Events Committee Meeting Minutes, 6/27/23

Chair and Host: Alix Giannetti
Minutes: Doreen Miller
Also in attendance: Heidi Moesinger, Maeve Waldron-Lynch, Celina Warot

Community Picnic, Saturday, August 19, noon to 5 PM

  • Southline’s Sponsorship
    • Southline will sponsor the food with Peter Brando recommended as a vendor. We can use Sabe and Shanti for possible future events.
    • Typical picnic fare will be offered with vegetarian options: hot dogs, burgers, mac and cheese, potato salad, etc.
    • Peter recommends asking the Boston Police for an ice-cream truck, but he has an option that he will include in his pricing if that doesn’t work out. He will get back to us on the pricing.
    • Alix is hesitant to ask if Southline would also cover insurance costs – as they did last year- due to some friction between Southline and certain CSHCA members.
    • Alix will ask Southline for use of the following:
      • Public access to their bathroom facilities.
      • Their parking lot to set up the food prep to avoid any issues with DCR.
    • Possible availability for a few picnic tables and chairs. Peter may also have some chairs.
  • Review of the Fund-Raising Flyer
    • Des Rohan said we could use two QR codes to his and Alix’s Venmos with any donations to be redirected to CSHCA. Donations can also be made by check.
    • Alix will check with IT Manager Taufiq about how to forward CSHCA committee email messages to her private email for any inquiries made.
    • The following suggestions for changes were made:
      • Spell out the CSHCA website on the flyer.
      • Change “sponsorship levels” to “sponsorship opportunities.” With expenses of nearly $2,000, a “suggested sponsorship level” of $500 was agreed upon.
    • The fund-raising flyer will be edited by Alix and posted to Facebook and on the CSHCA website, as well as delivered to local businesses. Doreen offered to help with distribution of the flyer to local merchants.
  • Alix has completed the permit application and will touch bases with DCR on the following:
    • To confirm the placement of trash barrels.
    • To have them prune falling and dead limbs from trees.
  • Heidi has been in touch with Quinn Graphics at UMass Boston about sponsoring two banners: one reusable one and one listing sponsors. She is waiting to hear back.
  • For the kids’ drawing table at the picnic, we can hang a line with clothes pins for kids to display their art.

Savin Hill Happy Hour at the Top of the Hill

  • Tomorrow’s event will not take place.
  • We will focus on Thursday, July 27, and Tuesday, August 29.
  • We have been in touch with the Savin Hillbillies for music and are waiting to hear back.

CSHCA T-Shirts

  • Our design for the T-shirts has been approved by the CSHCA E-Board.
  • Heidi sent Alix the hi-res file to use for the design.
  • The best price seems to be ImprintExpress, but we will check other options.
  • Celina will find out what vendor St. Mary’s uses and their pricing.
  • Depending on the price we pay, we should sell the T-shirts for a minimum of $20, in order to make a small profit.
  • We agreed to order 10 or 12 tees in each unisex size: S-M-L-XL, for a total of 40 or 48.
  • Turn-around time is estimated to be about 2 weeks.
  • To sell the T-shirts, we can:
    • Put an order form up on the website.
    • Offer local drop-off and pick-up.
    • Bring them to events and in-person CSHCA meetings.
    • Offer some to local merchants to sell for us.
    • Sell them at local Savin Hill baseball and little league games.
  • It was suggested that we could do a tie-dye activity at the picnic for white T-shirts.

Historical Tour with the Dorchester Historical Society

  • Earl Taylor, President of the Dorchester Historical Society, suggested two routes; both should take 1-1.5 hours:
    • Start at Savin Hill T station and proceed up Grampian and down Savin Hill Avenue.
    • Start at Savin Hill T Station and head down Savin Hill Avenue to Pleasant Street, ending at the Blake House.
  • Alix will email Earl with 2 possible dates to choose from: Sunday, September 17, or Sunday, September 24.
  • We should aim to make this a yearly event.

CSHCA Social Hour – “Get to Know Your Neighbors”

  • Heidi suggested this take place twice a year – once in September as the CSHCA starts up again, and once at the end of the year in June.
  • The September event would be a coffee social hour. We can announce this at the first September meeting (9/11) for Monday 9/18 – an after-work meet up. Possible venues for this event include:
    • Dorchester Yacht Club – with Marta Carney as a connection.
    • Cristo Rey – with Rosemary Powers as a connection.
    • Savin Hill Yacht Club – with Don Walsh or Kathleen Schnaidt and her husband John as connections.
  • The June event could be an ice-cream social with location to be determined.

Action Items

  •   Alix will
    • Edit the fund-raising flyer and send it out for posting and distribution.
    • Confirm various details of the picnic with DCR and Southline.
    • Update the picnic poster from last year for posting around the neighborhood.
    • Email Earl Taylor with the two September dates for the historical tour.
  • Celina will check into the T-shirt vendor St. Mary’s uses and their pricing.
  • Heidi will
    • Get back to us on the response from Quinn Graphics about the banners.
    • Post the picnic flyers to the website and Facebook pages.
  • Doreen will help with distribution of fund-raising flyers to local merchants.

Next Meeting: Tuesday, July 25, 7 PM, Zoom link on the CSHCA website calendar