Minutes for Board of Directors Meeting Lindheimer Chapter NPSOT Mar. 14, 2023
Meeting start time: 9:34 AM, at TPML.
In attendance: President Joel Dunnington, President Elect Sara Torres (and Coordinator of Programs), Secretary Dick Bigelow, Director of Communications Bob Drake, Director of Plant Sales Debbie Kyrouac, Acting Director of Outreach Sara Torres, Membership Coordinator Bev Willmann, Hospitality Coordinator Charlotte Wright. Craig Bruska member. Quorum requirement was met (7 directors).
Not attending: Director of Community Outreach (Sara Torres is acting), Director of Formal Education (Joel Dunnington is acting), Plant of the Month Coordinator Leon Dominick.
Secretary: Dick said that the January 2023 Board meeting minutes had “Preliminary” removed on our web site, and the February 14th and 28th 2023 minutes (corrected) had been posted as “Preliminary” on both the old and new sites. Joel said there was a typo on the February 28th minutes, Dick said he would correct that. Bob moved that the corrected February minutes be approved, Bev seconded the motion, it was approved unanimously.
President: Joel Dunnington:
- Congratulations to Sara and Craig for an excellent program at the Brauntex! The program netted $1,291.52 to our chapter.
- GRSP Pollinator Fiesta 3/25/23 10am -2pm. Do we attend? Same day as Dino Day. Discussed, we will pass due to the conflict.
- Educational Posters- what do we keep and what do we toss? Discussed and determined what should be kept.
- TPML Friends invitations to programs- who do I notify? Multiple people are getting notifications, Joel will be the primary responder.
- NPSOT Award for Peggy? Nancy Benedict or Fellows. Sara said that everybody can vote for who they want, the State administers this.
- McKenna Foundation Grant Workshop. Craig said we can apply for grants with education and community as good fits for our mission, Joel said it is very difficult to work with the school districts because they have so many requirements, Sara said that the community development area would be better. The board will keep this possibility in mind.
- Email to members to volunteer has not had any responses. There was a discussion on ways to encourage people to become involved.
- A list of past Lindheimer NPSOT Presidents 2015 to 2023 was looked at. Elizabeth Bowerman will be asked if she can add to the list.
President Elect: Sara Torres: Nothing to report.
Treasurer’s report. Sara Torres: We have $4,318.58 in our checking account and $2,086.34 in our savings account. There are checks for $2,088.58 outstanding. Sara discussed the presentation of the Deep in the Heart program and said our chapter netted $1,291.52. Sara Torres said that Sarah Mato will take over as treasurer at the April board meeting. Sara initiated a discussion about using MailChimp to communicate to our members, she will figure out how State is using it. All board members will have access, Sara will send out dates to set up a meeting to discuss using it.
State NPSOT Joel Dunnington:
- The Fall Symposium will be Nov. 9-11 2023 in Nacogdoches.
- State NPSOT has put down a deposit on the NB Convention Center for 2024.
- State Bylaws Changes are coming.
- The new Plant Database will go live after the State website is live.
Old Business.
None.
Committees.
Director of Formal Education (NLCP). Joel Dunnington acting: NLCP #1, set up will be 5/12/23/ Class is 5/13/23at TPML, there will be a plant sale. Charlotte said that we should do more publicizing.
Director of Community Outreach. Sara Torres acting.
- She got the tubs from Charlotte.
- Smithson Valley Elementary School Garden- anybody heard anything? No, this will be dropped for now.
- 3/11/23 ACE Hardware Table at 9:30 am was successful.
- 3/23/23 10am-12am San Antonio Botanical Gardens-Cost? Box Lunch e-mail. We determined that we will eat at a restaurant.
- 4/1/23 South Texas Growers table at 9am
- ACE Hardware Spring Alive April 22, 2023, 10:00-2:00 Table and Tent, Joel will talk to Mike about this event.
- South Texas Growers-
- Agrilife Open House- April 29, 2023, 10am-2pm Joel, Sara and Sarah will attend.
Director of Communications. Debbie said no one had signed up on Sign Up Genius for the open board positions. The State website and our site and Instagram will go live April 1. All board members will be set to have access to our site and be able to do group emails. Dick will learn about accessing our site server. Bob is getting us set up so we can do QR codes and brought some examples of plant care for a specific plant and is doing more. We could also use QR codes on plant sale labels and other things.
Director of Plant Sales. Debbie Kyrouac:
- Mammen Library Quarterly Talks, no update.
- 4/15/23 Folkfest Plant Sale and Education? New Braunfels Chapter on the 16th? Debbie said FolkFest is not interested is us doing a reduced plant sale so we will not have one there. We will have an educational booth on Saturday, Craig said he would do one on Sunday.
- Dino Days March 25th is on track. Bob will update plant prices on Square. Debbie will send out details.
- May 13th NLCP#1 class day will be our major plant sale.
Membership. Bev Willmann said we have 6 new members and that The Stammtisch column in NB Herald-Zeitung is publishing our events & announcements several times per week for free. Also, subscribers can submit photos to the Herald by email as items of local interest Customer Services and Site Information/Site Forms/Online Services/Submit News .Bev will send emails all members who have membership pins that need to be distributed, she emailed Sara Riggs a list of our future programs to be posted in the Master Naturalist “Out and About”, and she has developed and sent out the first “Welcome email” to a new member. Bev said that she has email addresses from the “Deep in the Heart” sign in, she will send them welcome emails and also tell them how to join NPSOT if they are interested.
Hospitality. Charlotte Wright and the board discussed our picnic in April. Craig Bruska volunteered to do the brisket (the chapter will reimburse him), the attendees will bring a side. Debbie will do a SignUp Genius to get a count of people attending and what side they will bring. Charlotte will verify that we are set up with the Heritage Museum. Picnic will start at 4:30 PM April 18th. Charlotte asked about the date for our Christmas party, after discussion there was unanimous approval to have it on Dec. 12th with the same format as last year. The December board meeting date will not change.
Programs. Sara Torres:
Sara and Craig asked about doing a Brauntex like event annually, this was discussed, Sara and Craig will look into it and bring specifics to the board for consideration.
Mar 21st 2023 – Cheryl Hamilton will do a presentation on “Invasives”.
April 18th 2023 – Field trip/picnic at the Heritage Museum.
May 16th – Carol Clark will do a presentation on “How to Grow Milkweed from seed”.
June 20th – Andy Blair will talk about “Central Texas Prairies”.
July 18th – Shannon Brown will present “Native Plants for Central Texas Raingardens”.
Sara will look into doing a field trip to the New Braunfels Native American Seed warehouse in the fall.
Demo Gardens.
Handmade Furniture Demo Garden – Craig Bruska – Workdays will be the Second Wednesday and fourth Thursday of the month..
Heritage Museum – We did not get the NPSOT Bring Back the Monarchs Grant. Workday is the first Wednesday of the month.
Facebook Manager.
Joel will sign on to be an administrator, Peggy will quit on March 20th. There are 2,182 members as of March 6th.
New Business.
Clean up and waterproof of our storage, Sara will determine possible times and let us know.
Adjournment
Dick made a motion to adjourn, Sara seconded it, unanimous approval, President Joel Dunnington adjourned the meeting at 11:22 PM.
By Dick Bigelow, Secretary.