Keep Athens-Clarke County Beautiful (KACCB) Board

Keep Athens-Clarke County Beautiful Board Meeting Minutes Date: Wednesday, January 4, 2023 Location: Synovus 4th Floor Conference Room Board Members Present: ● Allison Wright ● Carlos Pinto ● Jackie Sherry ● Joe Hill ● LaDarius Thomas ● Nathan Stuck ● Stephanie Hall ● Stacee Farrell ● Stacy Smith ● Theresa Bangert ● Cecile Riker Board Members Not Present: ● Angela Huff ● Brad Rickard ● Brian Santos ● Carter Coleman ● Cameron Winter ● Leah Leggett ● Jameson Glenn ● Josh Podvin ● Josh Kim ● Juliet Feldman ● Warren Abel ● James Alexander Call to Order Time (Nathan): 4:10 PM Approval of Minutes (Nathan): ● Approval of November Meeting Minutes o Motion – Stephanie o Second – Joe o All in favor – Yes o Any opposed – No ● Agendas, minutes, and meeting recordings can be found at www.accgov.com/agendacenter Page 1 of 6 Treasurer's Report (Joe) ● Joe provided a Statement of Activity by month from July 2022 – December 2022 o Total revenue for the quarter: $12,244.94 o Total expenditures for the quarter: $18,646.01 (largest expenditure was daffodils, which have gone up in price - $9,570) o Net revenue: -$6,401.07 o Total bank balances $58,157.16 ● Board discussed adding a new line item for the Love Where You Live grants as opposed to tagging them under the Green Schools line item ● Approval of Treasurer’s Report o Motion – Theresa o Second – Jackie o All in favor – Yes o Any opposed – No Executive Director’s Report (Stacee) Updates: ● Love Where You Live bus wrap will be installed in February – will be on back of Route 8 bus ○ 6 month contract with option to renew ● Successfully planted 15,000 daffodil bulbs on 2 Milledge Avenue ramps in November with 38 volunteers ○ Remaining bulbs will be planted as fill on previously planted ramps or saved as “pots of gold” for the March St. Patty’s event ● Board Retreat follow-up/2023 goals ○ Membership/Sponsorship + Public Relations – Realtor give-backs / percentage nights / business awards / green business ○ Analytics – Program impacts / utilizing litter index / submitting information through Debris Tracker ○ Education/Outreach – LWYL Grants / Daffodil bulb outreach / engage more BBM winners ○ Public Relations/Projects – Dirty Dance Party / Keepin’ it Brew-tiful ○ Business/Industry – BBM/Green Business Chamber networking ● Staff has provided answers to questions that came up during Board Retreat – they are included at the end of the minutes Revenue ● $805.50 – Planet Green ● $552.96 – Memberships that came in from Georgia Gives Day ● $11.64 – Amazon Smile ● $250 – Donation from the Kingery Foundation ● $100 – Daffodil donation from the Bruner Family Expenditures ● $500 – First Love Where You Live grant to Athens Area Homeless Shelter ● $200 – Green Schools grant to Howard B. Stroud Elementary to refurbish their raised garden beds Request for Funds ● $500 for Neighborhood Cleanup initiative ○ Stacee would like to purchase something to give out to participating neighbors as a way to provide positive reinforcement. Next clean-up is in February at Westchester neighborhood Page 2 of 6  ○ Ideas: t-shirts, gloves, grabbers, safety vests, water bottles ○ Motion to approve up to $500 if needed – Joe ○ Second – Stephanie ○ All in favor – Yes ○ Any opposed – No Committee Reports: ● Membership/Sponsorship (Theresa) ○ Theresa is working on booking some percentage nights ○ Idea to tap into our BBMs, doctor’s offices, chiropractic offices, and realtors ● Analytics (Stacy and Jameson) ○ No update ○ Theresa asked about measuring impact of bus wrap – difficult to do ■ Some ideas were bystander views, visitors to website ● Public Relations/Projects (Cecile) ○ St. Patrick’s Day event happening on March 17 from 5:00 – 8:00 PM ○ Committee will meet next week at Terrapin (1/10 at 12 PM) ○ Components include a dunk tank/booth, raffle, costume contest, food truck, and daffodil bulb giveaways ● Education/Outreach (Jackie) ○ First Love Where You Live grant has been given out to Athens Area Homeless Shelter ● Business/Industry to include BBM (Nathan) ○ Nathan mentioned business letter going out in February ○ Need to catch up on BBMs for November, December, and January Old Business ● None New Business ● UGA MBA Blacks in Business Clean-up on morning of 3/17 o Nathan coordinating highway clean-up with them, not necessarily affiliated with Board ● Joe working with Chamber on plans for sustainable business networking o Allison and Stacee want to get involved in existing Chamber programs before creating our own programs o Joe mentioned he could also set-up speaking arrangements with other groups o Should we be more involved in the Recycling Division’s Sustainable Industry Roundtable? Upcoming Events: ● Bring One for the Chipper – January 