Minutes – September 16th 2015

The meeting was called to order by Jamie at 7:00pm

  • Laurie suggested doing introductions as there were a lot of new faces at this meeting.  We went around the table and introduced ourselves.
  • Cheri introduced Amelia, who has been helping us with our social media accounts
  • Jamie introduced Pat Donnelly, who gave an overview of his team and the Active and Green program
    • Pat’s group primarily is concerned with watersheds
    • Active and Green is about environmental protection and healthy living
    • Some suggestions which have come up are some kind of an outdoor performance space in a park and community gardens
    • They would be interested in holding an event to discuss community concerns
    • Project Neutral – a tool which you can use to compare your energy consumption with neighbours
    • Pat told us about “Back to the River”, a design project which is focused on the Thames River in central London.  This is an opportunity to include a performance space.
    • Parks planning also has a master plan, we can work with them to put priority on parks that we are interested in (i.e. Richard B. Harrison)
    • Pat will look into programs which incentivize energy efficiency in rental properties and get back to us, we will email it to everyone who was present at the meeting.
    • It was suggested and agreed that if available to us, the London Roundhouse would be used as the venue for a community forum to prompt discussion and ideas for our Active and Green initiative (Mover:  Jamie, Seconder:  Laurie)
  • Volunteers
    • Need grant writers
    • Need to do succession planning
    • Make a list of who can help – executive to digest
  • Jamie provided the market update
  • Cheri provided a project update
    • Needle bins for Richard B. Harrison Park
    • Meredith park – edible plants
    • We will have construction for a while still
    • Hospital lands – all buildings on Hill will be coming down as well as the nurse’s residence.  The war memorial children’s hospital and the Health Services building will remain.
    • Reforest London has 10 more trees to give away for the neighbourhood.  We will send out an email, if more than 10 are interested, 10 people will be chosen at random.
    • Heritage designation
    • Western is doing a study of the history of 10 houses in SoHo, will attend next month’s meeting
    • Possible holiday event in SoHo – November
    • We may have a public speaker to come and talk to SoHo about safety, biggest concern heard at the picnic was safety.  The boys and girls club may be a good resource as well  Jamie will talk to Tanya Park about the holes along the CN fence.
    • Cheri spoke about Job Creation Programs – grants created to hire staff for us
    • Cheri wants to create a resource list – a list of items that are available within the community for nonprofits/community groups to use – we could hire a resource coordinator for this
    • Angela needs submissions for the newsletter
    • We need volunteers to deliver the newsletters
    • We will reach out to the planning division to see about coming to a future meeting
  • Cheri told us about her Jenny Jones proposal (URL)
  • Jeff Blake raised concerns about the Block Party – noise, he will be writing a letter.
  • Laurie advised us that N+1 cycle will have a sale this Saturday
  • OEV has their AGM next thursday
  • Hidden History of Hamilton Road – Lost Rivers of the Hamilton Road Area – is an even taking place Thursday Sept 17, 7-8:30PM, at Richard E. Crouch Library

Meeting Minutes – May 20th, 2015

  • Cheri announced that we are now officially incorporated as a Non Profit
    • Jamie needs to register an alternate trade name to operate the market under.
  • Pat Donelly joined us from the Urban Watershed program
    • Pat introduced himself and explained the purpose of his program
    • They are looking for six communities to try working with them to help with implementing the communities’ environmental initiatives through their “Active and Green” program
      • Jamie volunteered to be the point of contact for this program
    • Pat presented a report entitled “How Green is London” (on City website), explaining how environmentally conscious various communities within the city are.
    • Pat explained the “Back to the River” program, which seeks to find innovative ways to make better use of the city’s waterfront – the old Victoria hospital lands are one of the locations selected for a project as part of this.
  • Food not lawns gave some trees to Meredith Park, they have more to give us. The hope is to also plant these in the park.  Volunteers are needed, both for the planting and for maintaining the trees on an ongoing basis.  If you want to volunteer, please fill out this doodle poll to help choose a date.
  • We are finally getting our pocket park at Horton/Richmond, a community planning event is scheduled for Thursday, June 11th from 4pm-7pm at the park location.
  • Construction on South/Colborne will proceed through the summer, major upgrades will be happening along Colborne, including separated bike lanes. A public participation meeting will be held to discuss converting Grey/South to two way (date forthcoming).
  • The newsletter should be completed by June 9th, and wherever possible should be coordinated with events to allow for free advertising.
  • The Duchess of Kent Legion is looking to move to the former officer’s mess at Wolsely Barracks, please contact the minister of defence to show your support for this.
  • Our AGM is next month, Cheri is looking to use a theme of SoHo Superheroes, choose someone who does a lot for the community and nominate them!
  • June 27th is Celebrate SoHo and the Junk in the Trunk sale at the Legion. Inside will be an information/fun fair showcasing SoHo businesses, individuals, and organizations.  Outside will be the sale.  Tables inside will be $15 for SoHo businesses, $10 for SoHo Non-profits/organizations, and $25 for businesses/organizations located outside of SoHo.  Tables outside for the sale will be $10 for SoHo residents and $20 for everyone else.  Please contact Cheri at london.ca@gmail.com or (519) 661-8581 for more information.