Minutes of Board of Directors’ Meeting, 11/08/11

Parkwood Garden Club
Board of Directors’ Minutes
November 8, 2011

The November 8, 2011 meeting of the Parkwood Garden Club (PGC) Board of Directors was held at 220 Upland Road in Decatur, GA. The meeting was called to order at 7:05. The following officers/committee chairs attended: Tom Bell, Karna Candler, Sheri Kennedy, Rebecca Kerimbaev, Frances Galifianakis and Joanna Quillen.

Consent Agenda
The October 11 Board Meeting Minutes were approved as amended.
The November 8, 2011 Financial Report was approved and filed, subject to audit.

Treasurer’s Report – Tom Bell

• If all budgeted funds for 2011 are spent, the PGC will end the year with a $125.49 deficit. There was no written budget for 2011 from the previous Board.
• The PGC needs seven more memberships to underwrite the proposed 2012 budget. In reviewing the list of those who haven’t paid dues yet, Board members feel confident that this will happen before the Nov. 19 deadline.
• The PGC has two bank accounts, one for operating expenses and one for Park funds.
• All dues and donations were deposited into the PGC Operating account.
• Tom transferred the total donated through the membership drive, $1770, to the Park account on Nov. 8.
• The FDIC closed Decatur First Bank (DFB), the financial institution which holds all PGC funds. Decatur First Bank was purchased by Fidelity Bank. All funds are safe and the PGC can still use existing DFB checks.
• If new policies at Fidelity Bank cause a new check expense or service fees, this will be the time to physically consolidate the two accounts into one. The money would then be separated into “accounts” through a Profit and Loss statement.

President’s Report – Karna Candler

1. Thank you to Carol Hill and Adrianne McVeigh for a very successful Street Party.
   The weather was beautiful and the barbeque sandwiches were a great idea. There was a bouncy castle for neighbors under 5 and a crafts table for older kids. All of the tables were covered with orange tablecloths with pumpkins and wild flowers from the ravine for decoration. The Decatur Fire Department brought 3 fire trucks to the delight of kids and adults alike. The firemen were invited to fix a plate from our pot-luck spread. There also was a small parade of kids in costume to much applause. People lingered for a long time, but the clean-up went quickly because many people stayed to help. We also added 11 memberships during this event.
2. Dumping
   The PGC needs to develop a policy to deal with “dumping” in the creek and park. Rebecca will contact Michael O’Shield, Education specialist with the DeKalb County Department of Watershed Management, to find out to whom these incidents should be reported. Tom will e-mail details of the concrete-dumped-in-creek incident to Rebecca.
3. Coyotes
   On Monday, October 31 several neighbors witnessed a coyote grab a cat from a front porch on E Parkwood at 11:45 in the morning. Despite the owner and two neighbors running after it yelling, the coyote did not drop the cat until it was cornered back in the woods by fences on 3 sides. Unfortunately the cat did not survive the attack. There was also another coyote sighting earlier that morning.
   Animal Control doesn’t handle coyotes. Awareone.org has helpful information and Rebecca will add a link from the PGC website to this organization. Karna spoke with a City of Decatur Commissioner and he said the problem is state-wide. If you trap them, the trappers must release them in the same approximate area or kill them – state law. Not many trappers want to go to the trouble trapping them and then have to kill them. It’s much easier just to hunt them, but that is not allowed in the City of Decatur. If you remove the coyotes it is only a matter of time before new ones move in the unclaimed territory. The coyotes are not a native species and have no natural predators here. They do not fear humans, because we are not allowed to hunt them. Therefore, they are getting more and more comfortable being out in the daytime, or being seen. Christy Kennedy is going to the Decatur City Commission meeting next month to report what happened and suggest that the City better educate residents about the coyote problem. A permanent solution must be found that encompasses the whole state. Karna would love to see controlled hunting of them because the ones that are not killed will learn to view humans as predators and stay clear of them. The Garden Club needs to document the problem. Rebecca will work on the best way to do this through the website.

Proposed By-Laws

Background
The PGC Board of Directors received a copy of the “PGC bylaws, 10-04-11.doc” via e-mail on October 24, 2011 from PGC Secretary Joanna Quillen. Joanna requested that Board members give written feedback on this document by Nov. 1. Frances and Tom sent lengthy responses. On November 2, Joanna sent all board members a copy of Frances’ response, a copy of Tom’s response and Karna’s response to Tom and Frances’ comments. Joanna consolidated all comments to form a framework for the by-laws discussion, which was included in the meeting agenda.

Summary
Changes to the proposed “PGC bylaws, 10-04-11.doc ” are shown using track changes in the document called, “PGC bylaws, 11-10-11.doc.” Each of these changes was made through a specific motion, a second, discussion and a vote. All votes were unanimous except for the vote on Membership being limited to property owners, which passed by four votes “for” and two votes “against.” A motion limiting membership meeting attendance to members did not receive a second so it died.

Standing Committees – Additions to Reports
Neighbor Care– The PGC Holiday Party will be at Averill and Mark Jones’ house, 206 Upland Road. Adrianne McVeigh is heading up this party. Frances will be in touch with Adrianne and more details will be given soon. Karna suggested a cash bar for the holiday party to reduce the expense of this event.

Communication Committee

• Rebecca plans to have the neighborhood directories printed in time to be distributed at the Holiday party. Only memberships received by November 19 are guaranteed to be included in the directory. Sheri will write a “Park Promo” to replace the “Friends of the Park” page.
• Rebecca will automatically enter e-mail addresses into the e-mail distribution list on the PGC website as they are received with the membership information. A member whose address has been added will receive an e-mail notifying them that they’ve been added. The member will then need to go through the “validation” process in order to receive email updates from the website.
•  PGC members will receive one e-mail each month from the website notifying them when the monthly Park Committee report, Board minutes and Financial Report have been posted on the PGC website.

Parkwood Park Committee – Sheri Kennedy – A workday is planned for Saturday, December 3.

The meeting adjourned at 9:07 PM. The next meeting will be held on Monday, January 9, 2012, 7 PM at 220 Upland Road. The primary topic for this meeting will be to finalize the Proposed Parkwood Garden Club By-laws and Proposed Parkwood Garden Club Operating Budget. Issues for this or future meetings include the following:

• Policy for dealing with concrete or trash dumped in the park/ravine
• Civic committee’s plan to promote ordinance enforcement and property maintenance in the Parkwood neighborhood.
• Neighborhood Watch details – how crime is reported and communicated, how Neighborhood Watch and PGC e-mail system coordinate dissemination of information
• Approve proposed Budget and By-Laws in January, 2011