General Meeting, August 21, 2007 Minutes
West Heights United Methodist Church

General meeting was called to order at 7:09pm by president John Poettker. John introduced the officers present which were himself, vice president, Dr. Carla Lee, secretary, Sheryl Nutt and treasurer, Pat Reams. Board members present were Kay Clark, Jane Byrnes, Tony Decker, and Scott Fugarino. Some of the special guests in attendance were WPD officers Heather Frazier, and Brad Haught, DAB representative LaShonda Porter, Mayor Carl Brewer, and District 5 councilman Jeff Longwell. There were approximately 60 people from our association in attendance.

Janet Miller, pres. of the Wichita Board of Parks gave a presentation regarding the importance of developing recreation, parks, and open space in order to attract a more diverse work force into the area. She directed us to a website where we could fill out a survey, and urged organizations to consider having more of the "Dream in Green" speakers at area events. She took several questions from the general membership.

Dr Carla Lee moved to approve the minutes as posted on the simply neighbors website.

Mayor Carl Brewer addressed the membership, starting with his recognition of Dr Carla Lee's leadership skills.He also had nice things to say about Councilman Jeff Longwell, which were taken with a grain of salt. He pointed out that volunteering for committees and participation in Neighborhood Associations such as ours were good stepping stones to community service, such as holding political offices, if one was inclined to pursue that avenue. Mayor Brewer also took questions from those in attendance.

John Poettker again addressed the surveys that were passed out during the ice cream social. National Night Out was the number one priority on the survey, and he reported that in our area, there were 5 NNO block parties, which was one more than the previous year.

John also gave a report on the Westlink drive ditch clean-up. It appears the city is making a concerted effort to address our concerns.

Jane Byrnes brought the leftover light bulbs that Westar provided for her block party and offered them up to the membership present.

Members were encouraged to volunteer for distribution of WNA newsletters.

Recycling is one of the concerns of the neighborhood, and volunteers were asked to sign up for that committee, headed up by Nancy Long.

WNA official T-shirts were offered for sale to the membership at $10.00 each, which is just a little over cost.

It was also announced that Pat Ream was named as an alternate to the District 5 DAB board.

Pat Ream gave her treasurer's report, showing a balance of $425.14 as of Aug 21,2007.

Next,Councilman Jeff Longwell spoke. He gave a recap of some of the issues regarding our district, including a new fire station at 21st & 135th St West, a proposed new Westlink library, the floodway bridge which is presently slated for 29th St, and channeling Cowskin Creek. Jeff also took questions from the attendees.

Finally, Officer Haught took the floor. He gave statistics about the reported incidents in our area, and gave tips for keeping our property and persons safe.

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Jane thanked Kathryn Kailer for providing us with home made cookies for our General meeting, and asked if others were interested in volunteering to provide them at our Oct 16 meeting. She also explained the concept of the walking school bus, and asked for other adults to assist in that area.

Carla Lee asked those present to submit program ideas for possible speakers at future meetings. She also asked for volunteers to chair a nominating committee for elections that will be held in January.

The next General Meeting was announced, which is scheduled for Oct 16 at 7:00pm to be held at West Heights United Methodist Church.

The meeting was adjourned at 8:37 pm.