NC Community Gardens Partners Board of Directors Meeting
Session Date/Time: Tuesday, March 26th from 1:00-2:30pm
Location: (888)285-4585 code: 765057
APPROVED: April 23, 2013
Attendees: Lisa, Sarah, Lovay, Darcel (left 2pm), Keith, Mary Jac, Adam, Nicole, Katherine, Diane
Meeting start time: 1:05
Time / Agenda Item / Minutes / Action Items01:05:00 PM / Access Dropbox &/or Google Docs
Toxic Free NC, Lynne Walter
Naming files (see bottom of NCCGP docs) / Lisa reviewed the process to Access Dropbox and explained some of the difficulties of Google Docs.
Lisa advised the board that we would have Lynne Walter joining us at the end of the meeting and asked who would like to stay for the conversation.
Lisa went over the process of naming the docs and the suggestion was made that date with the identification of the documents be used for clarification / Lisawill amend the “file naming format” on bottom of docs to say “[date]” instead of an example date to eliminate confusion
01:20:00 PM / Action Needed: Approve Feb Meeting minutes / February minutes were reviewed and approved by consensus.
Correction was made to spelling of Elizabeth M’s name.
01:25:00 PM / Action Needed: Decision about 2 members who missed 3 meetings in a row / Lisa requested discussion on the bylaw that resigns members automatically if they miss 3 meetings in a row. (Tes and Beth missed the last 3 meetings due to scheduling conflicts; the Feb meeting would have been a 9-10:30am meeting that they might have been able to attend, but because it was all day meeting it threw the schedule off.)
Sarah excused herself from the decision due to conflict of interest (Tes is her supervisor.)
The suggestion was made that if the members had contacted the chair with a reason for the absence and wished to remain with the board, it should not be considered a miss. There was discussion on changing policy to make it more lenient. Explanation given that it was written in bylaws for a reason (mainly if Directors just didn’t show up for meetings) and couldn’t be changed easily. Noted that the policy was lenient in that if a Director knew they couldn’t attend an upcoming meeting, they just needed to let the Board know. Then the Board could make a decision about whether or not to apply the “automatic resignation” policy based on if the Director had a good reason to be excused. Amending the policy is therefore, not needed, just clarification of the process.
Bottom line: Attend meetings. If you can’t, request advanced leave of absence notice so appropriate decisions can be made by Board.
The 2 members in question will remain on the Board. / Clarify “automatic resignation” bylaw in policies document.
01:50:00 PM / Organizational Values: shared document created / Shared doc was created to start discussion on our organizational values. Directors should add their thoughts to this document. It will be an ongoing process we will visit now and again.
/ Directors, add organizational value ideas to document (put your initials next to your comments)
Adam, work on creating an agreed upon definition for “sustainability”
01:55:00 PM / Policies: Open door board policy added to NCCGP policies (needs work still); Review how policies are created / Lisa reviewed NCCGP Policies and Procedures document. Noted process for creating policies, reviewed some Communication Policies, etc.
Discussed addition of Open Board Meeting Policy using wording from PHF. Noted that anyone wanting to attend meetings should given a Board member 1 week notice (and then that info will be passed to Chair). Also noted that NCCGP + public can attend meetings. / Policies and Procedures will be reviewed and approved by Board at future meetings.
02:12:00 PM / Board contract
Guidelines for meetings:
- will we allow substitute/proxy for Board members at meetings? (Refer to pg 22 of BOD Guidebook)
Board contract draft:
Directors should review this and provide comments. Directors will be asked to sign this when they come on to the Board to help increase accountability.
Sarah requested that anyone who reviews document but has no comments write their name at bottom of document so she knows you reviewed it.
Sarah will remind Directors to comment on Board Contract and Meeting Guidelines, compile comments for further discussion, and be in charge of creating final documents. This will happen over the next 2 meetings - April and May. Proposed approval for docs is May meeting. / Directors, review and comment on Board Contract document.
Sarah will remind Directors to comment on Board Contract and Meeting Guidelines, compile comments for further discussion, and be in charge of creating final documents.
02:18:00 PM / Committees & Action Plan Drafts
- Do committee members need to be NCCGP members? (Refer to pg 19 of BOD Guidebook)
- Board member terms: need some 1yr and some 2yr
- Bring new people on to the Board now?
