Garden Opening Meeting Minutes: March 17, 2013

Garden opening meeting
March 17, 2013

Attendance:

• Steering Committee: David Kaplan, Ann Levine, Katy Pederson, Noreen Whysel and Treasurer, Ariel Behr
• 24 members, including Steering Committee.

Financial report

• A copy of the financial report was distributed$5,755.64 balance is lower than we’ve have had in many years.
• Flea market is an important source of revenue, almost as much as membership.
• Major expenses in 2012 gazebo and veterinary services for spotlight the cat.
• Lou noted that 5000 was the highest year total expenses we ever had.
• Expected expenses for 2013 stage redevelopment
  • Rebuilt in 2005
  • Rebuilding will be difficult
  • Modular system, platforms
  • Take thoughts from members and discuss at workday
  • Melissa attempted to apply for a grant for the stage and will know in April if we get the funds. $827
• David suggested separating capital vs operating expenses on the financial report.
• Kevin Suggestion to have a fixed budget for each committee, chairs should send estimates of spending for the season to SC
• Fundraising ideas,
  • Collect donations for expenses that go beyond a certain threshold
  • PayPal button on Facebook page, Chipin.com, ask Ariel (not tax deductible)
• Center apt using BBQ without paying or cleaning up
  • Signage, lock BBQ, gate or mesh to make it harder to pass through

Committees

• Assigned most to first and second choices
• Several committees with no chairs.
  • Composting (Bridget was a possibility)
  • Design Grantwriting (Melissa and Peter offered to serve as chairs)
  • Inventory and Supplies (members voted to combine inventory as a subcommittee of maintenance and repair, SC will contact Janice)
  • Membership (Katy and Dinorah offered to serve as chairs)
  • Rose arbor (Kitty and Ann offered to serve as chairs)
  • Snow removal (Frank Gretch  offered to serve as chair)
  • Special events (Mardi and David offered to serve as Members, not chairs)
  • Telephone crew (SC will add Florice to members)
• Car caravan (Paul and Mardi offered to serve as chairs. Mardi indicated that she is OK with this as long as it is understood that she can only do supply runs on Saturdays and requires advanced notice. She has scheduled to do a Grow NYC supply run, Saturday, May 11 and would like a helper or two. There is an additional Grow NYC event on Friday, May 10 if someone can attend.)
• Picking up supplies counts as a workday/makeup: voted and approved.
• A member roster with committee membership and contact details will be distributed to garden members.

Garden Calendar

• The draft workday calendar was discussed.
• Workdays are as follows (Please check web calendar for any adjustments):
  • April 13
  • May 11
  • June 8
  • July 10
  • August 14
  • September 7
  • October 19
  • November 9
• Additional calendar dates:
  • May 25 Flea Market
  • June 21 Make Music NY/Solstice celebration
  • June 30 Flea Market
  • July 4 BBQ/Independence Day
  • August 19th Peach Picking Day (tentative, depending on ripeness)
  • August TBA Compost Workshop
  • September 8 Flea Market
  • September 14 Flea Market
  • September 23 Fig Picking Day (tentative, depending on ripeness)
  • October 26 Harvest Festival/Halloween party
  • November 17 Potluck/Closing Meeting
  • December 21 Solstice
• Members vote to change the Sept workday from Sept 11 to Sat sept 7 approved.
• The monitoring calendar was available for members to indicate monitoring dates. If you have not selected a date, please look for an email with instructions from the steering committee or contact us at info@west104garden.org. Yenna will enter monitors into the w.104.garden Google calendar and post a copy to the east and west garden sheds.

SC Election

• Ann Levine distributed a ballot for 2013 Steering Committee members.
• Steering Committee may have seven to nine members.
• Candidates include:
  • Green Thumb Contact: Melissa (Glowski) Nicholas (re-instated with 23 voted)
  • Treasurer: Ariel Behr (re-instated with 24 votes)
  • Current SC members:
    • David Kaplan (re-instated with 21 votes)
    • Ann Levine  (re-instated with 20 votes)
    • Dinorah Matias-Melendez (re-instated with 24 votes)
    • Katy Pederson (re-instated with 23 votes)
    • Sumana Rachaudhuri (re-instated with 22 votes)
    • Noreen Whysel (re-instated with 24 votes)
    • Craig Nicholas (new member elected with 23 votes)

Lock

• The garden lock combination remains the same.

Upcoming

• Linda Prudhomme, block association liaison, invites all interested to attend a hearing on Monday, March 21 at 6:20, at the Children’s Aid Society auditorium, Frederick Douglass Houses, 104 and Columbus Avenue. The hearing is regarding a proposal to build four more 80/20 towers (30 stories each) around the Frederick Douglass houses.
• Green Thumb’s GrowTogether is meeting on Saturday, March 23 from 8:30am to 4:00pm at Hostos Community College, 500 Grand Concourse – Bronx, NY 10451. The budgeting committee will discuss financing your garden.
• NYCCGC Forum 2013 will be held on Saturday, April 27th from 9:30am – 4:00pm at The Cooper Union 7 East 7th Street. Register for the forum today.

New Business

• Mardi reported that the water pipe on 20 West 104th Street needs to be repaired. The pipe was damaged during Hurricane Sandy and is required to operate the cistern water collection device. Kevin will contact Lenny Labrese to follow up.
• Mardi also noted that an artist is interested in doing a weaving demonstration during a special event. Special Events does not have a chair, but the committee will be notified.
• A cat was trapped in the garden and had two kittens. If you would like to adopt a kitten, please contact us at info@west104garden.org and we will put you in touch with the right people.

There being no further business, the opening meeting was adjourned at 3pm.