FICRA & FICRA BUILDING TRUST BOARDS MEETING MINUTES 01-14-2021

JOINT MEETING OF FICRA & THE FICRA BUILDING TRUST BOARDS
VIDEO/TELECONFERENCE MEETING MINUTES
Thursday, January 14th, 2020, 6:30PM

Attendees:  All Board members present except excused: Pia Beetham and Gina Olson.

Other attendees: Joan Broughton, Ray Kittelberger, Jill Christ, and Jim Braden.

The meeting was posted and advertised to the residents of Fox Island on the FICRA website with a minimum of 10 days’ notice.

Meeting called to order at 6:36 PM. 

Motion passed to move the NCC building names issue to the front in deference to the attendee interested in making a case for that.

NCC building names and naming rooms for past volunteers was discussed at length.  Karen Kretschmer agreed to investigate the original action taken to name the building after Col. Fred Nichols and report back to the Boards concerning past practice.  The Boards will then consider both the issue of how to get the building properly recognized as the Fox Island School, as stated in the National and Pierce County historical registers, in addition to being recognized as the Nichols Community Center.  After a thorough investigation, the Board will determine policy moving forward given past precedent.

Approval of November 12, 2020 Minutes:  Minutes approved with several minor corrections.  Corrected minutes will be posted on ficra.org.

Presidents’ Reports:  Miguel thanked all for their support and shared plans to get a FICRA Flash out by month-end.  The focus of this next flash will be recognitions of volunteers.  He asked all to send Candy any material that should be included.  Ray mentioned the meal delivery program that helps approximately 15 seniors on Fox Island.

Treasurer’s Report:  Hal went through the various documents that represented year-end 2020 finances.  The Treasurer’s Report documents will be available on ficra.org.  Jim Braden previously sent out the Capital Expenditures Report and the Reserve Account Report by email to all Board members as a supplement to the financial statements.  Hal indicated that there is a draft of the 2021 Budget created to be addressed by the Finance Committee and presented to the Boards for approval at the February Board meetings.  Howard stated that the draft budget has some optimistic elements in it (fund raiser and FICRA Fair) that are quite dependent on the COVID status through 2021.  Even if neither is held, the financial result will be close to break-even for 2021.  The financial condition of both FICRA and the Trust is very sound.

Standing Committees:

1. Citizens’ Patrol and Emergency Preparedness

Citizens’ Patrol:  Jim Braden reported that there have been some high-profile incidents that were domestic in nature and had no impact on the community.  The crime statistics are still extremely low.  Our budget was met for 2020 with less than average Sheriff deputy paid assistance being needed.  Emergency Preparedness is progressing with an exercise scheduled for February 11^th, 2021.  This will be a limited scope exercise focused primarily on communications (communication systems, establishment of Emergency Operations Center, and Public dissemination of information) to generate lessons learned.  There will be a series of exercises over time to test the system and educate new volunteers.  The Cascadia Rising II, a multi-state exercise, is tentatively scheduled for June 2022, and we plan to participate in that as we had done in the June 2016 Cascadia Rising exercise.

2. Trust Building and Grounds

• Project Status: The NCC building front and south side windows are on schedule to be completed around the end of January, 2021.  We have had two 24-hour periods in the last week with over 2.5 inches of rain and the NCC basement is dry (almost perfect)!   However, it takes ongoing maintenance to keep the system working properly.  Ray mentioned the leaning Alder trees around the Sports Field track.  Jim stated they are on a list to be removed soon.  Project status details can be found in the Capital Expenditures report as a part of the Treasurers’ report.

• NCC Rental/Use Requests:  Work is still in progress.  This, along with finalizing the 2021 budget proposal, will be addressed by the Finance committee and reported to the Trust Board. 

3. FICRA Publicity

Miguel reiterated the intent to get a newsletter out by the end of January.  Folks have been sending in suggestions and pictures which is helpful.

4. FICRA Social Activities

Miguel shared the FICRA discussions on this and they believe that the outdoor movies/venue type events have real potential.  The Halloween movie event, even with threatening weather and few attendees who braved the weather, expressed great joy in participating.  Pictures of that are in the archives.  This could be one option for COVID-safe activities in the future.

Unfinished Business:  None brought forth.

New Business:

1. NCC Name Change

See opening motion and remarks.

2. FICRA/Trust Donation

Jim Braden shared the story behind Julie Sorenson’s large donation to FICRA, the Trust, and the Fox Island Historical Society.  There will be a letter on file from Julie regarding her wishes.  The Boards will work to properly recognize Julie for her donation.

3. FICRA Uses for Donated Funds

The FICRA board discussed potential uses for their reserve funds as well as future donations for the development of a stage on the west side of the NCC building.  This was discussed at length as being a feature that might assist with future NCC functions such as the Fair and outdoor movies/venues.  More discussion to be held on this.

4. 2021 FICRA Building Trust Budget

This discussion was a part of the Treasurer’s Report recorded above.

Meeting was adjourned at 8:24 PM.

The next regularly scheduled meeting of the Boards is Thursday, February 11^th, 2021 at 6:30 PM via video/teleconference.

Respectfully submitted by Secretary Candy Wawro and Jim Braden