DOWNTOWN MINNEAPOLIS RESIDENTS ASSOCIATION, INC.

NRP STEERING COMMITTEE MEETING MINUTES

Monday, August 26, 1996

Roger Thomte convened the meeting with introductions.

Roll call (including subsequent arrivals) showed the presence of eleven members and two staff. Members Amundsen, Bell, Brust, Centor, Connelly, Meyer, Percich, Rosenquist, Saginaw, Thomte, Wilson; staff Cox-Jenkins, Stark.

Minutes of June meeting required addition of Robert Saginaw's name among those present. With this correction approval moved by Wally, seconded by George. Vote in favor was unanimous.

DMRA staff report, Bill Stark, Executive Director

1. 400 copies of the NRP Survey are to be distributed with Downtown Council mailing with return due by Sept. 5. Approval moved by George, seconded by Angelo, and passed without dissent.

2. About 6,000 surveys were distributed to residents and about 450 have been returned with more expected. Roger thanked committee members for work and praised success of the effort. Alicia reported good feed back from city planning dept. and commented favorably on speed of distribution. She also praised the coffee promotion for return.

3. Bill called committee members as requested at July meeting.

Angelo spoke to the need for better park(s) in the downtown.

New business

1. Community Meeting and Task Forces

Roger opened discussion of the next phase of this committee's work including the request that members prepare for more decisive consideration at the Sept. meeting.

Alicia distributed a paper on task forces dated 6/7/95 with recommendation for study and future consideration.

Extended discussion included a recommendation that after some task force members have been recruited a community meeting be called to include orientation for task force members and allow for the recruitment of additional task force members from people attending the community meeting. Both staff persons expressed relative certainty that the first community meeting with interpretation of survey data and orientation of task force members would require too much time to be combined in a single evening.

Bob Saginaw spoke to the need for the committee to establish criteria and formulate structure for task forces.

There appeared to be consensus that it is desirable for committee members to participate in task forces but that task force leadership need not be restricted to committee members.

Roger concluded that these matters should receive attention at the September meeting.

2. Survey-Data Tabulation and Interpretation

Bill commented that data entry from surveys would be done in 7-10 days after which city planning needed 3-4 weeks for analysis and interpretation and writing a narrative.

George spoke to the need for the committee to see raw data and not be limited to city planning's interpretation. After good humored exchanges Frank moved and George seconded that the committee request the "deluxe model" (both raw data and interpretation). The chair ruled that this motion passed in spite of objections.

3. Set Date for September SC Meeting

The next meeting is to be Monday, Sept 30, at the LaSalle, with Arthur and Roger providing the refreshments. The committee apparently favored moving around to other buildings following

the next meeting provided that in bad weather preference be given to locations on the skyway.

Motion to adjourn made by Wally, seconded by Karen, passed without dissent.

Monroe Bell, Secretary