BULLETIN No. 3
March 28, 99
In this bulletin -
Board Meeting Minutes - March 28, 1999
Meetings and Events coming up
General Meeting Minutes - March 28, 1999
Board Meeting Minutes - March 28, 1999 at Swallows Nest
Present were Lois, Loraine, Nancy, Michel, Cheendana, Somananda.
Not present were David, Camaria, Joanna.
Agenda... Letterhead, Brochure, Chapters, Frequency of meetings, Acadia announcement, Newsletter, Next Meeting.
Frequency of meetings ... The discussion was 4 times each year as a general body? Late spring - do a plant swap and perhaps another meeting of the general body in January, more meetings in the winter. So we set the following dates...
- May 2nd - from 9am-12 noon - plant walk with Graham Fisher, naturalist/ecologist. Meet at Swallows Nest at 9 am and we will car pool out to Cape Split hardwood forest to study plant ecology, plant identification, and forest ecology. Bring your questions, good foot wear and appropriate clothing for the weather. We will also do a plant and seed exchange afterwards and have a pot luck lunch together back at Swallows Nest.
- Education/Projects Committee Meeting - May 2 in the afternoon after the Cape Split walk at Swallow's Nest.
- Board Meeting June 13th at 7pm-9pm at Somananda and Cheendana's house - We will discuss our summer overnite field trip as well as do a board meeting. Campbellton was a proposed place to go which is in New Brunswick at the Isle River Bars reservation project.
- Mid to late May for a plant sale/exchange.
- October 3, 1-5 pm meeting and a pot luck dinner in honour of Harvest - Nancy and Cheendana will chair the meeting together. Nancy suggested that Marilyn Walker, an Ethnobotanist could come and show her slides of her travels and studies of the traditional uses of plants worldwide.
- January 23, year 2000, 1-5 pm.
- March 19, 2000 1-5 pm. This would be our Annual General meeting (AGM)
- May 2000 for a plant and seed sale/exchange.
Logo and Brochure ... Joanna even though absent at the meeting has volunteered to do artwork for the brochure. Cheendana will ask her if she would do a logo similar to UPS but using a plant more local to Nova Scotia. We discussed various plants and agreed to use the bloodroot. Somananda spoke about the layout being a 3 panel brochure on 8x11 paper. He is willing to do the layout providing the content is submitted. Lois will work on the mission/committment statement and Cheendana will work on the vision statement. We will use the UPS "Wildcrafting with Integrity" portion of thier brochure. Listing of books and Nurserys in the brochure (and on the website) - please submit names and addresses to Somananda. Riverview Herbs, Richters, Borealis, Bunchberry Nursery (near Upper Clements) were suggested. Perhaps we can copy some of the UPS book list off their brochure. Somananda will do Membership fees and benefits and info on the back panel including encouraging the formation of chapters. Please send in suggestions and rough copy to Somananda so he can put it together and get the rough copy out to each board member before the next meeting (June 13th).
Chapters ... We decided that if chapters are formed that each member of the chapter be a paid member of NSPS, which allows each member to obtain the newsletter, use the brochure, make newsletter submissions plus have the option to sit on the board. We would like to have reports from the chapters and encourage that all chapter members come to the general meetings 4 times a year to help develope a strong community and organization. Cheendana will call Lorelei in Halifax to let them know about the chapter guidelines.
Irving Donation ... The announcement regarding the 30 million donation from Irving Oil to Acadia for the development of an Arboritum has been released. As a plant based group we see that perhaps we could get involved and suggest a medicinal garden be a part of the project. We decided that we need to have our brochure together to send along a letter with a proposal for our involvement.
We celebrated with some of Michel's Rose Petal wine....
Our next Meeting June 13th ... at Somananda and Cheendana's House from 7-9 pm. Agenda... Overnite field trip /board meeting, confirm brochure, confirm chapter agreement, newsletter, articles for East Coast Gardener and other publications, report on Mark Elderkin meeting/information, committee reports.
See you all there !!!
General Meeting Minutes - March 28, 1999 at Swallows Nest
About twenty people in attendance on a very bright warm sunny day. Thanks to all those who came out on such a great outdoor day !!!
Synopsis of Board meeting...
- Registration fees - some registration fees were submitted and newsletters handed out to those who registered. Radio interviews by Cheendana and response from B.C.
- Committees - Education committee - common interests... Slide show presentation - the project is to track plants and take photos in there various stages of growth (early spring, summer and fall) as well as a photo of the overview of the habitat that they grow in.
- Mall Wall in Greenwood - Space is available for photos and information to be displayed. We need a banner - Michel and David will look after the banner part and the invitation is to get a group of people to work on this. It will be easier when we have some of the photos taken. Patricia Dicks (a friend of Nancy Sherwoods) has taken lots of plant photos and it was suggested that we contact her for some of her expertise.
- Mark Elderkin - Loraine had spoken to him before the meeting and invited him to attend. He works with the Dept. of Natural Resources. Apparently there is going to be a committee formed by the Department of Natural Resources to help determine the status of our Nova Scotia plants and other at risk and endangered species. There will be a committee of six people formed and it was suggested that perhaps a NSPS member try to sit on that board as well as it was suggested that a Native person should also sit on the board. Five people agreed to contact and meet with Mark Elderkin to expand on this information. (Loraine, Joanna, Lois, Somananda, and Cheendana)
- Kings Tech Greenhouse - Prasado is looking into starting plants in their greenhouse.
- Plant List - There was much discussion about the plant list and which plants are we wanting to focus on protecting and bringing more awareness to. The discussion was around endangered plants, indigenous plants, at risk medicinal plants as listed by UPS, common medicnal plants. The Coeswic List of threatened plants includes a small list of plants (Gentian, Plymouth golden cress, Pepperbush, Sweet Redroot). Ginni Proulx agreed to examine the list of plants from UPS "at risk" and "to watch" list and verify which ones on that list are native and which ones are medicinal.
- Plant Pressing - Ruth Newell from the herbarium at Acadia University brought her 20 years of experience with plants. She is also part of a group of botanists to help the DNR (Department of Natural Resources) to determine the at risk and endangered species along with Mark Elderkin (the at risk Specialist). Ruth demonstrated pressing plants. She brought along samples (some dated back to 1920!!!) of her pressed plants . Thank you Ruth for coming and sharing your skills and information with us.
- Next Meeting - May 2, 1999 - Graham Fisher will take us on a plant walk from 9-1 pm.
Cheendana and somananda will put a poster together. There was talk about doing a plant exchange
after the walk back at Swallows Nest so bring any plant and seeds that you would like to exchange.
We will meet for the walk at Swallows Nest at 9 am to car pool and then travel to Cape Split.
See you there.
