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Attending: Bob Gray, Anna Hull, David Ross, Kent Wagner (speaker phone), Henry Whitesel Action Items Mike Bertram Bob Gray Complete PPFF annual report. Anna Hull David Ross Henry Whitesel Kent Wagner Mike Waltz Agenda Items 0. Revised and approved the agenda Bob circulated 1. Approved Minutes from Board Meeting of 11/24/2013 2. Reviewed Action Items from 11/24/2013 Board Meeting Follow up phone call on Feb. 7 at 4:30 TNC has concerns about doing controlled burns here; we believe this needs to be an integral part of a management strategy for the ecosystem b. Establish Botanical / ecology and historical hike / presentation dates. (AH and MB) Lead hikes: Spring Flowers, May (Responsibility: Mike Bertram) Ask each person to suggest a date. c. Approach universities about developing master plan (BG, DR) Will do after scope of work is approved. Bob and David might meet with each as a team. Kent : Horseshoe Trail used consulted with LaSalle University’s Nonprofit Center (http://www.lasallenonprofitcenter.org/) and Hopewell Big Woods (http://www.hopewellbigwoods.org/) in developing its strategic plan. d. Seek previous strategic plan docs for Chrome, Goat Hill from TNC (BG), and for Goat Hill from DCNR (HW). Bob has read DCNR Goat Hill plan; will call Molly to obtain TNC documents. David will follow up with Jay Gregg for Nottingham County Park. e. Set up annual review meetings / discussions with Jay, Joe and Hannums (HW): Jay -- done Joe -- rescheduled Hannums – lets wait until we have a broader agenda f. Contact: Vernon Ringler (Oxford Historical Society) re hikes, outreach. (HW) Vernon is no longer the Program guy for OHA. Vernon is concerned about the age of the persons in OHA; hike to mining sites too much for them. We agreed that slide presentation on history and Serpentine buildings would be better Henry will get the name of the new OHA program person g. Contact Patrick Hurley at Ursinus College about strategic plan idea (HW) HW contact Patrick about workdays; we will wait to discuss partnership with the Strategic Plan, h. Obtain PPFF annual report templates (HW, BG) Done i. Explore Grant opportunities: Ware Foundation, DCNR, Herrs (2014) (BG, AH) We need to have a brainstorming effort on how we put funding requests together. Fund a planning study for how to structure the master plan? What is our pitch? Our funding needs will be different depending on whether we find universities willing to take this on gratis. Much more expensive if we need a professional planner like Roger Latham. We need to cost this out. We could ask PPFF to host grant application planning/writing workshop Could seek out one or two interns to start assembling reports, old photographs, other resource material. Bob and Anna will play around with how an intern could help out in this effort for summer ($ through university? Grant?) or fall (academic credit). Henry recalled that FSLSB had one University of Maryland intern for controlled burn at Pilot; a second intern pulled out at last moment. j. Schedule spring 2014 workdays (HW) and Board Meetings (BG) Kent verified that work days are published on TNC site. Bob will follow up with PPFF. Henry will do a tentative plan of which sites over the next 6 months will be tackled on the workdays – then Anna will try to coordinate identifying if there are any rare plants there. k. Begin to explore outreach materials to attract volunteers to workdays (AH) Anna will update our handout with spring workdays and distribute to Herrs, OMI and David (for February First Friday). David – stack of handouts for First Friday at Oxford Arts Alliance. Henry – will send the list of workdays to DeLoitte.
3. Status of Annual Report preparation for PPFF. Bob and Henry are finishing last few details Henry, David and Kent agreed to send Bob contact and disclosure statements before Wednesday. 4. Approve schedule for future board meetings for the 4th Friday of each month: For at least the next year, while we try to expand the number of volunteers, monthly Board meetings seem sensible, since much of our work is accomplished as a committee of the whole. Bob to pursue conference call option with PPFF and TNC Meetings will run 4:30- 6:30. Fri 2/28 -- at Henry’s house 5. Admin – contact lists: Board members, stakeholders, volunteers Move our master list of stakeholders with all contact information to electronic form (HW and Bob) Volunteers we have on email list; would be helpful to get cell phone numbers Kent maintains the volunteer database for Horseshoe 6. Approved 2014 Objectives circulated by Bob before the meeting. 7. Determine / confirm Board member “Leads” for 2014: The idea is that the lead reports in on each of these activities at each Board meeting. a. Conservation / maintenance: Henry b. Science: Anna c. History: Mike B. d. Education: Anna e. Recreation / trails: Kent – making sure that someone is taking care of our trails f. Membership / outreach: Anna g. Administration: David h. Strategic Plan: Bob 8. Review status of Site Tracker Spreadsheet Bob shared a first draft of a data base system for tracking the status of each site on each property. The goal is to identify the last time a site was assessed, its current and desired state, when last maintained and immediate priorities. This will guide Henry in scheduling and designing workdays. Next step: Bob to complete his draft spreadsheet for Chrome 9. Discuss Strategic Plan Draft - revisions, further discussion, approval, etc. Can we get the Mission Statement down to 1 sentence? We will all read this one more time. 10. Review and approve Master Land Plan / Stewardship Plan Scope for discussion with universities and consultants (if time permits) Postponed to February 11. Greenbriar Henry’s dinner companions suggested Scottish highland cattle are likely to do a better job clearing green briar than goats or deer. Anna will see if she can verify. 12. Adjourned at 6:00 with thanks to Henry for hosting and congratulations to Bob for guiding us through the agenda.
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