2010-10-13 BVCLT Board Meeting

BVCLT Board Meeting
Date: October 13, 2010
Present: Lara, Julio Sr, Irma- notes, Tina, Michelle, Kristin, Somer, Helen
Agenda:

LOGO UPDATE
Kristin now has copies of PhotoShop? files and can manipulate files. Next steps are to work on business cards, which Kristin will prepare. Logo committee will make decision.
Lara will prepare gift for Kristin’s friend- the designer. Gift capped at $50.

CO-OP UPDATE
Coop approved all but one of the by-laws. Concensus decision still being worked on. Filing of Articles may follow in the next few weeks. Other documents still pending but in process.

CLT CONFERENCE
National CLT conference in Albuquerque, NM. Dates are November 9th, 10th, 11th. Somer, Tina, Barbara, and Kristin. CRSP is covering registration for all folks attending.

LEARNING GARDEN
Kristin submitted Cal-Fire grant application Oct 1st.
Request is made that more garden committee meetings are needed, as well as volunteers to help out. Kristin will send out calendar for folks to schedule next garden meeting. Will try to schedule GC before CLT conference and Board meeting after conference.
Lara updates that LAUSD has not started on any work.
Concerns about last meeting. Very stressful meeting.

ECO MAYA
Julio goes down list of donations:
$5000 CRA
$2000 Rampart Neighborhood Council
3 to5 booths confirmed
1 sound stage is paid for by Tu Vision
LAPD is paying for street closure and advertising.
LAPD had sold 10,000 tickets for rides.

Press Conference set for October 26, at La Abuela Restaurant.
Tu Vision weekly advertising Eco Maya, ABC7 will be advertising event.

4 PLEX UPDATE
Lara, Lois and Tina have meeting with Eric Garcetti 10/14/10 to discuss CRSP/BVCLT purchase of 4-plex. Seeking by-in from Council District 13 for loan approval from CRA. CRSP is more experienced and established to help with purchase.

Lara presents list of items she may be discussing during CD10 meeting. Several questions and concerns from group come up. If Lara and Lois want by in from BVCLT, they need to be more transparent with group. Requesting by-in the night before their meeting does not give BVCLT enough time to process.

TASK LIST
Kristin set up next garden meeting
Lara work on $50 gift for Logo designer

ADD TO NEXT AGENDA
Board Structure
What are 3 month Goals

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2010-09-08 BVCLT Board Meeting

BVCLT Board Meeting
Date: September 08, 2010
Present: Lara, Julio Sr, Irma- notes, Tina, Barbara, Michelle, Kristin
Agenda:

LEARNING GARDEN
Lara has spoken to Scott at LAUSD; inquiring about the progress and status of the Garden. Scot has completed the agreement in July but the OCG has not responded and their office if very busy. A new project manager is on board and Scot is waiting for update on status of project and an explanation of the site conition. Scot asks BVCLT to be patient with LAUSD.
No response yet from inquiries Lara has made on Insurance companies.
Discussion around USDA news release. USDA announces funding to Expand School Community Gardens and Garden-Based learning Opportunities. Discussion tabled for next weeks Garden Committee 9/15.

CO-OP UPDATE
By Laws to be approved by end of September. Sections 7 & 8(financial and insurance) are still being reviewed for feedback. Sections 3 & 6 (governance and conflict resolution) are to be reviewed as well. Next meetings are set for September 13th and 20th.
Lara is asking for BVCLT board members to join the meetings and put pressure on the Co-op
Lois is frustrated that the co-op is not staying on top of house keeping in building and not moving forward quicker.

LOGO UPDATE
Good idea to have 2 layers for logo. 1 layer will consist of all images, 2nd layer will not include rooster, canister and lettering at base.
Logo Approved: yay!
Board approved $50 gift for logo designer. Purchase of Melba’s chocolate and Angel’s Coffee.

ECO MAYA FISCAL SPONSOR REQUEST-
Group discussion began with questions to Julio. Julio states that there will not be security or insurance cost. Julio will be meeting next Tuesday with Rampart division for more details. Outreach to local businesses is scheduled for tomorrow. Confusion among board members about BVCLT’s role and expectations from Eco Maya. Lara will meet with Julio to get answers for board member questions.

