Branches & Programs

PARK Branches & Programs
EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE MEETING
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 9, 2004
FORT HUNTER PARK, DAUPHIN COUNTY

President Chris Lessig called the meeting to order at 10 am. The following members were present: President Chris Lessig, President Elect John Spencer, Recording Secretary Judy Houck, Membership Secretary John Mikowychok, Members At Large – Kurt Uhler, Ed Chubb, Sherry Acevedo, Gary Pinkerton

Minutes – The minutes have been posted on the website and were approved as submitted.

2005 Conference Program – John Spencer is our representative to the Program Committee. So far he has two topics – Prescribed Burns and Trail Maintenance. He is looking for quality speakers and necessarily a high quantity of speakers. It was felt that 8 – 10 programs from each branch would be sufficient. This year there were too many sessions per time slot, which resulted in low attendance at each session. If this pattern continues it could affect future speakers because they will not want to put the effort into preparing for a session that only six people attend.

2004 Park Operations School – Wednesday, August 11th – Cabela’s/Hamburg
Thursday, August 12th – Slippery Rock
Chris submitted a proposed schedule for the day. He needs to confirm with Neal about what time we can get into Cabela’s. Registration should start at 8 am. Although there is an arborist convention the same week in Pittsburgh, Chris was able to line up a speaker for each location. Joe Mullen will speak in Hamburg and Vinnie Cotrone will speak in Slippery Rock. They have worked together before and will coordinate their information. Main topics to be discussed are Hazard Tree Identification, Tree Selection and Planting Techniques. Both locations have areas for on-site work. Lunch will be “on-your-own” at both locations. Lunch and visiting with vendors will be from 11:30 am to 1:30 pm. Each vendor will be given raffle tickets to distribute to anyone who visits their booth. Drawings will be held at the end of the day and you must be present to win. Chris has applied for CEUs for the School. Neal is organizing the Dept. of Agriculture talks for both days. Judy will work registration for both locations. It was decided to ask the PRPS office for mailing labels for the Park Resource, State Parks and Community Branches. Judy will develop the flyer and get it mailed out. It needs to be out by the end of the month. Final information needs to be to Judy by Friday the 25th. Chris will also put it in the Update.

Branches – John Mikowychok will develop a new production schedule. He needs articles. Member Profiles – Winter/Spring 2004 – John Spencer; Fall 2004 – Wayne Johnson.

Plan of Work – We have already submitted our mission statements. Objectives are due by October 2004. We need to work on our “needed materials” list for the Institutes. Discussion on the re-defining of the role of branches and districts. Discussion was held at the Board level about having a representative from each Branch attending the District meetings. Not sure that this would be very feasible.

Old Business

Elections – All of the Members At Large have been approved for another term. Their new term will expire in 2006.

Membership Letter – John Mikowychok submitted the “New Member” letter that was discussed previously. It was unanimously approved. John will send the letter to new members that are listed in the Update. It will be sent to students and professionals only, not commercial companies or commission members.

Capital Campaign – Discussion about expanding Outdoor Dream Package to 3 prizes – Cabela’s, Gander Mountain and Bass Pro Shop. John M. suggested raffling a digital camera with a value of $300 - $400. Subject to be discussed in detail at our September meeting.

PRPS Magazine – Spring 2005 – we need to submit a member profile and a feature park or program. Please submit suggestions to Chris.

New Business
Web Pages – Our branch site lists nine (9) topics that currently don’t hold any information. Each Committee Member needs to take an area and supply the PRPS Office with articles, links, and photos, for the site. We decided to have “Branch News” listed as another topic. This topic would include Committee member list, meeting minutes, workshop brochures, etc. The following are the topic areas and the member responsible for it:

? Local, County, State and Federal Parks -
? Turf and Athletic Field Maintenance – Kurt Uhler
? Environmental Education – John Spencer
? Greenways, Trails and Open Space Protection – Ed Chubb
? Heritage Areas – Sherry Acevedo
? Historic Preservation -
? Fisheries and Wildlife Management – John Mikowychok
? Watershed Protection – Gary Pinkerton
? Environmental Issues -
? News – Judy Houck
Chris will contact Lindsay and Neal to see which topics they would like to take.

Growing Greener – Ed discussed this timely topic and briefly explained how the open space funding may be reduced. There are concerns over how far the available money will trickle down. He encouraged everyone to talk to our legislators about it. Currently the battle is between the Governor and the Legislature – increasing tipping fees vs. general fund money.

Announcements –
Next Meeting – Wednesday, September 15th – 10 am – Location to be determined.

With there being no further business to attend to, the meeting was adjourned at 9:15 pm.

Respectfully submitted,

Judy Houck
Recording Secretary

NEXT MEETING – WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 15TH
10 AM – LOCATION TO BE ANNOUNCED