- OMVNA Leadership Team Members Present: Robert Cox, David Lewis, Melanie Kaye, Carola Thompson, Susan Bickford, Max Hauser, Sherril Brennan, Jerry Steach, Kristin Bailey, Carol Lewis, Lorrie Wormald. Absent: Jamil Shaikh, Shivika Nayyar Others: Jim Whitfield. A quorum of 7 (actually 11) members was present.
- Approval of Minutes from the January 2025 (Melanie Kaye): Several people sent in changes to the minutes. Kristin asked that approval of the minutes be delayed until the changes were incorporated. Melanie asked how long recordings of the minutes would be saved. She wanted to write the minutes from the recording. Susan said that she generally saves the minutes for at least three steering committee meetings. Susan suggested also taking notes during the meeting in case something goes wrong. The merits of using AI were debated. Melanie will incorporate the feedback that she got on the minutes and then send out the revised minutes for approval.
- Date and time of the next meeting: Monday, July 28, 2025. No vote, no objections.
- Presentation of State Housing Bills Affecting OMVNA (Robert Cox): Robert reviewed past state legislation, how state legislation becomes law, Senate Bill SB79, how to send letters to state senators and assemblymembers, and Assembly Bills AB609 and AB647. Robert will post the slides from the presentation on the OMVNA website. Lorrie asked about SB9. Robert responded with the legal history and the effect of the bill on Mountain View. Kristin offered to post the presentation on other OMVNA publishing venues. David asked about the late approval of the Mountain View Housing Element. Robert noted that the approval was late because of a sequence of objections to Mountain View’s three submittals of its Housing Element.
- Downtown Precise Plan Update Zoom Meeting (Robert Cox): On May 19 6:30-8:30PM on Zoom, City Planner Diana Pancholi will update OMVNA on the state of the city’s update of the Downtown Precise Plan. She will start with a brief presentation and then take questions from the attendees. The update will include discussion of rezoning, historic buildings, and revitalization after COVID. A request was made that the meeting be recorded.
- City Neighborhood Grant Meeting (Robert Cox): Carola turned in OMVNA’s grant application. There were some new neighborhoods (New Frontier Mobile Home Park). OMVNA received a grant for $3,333. There was a city meeting before the reception, but few people attended the meeting. Robert went over some controversial issues discussed at the meeting, none immediately affecting OMVNA.
- History of Palmita Park and the Minton Legacy Presentation (Melanie Kaye): Melanie and Kyle Hatzell will present on this topic for the Mountain View Historical Association on Sunday, May 4, 2-4PM at the library. Melanie will also inform attendees on how to research their neighborhood. Melanie will also sell hers and Kyle’s latest book. Kristin will post this info on the OMVNA website.
- Treasurer’s Report (Carola Thompson): Deposited checks from newsletter ads. OMVNA received grant from the city for $3,333. The grant proposal process was a lot more complicated this year. We can only file expenses against those items that were listed in the grant proposal. We had an opening checking account balance of $12,228.18. Final checking account balance was $19,898.62. With the CD our total is $35, 374.41. We will be filing our taxes by May 15. Carola will research NOT auto-renewing our CD. There are limitations on how we as an organization can invest our money.
- Social Committee (Kristin Bailey): Kristin noted 41 people attended the mixer at Mediterranean Grill. Peggy Prendergast helped set it up. The egg crawl was also awesome. There were 312 people as hunters and 90 locations in the neighborhood on 7 routes. The scavenger hunt will be Sunday, May 18. Prizes were obtained from our local Buy Nothing group. Carola organized a potluck for her neighbors after the egg crawl.
- Newsletter (Susan Bickford): There was no room for pictures in this issue. We needed to drop the SB79 impact zones maps from the issue. They were posted on the website. Paper newsletters have to be created in units of 4 pages. In the fall, we will consider increasing the rates for our ads. Susan would like to poll the neighborhood on what they would like to see in the newsletter. The possibility of mailing an issue of the letter is being discussed between Susan, Kristin, and Lorrie. A mailed version of the newsletter would reach more households. The details will be discussed offline. Jerry suggested a QR code to sign people up for future OMVNA communications.
- CERT (Sherrill Brennan): The CERT steering committee had 6 people on it. Three are new volunteers. Jim Whitfield is now the co-chair of CERT. The Mountain View CERT academy had 24 new graduates, with 2 in Old Mountain View. The new command post procedures are the priority now. After they are established, there may be another Shakeout.
- Newsletter Distribution (Lorrie Wormald): Lorrie would like to recognize the carriers. Carola suggested an OMVNA volunteer reception with rewards. Robert noted we could give swag for prizes. Susan suggested recognition at the ice cream social. Free ice cream tickets at the ice cream social were suggested by several people. Melanie suggested a Paul Revere award or a “Meet Your Carrier” article in the newsletter.
- Restaurants (Max Hauser): In the last quarter, there have been about 14 or 15 new restaurants opened in the last quarter. Our downtown is still hopping!
- Tech advisor (Jim Whitfield): Jim will be OMVNA’s new tech advisor. He is added his email to webmaster@omvna.org. He is looking into what things need to be changed.
Action Items:
- Melanie: Will incorporate the feedback that she got on the January 2025 minutes and then send out the revised version. Requires 7 votes for approval.
- Kristin: Post Robert’s presentation on OMVNA publishing venues other than the website.
- Susan: Explore increasing ad rates and EDDM mailing for the newsletter.
- Lorrie: Explore ways to recognize OMVNA volunteers, especially newsletter carriers.
Robert
