Wicker Park Advisory Council Meeting Minutes

Present: Dan Puente (Park Supervisor), Tim Kolecke (President & Website), Scott Venable (Vice-President & Mosaic Church), Richard Tilley (Treasurer), Doug Wood (Secretary and Garden Club & Events Coordinator), Denise Browning (WPAC & WPGarden), Susan Fontana (WPAC & WPGarden), John Shirk (Urban Encounter & Wicker Mic), Adam Housley (Dog Park Coordinator), Lauren Krebs (Music Series Fund Raising), Mary Tamminga (WPC), Brian Bullington (Learnapalooza Chicago), Lisa Stauff (Wicker Park Parent,s Association-WPPA), Ryan Jackson (softball)

  1. Minutes – Doug Wood – February 2012 Minutes were read and approved.
  2. Treasurer’s Report – Richard Tilley- Submitted Report. Richard reported that he filed both Sat and Federal Taxes, set up on-line banking, and he and Tim set up the Pay Pal Account for website donations.
  3. Committee Reports
    • Dog Park Committee – Adam Housley – Adam discussed the success of Dog Park Fundraiser held on Saturday February 11 from 7-11pm at the Twisted Spoke. The event brought numerous people and raised about $2,000. Adam gave Richard the funds to deposit to the WPAC Account. Adam is scheduling a Dog Park work day to be announced soon. The group is working on a T-shirt Design and will offer the shirt for sale on-line. Gravel will be checked and replaced where needed. Adam will submit a list of contributor for posting on the website.
    • Web Site – Tim Kolecke – Tim reported that the Web site has been updated. The PayPal is now up. All upcoming events will be uploaded within the next month. Doug was asked to submit an amount goal for all the projects to be uploaded to the website for on-line donations.
    • Softball Committee – Ryan Jackson – Ryan is in the process of working with Dan Puente to write up summer schedule, partnerships, and permits. Softball will be scheduled on Sunday from 10am-5pm and on Monday night from 6pm with two games scheduled, light permitting. Start date is being set either last Sunday in April or 1st Sunday in May.
    • Gardens and Landscape Committee – Doug Wood, Denise Browning – Doug Reported that the seven week Home Landscape design class has now finished and was well received this year; over 70% of the students produced designs for their homes of community gardens. In addition, the lecture series is very well attended with Craig Bergmann speaking in March. Craig is one of Chicago’s top designers. Two workshops (Seed Starting and Tool Sharpening) will be held at Richard Tilley’s home. The Plant Sale is being organized for the first weekend of May; the sale assists with raising funds to maintain the gardens and educational programming.
    • Youth Group – Scott Venable – The Friday meetings are very well attended. Currently, the age range spans from 12 – 20, so, more groups will be added to separate age ranges for better results. A new program will be teaching music lessons and hip-hop dance classes.
    • Outreach Report – Tim Kolecke reported on the Friends of the Park’s PAC networking meeting at South Shore. He had a great time and heard reports on new initiatives in sports and wellness programming, new options for healthy food snacks for vending machines, etc. He reported that our events handout and poster were well received.
    • WPPA – Lisa Stauff – Lisa Stauff reported that the WPPA is working with the People’s Church ‘Big Egg Drop’ on March 31. They have applied for a permit to have the event in the park – pending negotiations. In addition, the group will again partner with Green Music Fest – the Children’s Area, vend refreshments at the Farmer’s Market, and are working on hosting the Circus in the Parks.
  4. Staff Reports –Dan Puente – Wicker Park Supervisor
    • NEW STAFF (Physical Instructor (PT), Attendant (PT) – No recent activity reported.
    • PROGRAMMING UPDATES: Dan is trying to add more classes to the schedule for the spring session. He will try (based on staff time) to bring back the Saturday morning/afternoon classes. He will also speak with representatives from the senior high rise. He said the summer camp will be back with the early and late camps part of the schedule as in past years. He spoke with John Davidson (recently retired) about past camp programming.
    • MOVIE IN THE PARKS UPDATE: The Park District funded movie will be Hugo and presented on Wednesday, August 22. Dan asked for input on the choice – all unanimously approved of the choice.
    • PORTABLE TOILETS for Weekend Use – Dan said he is following up two (1 regular/1handicapped) them installed near April 1, 2012 with cleaning on Fridays and Mondays. He will work to have an invoice drafted for ½ of the costs to be paid by WPAC and ½ paid by Chicago Park District.
    • FARMER’S MARKET 2012 – Farmer’s Market will begin the first Sunday of June 3 – October 28.
  5. EVENTS PLANNING UPDATE – Limited discussion due to limited time at the end of meeting. All booking and permits were submitted and approved, pending partnership. The WPBSSA Grant will be confirmed later in March. Additional funding is being solicited for the events.
  6. NEW BUSINESS: Brian Bullington (Learnapalooza Chicago) discussed his program and offered to work with WPAC to set collaborative programming for a June 16, 2012 event.

ADJOURNED 8:50PM