The December 5^th meeting of Team Geneva was held at the Community Center with 20 members present.  A welcome to some new members and returning members. Bernie Warnke called the meeting to order.

 Jan Bartsch gave the treasurer’s report.   Thank you to Pat Goodnature for hauling metal to I-35 with the proceeds being donated to Team Geneva.   We received contributions for the new tree lights at our annual tree lighting along with an anonymous donation.      The treasurer’s report was approved.  Lauri Jensen gave the secretary’s report and it was approved.  

 There was discussion on our corn shock decorations for fall.   Tim Gassman offered use of his bungee cords to help keep the corn shocks in place next year.  Thank you to Pat Goodnature and Dale Boverhuis for putting up the Christmas flags this year.

 This was the 7^th annual Christmas tree lighting.   A motion was made and seconded to give Jason a gift card for all the help he has been in locating lights and installing the tree.    A motion was made and seconded to order another set of lights exactly like the set that was purchased for this year so we would always have a back-up.   A motion was made and seconded to send a gift card also to Mr. and Mrs. Claus (Cheryl and Scott Wagaman) for their help spreading Christmas cheer at the lighting.

 We again participated in Operation Green Light working along with the city Council to get a list of new residents so they could be provided with a green light.   Thank you to Janelle Tufte for providing the lights and to all who helped with this project.  

 A thank you to Tim Gassman for doing Team Geneva taxes the past few years. 

 There was discussion on placing a bench outside in front of the community center.   Sue Phillips offered to get prices and options for a bench.

 We discussed the storage room that has been organized and cleaned.   The broken chairs have been sorted out and Greg Bartsch reported that Frank Thompson is willing to come and pick them up when it works for us.

 Bernie Warnke gave us a review of the projects that were worked on during the 2023 year. 

 They include:  New Christmas tree lights for the city park

                           Operation Green Light

                           Landscape area in front of Community Center for spring planting

                           Community Center entrance – painted walls, ceiling, floors, touched up brick and

                                 Purchased new floor mats for front door

                           National Night Out donation to Eagle Bluff for NRHEG students

 Santa will again be escorted in the Geneva fire truck on Christmas Eve touring the streets of Geneva between 2 p.m. – 3 p.m.     Thank you to Pat Goodnature and Greg Bartsch.

 Election of new officers was held:

                              Current Officers                        Incoming Officers

President               Bernie Warnke                        Sue Phillips

Secretary                   Lauri Jensen                         Marion Parr

Treasurer                     Jan Bartsch                        Cheryl Boverhuis

 We will not meet in January or February.    Thank you for a great year!  Meeting was adjourned.

The October 3, 2023 Team Geneva meeting was held at the Geneva Community Center with 19 members present.  Those who were available met at the park before the meeting to decorate up town for the fall season.  Thank you to Jon Warnke for providing the corn stalks.

President Bernie Warnke called the meeting to order.   Jan Bartsch gave the treasurer’s report and it was approved.   The Secretary’s report was given by Lauri Jensen and approved.

Bernie reported on the flowers around the flag pole at the park which were still looking great.  She will keep the tags from the petunias we used for future reference.   The sedum will need to be split in the spring and can maybe be used in our landscape project in front of the community center. 

Marion Parr has written a grant application for Team Geneva to Freeborn Mower for $500.00.   We will hear the middle of October if we were given that grant which was designated to be used for this landscaping project.  Sequoia was working in town so they were asked to give us a price to dig up the sod in front of the gym area of the Community center and fill that in with a foot of black dirt.  The size of the area will be approximately 30’ x 4’.  The bid from Sequoia came in and a motion was made and seconded to hire Sequoia to do that work.   Lauri will contact them to get it set up. 

DeWayne Jensen has contacted Jason of SME about new lights for our Christmas tree in the park.  Jason will be making some suggestions on what kind he would recommend.  A date for our tree lighting will be determined when we get more information on the lights.

Last year we participated in Operation Green Light.   It was determined to work with the City Council to see if there was interest in doing it again.   We would need to get a list of all the new residences in town and provide them with a green light.   Operation Green light provides a green light to all our city residences and will be turned on between from Nov. 6 – Nov. 12^th to thank and support our veterans for their service.

The Community Center entrance is complete.    It was determined no light was needed in the entrance area.   It was thought that the church bench in the entrance would look better with a gray wash of color on it to match the Geneva sign frame above the bench.   That will be worked on this winter.

