Members Present: Angie Barnett, Mario Gangemi, Holly Hannum, Bob Willmann, Larry Klevans, Nancy Simpers, Bob Carroll, Jerry Hendricks, Jerry Newman, JoAnn Dawson, Dennis Clower, Dan Schneckenburger, Doug Hill, Karen Aspinwall.

The meeting of the Board of Directors, Fair Hill Environmental Foundation, Inc. was held at the Rising Sun Library, February 16, 2000 at 7:00 p.m.

The meeting was called to order by President, Dennis Clower.

Minutes: Minutes of the January 19 meeting were reviewed with corrections as follows: correction to the spelling of Geraldine McKeown's name and the date of the previous meeting corrected from January 9 to January 5. Motion #1 was made by Mario Gangemi, seconded by Nancy Simpers and unanimously passed to accept minutes as revised.

Goals and Objectives: Ms. Linda Walls, of Just Cause, Inc. and facilitator for strategic planning, reviewed the revised 2/2/00 and 2/14/00 Goals and Objectives for year 2000. The Goals and Objectives are included as part of the record with these minutes. Motion #2 was made by Mario Gangemi, seconded by JoAnn Dawson and unanimously passed to accept the Goals and Objectives as presented.

Fundraising: Ms. Linda Walls proceeded with a review of fund-raising ideas and plan for strategic implementation. The fundraising amounts and team leaders for fundraising Year 2000 are as follows:

Fundraising Chair - Jerry Hendricks

Special Events Team Leader - Suzan Doordan and JoAnn Dawson, $10,000

Targeted Appeal - Mario Gangemi, $15,000

Civic Groups - Angie Barnett, $5,500

Membership Dues/Board donations : Bob Carroll, $9,500

Corporate and Independent Sponsors : Nancy Simpers, $25,000

Grants : Linda Walls and Karen Aspinwall, $45,000

Fees for Services - $48,000

County Government - $10,000

Donation: Mr. Dan Schneckenburger announced a donation from Montel in the amount of $2,500. A thank you note will be generated by Corporate Sponsor committee.

Treasurer’s Report: Larry Klevans, Treasurer provided a financial report which is filed with these minutes as part of the record. He announced that a donation in the amount of $3000 was given by United Way of Delaware. The revenue from the Montel and United Way of Delaware donations were not factored into the Cash Flow analysis.

Mr. Klevans made a formal request to purchase a computer and appropriate software for the purpose of expediting financial reports. Motion #3 was made by Nancy Simpers, seconded by Bob Carroll to approve the purchase of a computer and software. The motion was amended by Ms. Simpers and unanimously approved to establish a $1,500 limit on the purchase of the computer and software.

Volunteers: The use of volunteers for the Nature Center was discussed. It was decided that this would be included as an agenda item for the next meeting to brainstorm how volunteers could be used, job descriptions for volunteers, and how they could be included in the ongoing calendar of events.

Standing Committees: Committee leadership was reviewed and should be prepared for reports at all meetings as needed:

Membership : Bob Carroll

By-Laws : Angie Barnett

Finance : Larry Klevans

Personnel : Suzan Doordan

Fundraising : Jerry Hendricks

Community Relations : Doug Hill

Nomination : Jerry Hendricks

Officers: The nomination committee recommends the office of Vice-President for 2000 to be filled by Jerry Hendricks. Motion #4 was made by Nancy Simpers, seconded by by Larry Klevans and unanimously passed for Jerry Hendricks to serve as the Vice President.

Nominations from the floor were accepted for Secretary. Motion #5 was made by Nancy Simpers, seconded by JoAnn Dawson and unanimously passed to accept Angie Barnett as the Secretary.

Resignations: Dennis Clower announced that he had received a letter of resignation from Keith Phillips as a member of the Board of Directors.

Building Maintenance: Jerry Newman agreed to provide an update on the costs of building repairs for the next meeting to be considered in the budget and possible targeted fund-raising efforts.

Habitat Newsletter: Dennis Clower presented a formal proposal by Karen Aspinwall to publish the quarterly newsletter, Habitat at $240 per issues for four (4) issues. Printing costs are additional and are included in the budget. Karen will work with Jerry Hendricks to ensure the Habitat is included on the FHNC web-site. The Community Relations committee will also work with Karen and Jerry to ensure coordination of public relation materials and information. Jerry Hendricks will provide estimate of financial costs for the web-site at the next meeting. Motion #6 was made by Nancy Simpers, seconded by Bob Carroll and unanimously carried to contract with Karen Aspinwall for the publication of the Habitat Newsletter for 2000. Members were asked to review the number of newsletter copies needed for all future fundraising efforts.

Chamber of Commerce membership: A motion was tabled until the operating budget could be revised to reflect the anticipated fundraising revenue and all revised expenditures which will include $100 membership fees for the Chamber. The Treasurer will provide a revised budget in the future.

Revised Curriculum: Holly Hannum provided a report on the Nature Center. She provided an overview of materials used by the Center to promote educational activities. The staff will be meeting with Marsha Locke to ensure revisions are made to the Nature Center curriculum that parallel the Cecil County Public Schools curriculum. This will require revising seven (7) programs. Holly, Karen Aspinwall and Marsha will meet with teachers from the school system for input, will need to re-train current staff, create assessments for measuring outcomes, and train local school teachers on the new Nature Center curriculum. In order to achieve this goal, Holly is requesting authorization to work the additional hours required. Motion #7 was made by Jerry Hendricks and seconded by Nancy Simpers and unanimously passed to authorize Holly Hannum to work the additional hours to develop the first three program units at her current rate of pay, not to exceed 105 hours.

FHNC Fact Sheet: Karen Aspinwall distributed copies of the Fact Sheet to be used in fundraising efforts and as an orientation to new board members. She also distributed a revision to the strategies for Goals #3, Public Advocacy which will be discussed at the next meeting.

SWAT Clean up: Jerry Hendricks announced that there will be a SWAT Road Clean-up on Saturday, April 22, 8:00 : 10:00 a.m. beginning at Wesley's Restaurant.

Bar Association Tour: Dennis Clower announced that he is requesting scholarship funds for students in grades four through six from the Bar Association. They will be touring the Center and Board members are invited to attend if they wish.

Meeting was adjourned at 9:45 p.m.

Next meeting is March 15, 7:00 p.m. at Fair Hill Nature Center.

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