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2009-11-19 BVCLT Board Meeting

BVCLT Board Meeting
Date: November 19, 2009
Present: Helen, Lara, Michelle, Julio Sr, Somerset, (Tina joined at 7:30pm)
Yovana is going with us for her research project!!!
Her mou(draft) States
We helped her state her mission statement
BVCLT expansion plan
Demographic analysis
Target population
Short literature review of other land trusts
*she needs us to help her set up interviews with other land trust people
e.g. Ian Winters, Clackamus(Portland), consultant for the Vermont Burlington land trust that’s out here, Ann Soule ( California community foundation),
her advisors will be approving
helen will be meeting with her once a week
questions about the contract we’re signing with Yovana,
can we have language “ operating expenditures not to exceed $250. Helen can come to the board with requests for additional project expenses.
We are empowering Helen to be our primary contact and BVCLT representative with Board consensus.

*In committees we need to establish what our action plan is for the info from Yovanna

*Read Helen’s Analysis paper of the Chinatown SF city
-Michelle is looking into creating an alliance with PACE/BVCLT/BRESEE to train youth in weatherizing for a grant application through the cith CDD. The grant notices were passed around.
Perhaps we could be part of the application that Pace submits as a lab for working on the weatherization.
Michelle will email us an update by the 30th to see if we need to come to any agreements.
UPDATE ON THE GARDEN:
Ian, Lara, Brad and parter, Ethel Frimbroslopez, Seth and Fonda from Bresee were present
We have pictures, contours, and heard that they don’t want us on the property until March when the parking lot is done.
Lois drafted a letter of support for the principal of Comuno Nuevo
She said that she would send us some templates of the partnership that we are supposed to be forming
Susan Klein hasn’t gotten back to us.
We need to work on the partnership
We could be a seedling and nursery site for plantings in other areas
We should be looking for grants now for it.
The business plan for earthworks
Partnering with CSC might be smart as they are doing a lot of groundwork that is relevant
We could have an EcoMaya? booth or art venue to see what people want the space to be.
EcoMaya?:
Julio is asking BVCLT for being the fiscal sponsor for EcoMaya? 2010.
Julio did the EcoMaya? Earth Day event for over 10 years
Concerns with the $40,000 fee that LAPD may charge for the street closure for the Calle Ocho event ( Dec. 11), that would essentially close the event
As we get to know the fees and legal barriers for having the event then we can.
Julio will do the research to find out about the new rules regarding street closure and LAPD. BVCLT asking for a proposed budget, and an estimate of receipts from the last event held at the Ecovillage (2004?). Julio has spoken with the offices of Kevin deLeon, Eric Garcetti, and Ed Reyes office.
Move to be the fiscal sponsor for EcoMaya? pending the information requested, and compensation to be discussed at another date.
RESIGNATION NOTICE FROM STEPHANIE ZILL
The board reflected, and accepted her notice.
A former board member will be asked to finish her term.
REPORT BACK FROM THE US/TU Coop
The bylaws were finished, incorporating the comments from Al Valencia. But they will be reviewed BVCLT’s lawyer, and sent to the board members electronically for further review.
Meeting adjourned 21:20.
Next meeting will be Dec. 17th – Christmas potluck?

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2009-09-17 BVCLT Board Meeting

Meeting Cancelled.

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2009-08-20 BVCLT Board Meeting

BVCLT Board Meeting

Date: August 20, 2009

Present: Lara, Julio Sr, Somerset, Julio Jr, Irma- notes, Stephanie, Helen, Sara

Agenda:
Intern project: 20 min
Garden: 20 min
Mou finalized: 15 min

Discussion on intern project- Helen and Sara are not present.
Idea’s suggested by group

• Tenant Survey
• Concerns of folks speaking to owners and community on our behalf.
• Information to gather: vehicles, interest in community, do they work in the neighborhood
• Gathering demographics of surrounding area
• Teacher buy-in.

Mou finialzed w/CRSP and COOP (See attached for MOU)
Concerns raised in previous POG meeting regarding monthly lease of $1,200 to BVCLT from coop. Details need to be ironed out by all parties. Suggested that the lease amount be revisted in 3 years. Also, logistics regarding insurance came up. The question is will coop be recognized as a non-profit.

