Rogue Gardeners of Josephine County MeetingNovember 10, 2017
Attendance: Linda Dean, Alyce Evert, Carolyn Farias, John Farias, Jim Finley, Susan Finley, Julie Kaszuba, Jean Kitchen, Charlie Newsom, Lesley Orr, Lori Pernarelli, Peter Pernarelli, Breezy Schallheim, Mark Schallheim, Pat Siler, Hank Smith, Linda Smith, Ida Toro, Pamela Zaklan, Karen Zoufal.
John welcomed everyone to the meeting and discussed the reasons that a new club was being started. “We are not in competition with the Master Gardeners. This club wants to go in a different direction. One goal is to be active in community gardening activities, which doesn’t require a teaching aspect. Also we will be able to select what projects we want to undertake. And lastly, we want to have fun doing these activities with the friends that we have met through the Master Gardener program.”
A group met to discuss these issues and decided to ask more people to get involved. A name and a logo were selected and a website was instituted. A Mission Statement and Operating Procedures were formed. We want to be a non-profit, tax-exempt organization supported by dues, fundraisers, and donations. Our common objectives are to support the community, to assist any member in temporary need with gardening work, and fundraising projects. Dues will be collected annually in January with a cost of $20 per individual or $30 per couple. If dues are not received by March 1st, the membership will be withdrawn and an exit interview will be requested.
Governing Body: It was decided to have a governing body consisting of a Club Chairman, Project Chairman, Social Chairman, Secretary and Treasurer. It was decided thatinitially John would be Club Chairman, Peter- Project Chairman, Charlie- Social Chairman, Lori- Secretary, Julie - Treasurer and Carolyn- Communications.
Currently, Lesley is researching local banks and their account requirements and Julie is researching non-profit requirements. We plan to have meetings once a month in a local restaurant and it was suggested that we could consider meeting at members’ homes or in a local park during the summer months. An annual planning meeting will be held in October or November. We will try to abide by Roberts’ Rules of Order. It was also decided that the governing Body has the same voted as the members. Projects will be discussed at meetings and voted upon to see if this is something that we want to undertake.
Discussion:
Charlie will approach the County Fairgrounds to address a possible partnership in helping with their horticultural needs. We may be able to assist with maintaining the Flowerbeds or other Fairground gardening needs.
Other businesses may sponsor us in return for a gardening demonstration such as plant seeding or plant division. In the past, Fred Meyer wanted the Master Gardeners to consider providing a demonstration quarterly. Isaac Whaley, the Garden Manager, has left Fred Meyer and is now at the Grange Co-Op. He has already mentioned that he would be interested in helping our club.
A suggestion about taking a corner in town and improving the landscape also brought concerns about stepping on other organizations’ toes and about labor issues. We want to start small and not over commit. We may want to do a project and then be done with it or review it periodically.
A question was raised if we need to contact the City, County Parks and Rec, or Schools for projects or do we come up with ideas and then go to them.
John reminded us that whatever the project is, whatever the financial impact it will have on us, will require that we need to vote on it.
Pam suggested that we focus on the community businesses. They may bring projects for us to do and may fund it. We do the project and they maintain it. She suggested mentioning it to local Rotary Clubs who provided funding for community connections.
Someone suggested sharing activities with other clubs. Susan suggested that we look at SustainableRogue Valley( sounds like their focus is what we want to accomplish. They assisted in creating the RainGarden at RCC.
Lesley suggested helping Habitat for Humanity (grantspasshabitat.org) with landscaping a new home. Do it once and then we are done.
A question came up about the size of the club. How big should it be? How do we recruit? Ida suggested to leave it as is and as we progress then we can add new members.
Alyce asked if our project needed to be just gardening related. We may want to consider projects that enhance thearea like painting fire hydrants, or improving school playgrounds, as examples.
Liability insurance issue was discussed. If we do something at the Fairgrounds, will they pay the insurance? A quote of $500/year was mentioned but the charge is member dependent. If we do a project for any business, will they cover the insurance?
Susan stated that we should have a Memorandum of Understanding for each project and have specifics spelled out.
Ida asked if we should have correspondence with different organizations to let them know that we exist and would they be interested in sponsoring us.
Pam stated that the sidewalk area and center aisles at the Growers’ Market looks like they could benefit from some help. We could work on it and put signage recognizing our club.
Carolyn asked Charlie if there was a Botanical Garden area at the Fairgrounds. The Main House needs landscaping work. We could consider drought resistant plants, native plants and succulents. Karen asked if the Fairgrounds isa safe area for us to become involved in with the recent article in the newspaper discussing selling the property to build a hotel. Charlie thinks that it is safe, for now, especially since Dutch Brothers is investing so much money into the Grants Pass Downs project.
In conclusion, it was decided not to collect dues at this time. Also, that the club needed an address and that we need to be able to hand out receipts.
Next meeting, Friday, December 8th at Elmer’s at noon.