Community Tree Council

1 Community Tree Council (CTC) Meeting Minutes Meeting Date: August 10th, 2020 Location: ACC Cisco Webex online meeting, You Tube Streaming Link: https://youtu.be/wWlzbfKbvYM In Attendance - Members: Rodney Walters, Edith Jackson, Mary Songster, Victoria Goff, Jim Weck, Nina Wurzburger, Joseph Bates, Pam Knox, Jessie McClellan, Joe Perloff, Mary Attaway, Lea Clark, Shawn Doonan (A Quorum Was Present) Staff, Guests, and Ex-Officio Members: Stacee Farrell, Marc Beechuk (ACC Planning Arborist), Seth Hawking (Georgia Forestry Commission – Urban Forestry Coordinator), Laura Ney (ACC County Extension Agent) Absent: Phil Hale (traveling to attend to family matters) Call to Order and Welcome: Shawn Doonan 4:00 - 4:05 ● Introductions/Welcome Housekeeping (Secretary) Rodney Walters 4:05 - 4:10 ● Roll Call Sign in (3 minutes): Attending members written on attendance list ● (Action Item: Vote to approve the July 13th CTC meeting minutes and the July 20th CTC Committee Meetings Minutes ), (3 minutes): After the July CTC meeting minutes and the July CTC committees meetings minutes were distributed to the CTC members for review, the CTC voted unanimously to approve the July 13th CTC meeting minutes and the July 20th CTC committees meetings minutes. ● (Information- 2 Minutes) Treasurer’s Report (Information – 5 minutes) Pam Knox 4:10 – 4:15 ● Treasurer submitted a treasurer’s report (attached at the end of this document) ● A link was sent to Jessie so the Pay Pal account could be set up on the CTC webpage. CTC Committee Reports (Information and Discussion) Shawn Doonan 4:15 – 4:20 ● CTC Executive Committee {Shawn (chair), Joe Perloff, Pam, Rodney – 2 minutes  Current approach of staying on topic and on time during CTC meeting seems to be working. (secretary will continue to keep time and help remind members of the time during meetings)  Work group approach (rather than Ad-Hoc Committees) may be a better way to streamline things (as activities are reported directly to the CTC) and it eliminates the need for a couple of Ad-hoc committees. Downside is that this may, at times, require more discussion time during CTC meetings.  2 ● CTC Steering Committee {(Shawn (Chair) Executive Committee and Standing Committee Chairpersons} (Discussed agenda items have been inserted in their applicable sections throughout the rest of this agenda) – 3 minutes  “Picking a team”. Just a follow up on that to make sure each member is on a committee  Extensive TfT records exist, but the info is not organized and has to be organized or “mined” so the CTC may know what the precedents are and to reduce confusion. o A CTC Historian position may be a good way to accomplish this, maybe a member emeritus would be willing to help organize and hold the “institutional” of the CTC. Mary Songster offered to contact a person with librarian experience who would be a great fit. New Business: Shawn Doonan 4:20 – 5:35 ● Fundraising - 15 minutes (4:35):  Keep Athens Clarke County Beautiful Tree Planting Grant – Stacee announced the 2020 UPS tree grant has been submitted and word about approval may arrive by the end of August.  Georgia ReLeaf Program (Designed specifically for Veterans or disaster recovery to replace trees) o Seth explained that a GFC forester needs to be directly involved with any GA Releaf project. - Designed specifically for Veterans or disaster recovery to replace trees and are super cool projects, because communities tend to value them and Veteran groups, like the VFW, tend to get involved. - He said he would send an application to the CTC.  Seth was asked questions about the Making the Shade Program o When to apply? Answer: Summer months, the end of August o A suggestion to produce a video of some type was presented to garner consideration from the GFC for future Making the Shade tree project grant opportunities  Other possible Grant Opportunities o GA Power (Nina suggested to keep trying with grant applications) o Synovous (Shawn will look into this) o State Farm – Good Neighbor Citizen Grant – The website shows that no new grant applications have been released for 2020 and noted past grant applications were due by September 31st. Suggestion is to look into this one to see if opportunities exist. o Request budget from Mayor and Commission (like other Athens Commissions) o Nina suggested grant writing should involve a committee, because it requires some dedicated people to keep track. There was general consensus about the wisdom of this suggestion. - Possibility of considering a Grants work group instead of another committee was presented. CTC Committee Reports (Continued) ● CTC Ad Hoc Interview Committee Meeting {Shawn (chair), Phil, Pam, Mary Attaway}-10 min. (4:45) Discussion:  Does the Ad Hoc Interview Committee need to be dissolved and replaced with a CTC Interview work group (of 4 voting members or less) who conducts the business of finding and interviewing perspective members and reports all their activities directly to the CTC? - Seems reasonable and would help to streamline the process and reduce confusion - Motion Presented Action Item - Vote to a dissolve the CTC Ad-Hoc Interview Committee and Replace it with a CTC Interview Work Group: Motion was made and seconded and passed by unanimous vote to dissolve the Ad-Hoc CTC Interview Committee and Replace it with a CTC Work Group of 3-4 CTC members who will advertise open CTC membership positions, conduct interviews to select member nominees, and report directly to the CTC. o Who will serve on the work group? (Edith, Jim, Shawn, and Rodney volunteered)  3 ● CTC Trees for Tomorrow Ad-Hoc Committee {Phil Hale (Chair), Mary Attaway, Nina, Joe, Rodney} - 25 minutes (5:10)  Rodney read following message sent by Phil, who had to be away for family business: “In light of our current understanding of the purpose of the TfT program, I think a retraction of our unseconded motion, and the substitution of the proposed alternative motion, is appropriate. Further, I support the change in record-keeping for donations and grove status to some digital formatwhich could be more easily managed, publicized and kept current.” Discussion of Motion that is on the Table: Should the CTC dissolve the Trees for Tomorrow Ad-Hoc Committee and the TfT Program? -or- Should the CTC dissolve the Trees for Tomorrow Ad-Hoc Committee and replace it with a work group to administer the TfT Carl Jordon Grove tree planting obligations and other ACC tree related plantings/Groves?  