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Meeting Recaps + Information>
2nd Quarter Board Meeting Minutes
June 15, 2008
To: Sustainable West Milford Board Members
From: Katie Hayes-Natale, secretary
Subject: Board Meeting – 7/1/08
Date: 7/14/08
Second Board Meeting – Tuesday, July 1st 2008
Agenda:
• Review Progress & Strategies
• What to move forward
• What do we have, what do we need - finances
• Date for next board meeting
Katie Hayes-Natale was voted in as secretary of SWM. Doug Herdt was asked to join the meeting as a member participant.
What is everyone still interested in doing? How do we get more core members? PLANS DON’T WORK : ) Go over the strategies and see what re-inspires you
Reviewed Strategies of Planning Board meeting from 2/18/08:
The idea was to create lots of strategies in the beginning because some may fall apart as we go.
Highlands Green directory -
We discovered that the WM Chamber of Commerce was not a good partner – they have a different pace and focus
We also discovered that we can’t do this b/c of our 501(c)3 status
WM Farmer’s Market
Again, the Chamber was not the right partner, plus the township is just weird. A week night was not good for location and SWM did not want to compete with surrounding farmers markets. Didn’t start planning early enough. There were health code issues with selling produce – maybe b/c the health inspector is changing? Dave would still like to try again next year, but decided we need to start in Fall. Ideally this would be in a public space with 12-15 vendors.
We discovered that we need to look hard for like minded groups & people who’s values are connected with our own.
Eco Friendly Public Transportation
Joe would like to have a survey to see what the public wants/needs. Maybe could get the survey together for ALF? There is a need to improve the WM bus system. NJ transit in WM is practically non existent, would like to increase that. Maybe we can create a website for ridesharing & carpooling for grocery shopping, etc.
The time to increase public transportation in WM is now even more than 6 months ago! We should be able to utilize the Dept of Transportation b/c of our 501(c)3 status.
Eco Tourism Recreation Options on SWM website
We currently have some links, such as the Highlands pool & the Bakers Dozen.
We can add our “steam boat” on Greenwood Lake as educational tool.
We can add Wise Woman’s weed walks as link, and the classes Robin is teaching at Midsummer classes.
We decided to re-arrange categories online – Enjoy, Live, Protect.
We have to remain educational because of 501(c)3 status.
Joe suggested to change the main picture on our home page from the wind turbines to pictures of WM, maybe create a slideshow. Jade said it is possible to do this through our server, but we need to find someone who knows how to write the code. Katie is going to check with her dad if he can write program to create a slideshow.
Highlands GreenFest!!!
Let’s do it again! We learned a lot and discoevered we need more time and more help. We decided to split the festival up into several task forces that are more manageable for one person to head up. We need 4 times as many volunteers as we had and we will have meetings specifically for the volunteers, so everyone knows what they’re doing before the event. Maybe have meetings for each task force and meetings for the task force leaders. We have a good base of participators. Now we know about permits. We have time to work on food - this was a big challenge. The event was not in compliance w/ our insurance, but with a majority board vote we decided to go for and take our chances. None of the small vendors had insurance, we had them sign waivers. Obviously the weather was an issue this year. Many of the vendors were unprepared. Robin said she heard from many people that they had problems understanding the flyer. We had major problems with the sound system – batteries were dead, no time to properly set up tents, etc. More Time, More Time, More Time!!! And let’s have a back up plan!!!
Buy Local Campaign – Dave’s ideas were 3 for 3 in lack of fruition : (
We technically cannot support a buy local campaign because of our 501(c)3 status. We can promote buying local from an educational standpoint.
Maybe we can still do farm to restaurant not through SWM or maybe can at least work it from an educational point of view.
Ordinances have been introduced against Big Boxes. We can still influence a sustainable economy through education.
Cool Cities –
We haven’t done anything to move forward with this. Stephan is our contact and is ready to work with us. We did give a certificate to the mayor at Greenfest. Dave went to workshop to be a coordinator. An energy audit has been done on the municipal buildings in WM, but the Township doesn’t agree with findings. SWM can’t spend time to push this forward right now – it is a township issue.
Where does town need to be for SWM to get in? Do we spend time and effort on this now or get back to it?
We decided to put our other programs in place which work towards cool cities and re-address in 2009.
Community Garden –
Some aspects of the Garden are overwhelming for Katie. Have decided to eliminate most of the communal garden areas. We are sold out and still have interest in more plots. By eliminating the communal areas we can create more plots. Katie may be consulting with other communities to create community gardens in their towns. Katie will be re-wording the compact for next year – addressing the issue of plots not being planted when there is interest in utilizing the plots, and other such issues.
