LEAPS Coordinating meeting Tuesday, July 19, 2017
Present: Rytva Soni, Tito Delgado, Kim Oliver, Katya de Kadt, Marty de Kadt
Suggestions for upcoming LEAPS activities:
1) A questionnaire to be sent out to all cooperators who declare they are running for the Board, before the biographies are distributed, (Monday, September 18th). Followed by the results of the questionnaire, a sort of report card on the answers, and who refused to answer the questions, which must go out before the proxy ballots are sent out on Thursday October 19th.
The LEAPS election committee must meet ASAP to come up with the questions, send them out and prepare the report card which must be distributed under all of the doors of cooperators.
2) An Informational Questionnaire after the Penn South Election. We will develop a questionnaire, with input from our members, about what issues are important to cooperators here in Penn South, particularly
a) Cooperator’s views on the use of the bulletin boards and meeting rooms by groups in the coop,
b) An evaluation of the minutes of Board meetings and the use, or overuse, of executive session (which will need to be defined in the questionnaire) by the Board.
c) Should Board meetings, not including valid executive session portions, be televised
d) Keeping Penn South Affordable, what amenities are people willing to ask for knowing it would increase carrying charges (roof decks, concierge services, etc)
We would also like to include questions about issues of importance to cooperators in Chelsea, in New York City and in the country as a whole.
There will be a cover letter from LEAPS informing people that members of LEAPS will be coming to their door to pick up the questionnaire and to answer any questions. We will use the questionnaire as a way to inform us about community needs and to build LEAPS. We should probably pick one or two buildings at a time but we must involve many members of LEAPS in this effort.
We need a committee to develop the questionnaire, to discuss over what period of time the questionnaire will be developed, distributed, collected, tabulated/evaluated, and the outcome reported.
3) A November forum with Chief Larry O’Neil and a representative of Picture the Homeless to discuss the general problem of homelessness, how Penn South is responding, the security department's protocols for handling homeless people on our grounds and some of the other security issues they deal with.
Televised Board meetings
Marty will contact Corey Johnson about getting Hate Crime statistics or CB4 area. (Marty has already sent this and is waiting for a response from Corey.)
Marty will also contact Corey to ask him if he would be willing to sponsor commercial rent regulation legislation in the City Council for small store owners. (This issue was included in the email to Corey, no response yet,)
LEAPS will send an inquiry to Larry O’Neil about protocols for playground use and bench use on our campus. Kim observed Penn South personnel kicking a group of young people off the benches who were not being rowdy or engaging in any objectionable acts, telling them that as they don’t live in Penn South, they cannot use the benches. And a grandparent of one of our Penn South toddlers informed us that a Penn South parent used a guard to remove a Hispanic man and his child because she did not like the way the child was running around, no differently than the other children.
Tito expressed his concern and disappointment that no one from LEAPS attended the party thrown by the Chelsea Rising Together group. Marty advised Tito that in the future, the group should send announcements of its meetings and activities to Marty who will make sure they are posted on the new improved LEAPS website.
We need to set up a general meeting date for September. [Now scheduled for Tuesday, October 3rd.]