EVENTS

Meetings for First Six Months of 2021:

 

January 13, Wednesday: Zoom Member Meeting, 9am. Minutes of this meeting:

Signing in: Alex Crosby (Vice President), Joe Hughes (President), Hayley Bush (Board member), Linda Cassone (Board member), Dave Johnson (Board member), Jill Erickson, Marianne Kipp, Susan Carr. Guest: Ava Ekman

 

1. Intros all around and minutes from December 2020 meeting approved.

2. SCHEDULE FOR 2021. Draft schedule presented. Discussion that we should alternate Member months with Committee meetings. Thus, February would be the month for Marketing Committee and Safety Committee to meet. Suggested date February 10. Linda to take initiative to arrange Marketing Committee meeting. Joe probably take the initiative with Safety Committee, if that is called for. Since the full year’s schedule may be too early to decide everything, Susan suggested she’ll revise it for the first six months and then we’ll adjust whatever is needed for later on.

3. A Board of Directors meeting will be planned for before February 10, probably on the 3rd. Alex will arrange a zoom meeting.

4. Joe did give a brief report on Safety and Security. Crime has picked up in St Paul, but not much news coming in about break-ins, but that’s probably because of lockdowns, Covid, etc.  Joe said that one of his Minneapolis properties has been having ongoing graffiti problems. As for shopligting in Selby-Snelling, Marianne thought there’s a “normal” amount going on and with the dispersal of the homeless encampment at I-94 & Snelling, the area seems better.

   1. Flirt Boutique has closed. Jessica of Flirt had maintained a phone tag list to warn other owners about any odd shopper behaviors, and some owners take photos of suspected shoplifters. Seems that over time, owners tend to recognize some of the same people and can warn each other when these people are around.

   2. Marianne will try to get Jessica’s tag list and Hayley volunteered to take it over and look into a way to communicate quickly. Members seemed to favor email over telephone and didn’t want to give out their phone number.

5. Treasurer’s Report. As of 12/31/2020, $10,504.45 in the account. A portion of this is in the PayPal account ($183.28) from dues paid via this option.

6. Generic News:

   1. Harper Apartments is 50% rented. Susan will follow-up with Katy Wasson of Harper to recruit for membership. After Covid hit, in March 2020, Harper stopped thinking about membership.

   2. Report there might be a restaurant moving into the corner (formerly O’Gara’s), and currently it has a location in St. Louis Park.

   3. Marianne has been collecting from shops for the spring-summer hanging flower baskets.

   4. New construction of Pivot Apartments, available early 2021.

   5. New construction planned on Marshall Avenue (east of Snelling).

   6. Park Building on Selby just leased to a handyman service.

   7. Augustine’s Bar & Bakery closed for month due to illness. Naughty Greek on Snelling advertised it, too, will be closed for month of January, but the University Ave restaurant is open.

7. MEMBERSHIP: 35 members out of 42 have renewed, after three tries. One of the seven non-renewals, Family Tree, will be moving to Mpls, so that may be the reason they didn’t renew. Although members said no more attempts at renewing should be made, a forth effort was made, and so far, Whole Foods agreed to renew. Hoping for more!  Often, people don’t see the emails or misplace the early mailing statement, or our emails go into a Spam folder.

8. BOARD MEETING ISSUES: Would be welcome if at the Board meetings, possible or prospective new member names/businesses can be forwarded to the membership volunteer. Or even if Board members themselves contact business associates they have to promote membership.

9. SOCIAL MEDIA: Invited guest Ava Ekman is the new social media coordinator, replacing Audrey Ekman (yes, they are cousins) who has graduated from the Carlson School and moving on. Ava is a student at the University of Minnesota studying Strategic Communications and also active in business and campus media projects. In January Ava will try to meet some members onsite, and officially takes the reins in February. Reports will be forthcoming monthly.

