Main Street Advisory Board Meeting

CITY OF BASTROP MAIN STREET ADVISORY BOARD Minutes of the July 19, 2018 Special Called Meeting Main Street Advisory Board chair Dick Smith called the meeting to order at 5:35 p.m., called to consider candidates for appointment to the Board. Attending were members Michelle Adams, Steve Bridges, Jeanette Condray, Sandra Grawunder, Naseem Khonsari and Terry Moore. Member Jennifer Long was absent. Also attending were Convention Center Director Kathy Danielson and Shawn Pletsch, chair of the recently dissolved Main Street Organization Committee. Dick recapped the role the Organization Committee previously played in the nomination of candidates for MSAB places and the traditional role that Shawn, as Committee chair, has performed in identifying and vetting candidates and in presenting recommendations to MSAB for its consideration. With the dissolution of the Committee, an ad hoc committee of Board officers and Shawn had acted in that capacity. The task this year was to identify nominees for the four places becoming vacant at the end of September: Place 1 (Michelle Adams), Place 6 (Dick), Place 8 (Shanda Hernandez), and Place 9 Jeanette). The incumbents in Places 1, 6 and 9 are “ terming out”; Shanda resigned her Place 8 seat in late spring. On behalf of the ad hoc committee, Shawn presented for MSAB consideration: Candice McClendon, who is new to BMSP but has a wealth of experience in historical preservation and nonprofit enterprise management and outreach. She is well versed in the Texas Main Street Program and, for the past three years, has been Outreach Program Specialist for the County Historical Commission, a partner of the Texas Historical Commission, of which the Texas Main Street Program is an initiative. Dick presented for MSAB consideration two further nominees who have previously served on the Board and who have applied to return to it: Bonnie Coffey, who currently services as chair of the Small Business Committee and was early on a key advocate of Bastrop’ s earning “ Entrepreneur Ready” certification. In spearheading the local Entrepreneur Ready Leadership Team (“ ERLT”), Bonnie tapped her extensive experience in building and managing innovative programs including those focusing on improving women’ s economic status, financial literacy and political activism. Shawn, who has been a civic volunteer for more than 30 years and was a founding member of MSAB who has been continuously engaged in the Bastrop Main Street Program since its origination in 2007- 8 and has served as chair of the Organization Committee from its origination. In addition to her BMSP work she has been an active DBA volunteer and is an at large member of the Board of Directors of Visit Bastrop, a precursor to Bastrop’ s current arts initiatives. She has served on the Charter Review Commission and a number of special City task forces. She and her husband Bill founded and operate the Pecan Street Inn. Shawn noted that a recommendation for the fourth vacant place was still in development and would be presented to the Board for consideration at its August 8 regular meeting. Terry made a motion that the three identified candidates be approved for presentation to the Mayor prior to the August 15 deadline for applications for City Boards and Commissions. The motion further honored Shawn’ s request that her nomination for appointment be for the two years remaining in Shanda’ s term. (Candace and Bonnie would serve three- year terms.) The motion carried, all voting to approve. With no further business to come before the Board, the meeting adjourned at 6:20 p.m.