WINTONBURY LAND TRUST – January 12, 2014, 52 Duncaster Road, Bloomfield
Present: Chip Caton, Dale
Bertoldi, Patrick Sullivan, Kathy Sullivan, Doris Johnson, Paula Jones, Vikki
Reski, Kevin Gough
1)
November 21, 2013 Minutes were approved with 1 correction
and 2 additional Strategic Goals for 2014 (that had been omitted from the draft). Paula will resend the corrected document to
the Board and Committee members, as well as post it on the Wintonbury Land
Trust blog.
2)
There were no
additional Agenda items.
3)
Committee Reports
a)
Capacity
Building
1.
We agreed that all
original participants in the Organization Assessment should be invited to the
January 16th follow-up meeting with Sharon Danofsky. Vikki will invite Tami Hochman, and Chip will
invite Hannah Roditi.
2.
Chip will coordinate
with Vic Herson to determine the best approach for following up individually
(as needed) with donors who made a 3-year commitment to the Capacity Building
campaign.
3.
Thank you to all who renewed
their memberships, and/or responded to our year-end annual appeal.
4.
Dale Bertoldi and
Doris Johnson will represent WLT at the January 30th Leaders on Board express
match event.
5.
Paula will send out
our current Bylaws for review so that the Board can provide input on desired
revisions at our February meeting. Diane
Mack has agreed to help Paula with revision work once she has a redacted
document ready. Our objective is to have
a revision in 2014 for membership consideration and approval.
b)
Financial (Committee
met on January 9th)
1.
Financial Calendar and
Treasurer Book – Vikki and the Committee are working on a Financial Calendar
and Treasurer Book to document financial policies and processes. The Committee plans to investigate the cost
of hiring a CPA for tax work and guidance about options for systems and financial
review processes. The Committee is
seeking a CPA who has experience working with non-profits. Chip knows someone who might help with
book-keeping work and be able to suggest some CPAs. Kevin will meet with Trish Hazelwood, Simsbury
Land Trust’s Finance and Membership Director, to inquire about SLT’s policies.
2.
The Committee has
begun working on Contribution policies & procedures for accounting purposes
based on Tax Law requirements.
3.
WLT’s 12/31/2013
Balances are as follows: $2,219.26
Checking; $19,005.40 Savings; $133,922.56 Restricted Savings; $1,884.00 stock.
c)
Acquisitions
1.
Evans Parcel – Dale
Bertoldi provided Mr. Evans with the summary appraisal WLT had done.
d)
Grants – Lisa Lane and Hawk
Hill closings: Vikki reported that WLT
has a different attorney working for us on Hawk Hill than on Lisa Lane. Paula requested that Hawk Hill’s proposed
ultimate ownership structure be an agenda item for February. Kevin suggested the Acquisition Committee
discuss this prior to the February Board meeting.
e)
Events
1.
Diane Mack agreed to
work on the Celebrate 2013-2014 event.
Chip offered to contact Duncaster about using space there.
2.
Snowshoeing at
Speer/MDC – February 8th at 10 AM.
3.
Earth Day Celebration
– Doris & Vikki will spearhead this event.
Auer Farm has already agreed to partner with WLT to host a children’s
hike.
4.
Trails Day – Kevin
Gough has already posted the hike description on CFPA’s site. We will repeat the well-received WLT/SLT hike
held 10/26/2013, but reversing direction (starting from the Flower Bridge
in Simsbury, finishing at Filley House in Bloomfield). Along with Simsbury Land Trust, Bloomfield
Leisure Services will co-sponsor, once again providing shuttle service back to
the hike’s starting point. Dave Melesko
asked whether Leisure Services could do more for this event. We should be set for Trails Day (with the
shuttle service), but some ideas Dave suggested might work well for our Earth
Day event, so Vikki will touch base with Dave regarding the Earth Day event.
5.
Bike Tour – Since Vic
Herson was unable to attend, discussion was limited to the possibility of
asking Back East Brewery for some support.
(See f) 4 below.)
f)
Membership/Community
1. Land Trust ID
Project – Chip reported that Robin Sherwood is gathering material to prepare
for their first meeting together on this project.
2.
Newsletter – The articles for January will be Membership
and Part 3 of the 3-part series “New Life for an Old Farm”. Note: The
Journal printed a story “New Life for an Old Farm” in its Jan. 10, 2014 – Jan.
24, 2012 issue. Don Rully used Part 2 of
the series as the basis for the article.
3.
Website – Vikki will
contact Tami Hochman to get some referrals for website work.
4.
Back East Brewery
written suggestions – As reported in November, Back East is willing to consider
supporting WLT as they’ve supported other local non-profits. The next step is to submit a proposal to Back
East in writing. After some discussion,
we agreed that a natural event to consider would be our annual Bike Tour. Chip will discuss this possibility with Vic
Herson.
5.
Trail guide –
Discussion centered on including all town trails if possible. As a next step we agreed that we should talk
to the Town Planner and to the Seabury Trail Committee.
4)
New Business
a)
Next Meeting Dates –
February 19th, March 19th, 6 – 8 PM both dates
b)
Van Otterloo Proposal
– Dale Bertoldi distributed material to the Board for review.
Recorded
by Paula Jones
.jpg)
.jpg)
