Attending:       Molly Anderson, Bob Gray, Chris Hoess, Anna Hull, Kent Wagner, Henry Whitesel via phone

A) Key Dates

1. Our next board meeting is scheduled for Sunday, November 1 at Lincoln University, Room 235, 2-4

 Conference Dial-in Number: (716) 748-0224 (potential toll call)

 Host Access Code: 445962*

 Participant Access Code: 445962#

2.  Hikes, Talks and Other Commitments

Friday, Oct. 9, Serps Stewardship Day at Goat Hill  -- Kent leads

Sunday, Oct. 11, Serps Ecology Hike, Goat Hill Rose Trail, 1:00 – Chris leads

Saturday, October 17, Passport to Serpentine Ecology, 9:30 – canceled

Friday, Oct. 23, Serps Stewardship Day at NCP  -- David leads

Friday, November 6, Membership Banquet at Oxford Presbyterian Church, 6:00pm

            Lecture 7:30

Sunday, Nov. 15, Serps Stewardship Day at Lower Chrome – Kent leads

B) Action Items Going Forward

Molly Anderson

Mike Bertram:

Point person for our history initiatives

Bob Gray:

Point person for strategic planning initiatives.

Chris Hoess:

Prepare short intro talk on the barrens for the annual meeting.

Will lead end of July 2016 walk; Board will incorporate as part of our Spring/Summer 2016 schedule

Anna Hull:

            Follow up on Oxford Area, Dansko granting.

            Planning spring Passport event.

Point person for science and education initiatives.

Tracy Raymond

Organizing advertising for the banquet: contact person for RSVPs, Chief Coker. (See specific tasks in minutes).

Ad for maintenance volunteer position.

Talk to Mike Bertram about website changes.

            Point person for membership and outreach initiatives.

David Ross:

Will remind Board members to review the deferred actions list

Point person for administrative initiatives.

Kent Wagner:

Point person for recreational uses and trail planning initiatives.

Henry Whitesel:

Banquet-related tasks (see below for details).

Find out who is mowing at Chrome and relay to Bob.

Point person for conservation/maintenance planning

 

C) Agenda Items Considered

 

1. Approved Minutes from Board Meeting of 8/29/2015.

2. Approved agenda.

3. October board meeting date, time and location.

November 1 at Lincoln University, Room 235, 2-4

4. Critical Action Items from 8/29/2015 Board Meeting:

a. Remaining Events for 2015:

Friday, Oct. 9, Serps Stewardship Day at Goat Hill  -- Kent leads

Going ahead. BoF people are coming and bringing an ATV and walk-behind. Carol Loeffler is attending. Chris, Carol and one of the BoF people can move the cage material and finish caging the glade spurge.

Sunday, Oct. 11, Serps Ecology Hike, Goat Hill Rose Trail, 1:00 – Chris leads

Walk will be from 1:00-3:00 from the parking lot at the head of the Rose Trail. Chris will try to bring some of his students. Tracy will advertise on Facebook and get a time up on the Friends website ASAP.

Saturday, October 17, Passport to Serpentine Ecology, 9:30 – Tracy and Anna lead

This event has been canceled, but there is some interest; Anna will look into doing something like this in the spring.

Friday, Oct. 23, Serps Stewardship Day at NCP  -- David leads

Nothing to report.

Friday, November 6, Membership Banquet at Oxford Presbyterian Church, 6:00pm

            Lecture 7:30

1.      Speaker confirmation, honorarium

Chief Coker has agreed to speak at the event. He agreed with Tracy to accept an honorarium of $100. The agenda as planned is follows: our annual membership meeting will start at 5:00. We will reach out to those who have worked with us in the past year (as our definition of membership is fairly informal) and elect officers for the coming year. This will take about 30 minutes. At 5:30, we will start collecting fees at the door (spouses of Board members have been volunteered to help). Dinner will run from 6:00 to 7:30. At 7:30, we will present an award to Rose Chase, Chris will talk for 10 minutes to give some background on the serpentine barrens, and Chief Coker will talk about the Lenape for 30 minutes or so. We do need to be done and out by 9:00. Tracy will reach out to Chief Coker about touring the serpentine barrens with some of us on Nov. 1 before the next board meeting to help connect his talk with the barrens, and about what kind of audiovisual support he needs.

