MINUTES OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS MEETING

OF THE LOWER DOWNTOWN NEIGHBORHOOD ASSOCIATION

HELD May 6, 2013

Pursuant to proper notice, a meeting of the Board of Directors of the Lower Downtown Neighborhood Association was held on May 6, 2013 beginning at 5:30 p.m.  The meeting was adjourned at 6:32 pm.  In attendance were: Lara Davies, Josh Davies, Andrew Guerra, Terry Hershey, Kirstan Marks, Jim Merrill, Paul Rothman, Cat Tatman, and Mike West.

Josh Davies chaired the meeting.  Secretary Lara Davies recorded the minutes.

Approval of April Minutes:

Paul made a motion that the April minutes be approved.  Mike seconded this.  All were in favor and the motion passed.

Budget:

After a month to review, Terry made a motion that we approve the 2013 budget that was prepared at the April meeting by the executive committee with the intention of coming in $3K under budget to make up for the amount we went over in 2012.  Jim seconded this motion.  All were in favor and the motion passed.

Board Member Update:

Maria Cook is moving to Aspen to open a yoga studio and will be leaving the LoDoNA board.  Andrew Guerra volunteered to take her spot on the board.  He came to the April meeting to learn about the board and see if it would be a good fit for him to become a board member.  The board agreed that Andrew would take Maria’s spot and be a new board member for LoDoNA.

GNA:

The board had two GNAs to approve.  One for Jimmy’s Urban Bar and Grill, which will be replacing TD’s on Blake and one for Roosevelt’s replacing Tryst on 15^th.  David made a motion that we approve the GNAs for these two locations.  Mike seconded the motion.  All were in favor and the motion passed.

Summer BBQ:

The date for the Summer BBQ will be 9/7/13.  We need someone to spearhead this committee.  Kirstan can be a vice-chair.  Several people expressed interest in being the chair or at least helping the chair including Cat and Andrew.  The board members on this committee met after the board meeting to determine structure and responsibility.

Communication/Community Update:

The next happy hour for the buildings was supposed to be May 23 at Icehouse organized by Bill, however this was the same night as the May WeeBOT so Josh said he would contact Bill to cancel.

The next building happy hour will be August 8 (Left Bank Lofts, Volker and Acme-organized by Kynnie), and October 17 (Franklin Lofts-organized by Cat).

Cat did a loft rep survey to find out who the HOA President’s were in the neighborhood.  She got back 7 responses.  She is going to resend.

She also met with Kevin Ottercrans regarding possible topics for the HOA Roundtable.  Several board members suggested that one of the topics be regarding the recent legislation that was passed about HOAs.  It appears that more than 90% of HOAs may be non-compliant.

WeeBoTs:

The April WeeBOT at Epernay was a great success.  Southern Hospitality is hosting the next WeeBOT on May 23^rd.  The board agreed that it would be fun to have attendees add their building name to their name tags.  We will perhaps be doing View House in June.  David suggested that we should keep the locations within the LoDo borders and with restaurants or bars that have GNAs signed.   He suggested Jax as a possible location.  He will also send Josh a list of possible other places. 

President’s Update:

Office Depot’s LED signage is not in compliance and the city is working through the appropriate channels to get the signs removed.  Office Depot has hired a good attorney to fight this.

There will be a meeting about the car sharing program on May 17.  The board voiced our opinion with regard to taking too many of our parking spots in LoDo but this meeting is also a chance for residents to express their opinion so we will include information about it in the newsletter.

Committee Reports:

If you know anyone who would like to research how LoDo could help with the many homelessness initiatives around the city please let Terry know.  LoDo Cares wants to help with the issue but wants to serve in the most appropriate/needed way possible.   Doing the research would help us uncover this.

Jim and Kirstan are going to meet to try and figure out a temporary process for making sure we are getting all necessary reports and paperwork when new members sign up.  This should be alleviated once we get a new website up.

The LoDo Angels are hosting an event on grief on May 28.

Next Meeting – The meeting was adjourned at 6:32 pm and the next meeting will be June 10, 2013 at 5:30 pm.

