Lindheimer Chapter Board Minutes June 2026 (Preliminary)

9:30 AM 6/9/26.   Called to order at 9:38 AM

Tye Preston Library Boardroom

Attendance: Dick _x_ Sara T. _x_ Debbie _x_ Bev _x_ Sarah M. _x_ Craig (phone) _x_

        Nancy _x_ Christina _x_ Mike Laffey __ Jan Walker _x_ (Quorum met, 9 of 7 required).

Old Business:

Mike Laffey – review proposed changes to the By-Laws.  Updated version approved at the May 19th chapter meeting (picnic).  Dick will load the new version on the web site.

State Society:

• Sara talked about upcoming events.
• There is a membership survey out, please take it.
• The Fall Symposium is Oct. 4-6.

President’s Report: Sara Torres, Acting

• Continue Board meetings at TPML at 9:30, on the second Tuesday, reserved for January to April at TPML.  During construction our Board can meet in the Chamber of Commerce meeting room.  We will hold our chapter meetings at Mammen Family Public Library during construction.  Nancy has reserved a room at the Mammen Library for the June, July, August, and September chapter meetings.
• Please turn in your Event Liability Forms.
• Nancy has offered to update the Chapter pages on the State website, mainly the event pages.
• Workday to replace storage shed flooring.  The flooring has been replaced, unfortunately the roof is now leaking.  Workday June 19 to seal it at Sara Torres’s place.

Secretary’s Report:

• Dick Bigelow, VOTE to approve minutes.  Dick made a motion to approve the March, April, and May minutes.  Jan seconded.  Unanimous approval.

Treasurer’s Report: Sarah Mato

• The bank balance as of 06/3/26 is $3,434.96.
• Please email all receipts to Sarah.
• All NLCP receipts have been submitted to the State for reimbursement.
• Update on 2025 audit.  Being worked on.

Director of Formal Education: Craig Bruska

• Native Seed Library Program, upcoming workdays
  • June 11th (second Thursday) Mammen seed cleaning 2-4 PM.
  • June 12th (second Friday) TPML seed cleaning 2-4 PM.
  • June 18th (third Thursday) Garden Ridge seed cleaning 1-3 PM.
• September 19th NLCP 2 Mammen.
• October 31st NLCP 3 Mammen.
• Debbie, Leon, and Craig are redoing the NLCP I, II, and III plant walk lists for the new locations they will be taught at.
• NLCP IV is being updated to comply with US Government changes.
• There are plenty of seeds being returned to the libraries.

Director of Community Outreach: Sara Torres, Acting

• Demonstration Gardens: 

Heritage Museum of the Texas Hill Country – Mickey Riviere, 1^st Thursdays at 9:30-11:00.

• Any update?  Mickey says the garden is looking good.

       Chamber of Commerce demonstration garden – Sara Torres, 3^rd Wednesdays 9 AM. 

• Our next workday is Wednesday June 17^th.

Mamman Demo Garden – 2nd Wednesdays only June, July, and August 9:00-11:00.

• Debbie said the garden is looking really good.

       Debbie was asked to give a talk by an audience member at her retired teachers presentation.

Director of Communications: Open

• Facebook – Nancy, as of June 9th -152 followers, 9 new followers since last month.
• Nancy, I’m learning how to use the State website to input our chapter information.
• Send upcoming events to Dick to be updated on the website.
• Our hosting website will be up for renewal in February 2027.

Director of Plant Sales: Debbie Kyrouac

• Our Fall Plant Sale will be at Mammen and will be mostly trees and shrubs.

Past President: Sara Torres

Program Committee Chair:  Mike Laffey

• June 9^th room B at Mammen speaker Casey Williams.
• July 9^st room B at Mammen.  Elizabeth McGreevy, author of Mountain Cedars Wanted Alive or Dead.  Will order her book for a door prize.
• August 18^th room B at Mammen, Tracey Brown will speak on “Fruitful Choices”, the talk will explore a variety of fruit-bearing trees and shrubs that thrive in Central Texas, focusing on both native species and well-adapted cultivars.
• September 15^th Jeff Pavalat at Mammen – the Curator of Cacti & Succulents of the Zilker Botanical Garden in Austin, speaking on “Cacti & Succulents of South Texas”.

Field Trip Chair: Christina Campbell

• Looking at new field trips, nothing definite yet.

Membership:

• As of 6-2-26 107 primary members + 38 affiliates = 145 total.

Hospitality: Jan Walker

• May 19th from 6:00 to 8:00 was our chapter picnic, it went really well.

New Business:

• A month or so ago, Joanne Hall from STG invited me to join Alignable which is a networking system.  I accepted the invitation and have been very conservative with connections, but because I missed the last board meeting it was never discussed.  I would like to know if the board wants to continue this or leave the group.  Bev, suggests sticking to MailChimp, she says Alignable is for Business 2 Business which we are probably not qualified for.  Debbie will continue to evaluate this.  Our chapter will not join.
• Debbie attended the Bring Back the Monarchs organization meeting.  They are looking at doing a tiered structure which would have the chapters looking at applications for way stations in their area to validate that the proposed plants are native locally.  There was discussion about concern that many local chapters could or would not participate.

Adjourned at 10:53 AM.