Membership
Development
Education
Policy / Lisa notes:
--- In our bylaws it says this, which we may have to interpret how we wish... III. 11. EXECUTIVE AND OTHER COMMITTEES. The Board may designate from among its Membersan executive committee and other committees. Each committee shall serve at the pleasure of the Board.
--- BOD Guidebook says that:
Committees may include non-board members, but in such cases the committee’s powers should only be advisory
Committee action plan drafts received: Membership, Development, Education
Nicole and Mary Jac suggested that we should have a paid membership requirement for anyone serving on Committees. In that way we would be following the Community Garden idea of paying per plot by requiring a paid membership which also confirms the benefits of membership.
Can’t remember if there was more discussion or a decision on Committee members needing to be NCCGP members. I think multiple people thought they should be NCCGP members, Diane expressed concern, and Lisa was undecided. ~ Lisa
Chairpersons reports will be given when there is information to relay to the board, not at each meeting. The budget report will be scheduled on the agenda for approval by Darcel, the treasurer, after the approval of the minutes.
Due to time limitations review of the committee action report drafts were tabled until the next meeting. / Committee chairscomplete action plan drafts, upload to Dropbox and send to everyone ASAP.
Darcelwill prepare a treasurer report for each meeting.
Lisa will provide comments on draft action plans.
Follow-up on decision about committee members being NCCGP paying members.
Directors, your contact info is online ( If you want anything changed, let Adam know.
Follow-up on questions regarding Nominations Committee.
02:25:00 PM / Reminders:
Send membership application and dues to PHF
Send conflict of interest to Lisa
Send any meeting dates that you can’t attend to Lisa / Lisa read reminders for the membership application and fees and the conflict of interest forms. / Directors, send in the member application and conflict of interest form.
Directors, send Lisa any meeting dates you can’t attend.
02:28:00 PM / Set all 2013 meeting dates
Oct meeting date for Annual Membership Meeting
Jan or Feb in-person Annual Board Meeting / Nomination committee will review the meetings dates. A Doodle tool will be used for the Nov/Dec meeting.
In-person meeting for 2014 needs to be scheduled.
Members contact information needs to be verified on the NCCGP website / Lovay volunteered to do the Doodle tool for the Nov/Dec meeting.
Lisa will take comments on Oct meeting date and Jan/Feb in person meeting date.
2:30- 2:50pm / Lynne Walter, Associate Director, Toxic Free NC to discuss possible collaborations. / Adam, Lovay and Lisa remained on the conference call to talk to Lynne from the statewide agency Toxic-Free NC, previously known as the Ag resource center. She is the Associate Director and they are located in Raleigh, NC. There main goal is to prevent exposure to pollutants, education of environmental cleaning and sanitizing and assisting migrant workers with good agricultural practices. They also provide workshops for Organic gardens, policy and legislative work and justice issues.
We’d like to think of ways to partner with them in the future given they are statewide and are starting a focus on food/ag/community gardens. Last year they partnered with Burts Bees to do a hive give-away for a NC community garden. / Lynne's contact info:
Meeting adjourned time: 02:30 PM
Tabled Items:
Chair/Vice Chair: start creating better position descriptions for Officers and Committee Chairs
Lisa/Website Chair: speak with the PHFoundation's IT person to assist with the NCCGP webpage as needed (find out what happens to nccgp.org if IMP no longer exists, is it backed up, etc)
Board Committee Chairs: Need to define goals (create work plans) for upcoming year
Board: “Sustainability” needs to be defined better
Propose/review Open Board Policy
Meet with partners? (Toxic Free, Resourceful Communities, AHA, etc)
Create new organizational chart.
NCCGP Board Executives and Committees
Officers:
Chairperson: Lisa Valdivia
Vice-Chairperson: Sarah Dixon
Secretary: Lovay Wallace-Singleton, Alternate: Keith Baldwin
Treasurer: Darcel Eddins
Committee Chairs:
Education: KeithBaldwin
Development: NicoleSanchez
Membership: Mary JacBrennan
Nominations: Tes Thraves, Daniella Uslan (member)
Technology (formerly Website): Adam Bigelow
Policy: Diane Beth, Daniella (member)
File naming format: NCCGP_BoD_MeetingMinutes_[date]