7 ● MLK Day of Service – January 16 ● Litter Abatement Steering Committee Meeting – January 24 ● Westchester Neighborhood Cleanup Event – February 25 ● St. Patrick’s Day Event – March 17 ● Tire Round-up – March 26 – April 1 Adjourn Time: 5:30 PM  Motion to adjourn – LaDarius  Second – Theresa  All in favor – Yes Page 3 of 6   Any opposed – No 2022 KACCB Board Retreat Questions How can we move beyond litter abatement and into more proactive environmental work? We invite you to attend a litter abatement steering committee meeting. With this group we look at litter and dumping issues facing Athens, work on solutions, and implement action items. The meetings are quarterly in a rotating location. We also invite you to check out and use the Debris Tracker App throughout the year and participate in the Litter Index. This is the technology that we use to collect information about the location and types of littering in Athens. Specific data like this helps us to understand what is going on with litter in Athens and target solutions. Or– if the board has ideas! We are open to this type of project. When are we getting a LinkedIn Page? We have not been approved to do so by our Public Information Office (PIO). Are we getting feedback from volunteers about events? Our board members are our primary volunteers at KACCB Board events and we always hold a debriefing meeting after each event and solicit feedback for next year’s event. We also receive feedback from volunteers through Give Pulse after events like MLK Day of Service and Rivers Alive. We do not survey our AAH litter groups, however each group does report back to us on the event and we have an open line of communication with the group leaders to hear about any issues they encountered or suggestions. The daffodil became Athens’ official flower in what year? What was the previous flower? In 2018, the Mayor and Commission officially approved a resolution to proclaim the Daffodil as our city's flower. The document identifies KACCB as the initiator of this effort in partnership with local and state support. The iris was the original flower designated July 7, 1946. What is the biggest thing the board can help out with? It can be difficult to separate the work done by our staff in the office and the projects of the board and there can often be overlap. We do find that the biggest support we get from the board is with fundraising, volunteering at our major events, and being our voice. I see a lot of enthusiasm for spreading the word about KACCB and all that we do in our community, we always encourage the board to talk us up and increase our reach in the community. We share our message with the commission, our webpage, vertical response, social media, billboards, print ads, radio, and our education program. However, having our board members recruit new members and sponsors; and amplifying our reach is the most effective outreach. How often is the litter hotline called? Are there other ways to report than by phone? In FY22 Total # of reports received 111 # of reports received by web 65 # of reports received by phone 46 You can also visit: www.accgov.com/reportlittering to report illegal dumping and littered areas. This is also where you find the link to the form to report a tag number to the litter hotline with an online form. How do you calculate $16.17 returned per $1 invested? We use the KAB Cost Benefit Analysis to demonstrate our ability to leverage community resources. This tool calculates the total value of volunteer time, grant dollars, private citizen donors, and in-kind services to determine the dollar value returned to the community. This tool calculates an affiliate's overall economic impact as well as the man-power and services the government would have to supply if our affiliate did not exist. What does the staff want to accomplish in 2023? Stacy-I would like to see the Litter Index expanded to sample the state of littering in Athens throughout the year. Page 4 of 6 Stacee- Rather than create new projects, I would like to see KACCB staff re-imagine some of our existing outreach projects to include more diverse populations and/or audiences. I would like to see an increase in partnerships and/or funding from the local business community. Carlos- More consistent AAH group activity and higher compliance of minimum requirements. Prosecution of at least one illegal dumper using photos/video evidence gathered from surveillance cameras. More outreach to Latinx community = larger participation among Latinx community in clean-ups and activities What extent do we leverage the university whether that is students volunteering, research data to inform initiatives, partnerships to trial approaches, etc.? (I assume that we may have some imperative