Some things that have happened and are happening in the community:  Bank celebration was enjoyed by all and the Community Lutheran Church will be hosting a Trunk or Treat on Sunday, Oct 29^th for anyone interested in participating.

There was some discussion of ideas for upcoming projects or events.   Sue Phillips proposed Team Geneva providing a bench outside the Community Center.   She will get an estimate for the bench and bring it back to us.   Lauri Jensen suggested we take a day this winter and clean the end room in the Community Center that we use for storage with maybe a pot-luck following.  

Bernie Warnke announced she will be leaving as president of Team Geneva along with Lauri Jensen leaving as secretary the end of the year.   Team Geneva will looking for people to fill these positions.

Pat Goodnature thanked everyone who had helped and participated in the Hollandale parade float.

The meeting was adjourned.   Our next meeting will be Tuesday, Nov. 7^th. 

Below are the Minutes from the July 5^th Team Geneva Meeting – if you could add those to their parking spot, I would appreciate it.

A representative for the Red Cross spoke to us about the service the Red Cross provides and the need for volunteers.  Sally Gildner, one of our members manages the blood mobile for Geneva and had asked him to come.  It was very interesting and informative.

President Bernie Warnke called the July 5th meeting of Team Geneva to order.  There were 13 members present.  Jan Bartsch gave the treasurer’s report ad it was approved.
Lauri Jensen had e-mailed the secretary’s report to members and it was approved.

Old Business:
A reminder we are in need of new lights for the Christmas tree and will be purchasing them this year.

The new spring flags can go up on the 4 main corners since the 4th of July has been celebrated and the American flags will be coming down.

The flowering schedule for the area around the flagpole in the park is now complete and will be e-mailed to everyone who volunteered to water.   The petunias around the pole are not as full as we usually see.  Bernie will be adding in some more super petunias to help fill the area.

The proposed landscaping in front of the west gym wall was discussed again.   It was decided to get the bed ready this fall and plant next spring.   The sedum around the flagpole needs to be split, we can do that in the spring and use them in that area along with some tall grasses.   Greg Bartsch reminded us that at the time we purchased the Community Center entrance sign we had talked about also purchasing an outside sign to designate the community center.  It would face north and south so you would see it as you drive by.   There was also discussion about asking the community for plants and creating a community garden.

An update on the community center entrance was given.   The 2 walls and white patch in the ceiling have been painted.  After much discussion on the cement area of the floor it was decided to go with 2 new brown entrance mats and paint the cement areas on either side to match.  There are a few trim boards and some base to be replaced also.  When we find out if there is power to the overhead box in front of entrance doors we will purchase a new light.

The Team Geneva page on the Geneva website has been updated.  Bernie also brought the Team Geneva scrapbook which she has put together for anyone to look at.

National Night Out (NNO) will be held Tuesday, August 1st from 5-7 p.m.  This will be our 8th year.  It had been decided to serve hot dogs, buns, individual chips, small bottles of water and an ice cream treat.  Greg Bartsch talked to Deans Meats about getting hot dogs and buns, Commerce Bank has offered to pay for those items.  Tammy Beenken offered to get the chips, ketchup and mustard.  Linda Goodnature and Lauri Jensen offered to get the 8 oz. water bottles and napkins.  Sandy Jensen from Farmers Insurance offered to donate the ice cream treats.  It was decided to go with 100 of each item based on the average attendance from past years.  Sue Phillips offered to get the hot dogs ready to start serving at 5 p.m.  Mike Phillips offered some coolers to be used for the ice cream.  We had decided to offer 4 activities this year.  Sign up sheets were sent around for the activities.  It was decided  to have those who signed up to help meet a couple weeks prior to get organized.  Sue Stieglbauer and Tammy Beenken offered to purchase some prizes.  

There is grant money available through Freeborn Mower which Team Geneva would be eligible for.  Marion Parr volunteered to work on it.

There will be no meeting in August due to NNO so our next meeting will be Sept. 5.

Meeting was adjourned.

The May Team Geneva meeting was held on Tuesday, May 2nd 7:00 p.m.. with  16 members present.

Bernie called the meeting to order.   Jan gave the treasurer’s report and it was approved.  The secretary’s report was sent out in an email and is now included on the Geneva website.   It was approved.

Old Business:
The Christmas tree lights have been taken down at the park.   Thank you to Jason from Southern Minnesota Electric,  DeWayne and Pat for taking it down.  We discussed purchasing new lights for next year.  We‘ll get in touch with Jason to talk about options for lights.

