Summary of the Board Meeting Minutes
of February 9, 2008 Annual Meeting - Montrose September 5-7 The Annual Meeting will focus on the Flora of the Adobe Hills. The Annual Meeting will be “Green” producing as little waste as possible at the conference. A fee of $20/person will be charged this year This year both paper and on-line registration and payment will be available. Information is on the CoNPS web site and will appear in Aquilegia. Bylaws: The Co-Presidents and Vice-President are looking at possible revisions to the Bylaws.
Member survey: Approximately 45% of the CoNPS membership responded to the member survey. The results will be summarized in the next Aquilegia and on the web site. Committees Chairs reported the following: Education and Outreach – The committee is requesting that members share digital landscape pictures. Megan Bowes will create outreach programs using these. Volunteers are needed to assist with "meet & greet events". Members of the Boulder Chapter are going to teach some CSU Extension Service Native Plant Master classes in 2008. If you are interested in teaching, please contact Megan. Sales – The current Chair is stepping down; therefore a new Chair will be appointed. The committee needs new Committee members too. The Society makes a fair amount of money through sales and we need to keep the Committee active. Training is available for anyone who would like to assist.
Field trips -A master calendar will be posted on the web site. Chapter field trips will also continue to be posted on the web site and in Aquilegia under the chapter’s name. Since field trips are one way for people to see what CoNPS is all about, the Board voted for a one-year trial period during which membership will not be a requirement for attending field trips. Present Bylaws require membership for participation on Society (but not chapter) Field Trips. To measure the success of this trial, the Administrative Assistant will track results. Chapter reports follow: Boulder: (Deby Stabler) Meetings will now be held at REI. The meeting space is free and will be advertised to a wider range of potential members through the REI calendar.
The new location is larger and will better accommodate Chapter meetings; the previous room was often too crowded. REI also provides compost and recycling bins, which will help the Boulder Chapter reach its goal of zero waste in 2008. Meetings will be held at the same time and days as before. This spring, after two years as President of the Boulder Chapter, Deby will step down. She will announce this to the chapter to begin to search for the next president. Deby plans to mentor the new president and complete certain goals. Deby is excited to bring two groups together again this summer and fall to collect native seeds. She will be inviting CoNPS members and promoting these events held through Wildlands Restoration Volunteers (WRV) over the next few months. WRV’s seed collectors are hungry for botanical knowledge that CoNPS members can provide, and WRV members have lots of energy and great community spirit that will benefit CoNPS. Together, these two groups can accomplish much in terms of native plant conservation and awareness. Metro-Denver: (Megan Bowes) Megan will be stepping down as Co-President. Co-President Vickey Trammell needs assistance for next year’s presidency, September 2008May 2009. She will actively recruit members to be Co-President. A May field trip will be held in lieu of the regular program; trip location still TBD. One suggestion for the trip is to visit a CoNPS member’s native plant garden. Megan will pursue the option of recruiting other chapter members to host garden visits given the success of the native plant garden tours in Boulder at the 2007 Annual Meeting. If any members are willing to show the native plants in their garden, they should contact Megan (303-561-4883). Megan and Vickey will also arrange a series of summer hikes to increase social connections.
San Luis Valley: (Chinle Beaver) Four field trips are planned for 2008. As a new chapter, recruiting members is their highest priority. They will have a booth at the Crane Festival at the Alamosa/Monte Vista National Wildlife Refuge.
Northern: (Denise Culver) Last meeting’s lecture on Northern Colorado Plants by Alix Gadd was excellent and well attended, especially by gardeners, a new member source. The April meeting will be a Tallgrass Prairie DVD movie night with pizza and popcorn. An August field trip is planned. Plateau: No report. Southeast: No report. Southwest: (Al Schneider) The social, potluck, field trip planning session is February 17 with 30 people signed up to attend. John Bregar will present a photo show on the Cacti of Big Bend National Park. The Chapter will have about sixteen field trips this year. Al has arranged three speaking engagements (in Durango, Cortez, and Telluride) to recruit members.