Minutes for Board of Directors Meeting Lindheimer Chapter NPSOT July 11, 2023
Meeting start time: Called to order by Joel Dunnington at 9:39 AM, at TPML.
In attendance: President Joel Dunnington, President Elect Sara Torres (and Coordinator of Programs), Secretary Dick Bigelow, Treasurer Sarah Mato, Director of Formal Education Craig Bruska (Joel is Temp), Membership Coordinator Bev Willmann, Hospitality Coordinator Charlotte Wright. Quorum requirement was met (6 directors).
Not attending: Director of Communications Bob Drake, Director of Plant Sales Debbie Kyrouac, Director of Community Outreach (Sara Torres is acting), Plant of the Month Coordinator Leon Dominick.
Secretary: Dick said that the May 9th 2023 Board meeting minutes had “Preliminary” removed on our web site, and the June 13th minutes had been posted as “Preliminary”. Corrections were needed to the June minutes to correct the spelling of Sarah Mato’s name (completed), add updates for upcoming programs (completed), and to delete any characters at the end of the minutes that seem to be causing printing problems (there do not seem to be any). Dick moved that the June minutes be approved, Craig seconded, approved unanimously.
President: Joel Dunnington:
- Vacation, I may not be here for the next Member meeting. I should be here for the next Board Meeting.
- Texan by Nature Tree Grants $5,000, Craig suggested a program for people to trade invasives for natives, ideas were discussed, Craig is exploring.
President Elect: Sara Torres: Nothing to report as President Elect.
State NPSOT Joel Dunnington:
- The State Bylaws changes are still ongoing. I have made some comments about dismissing leaders. I think it should be a 2/3rds vote and it should be for cause. The reasons should be discussed with the membership and the accused should have the option of rebuttal. Quorum for Board members should take into account vacancies in the Board making it hard to attain a quorum. The Executive Director Section does not say who hires and fires Executive Director. It should. Also, the Executive Director should only be fired for cause. There is no requirement for a quorum for the Executive Committee.
State Bylaws Committee Timeline
D. July 15 – last deadline for SB to submit all comments and questions
E. July 22 – send third and final version to SB
F. August 5 – Committee will move at the 3Q SB meeting to approve to send bylaws
to the membership for voting
G. August 9 – Executive Director to send bylaws to membership for vote
H. 10 September – ED and Committee to count membership votes and report results to membership.
- NPSOT Convention 2024 Committee met and toured the facilities in New Braunfels. Joel Dunnington attached minutes in the board agenda email from the meeting (It appears that the convention center is the best option, there was discussion of what the committee saw).
- The Fall Symposium will be Nov. 9-11, 2023, in Nacogdoches.
- The new Plant Database and the State website are live. They are looking for volunteers to proofread stuff. https://npsot.org/resources/native-plants/native-plants-database/
- NPSOT Signs– I turned in the list for NPSOT signs. I ordered 29 English Biodiversity signs, 3 Spanish Biodiversity signs, 13 English Members signs and 0 Spanish Members signs. I ordered 3 English and 3 Spanish Biodiversity signs for the Lindheimer Chapter. I also ordered 4 Extra biodiversity signs and 2 Extra Members signs for anyone who wants one
Treasurer’s report. Sarah Mato:
- As of 7-10-2023 there is $2,648.76 in checking and $2,087.38 in savings.
- Sarah M. ordered new checks.
- Sara T. said that we need to send an email to Linda Foss with an expense report for the NLCP class to request a refund of our expenses and our rebate, Joel said he would do it.
Old Business.
None.
Committees.
Director of Formal Education – Craig Bruska (Joel is temporarily acting).
- Joel said the NLCP Level III class has been tentatively set up for Saturday September 30 from 9am – 5pm with setup on Friday September 29 from 3-5pm. Linda Foss has been notified about the NLCP III course on September 30, 2023. The NLCP Official form has been sent in to the state. The rooms at TPML have been reserved. We need to pay the early open fee. We need to decide early when the next NLCP class will be to get the room reserved early (reservations open in November).
- Joel said the fall NLCP list is not on the state NPSOT website yet.
- Craig said that the Level 4 class is still being worked on and is not ready yet.
Director of Community Outreach. Sara Torres temp.
- Joel said the Vintage Oaks Drought and Xeriscape Fair is on July 22 (9AM-2PM). We are approved. He still has a question about the contract they want us to sign (this was discussed). Bev said she has Alternatives to Invasives brochures for this.
- Sarah M. said that Mystic Shores is having a presentation by Kathleen Scott Oct. 24, she will be bringing seed packets.
Director of Communications – Bob Drake (not present).
- Joel said that the State website is live. https://npsot.org/ .
- Joel said the Lindheimer website is live. https://npsot.org/chapters/lindheimer/ .
- Joel – did our last Zoom presentation do better than the one before? Dick said that the words on the Power Point couldn’t be seen due to the low color contrast of the presentation, Joel said he would talk to Bob.
- Sarah M. said she would email Bob about removing our Spring NPSOT from the website and point out a typo.
Director of Plant Sales – Debbie Kyrouac (wasn’t present):
- We will have a plant sale at NLCP September 30th.
Membership – Bev Willmann:
- We currently have 133 members.
- Will look at how many members we have pins to mail to so we can discuss the expense.
Hospitality – Charlotte Wright:
- Tuesday, Dec. 12, 2023 is confirmed for our Christmas party, preliminary plans for the party were discussed.
Programs – Sara Torres.
- July 18th – Shannon Brown will present “Native Plants for Central Texas Raingardens”.
- August 15th – Meg Inglis will present “Small Scale Land Restoration – A Case Study”.
- September 19th – Looking at having a presentation by Native American Seed.
Demo Gardens.
Handmade Furniture Demo Garden – Craig Bruska. Workdays:
July 27 (4th Thursday). 10 AM – 11:30 AM
August 9 (2nd Wednesday) 10 AM – 11:30 AM
August 24 (4th Thursday). 10 AM – 11:30 AM
September 13 (2nd Wednesday) 10 AM – 11:30 AM
September 28 (4th Thursday). 10 AM – 11:30 AM
October 11 (2nd Wednesday) 10 AM – 11:30 AM
October 26 (4th Thursday). 10 AM – 11:30 AM
November 8 (2nd Wednesday) 10 AM – 11:30 AM
December 13 (2nd Wednesday) 10 AM – 11:30 AM
Heritage Museum – Mickey Riviere & Peggy Haley.
Workday has changed to the first Thursday of the month, 9:30 AM. Joel said the garden looks pretty good, they weeded, and there are some small black walnut trees that we could pot up for our plant sales.
Facebook Manager.
Joel has signed on as an administrator. There are 2,274 members. Joel is looking to add links.
New Business.
- The shed is waterproofed.
- Charlotte suggested setting up a way to have a consolidated storage method for documents, brochures, and job descriptions. We agreed to continue to discuss this.
- Sarah M. suggested that it might be a good idea to create a how to survive the heat for next summer.
- Charlotte suggested asking people about what works for them for native plants, we could put out sheets at the chapter meetings to collect ideas. Sarah M. said we could then share them if we have time after the presentation is over.
- Craig discussed his effort to develop a Native only Grow Green Book. Sara T. said she would check on graphic designers that might be interested in helping.
Adjournment
Joel made a motion to adjourn, Craig seconded it, unanimous approval, President Joel Dunnington adjourned the meeting at 11:32 PM. By Dick Bigelow, Secretary.