Minutes of October 2000 Atlanta Group ExCom Meeting

Atlanta Group Sierra Club Executive Committee Minutes Date and Time: 03 October 2000 19:10-20:20

Location: Carolyn Weber's House

Attendees: Herb Bastin, Ted Jackson, Carolyn Weber, Janet Westervelt

Quorum: Present

Agenda: Agreed upon agenda used.

Minutes: The September 2000 minutes were distributed and accepted by acclamation.

Chair: The chair was not present and no report was given.

Vice Chair: Both environmentally responsible Fulton County Soil & Water Conservation District members were elected. We received good press in the Fulton and DeKalb County S&WCD elections. At the Water Bill of Rights rally, Alan showed up afterwards and got together with three photographers from Maine, filming the Chattahoochee River (A River in Peril). Roger Buerki and Alan got together with the photographers to show the 'Hooch. Janet attended the leadership training workshop in Arkansas and thought it was very good. Though focused on forestry issues, scenarios were used to develop planning matrices to determine solutions. About 65 people attended; one from Georgia. This leadership workshop is offered annually, along with an advanced leadership workshop. Roger Buerki, political chair, approached Janet about requesting members to staff a phone bank and wanted a list of Atlanta Group members that have voted in the past. The phone bank would call members to endorse people running in political races. ExCom members voted to approve giving Roger a list of people to call.

Treasurer: $4,300 in checking account and running over budget. Pax World Fund investments now has a balance of $6,400. Received payments from other groups for Earth Day T-shirts sales. Dues for the first two quarters in 2000 have been transferred to the group.

Conservtn: The conservation chair was not present and will be moving to Oregon in late October. There will be an opening on ExCom for a Conservation Chair. There is about 747 acres of property on the Chattahoochee River that is going to be developed into housing. Roger Buerki attending a planning and zoning meeting. He would like to pull people into this to get them activated, and needs tasks for them to do. Herb indicated that lack of conservation interests appears to be statewide. The One Club project he's working on is tilted toward outings. Problems include subdividing volunteers on specific issues (e.g., Bryan Hager's Sprawl issue, Bob Woodall's Solid Waste). Hege ? and Karen Hoover have reluctantly agreed to run on the Atlanta Group's ExCom.

AdoptStream: On Adopt-a-Stream, Ted showed up despite poor weather the day before. Then Hege and another person (David ?) and Rachel Austin also helped doing the biological and chemical analysis. Got a poor rating for the low numbers of macroinvertibrates found. October's stream watch is on the 28th and Ted agreed to conduct the chemical analysis. Janet would bring the testing kit to the meeting.

Legislative: No report.

Outings: Herb reported that several conservation outings have been led by Lee Thomas and himself. Herb plans a conservation based bicycle trip to Stone Mountain. There is an outings leadership training to be held on November 11, followed by a One Club meeting. Lue Elder, Lee Thomas, Herb Bastin, and Larry Winslett will conduct training. Currently have 4-5 people signed up. May request participants to donate money to defer copying expenses ($300). Herb is considering integrating requiring CPR and First Aid certification before outings leadership training. Also considering a calendar to pin down dates for people to lead trips. An activity workshop for new or experienced outings leaders will be held in the St. Petersburg area Friday October 27 - Sunday October 29. Cost is $25.

One Club: The steering committee met and discussed conservation outings. The committee (Lue Elder, Michael Knotts, Herb Bastin, Lee Thomas) also wants to develop a workbook and have it printed and posted on the web. It would be a living document.

Membership: No report given but discussion centered around needing greeters and refreshment providers. Some spirited discussion about Chris ? ensued. One woman needs a babysitter for a 4-year old and should contact the Epworth UMC pastor or Janet's babysitter.

Store: Herb reported that the store ordered 10 "Hiking in North Georgia" books from Peachtree Publishers, as it sells constantly. Herb needs to order about $200 from Random House in order to get a shipment. Only two types of calendars will be ordered through San Francisco: 44 engagement and 40 wilderness wall calendars.

Web Page: Ted reported that the web site has been updated and freshened.

Program: October's meeting will have Roger Buerki doing a political game show. Peter Kirby will do his southern Appalachian travels on November 14. In December's holiday party, Lue Elder will show computer slides of Mt. McKinley, Mt. Rainier and the Pacific Northwest. In January Bob Woodall will discuss the upcoming bottle bill. Neill Herring and Mark Woodall will do their legislative update in February. Janet will be going to visit Eustace Conway, who lives on 1000 acres with no water or electricity, who might be amenable to be a speaker.

Newsletter: The next deadline is early December. Need photos on outings.

Specl Events: Rivers Alive! is October 14 for Peavine Creek clean-up. Janet will announce for a team leader. Last year 12-14 Sierra Club people helped clean up the Peavine watershed area. For the holiday party consider giving out awards again for special people (who didn't get recognized last year). Also have door prize awards. The special mail-out announcing the holiday party was turned down, but a flyer to hand out at the November meeting would be done.

New Items: No new business. The host of the 4th Quarter Atlanta Group ExCom meetings will be at Carolyn Weber's house, starting at 7:00 pm, if she agrees. Ted Jackson offered his house as a backup. Next meeting on November 7th.

Last updated: 14 Oct 00