Meetings

 Tuesday, January 28, 2003 Meeting Minutes

Open the Meeting:

  • Mark Meritt called the meeting to order at 7:05 pm.

Minutes of Last Meeting:

  • The minutes of the January 7, 2003 meeting were accepted with no changes required.

Officer’s Report:

  • The Village Green stationery, including envelopes, is now available.  Half was handed over to the Fundraising committee, as they will need to use it for thank you letters and receipts.
  • Business cards are in the process of being created. Need to finalize the design, and then Evelyn Krueger will print them. You can get business cards from Evelyn once they are completed.

Committee Reports:

  • Fundraising Committee:
    • In the process of creating 2 letters. 
      • The first will serve as a thank you letter and a receipt for donations. It will also have wording in it to let the donor know that we assume we have their permission to publish their name on a donor list (without the amount donated, of course). If they do not want their name published on a donor list, they should contact a member of the Village Green committee. 
      • The second letter will be used for fundraising efforts and, with the help of the Outreach committee, will be hand-delivered to local businesses. We plan to divide the village into sections so that the same committee member will visit the same businesses time and again.
    • Evelyn Krueger contacted Stewarts. They requested that she send them a description of who we are and what we are doing. Evelyn did this on January 24th and expects to hear back from them in a week. At that time, Stewarts will let us know if they are going to support our fundraising efforts and, if so, how they plan to help. They will either give us a one-time donation, or they will implement the matching donation program.
    • Also looking into a Preserve NY grant. Paperwork for this grant is due the beginning of May.
    • Briefly discussed using FUNDit to raise money. Through FUNDit, you sell gift certificates for local businesses such as Stop&Shop, Home Depot, The Outback, etc., and earn a percentage of each gift certificate sold. Christina Staubi agreed to get more information if there is interest.
    • Mark Payne (landscaper) mentioned that Columbia County sells packs of small trees for about $20 a pack. The trees are 12-18 inches tall, and there are 10 or so trees in a pack.  We could buy some of these trees, pot them, and sell them to raise money for the Village Green committee.
    • Still looking into memorial donations and will make a report to the group when ready.
    • Jennifer Fivelsdal mentioned that she knows of someone who may be willing to donate mature evergreen trees. They may even be willing to dig up and re-plant the trees for us.  Jennifer will get more information. 
    • We need a system to keep track of our donors, the amounts, and whether or not a receipt was sent.
    • For now, the Fundraising committee should serve as the treasurer, and a report should be given at each meeting.
  • Greens Committee:
    • We will plant 24 trees in 2003 to uphold the Red Hook Village Tree Ordinance. The cost will be roughly $4800.  We currently have less than $200 in our account, so we need to determine how we will get funding for these trees, as we must order them by the end of February if we want to plant them all in the spring. After a short discussion, we decided that we will plant half in the spring and half in the fall. The location for each tree is still being determined. The Greens committee needs to meet again to determine the types of trees to plan.
    • We agreed that we should continue to have 2 plantings per year. One in the spring and one in the fall.
    • In cases when trees are being donated to the Village Green committee, the Greens committee should determine if we can use the trees if, and when, they are offered.
    • Again, we discussed the need to form a separate committee to oversee the Village Hall Landscape project. Before putting the project out for bid, we need to clarify any and all issues.  For example, the plan calls for a brick wall by the fire hydrant. Will this require a variance?
    • Red Hook Arbor Day Observance will be scheduled for May 3rd. A suggestion was made to schedule our spring planting for this day. (National Arbor Day falls on April 25th.) The Outreach committee needs to help determine the type of celebration that we will hold.
    • Apple Blossom Day is scheduled for May 10th.
    • The Cooperative Extension will hold a workshop on Community Landscapes in Fishkill, and someone will be discussing the Street Tree Program. The cost is $50 per head if you sign up by Feb. 4th. We agreed that we should send someone from the Village Green committee. Brenda Cagle agreed to go, and she offered to pay half.
  • Media Committee:
    • Franceska Urbin called PANDA to see if we could get some type of coverage. Waiting to hear.
    • Responsibility for advertising in the RHV water bill will fall under the media committee. We will make sure that we have some type of blurb in every water bill newsletter, even if it is as simple as a tree fact and the website address. The next water bill will be distributed in April, with a mid-March deadline for submitting information. We need to mention Arbor Day Observance in the next newsletter.
    • In the process of creating a list of media contacts, which will include newspapers, radio stations, local cable stations, etc.
    • Mark Meritt suggested creating a display out of our archived photos, which can be used for presentations, events, etc.  Although the media committee is responsible for the archives, this project should fall under the Outreach committee.
  • Outreach Committee:
    • The Bard College dinner is scheduled for Tuesday, Feb. 25th (in lieu of our February meeting). Joanna Fivelsdal will be sending e-mails to organize what is needed for the presentation. Each committee should prepare a statement.  Suggestions on how the Bard Students could get involved with the Village Green committee include helping with the beautification of Abraham’s Park and Memorial Park.
    • A suggestion was made to hold an info night for the Red Hook community, similar to the Bard info night.
    • Joanna had contacted the advisor for the RH High School Honor Society. The group is interested in getting involved with the Village Green committee. Joanna will speak with them at their February meeting. A suggestion was made to get them involved with raising funds and creating the “thermometer” to track our fund raising efforts.
    • Jonathan Fivelsdal is going to set up a table during lunch at the Red Hook High School to let students know about the Village Green committee. He is hoping that it will generate interest.
    • No activity yet on planning Arbor Day or Apple Blossom Day.

Old Business:

  • Reviewed the To-Do list.

New Business:

  • The Garden Club asked the Village Green committee for help with the Memorial Park garden.
  • Greens committee should have list of all possible projects on deck so that if/when we receive offers of help, we have projects for them.

Motion to Close Meeting:

  • Christina Staubi made a motion to close the meeting at 8:45. Karen Cadorette seconded the motion.

 

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