By Tracy Record
West Seattle Blog editor

Planning for next month’s Fauntleroy Community Association annual membership meeting, known as the Food Fest, was a major item of business for the February FCA board meeting, facilitated by FCA president Frank Immel.

FAUNTLEROY FOOD FEST: Local food and beverage purveyors usually participate in the annual meeting by contributing bites and sips, and that’s how it got its name. Board member David Haggerty reminded everyone that Tuesday, March 24, is this year’s date (6-9 pm) and invitations are going out; they discussed all the food/beverage purveyors in Fauntleroy that anyone could think off, as well as past community-table participants (a wide variety of civic, community, nonprofit, and advocacy groups – this year we’ll be there too, not just to cover it but also with info about West Seattle Community Garage Sale Day, since registration will start just eight days later, on April 1).

The annual meeting is the occasion for voting on the next year’s board; there could be room for someone new, it was discussed, They currently have 12 members and the bylaws cap board membership at 15. To change that or any other bylaws would require a quorum of at least 50 percent of the membership – currently numbering more than 350 people.

One board role is being vacated – a new secretary is needed because Kris Ilgenfritz is stepping down from that role, while intending to stay on the board. A discussion ensued about whether an AI voice transcription of meetings would be “good enough” to fill the role. Human oversight/responsibility would still be needed, it was noted. What about recording and publishing the meetings? One objection to that: Some people would rather not have their voice online for fear of spoofing, some said. Nothing was finalized regarding handling the secretary’s role going forward, though at least one current board member expressed interest.

Other major items of discussion:

SEATTLE POLICE: A Community Service Officer attended with crime stats – first, the same general Southwest Precinct stats reported at preceding neighborhood-group meetings since the start of the year, that crime is down overall. For Fauntleroy, violent crime is “down 100 percent,” she said (without numbers) and property crime up by 1 (eight incidents compared to seven for the first month of the year) also, one shots-fired incident in Fauntleroy so far this year. She said a grant has been approved for a Resource Fair expected to happen at Westside Neighbors Shelter. Some talk turned briefly to security officers in Target, since WWV is still a shoplifting hotspot. Anything happening in schools, in light of the South Seattle killings? She said even CSOs “have to be invited into the schools,” not only sworn officers. But that is happening in some places. CSO still number 24 – four supervisors, 20 officers. They were deployed at South Seattle after the shootings, she added, just there in case people needed support, and have been out at the ongoing memorial too.

EMERGENCY HUBS: Fauntleroy’s hub – a pre-designated place where information would be collected and disseminated in case of catastrophe – is being rebooted, Cindi Barker from the Seattle Emergency Hubs said, with a series of West Seattle events soon, starting with a hub explainer in mid-archand culminating in a big meeting and annual hub exercise on June 7. “You may find someone who finds their entry into community via disaster preparedness,” Barker said. She and/or the Fauntleroy hub’s volunteer coordinator will be at the Food Fest too.

WASHINGTON STATE FERRIES: So will WSF, Immel said, focusing on the dock-intersection signal update. No new developments otherwise – “the dock [replacement] work is still (at least) a couple years away.”

COUNCILMEMBER MEETING: On another transportation-project matter, vice president Catherine Bailey said she and board member Dave Follis had met with District 1 City Councilmember Rob Saka and his district director Erik Schmidt a few days earier. She said they talked about the Rose Street crossing and the interest in more conversation with the project manager. She reported that Saka also tried to clarify for them the difference between what he can do and what the executive branch (mayor) can do. Bailey reminded the board that they’ve been campaigning for the crossing for at least 10 years. (Going on 20 – a marked crosswalk was removed there in 2007.) They’re hoping SDOT might send a rep to the Food Fest to talk about it.

SPRING EGG HUNT: FCA’s event is March 28.

PEDESTRIAN FLAGS: Discussion focused on keeping them maintained and stocked.

FUNDRAISING: The egg hunt, autumn’s pumpkin hunt, planter boxes in the Endolyne triangle, and pedestrian-safety flags are just some of what FCA spends money on. So board members engaged in a round of brainstorming on fundraising ideas. No conclusions were reached; board member Bill Wellington suggested that increasing (paid) membership might be a more-suitable overarching goal. VP Bailey suggested making a pitch for donations and membership during the Food Fest (which, despite being the annual membership meeting, draws non-members too).

MARCH: No FCA board meeting next month since the Food Fest will be March 24. Watch for updates at fauntleroy.net.