needed.****  A quorem of council members (7) expressing consensus is needed for action to be approved via e-mail. If one person opposes the proposal then it blocks the action. There are some issues that are better addressed by talking in person rather than doing e-mail.  For example, if an issue is major or contentious (one person objects) then we might choose to have a special meeting between regular meetings.  The Chair should include in the message seeking a consensus decision that if he doesn’t hear from opposition in next 72 hours then it will be considered as approved.  The chair would need to make a judgment that this is not a contentious issue.  In traditional consensus process you allow people to step aside in order not to block adoption of a decision, unless you are truly against it.  

5. One proposal is have a neighborhood event to celebrate and feel the fabric of the neighborhood more.  Michael will get the ball rolling on getting others in on planning an event.  One idea is to have a Harmony neighborhood music event with neighborhood musicians. The idea is not to raise money, but rather to celebrate our neighborhood.  Leslie pointed out how helpful to have our membership e-mail list on computer so could both get their input and to involve them.

6. We discussed the definition of SASY membership.  Mark will put together a list of those who attended a GMM in prior years or this year. We discussed the merits of having members of SASYNA have to pay dues. We need to revisit our bylaws on membership, not so much to change them as to understand them and make sure we are implementing them (ie, getting dues paid).

7.  EINPC is having its annual meeting on Monday.  Kathleen Falk is coming to talk about land use issues in east isthmus in our neighborhood.  Starts at 5:30 and will be on the 3rd floor United Way.  There will be food there.  There are critical land use issues that need input from community. This will affect the planning in our area for the future.

8. Doug described the material he has updated on another SASY Website which can newly be located at:   Madison.com/communities/sasyna    It will have a brief introduction of who we are (drawn largely from the brochure), events coming up, etc.

9. Decision was made to pay $150.00 in the insurance for Solstice and also to pay the $150. for the permits (park permit is $100. and fire permit is $50).  There is a little under $3,000. in our treasury.  Solstice celebration begins with ice building, weather permitting at about 4:00 and the Olbrich Park bonfire starts at 5:00 on Tuesday, December 21st .

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