Attendees: Dennis Clower, Mario Gangemi, Holly Hannum, Doug Hill, Joe Janusz, Larry Klevans, Dan Schneckenburger, Hinda Smith, Barbara Snyder, Dan Speakman, Rick Waterhouse
also guests, Ralph Young and Karen Aspinwall

Dan Schneckenburger called the meeting to order at 6:30 P.M.

The minutes from the July Board meeting were approved, with the addition of Holly’s report from July. There was no meeting of the Board in August.

President’s Report: Dan Schneckenburger
Dan introduced the two new board members and they were voted on and accepted.
New address for FHNEC office: Joe Janusz, 146 Wheatley Road, North East, MD 21901 phone: 410 287 7745
Holly Hannum’s mother’s tree memorial fund has accumulated $155. Holly requested that a holly tree be purchased. Ralph Young will check with Upp Farms about a holly purchase. Donations will still be accepted then the Board will see what funding is still needed.

Finance Committee: Larry KIevans
Financial Report as of August 31, 2003
1. In August 2003 ($7283) income exceeded expenses ($4900) by $2,383.
2. The majority of income items were $2500 from County Commissioners, $2500 from the Waterfowl Festival, $1000 from the C.C. Bar Foundation, $25 in donations for Holy Hannum's mother's memorial, and $286 in general donations.
3. Major expenses for August 2003 were $1995 for staff wages, $111 for payroll taxes, $125 for accounting, $871 for office expenses, and $1648 for next winter's fuel oil supply
4. As of August 31, 2003 our Year to date Income (YTD) totals $ 76,333 vs a budget of $73,138 while YTD expenses total $64,320 vs a budget of $73.138 Thus, our YTD net income is $12,012.
5. The Fund Balance as of August 31 2003 was $28,070 This increase (from $25,687 on June 30) is a result of the positive cash flow in August.
6. Repeat from last month. We need to intensify our efforts in getting individual and organizational donations for the next several months. Upper Bay Counseling plans a golf tournament next spring without our partnership. We will need to develop an alternative to raise $7000-9500 to cover what we received the past two years from SpringFest.

Discussion:
We will also be getting $1000 from the C.C. Arts Council.
Larry presented a proposed budget for next year.

We need to start thinking about what to do with Spring Fest. We could do it by ourselves, if enough volunteers can be gathered. Ralph will talk to Upper Bay to make sure that they are willing to let us do it themselves. Barb will send an e-mail about a planning meeting for this.

Program Committee: Barb Snyder
Coming programs:

Fox Trot Committee: Hinda Smith
Hinda is sending out invitation cards to the Board and community leaders. The music is by The Heaters with a FHNEC program planned for 8:00. Catering is by Your Personal Chef. If anyone has names to give to Hinda for receiving invitations, please e-mail her. There will be no tickets; rather, people should call Pat H. and make a reservation. JoAnn Dawson will give carriage rides as before. We are still looking for silent auction items with a nature focus. Dan Sp.is working with a landscaper to get trees, etc. Holly said that we already have a tub of white lights. We may need more.

Personnel Committee: Hinda Smith
We are looking into volunteers from the University of DE student community.
Dennis reported that we could have a line of credit from County Bank (Stewart Lee), to pursue a Director for FHNEC. Early next year, Dan Sc. hopes to have information about candidates, then we can set up interviews.

Nomination Committee: Dennis Clower
Two new board members have been secured: Joe Janusz and Mark Crawford. Mark will not start with us until October.
There is still the question of a new board structure. Dennis will contact people to get a meeting together to discuss this issue.

Nature School Report: Holly Hannum
I tallied the evaluations from summer camp. It is an even 3 way split on how people learned about our camps amongst newsletter, school flyer, or a friend. Some people also mentioned the Cecil Manor PTO meeting. This is definitely worth doing again.
Parent comments included:
“Your instructors made her feel welcome and comfortable. You provide a safe environment.”
“I liked the relaxed learning environment and hands-on experiences.”
“Activities are structured and engaging for my children.”
“I’m glad that you provide this community service for children.”
“I liked the personal contact and small size.”
“Camps are child-friendly and creative.”

Favorite things included:
Being outside; boat making; fairy day; hiking; the campout; microscopes; and healthy snacks
Suggestions included:
2 requests for road improvement; 2 for better weather; 1 for bigger classrooms; 1 for more
sessions; 1 for teenage camps; 1 for more formal sign out procedures

School funding for this year will be as follows:

