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BOARD OF DIRECTORS MEETING FAIR HILL NATURE CENTER June 11, 2002 6:00 P.M. |
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
MEETING FAIR HILL NATURE
CENTER June 11, 2002 6:00 P.M.
Attendees:
Bob Carroll, Dennis Clower, Mario Gangemi, Holly Hannum, Dan Schneckenburger, Nancy Simpers, Hinda Smith, Barbara Snyder, Dan Speakman, Rick Waterhouse,
Vice-President Mario Gangemi called the meeting to order at 6:10 P.M.
The minutes from the May Board meeting were approved.
Program Committee: Barb Snyder
Butterfly Gardening was attended by 3 teachers, 2 board members, and 5 others (3 non members). Joe Tropp gave a very informative program
Bees - June 12, 7:00 -Jennifer and Laura Linton (have set up our indoor hive) will present an informative program about bees and their uses. Refreshments will all include honey.
Cecil County Fair - July 19-27, 2002 (have already submitted $125.00 for fee). Sign up sheet was passed around.
Seafood Appetizer Recipe Swap: July 17, 6:00 p.m. Come for an evening of music and enjoy the summer sounds by the pond. Cost $5.00 per person. Please RSVP. If we want liquor, need to get license for the day.
Fish Walk - July 20, 10:00 Parke John will lead a walk through the Big Elk Creek. See what we can find swimming, growing, flying there.
August 9, 6:00-8:00 Ride the skipjack Martha Lewis from Havre de Grace. Need to submit half the fee to hold date., RSVP-$20, members, $25 non-members
August 14, 7:00-Bay Talk at Upper Bay Museum, North East. Need RSVP - minimum of 20 people
Fox Hunt Talk - Sept 18, 7:00, Erlene Michner will bring a beagle and tell about fox-hunting at Fair Hill.
Fox Trot Crab Feast - Sept 21, 2:00-5:00 - $25-$30 per person.
Leaf Walk Oct 19 - 2:00 p.m. with Holly Hannum, Hayride at 4:00 p.m.
Stargazing, Nov. 13, 7:00 with Linda Tinsman
Wreath Craft -Nov. 16 10:00, Katherine Straughan and Pat Holleran. Make a wreath with purchased and collected materials.
Santa Hayride - Dec. 7 - rain date of Dec. 8. Come ride the wagon to see Santa at Nature Center, make birdfeeders, crafts.
Holiday Party - Dec 11 Board of Directors, Staff Holiday party.
Barb will put program information out to whatever members she has on the e-mail list.
Money has been sent as a deposit for the skipjack trip.
The proposed Crab Feast would need a lot of organization and labor. Spring Fest is already scheduled for next year, with WXCY - May 3, 2003. The Board originally decided to have one large fund-raiser per year. A Crab Feast would make minimal profit, given the price of crabs. The Crab Feast will not be held. Instead, Mario discussed a restaurant sampling event he attended, with "The Hubcaps" band, and Dan asked that the Fox Trot Ball be revisited and a proposal be made at next meeting to see if it is still a viable substitute fundraiser.
Canopies (pop-up type) are on sale for $92. Mario made a motion to buy two. It was seconded. All approved.
Barb would like to see if we can have a members' brochure printed by a professional printer. Mario made a motion, and Nancy seconded, that Barb can spend up to $500 for the brochures. All approved.
Dan asked that we send a "thank you" to guest speakers who present programs for the Nature Center. Barb S. will work on this.
Finance Committee: Larry Klevans (as of May 31, 2002, presented by Mario G.)
In May 2002, Income exceeded expenses by $1,988. The majority of income items were: $6,500 from Spring Fest, $5,780 for summer camp, $2,586 from CCPS, $1,214 in donations (including $507 from United Way of Delaware), $1,159 from non-public schools, and $1,080 for memberships. Additional revenue from Spring Fest is unlikely to exceed $1,000.
Major expenses were: $12,879 for staff (there were three payrolls in May), $1,485 for repairs for the plumbing project, $705 for office expenses, $470 for accounting, and $1,107 for taxes.
Year-to-date income (YTD) totals $59,371 vs budget of $46,607, while YTD expenses total $53,775 vs a budget of $46,607. Thus, our YTD net income stands at $5,596.
Our current fund balance is $24,489. It does not include any Spring Fest monies.
