May 10, 2006
Friends of Schoodic Meeting

In attendance: Ann Harwood  Jim Wagner  Dan Keegan, Ed Pontbriand, Pauline Angione, Ruth Sargent, Rosemary Levin, Garry Levin, Bill Zoellick, Tom Mayer, Jeannie Wilson, Nancy Horschak, Jay Horschak

Clean Up Review

Jay noted that we should recognize Ed Pontbriand for greatly expanding the clean-up effort to include the towns. We had over 30 people involved in the park clean up, and many more than that in the broader cleanup effort. Everybody felt that we should build on this for next year.

Junior Ranger Program

Four schools participated -- Columbia Falls, Peninsula, Milbridge, and the Ella Lewis School in Steuben. The weather was beautiful and the children were engaged in all the activities. They learned about fire protection and emergency rescue, they learned to observe their surroundings in the woods to find things that are out of place, they planted some bushes, and practiced teaching each other how to recognize different plants.

Dorm Set Up

This was a two day event. On Thursday 35 people from the Park came over and did most of the heavy moving. On Saturday we had 5 or 6  Friends of Schoodic volunteers show up to do the final set up.

National Trails Day

June 3 is National Trails day. We discussed what to do ... and that it does not necessarily need to be a work day. Ed noted that we do need to clean water bars and do trail work ... but this is the high point in the blackfly season.  So, Jay thought that it might make sense focus on someplace where we are more in the wind ... such a Little Moose.  The tides are favorable for a Little Moose clean up that day.  So, we decided to meet at 9 at the Gatehouse. Recruitment will be by email, with a focus on bringing a neighbor or a friend.

Auditorium Construction

Demolition is 95% complete.  New construction will start in the next week. The scheduled completion is in December.

Youth Hostel

The conversion of the bowling alley to a youth hostel is in the final planning stages. Construction on this is expected to start sometime in the fall. This will be used for SEA and other youth programs.

Resource Acadia

On May 20 there will be a Resource Acadia Program in Ship Harbor, looking at seaweed/herbivore interactions.  Information about upcoming programs is available on the Acadia Partners website.

Discussion of Volunteer Opportunities

There was a substantial discussion about volunteer opportunities in the Schoodic District, and about Friends of Schoodic's role in this work. A number of people asked about the connection between SERC, the Park, Acadia Partners, and Friends of Schoodic. Other than the gatehouse activity, which is ongoing, and the occasional clean up, it seems that much of the volunteer work is associated with making SERC ready for visitors.  A number of people expressed discomfort at doing volunteer work related to SERC. 

Bill Zoellick, who is employed as Director of Development for Acadia Partners, explained that for most purposes there is no point to trying to distinguish between Acadia Partners and SERC.  Acadia Partners is the organization that manages the SERC facility day-to-day.  Groups using the Center work with Acadia Partners to make that happen.  There is a cooperative agreement between the Park and Acadia Partners that covers details about who actually pays for what -- but, for day to day purposes, it is all of a piece.

He also explained that Acadia Partners mission -- which is the same as SERC's mission -- is focused on providing the Park with the research that it needs and on supporting natural science education.  The buildings on the campus serve that mission.

He talked about the great need that the Park has for a way to support monitoring projects that can begin to give us a detailed picture about changes in the Park ecosystem.  Volunteers are absolutely essential to this effort.  In Bill's view, this volunteer work COULD be a principal focus for Friends of Schoodic.

This was followed by discussion about how to organize this effort.  

(Subsequent to this discussion, Bill Zoellick and Jim McKenna worked through these issues again and reached the conclusion that staff support is essential to making this work.  The goal over the next year or so will be to raise the money to hire a staff person within Acadia Partners to manage this work.  In the meantime, Kelly Pontbriand, who works with Jim, will work as liaison and coordinator for volunteers.  This is actually a good example of the kind of coordination and cooperation between Acadia Partners and the Park staff in order to build the capacity required to make SERC a success.)

SCA

Nature Valley Grant came through -- they will be working on the Sundew trial.  June 15-29 is the dates that they will be working on Schoodic.

Fence

The Air National Guard will haul all the fence out as a way to practice their long line work.

Facilities

Ranger road will open up around Memorial Day.  Frazer restrooms will open May 15 -- at the point they will be open May 30

Gatehouse

All the shifts are filled. Orientation is on May 20 and will be held here.  June 17 is the second training, with location to be announced. We will also schedule shifts for the Memorial Day weekend -- Saturday, Sunday, and Monday. There was discussion of how to get a slide show running in the gatehouse.

Officers

Ruth announced the nominations, which were for Garry Levin as Chairman, Dick Barton for Vice-Chairman, and Bill Zoellick as Secretary. Tom moved and Nancy seconded a motion to accept the slate and to elect these people as officers.  Garry said that he would be happy to serve as chairman, but would not be the one person who had to do everything. He stressed that his greatest interest was in expanding the group to include new people who are committed to this effort.

The motion passed unanimously.

Garry then offered a challenge -- which was that every one here should bring someone new.

Others suggested that we put up some posters to promote meetings.

Garry asked Tom to get word out to the gatehouse folks to make them aware of the meetings. He also asked the group to focus on getting new people to the meetings -- and to focus on key membership development issues such as the picnic.

Newsletter

Tom felt that we should put out a newsletter. Garry said that he would be happy to support that, but could not become the point person to get the job done. He reminded everyone that being chairman would not mean that all jobs were his to do.  Tom again said that he felt a newsletter was essential.  Garry asked whether Tom could do it.  Tom said that he did not have the time to do it either.

Picnic

There was a brief discussion of the summer picnic, which will take place in the afternoon of July 29.  It was suggested that this would be a good way to engage more people. The group decided that it would plan for the picnic in the June meeting.

The meeting adjourned at 9 PM.