Grades 1 and 2 are in the school budget once again
Grade 4 will be covered by the Cecil Soil Conservation District
Grade 5 has a grant from the Waterfowl Festival for $2,500 and $1,000 from the Bar Foundation
The Nature Center Executive Board has agreed to cover the costs of Grade 3($7,000) and the balance of Grade 5($3,500) out of United Way and general funds for this year.
Staff returned for the fall on September 2. Taffy resigned due to her husband’s illness. They are planning to relocate to Florida. Cathryn Harjung has joined our regular teaching staff. Chris Haight will substitute on Tuesday-Thursday if needed. We are in need of a substitute who is available on Mondays and Fridays.
Schedules have been sent out to all CCPS classes attending this fall. The schedule has been written for the entire school year. Classes will begin on September 16 and will be completed by the Monday before Thanksgiving. Spring classes are slated to begin on March 18 and run through the 1st of June.
In addition to CCPS this fall we are hosting the Cecil County Health Dept on September 16, Holy Angels School on October 17, and Bethany Christian School on November 7. Home School Day will be October 15.
I will attend the Cecil County Arts Council reception on September 12 to receive a $1,000 check for the Kindergarten outreach program. We have already booked 6 schools so far for outreach and I haven’t sent out any information to teachers yet.
Trail Day is scheduled for this Saturday, September 13 from 9am to 1pm. We need to repair our post and rail fence, repair a footbridge, and build a mulch storage box. We will also clean out the gutters and trim and mulch trails. The raindate is September 14. We will have a group of students from the U of D here as well as any other interested volunteers.
Larry and I will attend the United Way luncheon on September 18. We will have our display board there.
On September 19 I will attend an informational meeting about the BEPAC ACES program from 7 am to 8:30am. We are scheduled to host a group of educators on April 14. We can also involve others groups at Fair Hill in this experience such as the park rangers and the Training Center. I will know more after the meeting. It would be appropriate to have a Board representative speak on April 14.
The Women’s Commission will be holding an event at the Center on the evening of September 25 at 6:30.
Family Day at the Farm is September 28. We will have a booth there.
The Waterfowl Festival will be held November 14-16. They are expecting us.
Our Cushman has a new engine and is now back in the barn after a 2 year absence.

July's report from Holly:
We are in week four of summer camps. We have 243 campers registered at this time. We gave out 5 camp scholarships. We have $200 in camperships which have not been used. (One child who received a scholarship was ill and could not attend.) We will try to carry the money over until next year unless we find someone in the next week or so. Children who received camperships are writing thank-yous at camp.
Camp has gone fairly smoothly so far. The Skipjack broke down on the day that Bay Camp was supposed to attend. We were able to reschedule the trip but it cost us another staff day. We received a grant from the Chesapeake Bay Trust to assist with the cost of Bay Camp. Taffy has been unable to work due to her husband's illness, but we now have all camps covered. We are featured in the News-Journal for all of the family loyalty we have in our camps.
We still feel the need to have a barrier of some kind along the picnic area to keep the children out of the road during camp.
Thanks to Nancy Simpers for getting the meadow mowed.
Pat Harjung has acquired a copier from Gore. It is to be delivered today. We have been putting a lot of money into the big copier ($866 since January), but we won't try to get rid of it until we see if the new one works. We have no way to remove the old copier. We used Larry's truck to deliver it.
We received notice from the Waterfowl Festival that we are approved for a $2500 grant for the fifth grade program for next year. That is down from $5000 last year.
A letter was sent to the Cecil Soil Conservation District summing up the fourth grade program from the last year and thanking them for their support.

Volunteers and Grants: Holly reported for Janet Fallon
Cathryn Harjung will be the new volunteer coordinator. She has e-mail address lists for various categories of volunteers all purpose, trails maintenance, clerical help, refreshments for programs and events, special events, summer camp, and weekend staffing. The board is on the all purpose list. If you want to be included on others, particularly "refreshments", please let us know. Through the volunteer match service we have one volunteer who has brought refreshments to a program. Several others volunteered for one of our other categories but haven't helped yet.
Janet Fallon is pursuing the list of non-profits and corporate giving programs. We have requests pending to: Cargill, Inc., Chichester duPont Foundation, L.L. Bean, Ametek Foundation, Home Depot, and IMLS. Requests include donations for an educational endowment from L.L. Bean, funds to rewire the building, scholarships to cover program fees for CC Schools children, materials for bluebird houses, and a large technology and program development grant from IMLS. Many of the non-profits on the list were ruled out because they don't give to United Way agencies, we are not in their geographical area, or they only give to organizations with global impact. We have also received about fifteen rejections. Janet is still writing letters.

Education: Karen Aspinwall
The trial after-school program from last spring was funded by several grants. Karen was the lead teacher, with much other help, since Taffy could not participate due to her husband’s illness. There were 43 participants. Verbal responses from parents indicated a high level of satisfaction. There were many interactive activities and “RRR” was highlighted. Groups collected trash from school receptacles then buried it in the ground to see what nature could do with it over several months. There was also an earthworm program. Karen is interested in repeating the program. Holly would like to develop a second curriculum set, so there is a two year sequence, in which students could participate. Hinda will contact a new person at CCC who might be able to partner to support this program. Karen will let Dan Sc. know if she can present a new proposal at the November meeting.

Special Appeal : Mario Gangemi
Mario presented an updated version of Dennis’s old letter. People should reply to him with comments about the letter.

Public Relations: Doug Hill
The Buzz is coming out. There will be another one coming out, which will emphasize the Fox Trot Ball. Please e-mail Doug with Fox Trot information.
Doug has been working with Jerry and his son, to make the video easier to access on the web.
Doug spoke with a fund-raiser on the national level. He commented that we are using the “hard route” to fund-raising. Companies, including Lion’s Clubs, etc., want immediate recognition for their contributions. We also need to be willing to put contributors’ names right out front when they help us. We should be photographing banners of contributors’ names and mailing them to the company contact.
Everyone needs to renew efforts to contact businesses for contributions, now that the summer is over.

Membership: Dennis Clower
No report.

Buildings and Grounds: Dan Speakman
No report.

New Business:
Dan Sc. requested a reporting in the minutes of attendance at Board meetings by board members in 2003. The number after a name indicates meetings attended (updated to include tonight's meeting):

No other new business.
Next Meeting: October 14, 6:30 P.M., at the nature center. There will be a separate Spring Fest meeting at 5:00 P.M. that same evening.
The meeting was adjourned at 8:10 P.M.
Respectfully submitted,
Rick Waterhouse

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