Meeting minutes, Monday, Nov. 21, 2005, 7 pm

Initial meeting of the Staring Lane Community Association

Purpose of tonight’s meeting:
Get the association organized

Meeting location:
the home Dr. Gwynn L. and Brunetta Shamlin

Gwynn L. Shamlin II is a solo practitioner who has practiced law for 10 years and his role with our association will be to file the initial paperwork to start this association. Magnolia Woods is a similar association to what we would like to be. We want our tax status to be non-profit.

What needs to be done tonight:
- we need to elect officers (president, vice president, treasurer, secretary)
- at second meeting we will determine the association’s bylaws (will this include operating rules and restrictions?)

What needs to be done this week:
- filing of the paperwork to officially start our association

Benefits of starting such an organization:
- organized as a group
- membership
o target market:
§ everyone on Staring Lane and surrounding streets and/or subdivisions
§ anyone with a vested interest in what is happening with Staring

History of Staring Lane/Background Information:
As far as anyone can recall, Staring Lane has never had a neighborhood association. One was attempted years ago, but it never got off the ground.

A meeting was held previously with Dr. Gwynn L. Shamlin, Dr. Bill Herke, the mayor’s representative(s) and several others where a plan was presented that suggested the 3-laning of Staring Lane in residential areas and the 4-laning with boulevard of commercial areas closer to Perkins Road and Highland Road. The mayor has not responded to the proposal.

Magnolia Woods has been told that the 4-lane plan is a “done deal by Mickey Skyring, our local City Council Representative. The only item that can be changed is whether or not a boulevard will be included.

Patty Herke volunteered to be the chair of the Publicity Committee. She suggested that we should communicate our appeal to radio stations with Talk Radio formats.

Attorney Gwynn L. Shamlin II said that filing suit would be a possibility. It would allow us discovery, where we can find out what the City of Baton Rouge’s real plans are.

Nominated for temporary positions were the following (the membership voted them in as well):

President: Dr. Gwynn L. Shamlin
Vice President: Pete Territo
Secretary: Pamela Labbe
Treasurer: Linda Seamon
Board of Directors: (Director at large)
Representative from the Church of Baton Rouge
Patty Herke
Lori Grelen
Mr. Waites

Filing fee to start the association is expected to be about $60. Dr. Shamlin will pay for this, as our association has no funds as of yet in the treasury.

Discussion of where we can hold our next meeting:
Investigation of;
- Bluebonnet Library (Pamela Labbe will contact to find out more)
- School system (Dr. Gwynn will contact to find out more)

Linda Seamon suggested that we have nametags and a sharpee at the next meeting. Attorney Gwynn is to send Dr. Gwynn a sample copy of bylaws. By the next meeting all officers and board members should think about what they would suggest to be included in the bylaws.

Priorities:
Name of association: Staring Lane Community Association was agreed upon
Bylaws
Tax ID#
Note from the secretary: we need to find out about liability; if we’re formed as a LLC, we should not need to be concerned about purchasing liability insurance, as Attorney Gwynn had suggested we might need to do
Establish a Finance Committee
Set up a meeting with the Mayor’s Office (Urban Planning)
We need to determine who we need to invite to the next meeting:
i. New chief of the Dept. of Public Works?
ii. New project manager hasn’t been appointed yet.
iii. Mr. Guillory (engineer)?
iv. Any chance in getting Mayor Holden himself to attend?
Registered agent: every corporation needs one of these to accept paperwork, such as subpoenas
We need a letterhead to be designed (Pamela Labbe to draft a copy for next meeting)
A letter should be drafted to the mayor on this letterhead

Next meeting:
Mondays seem to be good for all, 7 pm. December 2005.
Date to be determined depending on location availability.

Attending this meeting were:
Dr. Gwynn L. Shamlin: gwynnshamlin@hotmail.com [PRESIDENT]
402 Staring Lane, Baton Rouge, LA

Brunetta Shamlin: brunettashamlin@hotmail.com

Linda Seamon: Page25@peoplepc.com [TREASURER]
340 Kimbro Dr, Baton Rouge, LA 70808

Pamela Labbe: pamela_labbe@hotmail.com [SECRETARY]
1155 Staring Lane, Baton Rouge, LA 70810

Joan Herke and Bill Herke: Jbherke@cox.net

Willie and Elnuth Waits: [Willie is a DIRECTOR]
1026 Staring Lane, Baton Rouge, LA, 225-766-9769

Jahleel Stewart: jahleel.stewart@albemarle.com
4968 Legend Dr., Baton Rouge, LA 70817

Patty Herke: [DIRECTOR]
341 Kimbro Dr., Baton Rouge, LA 70808

Lori Grelen: Lgrelen@cox.net [DIRECTOR]
357 Kimbro Dr., Baton Rouge, LA 70808

Pete Territo: Peterterrito@bellsouth.net [VICE PRESIDENT]
560 Staring Lane, Baton Rouge, LA 70810

Gwynn L. Shamlin II: LawShamlin@cox.net
Office phone: 225-268-2880