Attendees:        

                                                                                           
Mario Gangemi called the meeting to order at 6:35 P.M.
Approval of the minutes from the March 16, 2005 Board meeting was tabled until next meeting due to their late distribution.  Cindy will get the executive directors report to the Secretary.

President’s Report: Mario Gangemi

Executive Committee met on March 23, 2005.  Report will follow soon.  Bill Pannill and Mario presented to Commissioners during their budget hearings.  Requested $7500, up from $5000.  Have confirmed that CCPS has budgeted for third grade, just needs Commissioner approval.

Executive Director’s Report: Cindy Miller

• Bill has secured money from Mercantile County Bank--$1,000.  It was deposited directly into the account.
• $2,650 taken in so far from 9 sponsors.
• We have 4 paid vendors for $200.  Two $50 fees paid and two $25 fees with promises for the auction.
• Habitats is being delayed due to a printer error (page order)  It will be in the mail early next week.
• Deadlines for Habitats articles has been posted in the report.  Next deadline is May 1.  Will be difficult to make.
• Cindy would like to increase the size of Habitats.  It will cost $250 for 750 newsletters.  Mario stated that sponsorship through advertising would be necessary to fund the increased newsletters.
• Got a $500 sponsorship from Ford Hamilton.  He would like his name on the plaque.  We should reinstate the “fern”  That would make a nice press release for the Whig and also in the Habitats.  We need to follow up on this fern idea.  Engraving done on bronze? Tabs under the fern.  Try to do engraving with local business.

• Wine and Cheese:

• Made $1,100.
• Easy to put together.
• Very successful event.
• Some people complained that there weren’t enough wines.  (there were eight)
• It was very crowded—high attendance.
• Possibly throw one in later in the year.
• Possibly have a “beers around the world”
• Follow up letter for recognition of sponsors better than mention in the Habitats newsletter.  Some sponsors don’t want that mention because it results in too many requests.
• We need to track attendees at these events.  Potential membership info.  Put stamp on membership brochures to track new members by our events.
• State Line’s Wine tastings only have 8 or 9 wines, so that is not inconsistant. 
• We could ask them to make the pours light and have more wines, but we don’t want attendees to get intoxicated.

Springfest Meeting Notes:

Ralph Young , Catherine Harjung, and Janet Fallon were in attendance for the Springfest meeting.

• Volunteers to arrive at 7am for setup.
• Concern over the limited number of people who have signed up for the Run/Walk
• Have 9 paid crafters.  Vendor fee is $50.  Sand art vendor has offered to pay 20% of take in lieu of vendor fee.  Committee agreed that this was acceptable.
• Music (bands), Karate demonstration, jumprope demonstration all taking place on the stage.  See schedule.
• We have a large inventory of signs in the basement.  Some will have to be modified using vinyl letters.  There is a concern by vendors that without signs, people may not be able to find their stands.
• We have sponsor signs already.
• We will need new signs made.  Some sponsors will repeat and we can reuse those signs
• Will have a big board of larger sponsors.  It will have to be reconfigured and made.
• Have made up new signs every year in the past for sponsors.
• We have signs for all events, need one for the scavenger hunt.
• There was a concern about some signs being too small and other things.  Look in Barb’s notebook for lessons learned from past years. 

• Ralph had an idea to encourage people to attend vendor’s stands—have a card with punches to enter
• Springfest ad not up on the Fair Hill Sign on 273.
• Hayride tickets will be priced at:  will have to check the binder for the price next year.  Hayride will have to take cash or tickets because there was a lot of frustration by parents who waited in line for the hayride and then had to get out of line to buy tickets.  Need to be clear about the hayride start and end times and have signs.  It was decided that cash only would be accepted for the hayride to simplify. 
• Sponsorship is down this year.  Dan Sch, said that he was sure that there were many more commitments.  Dan Sch. will follow up with his contacts.  Mario and Ron have made their calls.  Bill Pannill has County Bank contacts.
• P.O. Box has been checked this week.
• Changes were made to the layout.  Ralph would like Dan Speakman to make revisions in AutoCad and plot at that scale.
• Possible petting zoo through 4-H.  Cindy will follow up,
• Parking:  Scottish games will be charging $2 for parking.  We will need to charge for parking also; otherwise people from the Scottish games will park in our area.  We will have Scouts and other volunteers to collect for parking. 
• Silent auction will require 10 tables, 5 chairs, and 2 card tables.
• Paramedics:  must have them there, maybe find out if we can partner with Scottish games.  Dan Sch. says that it is a free service.