Real Estate Committee will follow up next meeting.

Yovana Perez, 2nd year at UCLA-Urban Planning. Intern interested in affordable housing project. Working on her Client Project which takes 1 year. Brief introductions by BVCLT members. More information about BVCLT needed. Yovana will follow up with her professors.

LAUSD Garden project. Lara reviewed briefly on garaden programs so we can figure out which direction BVCLT wants to go in.

Next meeting is September 17th.

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2009-07-16 BVCLT Board Meeting

BVCLT Board Meeting

Date: July 16, 2009

Present: Lara, Julio Sr, Somerset, Julio Jr, Irma- notes, Tina, Bobby

Lara update on LAUSD parking lot. LAUSD has agreed to compromise on White House Parking lot. Ian presented a comprehensive option for LAUSD to consider. Lara and Lois were present at the meeting. Heather Ripping(sp) represented LAUSD and headed meeting, also present was Kathryn from CD5, 3 other LAUSD reps, Tom Calhoun, Guy Mahulla, DOT rep. LAUSD will work on joint use agreement, 99 year lease for BVCLT to operate garden.

Boardmembers suggest a fundraiser idea.

Go around- list of ideas
How many volunteers will be helping
Someone needs to speak to Barbara
Research sample joint use agreement
Somer- have a solar example
Speak to allies

	Example: Green AmbassadorsLAEV garden resources	
Brad
	Jimmy Williams
	Path to Freedom
	David Orr
	Alice- Occidental College
	Tina Mata- curriculumPotential Gran writers:
	Dore BurrySomer: we need to figure out want is it that we want as group.
Themes:
	Community Garaden
	Classes
	Educational Garden

COOP UPDATE- Somer: An agreement made in spirit with CRSP. CRSP and negotiating team will come up w/agreement.

Announcement: Saturday is COOP retreat

BVCLT is requesting coop by-laws

NEXT MEETING: August 20th

Requesting report from committees
Future agenda items:

	How to move forward on LAUSD garden
	Sept meet deadline with coop, groundlease- tina will follow up.
	Intro discussion on logo

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2009-03-19 BVCLT Board Meeting

BVCLT Board Meeting

Date: March 19, 2009

Present: Lois, Somerset, Irma, Lara, Stephanie, Tina, Michelle

Location: LAEV community room

Lara brought pita bread, and delicious dips. Lois brought tangelos for everyone.

Proposed Agenda?

Quick go around from everyone on their well being.

Michelle’s update on Site 11. Handouts passed out. Michelle wants to see if her website can be subsidized. Current cost is $40.00 a month. Long discussion on other alternatives to paying to monthly $40.00 fee. Lois suggests transferring website to the LAEV Wikki. Somer suggests possibly moving it into another media- LET’s or Time hours. Or another free service. Lois ask’s why support a website that is not geared to BVCLT? Somer ask’s “if it’s not viable- we should drop it”. Lara agrees we should attempt to transfer it to a free service. Decision made by group to not continue paying for website after the 5th of April.

Michelle hands out Application for California Food and Justice Coalition incase other’s would like to attend. Michelle invites folks to Breese Soiree March 26.

Regarding last meeting follow ups-

• Somer checked in with Aurisha regarding DOT contact. It turns out the contacts were not viable.
• Irma confirms that a file cabinet will be placed in community room for BVCLT use. She’ll discuss measurements with Dave to make sure it fits in closet.

• Agri-lady- Tina connected her to Michelle. Michelle has update.

• Timeline- Irma and Lara did not get to it.

• BVCLT- Irma compiled a contact list of BVCLT members and board members.

• BVCLT added Stephanie to Kinecta and removed Suzie

Lois gave summary of Negotiation Group March 1st meeting. Big decision agreement that yellow building is valued at 2 to 2.6 million. Lois feels that the concept of donating the land should be more than just a price. Other folks felt land is at a higher value than the building itself.
BVCLT group asked for notes to be taken during meetings so they can be shared and reviewed. Lois talked in detail about Limited equity housing model, CAP rate and GRP rate.

