Broad River Watershed Association Board Meeting

March 11, 2009

Present at Meeting: Sam Linhart, Dudley Hartel, Victor Johnson, Pat Kelly, Mary Freeman, Paul Webb, Jean Smith, Debbie Lester, Robbie Griffith

Victor moved to appoint Dudley to replace Michael Hill on the board. Motion was seconded and passed unanimously.

Mary described a very good turn out of BRWA members for Georgia River Network Annual Conference. Sam and Jean accepted the plaque, painted rock and GA River Network Conference scholarship for BRWA from EPD for Volunteer of the Year Award for work on the Ecoli and Fecal Coliform Monitoring Project.

Mary asked for the minutes for the Feb. meeting. Pat said she would have them ready for approval at the April board meeting.

Victor went over the financial statement for Feb.

Victor handed out a summary of the new land trust conservation easement law and new fact sheet that is handed out to people interested in considering a land trust easement.

Victor has a local land owner interested in placing his working farm in a land trust easement.

Jean reported that Pat has volunteered to make a list of land owners along the Broad River. She and Debbie attended the Water Words that Work session of the GRN conference and found it is more important to be encouraging than informative. Using this and other info from the session she and Debbie will create a letter to send to those landowners inviting them to join BRWA.
Two watershed groups had Facebook accounts. They are really good way to get your name out to the blogger arena and resulted in short term volunteers and some new members.

Debbie met a student of Mary’s, Rachel Katz, at the conference and suggested that Mary ask her to manage a Facebook account for BRWA. Victor said a non-profit group can set up an account to receive donations.

Mary said that she and Debbie sat in on the fundraising session of the GRN conference. Several groups don’t have a fundraising committee. Fundraising is the responsibility of all of the board members. Mary feels all of BRWA’s board members need to be responsible for increasing the membership.

Jean said having an event such as the clean up and float with the UGA Green Builders Group on March 28, is an excellent way to attract new members.

The Wildflower Walk for March 14 has been cancelled due to the many downed trees from the snow. Robbie will contact the DNR and look into getting the trees removed form the roadway to the pumping station.

Easement Monitoring is Saturday March 21 at 9:00 at the office. Mary will lead the monitoring of the Ruff Road, Odum and Freeman easements. Robbie will meet interested folks at 9:30 at Denny’s at Banks Crossing and lead the Purvis Woods walk.

Sam said the Adopt A Stream certification will be at the Kiwanis one Saturday in April. He and Jean will invite Tara Muntz from AAS. The stream monitoring above and below sewer treatment plants will begin in May.

Jean said that Jeff Pentz has been very responsive and the website is now working. He is still working to get all of the potential features functioning as designed.

Paul wants to meet with the Madison County Soil Conservation District supervisor about the high ecoli readings in Shiloh Creek. Victor knows Terry Chandler and will contact him to open the door to meeting with a few BRWA members and possibly Mary Gazaway from EPD. BRWA will ask Mr. Chandler to work with the farmer whose cows are in Shiloh Creek just up stream from the Manley Martin Rd. sampling site and help him limit his cows access to Shiloh Creek.

Robbie offered to organize the Shoal Lily Float on May 16 since Victor will be out of the country.

Mary asked for input on clear goals for a BRWA newsletter.
• Mary wants the newsletter to catch and keep members. She feels it would need to include the calendar of events and make people feel we are a group that people want to be involved with.
• Dudley says it needs describe what we are doing and that we need to have things for people to do.
• Sam thinks it needs to include statements on water issues that could be abstracted from GA River Network, Adopt A Stream etc. newsletters and volunteered to provide the abstractions for BRWA newsletter.
• Paul Webb said how the Altamaha Riverkeeper’s newsletter had an article about the Raynier plant spewing pollution into the Altamaha followed by an article on how to donate to the ARK. BRWA could do something similar with water issues and donations.
• Robbie said the newsletter doesn’t need to be more often than quarterly.
• Dudley said to keep it to two 8 1/2 × 11 sheets (approx. one once) to control mailing costs.
• Victor said that Gwyneth’s articles (which are on his computer) could be put in the newsletter.
• Victor said that Jim’s Renners short articles about plants in the watershed were very interesting and Jean said those are easy articles to write.
• Jean said that Melissa Tufts offered to produce two newsletters a year for $50. Mary asked Jean to ask Melissa what exactly she is willing to do.