Program committee – Barb Snyder

Treasurer's Report/Finance Committee: Bill Pannill

• Commissioners need a financial statement from the FHNC.
• Tom Jones is our accountant.
• Larry Klevins is a good source for help.
• Lisa has gotten the checkbook reconciled and Quickbooks has been used.  Kudos to Lisa.  She has put in a lot of time.  She has some ideas to simplify our accounting processes.  We are close to be able to be printing reports with some accuracy.
• Loan from the bank—would probably make more sense as a “revolving line” so that Bill can pay down the loan when the balance is high enough.  Bill will change to a revolving line of credit with the Board’s approval.  Risk of prior loan was that it did not restore the credit.  Interest is probably prime+0.5%
• Board members were reminded that anytime a donation is made, the Treasurer must be informed as soon as possible.  We should improve our tracking/database of donors and sponsors.  We must avoid asking donors/sponsors multiple times.

Nature School Report: Holly Hannum 

• Thank you letter from Perryville Middle School for presentation.
• FHNC was mentioned in “Tidings” newsletter (Waterfowl Festival).
• Our interactive website up and running.
• Will have a personnel committee meeting about Pat and Janet’s replacements next week.
• Mario will do “thank you’s” listed in Holly’s report.
• This is a very busy time of year for FHNC employees.

We are having a very busy spring.  We completed the 4th grade classes and have received our spring allotment of $4500.  We will complete grade one classes on April 20 and I will invoice Cecil County Public Schools for approximately $3100.  We began grade 3 classes on April 19. 

In addition to CCPS classes we have added some preschool classes, we attended a science field day at North East Middle School, ran a lunchtime program at Principio Furnace for Perryville 8th graders, and hosted Envirothon training.  The Cecil County Leadership Conference will be with us tomorrow and will get to see the school classes in action with students from Cecilton Elementary. We will be hosting Girl Scout Discovery Day on April 23rd.

We hosted 87 people at this year’s Frog Frenzy and got two new family memberships.  It was a members only event this year.  We had 17 people for the wildflower walk on Sunday and sold $119 worth of wildflowers.  We have some left over to sell at Springfest.

We have 108 summer campers registered so far.  There are a total of 280 slots in camp.  No camp is closed yet but Indian Camp is close.

We have a new substitute teacher in training.  Georgeanne Scott’s background is in environmental impact studies.  She became aware of our programs when her children attended summer camp.

Cathryn Harjung has accepted a position at Immaculate Conception School for the next school year.  She will be greatly missed for her skills with our smallest students and her attention to volunteers.

We have received a grant for $750 from the Sturgeon fund of St. Mary Anne’s Episcopal Church.  I applied for this grant back in August of 2004.  The request at that time was for kindergarten support.

I will speak on behalf of the Nature Center at an upcoming meeting of the Elkton Lions Club.  This was arranged through my work with the District Lions Club environmental coordinator,Ford Hamilton.  In addition and as a show of support Ford has made a $500 personal donation.

In the absence of administrative support the teaching staff has picked up the following duties.  Janet is processing new and renewed memberships on a weekly basis.  She is not entering them into the database. Janet is also faxing program info to media lists.  Erlene is processing summer camp registrations.  I am invoicing CCPS for student numbers and communicating with the transportation office.   Cathryn is getting the mail and checking e-mail daily.  We are taking turns checking phone messages received during the teaching day.   There are some duties that we are not consistently covering.  Entering memberships into the database,sending out renewal letters, typing flyers and letters, ordering office supplies, and reminding Board members of meetings.  I am especially concerned about knowing who will cover thank you letters.  We need to thank the Soil Conservation District, Ford Hamilton, St. Mary Anne’s Church, ATK, Jerry Newman ( for our new office shelves), and Mary Hannum for the donation of a squirrel mount.  I am not including Springfest thank-yous as I assume that Cindy will handle those.  I can handle some thank-yous if I know that it is my responsibility. We are feeling the need to have someone in the building between 10am and 2pm when teachers are out of the building to deal with incoming buses, drop in visitors and people calling or dropping by to register for upcoming programs.  We hope that we can fill this position soon.

Personnel Committee: Hinda Smith

No report as Hinda was unable to attend

Community Relations/Membership: Doug Hill & Joe Janusz  (Joe Janusz was not in attendance)

• Membership desperately needs to be updated. 
• Every member must be on the mailing list. 
• Doug needs a report of everyone on the mailing list to make sure that all key players are included.
• Habitats mailing list is bigger than the membership list.
• Doug brought up an “editorial board” so that there is review of the Habitats
• Mario, Dan Speakman, Barb Snyder, Doug Hill are currently on the list.
• Jerry Hendricks probably should be added to the list.
• It would also be helpful if he could cut and paste from the attachment.
• If anyone knows a videographer, recommend to Doug Hill.  A video of the barn should be done to ask for funding.

Building and Grounds:

• Jerry Newman stated that DNR will repair the Barn Door

Old Business

• Honorary Board
• bylaw Review
• Fundraising

New Business:

• SWAT Road cleanup this Saturday, April 23 at 8 am at Westleys.  SWAT cleanup will not happen if there is inclement weather.

Next Meeting: May 18, 2005 P.M., at the Nature Center. 
The meeting was adjourned at 7:28 P.M.
Respectfully submitted by Daniel Speakman