INSTANT AGENDA DCCFW MAY 23, 2017 AND MINUTES EMBEDDED!

[Robin Lindsley]

PROLOGUE: President and treasurer sign in:

Begin forwarded message:

From: Vanessa VanDomelen <vanessa_v...@yahoo.com>

Subject: Re: finances for the meeting tonight

Date: May 23, 2017 at 2:24:18 PM PDT

To: Edie Reid <ed...@ediereid.com>, Robin Lindsley <lind...@frontier.com>, "Hastay, Ellen T." <has...@pacificu.edu>, amber j wentz <missa...@gmail.com>

Reply-To: Vanessa VanDomelen <vanessa_v...@yahoo.com>

I am in Boston post my daughter Alyssa's graduation from Babson Graduate School of Business with her MBA last Saturday.  I will not be able to make the meeting tonight. I will be flying back this Wednesday night. I did get through to the IRS , (30 minutes of waiting on the phone) and they had to file the 990 postcard by phone for us and I sent in our new address correction later by paper. They were having problems with their computer system. The papers with the state were filed as well for the 501c3

Vanessa

__________________

On Tuesday, May 23, 2017 2:14 PM, Edie Reid <ed...@ediereid.com> wrote:

Hello All,

The balance in the checking 1 is $1441.96

The balance in the checking in the great monies is $580.10

A check from the Banks Library sale is for $177.60

I apologize for the short notice.

I am with family tonight and going camping till Monday and unable to make the meeting.

See you soon,

Edie

Tuesday, May 23, 2017 - 

This is how it went: being typical of DCCFW, we came together and ate food. Sometimes with our mouths full, we spoke of…well, food, of course. Victoria cruised her garden and brought a platter of diverse green leaves to wrap around the chicken/apple/celery yummy stuff; Ellen, having also cruised her garden, brought a many-splendored mixed colors salad , upon which she laced a golden oil-based dressing raising our taste buds to a height worthy of a fine DCCFW Board meeting potluck; Edgar, always the inventive chemist, created a non-alcoholic beverage of slurp cran-lemondade horchata; Amber - a wise Bd meeting attendee - came with new veg chips to crunch along with our supper; dessert - eaten as an hors d’oeuvre, was a peach cobbler created by the good women of Robin’s church. Lovely.

Then, we were present and accounted for : Ellen, Edgar, Robin, Victoria, and Amber. Absent and dearly missed: Vanessa, Edie, Charlene, Richard, Michelle, Cecilia, Kaely, and the rest of you.

Our cobbled together agenda (and resulting minutes) are here below.

1. Financials (see above): Nice to have a balance above one thousand dollars, eh? Also, GREAT monies for the SideYard Gardens at the FGS&C Center - left of the original grant for 2016-17 -- $580.10, to spend on materials and equipment requested by the gardeners who work there.  Robin will do a final report to the CEP Committee by end of June. A comment for the future: would be good to view the monthly financials along with and in comparison with our on-going, historical budget. How can we best do that?

2. NOT an experiment in dry-land gardening, there have been broken water pipes at both the Center SideYard Gardens AND the Maple Street/Victory Community Gardens, causing great consternation for Robin and Ellen. Relief came with fixed pipes on Tuesday.

3. Our 501 (c) 3 taxes paid online by Vanessa, after an uncomfortable, yet not unexpected 30-minute wait to speak with The Taxman. Thank you Vanessa and Edie! 

4. Yes, our new address is PO Box 1025, FG, but don’t expect our local issues of homelessness to be solved by closing - after June 15 - our post office lobby, where exhausted, uncomfortable sleeping has been occurring even while folks were coming to pick up their mail after the desk is closed. We must keep looking for a better place to house (get it?) people experiencing homelessness. Seriously.

5. Amber attended a workshop arranged by Non-Profit Association, mainly learning that the Oregon Community Foundation actually wants to make sure they give away their money by teaching non-profits how to best complete a grant application. They shared materials illustrating likes/dislikes about how to “do a grant.” Exciting news: they are actively looking for more applications coming from Washington County! We can DO this! An “early bird deadline is June 20 - and if we meet that deadline, we might get an extra $2500 plus the amount we request. Another deadline is July 15, 2017, plus one in the winter. Amber has started making notes and will speak with Vanessa soon.