Canopy coverage around playgrounds: Would it be possible to develop a TfT like program for planting on playgrounds [CCSD & Neighborhood Triangle Parks] o Many opportunities exists with the schools for fundraising (Booster-a-thon etc.), which could contribute to the planting of trees and groves at the schools. o TfT program is already in place and was designed specifically for planting trees/groves on ACC properties (Athens schools, Athens Housing Authority, Greenways, Parks). Why not just employ this existing program?  If the TfT program is continued, it would be good to pare down the cumbersome and outdated aspects of the program (tree legacy book in library, plaques)? And perhaps just keep a TfT page on the webpage as a modern way to keep the records. Action Item (Motion Tabled from 7/13/20 CTC meeting) Vote to Dissolve the Trees for Tomorrow Ad-Hoc Committee: A motion was made, but not seconded, to: dissolve the Trees for Tomorrow (TfT) Committee and provide no new funding for the TfT program. As such, obligated funds for the TfT Firefly Trail tree plantings will continue to be utilized exclusively for planting trees on the Firefly Trail until the obligated funds are exhausted. A discussion ensued. A question to provide a history of the TfT was posed. The discussion was tabled until the next CTC meeting due to a lack of time. By consensus, motion was retracted. Alternative motion: A motion was made, seconded, and passes by unanimous vote to dissolve the Trees for Tomorrow Ad-Hoc committee but retain TfT as a CTC program for the specific purpose of raising money and planting groves of trees on Athens Clarke County public properties (e.g. ACC school grounds, buildings’ grounds, Greenway, Firefly Trail, parks, etc.). The TfT Ad-Hoc Committee will be dissolved and replaced with a TfT CTC organizational work group for the purpose conducting TfT program activities and shall consist of no more than 3-4 voting CTC members (but may include all emeritus and ex-officio members) and will report directly to the CTC . ● CTC Education Committee {Marc (Temporary Chair), Edith, Lea, Mary Attaway}- 10 minutes (5:20)  Thoughts on breaking tasks down by “for Schools” or “for Community/Professionals” Group- agreed the 2 tracks of tasks is appropriate  Materials (Stacee, marc) a. Pamphlets – Group discussed current materials, putting tree info online and making one- page documents to explain the programs the CTC offers, mb agreed to look through current brochures, scan and send around b. Presentation Materials  4 c. Green School Curriculum – Stacee will dig through past activities along with Stacy Smith @ KACCB d. Marc will meet with meet with Rodney to see what educational materials are located at the Landscape Management Office  Professional Education (Lea) – Lea had some ideas and was considering opportunities for lunch n’ learns, potentially starting with ACC landscape crews, mb email Lea landscapers and county extension info  Community Education (Edith) – Can we be a part of hybrid education? Arbor Day foundation, Carly’s Corner has good examples of school plans; Trees Atl has online programming (small videos); Stacee mentioned EE in GA, Edith to look into developing that may work in the current school environments ● CTC Promotions Committee {Mary (Chair), Larry, Joe, Jessica} - 8 minutes (5:28)  Jessie presented a screen shot of the new CTC webpage (athentreecouncil.com) o Pay Pal link is active o Records Page o Photo Gallery o Ongoing (featured projects) o What we have done (achievements) o Video links suggested to showcase projects  Discussions/Feedback from CTC about webpage and fundraising o Suggestion for a “buy a tree” link was presented for a tree planting project (e.g. Arbor Day) - Pledge drive concept could be applied to this - Suggestion that describing costs would be a good thing to facilitate understanding about what is involved in planting and establishing trees. - iTree Calculator could be installed on webpage to show benefits, such as carbon capture, in planting a Tree - Suggestion for an acknowledgements page for contributors (with an option so select “anynomous”) - Discussion about providing donation gift - Artist’s sketch of Tree that Owns Itself (9 X 12 prints, cost $12) - seedlings of the tree that owns itself - Thank you notes - Other outside-the-box forms of appreciation (tree walk) o Timeline of events (Tori and Mary) to bring jump drive to Rodney to download past events) ● CTC Policy Committee {Rodney (Chair), Shawn, Joseph, Joe, Marc, Lea} – 1 minute (5:29)  Policy Committee is finding list of Tree Ordinance stakeholders and exploring methods to gather community feedback about what Tree Ordinance changes they may want and why.  A set of questions will be sent to the CTC members to establish a data set intended to elicit community feedback and to serve as an example of a possible method of eliciting stakeholder and community feedback. Ongoing Business: Shawn Doonan Tabled Parking Lot Items ( ) Presiding Chair Tabled Meeting Wrap up – (1 minute) Presiding Chair 5:30 A motion was made, seconded, and approved by unanimous vote to adjourn the meeting  5 Athens Community Tree Council Treasurer’s Report: August 10, 2020 submitted by Pam Knox Money Market Account Beginning Balance as of 7/13/2020 $10,024.52 Interest 6/30/2020 0.26 Ending balance as of 8/10/2020 $10,024.78 Checking Account Starting balance 7/13/2020 $1,929.45 Check #1256 - 250.00 Ending balance 8/10/2020 $1,679.45 PayPal Account Beginning balance 6/08/2020 $0.00 Ending Balance 713/2020 $0.00 I am working with Jessica to get our new PayPal account set up and linked to the web site.