CRCA/Riverwatch Board of Directors Meeting Minutes

CRCA/Riverwatch Board of Directors Meeting Minutes

February 1, 2012

Beef O’Brady’s, LaBelle

A. Call to Order (6 directors required for quorum)

Pete Quasius called the meeting to order at 6:45 pm.

Directors in attendance included:John Capece, Margaret England, David Bogert, Lois James, Ron Zimmerly, Marti Daltry, Linda Mattos, Mary Ruth Prouty,Wayne Daltry, Pete Quasius, Patrick O’Malley.

Others present:Geoff Rosenaw, Katrina van del Kloet, Maria Quasius, Caroline Comings

Absent: William Crane, Annette Snapp.

B. Approval of Minutes

Minutes for November 2, 2011 meetingwerepresented.Margaret moved to approve the minutes, Mary Ruth seconded. Motion carried.

C. Treasurer's Report:

Ron reported the following: Wachovia Balance as of February 1, 2012 is $5,838.26 plus PayPal of $2,374.48 for a total of $8,212.74.

2012 Budget Proposal

Everglades Coalition Support - $25 and $250

Pete listed a number of items that reoccur every year and he thinks we need to decide if we want to do these things on anannual basis, so that Ron can incorporate them into a proposed budget. The first item on that list is whether or not we are going to be an active participant in the Everglades Coalition Conference. It costs us $25 to be a member of the Coalition. If we want to be a sponsor of the conference, it costs us another $250. Pete asked the board if it is worth our efforts to participate in the Everglades Coalition Conferences. John answered it is. After there was no clear response from the board on this decision, Pete moved to table the item to business next time. There was no descent.

Sponsor Eco-Voice - $100

As most of us know Pete runs a daily blog called an Eco-Voice that goes to about 2000 people every morning. There are about 30 organizations that use it as a way to spread the word. It costs a $100 a year to be a sponsor. Peteasked if CRCA will contribute $100 to co-sponsor Eco-Voice. Pete specifically asked John’s opinion on this as he is the closest to our outreach activities. John said that we should draw up a budget starting with our insurance, then list our other costs and assign priorities. We can see how far our annual income gets us down that list of priorities.

John asked if we have paid our directors’ insurance yet. Ron said we paid it last year, but he has not seen an invoice this year yet. Ron said that our insurance was paid in June of 2011, $1,126.85. Marti said that it is due in June this year. She said she knows that Audubon has much cheaper insurance with RGMC. Marti said we should pursue that.

John said but he would put the Eco-Voice as a higher priority than Everglades Coalition. John said that Eco-Voice is important because our newsletter, our mailing list for our newsletter is only about 300 or 400 email addresses, but Eco-Voice which promotes our newsletter goes out to several thousands. So there is a consensus there that if there is money available then support of Eco-Voiceshould beconsidered.

John added that our problem is that we had one big fundraising event about five years ago where we had Golf Tournament brought in $15,000 and then every year our expenses ($10,000) have exceeded our income ($7,000)by about $3000 a year. So steadily that 15,000 one-time income has been depleted to the point where our current account balance is $8000. That’s a bare bone’s budget for one year. Pete asked if that $8000 includes whatever money we brought in for the fundraising this year. Ron answered yes. That’s what we have as of today. John said that we need a special person to do fundraising for CRCA, someone like Mary Rawl who did our fundraising in the past.

John said he thinks that at the end of the day, not just for the newsletter but for the entire organization we need to develop a fundraising specialist. John said that we should be going to some of the young folks coming out of FGCU and try to get one of them working on a commission basis as our fundraiser. We have a compensation formula that we adopted five years ago. We need to get a person whois interested in doing that kind of work for a living and have them give it a shot.

Patrick said he would suggest Cathy Claykendow, Linda’s former student. She is an environmental studies major and she is involved in environmental policy. He said she is a very hardworking person. Patrick said he is not aware if she is a fundraising type of person but he thinks that if we get herinvolved in what else is going on then fundraising might be something that she would want to work on. But he said he will ask her. John said that a fundraising person needs to first have that special person-to-person talent. If they also have technical talents, then you really got a winner…like Mary, who has an engineering background and has that special social skill set.

Newsletter/Website Funding - $3600

John said that just about every month or every other month CHNEPsends a nice note after they get the CRCA newsletter. So they sound like they would be receptive to a grant application from us. Pete said that Lisa Beever is essentially offering money if we would just submit the grant, so let’s do it and see if we can make it happen.

