Hollenback Community Garden Notes for the Final Meeting of the 2007 Season
October 18th, 2007
In attendance: Mark, Cara, John Ryan, Maggie, Mariana, Chad, Frank, Pat, Roma, Ally, Kirk, Suzanne, Stephanie, Charlie, Sarah, Pete, Kate, Andy & Mike
Gardeners!
Welcome to Fall. My apologies for the long and unnecessary delay in getting out the notes to what was a very productive meeting for the HCG. They follow in as close a form to the original as I can recall/translate from my own poor hand-writing.
Here we go:
Memories. All alone in the moonlight...
Gardeners love gardening. And other things.
When asked what one of their favorite memory of the season was, this is what HCG members had to say:
John Ryan liked building his plot on the first workday
Maggie loved her first tomatoes, ever
Mariana loved out on the first sugar snap peas
Chad likes it when people stop by to say hi, remembering a "bad" kid who'd come into the garden, loved it and had come back with his mother
Frank liked digging the hole for the composting toilet. Teamwork!
Ali liked moving the steaming compost piles and then discovering that the smell really doesn't really wash out. Perhaps liked is not the word, learned?
Roma had a blast at the Triple Threat BBQ.
Stephanie was glad to introduce her nephew to the garden, though soon discovered it was no the punishment she had intended
Suzanne loves the stone sitting nook over by her plot.
Charlie breathed a sigh of satisfied relief when the 800 pound compost tub hit the gravel at the bottom of the pit, and everyone stepped back and it was fine. And no one got hurt.
Sarah P. liked Kirk's photographs documenting our summer together.
Peter was excited by the evening of covert gardening that resulted in our new front welcome garden landscaping.
Kate enjoyed the bike tour and enjoys delicious figs.
Mike enjoyed digging the pit and was saved from what began as a horrible day by the Triple Threat BBQ.
Mark will always treasure a vision of Emerson in his biking track suit from the BQLT biketour and loves it when without fail the garden works together and challenges what he things is possible (like excavating giant holes)
Whoo hoo!
- There was then some talk about the t-shirt design. We figure it'll cost about $1,000 to get t-shirts printed. It was decided that garden members will buy their own t-shirts at cost for whatever it is we decide to get. We'll sell the remainder at a marginal profit to help the garden make some money. We will also, as voted at our previous meeting, to use the money raised in the Triple Threat to extend its fundraising power by supplementing the purchase of the t-shirts to sell. John Spinks and Sarah will continue their owrk on the design over the winter. Any one interested in being part of the design process should contact Sarah.
- Our friends at Battery Park Conservancy and Parkside Building Supply LOVED our cookies and thank you note, so a special thanks to Sarah, Lorne and Ally for making them feel the love and our gratitude for their help with the toilet project.
- There was recently a Mid Year BQLT Membership Meeting, attended by Mark, Cara and Sarah. There is a bit of a vacuum of inspiration at the BQLT right now. Like our garden, the BQLT is a purely volunteer run organization, save for one paid Executve Director. The agency is going through a transition, seeking to make the gardens responsible for their own finances, etc. as independent 501(c)3 non-profits. However far away this is from becoming a reality, BQLT is made up of gardeners like us and there was a general acknowledgment that if we as gardeners want to do something about BQLT (which we do) it is incumbent upon us to do so. Currently, nominations to the board are a big issue. There was talk of sending a garden member to each BQLT committee meeting. The meeting times will be posted in the garden shed.
- There was talk about having a compost/plant sale or a "replant your houseplant" type event where we could share or sell our compost with community members in the beginning of next season.
Our Money
Our end of the season balance in our account is $2519.52
There was some discussion at the meeting as to what should we do with it?
Think about it over the winter.
Membership Rules
After much discussion, a very productive Membership Committee presented their ideas for instituting membership rules for the garden. The garden decided to approve the attached (with a vote of 17 in favor and 2 opposed) with discussion to follow about the definition of the following things:
Quorum: what constitutes a quorum at garden meetings?
Open Hours: what will our open hours be, specifically?
How much money does it cost to be a member? (i.e. do we want to keep it at $10 or institute some kind of a sliding scale?)
Sabbatical: we need to work out some of the details of the sabbatical clause in the membership rules to have there be a process in place for emergencies.
- The final vote for the adoption of the new By Laws & Membership Commitment was 33 in favor, 3 opposed and four abstentions. All current members are grandfathered in to the current rules and we voted that the rules will first go into effect at the start of the coming season.
- All in all, this is a huge step for the garden. We had previosly been governed by an old set of vague and generic guidelines given to us by an outside party. For the first time in our history we are now operating under an identity and membership commitment that we have generated and defined for ourselves.
See you all in the spring (and at the grocery store as the case may be) and thank you for your part in another amazing season at the Hollenback Community Garden.
In Hibernation, winter restoration and sunshine
Mike D. (with some additions from Mark T.)