Present:          Joanne Russell, Jim DeWitt, Kathy Jacobs, Jim Bebermeyer, Brendan Boyle, Jeff Friedle, Amelia Opubor, Debi Robinson, Liz Schweitzer, Josh Smith, Kristi White and Marcia Van Ness.

Absent:           Mark Grebner, Roger Hamlin, Bill Hartwig

Guests:            Sally Kiesling; Mindy Emerson

Approval of Agenda

Approval of Minutes

Under the February Treasurer's Report, the second sentence was modified to read, "Supplies purchased by Brendan for the Trowbridge corridor meeting at University Lutheran Church are available for future use by the RCCA."  Both the January and February minutes were then approved.

Public comment:

Mindy Emerson, principal of our Red Cedar School, was present to give an overview of plans for the school's 60th anniversary to be celebrated fall 2008. The school will host a Homecoming Reunion on Thursday evening, Oct. 2 and tours will be available on Friday Oct. 3 during school hours. She hopes former students will return to share with some of the classes. Mindy also gives an overview of fundraising possibilities including a new sound system, new library books and possibly a new front sign. We are the only school with a wood sign, and it is falling apart. She notes that the money from game day parking goes for student activities only; these are challenging times financially. Mindy will be printing invitation postcards as our group did for our neighborhood reunion. She will bring them to our annual meeting next month in case we want to mail them to people we know might be interested. She will also give an overview of the anniversary to all who attend that event. S he is happy to provide free use of the school for our annual meeting. Mindy appreciates the cooperation and outreach between our two groups.

Treasurer's Report:

Kathy reports that we have $1,193.35 in our account. $333.35 is from dues and the rest is from the Ronk donation.

Old Business:

Breslin traffic - Joanne reports that MSU did not divert cars into the neighborhood at the last 3 games. PACE also ticketed some illegal parkers thanks to Joanne's reminders. We'll meet with Scott Breckner prior to next season.

Annual meeting

The date is Tuesday, April 22 and, although it is a night that Council meets, we will invite the Council, city manager and Todd Sneathen. Jeff has arranged a speaker for us: George Hosek, the Executive Director of the Michigan Stormwater- Floodplan Assn. He will bring handouts. Joanne will include Jeff's email address on the newsletter advertising the annual meeting so that people can send in questions ahead of time and these can be shared with the speaker. Jeff has large charts showing the flood of 1975 that he will bring to the meeting.

We agree to keep annual dues at $5 per household.

The newsletter will also solicit names of anyone interested in serving as a board member.

Kathy Jacobs and Kristi White will work on refreshments for the meeting along with Mary Dudley.

Joanne will make voting ballots for the meeting. CRC students have offered to help at the meeting and will count ballots if necessary.  Jacobs will collect dues and we need someone to take minutes.

Committee Reports:

Trowbridge Comp Plan - Representatives from our board are still meeting monthly with city staff and other interested parties. The planning process seems slow and not very organized. A representative from MDOT was at the last city meeting, and he was very helpful in terms of explaining what can and cannot be done along areas of Trowbridge, what is the jurisdiction of the state and what is the city's. Liz will check on who is the contact on Roger Hamlin's class and offer our assistance with their Trowbridge project.

CRC - Marcia reports that they are involved in planning for the possibility of March Madness activities in town.

Permit parking - Bill and Joanne met with Todd Sneathen who said that we do not need petitions but we do need to decide which streets and blocks since  a certain percentage of residents affected need to approve.

Ronk/Hicks donation - They have expressed interest in planting a tree with the money with a nearby marker. Kathy made some calls about sign costs and shares sample photos if we want anything to mark the entries to the Flower Pot area. We will have to wait for Janet to return in May before deciding any wording; the city would have to approve.

Joanne has received word that an anonymous donor paid the $609 for our RCCA bench donation made to the downtown Envision East Lansing project a few years back. Joanne will send a thank you to the donor through the city staff. WOW!!

By-laws - Joanne, Kristi and Liz looked at some possible revisions to the by-laws. With some changes to the suggestions, the Board approves changes to suggest at the annual meeting with advance notice in the next newsletter.   Joanne will send us a current roster with expiration dates for Board members.

New Business:

Precinct 16 - Joanne received a complaint about voting at Spartan Village Community Center, our new voting location. The city responded that there are no voting stations at schools any longer and the churches were not available  Mark Grebner had suggested to Joanne that perhaps RCCA approach the churches to see if a change can be made.

Newsletter - Joanne will draft it and Kristi offers to run off the copies. We will all need to take an area for delivery.

Board concerns - Debi went to a certified emergency training meeting and suggested we consider hosting this in the fall.

Adjourned