HPCC - February 2004 Meeting Minutes

Meeting Minutes by Andrea Mudd

President Bob Staresinic called the regular monthly meeting of the Highland Park Community Club to order at 7:35 pm.

Kelly Vitti presented the treasurer's report: the Club's current reserve is just over $19,600 including two CD's of $3,316 each and the bank account at $13,800.

Bob Staresinic summarized budget recommendations for 2004- 2005 proposed by the Finance Committee at their recent meeting. The recommendations do not include money Bob applied for on behalf of the Club through a Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development grant. The amount the Club may realize from the grant and the cost of certain items included in the budget are not yet determined but the Board accepted the recommendations of the Finance Committee and passed the Budget.

Support for the Pittsburgh Marathon and Reservoir of Jazz, as well as expenditure of $60 for an ad in the East End Historical and Marketing Guide, a $250 grant to the Union Project and a $500 grant to Educational Innovations were approved. Amy Maceyko volunteered to design the ad for the Guide. A request by Vintage Adult Services to place an ad in their 2004 Gala program booklet was denied.

Committee Reports:

Web Site: Rudy Maceyko is requesting copies of old HPCC newsletters for inclusion on the website as part of the HPCC historical project.

Children's Committee: The Children's Committee is planning a Spring Event to be held on April 3. They need volunteers to help and request that interested persons contact Aimee DeFoe at aimfoe@yahoo.com or Bob at 412-441-8972.

Super Playground: The Super Playground Clean-up will be held on Saturday March 20th. Bob anticipates no major repairs so volunteers should plan to come out to tidy up the area and for the fun!

Reservoir of Jazz: The fountain at the Highland Ave. entrance to the Park is under construction. It is unclear when the project will be completed and whether work at the fountain site will affect production of the Reservoir of Jazz in August. In any case, planning for the 2004 Reservoir of Jazz is underway and Bob is requesting volunteers to help locate a mobile stage and to work on other related tasks.

Other business:

Union Project Director Jessica King discussed activities the Project will be resuming in the Spring and also invited the Club to work with them in developing new collaborative initiatives.

Two proposals for new youth entrepreneurial training programs were presented by Educational Initiatives(EI) and by Shelly Danko+Day.

E.I. is developing a 10-week Young Entrepreneur's Club after- school program for 5th graders which would seek to impart the value of money and help kids learn to differentiate the relative economic value of different activities.

The National Foundation for Teaching Entrepreneurship (NFTE) program for 11-18 year old students has captured the attention of HPCC member Shelly Danko+Day. One mission of NFTE is to offer life skills training and practical business experience to vulnerable inner-city youth as an alternative to destructive and/or illegal activities.

If you have a copy of the pocket folder HPCC used to distribute to new residents, HPCC Board member Lisa Solomon would appreciate an opportunity to look at it. This would help her in a project she is working on to develop a new neighborhood marketing brochure for potential homeowners.

Rep. Joseph Preston Jr. invited the entire community to attend a meeting concerning Consumer Energy Needs. A number of area community groups and utilities are co-sponsoring the meeting, which will be held Saturday March 6, 2004 from12:00 to 2:00 pm at Reizenstein Middle School.

Bob announced the next regular monthly meeting of HPCC will be held at Fulton Academy on March 18th at 7:30 pm. Pittsburgh Mayor Tom Murphy will be speaking at the meeting so everyone is encouraged to come and participate in the discussion.

Bob welcomed new members and reminded us of the Dilworth Traditional Academy Art Auction on February 20 (which turned out to be a successful and wonderfully exciting event!).

Meeting adjourned at 9:00 P.M.