Eco-living Center Mangrove Gathering Sponsorship - $350

Pete said this was a request from the Eco-living Center down in Rutenberg Park and they are looking for sponsors. There areseveral NGO’s who hold meetings there. The deal is that if you sponsor one of their monthly events then you get an access to the facilities at no additional cost. It is not cheap, it is $350. Pete said he does not know if that’s a natural audience for us. It is a nice facility and certainly would have the potential if wewanted to reach out to a different audience sometime by sponsoring an event there. There is no reason why we could not show up at a MangroveGathering on some Friday evenings and set up a table.

SWFlorida Watershed Council – Five Years $200

Pete asked John if we are a regular member of the Watershed Council. He mentioned that John and he are pretty active participants. John said he has not gone lately. They have been having a lot of their meetings down at FGCU and it is little bit of a haul for John from LaBelle. Pete said that their dues are $50 a year or $200 a year. Pete said he is on the board and there is no reason why he could not change his affiliation to Caloosahatchee Riverwatch. Pete asked Ron if Riverwatch is a current member. Ron said he did not know. Pete said if we are not a member, he would suggest, if we are able to afford it, it would be one of those things that we should incorporate into the budget.

Conference Fees &Community Foundation

Pete asked the board if they have ever approached the community foundation for funding. Ron said he did not see a check, so probably not. John said we have not. He said but it seems like a good source of funds but they are special group, and John thinks you have to have a relationship with board of directors. Wayne agreed and said there are relatively few unencumbered grants.

Other NGO Memberships? SOC, Snook Foundation, Audubon, Sierra, SING, Great Waters

Pete asked Ron to check when he puts the budget together if we have an ongoing membershipin any other local NGO’s or not. And if any are up for renewal whether or not we need to do renew.

Pete said the only one that’s free beyond the list is the Great Waters Coalition. Pete said it is one of those things that he thinks is worthwhile. The Watershed Council joined, Audubon has joined. They have a number of other organizations that recently have joined. Pete said that we had it on the table once before. John said we had it on the table as whether or not to endorse them. He said but as far as national organizations,we had a lot of interaction over the years with the American Rivers and there is another one - the River Network. John said American Rivers really gave us a shot in the arm when Marti and Wayne pulled together for that Most Endangered Rivers application. He said that accomplishment really solidified us for several years. Pete said he will explore that and see if there are few groups like that, and if the cost is nominal and if it gives us a chance to be a part of a national rivers network. Pete thinks that would be worthwhile. Pete said he had some discussions with Lisa Beeveron whether or not we would seek to have like Greater Charlotte Harbor system which would include the Peace, the Myakka and the Caloosahatchee designated as one of the Great Waters. Pete said we can’t make this year’s application but it would be something we could prepare for in the future.

D. Old Business:

Membership Drive Report

Marti reported that in December after wesent outthe appeal letters, wereceived 20 renewalsand some of these renewalsare from people who had not renewed for years. We signed up 39 new members. Our total paid membership is 99. We received $3,287 in donations from that mailing. We have donors who contributed $250 and we had 12 donors whocontributed $100. Margaret asked how much it cost to mail the appeal letters. John said that we spent a total of $4000. John said that next year we can do it cheaper and better. Patrick suggested that we do that again in March or April when the river is green. The board agreed it was a good idea. Marti announced to the group that she will work on membership through February, but then she can’t be in the membership team any longer, so the job is open to someone. She said the job is relatively simple.

Pete asked John if he could add a news box for us on the newsletter saying we need a membership chair.

Pete moved a motion to move our membership to a calendar year, Patrick seconded. Motion adopted.

Program Report:

Jan. 4th - Ft. Myers Waterfront Redevelopment

Pete asked Linda and Patrick how our January program at the Royal Palm Yacht Club went. Linda said we served 29 people. Pete asked the board if it is worthwhile doing it again. The board expressed general agreement that CRCA should host more of these presentation dinner events. As far as online registration payments, John suggested we add Linda to the PayPal payment email notification payment list.

March 7th – Tommy Strowd on Caloosahatchee Management History

Pete said he talked to Tommy Strowd and he is prepared. He will talk about the history of the Caloosahatchee and water management.

May 2nd - Lisa Beever – Climate Change/Sea Level Rise in SW Florida(need approval)

Pete said he talked to Lisa Beever who does quite a nice presentation on the impacts of sea level rise in Southwest Florida

CRCA Annual Meeting – March 24?

The group discussed holding an annual meeting at LaBelle Hendry house on March 24. This is not a final date and location yet and will be discussed further.Pete announced that we have a nominating committee of Patrick, Margaret, and Pete for the election of new CRCA officers.

Business Meetings

The board discussed about future meetings locations. John said that he likes holding business meetings at Charlie’s Coffee Shop but not presentation meetings because there is simply too much noise fromthe cappuccino machine, music, etc. Patrick added that it is also not an appropriate location for presentations because you cannot fit in a big group there. John suggested that we hold our next business meeting (April 4) at Charlie’s.

