Changes continue at NENA

Chair and vice chair step down, Andrea Jauli resigns, new interim executive director hired

By TESHA M. CHRISTENSEN

There are new leaders at the Nokomis East Neighborhood Association (NENA).

Chair Kent Knopp-Schwyn and Vice Chair George Jelatis stepped down in January, three months after the board fired NENA’s Executive Director and Associate Director. The treasurer and the secretary also stepped down.

The board selected Vanessa Haight as its new chair and Chris Becker as its Vice Chair. Emily Antin was elected Treasurer and Molly Donovan was elected Secretary.

Haight has served on the NENA Board since April 2014, while Becker, Antin and Donovan were all appointed in December 2014 to fill seats vacant at the time.

Additionally, the board hired Amy Arcand as its interim executive director. She began on Feb. 2.

Meet Haight

“My main goals as NENA’s current chair are to strengthen the organization by working with our interim executive director and board to complete an organization review, clarify our mission and set the framework for and hire a permanent executive director,” stated Haight.

She hopes to run efficient and well-planned meetings that respect the board’s time and expertise.

“I also hope to improve transparency by responding to e-mails and phone calls in a timely manner, ensuring that our agendas and minutes are posted online, and engaging our members in a variety of ways,” Haight remarked.

Haight formerly served on the housing committee.

“For many years, I have been passionate about neighborhood-level planning and organizing and believe we are very fortunate to live in a city that supports neighborhood-level work,” said Haight. “I love the neighborhood and want to give back by volunteering my time with NENA.”

Specifically she is interested in community engagement and housing.

Chris Becker received 24 votes at the December 2014 community meeting and his seat expires in April 2015. Becker recently helped form the NENA technology committee. His background includes human resources, organizational development and training.

He declined to respond to an inquiry from the Messenger.

Another vacant position

On Dec. 18, Andrea Jauli became the sixth board member to resign in less than two months. Board members discussed how to fill her seat at the Feb. 26 meeting (past the Messenger press deadline).

According to NENA bylaws, any vacancy that occurs, either between annual meetings as a result of resignation or removal, shall be filled by appointment of the Board of Directors.

“NENA has no procedure in place for filling vacancies other than what is stated in our bylaws,” noted Haight. “This will be addressed as part of or organizational review.”

Morris Park neighborhood resident Marian Streitz attended the January 2015 board meeting to express her interest in the seat.

Streitz previously served on the board from 1995 until October 2013.

“Most of the new board members are either fairly new to the community or really did not know much about NENA,” observed Streitz. “I would like to fill in some of the blanks and help out where questions are asked.

She added, “The new board members need to really know where NENA comes from and what we have done and come together with where NENA is going.”

Late last year, Streitz had supported an effort to recall all the existing board members and start from scratch.

“The chair and vice chair have stepped down from their offices and we now have new executive officers. That is a start,” she said.

Streitz added, “I think that there is enough energy that can bring NENA back. We all have to recognize that NENA is a neighborhood board and is not to be used as a personal board.”

Minneapolis Council Member Andrew Johnson is also hopeful about NENA’s future. “Overall folks are optimistic,” Johnson stated, noting that it is a cautious optimism. “I think it’s a transformative moment for the organization.”

Johnson noted that the city’s Neighborhood and Community Relations did received complaints about how the terminations of NENA’s two full-time staff members were handled. He differentiated between whether it was handled in a legal way versus an appropriate way.

Johnson noted that he had been surprised to learn the morning after that Executive Director Rita Ulrich and Associate Director (and long-time community member) Doug Walter had been fired. He had attended the first part of the Oct. 2014 meeting and did not know what was coming later.

Community comments

During a community meeting on Dec. 11, 2014, community members shared feedback with the organization that can be viewed on the NENA web site.

“We plan to build trust with our members by striving for transparency, increased engagement and better service. We are currently working on posting our minutes to the website. Additionally, we aim to post an agenda for each board meeting at least a week ahead of time. We will also be thinking strategically in the next few months about how to better engage and represent our members,” said Haight.

Neither city regulations, nor non-profit regulations, require that NENA post its minutes online, although they both require that they be kept and made available upon request, according to Minneapolis Neighborhood Support Manager Robert Thompson. NENA bylaws merely state that the minutes should be kept in the minute book of the organization and made available upon request.

“When a request for copies of all 2013-14 minutes came in, we realized that many months of signed minutes were missing from the files,” observed Haight.

“When the secretary resigned suddenly in October, he refused to submit his minutes which resulted in a delay.”

Some of the minutes from earlier in the year may have been approved by the board in a timely manner, but there was no official copy in the office. A slate of minutes covering the year was approved at the December 2014 board meeting.

The Minnesota Board of Non-Profits recommends that minutes from a meeting be approved by the board at the following meeting.

“It is not considered a good practice to let approval of minutes languish or to withhold such records from members (and the public generally),” observed Thompson. “Nonprofit watchdogs and advocates promote good practices that include providing annual reports, minutes, financial statements, etc… Failure to keep minutes could be a finding in an audit report—for example, auditors will usually review board minutes to determine if purchases were properly approved by the board.”

March 2014 minutes in question

Of particular concern to NENA resident and former NENA Associate Director Doug Walter is a move made at the January 2015 board meeting to amend the March 2014 meeting minutes. This is important, because the original set did not show that the board ever approved the Letter of Reprimand memorandum that placed Ulrich on probation, pointed out Walter.

According to Walter, the original minutes were approved in May or June. However, Haight pointed out that the March 2014 minutes discussed at the January 2015 meeting had recently been approved in December.

At the January meeting, four board members voted in favor of amending the minutes and 8 abstained.

Following the meeting, the board learned that the motion did not actually pass because, under Minnesota Statute Section 317A237, the board can only approve a motion if the majority of directors present that evening vote. Instead, the majority of board members had abstained.

“Therefore the motion did not pass and the minutes were not amended. This was a complicated and confusing issue that has now been resolved,” said Haight.

She added, “We admit this is a serious problem and have since resolved the issue.  Going forward, minutes will be accepted into the official record the month following, signed and available both online and in the office.”

Latino outreach and Monarch Festival

NENA’s part-time community outreach specialist has been working from home recently. Her contract expired in February. However, it wasn’t clear whether the contract would be renewed. When asked, chair Haight responded, “NENA’s Latino outreach program continues and is included in the proposed budget for 2015. Current work includes connecting Latino residents with the MPRB Bossen project.”

Neighborhood residents have also questioned whether the Monarch Festival will continue as two-thirds of its planners are now gone.

“The Monarch Festival is extremely important to NENA and we plan to continue our support,” said Haight. “A recently developed Monarch Festival Task Force was slated with the task of working through the reorganization necessary for this year’s event.”