Steering Committee Meeting Minutes – 10/7/14

Clinton Community Garden, Steering Committee Meeting 7 Oct. 2014
7:30 pm Fountain House, W 47th St, New York, NY
Attending:  Andy, Mark, Linda, Stan, Laura, Yaeko, Britta, Tom, Kathy, Bruce
From the key sales this evening, not everyone listed their donation, there were more donations than listed on the forms.  Andy also brought proceeds from a previous key sale to Mark.
The meeting was called to order.
There was a motion to approve the September minutes, seconded, passed unanimously.
Linda advise she has to resign due to personal reasons.  Linda also objected that her email address had been listed incorrectly, causing her to miss communications.
It was suggested that we do something for Debbie Mullins who was instrumental in getting together the 30th Anniversary Celebration.  Debbie was nominated for the Carney Award, seconded.  It was moved we send Debbie a bouquet of flowers thanking her for her extensive work on the 30th Anniversary Celebration, seconded, Passed unanimously.
We had a great event for the 30th Anniversary of the Clinton Community Garden, it went very well.
Shed – Mark met with Kazuo, he agreed to relocate the compost.  Anne was ok with moving the food compost, though somewhat tentative.  Anne was concerned about where her composting would be.  Mark spoke with Faser and Allan Heber (sp?), they were all opposed to having compost bins against their plots.  It was pointed out the current design does not provide rain coverage, and wheelbarrow storage is difficult due to the bulk of the wheelbarrows.  Mark presented an alternative plan.  Kazuo’s compost is at the same place, though shorter.  The food scrap compost is up against the bed at the East Side.  Two lots of 8 cabinets running north/south ( back to back, 4 cabinets long ) which might be roofed over.  The water faucet remains at the same place.  It was suggested we have a design charrette with all stakeholders to fully discuss redoing the shed / cabinets, to get a consensus from stakeholders, with everyone discussing all issues together. The Design Charrette Meeting was moved and seconded and discussed.    Concern was expressed that the steering Committee is supposed to make major decisions, it was also pointed out that we should bring in a group of stakeholders and take in debate and input and finally reach a decision.  The Charrette was proposed for Oct. 25 or 26, saturday or sunday, with Andy, Mark, Faser, Helen, Phil, and the plotholder currently next to the ‘coffin’, where the food composting new location is proposed.
Tree Fixings – Fountain House gave us approval to trim thier trees.  Dru advised she would try to find someone, Andy will reach out to Dru.
Lawn Treatment – Tom requested 80 bags of compost for the lawn.  Victoria must invoice New York Community Trust directly.  We requested almost $3,000.00, which was approved.  Nov. 1 is set for the lawn date.  We still have to get New York Community Trust to pay Victoria for the last lot.  It was moved that Andy can order an amount up to the amount of the last lot, seconded, passed unanimously.
Bruce will send the proposed budget out again.
Andy has a new email, apadian@gmail.com.
Bylaws – Andy and Laura met to discuss the bylaws, they decided we cannot get rid of absentee ballots.  We will not have a proxy but we will have absentee ballots to mail in.  We will clarify bylaws language about passwords.  It was suggested we include volunteers who are nominated due to much volunteer work.  This could be a way to bring in more dedicated volunteers, and nominations for new non=plot members could be voted on.  Some disagreed on the grounds that this would open up a gray area.  It was decided that it is not necessary to get additional people as voting members.
Some people feel the Steering Committee Annual Dinner is not a good use of garden funds.  There was a motion to cap the total amount of the Steering Committee Dinner to $450.00, seconded, passed, with 4 nays.  We are all to come back with ideas for dinner, for Dec. 2.
The meeting was adjourned.