MIAMI BEACH UNITED
Board Meeting Minutes
April 3, 2012
Board Members In Attendance
Nancy Liebman, Herb Sosa, Charlie Urstadt, Saul Gross, Sophia Sieczkowski,
Terry Bienstock, Amy Turkel
Process Issues for Discussion
Determination of Issues for MBU to Act Upon
Any member can ask a committee member or board member to take on
an issue. Action can only be taken with board approval.
Board Member Engagement
Each board member should sit on one of the committees.
Transportation - Charlie
Sound Leadership – Amy, Charlie, Terry
Sustainable Growth - Nancy
Green Spaces - Amy
Convention Center – Jane, Terry, Herb
Speakers’ Bureau – Jane, Chris
Membership Outreach – Sophia, Chris
Leadership and Meetings Throughout the Summer
Nancy recommends that committees continue meeting through the
summer.
Board meetings will occur by conference call once a month (Charlie to set
up calls).
- Last Thursday of each month – May 31 and June 28 at 10:00am
Administrative Discussions and Actions
Adoption of Officers
President – Nancy Liebman
VP – Jane Losson
Treasurer – Saul Gross
Recording Secretary – Amy Turkel
Corresponding Secretary – Sophia Sieczkowski
Charlie made motion to approve the officers, seconded by Terry,
unanimously approved.
Mission Statement
Suggestion made to edit the statement to perfect it.
Position Paper
To be finalized and distributed at event. Consider the theme “Residents
First”
Future Board Meetings
Motion made by Saul to announce scheduled board meetings. It was
recommended that we post notice of board meetings with agenda and for
all future board meeting on the website and that we then post minutes
from the meetings on the site. Seconded by Sophia, unanimously
approved.
Board Insurance
Decision was made to put this on hold for the moment.
Corporate Details
Mailing Address - we are securing a PO Box
Our fiscal year will be the calendar year.
Communication Process Determined to Be
1 Automatic response acknowledging inquiry by phone or by email.
2 Webmaster distributes inquiries to appropriate board member or
committee chair.
3 Committee chairs or board member will respond to inquiries within 48
hours.
MBU Event
Considering happy hour events to introduce the organization and issues.
City Issue Discussions and Action
Wolfson Resolution
Language approved. Next step is to send document to all commissioners
and planning board members and to send a letter to the editor of the
Miami Herald.
Convention Center Project
MBU should provide information about the project to the public. The best
timing for this will be once the decision is made on the short listed
developers.
West Avenue Bridge
Transportation Committees should discuss. Recommendation made to get a
land planner to study the issue and present recommendations to stakeholders
to provide a new way to review the issue.
Intrusion of Commercial Ventures into Residential Neighborhoods
Recommendation made and agreed to ask Sustainable Growth to study
Sidewalk Café Ordinance.
Action Items
1 Nancy - send email to committee chairs to inform them that all
communication comes back to the board if they want to take action.
2 Amy - send note of dates and times of upcoming board meetings within
minutes.
3 Amy - embed resolution into email and forward to Sophia.
4 Charlie - to collect email addresses of city board members and create
complete contact list.
5 Sophia to send resolution to city board members on list, city commissioners
and MBU membership. Charlie to send to press once determined.
6 Charlie and Herb to work on editing the mission statement for approval over
next few months.
7 Charlie to go to the post office and secure a PO Box.
8 Next Meeting is May 31
Open Items for Future Meeting
1 Review and share issues on city agendas
- City Commission
- Historic Preservation
- MDPL
- Planning Board
- Board of Adjustments
- Design Review
2 Meet with Neighborhood Associations
Meeting Adjourned.