FICRA Board Meeting Minutes 06-10-2021

Fox Island Community & Recreation Association 
Board Meeting Minutes 
Thursday, June 10, 2021 7:00PM 
Nichols Community Center, Fox Island, Washington 

Board Attendees: Lance Powers, Hal Goodell, Candy Wawro, Weston King, Aileen Jones, and Miguel Martinez in attendance. Lindsey Jensen, excused.

Meeting Called to order at 7:04 pm

Minutes from the May 20201 Meeting have been motioned for approval, was seconded and are unanimously approved. 

Public Comments: Naomi Grant, President of Chapel Preservation Society, announced that the Chapel is scheduled a Conditional Use Permit hearing final meeting on June 16th at 9 am.  She reports if you want more info, go to saveourchapel.net. She encourages anyone interested to give their support.

President’s Report: Lance reports that it is good to finally be once again all together, meeting in person! He gave a brief period for new board members to introduce themselves. Each member gave a short bio of themselves. The Ficra Board voted on a new mission statement a few weeks ago, which is the following: “The FICRA mission is to Connect, Create, Engage, and Thrive as a community”.

Treasure’s Report: Hal Goodell  

Checking:  May 1: $17,490.47 May 31: Cleared Balance: $37,324.16 

Savings:  May 1: $25 May 31: Cleared Balance: $25

Money Market:  May 1: $31,055.85 May 31: Cleared Balance: $31,059.81 

Pay Pal:  May 1: $697.28 May 31: Balance: $841.41

Current Membership 2020-2021: 358

Hal reports that $20,000 which was donated by JS was moved /transferred from the Trust to the Ficra checking for the purposes of the ball field renovation.

The Savings account is holding $25 because it is the minimum balance which is required to have a money market account.  The PayPal account is joint but gets split between the Trust and the Board as indicated. Memberships are coming in by mail and over the online PayPal account. Membership year is Aug 1-July 31 when most renew their membership during the Ficra Fair.

Unfinished Business:

Wes advises that the ball field renovation is going well.  He reports his interest was partly to have a great place to have his kids play, and he is hoping that if he gets the field in shape then more kids /parents will enjoy the facility.  He has the area lined and strung for Saturday, July 12^th, work.  Next step will be to cut the sod away with a donated use of a sod cutter from United Rentals. The cut grass will need to be hauled away.  Volunteers are welcome. He will be patching up divots in the field as needed along the way.  Walraths makes a special mix for the infield, and they have donated up to 24 yards at no cost for the project. The infield mix will be dumped and spread with a tractor hopefully on June 17^th/18th. The company set to place fencing is Northwest Fencing who is charging FICRA only their cost of $12,000. Patrick Murphy has volunteered to bring the Scouts to help at different steps. The approval previously for $16,000 was passed. Wes would like to make a proposal for an approval for added supplies for the field completion. Miguel made a motion to propose an additional $1000 for Wes to purchase the final equipment (bases with anchors, etc).  The motion was seconded by Aileen and passed by the board unanimously.

Lindsey, Hal and Lance have been working on gathering bids for an outside screen and audio system. The suggested cost from one proposed vendor was approximately $50,000.  This was much more than expected.  Lance reports that the project has, therefore, been paused so that new bids can be explored.  A soft date for a community movie night was proposed for July 9^th but that may have to be paused for now.  Howard suggested putting small speaker in the grass, rather than have loud sound system, would be less disruptive to the neighbors.  Jim volunteered to talk to George Metzger who has expertise in this area.  Candy suggested the possibility of summer concerts on the property with varying genres of musical artists.  Hal remarked that a portable stage would give options for musicians and other entertainers to set up on the property.

Committee Reports: 

Social Activities: Miguel reports that the Christmas Tree Lighting is a FICRA sponsored event and happens on the 1st Sunday in December. The Wickline family are asking if we are going to again have them perform, if so, it needs to be scheduled.  Our previous Santa has retired so a new Santa will need to be found/booked.  Clarification was made between Ficra and Ficra Trust events.  Ficra has in the past sponsored community events such as the men’s coffee group, other small groups (such as quilting and an art group), summer solstice, the Easter egg hunt, and the tree lighting.  However, events that include fundraising, like the Ficra Fair, the Wine & Cheese Night (or Party w/a Purpose), and the Ficra Fair Apparel /shirts is a Trust Board sponsored event which has to do with each group’s (Ficra and Ficra Trust’s) tax status.

Planning Calendar: Candy, as rental coordinator, suggests there is a goal to get the community groups back into regular use and reports the current community rental structure is prohibitive monetarily to welcoming these groups back.  She looks forward to the rate structure being finalized and simplified. The Trust Board is in the process of setting policy, and the Finance committee will propose rates once a clear policy has been set.  Ficra board wants to allow small groups from the community, which have been previously sponsored and subsidized to continue.  Lance asked that the definition of what constitutes a community group and who is to be subsidized/sponsored be further clarified and suggested this be tabled until the next meeting after the policy and rates have been finalized.  Jim remarked that this facility is truly owned by the community and should be made available to the community for recurring use, in balance of what also helps to preserve the building, or prevent overuse, and allow availability.

Membership:  See above

New Business:

Communications: none reported

Volunteer Coordinator:  Heidi reports that there are some better platforms to manage volunteer lists and would like to pursue these changes. 

Meeting Adjourned at 8:07 pm

Next Meeting is Jul 8, 2021 Respectfully submitted by Candy Wawro (and Gina Olson)