Approximately 100 crowd Annual Meeting to vote on Board, Budget and Bylaws

MNA Board President Michael Jacob.

The MNA Annual Members Meeting was held Thursday night (October 17) and included Board elections, approval of the budget, new bylaws and reports on Committee work such as the 722 Williamson Working Group.

MNA Board President Michael Jacob reported the results of the meeting in an email to the MNA Listserv which can be viewed after the jump.

Good morning, neighbors! Here are some of the highlights from last night’s Marquette Neighborhood Association annual membership meeting.

First, thanks to the amazing crowd that showed up. I double dog dare anyone to point me to another neighborhood that draws more than 100 people to this kind of event!

Congrats:
Ralph Kuehn and Amelia Royko, two among many truly terrific neighbors who were recognized as this year’s Good Neighbor Award winners

Those elected to the Board: Lynn Lee, Colleen Hayes, Anne Walker, John Coleman, Mike Soref, Jatima Cheema, Karyn Chacon (serving the remaining year of the seat to which she was appointed this summer) and Jack Kear (serving the one year left for the seat vacated by Joan Frost). They join continuing Board members Michael Jacob, Chris Lukas, Ralph Kuehn and Carl Durocher.

Read the candidate statements here

MNA Board officers: Michael Jacob (President), Chris Lukas (Vice President), Mike Soref (Secretary) and Jatima Cheema (Treasurer) will fill the roles of MNA’s officers in the year ahead.

Thanks:
Outgoing MNA Board members Cheryl Solaris, Joan Frost, Tom Boos and Bill Scanlon.

Batch Bakehouse, Ground Zero Coffee, Change and MG&E, neighborhood businesses that provided refreshments, Good Neighbor Award gift certificates and door prizes

Business:
The MNA Annual Budget (proposed budget here) was well-debated, modified a bit and adopted unanimously. Thanks to everyone, especially Cheryl Solaris, for your work on the MNA books. The following changes were made (I don’t have my noted in front of me, so hopefully I have this exactly right):

The $4,000 budget line for festival music coordination and fundraising was deleted; $1,000 was added to each of the two festival expenses budget lines.

The net result is a total MNA 2014 budget reduction of $2,000 which would slightly bolster the amount that would be left in reserves at the end of the year.

A line was added for $10,000 to the Madison Skatepark. That addition deceases the total that will be left in reserves at the end of the year.

Five of six amendments (numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, and 6 as circulated via the list serve and posted to the MNA web page) tidying up MNA’s bylaws were adopted. The amendment (#5) related to using Robert’s Rules of Order was tabled until next year’s annual meeting.

The Board will continue to work on mechanisms to guide the Board, Annual Meeting and Committee discussions.

Announcements:
The Fundraising, Finance and Festivals Committee will be meeting on November 13 at WilMar to continue discussion about the neighborhood festivals, especially Orton Park Fest.

For those with strong feeling about the festivals, this will be an important meeting to attend as the Committee will be working to forward recommendations to present at a community meeting in December and, ultimately, to the Board. See the recent posts to the MNA listserve.

The Preservation & Development Committee will be meeting Wednesday, October 23, at 4:30 p.m. at 945 E. Washington Ave. to continue discussion about the 722 Willy St. development proposal. See the recent posts to the MNA listserv.

The MNA Board will be establishing a committee to put together a request for proposals to manage East Side Express on behalf of MNA. Please drop me a note if you’d like to be on that committee.

Reminder all you need to do to be a part of a committee is to express interest. Cheryl Solaris is chair of FFF and Lindsey Lee is chair of P&D; drop them a note if you’d like to be added to the “To” list of their respective committees.

I [Michael Jacob] will not be at the November MNA Board meeting; VP Chris Lukas will chair that meeting. You can contact either or both of us with agenda requests.

Again, thanks to all for being an active part of our very active neighborhood, officially one of the best places in America!

Michael Jacob, MNA Board President