Attendees: Mark Crawford, Mario Gangemi, Holly Hannum, Doug Hill, Tracy Jentzch, Cynthia Miller, Bill Pannill, Ron Perkins, Dan Schneckenburger, Dan Speakman                                                                                                                                                                                                                            

Mario Gangemi called the meeting to order at 6:34 P.M.

The minutes from the September Board meeting were approved.

President’s Report: Mario Gangemi

• A reminder that all reports are to be emailed to all Board members 1 week prior to Board meeting.  Action items and/or questions should be highlighted in those reports.  It is the goal to streamline the meetings so that we can concentrate on important items and shorten the needed meeting time.  This go around was very successful.  Let’s keep up the good work and, maybe, shorten our meetings.
• The budget needs to be based on the fiscal year (i.e. July to June) according to the bylaws.  We may need to amend the bylaws as this complicates the accounting for the organization.

Treasurer's Report/Finance Committee: Mark Crawford   

Fair Hill Environmental Foundation, Inc.

Financial Report as of September 30, 2004

Several of the Board members have requested a comparison between the current figures and those of a year ago.  I have been able to do that for September and will continue in the future.  Because we work with a cash accounting basis rather than an accrual basis, the activity (income and expenses) are reflected in the month they are presented and not necessarily in the month occur.   

Due to the late date of the Foxtrot Ball, the financial information will fall over the next month.  But, the income will be in the neighborhood of $3,700.00.  The expenses for the dance should be around $2,000.00 for a total profit of $1,700.00.  (Some of the expenses have already been expensed in September while the rest will be entered in the following month.)

The only significant income we received is the profit from Springfest that finally got into the correct account.  Expenses are what should be expected for the month and is primarily derived from payroll expense.  We are not covering our expenses with the revenue we generate.

What bothers me is not the monthly income statement but rather the Balance Sheet.  We have dropped almost 78% in the last year.  This is due more to the lack of fund raising that from excessive expenditures.  Cindy is going to propose some new events and we need to produce more income before we think of additional expansion or equipment. 

Respectfully submitted,

Mark Crawford, Treasurer

• We have approx. $19,000 less in our account than we did this time last year.
• Two large grants are not reflected in this report.
• Dan Sch. inquired about the current fund balance.  The info was not immediately available.
• Dan Sch. suggested that the Board start a Finance committee to assess the need for a Line of Credit.

Personnel Committee: Hinda Smith

• Hinda was not present, but sent an email saying that  she was “still working on finalizing the contract for the Executive Director.  It will be presented at the next board meeting.”

Program Committee: Barb Snyder

Coming programs:

Executive Director’s Report: Cynthia Miller

(Incorporate by reference:  report handed out to Board members at meeting)

• Suggested we hold a Wine and Cheese event after cleaning up the Nature Center
• We should schedule a snow date if held during the winter.  Someone will also need to show up early to turn the heat up.

• Springfest   May 21, 2005
• Cindy is assuming responsibility for planning.
• She would like to add a 5k Run/Walk
• For $800 Wayne Kirsch will run the event.
• Goal: 150 runners will equal $3,000 profit.  This is a realistic goal.
• Event would start at 8:30 and end at 9am.
• This event may draw more people to Springfest
• Entry would be $20 at gate, $15 to preregister
• Wayne needs $100 deposit ASAP to reserve the date
• Motion passed to hire Wayne to run the event.
• Pet Expo  Saturday, August 6, 2005
• Will involve people and their pets
• May draw more people to the Nature Center
• Motion passed to approve the Pet Expo event

• Fox Trot Ball  2005
• Briefly discussed but no decision made as to date or even whether to continue with event.

Nature School Report: Holly Hannum 

Nature School Report  October 13, 2004

 We have completed programming for grade 5 and grade 2.  We have invoiced CCPS for $3,312 for grade 2.  I am holding the release of the spring school schedule pending a final decision on the date for  Springfest.

We have a new substitute teacher, Amy Tetlow Smith.  She is adjunct faculty at the Uof D in the geography dept.  She is not teaching a class this semester.   She is a member, volunteer, and summer camp parent. We feel that she will be a valuable resource.

Trail Day on September 25 was a success with 18 volunteers helping with projects.  Jerry Newman headed up a group to rebuild a broken bootbox.  Tom Hannum led a group to repair and build up the stairs to the stream.  The Boy Scouts cleaned out the amphitheater next to the barn, and we moved a bootbox to an al  ternate site.  Unfortunately some of our hard work was damaged a few days later.

