Atlanta Group Sierra Club Executive Committee Minutes
Date and Time: 01 February 2000 19:00-21:05
Location: Carolyn Weber's House
Attendees: Herb Bastin, Ted Jackson, Chris Kaufman, Lee Thomas, Alan Toney, Carolyn Weber, Janet Westervelt
Quorum: Present
Agenda: Carolyn presented agenda and was accepted. Topics: 1) Review of minutes, 2) Chair's Report, 3) Vice Chair's report, 4) Treasurer's report, 5) Conservation report, 6) Outings report, 7) Membership report, 8) Store report, 9) Adopt-a-Stream report, 10) One Club report, 11) Web page report, 12) Program/speakers report, 13) Special Events report, 14) Newsletter articles, 15) New business. This agenda should serve as a template for subsequent meetings.
Minutes: The January 2000 minutes were distributed and accepted without dissent.
Chair: No report.
Vice Chair: The Atlanta Group is responsible for snacks for the 05 Feb Georgia Chapter ExCom meeting at 2 pm. Group will cover costs initially and Janet will see if Chapter will reimburse.
Treasurer: $5,100 in checking account and running $900 over budget. Pax World Fund investments now has a balance of $6,200. Submitted 1999 records to CPA, who will audit the Group financially.
Conservtn: Chris was ill for the Atlanta Group conservation subcommittee meeting, but Janet and Mark Alexander carried on. Anup and his wife (moved from New York to Marietta) interested in recycling. Next meeting 3rd Tuesday in February at Church Street Coffee Shop. Carolyn Castleberry from New York Deli & Grill (404-486-9400) called about restaurant recycling, and stated that they do not do this due to costing more to pick up recyclables. Alan would try to contact Bob Woodall (email not working) to find out about his current projects. Chris indicated that he would like to focus efforts on EPD enforcement on water quality in Atlanta, especially local efforts on local streams. Specifically, Chris was interested in BMPs at construction sites. Suggested contacting Mark Woodall and Upper Chattahoochee Riverkeeper to find out what efforts are ongoing to ensure coordination. Janet attended a Soil Watch, a training session to learn rules, procedures, contacts and how to assess the effectiveness of erosion and sedimentation controls. Alan suggested to obtain a consensus from conservation subcommittee and failing to obtain input to try an issue and encourage others to work with us on that issue. Herb suggested announcing the subcommittee meeting at the next general meeting. Alan had a discussion with US Representative Jack Kingston at the annual Soil & Water Conservation District meeting regarding the Savannah River deepening project. Alan came away with a better understanding of the needs in the coastal area and that conservation needs a different tact there than here. Suggestions for conservation issues included: Water, Air, Sprawl, Forests, Plant Rescue, Population. Chris believes Forests issues already handled, though Lee thought this would dovetail with outings. Glenn Grozman has a good Erosion & Sedimentation program ongoing. Chris will put up a sign-up sheet at the next meeting to get member input.
Outings: Lee reported that April 8th will be the One Club and Outings Leadership training. Six to seven people are interested. We have the opportunity to vie for a grant from National Sierra Club. The grant requires a facilitator for One Club; Herb has volunteered. Chapter has to OK grant submission. Lee asked ExCom to recognize Herb's accomplishments by paying for part of the costs for an Outings Wilderness First Aid Training Session, held in Florida at the end of February. A motion to defray $200 for airline tickets was made and passed. As a reiteration, if an outings leader has paid for CPR/First Aid and takes the leadership training course and leads one outing, the leader may ask for reimbursement of the cost for CPR/First Aid. Both Lee and Herb's outings were cancelled due to snow and ice.
Membership: Carolyn stated the we gained 17 new FRIP members in 4Q99, for a total of 45 for all 1999. FRIP counts for more income than renewals do. We've been averaging 200 new members per month, but mostly drops and adds. Current membership in the Atlanta Group is 6,100. This is a net change of 300 (3,500 joined/3,200 dropped). On telephone requests about the general meeting, takes 3 calls to get 1 person to show up. Also, 3-8 people call in response to the newcomer cards that are mailed. Carolyn also mentioned that the National Membership training in San Francisco will be 15 April. Training topics and goals are similar to last year. She indicated a desire to attend again, if the Atlanta Group would defray $200 of costs (National pays airfare). ExCom agreed to pay one-half housing costs, if Carolyn pays the other half of housing during the training weekend. Motion passed unanimously.
Store: Herb ordered books for Bryan Hager, but the order from Random House was delayed by one month. The Chapter should owe $100-200 for the 12 books ordered. The sales expense budget will be exceeded, even with the 46% discount. More $0.75 tote bags were ordered by Herb; they will be sold for $3-5. Calendars will be sold at 50% discount until returned in May.
AdoptStream: Janet ordered new test kit from Lamott, who makes the Georgia version of the Adopt-A-Stream kit. Total costs (with refill and thermometer) should be $375. January's stream sampling was cancelled due to weather. Janet has been bombarded by requests to do stream monitoring. Alan mentioned that 4 sewer lid stencils were available, 2 held by Alan and 2 held by Clarence Wilson. Stenciling storm drains are easy to do.
One Club: Lee was concerned that not enough conservation people are involved in the One Club concept: currently 3 outings and 1 conservation (Claudette Metz) people. Herb wanted Lee to bring One Club plan to next meeting. Randall White (Georgia Forest Watch) would be willing to help with One Club. For the kickoff meeting, Herb and Lee are obtain examples of outings paired with conservation issues. The initial One Club meeting will be at 5:00 pm on 8 April at the Geosphere (Roswell) after the Leadership training session. The meal will be catered; Janet suggested veggie and chicken wraps.
Web Page: Anup ? stated he would be willing to help. Some indication that Claudette Metz may be willing to help as well. Ted indicated that articles e-mailed for the newsletter can also be sent to him, to be included on the web site. Herb is collecting outings to give to the outings webmaster, Michael Knotts.
Program: February's program will be Legislative by Mark Woodall and Neil Herring. March's program will be Galapagos slide show by Virginia Dunbar. April's program will be water quality in India, along with deforestation and arsenic leaching, by John Spots. Need firm confirmation on April meeting. May's program could be done by Peter Kirby about the southern Appalachians. If March bombs, a possible substitute could be a talk about environmentalist persecution in other parts of Asia and Africa.
Special Event: Leadership Training & One Club kickoff: April 8.
Newsletter: Need to fill the Atlanta page in the Georgia Sierran by 10 February. Outings article on Cumberland Island trip (not an official Club trip). Need program articles on India and Peter Kirby (have brochure as source material). Update Adopt-A-Stream dates.
New Items: Carolyn Weber continued to offer to host the 1st Quarter Atlanta Group ExCom meetings at her house, starting at 7:00 pm. Next meeting on March 7.
Last updated: 15 Feb 00