Archive for March, 2016

6 March 2016 Officer’s Meeting

Friday, March 18th, 2016

Southwark/Queen Village Community Garden
Executive Committee Minutes
Sunday, March 6, 2016
Home of John Ventre

Present
John Ventre, Thom Hardenbergh, Suzanne Schecter, Janice Chorba, and
Isabelle Buonocore

March Garden Meeting
• Date/location: March 14 – Weccacoe Playground Building; 6:30 pm start.
• Email to gardeners: John will compose email notice and Janice will attach bylaws and signature sheet. NGT agreement signature needed from new gardeners only.
• Dues: Suzanne will collect dues at the meeting
• Water sign-ups: John will create lists for warm and cool months starting 4/11. Need 4 volunteers per week.
• Attendance sign-in: Isabelle will provide sign-in sheet
• Agenda: John will prepare.

Dues/Financials
Dues for 2016 will be kept at last year’s amount: $35. Suzanne provided financial info in 2/28/16 email to executive committee. We have about $9,000 in the bank. Of that, $2,000 is reserved for rainy day fund. Income in 2015 was $4,150; expenses $3,400. Suzanne has mailed the standard donations.

Possible expenses/projects for 2016
1) Sidewalk is in bad shape. Repairs will be expensive. John will take photos and send them to NGT as NGT has liability if anyone is injured. Janice learned at an NGT meeting that other gardens are also having sidewalk issues.
2) Arbor needs work. NGT offered to do the arbor work. We could do this ourselves. If we do the work, we won’t have expenses because we have all the material.
3) Power washing/staining of buildings/structures. Thom or his neighbor can do the power washing. Need to buy the stain.
4) Paths. Some paths, especially west entrance, are very high due to build up of wood chips, etc. We might be able to clear/lower the paths during clean-ups. No cost if we do the work. We should ask gardeners if there are high paths near their plots and if they are a problem and then address them.
5) Alternatives to chips for paths. John asked NGT for this in an NGT survey of garden needs, but there was no response.

Contractors
NGT asked for the name of contractors we’ve used. NGT is developing a reference list of contractors. We haven’t used any contractors.

Bylaws
The recommended revisions to bylaws could not be voted on in November 2015 because we did not have a quorum. We should hold the vote at the April meeting; the March meeting will be too busy.

Water Turn-On Date
April 4, 2016.

Warning Notices to Gardeners
Isabelle will email 11 warning notices to gardeners who did not meet bylaws requirements in 2015 to attend 5 meetings and 5 cleanups. The notice is a warning that if the requirements are not met in 2016 the gardener may be asked to leave the garden.

Available Garden Plot
Plot 63 in the back row is available. John will determine if any gardeners want to move to this plot. Isabelle will then call folks on the waiting list to offer a plot. There are currently 82 persons on the waiting list.

New Officers Slate for March Election
At this time the only candidates are Mark Raymond for Vice Chair and Isabelle Buonocore for Recording Secretary. John will work on getting a full slate for the March meeting. If there are any officer positions without a candidate by the March meeting, John will let the garden membership know what will not get done without that position filled; current officers will not carry over. Helper gardeners cannot be candidates for officer positions.

***end

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14 March 2016 Minutes

Friday, March 18th, 2016

Southwark/Queen Village Community Garden
Minutes
March 14, 2016

1. From 6:30 to 7:00 pm, gardeners signed the attendance sheet, handed in their bylaws’ signature page, gave treasurer their dues of $35 per plot, and signed up for two watering weeks — 1 cool week & 1 warm week.

2. Welcome. At 7:00 pm, John welcomed everyone to the first meeting of the 2016 garden season. He said 2015 was a successful season and he thanked those who came out for the barbecue.

3. Treasurer’s Report. Suzanne reported that last year’s income and expenses were about the same. She will provide details and actual figures in an email to the gardeners.

4. Chair’s Report, Part I – Thom.

a. Water. Will be turned on April 4. April 11 is the first watering week, which means all barrels will be filled that week. Thom will check water pressure. He’ll also check water usage throughout the season. A new water meter was installed last fall.

b. Major project this spring: power wash & stain garden structures/buildings. Thom will ask Mike Chobert to do the power washing for free. Garden volunteers are needed to do the staining. The garden will supply the stain.

c. Thanks from Thom. He completed his term as Vice Chair and thanked everyone. He plans to continue working in the background.

5. Chair’s Report, Part II – John.

a. Renegade Theater Company performance in garden, May 8-9. John reminded us that we voted last fall to allow this theater group to have a performance in the garden. It will be for 2 evenings. Readings will be performed at different stations throughout the garden, and guests will be served cocktails and listen to the readings. Michael Durkin, the Creative Director is looking for garden volunteers to serve as liaisons to the theater group and to be available in garden plots during the performances. An objective of the play is for guests to see an active garden. Please contact John if you’re interested in volunteering.

b. Bylaws. We did not vote on the revisions to the bylaws in November because we did not have a quorum. We’ll vote on them in April.

c. Watering Duty. John Keisker is back as Watering Captain and reminded everyone to sign up for 2 weeks of watering duty. Everyone should be signed up so that he can post who is working what week before the water is turned on April 4. He’ll post information in the shed and on the website calendar. He’ll also email a reminder to the group volunteering each week, and he’ll assign a person to take the lead to coordinate watering for the week.

d. Clean-up. Our first monthly clean-up will be Saturday, March 19, at 9:00 am. The current and new officers will establish the task list.

e. Yvonne. Yvonne has been ill in the hospital. Garden volunteers from City Harvest will help care for her garden plot. Please contact Janice Chorba if you have further news of Yvonne.

f. Thanks from John. He completed his term as Chair. He thanked everyone and wished the best for the new officers.

