James Joseph Dwyer Memorial Police Substation

Minutes

General Meeting

2 February 2014

James Joseph Dwyer Memorial Police Substation

12700 Montgomery Blvd. NE

Albuquerque, NM

The meeting was called to order at 1:00 PM.

The minutes of the 2013 meeting were approved as issued.

President’s report: Y. Boudreaux

Yvonne thanked the Volunteers and Advocates for their commitment and continued service.

It was noted that E. Urbanski would be less involved this year due to work commitments and that the office of VP had been vacant for a number of years. She stressed that new volunteers were needed to carry on the work. She mentioned the greeting card sentiment, “You’re not getting older, the squirrels are just getting faster” and urged everyone to help where they could.

Treasurer’s report: R. Watt

$31,620.00 / Beginning Balance
$21,437.00 / Ending Balance
-$10,183.00 / Net

Site stewardship: Graziella had previously reduced her involvement due to family issues and her absence was keenly felt.

Becky D needs help with her sites. Graziella mentioned that the number of caregivers had decreased and it was unknown who was feeding which site. She mentioned that we were still able to get produce from the Farmers Market and other places (Sprouts will not donate food). Grass was available from Hoffmantown and the Journal Center. It was noted that while there was some money to purchase hay, carrots and grains, that someone would need to coordinate. The availability of hay was discussed, reliable sources include Tijeras Mercantile, Millers and Horsemen’s; Margaret offered to contact Alice to develop resources in the South Valley.

Outreach and education: Y. Boudreauxrecognized the contributions of J. Trever in both group presentations and outreach. She solicited help from the board should Jim’s health decline or that obstacles prevent him from making presentations

Inter group relationships: Annabeth noted that it was a tough year as all non profits were suffering from cash deprivation. NMWA had cut back on events but she would work with the Sierra Club/Camilla to develop collaboration.

Yvonne mentioned several items of interest: Bernalillo County open space and the possibility of working with them on prairie dog issues; efforts to curtail trophy hunts at the state and local levels, and, efforts to curtail poisoning in Clovis.

Private & Singleton rescue: Margaret reported that she had relocated 6 squirrels and a numberof mice. She recounted the difficulty in singleton captures (singleton=a lone animal, in distress, where it shouldn’t be), noting that it took her a week to capture a family, and that once captured they didn’t want to leave the comfort of the cage (or her bathroom as one had burrowed into the wall.) She mentioned her capture of a squirrel that ran between Louisiana and Wyoming. She will continue to address these emergencies as they arise.

PDP Operations: It was noted that during 2013 Prairie Dog Pals rescued and relocated 596 Prairie Dogs, we relocated 16 squirrels, 3 rats, 4 mice, 1 baby bunny, and 1 raccoon. We received compensation from the city for removing prairie dogs from Phil Chacon, the Veteran’s Memorial, Hayes Middle School, and Chelwood Elementary. We are optimistically awaiting spring because we believe that we attained a 100% removal from the Veteran’s Memorial, Phil Chacon playing fields, and Hayes. We also received compensation for relocating 34 prairie dogs from a property threatened with poisoning in Santa Fe. Thanks to the efforts of Ray Watt who intervened on behalf of the prairie dogs based on a news report he’d heard. It is this kind of innovation that we depend on to protect our urban prairie dogs.

Members at Large:Sharyn Davidson will continue to work on marketable art for Prairie Dog Pals.

Clifford Jake noted that people seemed interested in the plight of prairie dogs at Weems Artfest and that he was interested in helping/coordinating at future events. It was important to know more about prairie dogs so questions could be answered.

4. Old and Unfinished Business

None

5. New Business

Re-election of Officers: All officers were unanimously re-elected to a two year term.

Shifting of Responsibilities: E Urbanski will be doing less, all financial matters go to Ray; other things that the board should be doing will be addressed as they arise.

Stewardship

• Feeding Donations/Budget: PDP has about $400.00 specified for stewardship.
• Some folks have indicated they want to volunteer, but they have not stepped up to feed, which is a great place to start.

Outreach: Weems lessons learned/New Volunteer package was distributed. Many years ago, Lynn Diehl prepared these wonderful new volunteer packets.

New Website: The new website has been up and running for a number of months thanks to the efforts of Margo and Ed. Cliff mentioned it looked much more current and appealing

EMMA Promotions: PDP is a member of EMMA an on line marketing concern.

2014 Outreach: All events must have a sponsor. In sponsoring an event you would be agreeing to coordinating it, including but not limited to: Learn about the event, sign PDP up for the event, arrange for volunteers, arrange for the merchandise/handouts to get to the event, work with the volunteers at the event, arrange for the merchandise/handouts to get from the event. Close out cash box. Feedback. If no one steps forward to "sponsor" the event it will be dropped.

Newsletter and Operations: Frances was made editor of the Newsletter. She will also be running the staging facility in Ed’s absence and will be given money for gas to cover her expenses. Yvonne recounted that a number of people had returned extremely complementary comments about the newsletter.

RescueOperations

GUMO Proposal: The Board has agreed to a proposal by Paul Polechla to organize the reintroduction of prairie dogs at GUMO. He will seek his own funding under the PDP umbrella.

