FOS Meeting - 12 May 2004

The Friends of Schoodic Steering Committee met at the Schooner Club, in the Park, at 7 PM on April 14, 2004.

In attendance:  Margaret Grammer, Pauline Angione, Ruth Sargent, Dirk Faegre, Jim Wagner, Bill Zoellick, Bill Stone, Tom Mayer, Nancy Horschak, Jay Horschak, Jeanie Wilson, Burt Allaire,  Peter Drinkwater, Robert Babcock, Rosemary Levin, Garry Levin, Bill Zoellick

Stanley was not present, so there was no treasurer's report.

Report on the Grant Proposal

Tom reported on the proposal to Maine Community Foundation.  There are two parts to the grant proposal.  One is money for incorporation expenses -- legal fees and IRS fees.  The second part focuses on building a self sustaining donor base.  This will be done through direct mail as well as through local publicity.

Report from ByLaws Committee

The ByLaws effort is in process.  The committee is working from the draft that Frank Cassidy prepared last year, as well as from the Friends of Acadia ByLaws.

One question that arose is with regard to insurance.  Is this necessary?  Jay pointed out that, since we don't have a paid staff, the likelihood of needing insurance decreases.  

Bob and Nancy have not met and worked through the issues, so the group made the decision to wait until the next meeting, when Bob and Nancy will have a more complete report.

Trail Maintenance

The leaders of the trail maintenance group, Garry, Jay, Burt, and Dirk, participated in a trail training session sponsored by the park last week.  The group has not yet reached agreement as to how to best organize the work teams.  They will meet to decide how to proceed.

The team found the session really useful.  The focus on the trails is both keeping them natural-seeming, while at the same time making sure that the trails are clear enough to ensure that walkers stay on them.

Tom wanted to talk through the issues -- how should this be organized?  What are the issues that need to be resolved?

Dirk stressed that work crews need to be small.  Tom wanted to know why there couldn't be a large meeting to start off, breaking into small groups.  

Jay suggested that this discussion is premature.  He proposed that the trail bosses work together on a section of trail, so that they can speak with one voice.  He felt that they need to work out what they want to do before they can respond to the questions being asked.

Jay also pointed out that the trails in Schoodic are actually in pretty good shape.

Gatehouse Staffing

In Tom's view, volunteer response is strong enough to cover the gatehouse without participation from the steering committee.  He raised the question as to whether the steering committee should just serve as backup.  His concern is that if volunteers don't get to do things, they will lose interest.

There was discussion about whether to allow people to demand a solo shift.  The group decided that all shifts would be two-person shifts.

Dirk argued that the steering committee should be engaged to some extent -- otherwise it has no insight into the process.

Tom did a survey of the steering committee, member by member, and all were willing to stand back and serve as reserve participants.

The gatehouse will also be staffed over Memorial Day -- Garry and Rosemary will cover Saturday morning.

Little Moose

There is also a lot of interest in clean up work on Little Moose.  Jay reminded the group that Mary and Dick Wilson have volunteered to do that for years, and that clean up work should respect their interest..

Initial cleanup dated will be June 12, at 11:00 AM, meeting at the Blueberry Hill parking lot.

Winter Harbor Visitor Center

Peter spoke with John Kelly about the visitor center in Winter Harbor, sponsored by the Chamber.  John expressed comfort with having FOS people volunteering (not in NPS volunteer uniforms).  Garry suggested that one possibility would be for FOS to share its database for a single mailing.

Bill Z. moved that the FOS provide the Peninsula Chamber of Commerce with access to its database for a single mailing to FOS members with information about the volunteer opportunity with the Peninsula Chamber.  Pauline seconded it.  Dirk proposed an amendment to the effect that FOS do the mailing, to control it.  There was substantial objection to the idea of blurring the lines between FOS, which has a Park focus, and the Chamber.  The motion failed 11-4

SERC

Dirk reported that a committee from Schoodic Futures met with John Kelly and Steele about SERC.  They learned that there is now an official non-profit organization, called Acadia Partners for Science and Learning, with initial directors F. Eugene Dixon, Nathaniel Reed, and Paul Hartell -- to manage the center. Additional members will be selected, to bring the size of the board up to 12 or so.

The GMP, dealing specifically with Schoodic, will be out in 6-8 weeks, followed by a 60 day comment period.

Dirk also reported that the Park's advisory committee will meet on the peninsula on June 7, at the Schooner Club.  It is an open. public meeting.  Dirk plans to attend and invites others to join him.

T-Shirts

Jeannie asked whether FOS would like to revisit the question of producing T-shirts that could be sold as a fund-raising activity.  Bill Stone moved, Jim seconded, that we establish a T-shirt committee with Jeannie in charge, to investigate costs and issues for selling T-shirts.

Meeting adjourned at 9 PM.