Agenda

May 2023 Membership Meeting Agenda

Wednesday, May 17th

may-2023-member-meeting-agenda_minutesDownload

Introductions (Kerri and Dana)

  • Welcome!

 Steering Committee for 2023 season

  • Co-Presidents: Dana Skallman and Kerri Brewer
  • Ops: Looking Peter Brown (currently no co-chair)
  • Membership: Liz Wagoner (currently no co-chair)
  • Treasurer: Helen Johnson
  • Events: Alicia Berbenick (currently no co-chair)
  • BQLT Rep: Anastasia Standrik
  • BQLT alternate: Cristina Velez

Covid-19 and the Garden (Kerri and Dana)

  • Hollenback will be open as usual in 2023; we will monitor any Covid-related developments and make changes to our open status accordingly.
  • Gate stays open when members are in the garden.

Membership Committee (Liz): 

  • Membership requirements for a plot or plot waitlist are: Dues & 3 Meetings/ 3 Workdays/ 4 Open Hour sessions
    • Memberships can be in pairs
  • Non-plot membership requirements, i.e. to have a key, are 1 meeting/1 workday/2 open hours sessions each season. 
  • Garden is open Saturday and Sunday, 10am-4pm; gardeners complete open hours during these blocks or during other blocks of time. Open hours get recorded in binder in the toilet.
  • Please sign the bylaws by June 15. By signing, you agree to the Hollenback Garden community agreements. You can sign online or in-person. 
  • Plant your plot by June 15th, or forfeit it
  • New members and being an apprentice
    • Apprentices farm the Margaret Lamar community plot. 
    • If you would like to become a member, sign in and also email: hollenbackcommunitygarden@gmail.com to let Membership know you’d like to become a member. Include your email address, phone number, name, and if you plan to share a membership your partner’s name and contact info.
    • If you aren’t on the listserv for new members yet, email to let us know. 
    • End date for new members to join this season is May 31.
  • Plots
    • We will hold a drawing for the waitlist with apprentices  in July. The waitlist varies every year – about 6-8 people on it now. 
    • Plots are distributed each year in March in order of the waitlist. 

Operations Committee Update (Peter): 

  • A big shout out to:  Dylan, Jeff, Gizella, Sandra, Taylor, Ricky, and Anastasia who jumped in to paint the shed!
  • Seedlings: GrowNYC order delivered and planted! Shout out to Kerri for picking those up for us!
  • Compost Committee
    • Eric & Moss committed to leading this year. Mulch appreciated!
    • A reminder to everyone – chop and sort your organics before placing them in the proper bin… the smaller the better to break down quicker.
    • If you put food scraps in the active compost bin, please cover with a handful of greens and browns. 
    • No meat, animal products or paper.
    • Please put thorny material and invasive weeds into the brown city compost containers for street pick up.
  • Water Committee:
    • Christina & Shana committed to leading this year. Thank you for quenching the garden thirst!
  • Trash Committee – We need some folks to lead this weekly effort.
    • There is a lot of debris in the garden that needs to make it to the curb in addition to our bags of trash, recycling and city compost. 
    • Let’s bundle and stage debris by the front gate for ease of getting to the curb on trash nights.
    • Trash pick up is M, W, F (take out night before Sun., T, Th–trash + recycling) 
    • Please take out if you see it full or or if you grill or add food.
  • Plot maintenance (eg things overgrowing; surrounding pots)
    • Please be mindful of things overgrowing and blocking paths between plots.
    • The small bits of woody debris in the compost area make for good ground cover around the raised beds.
  • There are three, assembled raised beds in the back of the garden ready for a home.
    • If your bed is beat or if you want a second level for ease of access let me know and I can help. 
    • We also have wire mesh that can be stapled to the bottom to deter rats.
    • If you make a double height bed, wood debris can be used as bulk backfill then covered with garden cloth, then soil and compost on top.
  • We have a large delivery of compost coming from BIG Reuse on Saturday May 27th 2 PM. Please come by to help move it into the garden and distribute to your plot and common areas.
  • An order was placed with Greenthumb for soil, mulch, woodchips and wood planks for bed repair. A delivery date has not been confirmed and it may be later in the summer. Volunteers will be needed to move everything into the garden.
  • In the coming weeks, we will be moving our solar panel from Don’s roof to the fence behind our compost bins. Volunteers will be needed to help and we also need a long extension ladder if anyone has access to one?
  • New Bench options for the back of the garden
    • Both use material on hand. Both can be moved around fairly easily for events.
  • Option 1 – $240 budget and probably 2 days effort. 
  • Option 2 – $115 budget and quick assembly.

Treasurer (Helen):

Treasury related questions/Paypal issues: hcgbk.treasurer@gmail.com. Do not email Helen directly.

  • Pay your dues, on a sliding scale from $10-50, by June 15th. Use paypal: @HCGBK, or use paypal.me/HCGBK. Venmo is not an option.
  • Email garden related purchase requests directly to Dana and Kerri for approval (send to Hollenback email above) prior to making any purchases. Once approved and purchased, send reimbursement materials to Sasha.
  • Items that exceed $250 require community vote.  Once approved and purchased, send reimbursement materials to Helen.

BQLT Updates (Anastasia and Cristina):

  • What is BQLT? www.bqlt.org
    • Brooklyn Queens Land Trust: 35 community gardens as members
    • Liability insurance, nonprofit status, city water, maintenance support
    • Protected land
  • Water is on!
  • BQLT Point People: Domica Roberts (BQLT) and Alonso Cordoba (our “Ambassador”) 
  • Emails full of info from BQLT to come!
  • Key dates for BQLT – upcoming events
    • Next General Gardener Meeting: Saturday, May 6th 2023, Garden location [TBD]

Events Committee Update (Alicia)

  • Open Garden event day is June 3rd. Please sign up for any 2-hour slot. There will be a scavenger hunt for families plus an art station to get creative. You’ll get workday credit! Other ways you can help:
    • Start propagating house plants. We will be giving them away during this event. 
    • Consider bringing a baked good for sale.
  • May 20th, 11am-noon (before our workday), we will have Kwesi Joseph, an urban gardens specialist from Cornell, in person to lead discussion and answer any questions anyone has on gardening best practices and plot maintenance. We’ll have bagels, coffee and juice available.

Email Protocols (Dana and Kerri)

  • Listserv purpose; Liz is the point person.
  • Only use listserv email for announcements and events that relate to gardening; ex: BQLT updates, events happening w/ Green Thumb, educational opportunities with BBG, watering requests, sharing gathering info with garden. Please do not reply all.
  • It’s NOT MODERATED so use sparingly.
  • Proposals, ideas, concerns, questions–send directly to Kerri and Dana (send to Hollenback email: hollenbackcommunitygarden@gmail.com) who will share with SC and respond accordingly. 

Season schedule: 

  • Garden Meeting/Workday schedule:
  1. Wed. 5/17 at 6:30pm. Meeting (in Garden)
  2. Sat. 5/20 at 11am. Workday
  3. Sat. 6/17 at 11am. Meeting and Workday
  4. Wed. 7/19 at 6:30pm. Meeting (In Garden)
  5. Sat. 7/22 at 11am. Workday
  6. Sat. 8/19 at 11am. Meeting and Workday
  7. Wed. 9/20 at 6:30pm. Meeting (in Garden)
  8. Sat. 9/23 at 11am. Workday
  9. Sat. 10/21 at 11am. Meeting and Workday
  10. Sat. 11/18 at 11am. Closing Workday
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