Present: Daphne Holden (notetaker), Grant Gelhart, Cyndy Brantley, Patty Ceci Sharp, Anthony Biblio, Jayme Harpring, Mike Murphee, Connie Bersock, Anne Lisaro, Mary Louise Bachman, Wendy Morgan, Marie-Claire Leman, Edward Reid.
Nene Fest
Grant reserved Optimist park for April 14th. He needs to get back to the city about expenses re sound and stage and opening up the clubhouse to get the tables and chairs out. Cyndy has tables from work that we could use. She will find out how many she has.
Richard Bertram will coordinate the music.
Wendy Morgan reported that she spoke to the deli manager, Carla, at New Leaf Market about catering Nene Fest. Carla’s suggestion was to make 1 meat option, 1 veggie option, and 1 vegan option cut into 1/3 lb portions. They would charge us $2.66 per portion, and would give us only what we need (that is, if we buy for 200, but only sell 150 portions, New Leaf will sell the unused portions and not charge us for them). Wendy thought that neighbors could bring side salads. Suzanne Hancock, a neighbor who sells at the Thursday market by Video 21, is interested in selling baked goods. Cabos (neighbor Mike) will donate big containers of salsa and bean dip. Consensus:we want New Leaf to cater the three options. We think we’d need somewhere between 200 and 300 portions. We will charge $5 a plate (for New Leaf dish and side salad(s)). We will serve from 5 to 8, as Carla suggested.
We were unsure about Suzanne Hancock selling baked goods and wanted to return to it after the discussion about allowing vendors.
Wendy said she’ll need runners to get the food from the NLM as needed. She’ll need someone to handle drinks and desserts. Jayme might be interested in taking on desserts. She needs tables and servers and someone to collect money. Patty said she’d help with the money. Patty encouraged us to directly ask people to help (much better response than mass emails). We can do this at the Fest too (have the MC say, “we need 2 food servers for an hour!”).
Patty said we’ll need a drink station and one volunteer to staff it. Cyndy has two large coolers we can use. Grant said he will coordinate the water/other drinks (?). I’m not sure if we decided we would have only water, or try to get other drinks too.
Anne wants to teach people how to knit, and give them something they can walk away with.We agreed this would be a great activity.
Grant can make a banner with a schedule of activities (stage, food, other activities) and post it prominently somewhere.
Cyndy can coordinate recycling for the Fest. Grant pointed out that the City now charges us for trash containers. Connie and Mike can bring theirs to the Fest. Wendy said Richard could roll his across the street too.My question: how many do we need? Do we need to put a call out for others to bring their containers?
We had a discussion about whether we want neighbors to come sell their hand-made crafts/art. Patty thought it was well in keeping with the spirit of the Fest – “neighbors helping neighbors” and she and others thought that people would really like to have an opportunity to support their neighbors’ art, craft, and businesses. Patty thought that having vendors might dispel the idea that the Fest was kid-focused.There was more discussion about whether neighbors could set up a table or booth to showcase their businesses.Patty thought we should give it a try, and we can always reevaluate for next year. Consensus: We will put a call-out for artisans and business owners who are interested in participating. They will need to tell us in advance what they want to do and/or what they will be selling. They will need to bring their own tables or booths. We will then decide if there are too many, and will give preference to those who are going to do some activity in conjunction with their selling; then we will give preference to those who applied first. If necessary we will rotate people from year to year. We will figure out where each participant will set up (Edward will do this).
Cyndy said she’d coordinate vendors.
We decided to set another meeting to continue making plans for Nene Fest. We decided to meet at Mary Louise’s house again on Monday, Feb 20th at 7pm.
Remaining items to discuss:
Newsletter
Connie announced that Daphne will take over Newsletter production.
Possible pieces for newsletter:
Patty – update on online market
Bib – update on meeting with city commissioners on walkability
Michael Olsen – article about REACH project
Mike Odom—garden group
Jayme Harpring – the importance of leashing dogs
Daphne Holden – nenefest announcement
Marie-Claire Leman – cycling
Jim – seasonal birds (Connie will ask him)
Geoff Brown -- elderberries
Consensus: Newsletter out by March 17th. Article deadline will be by Friday March 2nd. Hartsfield has a handout that we will include.
Consensus: Yardsale will be on April 28th.
Reminder: Superclean sweep is Feb 25th.