Lois stated that the proceeds need to go back to the neighborhood and recommends there be a 5 year plan for LAEV neighborhood.
Lois will get the land use planning prior to retreat.
Tina- will prepare a list for lois.

LAUSD update.- Lois is working on trying to ensure no entrance or exit on Bimini. Focus on Slow Street and securing grassy hill.

Sarah Manning will focus on transportation study. Lois has a draft of the parking study. The study helps support that no parking structure is needed. Lois has walked the neighborhood to count parking spaces. She estimates 728, including 200 spaces at Midway ford and Hyundai.

Lois has gotten the run around form DOT contact. Contact has referred lois to Jeanie Shen (sp).

Board Retreat-
• Many groups at LAEV- potential in sharing a SECRETARY. Move this topic under capacity building.

5 year plan- Lois may pay for facilitar, work on proposal for CRSP.

Scan list of notes- from annual meeting- Lara will scan

Go around on facilitator-
Irma- cap at $300, vote for Jill
Somer- $300, Jill. Need to focus on being a CLT
Stephanie- BVCLT should pay for facilitator. Ok with facilitator decision
Lara- $100, Jill
Tina- Ron may be best equipt but is ok with groups decision.

Lara will call Jill to see what items we need to prepare and if there is a follow up from us.

Announcements:
EARTHDAY at:
WCBID-Wilshire Center Business Improvement District –on April 22. on Wilshire Blvd.
Culver City
Venice

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2009-02-17 BVCLT Board Meeting

BVCLT Board Meeting
Date: February 17, 2009
Location: LAEV, room 201
Present: Stephanie Zill, Barbara Corkrey, Irma Garcia, Somerset Waters, Lara Morrison, Kristina Mata, Luther ?, Helen Campbell, Michelle Wong, Adonia Lugo, Bobby Gadda
Scribe: Adonia Lugo
- Agenda Review
- Introductions
- Election of board officers:
- Descriptions of positions were read.
- Vice president description changed to reflect completion of bylaws. Section 6.B removed from organization’s master binder.
- Lara moved to elect Tina as president, Somer as vice president, Irma as secretary, and Stephanie as treasurer. Michelle seconded and motion passed.
- Adonia will take notes of meetings and pass them on to Irma.
- Discussion of where to keep record book. Irma can donate a locking file cabinet, and Lara will ask LAEV members if it is alright to keep this cabinet in the community room here. The community room is the official address of BVCLT.
- Financial update: Michelle reported as previous year’s treasurer

	-Ending account balance for 2008: $621.65
	- Payment of $25 to the state of California to file for official tax-exempt status
	- Membership dues for 2009 to be deposited: $840. This is for six new members and eighteen returning members each paying their annual dues of $35.
	- BVCLT now has an account at Kinecta Federal Credit Union. Lara and Michelle have visited the Santa Monica branch.
	- On Wednesday Lara and Stephanie will meet to go to Kinecta and have her added as a signer on the account as she is the new treasurer.

- LAUSD update: Michelle and Lara reported

	- Lara, Michelle, Lois Arkin, Sarah Manning (a student of Don Shoup’s), and an intern from Bresee Community Center met today with Monica Garcia’s community outreach staffperson and her facilities liaison. - They recommended that any development of the lot at 1st and Bimini keep its entrances and exits on 1st rather than creating new ones on Bimini, which would be very disruptive to the neighborhood and LAEV.
- They suggested that 1st be downgraded in its traffic designation, and could even be made into a slow route or incorporated into Safe Routes to School programming.
	- Helen mentioned a report on street safety from 2005 that could help build an argument for slowing down 1st. She will send out a link to this.
	- Facilities staff claimed their hands were tied due to LADOT regulations. It might be useful to gain contacts there in order to apply pressure directly, in addition to keeping pressure on LAUSD.
	- Somer will ask Aurisha who would be a good contact at LADOT.
	- Michelle spoke to Garcia’s staff about the benefits of a horticultural program near Bresee and the area schools. Tina knows someone who used to run LAUSD’s agricultural programs, and she will pass on contact info to Michelle.
	- Sarah Manning presented Garcia’s staff with alternatives to a parking lot, such as parking cash-out and hiring people who live near area schools. She is developing a more formal proposal as part of a class assignment.