2.      Food, hall rental contract details, guarantee

The hall has a non-refundable deposit of $150, due two weeks before the event. Payment for the estimated number of guests is due one week before the event. The cost to us will be $11 for guests attending the dinner and the talk, and $1 for those attending the talk only (coffee and cookies); the deposit is counted against this balance. We agreed on an asking price of $16 for the former and $6 for the latter (although additional donations are welcome). The funds will come from the PPFF account. Tracy will contact her tomorrow to find out how to get the deposit released. The Board has authorized Henry to sign the contract and pay the $150 for the event.

3.      Depending on attendance, the second payment may exceed our funds; several board members have agreed to contribute to floating that payment until we collect our revenue at the door.

Chief Coker may bring one or two guests; Henry suggested that Ruthann, who put us in touch with him, also be comp'd free attendance at the dinner.

4.      Lead person to manage details

Tracy is our contact with Chief Coker and is managing the details described above and advertising for the event: ads will be posted at the Oxford Library, the Presbyterian Church, and coffee shops in Oxford. She will make up a nice-looking email invitation to go out to our email list. She will also create a Google Doc where we can 1) list particularly important stakeholders that we'd like to attend and assign board members to personally follow up with them and 2) add other people to be invited who are not on our email list. RSVPs from attendees should go to her. Replies will be due by October 28^th so we can calculate the size of the second payment and furnish the funds. She will send out reminders to attendees a few days before the banquet. She's also going to look into some ideas about what kind of award we should present to Rose.

Henry will talk to a friend of his who does wood-turning to see if he'd be willing to donate a bowl for Rose's award. He will make sure that times etc. are OK for Rose to attend.

Sunday, Nov. 15 (new date)  Serps Stewardship Day at Lower Chrome – Molly leads

Molly plants to lead this workday (in lieu of Kent, not available).

5. TNC meeting with Chrome landowners on Sunday afternoon, Nov.  15, Elk Township Hall (time?).

Before the meeting, Bob would like a report on who is currently doing mowing at Upper and Lower Chrome. Henry will investigate on Oct. 28 and talk to Mr. Riesler and Wilson King to see who is doing what and brief Bob accordingly.

Molly says that TNC is currently receiving $1,000 from Mr. Foulk as rental on their hay field and would be more than willing to commute that rent to service in kind if he will mow the serpentine grasslands at Chrome as well. Mowing should be done in March. We (Bob? Henry? Molly?) should approach him before the Nov. 15^th meeting to see what will and won't remain on the table for other mowers.

6.  Grant submission recap.

No news. Anna hasn't heard back yet from Oxford Area foundation, although they may not reply until Nov. 1. She will follow up. Nothing done yet w/ Dansko.

7.  Other business

Per email from David:

·         Henry, Tracy, & Chris agreed that we should try to solicit a volunteer for the role of maintaining our equipment (particularly as we acquire more): sharpening, fueling brush cutters, etc. This could be a good position for someone who doesn't feel up to spending hours out on the barrens but likes tinkering. Tracy will draft a generic ad for this for the end-of-year event. Do we have a complete list of our equipment?

·         MoU between TNC and BoF: Molly reports this has been settled and henceforth BoF will store their ATV in the TNC shed.

Tracy will be talking with Mike about some updates to the website and changing the look and feel a bit. Bob would like to make the theft warning a bit less prominent.

Molly notes that the Land & Water Conservation Fund authorization has expired. TNC has a link on their Facebook page you can use to reach out and contact your Congressperson to have it reauthorized.

Jessica Packard Shelby, of Duke University, is doing research on Arabidopsis lyrata on the barrens. She visited Goat Hill and Lower Chrome this Monday. She recently did her PhD work on monkeyflower (Mimulus guttatus) on serpentine soils in California.

8. Adjourned at    9:46 PM.