EVII BOARD/MEMBERS MEETING - MARCH 25, 2015

Members attending:  Valerie Rockney, Wayne Gustafson, Phebe Gustafson, Lisa Ripperton, Judy Leaf, Pat Evans, Bill Goodman, Francis Vanek, Jeff Gilmore, Fred Schoeps

1. Talk-About - Membership:  Talked about what is important to members, answered questions about membership, planned additional outreach to village residents so that everyone can intentionally take the opportunity to join or not.   

The possibility of inviting neighbors and build relationships via a dinner or an open house was well received.  

Looking at date for land partnership folks and the board to get together and share perspective.  Possibility is first hour of next meeting in April or at a committee meeting.  In talking with each other we concluded that members had lots of questions about what the bylaws say, e.g., how decisions are made.    

Some ideas that were shared about possible initiatives:  the importance of looking at developing the land for additional food production; the importance of wildlife and biodiversity;  developing an acre to demo a permaculture garden possibly in conjuction with the Finger Lakes Permaculture Institute;  developing a financially self-sufficient center at corner of West Haven and 79 that could serve multiple purposes - events, education, conferences, demonstrations.  Look at modeling renewable energy projects on the site.

We discussed engaging members in a 'revisioning' -- to serve in developing/refreshing a land use strategy 

Several times members emphasized the importance of on-going transparent communication to enable folks to plug into opportunities/projects and to keep the decision making process transparent.  

2. Old Business:  City Lights - build environment folks will keep open communications and keep board and membership apprised on status.  An EVII negotiations team will be formed if and when required.

3. New Business:  Possibility through USDA to generate revenue for some parcels of EVII land.  Bill and Fred will do the work to assure we are registered to take advantage of such an opportunity.  The group discussed that we will have to develop a budget.  Currently EVII expense includes taxes on the land, tax prep service, insurance, fees.  Jeff made the point that EVII is responsible for leasehold maintenance and a few years ago we needed to spend several thousand dollars. 

Organizing:  Reviewed composition of board and desire to grow the board.  Bylaws call for 2:1 ratio of non-residents to village residents in terms of board membership.  Our plan is to enroll two non-residents to fulfill this requirement and the requirement for seven as minimum number of board members.  We currently have six board members: 4 non-residents and two residents.  We then talked about the possibility of a team of two folks from each neighborhood sharing one residential seat on the board.  This would get more residents engaged.  Names of several neighbors that live on adjacent land were identified; good vibes from those members that know them.  Francis is going to initiate contact.

We also talked about organizing so that the board and committees are interlinked  by having a board member on each committee, i.e., a board member be part of the land partnership committee and the build environment.  It also makes sense to have one person be part of both of these committees to cross-link these two core committees about land and development.  The dynamic governance model was referred to by Pat Evans as a systematic way to empower, maximize quality communications and enable individuals interested in contributing to be engaged.  It makes sense to intentionally incorporate what would help us operate effectively.

Next EVII Board/Member Meeting - April 22, 2015 - 6:30 to 8:30 pm - Frog CH

Please feel free to add comments/edits.  Thank you.