Minutes

In-person meeting: March 7, 2019

10:00 AM – 3:00 PM

Call to Order & Introductions – Emily – 10:13 AM called to order

Attendance

In attendance:

Board: Bob Blum, Emily Spillett, Dave Duncan, Isby Fleishmann
Staff: Nancy and Deb

Absent:

Board: Laura Burnett, Daniel Kump, Gordon Mann, Matt Deines

Example Objectives (for this Meeting)

• Provide updates on efforts and administration to ensure Board oversight of organization.
• Approve the 2019 Budget.
• Determine any revisions to the bylaws necessary for bringing on Regional Council representatives as Board Members.
• Set dates and goals for 2019 Annual Support Campaign
• Identify strategies to ensure engaged Board Members, from on-boarding to regular calls/meetings.

Agenda

Approved unanimously at 10:23 with addition of Communications Plan review, and discussion of Davey advocacy opportunity.

• Jack McCabe, Davey-Utility Line Clearance need advocacy.
• On-boarding for new board members- Nancy plans to make more succinct.
• For April call, add discussion of Board Member roles a priority.

Consent Calendar

Minutes approved unanimously at 11:43.

Discussion topics:

• New Board of Directors list available!
  • Sarah Gaskin will be a Board member, Jennifer X will be a representative of the Bay Area Regional Council.
  • Jason of WCA joining in the summer.
• Nancy met with Cheif Tom Porter of CALFIRE, along with PSG. Interested in having relationship with CAUFC. CAUFC becoming better known/recognized in Sacramento. Best has been $25 for urban forestry from Cap&Trade; looks at staff capacity and limits accordingly. Nancy would like to see staff organization/focus change.
• Shothole borer – Got $5M for shothole borer, but CDFA hasn’t spent so can’t get more. Shothole borer found in northern California. Documented in SLO, but apparently already present here; needs to be documented. CDFA is making a plan.. Tasha X of RCD helping push this.
• Conference will be September 26-28 in SLO! Tour with Matt Ritter on Thursday, Friday will be on urban forestry and climate change. Saturday will be Urban Wood, and tour of mill/project. Have a few potential speakers, Nancy can use committee and speakers. Deb working on graphic; save the date coming soon. Have $10K from forest budget to help cover some costs (not food).
• Budget Report (see Nancy’s notes: 2018 Year End Draft Financial Statements)
• Broke $1M for first time! Surplus of $9K because of some grants now have surcharges for expenses.
• Careful watch on cashflow; typically have $70K in bank, has dropped as low as $35K. WCA doesn’t get paid until CALFIRE pays CAUFC. WCA biggest contractor.
• Educated guesses on big grants for where/when budget will be spent; reason for difference between actual and budget.
• Need to review and renew a contract for the lease agreement; approaching end of 2nd year. Consider need for chicken coop updates. Current rent is a great deal; if changes expect rent to increase.
• Did not do audit last year. Scheduling a 2018 audit. USFS audited in 2017, went back as far as 2012. Need to make sure that auditor is responsive. Agreed that we should use the same auditor. Payroll taxes– clarify how to deal with any tax refunds.
• Regional Council assets need to be updated (done once a year). Bay Area Council has enough to do a great one-day workshop or other event ($4K).
• Circle 1 and 2 in monitoring and maintenance, Circle 3 going in the ground. Some vandalism is happening. Have shifted some funds from administration to tree replacement. Have also improved staking. New head of High Speed Rail will come to an April event; finally paying attention.
• Need to stay under 20% for indirect costs; doing fine. CONFIRM
• 2019 Budget (over $2M!). 2019 Budget and 2018 year-end financials approved unanimously as presented at 11:20.
• Nancy will be preparing snapshot of grant status.

Board Member Responsibilities Orientation

• Website orientation.
• Password (prompted when you enter Board Resources): Ask for password
• Deb to add video and history
• Emily suggests a check-list for on-boarding that makes it very easy to bios and photos (board member page) uploaded.
• Will keep 11am on Fridays for board meetings.
• Communication: Just use website instead of sending documents. Nancy and Deb to make sure we have a good system for downloading/archiving Deb’s Communication Reports.
• Regional Council members will be “at large.” They will be asked to give short (one-sentence)updates on calls. Other dialogue time off of the monthly calls; one spokesperson for calls.

Friend Raising

• What kind of Board members do we need?
  
  • Young professionals.
  • Middle management and business owners.
  • Related nonprofits and community groups.
  • Bankers.
  • Educator.
• Have ~2 seats to fill; need to be strategic/intentional.
• For future, look ahead (ex: “X seats open for 2020”)
• Fundraising training needed; more in-person meetings needed – propose three. Considerations/ideas:
  • North/south/central locations
  • Retreat in fun location
  • Modernizing meeting structure
  • Used to be summer and December; have become moving targets (January was elections meeting)
  • Agendas- all need to have action item review. Discussion of adding objectives to agendas; Isby to share examples. If added, should not duplicate Nancy’s other efforts. Overall goal is engaging Board members on calls.

Regional Council Representatives

• Extensive discussion with simple outcomes.
• Regional Council members will be “at large.”
• Need to add Regional Council Representatives fundraising exceptions to bylaws OR just addressing through fundraising campaign materials/agreements.
• Participants agreed: Nancy and Deb to made sheet distinguishing titles and roles of two types of Board Members. It will be noted that if Regional Council members take on executive roles, they will have to take on fundraising requirements.
• Quorum is currently 33%. Will be increasing from ~3 to ~5. Active participation is necessary.
• Establish “Regional Council Committee,” with one spokesperson.
• Approved at 2:08. Motion to add language to the bylaws providing for removal of a director due to absenteeism. This is the only change to bylaws. Executive Director to draft language and bring to Board next month. General intent – Board member is eligible for removed if they have three un-notified absences in a row or miss one third of the total number of Board meetings.”

Next Steps – Annual Support Campaign

• Presentation of website by Deb. Board members can make adjustments themselves or Deb can help. There are lots of options for how to set up and utilize your account. You have to share links if you want people to see them (not searchable).
• Links will be sent for all Board members.
• Contributors get thank you from CAUFC.
• Scheduling campaign. Next year, Spring push in Arbor Week. In general, plan for Spring and Fall push.
• Spring 2019 dates:
  • All pages set up by next meeting: April 19, 2019.
  • Start campaign (sending it out): April 21st
  • End May 31st, 2019
• Collective goal of $4,000 for the Spring Campaign ($500 per person average). Unanimously approved at 2:47.
• Regional Councils can consider having an event; as can all….
• Consider event in Marin for kick-off.
• Deb to set up pages for new members; Board members to make sure up to date. Nancy to reach out to Matt and Daniel for bios/photos.

Action Items

• Presentation of website by Deb. Board members can make adjustments themselves or Deb can help. There are lots of options for how to set up and utilize your account. You have to share links if you want people to see them (not searchable).
• Links will be sent for all Board members.
• Contributors get thank you from CAUFC.
• Scheduling campaign. Next year, Spring push in Arbor Week. In general, plan for Spring and Fall push.
• Spring 2019 dates:
  • All pages set up by next meeting: April 19, 2019.
  • Start campaign (sending it out): April 21st
  • End May 31st, 2019
• Collective goal of $4,000 for the Spring Campaign ($500 per person average). Unanimously approved at 2:47.
• Regional Councils can consider having an event; as can all….
• Consider event in Marin for kick-off.
• Deb to set up pages for new members; Board members to make sure up to date. Nancy to reach out to Matt and Daniel for bios/photos.

Meeting adjourned at 2:55pm