June 4, 2019

CLINTON COMMUNITY GARDEN STEERING COMMITTEE

MEETING MINUTES

Tuesday, 4 June 2019

Members in attendance: 

Shelley Crandall, Mark Dieffenbacher, Catherine Lafferty, Jenny Markovich, Davis Janowski, Ruth Marinaro, Foram Sheth, Sandra Shipley

Members absent: Michele Troise, Jenny Sterlin

Meeting called to order: 7:37 pm

Old Business:

  1. Treasurer’s Report

Really good income month somewhat offset by heavy expenses.

Merchandise sales totals were discussed. Key sale totals were reviewed. 

Cat asked Foram to provide the breakdown of revenue from t-shirts, bags, and honey for the 9th Avenue Food Festival. Cat had indicated the total number of keys sold each day/dollar amount of donations received during both days of the 9th Avenue Food Festival on the tally sheets. Cat said she would take an inventory of remaining t-shirts and tote bags. It was noted that we need to make sure honey sales are included in this as most members have sold some jars at key sales or other events.

The single largest expense was creating 300 keys at a cost of $3,000 for future key sales. Secondarily, in May Foundation House cashed the donation check we provided them in March (this donation is for use of their library for steering committee meetings or other facilities for meetings during the year). 

Finally, a total of $272 was spent on volunteer day, mainly for pizza ($175) and other odds and ends including $97 for garbage bags and tub trugs.

Green Acre approved us for a grant of $2500. Some discussion ensued over the process. Jenny Markovich explained the money actually stays with Green Acre but we let Victoria’s know we received the grant and they bill Green Acre directly for our purchases.

Committee members requested changes to the Garden budget spreadsheet that Foram said she would comply with; mainly regarding how items are broken down and the order listed.

  1. Plot Committee Report

99% of the plots are being gardened. First week of May is when we did our first walkthrough, which was a little early. Did another last weekend. There is really only no response from one person (C32. Foram noted that she had left a voicemail and sent several emails). Two others that had not started gardening responded to subsequent inquiries that they would go and do something within the week. Plot C44 was emailed to come clean up and they said they would.

Davis asked for a bit of history as to why we go to such effort.

  1. Key Sales Report

Evening of the meeting Sandra sold 18 keys and took in an additional $117 in donations. Great work Sandra! It was noted that the next Tuesday Mark D. and Jennifer S. were up for handling sales. Discussion over whether to do key sales at the July 4 barbecue came to not and it was agreed to keep to the usual schedule of the July 6, Saturday key sale (the regularly scheduled date).

  1. Garden Registration

There was a lot of discussion around the new Green Thumb licensing agreement. Discussions among the Steering Committee and with several long-standing former garden leaders have resulted in a decision to hold off on signing the agreement until several significant changes made to the agreement that depart from past years’ agreements had been addressed with appropriate members of Green Thumb and/or the Parks Department. Mark D. was continuing to take point and agreed continue in his follow-up efforts and keep the Committee abreast of any additional information. 

  1. July 4th Picnic

Committee noted that barbecue would be open to the public beginning at noon and last until 4 p.m. Cat agreed to be in charge of front-of-house again this year. She will request Stan make a volunteer sign-in sheet to post on the CCG website for back gardeners (6 volunteer slots for each task). There was discussion around need for having a full roster of volunteers available for cleanup of the garden after. Cat L. was left to do much of the cleaning by herself the prior year.

The event had been budgeted for $600; Foram (Treasurer) indicated that this would likely not be enough according to Andy who said he needed at least $500 just for meat. Decision was made to keep condiment expense to $100 and give Andy $500 for meat and the veggies he would grill.

There was extensive discussion over what items would be needed in addition to meat including drinks (soda and water), condiments (ketchup, mustard, relish), buns (hot dog and hamburger), plates, utensils and ice.

It was agreed that several people would seek donations from grocers in the community:

  1. Amish Market, Foram 
  2. Whole Foods, Cat
  3. Big Apple, Dagastinos, Stiles and Food Emporium, Ruth
  4. Morton Williams, Mark

Mark asked Foram to send an email w/link for volunteers to the garden email list seeking six volunteers for setup, four to help serve and another six for cleanup. We’ll send out a signup link and go through the events team for setup and cleanup. There will be NO sales going on on 4th of July. 

  1. T-shirts and Merchandise

We’ve sold almost all our t-shirts. Need to start thinking of design and order for next year.

  1. Shed Lock Combination Changed

Key sales cabinet lock combination was changed. Right side cabinet will become the plot committee cabinet (documents associated with plot ownership).

  1. Magnolia Tree Plot/Bed in Front Garden

Foram is going to garden this (no one else responded to the email asking for volunteers).

  1. Black Filing Cabinet

Meeting minutes, treasurer reports and financial statements, photographs and articles about the garden, as well as letters from visitors from around the world are all being retained. Everything else is being purged. It was agreed that ultimately we would like to get an intern or volunteer to scan the retained items in digitally and upload them to the website.

New business

  • Foram, three requests from plot holders near the patio that want to prune the Dogwood adjacent that is over-shadowing their plots.
  • It was agreed that for tree pruning along the back wall, each plot owner must send in a formal request explaining what and why (want to prune because they are too much shade and drop too many seeds etc.) to the garden email address.

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