Activities Report/Plans

Swamp Cabbage Festival

Margaret asked for volunteers to staff the Swamp Cabbage CRCA booth.Margaret said that we will be having a raffle, as we do each year. Margaret asked Linda to write a “thank you” letter to Tribe. Linda said that she would. Margaret told Linda she will email her address of Joe Frank.

Margaret said Estero Bay Outfitters offered us a generous donation of a river trip for 4 as our second price. So we have both prizes secured. Margaret asked if we are going to have a third price. Usually our third price would be Bass Pro certificate. John said we will just see if the third price comes about. John said but we do have first and second price printed on the tickets. And he said he has a few sheets of the tickets here now for those board members who are not in LaBelle. Margaret said she will be the contact person for the tickets.

Big O Birding Festival 2013

Margaret said Big O Birding Festival would like to thank CRCA for their generous donation again. Margaret said there will be lots of trips in the Caloosahatchee River as well as in Lake O. Linda suggested that Margaret takes extra donation envelopes. Pete mentioned that he did not see CRCA logo on the list of sponsors. Margaret said she needs to check on that, and said that might be an oversight.

Caroline Krieger Painting

Pete asked Caroline to tell us about her painting. Caroline said she only hopes that it helps to raise money for CRCA. She said her idea was that it could be a raffle option. Linda suggested that we could start selling raffle tickets at the Swamp Cabbage Festival and also sell them every time we have an event. Pete said that he thinks you have to have a terminal date for drawing to sell tickets. Margaret said that February 21 we also have a table already reservedat LaBelle’s Night on the Town from 5-7pm that we can sell raffle tickets for the canoe and we can get to sell raffle tickets for the artwork too. Pete asked Caroline if she is happy with that. Caroline said absolutely. She said she wants just to help. Pete asked John to create raffle tickets for the artwork too.

Linda asked the group when John creates the raffle tickets for the artwork how long we should let the raffle run, a whole year? The group discussed a date and decided the pulling a winner at the May 2 meeting at Yacht Club was a legitimate date. Linda asked Caroline how much she wants us to sell the tickets for. Caroline said it would not be less than $5. So the group agreed $5 is dignified and not too much. So each ticket would be $5 and 5 for $20.

SCCF River & Oxbows Tour

Pete said we were in kind of relationship with Rae Ann on an Oxbow tours. He asked if this has become strictly SCCF function now. John said every time Rae Ann has one of a boat tours, usually the day before she calls him if there is any empty seat to see if any of the students want to go. So he said there is clearly a good relationship between CRCA and SCCF. Pete asked the board if we want to explore running a tour ourselves. The group answered no.

Earth Day

Margaret said that the official Earth Day is April 22. The LaBelle Earth Day was planned for April 21. However, the Sheriff’s Department had already planned a Sheriff’s Fun Day at Barron Park and reserved the park. So she said they have got a permission to partner with the Sheriff for Earth Day. Margaret said it will be fun, and that’s a well attended event. Lois asked if anybody from the board is attending the Monday night planning meetings for Swamp Cabbage.Margaret said she should go. Margaret said for theEarth Week we will still have the field trips for usually they have thousand children and it would be fun. Earth Week will be April 23-25.

Blueways Festival

Pete said obviously Betsy Clayton has vigorously promoted the Lee County BluewaysTrail. And it certainly has potential to be extended to the river at some time. He said he thinks it is something we put in our radar may be if we had an event at the same time that their festival is. We might have an opportunity to do something up here. Pete suggested we keep that in our radar, we will have further discussion on that.

Conservation and Advocacy - What are we for? Against? No position?

Preemption of local stronger than ordinances: urban fertilizer, septic tank issues

Pete suggested that it makes it much easier if we have a discussion early in the process so that if somebody does get ask for comment he can speak on behalf of the organization and reflect the organization’s views. It also allows us to direct to some degree to kind of position and stuff that we carry in the newsletter so in fact we are moving forward with what we are doing. Obviously things like the local preemption or the preemption of the local ordinances is an important issue.Pete said he is of the assumption that the club would be supportive of local rule whenever possible with minimum standards of the State. We certainly should be precluded from having stronger once if we, the committee so decides. Pete said if that’s not the will of the board to let him know. The board said we are against any preemption.

HB 1103 – Sovereign Lands Boundaries

Pete said essentially it is a proposal to change what determines public lands from the high water mark which means you can stand on the beach, you can go fishing, or camp during a dry season to making the ownership go down to the water. It is a bad piece of Legislation and Pete said he hopes we would help to oppose it. The board said we are again this.