BOARD OF DIRECTORS
MEETING FAIR HILL NATURE
CENTER October 8, 2002 6:00 P.M.
Attendees:
Jim Campbell, Bob Carroll, Mario Gangemi, Holly Hannum, Doug Hill, Larry Klevans, Dan Schneckenburger, Nancy Simpers, Hinda Smith, Barb Snyder, Dan Speakman, Rick Waterhouse
Dan Schneckenburger called the meeting to order at 6:32 P.M.
The minutes from the September Board meeting were approved.
Program Committee: Barb Snyder
Discussion:
Springfest – WXCY will charge us $3000 ($1500 each) to promote the event.
They will do promotional spots before the event and set up a live feed from
the festival site. Dan Schn. signed the contract. They do not need our payment
yet. Date will be May 3, 2003.
Pursuit of grant funds – Chase Brooks would like information so that they
can present our proposal to potential donors. Dan and Hinda will work on this,
along with anyone else who is interested in grant writing. Hinda suggested that
we keep copies of information that we submit for grants, so that it is available
for other grant applications. Holly said that we have a file of grant proposals
at the Nature Center. Linda Walls did grant proposals, but we have not received
results of her work. Dan Schn. will check into this.
Fox chase program was well attended.
Finance Committee: Larry KIevans Report as of September 30, 2002 :
1. In September 2002 expenses exceeded income by $6923. The majority of income
items were $1800 from the Cecil County Arts Council and $110 from adult programs.
2. Major expenses for Sept 2002 were $ 7233 for staff , $603 for office expenses, and $588 for payroll taxes
3 As of August 31, Year to date Income (YTD) totals $84,811vs budget of $83,895, while YTD expenses total $85.575 vs a budget of $83, 895. Thus, our YTD net income is now - $945.
4. The fund balance as of Sept 30 was $17045. This is reduced (from $2350) because
of the September negative cash flow, and a correction in our Federal witholding
payments for previous months
5. We have some expenses coming up in the next few months. We need a big push
for donations to cover these months. Nancy suggested we push with the service
organizations for contributions.
6. We need to approve budget for next year. Larry has made conservative estimates
of next years’ income based on last year’s. A motion was made and
seconded to approve the budget. It was accepted, as presented by Larry.
Nature School Report: Holly Hannum
Fall programs for grade 5 and 2 are done. $3467 has come in from school district.
Started grade 3 programs today.
Tome School will visit after a nine year absence.
Home School Day October 16 - not a lot of sign-up so far.
After school program was delayed due to insurance coverage issues that had to
be resolved. Company would like a list of activities coming this year, so they
can look at our coverage. Currently covered for “educational activities”.
14/17 schools have registered for Kindergarten program this winter.
Oct 24 – 27 Fair Hill International would like to know names of people
covering our booth (9-4:00). They will provide electricity for our booth. People
covering should go to the Chapel entrance on Gallagher Rd. Mario will get a
small folding table for Nature Center.
Nov. 8-10 Waterfowl Festival does not yet know if we have electricity for the
video.
MBNA workers will be back to work on trails this week.
Seventh grade home school student is also volunteering, as well as a mentally
handicapped adult.
Personnel Committee: Hinda Smith
No report.
Public Relations: Doug Hill
Doug received three e-mails about willingness to present the video/marketing
package to groups. Doug has a list of companies to visit, as well as organizations.
He would like to put names by each of these, so contacts can make. Each board
member should take three on the list. Secure the name of the person in the company
or organization who makes contribution decisions and contact them about a presentation.
Barb asked if we should coordinate effort of fund-raising visits this fall with
ones for Springfest. Dan said we should not visit them twice. As part of Josh’s
presentation outline, we should include an offer of sponsorship of Springfest,
as well as the request for current funding.
Dan Sp. is having trouble putting the video presentation into CD format. He
will attempt to put it in Real Player format, which most people have on their
computers or can download for free.
Membership: Bob Carroll
Dennis and Bob have had a discussion about membership. Board members have been
asked to contribute in the past, as a sign to others that we support the group
financially. Should we do this again this year? Bob will e-mail the board to
request $125 from each person, so we can have $2250 total. A motion was made,
seconded, and passed to authorize this.
We should have membership information available at Fair Hill International.
Most of our best efforts toward membership have come during Nature Center events.
We also had a lot of success doing a Christmas gift membership offer, wherein
we offered a membership for an administrative cost of $5. Some of these people
then renewed the next year at full membership price. We have also had success
enlisting members from summer camp attendees.
Hinda suggested targeting teachers who bring classes here for programs.
Bob will call the committee together soon, to look at how we can reach a target
of 1000 members.
Larry is working on getting a credit card account to facilitate Internet site
membership sales, as well as other venues.
Buildings and Grounds:
Jerry Newman is still working on the water problem in the basement.
It was approved to give the old exhaust fan to First State Bird Rescue.
Dan Sp. will get the step railing done soon.
President’s Report: Dan Schneckenburger
No report.
Next Meeting:
November12 at 6:30 P.M.
The meeting was adjourned at 8:05 P.M.
Respectfully submitted,
Rick Waterhouse