Annual General Meeting, March 15, 2015

Sally Smith discusses her efforts to reconstitute the Warren Street Block Association.
Anyone interested should contact her at [email protected].

Steering Committee introductions

Andrea Kannapell, administrator
David Bivins, garden coordinator
Chloe Abercrombie, events coordinator
Amelia Wilson, membership coordinator
Ruth Chasek, treasurer

(missing)
Val English — communications
Melanie Holcomb — fundraising
Dylan Mabin — plots

General introductions and favorite moments

Sheri Stein — misses being on the compost team

Kit Schneider — just love going to the garden, but also being with the chickens, in the rain, sleet and snow

Ruth Chasek — the finding of the bees nest that was unearthed and managed to move it

Jessica Magaldi — kids were chickens for Halloween

Aaron Koffman — last year proposed to my fiancee in the garden

Amelia Wilson — Dolly the chicken was feared ill and we bathed her in Kristen’s bathtub. She was fine.

Mimi Rosenfeld — joining the garden|

Max Henstell — I like hanging out with chickens. Was worried about Dolly and took her home for a couple of days. Had her in a closet. Behaved like a dog. Followed me around and wagged her tail.

Sarah Trignano — having someone toss her kid into the leaf bin for an hour.

Sally Smith — loves taking a 2-year-old to visit the chickens. Love hearing them when I walk by.

Cathy Carver — love our beautiful flock.

Pat McCarty — this morning, doing a little coop clean, walk around and see the daffodils peeping out.

Mary Dillon — I love the event when we had the guitar school, kids to adults playing the Rolling Stones.

Chloe Abercrombie — last year, when we got together to plant the community plots, and later seeing everything ripen and knowing anyone can harvest.

Kristen Davis — it was just awesome this morning, cleaning the coop. It was the first time it was comfortable in so long, and hearing birds. The chickens were all happy. Also Dolly’s spa treatment in my bathtub.

David Bivins — one member last year asked what he could do. the path by the compost wasn’t big enough. This is mundane, but by the end of the day it was done. And it was great.

Andrea Kannapell — film nights!

 

Steering Committee reports
Treasurer: we’re in better shape than expected. Total income: 2034.42 Total expenses: 2344.88
Total assets: 5970.59
We may want to raise dues.

Fundraising
Melanie and Andrea (mainly Melanie) got several grant proposals out, two for $3,000 each and another for compost rebuild. If the compost grant doesn’t happen, we can try to get on BBG’s Greenbridge list for 2016 as a compost demo site, meaning they will come rebuild the system.

Communications
Redesigned website coming

Plots
Last year there were some plot stewards who did not tend their plots, we’ll be more watchful this year. Chloe made green arrow signs for people to put in plots if they are away and want others to harvest.

Administrator
Things going well with BANG: it got 10,500 in grants, some of which is flowing back to the gardens.

National Wildlife Habitat, we’ll be putting up signs

GreenThumb liaison Gahl Shotten, terrific

We’re hosting a GreenThumb event

GreenThumb has promised a delivery of soil

CSA — We will host the Angel Family Farm CSA (details at http://angelfamilyfarm.com). It’s independent of the garden. David Bivins is liaison and gets free share, with Mary Dillon as backup. $550 for full share of 22 weeks, enough for a family of 4 for a week. There are also half shares. The dropoff is Tuesday evenings, 6 or 6:30. CSA members can visit the garden twice a year, Memorial Day weekend and Labor Day weekend. This is for the whole community, not just garden members. Beginning Tuesday June 9.

Workshops — we’d like to have them NOT on garden days, to keep the garden open more.

Events — several nice events. Make Music NY June 21, Easter Egg Hunt, Harvest Festival. And we’re having the same events this year, and welcome new ideas.

Membership — About 95 joined or renewed from last annual membership meeting to today. Calculate we got about $1800 in dues since this time last year. It’s hard to see who is compliant. We’re hoping VolunteerSpot will help us make that much more evident.

Team reports

Chickens — Last May 7, our chicks hatched and came to us in a box at the post office the next day. They were peeping and hearty and healthy. They lived in Kristen, David and Arlo’s living room. We ordered 9, Tiger Lily died after a week. She just didn’t thrive. This next year with the chickens should be easy and mellow. We should be set. We have a core group of 13, two shifts a day and a Sunday coop clean. Right now we have 12. Eight people are interested in joining, training March 29 at 9 a.m. Would love for chickens to get out more, get more exercise. Goal of building the chickens a swing this year. Consider adding money to the chicken budget for vet services.

Chicken budget: total expenses last year $752.41, what was budgeted was $650, but we knew it would have to be more. We were buying chicks, warming lights, tiny feeders, etc. Fundraiser made more than $500. We may want to get supplies delivered, to avoid having to make emergency trips.

Compost — steel can system is working. compost team getting stronger, not just the same few people every time. We’re learning more, seeing changes we want to make. Hoping to rebuild either with grants or with Greenbridge, possibly next year. The hay from the chicken coops is a lot of green and we need more browns.

Sidewalks — Basically it’s been really good. [prior discussion included how there was virtually no expense for snow because members shoveled, as well as the unfortunate disappearance of many of our shovels.]

Idea free-for-all: what if we had a day and just cleaned up our two blocks? They are filthy. [Curtailed because of meeting length.]

Other ideas that came up: seeing if the Angel Family Farm might be able to bring hay for hens, feed, etc.

 

Elections for steering committee
Steering committee reorganized as below, with unanimous approval of slate.

Administrator — Andrea Kannapell

Garden (w/plots) — David Bivins

Treasurer — Melanie Holcomb

Events — Chloe Abercrombie

Membership — Amelia Wilson

Communications — Valerie English

Chickens — Kristen Davis

Community Plots — Frank Ricci w/Chloe Abercrombie as deputy [This role was removed from steering committee in April 2015]

Compost — Sarah Trignano

[Fundraising — Brian Ricci — this role was added in April 2015]

BANG representative — Ruth Chasek

BANG alternate — Sally Smith

Vote on 2015 budget

revised to include $500 from BANG for treework. BANG will repay the $1,000 loan. We’re buying new locks that will not freeze in the winter.

Discussion of reducing our pizza/food budget. It’s just easy. Key Foods might be willing to donate a giant sandwich. Chicken group will merge its finances into the general budget this year.

Budget passes unanimously.

Bylaws and Rules

Bylaws had been revised many times, become laden with many specifics on day to day operations. Goal of revision was to return Bylaws to matters of overall governance, and to put specifics in Garden Rules.

Revision of Bylaws and Rules discussed, amended and approved.

Dues
Change of dues to $25-$50 approved.

 

Filed under: Business Meeting Minutes