Hi,
Here are the notes from the 8/13 board meeting. If you have additions or corrections please email them to me.
NOTE: The steering committee meets on 8/27 at TNC at 4 pm.
Thanks!
Jodi
TNC Board Meeting 8/13/2018
attending: Robbie LeValley, Rob Gay, Scott Rist, Kurt Clay, LaDonna Gunn, Sarah Marshall, Anita Evans, Kat Fitzpatrick, Priscilla Williams, Matt Spencer, Jodi Peterson
regrets: Mike Chastain, Alex Johnson
Update from Kat on place developments – climbing boulders being installed, gravel deliveries, removing weed barrier from pumptrack, mountain bike trails completed 3 miles by trail crew.
Over the summer, in addition to the 4 weeks of camp and 2 backpacking trips at TNC headquarters, we held 2 programs in Delta, 1 in Cedaredge (fly fishing on Grand Mesa).
Our new Huckwagon mountain bike trailer, purchased with the Goodwin grant, is coming soon!
Update from Priscilla: Held Water Connections and Camp Connections here, 2 sessions of each. 6-12 participants in June, up to 40 in July as word spread.
All internships complete: Timber to Table, Thistle Whistle, etc. Hosted two program interns here at TNC. Forest Service interns finished in July. Three Fort interns finished last week. Lots of successful internships!
Farm to Fiddle Fun run – 25 participants, raised $376 (split between TNC and our Friends group).
Kat:
GOCO meeting in Rifle 8/19 – Kat, Jodi, Priscilla attended. Sessions on how to report partner work, communication, gear library update
Pilot program – taking Paonia 7th grade class camping at Lost Lake. Will get a good idea of what it costs to do programs like this.
Also planning on Cottonwood Days w/ CCA.
Youth Outdoor Network – wanting to make this more proactive, figuring out how we can facilitate that. Making it stronger and better known. Matt Spencer, our VISTA, will be working on this.
As a staff, now that summer is over we are taking time to evaluate programs and what worked and didn't work. Need to standardize programming to best help satellite hubs. Need to give them logos and policies, etc.
Overview of in-service discussion we had last week -
need to be aware of other opportunities for kids to minimize conflicts in scheduling
Our personal mission: How do we serve w/ excellence and make extraordinary contribution to community?
Our core values – collaborating, maintaining quality, sustainability, service
Kurt suggests that we put something in description of internship to be clear that this isn't a job, it's an internship and paid only a stipend , not an hourly wage. Ask them about their learning goals. Probably should give them a certificate of completion for the internship. Letters of recommendation. Suggests that first 2 weeks are learning, second 2 weeks are paid.
Kat notes that the difference between an internship and a job is that internships are for tasks that would still get done even without the intern doing it. If the work would not get done at all otherwise, then it's a job that we pay hourly.
Need to collaborate more with internship coordinator at schools.
Kurt offers to help with this for next year, more clearly defining the internship and expectations for pay. Take out words “job” and “work.”
Want more parent communication – send them a link to our photo albums, ask them to fill out survey first in order to get link.
Need to figure out how to get parent info from interns.
New board member Sarah Marsall –
Kurt motions to approve Sarah Marshall as board member. Seconded, approved unanimously.
Delta Hub – Kurt and Kat want to meet w/ steering committee and Chris Miller and discuss big picture view, how to proceed and options. Want to finish up programming and then we can move forward.
Kurt – because organization is so spread out, will have to build system for programs, what does structure look like. Weekly or monthly meetings with hub members. If you're not really careful those other communities will feel like they're on an island with no information. Continual challenge to face, need systematic approach to ensure that everyone at hubs is on the same page. Understand mission, where we're heading, how we're doing it, what our mission is. Have to bring those people on. Gotta be face to face meetings. Accountability.
Kat - Go through programming, make handbook of biggest questions, finished by November.
Kurt – you will be implementers supporting the people who are teaching camps. Don't get too tied up in little details. You have to oversee. Have to free up some of time to do that.
Anita – when originally doing planning to apply for GOCO grant, had monthly meetings in each community to get their buy in. Didn't work to have central meetings for multiple communities, no buy in then.
Kurt – doing those meetings with each community can actually save you time on the back end. Critical next step to get everyone on same page. Esp. Priscilla, you really have to talk to them about programs and be a mentor to these hubs to help them do it right. Maybe have to have volunteers here to free up her time to do that. Just a challenge of the geography here, that things are so spread out.
Anita – also a question to put to GOCO. Can we have other groups like Boys and Girls Club do our programming? Does it fit our mission?
Kurt – what do you need from board for support? What are your needs?
Kat – help from steering committee looking at things and narrowing down high-level decisions on individual projects. Would like monthly meeting w/ steering committee about budget, what we're doing, etc.
Kurt – oversight on financial piece – at board meetings we should have financial statement so we can see where things are at. What we spent on programs, what we brought in.
Anita – what do other orgs do for sustainability? What's the goal? Is there fund raising? Do intern programs have to be self sustaining?
Rob – we have a broad base of funding at Colorado Canyons Association. 43% from BLM. Partner w/ BLM for government and private grants. Two major donor events each year. Wine event in Palisade. West by West-West in Fruita, music events, etc. and proceeds go to CCA. Hot Tomato donates part of their proceeds to us, etc. All staff members involved in fund raising in multiple ways, board members also.
Kurt – Crawford State Park friends group isn’t really functioning any more. People got burned out and left. Other people say they'll give money but don't want to participate.
Rob – board members should help out more w/ fundraising events to free up staff time. May risk burnout but board members more replaceable than staff members.
Kat – to understand how we're going to sustain things, need to break down to specific components. What did they cost, what did they bring in. Calculate what it costs to run. Asking teachers to cover the cost next year for the camping program – get their buy in so they can do fund raising to cover transportation etc.
Kurt – going to have to charge fees to do programs, to cover costs. Then use grants to cover overhead. Can't be sustainable without that.
LaDonna- library law allows them to charge for program costs.
Kurt – he and other steering committee members are willing to meet monthly for a while. Aug. 27th for steering committee meeting. Here at TNC.
Board meeting on Sept. 24, 3:30 pm.
LaDonna – requests that we take screenshot pictures of sheets w/ vision info etc. and send them out.
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