FOS Meeting Notes - February 9, 2005

In attendance: Nancy Horschak, Jay Horschak, Garry Levin, Ruth Sargent, Deedee West, Pauline Angione, Bill Zoellick, Jim McKenna, Fran Rhodes, Jim Wagner, Rosemary Levin, Dirk Faegre, Margaret Grammer, Jeanie Wilson, Marla O'Byrne, and John Kelly.

The meeting began with an introduction of Jim McKenna, the Park Service's new hire who will be in charge of the Schoodic Education and Research Center from the ANP side.   Jim thanked FOS for preparing his office.  Jim will be moving up to this part of Maine with his family.  He has a Ph.D. in Oceanography from the University of Rhode Island.  His first job was with the education program associated with the Mystic Seaport Museum, where he participated in a multidisciplinary program that dealt with policy as well as science issues.  He has a research background, a teaching background, and -- due to recent work as a consultant -- familiarity with policy issues.

Minutes from the last meeting were accepted.

Discussion of Gatehouse

Tom prepared a report summarizing Gatehouse work last year and proposing just about the same thing for next year. Garry suggested that he would like to change last year's policy of not having steering committee members participate.  Other steering committee members agreed that they, too, would like the opportunity to participate in the gatehouse work.

Training sessions for this year are May 14, for people who went through last year's training, and June 11 for new volunteers.  Both sessions will start at 8:30 AM and will last all day.  Numerous committee members noted that we had a session in July last year, which was focused on the summer volunteers.  Dirk agreed to bring that up with Ed Pontbriand to see what might be possible.

Tom asked for a line item in the budget dedicated to the gatehouse in the amount of $200.  Bill Z moved and Deedee seconded a motion to establish a $200 budget for the gatehouse committee.  The motion passed by acclamation.  

SEA Program

Fran  reported on her meeting with the Park Service (Cynthia Ocel, Kate Petrie, and Deb Wade) and Jackson Labs (Janet Michaud).  The meeting was successful in affirming interest by Jackson Labs in supporting the SEA program.

Fran also brought up a number of other issues that she felt we should address.

• The cost of the program will be raised to $50 for the 2 and a half day program with room and board.  Fran's concern is how the school districts can manage/afford this.  This suggests that we should seek to raise money in the form of donations or other support to help defray the costs for the schools.
• Fran also feels that it is important that the schools not get a complete free ride -- they need to bring at least some money to the table.  Her concern is, in general, that the program develop into something that is sustainable, even after seed money funding is gone
• Consistent with this, Fran would like to move in the direction of eventually establishing an endowment of some kind to provide longer term support.

After Fran's report, Garry asked what else we can do, beyond fundraising.  Fran thanked him for the question and noted that there is substantial work for volunteers in the classroom as well as for clerical assistance.  Kate Petrie plans to conduct a training session of some sort in the spring; Fran will make sure that we are aware of that and can publicize that.

Dirk and Fran began a discussion of how to use the FOS newsletter to support and publicize this.  The idea of creating an insert in the newsletter emerged.  The insert could be used to make people aware of the SEA work as well as to seek volunteers and donations.

Jim McKenna noted that it is important to get a handle on the overall cost of the program, so that the towns, donors, and others could get a full view of all the costs, as well as understand the Park's contribution.

FOA Report

Marla reported that April 30 is the day for th FOA roadside cleanup on MDI.  If FOS wants to coordinate with that, FOA could supply T-shirts and other support, if FOS would be interested.  National Trails day is June 4 this year.  FOA is working on carriage roads -- Marla suggested that we might want to coordinate

Trails

Jay and Garry will plan the April 30 and June 4 trail cleanups with Ed Pontbriand, coordinating with Marla on the FOA side.

PO Box

Bill noted that we still share a PO Box with Schoodic Futures.  He will look into getting a separate box for FOS.

Spring Newsletter

The Spring Newsletter will need to go out pretty soon -- in time to give people a heads up for training.  Deadline for the next version is April 15.

Artists in Residence

Rosemary and Garry reported on their exploration of the Artists in Residence program at the park.  The key change they would like to see is more integration with the community.  Rosemary noted that, over this past year, there were seven artists here -- but that they were isolated from the community, which is full of artists.  She suggested  that there be a concerted effort to make the visiting artists aware of the community.  Garry and Rosemary would also like to see the work that the artists donate to the Park as part of their participation in the program be made available within SERC for public display.  Finally, they suggested that it might be possible for Friends of Acadia to purchase some of the art created by the artists in the program for fundraising purposes (in an auction).

Garry and Rosemary will continue working on this.  Their next step is a conversation with Deb Wade.

Painting Project

Dirk repainted Jim McKenna's office.  There was a discussion as to whether this kind of volunteer work is appropriate.  The issue is whether this supplants, in some way, the work of paid staff.  No closure was reached -- some people felt that the need for help at the Park is so acute that this is not really an issued.  Others felt that there was a problem.  Discussion to be continued ...

Trail Signage

John Kelly will raise the concern about the confusing signage at the top of Schoodic Head with the sign committee.

The meeting adjourned at 9 PM.