Minutes for Board of Directors Meeting Lindheimer Chapter NPSOT Apr. 8, 2025
Meeting start time: Called to order by President Sara Torres at 9:44 AM, at TPML.
In attendance: President Sara Torres, Secretary Dick Bigelow, Treasurer Sarah Mato, Director of Plant Sales Debbie Kyrouac, Director of Formal Education Craig Bruska, Director of Communications Marian Stasney, Past President Mickey Riviere, Facebook Coordinator Nancy DeMarco, Membership Coordinator Bev Willmann, Hospitality Coordinator Charlotte Wright, Field Trip Coordinator Christina Campbell. Quorum requirement was met (7 of 6 required directors present).
Not attending: Plant of the Month Coordinator Leon Dominick, Director of Community Outreach (Open).
Old Business:
None.
State Society: Sara Torres:
- Texas Wildflower Day Celebration at TWU. Doug Tallamy talk will be available over Zoom on Thursday, April 24th at 6:30pm. Reserve library and plan refreshments? No, anybody interested will attend by Zoom.
- Texas Wildflower Day April 26th
- Fall 2025 Symposium will be in Salado, hosted by the Tonkawa Chapter.
President’s Report: Sara Torres:
- Continue Board meetings at TPML at 9:30, on the second Tuesday, May through August 2025.
- Please turn in your Event Liability Forms.
- I need to appoint someone to attend the State Board Meeting on Saturday May 3rd, from 1:00 – 3:00pm in my place, as I will be at ERA’s monthly plant sale for the NICE event. Bev, would you be interested? Craig will attend.
- Please send me any power point slides you would like included in the announcement slide show next week, preferably by the day before at the latest.
Secretary’s Report: Dick Bigelow
- Dick moved that the March minutes be approved, Craig seconded, unanimous approval.
Treasurer’s report: Sarah Mato:
- Chase Checking $3,685.39 as of 4/7/25.
- Wells Fargo accounts are closed, everything is now in Chase.
- Does anyone need reimbursement?
- 2024 books need to be reviewed, April Board meeting. Materials given to the committee for review.
- Need check for TPML early open fee for NLCP before April 26th.
- Donation to the Native Prairies Association of Texas NPAT for Dowell Ranch for Field Trip? $100? 4 attendees. Debbie made a motion to donate $100, Dick seconded, unanimous approval.
Program Committee Chair: We are pretty much set for the year, but suggestions are always welcome. If anyone would like to help with Program Coordinator duties, please let me know. It wasn’t always part of the President-Elect’s duties and per our bylaws is a separate position/committee. It mainly involves communicating with our speakers, soliciting suggestions for speakers, and using the State’s “Speaker’s Bureau” to find them. Emails like asking them to speak, requesting their bio/title/description/pics and providing to communications team, reminding them about meeting details, and requesting their honorarium from our Treasurer. There are templates available for each stage of the process.
- April 15th is Susan James, “Ungardening”, requested presentation description, bio, and photo, promised by today.
- May 20th is annual chapter picnic and volunteer appreciation event.
- June 17th is Monica Maeckle, Plants with Purpose, her new book being released May 15th
- July 15th tentative Casey Williams, Riparian presentation, has been recommended by several folks
- August 19th is Haeley Giambalvo, Chair of the Society State Committee Native Plants in Schools
- September 16th is Ashley Landry of the Native Plant Rescue Project
- October 21st tentative Cheryl Hamilton, Invasive species
- November 18th is our annual seed exchange
- December is our annual holiday party
Director of Formal Education – Craig Bruska:
- March 29th 1:00-3:00, Spring Propagation class at TPML, how well did it go? How many attended? How many volunteers? 8 of 15 people that signed up attended, went well.
- April 26th NLCP Level 1, end of April on Texas Wildflower Day, see combined plant sale SignUp Genius. State has been paid for the scholarship we gave out.