to maintain a degree of separation, but there are a lot of resources there.) A majority of our Adopt-a-highway, Down & Dirty, school garden, and toolshed volunteers are students. We partner with many departments at the university on a variety of projects, programs, and recruitment including UGA Office of Sustainability, UGA Office of Service Learning, UGA Engineering (debris tracker and their research), the UGArden, the UGA State Botanical Garden of GA, the Public Service Office, etc. Notable projects would be the Loop 10 Native Plant Project, MLK Day of Service, Rivers Alive, PSO Day of Outreach, the Litter Abatement Steering Committee, etc. What are the best ways to encourage + engage committee members? The board works best when they leverage their own passions and connections. Getting board members plugged into a committee and projects that address community needs they care about is crucial to engagement. We encourage you to speak up at committee meetings and suggest events and projects that speak to you! We also try to foster an atmosphere of fun and friendship and see that increases participation in meetings and events. What year were the first daffodils of the loop 10 project planted? What street/loop 10 location? Over 10 years ago, an Athens non-profit, Keep Athens-Clarke County Beautiful (KACCB), initiated a pilot project with our local Georgia Department of Transportation (GDOT) Maintenance Office to improve the aesthetics of State Route 10, the Athens Loop. Our Loop 10 serves as the main thoroughfare around the city of Athens and for exiting to our distinctive neighborhoods, UGA and downtown. In the first year, KACCB raised money to purchase 2,000 daffodil bulbs that were planted on the Martin Luther King Jr./Highway441 and Loop 10 on AND off ramps. How do we keep track of what outreach is effective in driving membership and volunteers? We are able to see metrics from our website, social media, and vertical response communications. We have piles of numbers and contacts from those that have engaged with us, used our programs, or interacted with us at an event or program. The county did a large study of which outreach methods used by the county were most effective. However, we do not do much with this information and we do not collect more specific information. This could be a project for the data committee if the board had a need for those numbers to shape outreach and projects. Our membership numbers are relatively low and membership has been something that is a project of the board. However, beyond participating in our yearly GA Gives membership drive, not much has been done to promote. Are all of the Adopt Athens sections filled? If so, is there room to add more? They are not. More Adopt Athens sections are added yearly and any area that is county owned can be proposed as an Adopt Athens project. What program(s) does staff enjoy the most? What programs would you like to see expanded? Carlos- Not one specific, always so happy after and sees how worth it it was Stacy- Green School and the Tool Shed Stacee- Loop 10 Daffodil and Tree Planting Project We do so much! And I know we aren’t in it for the credit, but we are more than “silent heroes” How about we be a little louder!? We have our strong and steady supporters, I think we deserve more hype! Agreed! Is there community feedback about the work that we do? Does the community see a difference? Page 5 of 6 KACCB receives many positive emails and comments about our work. We often receive phone thanks during the Daffodil blooming season, as well as recognition by the Mayor and Commission at public commission meetings. Where is the board in relation to our “bandwidth” on each committee? Where do we feel like we have the biggest gaps between what is feasible and what we are currently doing? We might consider putting more energy into the Analytics Committee. We need to assess what is needed out of this committee and what is reasonable to accomplish. What are Stacee and Stacy’s big goals? Stacee - I would like to see more progress on litter enforcement issues. If we gain greater buy-in from our law enforcement, we might be able to change littering behaviors. I would also like to see our Neighborhood Clean-up Initiative continue to strengthen with more local government funds dedicated to this effort. Stacy– my big goal is to increase use of the information that we collect to improve our programs and get more proactive about fighting litter. I am also interested in increasing our reach beyond the usual “choir” we are preaching to and to reach out to a wider audience to find out how we can better serve all of Athens. Can individual members adopt a highway or is it organization based only? Yes, individuals may adopt. Page 6 of 6