Meeting+2010+Dec+2

Thursday 8:30-10 1214 Jordan Hall, NCSU Campus
 * Wake County Nature Preserves Meeting**

Connors will be away; Hess out sick; Perlmutter out.
 * Attendance Notes**


 * Introductions as needed**

(they've asked for 15min, which probably means 20) 8GARY OR TODDI WILL HAVE DISCUSSION WITH LARRY N
 * 0) Lake Raleigh Woods** - potential for being a WakeNature Preserve - Gary Blank, Ross Sullivan, Jennifer Fortnoy
 * CLASS WILL PRESENT TO LAKE RALIEGH WOODS BOARD
 * PROPERTY HAS TOO MANY TRAILS (8 MILES OF INFORMAL SOCIAL TRAILS, 11 ACCESS PTS ON 72 ACRES) WOULD LIKE TO LIMIT TO 4 ACCESS POINTS
 * LOTS OF INVASIVE SPP PROBLEMS (PRIVET, AUTUMN OLIVE, MICROSTEGIUM, ETC..)
 * PROPERTY HAS SNHA, LICHENS, AND BIRD DATA THAT MAKE IT ATTRACTIVE FROM A WNPP STANDPOINT
 * PATH TO NATURE PRESERVES NOT CLEAR AT THIS TIME WILL NEED TO WORK WITH LARRY NIELSEN, WHO IS IN NCSTATE POINT PERSON FOR PROPERTY, AND THE LAKE RALEIGH WOODS BOARD IF DESIGNATION IS TO MOVE FORWARD

Latest copy with all edits. Your input greatly appreciated.
 * 1) MOU**
 * EVERYONE WILL TRY TO MAKE COMMENTS ON MOU TO ENABLE A FULLER DISCUSSION AT OUR JANUARY MEETING.
 * TODDI WILL EMAIL EVERYONE SOLICITING COMMENTS

Press release Talking points Communication plan
 * 2) Revisit draft press release and consider communications plan for announcement**. Please comment! Thank you Jamie!


 * DRAFTS HAVE HAD SUFFICIENT TIME FOR COMMENTS
 * JAMIE WILL FINALIZE AND HAVE THEM READY FOR OUR EVENT IN FEB.

**3) PARTF grant application** From Meghan: I am currently working on an application for a grant from the Parks And Recreation Trust Fund to raise the funds necessary to acquire the in-holding property at Turnipseed. We have spoken with the owner in the past about purchasing his property, and he is not unwilling to talk business. We are particularly keen to purchase this property, obviously due to its location, but also because the owner has plans to timber his property if we do not come forward with an offer soon. This will greatly threaten the water quality of Mark's Creek and the overall habitat of our lovely Preserve.

The point: General discussion of this current County project and potential official approval from WakeNature members would be appreciated. Letters of Approval and/or Meeting Minutes from community organizations such as WakeNature Preserves Partnership, Triangle Land Conservancy, etc. for this acquisition project are very helpful (the Open Space And Parks Advisory Committee has already made a formal motion to support the project and will be supplying a Letter of Approval).

Attached: the Description and Justification for the project, which is a required and extremely important part of the application (and still has lots of editing to be done), and a map (although most of us are exceedingly familiar with Turnipseed already)

The application is due by January 31, 2011.



Note from Gary P: Sorry I couldn't make it to the meeting, but I think this is a great idea. If acquired, I would like to survey it of its lichens - there may be some interesting species there.

*THE GROUP SOUNDLY ENDORSED THE PURCHASE OF THE PROPERTY TO MAKE TURNIPSEED CONTIGUOUS. WAKENATURE FELT THIS PURCHASE WOULD ENHANCE THE PRESERVATION VALUES OF THE PROPERTY, FIT WITHIN WNPP BROADER MISSION, AND WAS WORTH OF OUR ENTHUSIASTIC SUPPORT.
 * WAKENATURE WILL WRITE A LETTER OF SUPPORT. TODDI/MEGHAN WILL TAKE THE LEAD.
 * THE LETTER WILL BE BROUGHT BEFORE THE LARGER GROUP IN JANUARY FOR COMMENT BEFORE FINAL APPROVAL

The review committee has reviewed the changes to the management plan and have agreed unanimously that it is now acceptable. Therefore, the review committee recommends that Turnipseed Preserve be accorded WakeNature Preserve status. The final plan, comments, and responses from Wake County will be posted for anyone who wishes to review. (Submitted by Hess)
 * 4) Management Plan Finalized? - Yes**

Action item: need to create an email memo, decide on a deadline for vote, and solicit votes.
 * TODDI WILL DRAFT EMAIL AND SEND OUT. WE HOPE TO HAVE THIS FINALIZED BY THE DECEMBER 16 MEETING. HOORAY!


