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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMinutes_PAREB_01.14.2010Minutes of the Meeting of the Parks and Recreation Board City of Georgetown, Texas Thursday, January 14, 2010 The Parks and Recreation Board of the City of Georgetown, Texas, met on Thursday , January 14, 2010. Members Present: Bob Mathis, Jean Houck, Kent Buikema , Robert Laemel, Shane Morris, Simone Pollard Members Absent: Bill Mateja Staff Present: Randy Morrow, Kimberly Garrett, Eric Lashley, Jill Kellum Minutes Regular Meeting 1. Call to order The meeting was called to order by Kent Buikema at 7:10 pm. 2. Roll call 3. Approve minutes from November 12, 2009 meeting Laemel made a motion to approve the minutes and the motion was seconded by Houck and passed by unanimous vote. 4. Discussion on how the non profit, Friends of the Library, operates — Lashley Lashley explained the Library has two nonprofits that raise funds for the Library, one is Friends of the Georgetown Public Library and the second is the Georgetown Library Foundation. These two organizations are discussing merging into one nonprofit. The mission of the Friends is to promote the public use and community support of the library, foster appreciation of its value as a cultural and educational asset to the community and encourage the extension and improvement of its services. The Foundation has a very similar mission. The difference between the groups is the Friends are a membership based organization. The Foundation is a board that elect themselves and asks people in the community to serve on the board but they do not have a membership. In the past the Foundation was to raise larger amounts of money and do grants and the Friends is a more volunteer organization that would do the bake sales and the book sales and volunteer at the library themselves. The Friends main activity now is running the Second Hand Prose which is a used book store which is on the second floor of the library, they provide volunteers to the library and arrange the Hill Country authors series, which is a quarterly event held at the library. They meet with the City officials to promote the library's agenda. The Friends are donating approximately $10,000.00 per quarter to the library or $40,000.00 a year to the library. The Library Foundation raised over $300,000.00 during the building of the new library to offset some of the cost of the furniture. The Friends has over 400 members and that does include individuals plus families. They do not have a corporate membership at this time; this is something they are working on to get businesses to join. If they merge with the Foundation they will take on other fundraising activities they have never done before, such as a mailer to solicit donations. The Friends are considering purchasing a book mobile for the library. The Friends organization has 4 officers and the bylaws have 3 to 7 directors that are elected by the members at an annual meeting. The board has a monthly meeting and the Library Director acts as an ex-officio member of the board. Each board member is assigned as a committee chair and they report to each board meeting. It makes the board a more active part in the meetings. The committees they have are membership, fundraising, publicity, the Second Hand Prose bookstore, Children of programming, hospitality and volunteering. The Friends have an operating agreement with the Library. It gives a guideline how the relationship between the nonprofit and the Library works. Lashley stated that the Friends of the Library and Foundation can not be on the Library Advisory Board. A positive aspect of the Friends is that they are membership based and they have a group of people to serve on the Board of the Friends. Garrett stated that the nonprofits can be advocates of a group that the City Boards and Commissions and staff can not. Lashely stated the Friends have their own website with a link from the Library website. Lashley explained that the Friends make about $45,000.00 a year off of book sales and their membership dues bring in about $4,000.00 a year and they make about $5,000.00 off the author's series. Lashley explained the 501c3 and how the Friends spend their funds and how the Foundation does invest some of their money. 5. Update from Friends of Georgetown Parks and Recreation Subcommittee Laemel thanked Lashley for attending both meetings. Garrett has volunteered to be the exofficio member of the board. The subcommittee will meet the first Monday of each month at the Recreation Center at 7:30pm. Laemel stated they are in the process of establishing a mission statement, bylaws, and roles of the board of the directors. In the February meeting they will be voting on a membership application with a logo. The subcommittee discussed applying for grants. Laemel stated the subcommittee asked everyone to bring a friend to the January meeting and stated that worked out well. Laemel stated after the next meeting they want to bring the stakeholders, such as the soccer groups, bicycle groups, schools, etc., in to see the needs and desires of them and branch out. Houck added that the subcommittee is only setting the groundwork as the subcommittee of the Parks and Recreation Advisory Board can not be on the board of the Friends of Georgetown Parks and Recreation. Other people would have to vote on bylaws and go forward as the Friends of Georgetown Parks and Recreation. 6. Update on Lake Georgetown project Garrett stated there has not been new information since November. The consultant is working on a draft for the quality of life citizen survey. Garrett stated the draft goes to City Council in January for review. Garrett stated that staff submitted a question to ask the citizens if they would like to see the City of Georgetown take over the operations of Lake Georgetown. It is a phone survey and they will also do an online survey. There is not a mail survey. Buikema stated there was excitement about the concept but that was diffused by the contract that states the money collected would have to go back into Lake Georgetown and not into the city. Garrett stated the next step would be to meet with the United States Army Corps of Engineers. 7. Discussion of Parks and Recreation Monthly Review Laemel asked what the percent differential between a resident and nonresident as far as memberships. Garrett stated that 25% of our members are nonresidents. Laemel asked how differential for the nonresident fees are established. Mathis asked if residents are paying more than the equivalent of the difference in their taxes. Morrow added there are a lot of people that live in the city limits that do not pay taxes, such a people that live in apartments. Laemel asked if any other programming was increased. Garrett stated that camp fees are going up $10.00 a week. Buikema asked who received the monthly review. Garrett stated every month it goes to the Finance Director and the City Manager and also goes to the department heads in our division. Buikema stated that somehow it should get to the council members. 8. Future agenda items 9. Adjourn Houck made a motion to adjourn. The meeting adjourned at 8:12 pm. Attest: Approved: -.711-Ale..- Ae-it.._ /7t4 nt Buikema, Chair Parks and Recreation Board Board 1. Shane Morris, Secretary Parks and Recreation