In order to economize it was agreed that the following changes in operations would be immediately implemented:

No out of town work (agreed)

No DOT pro bono work (agreed)

No post processing/release luncheons by PDP (agreed)

Maintain insurance (agreed)

Keep Water Meter (agreed)

Maintain D&B listing (agreed)

Replace water pump (agreed)

Newsletter: Continue with 2 newsletters per year

Contracts: City work (accept only if we can handle it), Ray Watt will assess)

2014 Strategies:

Spring Flushing/Trapping: Late February – Early April…100 prairie dogs from Bernardo

Albuquerque work will depend on volunteers

Summer Flushing/Trapping: 10 June – 20 September

2014 fund raising opportunities

Quilt Raffle (Yvonne will talk to Inara about a PDP Quilt; someone should see if we could sell the quilts we have on Ebay)

Garage Sale (RayGraziella will consider a second garage sale)(Board members will contact other charities to see if we can get their left over items ((Ray will contact Greyhound group); storage needs to be resolved.) Plants seem to sell well and Board members were encouraged to start cuttings. Tools, furniture, appliances and children’s items seem to sell, books, DVDs and clothing do not.

Weems (Clifford and Jim Trever will coordinate)

Internet Sales (Margaret presented a new design which will be added to our inventory) Action: Margaret/Sharyn/Margo

Amazon Smile: PDP is signed up with Amazon Smile; if you log on and indicate PDP as your preferred charity, we will get .5% of your purchase; Igive, which gives up to 15% was also reviewed.

Smiths Community Rewards Program: Ray will investigate signing up PDP.

United Way: One of the board members needs to contact UW to see if we can make a presentation on behalf of PDP.

Client Letters were sent to the City, USF&W, NMDGF, and, DOT.

2013 Tax Return was completed and submitted to the IRS and Attorney General.

New Volunteers: PDP use some help in cultivating those folks who express an interest in helping us. Ed and Yvone spend a lot of time responding to initial inquiries, but if they don’t come back after those cheery invitation from us, we haven’t been devoting much more time than that… Could we get a little help here? Someone who would tackle being a mentor or contact for new volunteers would be huge.

Annabeth is going to check and see if she can get an electronic file of her interview for the KNME auction to post on the Facebook Page. It was agreed to offer another package provided we had the personnel to provide for the experience.

6. Items of interest

Celina: Plug your own business hour, KKOB radio station. Friday afternoon, Scott Stigler, 6-7pm. Used for city shelter currently. 770 am. Can do it multiple times.

Bobby Capute spotted the first prairie dog of the year at Cloudview; she will be given a paw print key chain. Hopefully this early riser will return to the burrow with the onset of cold weather.

PDC:Living on Burrowed time is a fundraising event for the PDC. They usually raise $100,000 plus at these events and have a lavish dinner, silent auction, and guest speaker. PDP sent a silent auction gift basket in 2013 but did not attend as there was no general meeting. We should send someone in 2014 if there is a meeting.

Ground Truthing: At the PDC annual meeting that PDP did attend in 2012, we voted to launch an initiative that was approved and funded at that time to travel throughout prairie dog habitat verifying existing colonies and assessing potential relocation sites. The work has far exceeded the funding that was approved and PDC is asking for volunteers to continue matching known colonies with their updated habitat maps. This project is known as “ground truthing” and could be a very rewarding experience for the right volunteer. It would mean travel throughout New Mexico, so if the idea of some exploring with a GPS and some light picnics or camping appeals to you please let me know.

Clovis PDs: Since March of 2013, many prairie dog advocates have been following the developments in Clovis of extremely onerous policy and legislation in retaliation for nation wide advocacy for the prairie dog to be rescued and relocated. The two very-low key field rescuers in the region have been sandbagged and blindsided continuously, resulting in an extremely poisonous atmosphere between the City Mayor and the prairie dog advocates. After months of pleading with Trent, he agreed to take on the field portion of a small parcel of private land relocation, and to collaborate with Ted Turner’s Ladder Ranch. We were convinced that a relationship between Ted Turner’s Ranch manager there and Trent would be so very strategic for him and black tailed prairie dogs in general. So far, so good.

Loan of PD equipment: PDP’s Burrow Cam was loaned to PDC for the above effort: The Coalition’s money reserves were severely depleted because of a devastating flood right after a huge relocation effort in Boulder. Our traps were loaned to Trent Botkin, a relocation associate to PDP going back more than 12 years, for the Clovis rescue because we knew he would not be compensated adequately for the work he agreed to do there.

Habitat Loss in Albuquerque: Two small prairie dog colonies were destroyed: one was at the Believers Center and the other at a vacant lot on the corner of Four Hills Road and Tramway near Smiths. We got a very timely heads-up from one of our very dedicated feeders who is no longer able to do this function, but despite her attempts to alert us the bulldozers had leveled the two colonies, presumed killed during hibernation.

Call Screening: Calls to PDP come in to the main telephone # year round, approximately 35 every couple of days during the busy season. The same number comes in over 4-5 days during the hibernation season. I do screen calls when I am home, and do decline to answer what appears to be telemarketers, etc. I have installed a message that goes to calls coming in with a blocked caller ID asking them to unblock their number and call back. This doesn’t work for calls that are identified as “Not Available.” If your outgoing calls to PDP are obscured with THIS caller ID, I will never be able to connect with you unless you leave a voicemail message. If anyone has been unable to reach me, please let me know, so we can solve it.

Killing Contest Battle: Last year PDP board members and volunteers joined an effort by the formidable Dicharrys to combat thrill killing contests targeting coyotes. It must have been fated for us to collaborate because not long after these thrill killers launched a statewide killing contest for prairie dogs killing an estimated 1,500. We are working with some very savvy folks to re-submit legislation to prevent killing contests on public land. It is such a small pushback in the face of the huge assault state-wide against all wildlife, but the measure (HB 316) failed in the last session. That it only failed by 8 votes does give us hope for a re-try. If anyone could help with phoning legislators regarding this issue, please let me know. I do hope that everyone here will sign the petition sponsored by APNM on our info table.

2015 Board and General Meeting: 1 February 2015

The meeting was adjourned at 3:00 PM