MINUTES FOR BEE CITY USA - ASHLAND MEETING
 
March 31, 2016
North Mountain Park Nature Center
620 North Mountain Ave.
 
12:00 p.m. – 1:30 p.m.
 
I.               CALL TO ORDER AND WELCOME
Kristina welcomed everyone.
In attendance-Mike Gardiner, Libby VaWyhe, Shari Shattuck, Kristina LeFever.
Also in attendance for part of meeting Michael Black and Rachel Dials
 
II.             APPROVAL OF MINUTES
1.       Approve Minutes from previous meeting
Mike moved to approve minutes, minutes approved
2.       Review Action Items -
Action items are reviewed.
Exception; Swarm article was in the March edition of The City Source.
 
III.           PUBLIC PARTICIPATION
1.       Open Forum
No public members attended.
 
IV.           ADDITIONS OR DELETIONS TO THE AGENDA
IV.Kate Womack resigned from committee.
Since there are no rules about the amount of committee members are allowed, the decision was made to ask Scott Allison if he was still interested and to open up another application process to find someone else as well.
   Shari will talk to Scott Allison about being on the committee.
   Libby will confirm with Scott and invite him to the next meeting
 
Michael Black spoke about the $1000 budget that was granted to BCU Sub Committee for the budget cycle that ends June 30, 2017. The funds are to be used to promote bees and pollinator projects within the City of Ashland. Michael gave some examples, such as printing, banners and booths at festivals.
 
Michael also said Parks will review how things are budgeted so that next biennium they’ll have a better idea of what we’ll need for next year.
 
Possible uses for the funds include:  supporting “Pesticides People Pollinators and the Planet” conference with sponsorship, keeping funds available for pollinator week, promoting the subcommittee, buying plants and pollinator garden equipment.
 
Libby explained about different types of “sponsorship” that BCU could give.  BCU could either put the BCU logo on a flyer to show our support, or giving financial sponsorship (money). No matter how BCU Ashland wants to sponsor an event we would need to get the commission’s approval first.
 
V.             UNFINISHED BUSINESS
1.       Update on design for sign for BCU-A Pollinator Gardens - Shari, Kristina
BCUA Pollinator Garden signs and price was discussed. Different designs were offered. 
Kristina that a motioned that a 9X12 simple graphic idea should be pursued.
Mike seconded. Approved.
   Libby will do some research into simple graphics designs and provide some alternatives to the group via email.
 
2.       Discuss list of PC-friendly practices to discuss with Parks Maintenance - Shari, Kate
 
Kristina read off a list of desires for Parks Maintenance planting, mowing times, weed abatement without pesticide use. The topic of discussion was how to approach this and how to deliver these desires to staff.
 
Mike suggested a list be made to be REVIEWED by Park Maintenance staff, and then get feedback. Then discuss with commission.
 
Mike suggested maybe making a list and forward to Bruce dickens. Ask for his feedback on these practices. Open a dialog. It might bring up some ideas they haven’t thought about.
 
   Kristina said she and Shari can reword the list so it cultivates an open dialog; such as consider rather than do this.
   Kristina will send to sub-committee for approval then send to Bruce Dickens.
 
Rachel mentioned that it is parks’ practice to only use pesticide as a last resort.
 
Libby suggested that rather than asking Parks to make changes to their basic operation’s or start new projects, instead we could request that they run ideas past the BCU when they start a new project. It would be good to open a dialog, asking Parks, that when opportunities/projects come up, we’d like them to discuss them with BCU for possible alternatives and PC-friendly practices. 
 
3.       Update on Ashland’s IPM following P&R Commission discussion Nov. 2015 – Mike
Mike said the IPM policy is 6 years old, and although they haven’t moved forward, it is time to review.  The commission already has the list of recommendations. The discussion with the commission hasn’t been scheduled but will be before the end of the year.
 
 
II.NEW BUSINESS
1.       Discuss and set goals and objectives for BCU-Ashland and prioritize goals from brainstorming session from April 2015 – Libby
 
Libby suggested that we do some goal setting.  We can group the things that BCU wanted to accomplish and put them under our goals. She felt that for clarity and effectiveness the focus perhaps could be on two specific goals:
 
1-Create Pollinator Friendly Landscapes
2-Educate the Public about Pollinators and their conservation.
 
We could narrow down these goals into two (2) specific tasks under each of them.
Everyone enthusiastically agreed!
 
Libby thought we could bring it up again at next meeting and once we had a full committee.
The group agreed to do a brainstorming and goal setting session at the next meeting.


2.       Decide which BCU marketing materials we want to purchase (see attachment) - Kristina / Kate


The Banner and its cost was discussed. Cost-$54 for 2X6, artwork is $55 per hour. Mike suggest we buy a banner and 25 Pollinator Garden signs.  We have to make our budget last for over a year. He also thought maybe if we put the purchases together with the same vendor we may get a discount.
 
The group decided they would do definitely do a banner.
   Once the graphics for the pollinator garden signs have been decided upon, Kristina will initiate banner development
 
Since Kate is no longer with us the grants discussion was tabled for now. It will be brought up once we have a full committee.
 
3.       Discuss publicity for activities and community program class ideas for Pollinator Week 2016 - Kristina / Libby
In the Rec Guide there are a lot of pollinator community programs, which will be designated with a little pollinator stamp. Libby explained Parks and Rec’s marketing strategy for these classes.  She discussed the Web Calendar and different press publications. Monthly press submissions and weekly press submissions on all the classes that are coming up and we create fliers. We also do social media as necessary.
 
Libby suggested to do a flier with all of the programs on one list. Rachel suggested that Libby email the list of classes to Shari to design a page and distribution.
 
   Libby will send the list of pollinator themed community programs to the committee.
   Kristina said would put NMP related community programs on PPRV website.
   Shari will use the SOBA newsletters to promote as well.
 
   Libby said she’d like to put a nice flier together for pollinator week.
   Kristina will put the flier on Facebook when the time comes.
 
   Kristina said she could put a letter together for the paper with information about pollinator week in June.   
  
4.       Decide whether the Subcommittee will formally recommend replacement of the Council Chamber lawns with pollinator plantings – Mike
 
Mike recommended against doing this right now. Mike discussed instead the possibility that maybe 35 feet of frontage at the Grove as they are changing the landscape and they want to put a pollinator garden there. She suggested they build on that by taking maybe just a portion of the lawn out of the Chamber lawn. He reminded everyone that there could be a price-tag attached.
 
Libby suggested that we consider this as part of our goal setting discussion next time.  If a specific planting area is one of our concrete tasks then it makes sense to move forward.  If you have a concrete proposal, then we could get a grant for it, and show the right people that the money is coming.
 
5.  Consider creating a BCU-A online self-guided list of places to visit.
Put these ideas on hold until we know how it fits into our larger goals.
 
6.       Determine BCU calendar for 2016 - action (see attachment)
 
August Institute was also mentioned as an opportunity for BCU to be involved.

Kristina talked about the calendar.
Libby said it might be possible to meet with Phyllis.
There will be a doodle pull for June and it should be before pollinator week!
 
VII.         OTHER ITEMS FROM COMMITTEE MEMBERS
 
1.       Update on April 15 conference about pollinators and pesticides.- Kristina
The Parks Commission approved BCU sponsorship of the upcoming Pesticides People Pollinator and the Planet conference.  If BCU wants to donate money to it, the donation would come out of the BCU budget. 
 
Shari moved to donate $100 to help Phyllis Styles with her travel expenses to attend the conference. Mike seconded. Approved.
 
Meeting adjourned at 1:35pm