We discussed purchasing spring flags for the 4 corners uptown.   The idea was approved and Jan will purchase the flags.   Some of the Christmas flags got wrapped around the poles with all the wind.  Sue Stieglbauer offered to look into a product that would help keep that from happening.  She will order a couple sets that we will try on the spring flags.

The lights for the Geneva signs are yet to be determined.

The Community Center entrance was discussed.    The City Council is looking into replacing the front doors, putting in a new front sidewalk and possibly a new ramp to the back door.    The tile in the front entrance is just going to have the sealer taken off and have it buffed up as is.  Knowing that we decided to go with the original plan of installing carpet in the painted floor area.  We were going with Derek Reichl’s bid for carpet and installation of $500.   The bid was given over a year ago so a motion was made to go ahead with the carpet if we could still get it done for anywhere between $600.-$700.  It was also decided to go ahead with the painting.  Jan will pick out the paint and get it purchased along with some supplies.    An email will go out when they are purchased with a day and time for anyone who is available to help.  

New Business:
We have 17 flower pots.  Mike and Pat will get them out and distributed.   Bernie is purchasing soil to replace as needed in the pots.  She’ll start with 6 bags and get more if needed.     Planting will be determined by the weather.  We will split the sedum around the flagpole at that time and determine when it will be planted at the Community Center.  Before we plant at the Community Center we will need to be sure there is nothing underground. Bernie will get a watering schedule together for around the flagpole.    Lauri will water 3 of the corner pots and Jan will water the pots at the Community Center.  Mike and Sue will again donate flags in the flower pots before Memorial Day.

Geneva clean-up is scheduled for June 3rd from 8—12. This is our 9th year.  The city will pay for the dumpsters and we will provide the help that day.    We will also have a trailer there for metal.  Donation buckets need to be updated and one will be on site that day.

Our next meeting will be Tuesday, June 6th.

Meeting was adjourned..

The April Team Geneva meeting was held on Tuesday, April 4th at 7:00 p.m. 12 members were present.   Welcome to Tammy Beenken, our newest member.

The Treasurer’s report was given and approved.  Thank you to Mary Torgerson for the donation to Team Geneva.  Marion Parr volunteered to send her a thank you note.

The Secretary’s report was approved.

Bernie informed us that at the beginning of last year we had 12 members.  We added 9 new members in 2022.  The theme for this year is, “Let’s have fun,” as stated by Pat.

Old Business:

Bernie brought the leftover ornaments from our Christmas lighting and offered them to anyone who didn’t get one.  The Christmas tree at the park will come down as soon as the ground dries up along with the star on the pavilion.  We talked about the need to replace the green lights on the tree this year.  We will talk to Jason and see if he has any recommendations for lights.  Now that we have an established tree, we can determine the length of each strand which may help with our decision on lights.

Thank you to Pat, for removing the Christmas flags and pavilion decorations.

Lights for the Geneva signs were discussed, and Bernie informed us that the lights Jon had purchased last year were not strong enough for what we needed.  Jon will talk to Jason.

The Community Center entrance project was discussed.   Sue Phillips informed us that the council is open to installing a new door and sidewalk.  We discussed the flooring and the carpet we had proposed putting on the cement floor area.  Sue also informed us that there has been an issue with the sealer put on the entrance tile and the person who sealed it is going to be coming with an idea for that area. We decided to wait with the carpet to see what the idea is and also to wait with the paint until the flooring is decided.

New Business:

Flower pots will again be distributed in May, the date will be determined by the weather.   Last year we provided and planted the four main corner pots, around the flagpole and the pots in front of the Community Center.    Bernie offered to pick up those plants and extra potting soil from Hilltop. The sedum around the flagpole has taken over and it was decided to cut them in half.  Bernie proposed planting the extra sedum along the gym wall on the front side of the Community Center, possibly adding in 4 grasses for height.  A motion was made and seconded to go ahead with the planting projects.

Highway clean-up was discussed but decided we all work at that throughout the year.

The Geneva website includes a page for Team Geneva.  Bernie had a list of the projects that Team Geneva has worked on and will give them to Janelle to add to our page. It was proposed that our monthly minutes also be added to the page to keep the community informed about what we are doing.

A motion was made and seconded to adjourn the meeting.  Our next meeting will be Tuesday, May 2nd.