Respectfully submitted, Lara Davies, Secretary

MINUTES OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS MEETING

OF THE LOWER DOWNTOWN NEIGHBORHOOD ASSOCIATION

HELD April 8, 2013

Pursuant to proper notice, a meeting of the Board of Directors of the Lower Downtown Neighborhood Association was held on April 8, 2013 beginning at 5:30 p.m.  The meeting was adjourned at 7:12 pm.  In attendance were:  Bill Chrismer, Maria Cook, Josh Davies, Lara Davies, Terry Hershey, David Hughes, Joyce Lozow, Kirstan Marks, Jim Merrill, Paul Rothman, Jack Tone, and Mike West.

Josh Davies chaired the meeting.  Secretary Lara Davies recorded the minutes.

Approval of March Minutes:

Terry made a motion that the March minutes be approved.  Jim seconded this.  All were in favor and the motion passed.

Guests:

Andrew Guerra attended the meeting as a guest and is evaluating joining the board as a mid-year replacement.

Summer BBQ Update:

The committee was going to meet after the April 8^th meeting to discuss responsibilities and to finalize a location and date.  The Committee is evaluating having craft beer available through a sponsorship from Breckenridge Brewery and also evaluating doing the event at the Windsor’s community room.  The committee will also be working on other sponsors.

Communication/Community Update:

Lara gave an update for the group.  This committee will 4 host building parties/happy hours this year to inform residents about LoDoNA and encourage non members to join.  The first one was March 29^th and was a test run at Waterside where Real Estate Revolution hosts a monthly happy hour.  Lara and Kynnie Martin ill represented LoDoNA and talked to several individuals about the association.  Lessons learned were that we need more board members present to work the crowd and that we definitely need to have someone make an announcement about LoDoNA to the group.

The next happy hours are May 23 (Icehouse-Bill), August 8 (Left Bank Lofts, Volker and Acme-Kynnie), and October 17 (Franklin Lofts-Cat).  Each individual hosting the party will be in charge of that particular party.

This group is also going to come up with a plan to get HOA Presidents more involved such as hosting HOA Roundtables.  Cat Tatman is leading the efforts on this initiative.  Kevin Ottercrans will also work with Cat on this effort.  He is the Waterside VP of the HOA and said he wanted to help organize an event to get the LoDo HOA presidents together.  Joyce also volunteered to help Cat with the LoDo Lofts Rep list.  We will more than likely hold two events in 2013.  The group decided that we would not offer a comped membership to HOA Presidents.

Treasurer’s  Report:

Total income for 2012 was $20,440 and total expenses were $23,613.

Before the meeting the executive committee met to set a 2013 budget.  Josh and Jim gave an overview of the budget to the group and said they would send it out via email over the month so that board members could review and we could vote on it at the May meeting.   The plan for the 2013 budget was to spend $32,150 send to earn the same amount.

GNC Report:

David reported that a GNA for Mike Wright Fine Art was approved by the GNC and subsequently the GNC supported the granting of the license at the E&L Hearing.   David said that confirmatory approval was now needed from the LoDoNa Board.  Jack motioned that we approve the GNC and Maria seconded the motion.  All were in favor and the motion passed.

David also reported that Jim McCotter met with Stoney’s Full Steam Tavern and that we were working with them and the Chandlers (live next door) to get a satisfactory GNA. They seem willing to cooperate.  Josh reported that a letter/email went out to the residents of Palace Lofts about this establishment with misinformation about efforts to get a suitable GNA passed.

WeeBoTs:

Bill reported that the WeeBOT at Gatsby’s was a success and that the next WeeBOT was April 25 at Epernay.  Bill and Kirstan also hosted a membership/WeeBOT meeting and formed a WeeBOT welcoming committee.

Playground Update:

There will be a celebratory party soon (once it warms up) for the new construction efforts.   On 4/17 the installation on the water feature begins.

President’s Update:

Our domain name (lodona.org) was down temporarily this month but with Kirstan and Jim’s help it is now back up.  We have also changed hosting providers.

Next Meeting – The meeting was adjourned at 7:12 pm and the next meeting will be May 6, 2013 at 5:30 pm.

Respectfully submitted, Lara Davies, Secretary