Minutes of the West Norwalk Association Board
September 15, 2015
Board members present: Anthony Carrano, Isabelle Hargrove, Ken D’Arinzo and Brian Forschino. Stephen Galyas, Kristin & Rich Clemens and Rob Notley attend as guests.
The meeting was called to order at 7:33 pm. The August meeting minutes will be circulated for e-mail for approval by the Board. The Board discussed speaking with the City of Norwalk to see if we could get a link to our Facebook page on the City’s Facebook page (Westnorwalk)
Newsletter Update – Total Printing maintains a list of address in West Norwalk. Need to ensure that the list is up to date. The Board discussed trying to get a full list of West Norwalk addresses from the Registrar of Voters.
Articles will include an announcement for the annual meeting; an announcement of the Brien McMahon Scholarship recipient; an update on Oak Hills Park; a discussion on home security; an article about the Oak Hills Park Nature Advisory and an article on garbage collection in West Norwalk. The Newsletter will also include a letter from the Board of the West Norwalk Association and letters from the Principals of Fox Run Elementary School, Ponus Ridge Middle School and Brien McMahon High School.
The front page of the Newsletter will to ask residents to “Send us your e-mail” and “Like us on Facebook”. The 2016 Membership application will be included as an insert.
Annual Meeting – The Annual Meeting is scheduled for Thursday, October 22nd at 7pm at Fox Run Elementary School (subsequent to the Board meeting it was determined that the Annual meeting would be moved to Thursday, October 29th due to scheduling conflicts). Anthony will file the Certificate of Insurance with the City and will put out the neighborhood signs. Anthony will give the opening remarks and Isabelle will introduce politicians. Politicians will take questions from the audience.
The Board will provide water bottles and will set up a table to collect applications and e-mail addresses.
Annual Holiday Party – The party has been scheduled for Friday, December 4th at Dolce.
We need to make sure the headcount for the party is accurate as there has been some disagreement over the final numbers in the past. This year’s cost will be $18 per head plus administrative charge for a total of $24+ per head. We will provide Dolce with an estimate of 150 people but should only be charged for the actual number that attend. Board members will try to get an accurate count the night of the event.
Social Activities – The Board discussed adding various social events to the annual calendar. Kristin Clemens offered to assist with the planning of social events. Potential events discussed included Wine Tastings, Progressive Dinners and a Spring Fling. Ideas will be more fully developed once the Annual Meeting has passed and plans are complete for the Holiday Party.
All Other Business
The Board discussed the issue of increasing the borders of West Norwalk. The Board agreed to revisit this issue once the Annual Meeting has passed and plans are complete for the Holiday Party.
There was a discussion around the annual donation to Fox Run. Ken will confirm when the donation is generally made. The Board again addressed the need to increase the number of dues paying members and to increase the amount of available funds. The idea of allowing for credit card payment of annual dues was discussed. Ken will look into the cost of maintaining a credit card account. The Board also discussed the possibility for different fund raising campaigns and the possibility of an annual dues drive. The most important part of the fund raising efforts would be to find a cost efficient way to get the word out West Norwalk residents. One fund raising campaign that was discussed was the potential to rent advertising space on our webpage. Fund raising discussions will continue at future Board meetings.
The meeting was adjourned at 9:02pm.