- NLCP Level 4 will be taught at the Headwaters of the Comal in the Fall, once construction is complete.
- Native Seed Library Program, Upcoming Seed Cleaning Workdays include:
- April 10th, May 8th Mammen seed cleaning 2-4 PM.
- April 11th, May 9th TPML seed cleaning 2-4 PM.
- April 17th, May 15th Garden Ridge seed cleaning 1-3PM
Director of Community Outreach: Open:
- NICE Committee
- Posters have been ordered using Vista Print, 6 copies of corrugated plastic signs have been received. 4 for existing nurseries, plus Ecosystem Regeneration Artisans (joining in May 2025), plus 1 for chapter display or additional new nursery.
- Are we going to have information tables at each of our NICE Partners again this Spring? Will do ERA and look at doing the others in the fall.
- Ace, who wants to go, when is good for you? Saturdays or Sundays.
- King Feed, who wants to go, when is good for you? Saturdays only.
- South Texas Growers, who wants to go, when is good for you? Saturdays only.
- Ecosystem Regeneration Artisans, Saturday May 3rd.
- Outreach Events
- All Spring events so far have been successful, thank you to all volunteers!
- March 15th 10:00 – 2:00 Pollinator Fiesta at Guadalupe River State Park, information table
- March 22nd & 23rd H-E-B tabling
- March 29th Dinosaur Day at the Heritage Museum
- April 5th Agrilife Open House, from 9:00-1:00
- All Spring events so far have been successful, thank you to all volunteers!
- Chamber of Commerce CLACC – attended March Mixer at Stewart Title. Here is the list of upcoming Chamber events. Would anyone like to attend with me?
- APRIL – 4/22/25 – Allen’s B’s n D’s in Sattler (food truck across from Wildflour)
- MAY – 5/27/25 CASA at the Chamber Visitors Center
- JULY – 7/22/25 SERVE & PROTECT MIXER Benefiting Comal Country Constables Pct 1 & 4 Goofy’s Event Center
- AUGUST – DATE TBD GVTC to host joint event for CLACC, Bulverde SB and Blanco Chambers
- SEPTEMBER – 9/23/25 CRRC and Hope Hospice
- OCTOBER – 10/11/25 WORD/COE to host Canyon Lake Area Chamber 26th annual BBQ Cook Off at Canyon Park.
Director of Communications: Marian Stasney:
- Put together a list of our unused AV equipment.
- Heritage Association of San Marcos is looking to purchase a PA system, are we interested in selling? We haven’t used it much since before the pandemic and storing it is a problem. A possible sales price was suggested of $100, but need to look up price online. The Heritage Association has offered to buy the speakers, 2 microphones, and receiver for $100. Dick made a motion to sell those to them for $100, Craig seconded, unanimous approval.
- New email group for Chapter Communications Team, Lindheimer-comm@npsot.org. FB, Web post, and Newsletter content can now be sent to one email address and all the relevant parties will get it. It is also useful for Committee members to communicate with each other and as a place for our speakers to email their info for promotional purposes.
- Facebook – Nancy, any new updates?
- Our page is growing. We now have 47 followers and 37 likes.
- In the last few days the most views were of the summary of upcoming April events I posted on March 31 — 37 views.
- 2nd was March Chapter Meeting Zoom recording with 35 views.
- Please post the link to our Invasives video on our YouTube Channel.
- Website – check out our new chapter website. Big thanks to Bob and Marian for continuing to make updates. Recent updates include…upcoming goals include…
- Send upcoming events to Dick to updated on the website. Should we add Dick to communications group and have events go there instead of Dick directly? Dick will be added to the communications group.
- Send newsletter ideas and feedback to Lindheimer-comm@npsot.org.
- Set up a Vista Print account, info is in Dropbox.
Director of Plant Sales – Debbie Kyrouac:
- April 26th Spring Plant Sale,
- See and share SignUp Genius.
- Let Debbie know which plants and how many you might have for donation.
