Meeting+2011+Jul+21

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

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Present: Steelman (presiding), Hess (notes), Perlmutter, Sullivan, Snow, Lobsinger
 * Attendance Notes**


 * Continued discussion of priorities, meetings, committees**

At the Jun 16 meeting, we talked about our priorities and direction and arrived at the following proposal for further consideration and discussion.


 * CREATE THREE STANDING COMMITTEES**

To respect the constraints some of our members are feeling with respect to resources and the fact that we meet twice a month, we are considering going to a committee structure and meeting less frequently. The proposed standing committees are aligned with our mission statement/goals to keep us on track. They are:


 * 1. Inventory committee:** Consonant with our goals to ...
 * identify and designate as “WakeNature Preserves” protected open spaces in Wake County that contain important ecological or geological resources or meet other criteria that qualify them for this distinction;
 * create more public awareness and appreciation of our highest quality natural areas in Wake County;

... this committee will develop a list and maps of the highest quality natural areas in Wake County - those that might ultimately be designated as WakeNature Preserves. For each area, the committee will catalog its status, including what natural resources are on site, whether or not the area is a WNP, has a management plan, is being stewarded, is accessible to the public, and so forth. Once we've identified these places, we might bring together the municipalities they are in for another round of capacity-building workshops.


 * 2. Promotion committee:** Consonant with our goal to "create more public awareness and appreciation of our highest quality natural areas in Wake County," this committee will develop a website that highlights the natural resources of WakeNature Preserves as they come on line. The website will also highlight the places identified by the inventory committee, and their status. This site will be separate from the wiki and have higher-level production values. Fundraising, marketing, signs, and grant-writing are part of this committee's duties.

... this committee will develop a list of people willing to devote time to developing nature preserves, including how they are willing to help. We'll make sure to let people know that they may not hear from anyone for a while.
 * 3. Capacity-building committee:** Consonant with our goals to ...
 * develop the organizational capacity to conduct natural resource inventories on and develop management plans for Preserves;
 * develop an organized, volunteer base of citizen-scientists to monitor Preserves.

WakeNature Preserve proposals (i.e., when an agency asks for WakeNature designation) will continue to be handled by ad-hoc committees created to deal with proposals as they come in.
 * AD HOC COMMITTEES**

We appear to be converging on the idea of moving to monthly meetings. There was no discussion of the timing or rotation of those meetings. Current options are to move to 1) monthly, 2) once every two months (bi-monthly??), 3) quarterly.
 * MEETING SCHEDULES**


 * Pros:** we don't need to meet as often given where we are in the maturation of our organization, conserve scarce resources, get work done on wiki/use meeting times for essential discussion, potential to increase membership at meetings if we have fewer
 * Cons**: will people come to the meetings? will we lose some social capital? will people actually work in committees in between meetings? potential to be meeting-ed to death if you are on several committees

Leigh Ann voiced a preference for 1st Thurs instead of 3rd Thurs due to conflicts in her schedule.

From Kacy Cook (WRC): Hi Toddi and George, I am committed to the Chatham Conservation Partnership meeting tomorrow. Sorry this will be one WNP meeting I will need to miss. Regarding your meeting schedule, I have no conflicts with meetings on the first Thursday of the month. I think the most appropriate place for me may be in the Inventory Committee. When we get to the point of doing a Green Growth Workshop for Wake County, we as WRC will have needed to contribute to building awareness among the public of the value of conserving biodiversity. One of the things we have learned from over 50 GGT evaluations from planners is that they need this type of support in order to be able to put more policies in place that would conserve wildlife habitat.


 * NOTES**
 * Steelman reviewed this agenda item for the group, which was largely difference from the group that discussed at the last meeting
 * Perlmutter, Snow support monthly meetings and like committee structure
 * Snow noted that committee structure allows people to work in areas more closely aligned with their "day jobs"
 * People would self-sort to committees and each committee would have a chair and their own set of meetings
 * We will move to monthly meetings on first Thursday of each month
 * Steelman will head promotion committee
 * Lobsinger will head capacity-building committee
 * Perlmutter will head inventory committee
 * For 4 Aug meeting, each committee chair will come with a list of members / potential members and a rough outline of what the committee will do


 * UPDATE: Raleigh City Council postponed it's decision on Nature Preserves until a July meeting**, either the 5th or 19th - either way, we should know what happened by today. See News Archive for information from City Council's 21 June meeting.:

From Dick Bailey (via e-mail) I wanted to let you know that the City Council approved the report and recommendations from the NPTF at the Council meeting yesterday. Thank you for all the great teamwork and effort that went into this landmark document. I know that City Council was very pleased to approve these recommendations. We can now begin the follow up work and implementation of these recommendations. Thank you, your efforts will continue the work to make Raleigh Parks and Recreation one of the most comprehensive and progressive system of parks in the country. I look forward to continuing this outstanding start. Dick


 * No notes** - just a quick overview.


 * MOU Update**
 * TLC has signed.
 * Wake Soil and Water Conservation District signed
 * Natural Heritage has signed
 * Museum of Science is still thinking it through
 * WRC will **not** sign - questioning the appropriateness and need of this formal arrangement


 * NOTES**
 * Steelman will follow up with Museum and WRC

Record your service!!! If you haven't taken the time recently to report your service please do so soon! Thank you!!


 * Turnipseed Research Outreach**

From Gary Pelrmutter - in June I presented a research poster on my lichen survey at the American Bryological & Lichenological Society annual meeting in Roan Mtn, and again at the NC Museum of Natural Sciences. No awards were won, but it was well received. Also as of this week I submitted my formal report for publication in the cryptogamic literature, highlighting the high lichen diversity for a relatively small area, including one new species to science, a family new to North Carolina and a state-listed rare species. The poster is available as a pdf - do we want to post it here?


 * NOTES**
 * Perlmutter reviewed the meeting
 * Perlmutter will send Hess a link to the poster for a news item post


 * Other Updates**
 * Snow: Consultant doing the planning for Turnipseed has been on property several times. They have received the data collected by WakeNature. John Connors is representing WakeNature on the committee working on this.
 * Wake County's Natural Resource Database System goes live next month