Medicinal Garden –
The soil from Two Pond has been a fantastic addition to the Garden! Robin learned to organize volunteers in a more efficient way. Bob is not coming through with the water – biggest problem. Since the board meeting we have delivered two more water barrels to the Garden and Chris, the chief of the Apshaw Fire Department, has agreed to help keep the barrels full. Swales and burms are working well. Roger has finished building the bench and it has been delivered. Doug has teathered it down to prevent theft. Maintenance issues are our biggest concern, especially planting and maintaining the sides of the triangle. The plants on top are healthy.
How do we create educational opportunities? How do we get people there? A self guided tour is good. Maybe we can get groups to pay for an educational opportunity, such as weed walks by Robin. It was suggested that Scout troops may be interested in this. Small groups will work better for educational workshops/weed walks. Robin has arranged for Mike Bousquet to take professional pictures for an article in the Messenger. We have decided to post a large map for people to self guide themselves and also design a 3-fold paper brochure with a map for self guiding and also with links to more education and thanks for donations. Would like to have a sign in book for United Plant Savers – so they can see how many people go through the Garden. Donna is taking on the Posion Ivy. Dave will connect with landscaper to touch base again about the possibility of building steps up the front of the triangle.
Where will we go with the garden from here? Botanical sanctuary status is a possiblility.
Harvest Dinner
This will be a lot of work to pull of the event. The idea is to have SWM members as wait staff, have local sponsors for produce & meat – local, but not organic will be more affordable. We plant to have local chefs to donate skill and time – not purchase food. Time is the biggest factor and also getting a commitment from chefs. If we go for next year we need to start coordination by April. Dave, Joe and Anne are interested to move forward with the event.
Does it make sense to do this event this year? Are now concidering to postpone event till beginning of this October instead of putting off till next year. Stand to make a lot of money if we can pull if together. Are now going over milestones and deciding if there is enough energy behind the event.
We also tossed out the idea of maybe do something different this fall?
Pizza Contest –
At the time of this Board meeting we felt we were in good shape and stood to make some money. Katie felt everything was going smoothly and felt we had the potential to make $1,200. Dave thought there should be awards for everyone, dually noted : ) The contest was this past Sunday and we made $1,400 at the door, $200 from the 50/50, and the 50/50 winner donated $100 of her winning back to SWM, making our grand total $1,700!
Clean Up Day –
It happened, it’s clean – we had 34 people help out this year. We will do it again next year and we will work out something with the High School Green Team again. Robin suggested to do a clean up in a water system, maybe one of the lakes? Norma said she will survey the HS kids for suggestions. We can do a floating clean up using kayaks & canoes?
High School Recycling –
Queen Norma! Keep doing it what you’re doing. Plan on getting the new super on board by sending her emails. Norma will send an email blurb asking for community members to send emails to the super. Would also like to get the info in newspaper – maybe a letter to the editor.
WM Recycling –
The township put out a survey for businesses in WM on their recycling practices. The pressure is on to get the businesses on board for recycling because next year bids for recycling & garbage are happening.
What is SWM’s role in this? Educational – maybe start in schools? Maybe we can get strip mall or businesses that are close together to go in with each other on recepticals – Perhaps we can create a liason to work with these businesses. Should SWM be involved? A letter writing campaign from Renee at the end of the year
Green Home Certification
Should we still pursue this for 2008? We need to determine a goal and go forward from there. We decided to table this certification until next year
CSA
Still pushing for use of the Walish property. Katie suggested that once there is a space available we can decide how to proceed. The director of the CSA needs to be a paid position – it is a full time job.
Monthly newspaper column –
“Sustainably Speaking” The newspaper said no to giving us a monthly space commitment. They suggested to just give them press releases. We have not yet started submitting articles. We can get educational articles out in other ways through SWM publications. We need coordinator.
Also, we have a PR person who would like to help with our organization
Movie Night
Ringwood is not interested, but maybe we can have a movie night at Hillcrest? Maybe we can survey around and find out what the public would be interested in? Or we can do a movie night at a fall SWM meeting to get an idea of the interest level
Finances - What do we need?
A projector for presentations – maybe we can get a discount with our 501(c)3 status. Also, the computer discount store will rent our projector out for us when we are not using it to make some money. We probably also need a screen to go with the projector.
Suzie suggested a Holiday craft fair fundraiser as a second fundraiser for this year if we don’t go forward with the Harvest Dinner. We have decided not to go forward with that suggestion
We don’t have much money in the account. Products are not selling. Maybe we can start to get donations and/or grants. Robin has contacts for grants to get big bucks! Dave & Wendy are experienced grant writers and are looking forward to getting us some money for projects, workshops, and also to start paying some of our coordinators and teachers.
The Next Board Meeting will be on Monday, October 6th from 6-9pm at Dave & Wendy’s.
Please let me know if I have missed or misrepresented anything in this recap.
Thank you,
Katie
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