- Doesn’t have the numbers on all plants being donated yet but there may be enough that she won’t need to buy any this year.
Demonstration Gardens:
Chamber of Commerce demonstration garden.
- Bring Back the Monarchs to Texas grant application has been approved the chapter received $600 for plants
- Garden soil was donated by a Chamber member, but the movement of additional soil/caliche down the hill is still needed. I now have an available work truck and a bunch of 5-gallon plant pots we can use to move it. Only fill them as much as we can comfortably lift into and out of the truck. Charlotte will check to see if there is equipment to help.
- When is our next meeting and/or workday? April 16th, 9 AM.
- King Feed donated a Kidneywood and Ace have both agreed to donate to the project. Who wants to come with me to Ace after brunch to deliver NICE poster and request a gift card to cover supplies and things that are not plants.
Texas Museum of Handmade Furniture – Craig Bruska
- Demonstration Gardens Heritage Village – Landscaping around new Church Building, any update?
- Upcoming workdays: any updates to the time?
- March 12th (2nd Wednesday) 10:00 AM – 11:30 AM
- March 27th (4th Thursday) 10 AM – 11:30 AM
- April 9th (2nd Wednesday) 10:00 AM – 11:30 AM
- April 24th (4th Thursday) 10 AM – 11:30 AM
- Will be doing BioBlitz April 25th in the Gorge.
Heritage Museum of the Texas Hill Country: Mickey Riviere, 1st Thursdays at 9:30-11:00, unless otherwise noted. Garden is looking good.
Membership: Bev Willmann:
- 144 total members, 98 home chapter members and 46 affiliates.
Hospitality: Charlotte Wright:
- May 20th at 5:30 Annual Chapter Picnic at the Heritage Museum of the Texas Hill Country. Chapter will provide sandwiches, with members asked to bring side dishes to share. Setup will be at 4:30, for those who wish to help.
- Charlotte has been providing monthly door prizes and would like to inform the Board she plans to continue in 2025.
Program Committee Chair: Acting Sara Torres, we are nearly set for the year, but suggestions are always welcome. If anyone would like to help with Program Coordinator duties, please let me know. It wasn’t always part of the President-Elect’s duties and per our bylaws is a separate position/committee. It mainly involves communicating with our speakers, soliciting suggestions for speakers, or using survey input and the State’s “Speaker’s Bureau” to find them. Emails like asking them to speak, requesting their bio/title/description/pics and providing to communications team, reminding them about meeting details, and requesting their honorarium from our Treasurer. There are templates available for each stage of the process.
- April 15th is Susan James, “Ungardening”, requested presentation description, bio, and photo, promised by today.
- May 20th is annual chapter picnic and volunteer appreciation event.
- June 17th is Monica Maeckle, Plants with Purpose, her new book being released May 15th
- July 15th tentative Casey Williams, Riparian presentation, has been recommended by several folks
- August 19th is Haeley Giambalvo, Chair of the Society State Committee Native Plants in Schools
- September 16th is Ashley Landry of the Native Plant Rescue Project
- October 21st tentative Cheryl Hamilton, Invasive species
- November 18th is our annual seed exchange
- December is our annual holiday party
Field Trip Coordinator: Christina Campbell:
- April 6th Dowell Ranch Annual Prairie Walk with Bill Carr, was cold and blustery, but fun and informative.
- Garden or Nature Tours? My property is available for a plant walk and others have offered their gardens. It seems weekends are pretty full this Spring, so perhaps weekdays or evenings should be considered.
- There was a suggestion to do a field trip to our demonstration garden sites.
- She will be sending questions to Marian for a follow up survey on what people would like for field trips.
- Craig said he is having an open house from 1-3 on May 2nd to show what he has done with his place.
New Business.
None.
Adjournment:
President Sara Torres adjourned the meeting at 11:43 PM.
By Dick Bigelow, Secretary.