Community Tree Council

1 Community Tree Council (CTC) Meeting Minutes Meeting Date: March 2nd, 2020 Location: Planning Department In Attendance - Members: Lea Clark, Shawn Doonan, Rodney Walters, Mary Attaway, Jessie McClellan, Joseph Bates, Joe Perloff Staff, Guests, and Ex-Officio Members: Phil Hale, Nina Wurzburger, Marc Beechuk (ACC Planning Arborist), Absent: Pam Knox Call to Order and Welcome: Shawn Doonan 4:00 - 4:05 Housekeeping (Secretary) Rodney Walters 4:05 - 4:25 ● Roll Call/ Sign in (2 minutes): Sign-up sheet was distributed ● (Action Item: Vote to approve January and February CTC meeting minutes), (3 minutes): After the January and February CTC meeting, minutes were distributed to the CTC members for review, the CTC voted unanimously to approve the January and February meeting minutes after making corrections. . ● The 2019 CTC Annual Report was distributed for editing feedback (3 minutes) (Action Item: Vote to approve 2019 Annual Report, which also includes the Annual treasurer’s Report): After the 2019 CTC Annual Report was distributed to the CTC members for review, the CTC voted unanimously to approve the 2019 CTC Annual Report after the suggested corrections were made and directs the report to be delivered to the Mayor and Commission. ● (Information, Discussion - 5 minutes) (Information) After taking acorns from the Tree that Owns Itself to Angel Creek nursery for propagation, 40 seedlings will be available, $4 for one gal. (May), $10 for 3 gal. (Fall). Does the CTC want to buy the one gallon pots or the three gallon pots? If one gallon pots are purchased in May, how will they be watered through the summer? (Action Item – 2 Minutes): The CTC voted unanimously to purchase 30, one gallon seedlings in May for $4 each with the stipulation that various members would repot the seedlings into 3 gallon containers and to keep them at their house and adequately water them. Treasurer’s Report (Information – 5 minutes): Since the treasurer is traveling and absent no report was given CTC Committee Reports (Information and: Shawn Doonan 4:25 – 5:15 ● CTC Executive Committee {Shawn (chair), Joe Perloff, Pam, Rodney} - Executive Committee met on a time sensitive issue vote on behalf of the CTC to move the March, 2020 CTC meeting from the second Monday of March to the first Tuesday of March to accommodate members who will be away during UGA’s Spring Break. ● CTC Steering Committee {Executive Committee and Standing Committee Chairpersons} - (Information – 2 minutes): In order to ensure there is enough time to prepare and distribute draft changes, the Steering Committee is asking that any agenda items that a member would like to see on the upcoming meeting be submitted 7 days before the meeting. Please send any agenda requests to the CTC Steering Committee, President, or Secretary. - (Discussion) Talked about whether or not the CTC should make a motion to vote to officially designate the CTC November meeting as the Year End CTC meeting to elect new officers, organize and vote on member term renewals, vote on new member nominees, plan for annual CTC report, and plan for wintertime events (MLK Day, Arbor Day, etc.)? General consensus is this would be a good idea. - Steering Committee requested CTC members think about and request items put into the agenda that they would like to see set as a goal for this upcoming year. (Current goals include increasing member participation and forming an active education committee.)  2 - Steering Committee agreed that it would be a good idea to plan a year end CTC meeting in November to: elect new officers; vote on new member nominees; vote on next emeritus member two year terms; determine a CTC Friends of Trees Award recipient; and set plans for drafting the annual report, and begin planning for winter month events such as MLK Day, Arbor Day, Green Life Expo, etc. (Discussion): Is it best for the Steering Committee to establish the year end business items as a tradition by setting these year-end agenda items into the November monthly meetings? -Or- Does the CTC want to insert an article into its by-laws to hold a Year-end Meeting in November (Keep the Annual Meeting in February)? (Action Item): After a discussion the CTC voted by unanimous vote to create a new CTC By-Law, (Article 6, Year End Meeting) which states, “A year-end meeting will be held in November, within the November CTC meeting and will be held for the purpose of conducting business to prepare for the upcoming busy winter schedule and may include the election of new CTC officers, voting on the approval of renewing CTC member terms, voting on approving new member nominees to fill vacant terms, making preparations to draft the CTC annual report, and planning for winter events/activities, such as the CTC Holiday party, Dr. Martin Luther King Day of Service, Arbor Day, the Annual CTC Meeting, etc.”. With the addition of this new By-Law the CTC By-Laws will also include the following adjustments: the former Article 6 (Annual Meeting and Reporting Procedures) will be Changed to Article 7 (Annual Meeting and Reporting Procedures); the former Article 7 (Amendments) will be changed to Article 8 (Amendments) and all subheadings of each adjusted article will be changed accordingly to match its article heading. ● CTC Education Committee (Currently inactive): ● CTC Policy Committee {Rodney (Chair), Shawn, Joseph, Joe, Marc, Lea}  Policy committee met on 2/21/2020 (Lea Clark, Rodney Walters) and examined the ACC Tree Species List and made editing recommendations to improve readability and address species that are not desirable to plant. A revised copy of the Tree Species List was presented to the CTC for review and feedback. (Action Item: Vote to approve Tree Species List): After being circulated to the CTC members for feedback, the latest draft revision of the Tree Species List was unanimously approved as the new Official copy of Tree Species List. In compliance with the ACC Tree Ordinance, Rodney Walters – ACC Community Forester will notify the Mayor and Commission of the changes to this CTC approved Tree Species List and submit it as the Official Revised ACC Tree Species List (2/25/2020).  (Action Item: Vote to approve Tree Ordinance Editing Level Revisions): Policy Committee recommended edits to Chapter 8-7. – Community Tree Management of the current Athens-Clarke County Code of Ordinances were circulated to the CTC members for feedback of an editing level revision of the ACC Tree Ordinance (Chapter 8-7 Community Tree Management). The CTC voted by unanimous vote to approve a basic editing level revision of the tree ordinance [(Chapter 8-7. – Community Tree Management of the current Athens-Clarke County Code of Ordinances]: consisting of an addition of tree benefits listed in section 8-7-2; a couple of minor wording changes in the chapter; minor adjustments to Table 2. Minimum Distances Required between Trees and Structures – row titled “Curb, sidewalk, or pavement edge”; and updating the Technical Standards to reflect the latest publications of Georgia’s Best Management Practices for Forestry, American National Standards Institute (ANSI) for Tree Care standards (A300), ANSI Z-133 Safety Standards, International Society of Arboriculture (ISA) Best Manage Practices, and ANSI Z60 American Standards for Nursery Stock, published by the American Horticulture Industry Association. ● CTC Promotions Committee {Mary (Chair), Larry, Joe Perloff, Jessica} Met on 2/23/20 (Mary, Larry, Joe, Jessica)  Social Media and Public Information Work Group - Worked on the website and social media issues. - Consolidating the CTC member bios to put on one of the pages along with our photos. - Jessie has created new pages. (Discussion) about whether or not there should be a pet page were people could post pictures of pets and loved ones – General consensus was that this would be Ok for the CTC Facebook page, but not for the CTC webpage. - Agree a picture of The Tree that Owns Itself leafed out would be the best photo for our home page. (Action Item) Approved by unanimous vote to spend $250 to hire services for the development of a logo. - logo is coming along. (Discussion) Does the logo have to say Athens Clarke County Community Tree Council or if something like ACC CTC, or Athens Trees or Athens Tree Council is Ok. Discussion revealed a wide range of thoughts and opinions about the matter with no consensus derived. May need to ask the Mayor and Commission  3 - Came up with donor suggested levels and names: $25 Acorn $50 Seedling $100 Sapling $250 Dogwood $500 Sourwood $1000 Tupelo $2500 Loblolly $5000 White Oak - The idea is that beginning at the $250 level where the names change to tree names rather than stages might be where corporate levels are considered (but this is just implied- there are no limitations to how we accept or categorize donations). - We will have a page on Carbon Offsetting with a link to the iTree planting calculator and donation link. The website info is: Website athenstreecouncil.com (password Ginkgo) - Members of the committee now share a mobile iphone album where we can keep photos taken at events to use in different ways.  Green Life Expo: Feedback is the CTC participation in the Green Life Expo was very successful. People were very interested and engaged, It was a great venue (although a little tight for space) that was very well attended. Everyone who participated had a great time and people loved the free trees given out by the CTC. Most of the approximately 200 trees were given away. ● CTC Trees for Tomorrow (TfT) Ad-Hoc Committee {Phil Hale (Chair), Mary, Nina, Joe, Rodney}  (Discussion) Does the CTC want to continue the Trees for Tomorrow Memorial Grove program or not. - General consensus is the requests for memorial related plantings is not going away and that this is a good opportunity to gather funds for the purpose of planting trees - CTC will need to find a new location for a memorial grove to be able to accommodate memorial grove tree donations. Possibilities include: - Athens Clarke County sites -&- Athens Land Trust sites ● Interview Ad-Hoc Committee {Mary, Shawn, Rodney} - Has Interviewed a total of 7 people for the 5 currently open member terms. The interview committees recommends that the 5 top scoring interviewees be accepted as by the CTC as member nominees - (Action Item, Vote to approve member nominees for the CTC): The CTC voted and approved by unanimous vote to nominate Mary Songster, Edith Jackson, Jake Hagen, Jim Weck, and Tori Goff as CTC member nominees and recommend that the Mayor and Commission Appoint each nominees as a voting CTC member. - This recommendation will be sent to the March 17th Mayor and Commission Agenda Setting Session, and new members are expected to be nominated this year by April 7th. Ongoing Business: Shawn Doonan 4:15 – 5:30 ● (Discussion, and Proposed Action Item, - Carbon Offset Calculator or App on CTC website with donation link -5 minutes- Tabled until after the CTC webpage is set up): - Update on web page setup status ● (Information) The Winterville Tree Council extended an invitation to CTC to partner on future events such as their yearly Tree Tour, yearly Tree Talk, and an upcoming Tree Stewards program launching this fall. WTC feels that both councils would benefit from getting to know each other better. Perhaps a social event could be planned. New Business: Shawn Doonan 5:30 - 5:40 ● Should the CTC request a budget from Mayor and Commission (like other Athens Commissions). Initial budget request would be due by December 2020 and should include an itemized proposed CTC budget to accompany a dollar amount. ● Fundraising: Possible opportunities for fundraising includes applying for grants. Some available grants that may align with the CTCs mission include:  GA Power – Nina has resubmitted this grant  Synovous  Members  State Farm – Good Neighbor Citizen Grant  2020 GDOT Roadside and Beautification Council (REBC) grant Meeting Wrap up: Secretary 5:40 – 5:45 ● The members voted unanimously to end the meeting. The next CTC meeting will be held on 4/13/2020 at 4:00 PM in the ACC Planning Office.