- Legal update: Barabara

	- At this time BVCLT cannot move forward until the co-op is formed. - Al Valencia, the co-op’s lawyer, has sent some questions about tax filing status. The co-op must demonstrate its qualification for tax-exempt status as a limited equity housing co-op (LEHC) rather than as a taxable homeowner’s association. Appreciation of equity cannot exceed ten percent regardless of how long someone holds a share in the co-op.
- Valencia and his assistant will attend a co-op workshop on February 27. Lara will also attend. If she finds relevant materials to purchase and bring back, she will request reimbursement from BVCLT.
- Another item to be determined for the ground lease is whether BVCLT and the co-op will create a development agreement. They must agree on any changes to be made on the property.
- Would it be helpful to have BVCLT representatives at the co-op/ CRSP negotiation sessions?
- CRSP has discussed offering money to BVCLT with the express purpose of acquiring buildings in CRSP”s target two block area in order to further their own mission. Unless an institution like the National Co-op Bank came on board, these payments would be incremental based on co-op payments to CRSP.

- Transition Timeline: Lara

	- The co-op negotiation team has met with CRSP three times. At this time they are trying to determine a purchase price for the buildings, then the interest rate and term of the loan. - Timeline could be clear in 1-2 weeks.

- Board retreat

	- Tentative date and time: Saturday April 18, 9 am to 4 pm
	- Location TBD. Group will brainstorm on potential locations in the area, preferably not LAEV.
	- Group can work on developing goals for the retreat online
	- Lara will approach Ron Milam and Jill ? to find out their prices and availability as meeting facilitators. Then the board will determine whether to hire one or both of them to help facilitate the retreat.
	- Tina will distill key points from CRSP’s historical goals and visions and send it around for review to be discussed at the retreat.- Board members should be prepared to be photographed for the wiki at the retreat.

- Stephanie needs a brochure or similar item to present to her company in order to qualify BVCLT for pro bono tax help. She will use the one page description of the CLT or determine whether something different needs to be developed.
Action Items for March:
Lara and Stephanie will visit Kinecta and set up Stephanie as the new treasurer.
Think about potential retreat locations
Somer will ask Aurisha about LADOT contacts
Tina will forward former agricultural coordinator for LAUSD’s information to Michelle
Michelle will research Safe Routes to School to find out if this program can be used for 1st Street
Lara and Irma will develop a transition timeline document
All board members should send a short bio to Irma by the next meeting. This should include a brief summary of work and other relevant experience to board membership
Tina will work on materials for the board retreat
Next Meeting: March 19, 2009, 7 pm

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2008-06-18 BVCLT Board Meeting

BVCLT Board Meeting
Date: June 18, 2009
Present:
Tina, Somerset-notes, Helen, Lexi, Julio, Joselyn, Julio Sr, Julio Jr, Michelle, Barbara, Lara,

Agenda:
LAUSD Update
Green Jobs update
Memorandum
Committee Updates:

Building a stronger board committee
Grant writer
Graphic designer
Speak with Ron, about training board members also….
Decide on broshure icons and branding. Get design details from Susie.
Proforma soliciting points for new board members, advisory board members
Register by July 6th the training on resale formulas see Helen.

Green Jobs update
The Grant that Michelle is working to land. Memo from the Mayors office some American recovery and investment act
Competitive grant for 1000 young adults funding faith based organizations.
The 2 million that the grant awards could go towards 3-4 centers.
The portion that Joscelyn and Michelle are applying for would be for 100000. For 50 students,
Business plan workshops,
LA conservation corp would be asked to colab. On this program.
If there is an industry that needs to be cited, then water conservation would be the focus.
What’s the follow up to the certificate business course.
Environmental health issues would be good to pursue as well as safe practices.
Their Proposal is: is BVCLT interested in collaborating/supporting with Joscelyn and Michelle on this program.
Most likely in the future after we’ve gotten some properties that we need to work on and coordinate contractors.
A motion was made by Lara: we partner in the grant proposal. We support of the idea, and hope they can contract with then in the future. Unanimous approved by the board
No concerns,

