Minutes of Board Meeting of the Narberth Civic Association

February 9, 2011

Board members present:

Andy Haakensen (president), Christine Jackson (treasurer),
Deborah Lonsdorf, Maureen O’Leary, Liz Brown, Jim Speer

Guests present:
Eric Campbell (Bala-Cynwyd Patch), George Lonsdorf

Jim Speer taking minutes for Michael Alexander, home with a

newborn!

7:05 meeting called to order

Treasurer’s report:
January income: $95.00
January expenses: $97.69
Savings balance: $1,000.354
Checking balance: $1,732.34
Income from groundhog day of party: $625

President’s Report:

Comments on Party in your Borough

Music too loud was a common complaint
Low turnout, but enough to make a good party and probably enough
(pending final tally) to come out ahead of expenses.
21 new memberships (includes family household memberships)

Thank-you letters to party donor to go out this weekend

Discussion of possibly party next year:

Change in theme or emphasis possible,perhaps more like a
reception for new Borough residents.
Not all in agreement, some want a repeat of this party.
Start a little earlier next time with publicity.

We want to get feedback from people who were there and who were
not there , get feedback, convene next month more post mortem on
the party.

Proposal of project to go line by line through budget -

subcommittee of 2 or 3 people - goal is to become more
conversant with the budget . Matt Pettigrew and Michael
Alexander are interested. Jim suggest that participants blog
their experience. Andy suggests getting Surge and other budget
officials to sit in.

Old business:

Federation Rep
Decide whom to send people to federation meeting
Deb will try to go on Feb 14, even though it’s Valentine’s Day.
george will accompany her.

Sending someone to Borough caucus meeting would be good idea but

it sometimes conflicts with civic.

New business

Communications within civic:

Need for better back and forth over email. We should examine
whether everything is getting through OK.
Deb: could have addressed a lot of party planning items earlier
if we had better communication.

Bridges
No Bridge Committee meeting in January, but the one upcoming inn
February will present preliminary design concepts. Public
welcome to attend, but not being widely publicized yet. There
will be public meetings in the future further along.

Historic signage:
Lower Merion several civics wish to preserve their 100 year old
historic street signs, in spite of possible federal mandate to
replace them with more modern and legible signage.
Q: Do we have similar signage in Narberth? A: We think a few, on
Wayne ave (?)
Q: Do we wish to explore solidarity statement with Lower Merion
Civics on their sign issue? A: Not currently seen as a Narberth
issue. Will await further information (from Highway committee?)

Sponsoring a NAA sports team this spring.

Would cost $150, would get our name on a team this spring.
Board votes to authorize $150 expenditure for sponsorship of one
team (Baseball or soccer)

Planning Commission:
Jim attended Planning Commission on 2/7. Planning is considering
revision to building zongin laws, either to go with tweaking
existing zoning laws, or adopting “Form Zoning.”
125 Merion is a likely teardown

Maureen asks: Can anyone take over the welcome basket thing? Has
had no luck getting a list of new residents.
Deb - will take that over .
Andy says might be easier to get new residents from Montgomery
property records website than from borough office.

Candidate forum:
Andy: ought to rethink the whole candidate forum - problems seen
with last forum - perhaps get together with league of women
voters
Andy & Liz will be the committee for that.
Jim asks: if the primaries are contentious shouldn’t we also
have forum for primary?
A: agreement.

Medicare seminar
idea to Run a medicare seminar - intended for those turning 65.
Andy has enough sources to do it - would like it to be unbiased
information free of salesmanship.
Explain to people about medicare, and what might happen with the
new health care law.

Non-agenda:

Eric Campbell: editor of Patch: coming to all the civic meetings

to introduce himself, looking for story ideas , email
eric.campbell@patch.com

Next Civic Association meeting set for Wednesday, March 9th

Motion to adjourn, adjourned 7:58