Nature School Report by Holly Hannum:
Spring classes concluded on Wednesday, June 6. Cecil County students total as follows:
Grade 1 1,148 Grade 2 1,069 Grade 3 1,270 Grade 4 1,280 Grade 5 1,137 5,904
In addition, we presented the outreach program to approximately 1,000 kindergarten students. Private schools, preschools, and home schools numbered 926. Total number of students served this academic year - 7,830.
Summer camp is filling; Summer Critters - 103, are closed as are Nature Wizards & Bay Camp. There are still a few openings in Imagination Camp, Wilderness Adventure, and Waterworks. We have 196 children registered now. Five are on scholarship, 3 from Wells Fargo Home Mortgage, 2 from Country Thyme Garden Club. This summer we are doing programs on June 26 in the afternoon and on July 30 with Camp Sandy Cove.
On Friday, we received notice that we will get $5,000 from the Waterfowl Festival to support our Grade 5 program, "Who's for Dinner" for the 2002 - 03 school year. I will attend a luncheon on July 31 to accept the check. This year we supplemented those funds with Bar Foundation money. Will we be getting Bar Foundation money this year? I will need to put together an explanation of funding for the upcoming school year soon. Are grades 1 and 2 still in the school budget? I sent a thank-you and summary of grade 4 to the Soil Conservation Board and I am hopeful that our partnership will continue. We are awaiting the results of the NOAA grant to cover the addition of grade 6 and the additional transportation funds.
On May 7, I visited the Waterman Conservation Education Center in Appalachian, NY. They are 27 years old. Their annual budget is $250,000. Their staff is similar in size to ours. Membership costs are similar to ours, but they have 1200 members. School programs are funded through corporations. They serve approximately 4,000 students annually. They have more visitations from the general public. They have a small core group of volunteers who do building projects and maintenance, etc., about 35 total active volunteers. The items on sale in their gift shop are similar to ours: T-shirts, some inexpensive items and bluebird kits -- $15. They also sell staff made guides. I brought some examples. We have similar materials that we have used for programs, but not had available for sale. Perhaps we could write a grant to cover time and materials so we could update and prepare our guides for sale and create some new ones.
Dennis is still working on Bar Association contribution.
There is a limb across a trail, which Holly needs to be cut. Nancy Simpers will have it taken care of.
There are doves on the grounds left from a wedding held here. Holly has caught two, but there are others. We need a policy about this. The wedding party did leave wooden steps to the pasture. A railing could be added to let school groups use them instead of stone steps. Nancy will work on this.
Holly is setting up a "letter box" trail. Clues will be put on the website and on the National Letter Boxing Organization site. Holly will be putting a notice in the July newsletter.
Holly is taking information and a few activities to Rosebank Methodist Church. She will attempt to bring in more summer campers.
Spring Fest: Larry Klevans
Financial Summary: Bills have been received from Paint-N-Place ($762), and from WXCY ($%&%) and both have been paid. Our current balance is $1,399.48 after distributing $6,500 each to the two sponsoring organizations. Thus, the total net is $14,399.48.
Personnel Committee: No report
Public Relations: Dan will follow up with Doug about the P.R. video and how to best use it.
Membership: Bob Carroll
Bob went to Cecil Graphics to discuss a decal that could be put in car windows of members. Bob presented some designs of a fox. The key is to keep the decal simple. Bob has catalogs of decal types. Cling-on decals are one type, weatherproof ones that go on the outside of car are another. For 2000, price is .53 a piece, for the full-color version. Group likes round, no outline/clear background, cling-on type. Company can have them in a week from order date. Dan asked that Bob contact Becky Taccone's brother to check his price, etc.
Dan asked about how we would distribute them. Members would get one free and possibly buy more. Nancy moved to order 2000 of type we chose. Mario seconded. All approved.
Dennis will work on the Membership Committee with Bob. He has some ideas on ways to increase membership.
Buildings and Grounds: Dan asked that we discuss the barn restoration. Mario offered his company to help with some of this project, pro bono. There is money in Wayne's budget to do the project, but will it be spent? Barb suggested having an Amish crew do the work. Most feel that the collapse of the back portion of the barn would not cause us to lose the rest of the barn. Dan Speakman and Mario will look into the shoring up of the barn beam. Wayne reportedly has $50,000 in his budget for next year to stabilize the barn. After that, we will look into further restoration work.
Next Meeting: July 9, 2002
Meeting was adjourned at 7:52.
Respectfully submitted,
Rick Waterhouse