We lost two days of classes due to the storm on September 28th.  They have been rescheduled.  The bridge at the entrance to Stove Pipe Hollow was pushed out by the stream.  Patsy’s crew replaced it with a tractor.  It is too high on one end to step on and off and will need steps.  I am removing some steps from a deck at home and will try to get them out there ASAP.  There was significant damage to the orange trail behind the Center.  I shared some photos with the Rangers and hope that they will be able to help us get some gravel to the site.

Fall fest on September 18 was rained out.  Family Day at the Farm  September 19was cancelled due to rain as well.  I attended another Family Day at the Farm in Colora on September 26th.

Wayne Suydam has discussed with us his concern about the impending merger between the Maryland Park Rangers and the Natural Resources Police.  As of January 1, as I understand it there will no longer be Park Rangers.  They will be absorbed into the Natural Resources Police.  As there are quite a few openings to fill out on the water(42 out of the 108 rangers) he is concerned that there will no longer be a community police presence in the Park each day.  I have written a letter in support of the need for such a presence here.  I have written information available if the Board wishes to write as well.  As Wayne explains it he will continue to be here as will Carla and the maintenance crew.  There will be NRP assigned to our region (our region includes Parks as far away as Gunpowder Falls) and will pass through the Park to perform law enforcement responsibilities only.  He is concerned that proactive measures and response times will suffer.  In addition activities such as the supervision of trail volunteers in the Park will be left undone as they are not directly related to law enforcement.  We have come to rely on our Rangers and hope that a different compromise can be developed.

The family campover has been rescheduled again because of rain.  It will be held on Oct16th at the McCloskey site.  We have about 10 additional people signed up for the leaf walk which is being held in conjunction with the campover.  There are presently 16 people scheduled for the trail ride, 2 for the weather station program and 8 for the wreath workshop.

We need volunteers to represent us at the Waterfowl Festival at Easton on November 13 and 14.  I will set up and attend on Nov12.

There have been concerns expressed recently about the noise generated by the school and summer camp programs in relation to our neighbors.  We have taken steps to move games away from that end of the house.    We are really only active with students from about 9:30 am and 2pm.  I have spoken with Rachel Stauffer and believe that a compromise has been reached.

-Holly wants a logon on the downstairs workstation.  Barb Snyder has the administrator password.

Community Relations: Doug Hill

-Review of the latest Buzz draft.

Membership: Joe Janusz  (not present)

-Gift certificates for membership should be available to members to purchase for family and friends.

-Board members may give away memberships at Christmas.

-Our retention of the members who were originally given gift memberships is pretty substantial.

Building and Grounds:  Jerry Newman

Mario, I've had the electrician replace the Circuit Breaker Panel in the basement. They still have to come back and run ground wires to all the first floor outlets and put GFI outlets in the kitchen and rest rooms.

From the last big storm the building developed three leaks in the roof so I've contacted Wayne Bitner to do repair work on the slate shingles, not only were the leaks were, but  wherever a slate is missing. I figured we might as well get them fixed before they start leaking and while he's already at the center.

I bought new out side lights for the front door and replaced them last week.

-Holly says that the email system may be malfunctioning because it seems like the computers are not receiving emails.  This needs to be looked into and fixed.

Old Business

• Honorary Board

• Computer Replacement
  
• Rock Collection - A wonderful rock collection was recently installed at the  Nature Center.  Tim Bryant, a local retired chemist and amateur geologist, generously donated his collection of Cecil County rocks.  All rocks were gathered by him over the past 30 years.  He has detailed each rock’s information on cards, which are housed in the display cabinet.

Mr. Bryant, who is a neighbor of Cathryn Harjung, offered to donate the rocks in the spring. After she visited his house and realized the magnitude of his collection, she realized that we needed a cabinet – we couldn’t just put these rocks on a table or a windowsill.  Cathryn contacted our local Boy Scout troop and they agreed to build a cabinet as a service project.  The lovely display cabinet was built and installed by Boy Scout Troop 443, under the direction of John Harrington.  They custom built the cabinet to fit the stair wall, and even put Plexiglas on the front so the rocks won’t “walk away”.

Mario will prepare Thank You letters to the appropriate folks as identified by Cathryn Harjung.

New Business

• Bylaw Review
  
• Fundraising

Next Meeting: November 17, 2004 at 6:30 P.M., at the Nature Center. 

The meeting was adjourned at 8:12 P.M.

Respectfully submitted by Daniel Speakman

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