Location: Zoom
The meeting was called to order at 7:30 PM.
OMVNA Steering Committee Members Present: Robert Cox, David Lewis, Carola Thompson, Susan Bickford, Jamil Shaikh, Maureen Blando. Leadership Present: Sherril Brennan, Jerry Steach, Kristin Bailey, Lorrie Wormald, Carol Lewis. Others Including: Jim Whitfield, Max Hauser; Mark Flider.
MV Chamber of Commerce, Carola, Treasurer (spoke first due to personal schedule)
-Mountain View Chamber of Commerce Benefits – from list on website
https://chambermv.org/become-a-member
-$375 per year
Carola: I mentioned this last year, we did pay the $375, but we’re being given a discount toward next year of $175, so we’re only going to pay $200 next year. I think there’s quite a lot in there for our level of membership at $375. To the group: Is this worthwhile for us? Are we making good enough use of it to pay $375 a year for it?
-May use Board Room once per year for free
-Could we have annual meeting there? Consensus was that 25 may be the max of that room. So, to use for Annual General Meeting might be feasible but crowded.
-Carola will check occupancy of the room.
-Robert wanted to see the list of benefits. The link is embedded above.
-Kristin – may she talk to CC directly on points which she is interested in/has question about? Per Robert, go ahead.
Agenda: No additions to the agenda from the floor.
Approval of Previous Meeting’s Minutes
–Max: Remove the letter N from the pizza vendor’s name. It is Papa Joe’s, not Papa Jones.
Note: This has been done and minutes are posted: https://www.omvna.org/minutes-december-15-2025/
Motion to approve minutes: Susan; seconded by Sherril.
Verbal vote of 7 or more Ayes. Minutes are approved.
Next Steering Committee Meetings Schedule
-The next meeting is April 27, 2026.
-Further Steering Committee meeting in 2026:
Motion to approve these dates: Maureen; seconded by Jamil.
There were 7 plus Ayes. The schedule is approved.
Progress Report on Formation of Subcommittee to Provide Guidance on use of OMVNA Surplus Funds for Social Events
Kristin: People who had expressed interest at the Annual General Meeting did not contact Kristin, therefore this project is “In-progress.”
Steering Committee Housekeeping – Review of Roles, Responsibilities, Relevant Robert’s Rules and the OMVNA Org Chart, Kristin Bailey
-Kristin presented an org chart.
-Should this chart be posted in a common location, Kristin?
-Summary: Everybody’s a member (in yellow). They don’t get to vote in regular meetings. Then we have what’s called the leadership team, which is all elected officials, positions, and so there are 8 steering committee people, maybe 10, we have 5… standing subcommittee chairs.
-Kristin’s concern is that we define the description of Roles and Responsibilities, e.g., what is your role? And what are you responsible for? What do you need to do at the meeting? What do you need to do after meeting? Do you have a backup person for your role? You know, who do you report to? Do your items get approved? How do you know if your items are approved? What do you do that is not part of your role?
-A discussion followed regarding whether we should call roll. The final agreement was:
- Should we call role at the beginning of each meeting? We decided not. Attendees can be captured from the Zoom chat.
- Ask any unidentified people to introduce themselves.
- The Secretary (Maureen) will announce when the quorum of attendees (currently 7 people) has been met.
-Kristin moves that OMVNA establish a Web and Technology subcommittee with Jim Whitfield as subcommittee chair. Second: Carola.
– Verbal vote of 7 or more Ayes. Jim Whitfield is approved as the Subcommittee Chair for Web and Technology.
-There was discussion as to whether Jim would be Standing Subcommittee Chair or Subcommittee Chair. Can a person be Chair immediately or are 12 months required. Robert thinks that Subcommittee Chair can be immediate (as this is a permanent role) and will check the by-laws.
-Note: No actions were taken regarding defining Roles and Responsibilities. Further discussion on this topic?
Steering Committee Report
Presentation: Mountain View City Council Meeting on SB79 Local Alternative Plan – Robert Cox
-The City Council meeting and vote as to whether to have a Local Alternative Plan are tomorrow night, January 27, 2026.
-The high-level goal of Robert’s presentation is to aim to save historic buildings in commercial downtown Mountain View post-SB79 via a Local Alternative Plan which the City Council would have to support and the City Staff would have to prepare. It appears to be a long shot.
