Citizens for Fairfax Community March Meeting

Citizens for Fairfax Community, Inc. (CFC)
3/23/2010 Board of Trustees Meeting Minutes:

HEADLINES:
▪   Progress is being made toward assembling a comprehensive list of reliable estimates for all the repair and upgrade work needed for the Baptist building. A final tally will be available at our May meeting.
▪   Two members will create a capital campaign plan to be presented at our May meeting
▪   Based on both of the above, it should be possible to make a decision at our next meeting on whether to make an offer to purchase the Baptist Building. The May 25 meeting will therefore be of the utmost importance. If possible, we will hold it at the Baptist building for the benefit of those who are unfamiliar with the place.

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In attendance: Mary Taylor,* Barb Duval,* Katrina Antonovich, Susie Posner-Jones,* Amanda Duling,* and Mark Hunziker*
(* indicates Board-members)

Reports, discussion, and actions on agenda items:
▪   The minutes of the Dec. 22, 2009 meeting were approved. (moved by Mary, seconded by Amanda)
▪   Mark reported that he has made progress on getting more reliable cost estimates for the repairs and upgrades needed for the Baptist building. The remaining pieces of this process are in motion, but not yet completed. He expects to have numbers with as narrow a margin of error as possible by our next meeting
o   It was noted that even though these numbers will be important to know; we will never have a way to accurately estimate how much capital we’ll be able to raise through grants and donations; and we will need to commit to a specific site before beginning to raise the funds. Therefore the dollar figure of the estimates will probably not be a deciding factor on whether we commit to moving forward. If CFC and the current owners of the Baptist building agree, we will simply have to sign a contract which includes a provision that if we fail to raise the funding needed, ownership of the building will revert back to the Church.
▪   Thus, the crucial question at this point is whether we believe we can come up with the substantial man-hours that it will take to write grant applications and implement an effective donations campaign. The consensus in the room was that although no one person will be able to carry the lion’s share of the effort, everyone can and will pitch in to get the job done. Some preliminary, rough matching of skills to tasks was done among those in attendance:
o   Katrina can do some of the essay-type writing for grant applications
o   Mary can review and tweak the responses to ensure that they adequately address the grantors’ questions
o   Katrina’s sister-in-law can word-smith the completed applications
o   Mark can help with writing as needed
o   Mark, Katrina and Susie can funnel grant possibilities they come across
o   Still needed: one or two people to “triage” the grant possibilities, to identify which ones we should pursue and the required timetables
o   Suzie will meet with Katrina to create, from templates, a “capital campaign plan” that will provide a step-by-step guide for moving forward.
o   Katrina will apply for a grant asap from the “VT Community Foundation,” since their application process is simple and matching funding is not required.

New business:
▪   The Board agreed to support the effort by the Town Library and Parks and Rec. Department to create a summer concert series for 2011; and instructed the secretary to communicate that support to the person who is applying for a grant for the project.

Meeting adjourned: 7:40 PM

Next Meeting: Tues, May 25, 6:30 pm at the Baptist building (weather and scheduling permitting) This will be a meeting of the utmost importance! (See agenda.)

Tentative Agenda:
▪   Review final Baptist building cost estimates report
▪   Review capital campaign plan
▪   Decide about offering to purchase the Baptist building
▪   Initiate capital campaign

Respectfully submitted,
Mark Hunziker, Secretary