Maxine Dornemann called the meeting to order with a moment of silence at 7:40pm.

The agenda was amended to hear John Haak (LUPZ) give his report on Germantown Avenue, Winston Road Mermaid Lane proposed project. Mr. Haak reiterated the history of the TTP committee’s findings which were sent to the DRC and then sent to the LUPZ regarding the intersection at Germantown Avenue, Mermaid Lane and Winston Road. The proposal “supports improvements to the dangerous intersection at Germantown and Winston Road, with a preference (by 26-4 vote of those present at the 10/19/05 Meeting) for standard 90 degree intersection with a traffic light.”

John was questioned about other traffic calming techniques such as road bumps. He said that they were possibilities for the future.

Stewart Graham made the motion to pass the recommendation to the Board for consideration by the Board, to give the people who may be for or against the opportunity to express their viewpoint. The motion was seconded and approved.

Approval of the minutes of the last meeting: (December 8, 2005) Approved w/ one typo correction. Correction as follows under “Operations” … Holiday House Tour: Maxine spoke to the upcoming Holiday House Tour. CH Health Foundation is a sponsor (they have given $3,000).

Treasurer’s Report: Mark Keintz reviewed the financial reports for the month of November:

Chestnut Hill Community Fund

Potential shortfall in income due to:
- Less than anticipated rental income at 8431 Germantown Avenue

- Increased interest expenses on Merrill Lynch loan.

- Less than anticipated net income from Black and White Gala

- Less than anticipated fund drive income, though small amount

- Projected 5K in grant income has not materialized

-Totals 39K
- Mitigating factors include:
- Pastorius Park concerts made money

- Recycling income is up

- Less than anticipated property manager fees

- No development director fees have been incurred

- Fund drive solicitation expense was donated

- Postponement of Merrill Lynch loan payment

- Total 35K

Mark Keintz was asked how does this year compare to previous years, and he answered that this financial picture was better than last year’s and previous year’s. He reiterated that we have NOT budgeted for more program grants than we had money for.

Applications have gone out to committee heads and perspective grantees for CHCF funding in the next fiscal year. Mark, Kari Ghezarian, Claire Lemisch and Robert Hendrick will help in reviewing grant applications.

Budget and Finance meetings are scheduled for February 2nd and February 22nd. February 15th is the last day for grant applications. The Budget and Finance committee will meet in early March (the 2nd and the 5th) to review the grant applications submitted. The Treasurer’s concern is that we may not have a totally accurate picture of the CHCF funds, due to the Drive starting later in our fiscal year, but he remarked that we have received 10K to date.

Robert Hendrick has volunteered to look for a better rate for our loan and perhaps our mortgage.

Chestnut Hill Community Association

Holiday House Tour – Net income shortfall of 13K. A discussion centered on why it fell short of its goal. Broader Board support, consultation with previous HHT chairs, more publicity were mentioned in this discussion. A member of the Exec Committee asked that in the next Budget Cycle, using 7K net as the base, to budget for a 9K net in the next fiscal year.

Many interruptions came from audience. One EC Member noted the hostile tone of the meeting and asked that audience members (including Board Members not on the EC) hold their comments, suggestions and questions until the full Board meeting in two weeks time, noting that two weeks gave people a greater amount of time to formulate questions, positions, etc.

Chestnut Hill Local

Mark noted that income and expenses are both down; no surprises and close to budget.