 * 5) Website Design**

From Kaytee: I talked to my sister and she said on average for a basic web design most firms charge between $75 - $150/hour for design time. She said it all depends on what you want and how fancy.

Here are some links to possible web design companies we could work with or inquire about locally:

@http://onwired.com/ http://www.atlanticbt.com/ portfolio http://www.dougbrowndesign. com/

I was thinking at this point we could always do a simple flash intro that links to the wiki until we get more funding.

Another options is to do it ourselves and here are some sites my sister suggested: These are open source content management sites. So while they might not have all the bells and whistles they work well starting off, and maybe NCSU would let us use there IP address as a host site.

@http://wordpress.org/ @http://drupal.org/ @http://www.joomla.org/

Here are some links to flash templates that we could buy or use as example: http://www.flashmint.com/template-demo-1500.html http://templates.entheosweb.com/template_number/25677.asp http://templates.entheosweb.com/template_number/17496.asp

Fro m Shawn: Website: seems to me that you guys would benefit greatly from a CMS System which would steer me towards a wordpress template site. (wordpress doesn't mean it has to be a blog style site)

I would say (without knowing your content expectations) a site for you would cost somewhere between $1500-3000

Let me know if you'd be interested in me bidding to design the site for you

Thanks, Shawn

I didn't tell you why you need wordpress! You need it for the easy to use content management system so that many in the org can update content. Similar to the ease of using the wiki but with much more functionality and design control

Thanks, Shawn
 * SINCE WE DON'T HAVE A BUDGET AT THIS TIME, KAYTEE IS GOING TO DO SOME VOLUNTEER WORK ON THIS. WE WOULD LIKE TO GET SOMETHING UP AND RUNNING WHEN WE ANNOUNCE TURNIPSEED. THAT WAY THE PRESS RELEASE COULD POINT PEOPLE TO THE WEB PAGE, WHICH WOULD LINK TO WIKI
 * WE ARE AIMING FOR A FEB/MARCH ANNOUNCEMENT WINDOW FOR TURNIPSEED

The quote we received from Rodney's still stands. Chris cannot get a discounted price from either the County sign shop or Rodney's. It would be best just to go forward with the Walmart Community Giving application.
 * 6) Signage quote from County**
 * WE NEED TO WAIT ON THE OUTCOME OF THE FULBRIGHT GRANT BEFORE MOVING FORWARD WITH THE WALMART APPLICATION
 * DEC/JAN MEETING MAY BE DEVOTED TO STRATEGIC PLANNING/REVISITING GOALS FROM 2010
 * WE NEED TO FIGURE OUT WHAT ARE PRIORITIES ARE AND HOW TO FIND FUNDING FOR THEM.

From Meghan: Yu-Fai's students were not able to attend today's meeting as they are presenting today, however, some are willing to attend our Dec 16th meeting to present their findings. Yu-Fai is willing to come as well to summarize the groups' findings that will not be able to attend. He says it should not take long.
 * 7) Assessment of Turnipseed Preserve by Yu-Fai's undergraduate park planning class**

If anyone wishes to attend some of the class's presentations to Yu-Fai today, they will be held in 214 Cox Hall between 10:15 and 11:30.
 * MEGHAN IS GOING TO CHECK WITH YU-FAI TO SEE HOW MUCH TIME THE CLASS WILL NEED
 * WE MAY NEED TO MOVE OUR STRATEGIC PLANNING MEETING OT JAN IF THEY NEED A LOT OF TIME. THIS IS THE ONLY WINDOW FOR GETTING THIS INFORMATION FROM THE STUDENTS.