Attendees: Mark Crawford, Mario Gangemi, Holly Hannum, Joe Janusz, Larry Klevans, Dan Schneckenburger, Hinda Smith, Barbara Snyder, Dan Speakman, Rick Waterhouse

Note: Joe Janusz’s e-mail address is jjats@zoominternet.net.
Mark Crawford’s is mcrawford@sandycove.org.

Mario Gangemi called the meeting to order at 6:28 P.M.

The minutes from the September Board meeting were approved.

Spring Fest: Barb Snyder
The Cecil Land Trust is willing to join us in the Spring Fest effort.

Bob Carroll is not interested in doing it again.

Mario will take over the plant sale this year.

Hinda pointed out that we need someone who can take care of advertising; Upper Bay did this last year. Dan Sp. is willing to chair the advertising committee.

We will purchase advertising from WXCY but not pay them to come that day.

Vilma Velasco was not an employee of Upper Bay but did the volunteer coordinating. She will be asked to help us with this, with Holly.

Ralph will meet with Cecil Land Trust to see if they will cover six committees. If so, we will go with a Spring Fest again. If not we will consider some smaller version, but with the location as last year.

President’s Report: Dan Schneckenburger
Executive Director – the search has stalled for the moment. There are not as many candidates to get through UD as was thought.

Finance Committee: Larry KIevans
Financial Report as of Sept. 30, 2003
1. In Sept. 2003 ($9379) expenses exceeded income ($1650) by $7,728
2. The majority of income items were $1001 from United Way of DE, $450 in membership dues. $40 in donations for Holly Hannum's mother's memorial, and $14 in general donations.
3. Major expenses for Sept. 2003 were $5396 for staff wages, $632 for payroll taxes, $368 for insurance, $703 for office expenses, and $2063 as startup money for the Fox Trot Ball
4. As of Sept. 30, 2003 our Year to date Income (YTD) totals $ 82,405 vs a budget of $82,280 while YTD expenses total $73,759 vs a budget of $82,280 Thus, our YTD net income is $8,6465. The Fund Balance as of Sept. 30, 2003 was $20349 This decrease (from $28.848 on June 30) is a result of the negative cash flow in Sept.
6. Repeat from last month. We need to intensify our efforts in getting individual and organizational donations for the next several months. We need to push to get people to attend the Fox Trot Ball.
Larry Klevans, Treasurer

Discussion:
Larry handed out a revised budget proposal for 2004. He is projecting a $7000 shortfall at the end of 2003.
NGCH (Chase) is giving us three years of fund-raising aid.
Larry asks that we look over the budget for the next meeting, and vote on it then.
Liability insurance company sent a letter about $150 for terrorism insurance. It was voted on and declined by the Board.

Program Committee: Barb Snyder
Coming programs:

Discussion:
Holly needs someone to help with the hayride registrations on Saturday, October 18, if anyone is available.

Fox Trot Committee: Hinda Smith
Hinda has two bills to be paid.
Hinda believes we need to triple our attendance to be able to make a profit worth the effort of holding this event.. We made approximately $1600 this year.
There were complaints about the band being too loud and their music not being interesting for the people in attendance. We only had to pay half of what last year’s band cost. The food was good but there were no utensils and the plates were too small.
Mario suggested that we decide now if we want to do it again next year, and choose a date. Do we have a chairperson?
Dan Sp. motioned that we continue the Fox Trot. Joe seconded, and the motion passed.
September 18 or 25, 2004 will be the date for next year. Holly will call Carla about using the building on one of those dates.
The same caterer would be good if she took care of the plates and utensils and had more substantial food to serve. Perhaps a salad bar could be added.

Personnel Committee: Hinda Smith
No report.

Nomination Committee: Dennis Clower
Dan Sc. would still like the committee to get a proposal together about the two board set-up that was proposed.

