Chicago fair-trade promotion gets EVA support

Minutes for October 5, 2009 Membership Meeting
Submitted by Dana Palmer

Meeting Commenced at 7:07 p.m.

1. Presentation by Allison Havens (pictured at right) with The Greenheart Shop, located at 1911 W. Division St. According to Ms. Havens, The Greenheart Shop is a non-profit organization that offers fair-trade and eco-friendly items for purchase. They are also part of Chicago Fair Trade and were started by the Center for Cultural Interchange.



2. Secretary Report: Dana Palmer drafted a letter to request those past members whose membership status has lapsed to renew. Letter will be presented to board at next meeting for approval.



3. Planning, Preservation and Development: Scott Rappe mentioned that there are plans to save most of the St. Boniface building to use for senior housing.



4. Scott Rappe brought up to the group that a Community Sustainable Agriculture partnership called Homegrown Wisconsin is interested in having a drop site in the East Village neighborhood if they can get 25 people to participate. Information sheet and contact information was passed around.



5. Aldermanic Liaison: A member of EVA brought up the issue of having trees placed on Augusta. According to Rich Anselmo, there was a plan drafted before to have bump-outs made for trees to be added to Augusta. Mr. Anselmo stated he would go to the alderman's office to re-raise this issue but requested to have a letter signed by EVA supporting the addition of trees.



6. Membership: Steve Crane stated that he will be updating the membership list this week.



7. Greg Nagel made a motion that EVA supports the Greenheart resolution for the City of Chicago to support the fair-trade declaration. Brodi Cole seconded the motion and the group unanimously voted in favor of the motion.

Minutes for Oct. 12 Board Meeting
Submitted by Dana Palmer

Attendance -- Board Members: John Scheer, Greg Nagel, Brodi Cole, Dana Palmer, Rich Anselmo, Steve Crane and Stephen Rynkiewicz; Non-Board Members: Marjorie Isaacson, Melissa Jennings, Tom DeBower and Jennifer DeBower. Meeting Commenced at 6:33 p.m.

1. Alderman Flores is the possible guest speaker for the Nov. 2 membership meeting. Rich Anselmo has agreed to go to the alderman's office to receive a confirmation and to hand-deliver a list of topics or concerns that was generated to be discussed at the meeting. The list included pedestrian designation, trees for Augusta, and update on the Polish triangle, post office and walgreens as well as parking restriction changes. Dana Palmer agreed to type up the list of topics and email it to Rich Anselmo.



2. Membership Initiatives: Dana Palmer drafted a letter that was reviewed and approved by the board to be sent to all current or past members of EVA on the membership list asking them to renew if they are past due. Ideas were also passed around about new member recruitment. Greg Nagel suggested making poster board signs that the board members would place around the neighborhood informing neighbors about upcoming EVA meetings and events. Greg Nagel will contact Kinkos to get an estimate on how much the signs would cost to have made.



3. EVA Holiday: Suggestions were again passed around about where EVA should have their holiday dinner that would be held on Dec. 7. John Scheer stated that he would ask around to a few restaurants in the area about prices and availability. Some top suggestions were The Fifty/50 and Angels and Mariachis.



4. Membership: Steve Crane stated that he is working on updating the membership list. Brodi Cole agreed to post the final draft on Pbwiki. Greg Nagel agreed to run a report to locate the new residents of East Village within the last six months so that a letter could be sent to them informing them of EVA and asking them to attend a meeting. Dana Palmer agreed to draft a letter for this purpose. Steve Crane agreed to be the one to send those letters out.