July 13, 2005
Friends of Schoodic Meeting

In attendance:  Tom Mayer, Jim Wagner, Jay Horschak, Nancy Horschak, Bob Babcock, Fran Rhodes, Bill Stone, Dirk Faegre, Ruth Sargent, Pauline Angione, Bill Zoellick, Marla O'Byrne, Ed Pontbriand, Jim McKenna, Jeanie Wilson.

Gatehouse Report

Tom received a donation of $25. He is considering having a meeting of gatehouse volunteers to talk about what is working and what is not -- as well as to improve response to visitors. Tom also raised the idea of having an FOS office at the gatehouse--with a computer. There was general agreement that this was a good idea.

This lead to a discussion of lists, since we would like to have a list of volunteers and members.  How do we maintain this?  There was agreement that we should not have multiple versions of lists -- instead, we should have one correct version that everyone works from.  We agreed that this was something that could be best handled by the Friends of Acadia staff, as part of their general membership, donor, and volunteer tracking work. Marla will present -- at the next meeting -- a plan for handling, building, and distributing the lists.

Tom and Garry will work on the office idea -- and figure out how and what to do there.

FOA Report

Bill Zoellick noted that Ken Olson was stepping down as President of Friends of Acadia, and so the organization would be looking for a new person to lead the staff.

Zoellick also reminded everyone that the annual meeting for Friends of Acadia would be on July 22 at the Regency Hotel in Bar Harbor.

Finally, he said that FOA was thinking in terms of dividing membership recruitment (and dues payments) from the annual appeal for donations, making them distinct events.  He will provide more details as he has them.

Park Report

Student Conservation Association workers are still around and working. There were 6 kids and 2 adults working on Schoodic. They took the fence out from the gatehouse to West Pond. The students got rescue training, worked on trails, put in water bars, built bog bridges, removed old electric cable, and then went out to Isle au Haut and did beach clean up.

Island explorer is up 22% on MDI and 88% over here. Ed thinks that good weather is part of it -- promotion by the Park is another.  Wedding parties, for example, are making use of the bus.

Schoodic Island is now closed to sea kayakers.  Rolling Island should also be closed.

Mike Alley would like to do more trail work in September -- Tuesday through Saturday.  Tentative date is Sept. 10.

An FOA group will be over in the coming week to work to pull more of the fence out.

This weekend is the beetle blitz -- a 24 hour intense study to collect and identify all the beetles that we can find on the peninsula.  Housing is relatively full.  People will be working through the night during the blitz.

A new Schoodic Map and pamphlet is in the works.  It will have better trail descriptions.

There is also research on invasive crab species.  One is here -- the European green crab -- which feeds on mussels.  Another is on the way--the Asian shore crab--which is a powerful competitor for local crabs.  It has made it up to Isle au Haut and Camden.

Fund Raising for SEA and Junior Rangers

Fran said that the grant has been received -- the program will start in 2006. The "walk in the park" is what FOS will do as a fundraiser. The event is open to anybody -- pets, baby strollers, long walks, short walks. The goal is to get 100 people walking. The call for a committee to work on this project resulted in 10 committee volunteers. On the day of the walk we will need about 20 to 30 volunteers to direct traffic, show people through buildings, register people, and so on.

The walk will be over at 12:30. 

Local businesses have been asked to make financial donations and to contribute prizes.

Tuesday the 26th at 7 PM is the next meeting of the committee--at the administration building.

Kate will be starting her fall sessions of the SEA program during the week following labor day. She is still looking for volunteers who could work as teacher's aides. She could use about 10 volunteers. Bill Z will put this notice on the website

Picnic

Bill Z and Ed will cover this.  Friends of Schoodic will supply hamburgers, hot dogs, tableware and cloths, flowers, watermelon, drinks, ears of corn.  Plans are for about 80 to 100 people.

Archive Project

Pauline Angione reported that sorting the drawings is nearly complete.  After a couple of weeks she will be ready to put volunteers to use inputting data.  Interested volunteers should contact her.

Acadia Partners

Acadia Partners' board met on July 5.  This was the first face-to-face meeting that Denny had with the new board. Much of the focus was on financing requirements, both near term (the next 15 months) and longer term (3 to 5 years).  Part of the key to this is the development of the program, which will focus on public parks and lands issues, as an area of study.

Meeting adjourned at 9:10