Nature School Report: Holly Hannum
Trail Day was held as scheduled on September 13 with Janet, Cathryn, Jerry Newman and I and about 10 students from a service organization at the U of D. We repaired the fence and it got broken again the following Monday in the 1st storm. We need to replace 2 rails which we have in the barn. We also organized some of the barn. We had 3 days of classes cancelled due to weather. Once the weather cleared classes have proceeded well. We are presently teaching 3rd grade forestry. Tomorrow is Home School Day. We have 42 children registered.
We received notice from United way of Cecil County that our allocation for this year will be $5,000. This is double our past allocation. I had requested $2600 for the outreach program and $2500 to replace the shortfall from the Waterfowl Festival. We also received a request for a donation from them. We are on the cover of their brochure this year.
I sent a letter to the Cecilton Lions Club requesting their support of outreach at Cecilton Elementary. Ralph will be following up on that. Jerry Newman and I will be doing a presentation to the Rising Sun Lions Club on December 4 to seek their support for the program at Rising Sun Elementary. Those contributions would cover the costs for 7 kindergartens.
Larry asked that I explain a little about the IMLS grant. The dates of this grant are November 1, 2003 thru November 1, 2006. We will receive funding over this three year period as required. $5,000 will go directly to Karen and the Cattail Company the first year for work on the web site. The remainder will come over the three year period to pay for staff to redesign and develop booklets such as our Wildflower guide, for new program development (8 programs /year x3 years) and for some technology upgrades. We will need to invoice at intervals for specific items as outlined in the grant. Matching funds will include Gerry Hendricks time in maintaining the web site, Pat’s salary for clerical support in the creation of the new booklets and a donation of time from Karen to train the staff on the new part of the web site. The details of these amounts are outlined very specifically in the grant and will need to be carefully documented. Larry is setting up accounts.
The Fair Hill International is requesting that we give them the names of all volunteers in advance. So far I have only Barb Snyder who offered to close on Sunday. If nobody is interested we can skip it. Cathryn sent an e-mail to our volunteer list with no response so far. The dates for this event are October 25 and 26 the times are 8:30 to 5:00.

Special Appeal : Mario Gangemi
Dan Sc. has given Mario the go ahead to send out the special appeals letter. Mario will wait until after United Way
(November 15) is completed.

Public Relations: Doug Hill
No report.

Membership: Dennis Clower
No report.

Buildings and Grounds: Dan Speakman
No report.

New Business:
Next meeting, we will discuss whether or not we should give the United Way a small contribution.
Fair Hill International needs names of volunteers ahead of time, to cover our booth. Mario (Sunday, before 2:00) and Barb (Sunday, 2:00 on) will be there. Hinda will be there as well (Saturday, morning until 3:00). Holly will find someone for 3:00 until the end of the day.
Rick Waterhouse has submitted a request to St. Mary-Anne’s Church, North East, for a grant of $5000 to aid in covering the CCPS visits.
There is a scout, John Zumbrum, who is interested in doing an Eagle Scout project. Rick will give Holly’s e-mail address to John to contact.
There is a weather station going in, managed by a UD professor. He is very interested in partnering with the Nature School, and he will be collecting data, which the school students can use. Holly would like to have some high school students come out to work on this with the UD graduate students who will be using it.
Jerry Hendricks offered to set up an evaluation web site, which will allow us to get feedback about our programs. This is a free service, so we will ask Jerry to go ahead with it.
At the Fox Trot Ball, the following awards were presented:
Staff Member of the Year - Janet Fallon
Board Member of the Year - Barb Snyder
Volunteer of the Year - Tom Hannum
Dan Sc. requested a reporting in the minutes of attendance at Board meetings by board members in 2003. The number after a name indicates meetings attended (updated to include tonight's meeting):

Next Meeting: November 11, 6:30 P.M., at the nature center.

The meeting was adjourned at 8:10 P.M.

Respectfully submitted,

Rick Waterhouse

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