-Robert’s presentation to OMVNA Leadership, which he will present at the MV City Council meeting tomorrow night, can be found here: https://www.omvna.org/janaury-26-2026-omvna-presentation/
-To be clear, this presentation does not represent a position of OMVNA. OMVNA does not take positions on local issues. This is information which Robert is sharing.
-Note: In the City Council meeting on January 27, 2026, the City Council gave direction that a Local Alternative Plan should not be started before 2027.
Time Allotments for Speakers at Steering Committee Meetings, Robert Cox
-Robert: Do we need to discuss anything else? There was a lot of discussion about this in email. We came down to the basic principle that we wanted people to try to talk less than 10 minutes.
Member/Subcommittee Chair Reports
Vice Chair, David Lewis
Re: Meeting Announcement. David will post meeting announcements on NextDoor when date is firmed up. Will not wait for agenda to post the meeting announcement.
Secretary, Maureen Blando
No report.
Treasurer, Carola Thompson
-Financial overview provided. It is intentionally not included in these minutes.
-Domain Name Registration: We might be able to reduce our annual domain name registration cost. It’s done in December now so it’s too late for 2026, but maybe for next year we can be proactive.
Jim: I’ll take that on. I’ll move it to probably Namecheap, who’s about 20 bucks. That includes private registration.
Kristin has the information about the current domain account. Kristin and Jim will review domain name provider.
-SCC membership dues: Carola had sent out an email about what we’re getting for that membership. It’s largely insurance for events that we don’t hold, but she thinks there’s also value in that we can get connected to other, neighborhood associations. This is all of the Santa Clara County neighborhood associations that are part of this group. Might be worth digging in to see what our other benefits are there.
-Ad revenue is starting to trickle in. On the 14th, we got our first payment, and it was done by Zelle. To Shavika, thank you very much for making that happen via Zelle. Zelle is so much easier than writing checks or taking checks and depositing them.
-Chase CD: Our CD matured today. Carola will check to see what interest rate they’re rolling us over to.
-Expenses for CNC grant: Carola will submit the next round of expenses for the CNC grant.
Social, Kristin
-Presented budget request of $5,965
-Motion to approve $5,965 annual budget: Kristin, Second David Lewis. approved with 7+
-Next event coming up: Carola initiated a Neighborhood Mixer, Monday, Feb 23rd at NAR. In addition to free food samples, wines will be served at 20% discount. Max provided NAR with an intro to wine vendor. As compensation, NAR will get an article in the newsletter before event, after the event, free ad in newsletter and neighborhood posters.
Downtown Comm, Jamil
-No meeting. No report.
Newsletter, Susan Bickford
-Susan: Thank you to Shivika for all of her working in pulling together the upcoming Lamppost newsletter.
-Coming up including: Restaurant update from Max, Love Letter to Ava’s from Mark Flider
-All advertisers except Hula and violin teacher renewed. New ad from TipTop Roofing.
-Plan for newsletter – should we use EDDM for one delivery per year? In 2026 this would be in the fall for the election issue. If we use EDDM once per year, there is about $600 gap/increase to the current Newsletter budget.
Carola, from finance perspective, would support doing EDDM once per year as part of the grant from the City is for the newsletter.
Action: We should vote on whether to use EDDM once per year later this later this year, possibly in May. Susan.
CERT, Sherril
-Next CERT class, April, no cost,
-Kristin offers that if anyone on the CERT team would like to promote on social media for topics like radio check-ins and broader topics, Kristin could make the social media log-in available. Kristin will send Sherril a note.
At-large, No one was present. No report
Historical, Jerry – No report.
Parking, David
-Parking Lot 12 is gone permanently as it will be developed for affordable housing.
-Jamil: Car break-ins are currently very rare after a spate of break-ins.
Web and Technology, Jim
-During this meeting Jim set up the email address for tech requests/questions: tech@omvna.org
Note: Including this information from Robert Cox, provided after the meeting.
On the number of steering committee members: There are 8 currently, could be up to 10 if 2 additional at-large are added. We have 7 subcommittee chairs: CERT, historic preservation, 2 for parking, newsletter distribution, social, web-technology.
Meeting adjourned at 8:52 PM!
Submitted: Maureen Blando, OMVNA Secretary