Physical Division (Sanjiv Jain, VP):

- Commerce Bank update:

Believes that all parties are in agreement at this point in time; (one sticking point had been a door.) The Community Manager has made many calls to Commerce Bank regarding the failure to resume building. We do not yet have an answer regarding status. It is not felt that there are still issues, but we are not privy to what they have submitted to the city.
Aesthetics Committee

The committee will be chaired by John Capaferri while Richard Maloumian is away.
Operations Division: Chris Kemezis

Committees : Chris asked for people interested in working on the following committees:

- By-laws: 10 member committee, 5 year term, 2 members will be rotating off; the President appoints and the Board approves.
- Awards: 5 member committee, one seat needs to be filled; Presently, Lou Aiello, Dick Martin, Bob Bacino, Mary Cunningham, and one to be named. Dick Martin is the chair.
- Nominating: Past President is chair; it was explained that a list is circulated; those who do NOT wish to serve will strike their names; the vote will then be taken of the remainder; top 4 vote getters are on the committee.
- Annual Meeting: need a chair and volunteers for the Annual Meeting Committee.
- Fund Drive Committee (Brien Tilley):

- Brien reported that he is willing to have his office used for a phone-a-thon.
-Approx 10K has been raised thus far
- Suggested that Board members can take brochures and personally annotate them and send them out to their friends.

Local Search Committee – Under the leadership of Chairman Tom Ivory, the committee will meet soon and begin the process. The committee includes: Lou Aiello, Tom Ivory, Tom Kessler, Virginia Mallery, Cecile Mihalich, Mary Jane Shelly and Walter Sullivan)

CHL Publishers Committee – committee of 5 (George Parry, Lawrence Walsh, Tom Ivory, Joe Pie, Douglas Doman) Chris notes that the publishers committee is not currently functioning . It was suggested that the two members who have offered to resign – George Parry and Lawrence Walsh - have their resignations accepted. It was further recommended that two new members be nominated to the committee and put to the board for approval. The possibility of the chairman coming from one of these new members was proposed by several Executive committee members. Although there seems to be consensus on this recommendation, no motion was made, seconded or voted on.

Employee Handbook: Using the employee handbook, Chris Kemezis spoke to the status of part-time employees and their rights and responsibilities. He stressed objectives and goals for employees in their review process.

Business Manager’s Presence at Finance Committee: A question was posed as to the necessity of the business manager being present at all budget and finance committee meetings. Chris Kemezis stated that if the Business Manager is attending all the meetings, her salaried time would be used up in attending the Budget and Finance Committee. Then Mark Keintz, Treasurer, accepted the responsibility of getting financial information to board members as quickly as possible.

Chain of Command: Chris Kemezis asks that Board members respect the chain of command in terms of getting information from the Executive Committee. For example, if the VP of Operations is busy, this does not mean that his business is interrupted on the Avenue; it does not mean that Board members go to someone else for information. Instead, he asked that you wait to get in touch with him. He asked that the same procedure be followed with all questions to the VPs and Treasurer.

He asked for a self-review for all Board members.

Chris stated that he would no longer conduct CHCA business in his office.

Social Division (Dina Hitchcock):

Blood Drive:
Dina stated that her feeling is that this should be an annual event to be as effective as the one in September. Previous chairwoman is willing to do an annual event as well. Dina also stated that this is an expense for us; which we did not budget for; this year money was donated to fund the drive. She stated that anything we do, should be done really well, or not done at all.

New Business:

Stewart Graham: moved to combine the Weaver’s Way Partnership recycling with The Chestnut Hill partnership Recycling program with profits to be shared equally. After the motion was seconded, he explained that this would be a cost savings as the overhead would remain the same and that the recycling program will continue on the first Saturday of every month at the Wyndmoor Train Station.

The motion was approved unanimously to send to the board for its approval

President’s Report:

- Wine Tasting Fundraiser: asked anyone interested in helping with this budgeted fundraiser please contact her.

- Reported that a community member (Quita Horan) was willing to fund a consultant who might be able to work through our differences. Asked that anyone interested in this to contact her.

Meeting was adjourned.

Respectively submitted by,

Jane Piotrowski
Secretary

Present:
Tia Burke
Maxine Dornemann
Stewart Graham
Jeremy Heep
Dina Hitchcock
Sanjiv Jain
Mark Keintz
Chris Kemezis
Jane Piotrowski
John Shea
Brien Tilley

Guests:
Ed Feldman
Jim Foster
John Haak
Virginia Mallery
Ron Recko
Ann Spaeth