6. The 2017-18 CEP grant application, "Expanding and Enhancing School Gardens" was  turned in by DCCFW and Eden Acres Environmental Education - and was successfully funded for half ($4500) of what we had requested ( $9300). Edgar, Fallon Harris, Melanie and Robin will revise budget to fit what we’ve received. Also, Edgar and Robin have sent a letter to the City staff requesting an extension for the 2016-17 CEP grant (“Expanding School Nutrition Gardens”) as we are close to achieving our goal of “A Garden in Every Pot,” um, School.  The requisite MOU between DCCFW and EA will be forwarded for review by DCCFW Board/Core members as soon as Robin can work that out.

7. The 2017-18 CEP grant, it should be noted, is from two non-profits (DCCFW & EA), and so did probably not have the power that the prior 2016-17 grant had for support - coming from the FG Sustainability Commission as it did.

8. Debriefing the “A Gathering of Gardeners”: Comments: probably shouldn’t have had it so close to Mothers Day/check the “public calendar”; need a budget/expenses more specifically delineated; seemed to be more attendees who were younger and “familied,” looking for garden education; had good  initial News-Times and even Oregonian calendar listings; Amber suggested renting individual informational tables to raise some money - a table fee is a commonly expected phenomenon. [To be readdressed at next meeting] Master Gardeners did not respond to Ellen’s several attempts to request their attendance, by  both phone and email, which was more than frustrating. Jerry Anderson has suggested we write a a letter describing our frustration directly to OSU Extension. Robin’s friend, Master Gardener Jack Lazareck came through (from Portland) again, plus of course we had Jerry Anderson and Ellen there - and Victoria Ross - so we weren’t “without,” but still….

9. Fifth Annual "Farm Your Yard: Kitchen Gardens Tour” is scheduled for Saturday, June 24, 2017. At this point we have these on our tentative list: Charlotte Lumae, Jerry Anderson, Victoria Lowe, Cecilia Chapman, with these suggestions not confirmed: Nana Cardoon, Tom McCall Upper Elem School Garden (Amy Sanford, GE), Victoria’s neighbor, Amber & Steve [Rose Grove Mobile Home Community], Kalika. Edgar will work on a draft Letter to Editor (N-T), Robin will inquire about cost of ad to find more gardens to investigate for possible inclusion - for Bragging Rights. 

[PLEASE NOTE: the names of our expected gardens are NOT PUBLIC KNOWLEDGE UNTIL TOUR DAY! - please no garden-naming gossip ahead of time!]

10. Amber will inquire about our application for a Blazers’ grant.

11. Victoria Lowe explained why she is working to get more co-sponsors for the Birds and Brew event, which has been a fundraiser for Friends of FernHill Wetlands. She would like DCCFW to consider being involved this year. Much of the infrastructure is already in place, even a McMenamin’s “FernHill Pale Ale”! Currently there is difficulty with parking, due to ongoing construction. Others on the board - besides Victoria - are John Hayes, Tom Beck, Tom Henderson, Eric Brattain (sp?), Sherry Whatland (sp?), and a Clean Waters person (as yet un-named). The event is focussed on education/birds/animal tracks/soil/water/biology/food (water-soil-nontoxic). Rich Buskirk is involved as a biologist from Pacific University. In the past, the event has been the first Saturday in October. More discussion to follow.

12. Ellen and Victoria shared a conversation concerning the Great Compost Giveaway when City of FG sent out postcards giving community members a yard of compost if they wanted it for this spring’s gardening season. Unfortunately, the postcards are undiscoverable this spring, as they were sent out last fall and have been seen intermittently or not at all on local refrigerator doors since then. Ellen confirmed that no one on City staff is willing to handle the resulting paper-pushing mess, so sadness reigns among gardeners without postcard proofs.

13. Robin reported that after a long, sad/mad discussion with MG Jerry Anderson, he reports that the active members of Washington County Master Gardeners - who have spent YEARS of happy gardening demonstrating their massive skills at the county Fairgrounds - have now been urgently told they must find another location for the highly educational Demonstration Gardens. [ Tonight’s latest report: twenty-some MGs have signed a petition stating they are not willing to move, and their president and vice president have resigned. Whoa!] Robin offered to invite Jerry to come together with DCCFW elected officials and devoted Core members to discuss what we might do to counteract this unkind - and unwise - effort by the County Fair Board to remove yet another long-term, successful function of our historical County Fairgrounds. (Bias earned by past education from local long-term advocates of our Fairground Family.) More information will be sent out. 

14. Edgar pointed out the new incarnation of the “Circle of Food” graphic that Robin had created and used at the Leaving A Legacy workshop DCCFW co-sponsored this last winter. [Thanks, Edgar. ]

Respectfully submitted, Robin Lindsley, secretary