6. Move Bee Hives. We lost 3 hives over the winter. Carolyn and Scott explained that we’ve had little success with hives for the last 3 years and the most promising solution is to move the hives to a location with full sun. Additional steps include buying a nuc and a northern queen.

A motion was made and carried to keep two hives near the honey house and to place two hives near the mural wall. Carolyn will contact the owner of the house with the mural wall. To date, Carolyn has purchased 2 packages ($105 each) and a nuc ($150). She hopes to purchase a northern queen for the garden.

Karyl advised gardeners to make sure plants we purchase for our plots are organic, that they don’t contain pesticides. Lisa mentioned that Greensgrow Farms/Nursery, in Kensington, sells plants that are pesticide free.

7. Election of Officers. We elected the following officers for 2-year terms:
Chair – Shanna Flanagan
Vice Chair – Mark Raymond
Treasurer – Ed Mitinger
Recording Secretary – Isabelle Buonocore

The position of Communication Secretary is still unfilled. Janice will help out while we seek to fill the position.

The new officers will find persons to fill the row captain positions.

The meeting adjourned at 7:50 PM.

Minutes by Isabelle Buonocore, Recording Secretary

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14 March 2016 Agenda

Friday, March 18th, 2016

SWQV Community Garden Meeting Agenda. March 14, 2014 @ 6:30 pm

Please come with by-law sheet signed (see attached).  This will save time and move things along.

1. Pay Dues, Hand in By-law Signature page, Sign-up for water 6:30-7:00

2. Welcome to the 2016 Season (1 Min)

3. Treasurer’s Report (Suzanne – 4 Min)

4. Chairs’ Report Part 1 (Thom – 5 min)

- Water turn on

- Recap & Thank you

5. Chairs’ Report Part 2 (John – 5 min)

     – Renegade Company Play – May 8th and 9th
     – (Amendments to By-Laws)

- Recap & Thank you

6. Proposal to move of Bee Hives – See earlier email below (John and Carolyn -15 mins)

Current options:

  1. Move hives out to where the patio benches are.  These are the benches that are tucked behind the picnic tables.
  2. Place the hives into an open plot, suggestion being the plot opened by Jarred and Kristy’s departure (back row. plot 63).  The hives would go towards the back of the plot, partially under solar panels.
  3. Move the hives to other location(s) in the garden (e.g., near/at berry batch along main path)
  4. Don’t move the hives this year and revisit issue in 2017.

7. Election of New Officers (John – 10 mins)

Chair:                               Shanna Flanagan

Vice Chair:                        Mark Raymond

Treasurer:                         Ed Mitinger

Recording Sect:                 Isabelle Buonocore

Communication Sect:         OPEN

8. New Officers introduce themselves and close out meeting (15 mins)

 

Previous Bee Moving Email:

Gardeners –

It appears that they have lost two hives and most likely will lose at least one more (out of four).  That is about the same loss as last winter which was very cold, compared to this year.  While it was a tough year for bees throughout PA (around 50% loss rate) this has been the third tough year for our hives.  The bee keepers think that the location of the hives does not get enough sun.  They have a few suggestions:

 

  1. Move hives out to where the patio benches are.  These are the benches that are tucked behind the picnic tables.
  2. Place the hives into an open plot, suggestion being the plot opened by Jarred and Kristy’s departure (back row. plot 63).  The hives would go towards the back of the plot, partially under solar panels.
  3. Move the plots to other location(s) in the garden
  4. Don’t move the hives this year and revisit issue in 2017.

The cost of not moving the hives is if current location is the issue we can expect a spotty hive success into the future.  This would mean a cost of restarting hives on semi-regular basis that could run as high as $300 a year and we would not reap any sales as we wait to see if the new hives survive for a full year.

Of course, the cost of the moving them would be an inconvenience to some or all gardeners.  If moved, we would like to do so that minimized the inconvenience to gardeners.

It is important to understand, these are not final options, nor decisions.  Other options have already surfaced since I started this email.  We have a little time and we could convene a group to develop a list of options agreeable to key stake holders, including the bee keepers, to be presented for vote in April (new hives would need to be started before May, so location(s) need to be established).

Anyone who wishes to discuss either prior to the meeting or after can call Carolyn (267-254-9627) or myself (215-850-0605).  This will be on the agenda to discuss on Monday and while I would like to take a vote on an action, it appears likely that it will be postponed until April’s meeting.

–  Southwark Queen Village Community Garden

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