LAUSD. Site use.
Since the budget cuts we have not had good communication from them, as this is probably perceived as “small potatoes”
It should be in their interest to do this as it requires spending less money. It makes them look good and is a good photo and story op.
We need a celeb,
We want people to write letters to Monica Garcia, CC Eric Garcetti, and others,
We are looking to show that the timing of the white house place’s last class, the state DTS (contamination auditors) are in general comments stage, meaning it’s at it’s last stage soon. So we are the last hurtle for the parking lot to be done.
Michelle’s wonderful video will help get the word out. Please:
Write a letter,
Sign the petition
Does Virgil have a PTA we can contact. They have volunteer moms that run the afterschool center, they have been hesitant to support us.
Lara is pursuing speaking with the head of Joint use for this parking property.

Memorandum
The three elements we need to decide on:
-Property tax, assessments, insurance( this gets passed on to the residents most often as a separate fee
-Administrative costs- We are not going to spend a lot of time buying back shares to restrict the residents, we will be doing a minimum just making sure that people are under 60% of minimum, this will be a low fee. Most Community Land Trusts use this low admin costs to base the land use fee.

-land use fee, this is more ambiguous( the worth of the land to the residents)
for calculating the fee, speaking with experts, none have mentioned this element, maybe because it’s too difficult. The principle one one side we have to have the land as cheep as possible for the affordable housing, and on the other it has to have concrete value for the land trust.
$25 per unit is what is standard for the norcal comm. Land trust fees should not be value of the fair market value as it will be too high and not be affordable, BUT WE SHOULD KNOW IT. They calculate it based on their subjective approach, they base it on how the market should be. Theoretically we can do this, we can also consider the surrounding properties in relation to the value to the land. It has to be fair, reasonable.

It’s important to have a healthy fee, if we base the fee on the admin costs we won’t have any money to use for new properties.
This could send a great example in the CLT world and help reset the market value because of our healthy rate to base it off of .

The cost of housing should be no more than 1/3rd of some ones income, maybe base it off of housing costs in the 1930’s.
This way we can define the property values. This building was built in 1922 perhaps base it off of those values.

We don’t have admin costs,
Staffing is the most expensive costs, also training like managing finances. Property inspection. Regulatory/logistics,
WE NEED TO DEVELOP THIS AND PREPARE FOR THE EXPLANATION WHY IT IS THE WAY IT IS AT THE RETREAT IN JULY.

Email resume’s to Michelle

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2008-05-21 BVCLT Board Meeting

BVCLT Board Meeting

Date: May 21, 2009

Present: Lara, Julio, Somerset-notes, Julio Jr, Irma, Tina

Michelle& Joselyn showed up later, Helen is driving back from up north

Spontaneous meeting between LAUSD facilities manager and Lara

Found out that there are not any rules about where exits and entrances have to be on LAUSD property. When told about our hope for a garden in association with the school. Her response was to suggest convening a meeting about the sustainable gardening.

In response to speeding cars on 1st st. there is movement for putting a stop light at Westmoreland.

Irma to report back to us about stimulus meeting with LA Conservation Corps.
Ask Joscelyn about the stimulus meeting she went to or hopefully get the notes from Michelle.

Julio has found someone to go through the commercial buying process.

From committee notes: It would be great to hold a meeting/ educational forum at the Rosewood Community Garden and give a Spanish language presentation on BVCLT. Somerset will look into collaborating with Helen on this and will report back by the next meeting, with an idea of possible dates for this presentation.
We should contact Garcetti’s local field office for the Rosewood community gardens

A flyer should be made, Dore has a box of the 1st try on our logo
We have something functional, we should use it.
Put up flyers at the outdoor swap meet at LACC
Also at LACC
Should be strategic with what flyers to put up…EDUCATION focused flyers

AYE youthbuild kids are doing green retrofits on the Mary Lynn Foundation buildings
They will be coming by Bimini this summer.

The stimulus money is split between energy/transportation
Then smaller amounts to departments for labor

We could provide sourcing for owners of greening apartment buildings –have an intern work on this

Committees should report back on what they did at least in outline form

JUNE 16 AGENDA: at our June meeting, committees should report back on our retreat “who & when checklists”

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