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FEBRUARY NO MEMBER MEETING
February 3, Wednesday: Zoom Board of Directors #1 meeting 

February 10, Wednesday: Zoom Marketing Committee meeting 

 

March 10, Wednesday: Zoom Member meeting, 9am , MINUTES OF THIS MEETING FOLLOW:

Introductions: Mai Chong Xiong, Jaimee Hendrikson, Megan Polcher, Linda Cassone, David Johnson, Marianne Kipp, Jill Erickson, Hayley Bush, Susan Carr, Alex Crosby, Joe Hughes

A. Committee Reports

A.1. Marketing - Linda Cassone

Spring events will be cancelled due to COVID, but we are hoping to still do fall events including Selby Stroll and Shop by Candlelight.

     Social Media has been taking photos throughout the neighborhood for our social media and Instagram. We will try to better market to our members without burdening them since so many of them are overtaxed with the pandemic.

     Community bike racks – Joe Hughes is looking into what is needed for city approval and cost to see what it would cost to get bike racks. Mai Chong Xiong recommended that we talk to public works. Neighborhood Star program awards grants towards capital improvements like this. Application is open to all private organizations.

 

A.2. Safety Update – Joe Hughes

Joe Hughes spoke with Councilmember Dai Thao within the last several weeks regarding crime in St. Paul. Small businesses have been dealing with the crime increase for a couple of years, but now the problem is starting to effect the residents with the increase in violent crime and car jackings.

SSABA members Linda Cassone, Marianne Kipp, Megan Polcher also spoke on more homeless entering into stairwells, lobby vestibules, etc in the late evening, overnight, and early mornings. The county and city administration has been sending outreach teams to help homeless find shelter.

Jaimee Hendrikson added that Friday, March 12 at 8:30am there is a Visit St. Paul Safety and the Unsheltered public meeting. City officials including Department of Safety Director Ricardo Cervantes and  Police Chief Todd Axtell will be speaking on public safety.

     Patty Lammers also spoke with the Rice Street Business Association regarding how to prepare for potential civil unrest due to the Derek Chauvin trials. During the 2020 unrest, most of the police were covering large businesses along university (Cub Foods and Target) but not protecting the small businesses. Police plan to be doing better coordination and will be more prepared based off their previous years experience.

 

B. Neighborhood

Yum Kitchen and Bakery has announced that they will be opening in the vacant retail spot at Harper Apartments (the old O’Gara’s location). We are excited that it will be bringing more foot traffic to the intersection.  And, Marianne announced flower baskets being ordered as in other years.

 

C. Social Media - Ava Ekman (not present)

Susan reported that since Ava is still in school right now, her availability is primarily Tuesdays. Anyone can reach out to her directly via email to be promoted Ekman041@umn.edu   6 posts, 9 stories, 7.5 hours (photos and videos). She is currently working on a fashion thing with the retail shops, but is being encouraged to start working with the restaurants like Naughty Greek.

 

D. Treasurer’s Report – David Johnson

     $10470.49 Checking

     $191.95 Paypal

 

E. Membership Report – Susan Carr

Harper is the newest member to join. We also have a new partner member in Mac Groveland Community Council (unpaid membership).

Several businesses have requested access to our membership contact lists. Can we provide this information for businesses? Overall consensus was no. Businesses requesting this can be directed to our social media for promotion or can view our members on our website.

 

Next Committee and Board meetings to be scheduled for April 7th (Zoom)

Meeting adjourned at 10am. 

 

APRIL NO MEMBER MEETING

April 7, Wednesday: Marketing & Safety Committees, times TBD (Linda/Joe Hughes) 

Possible Board of Directors meeting

 

May 5, Wednesday: Zoom Member meeting, 9am (Alex)

May 20, Thursday: POSSIBLE Spring Shopping event, 5–8pm??

 

JUNE NO MEMBER MEETING SCHEDULED

June 9, Wednesday: Zoom Board of Directors meeting #2 (Alex)

June 16, Wednesday: Zoom Member meeting, 9am (Alex)

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