Present: Board members Fred Woods, Rick Paul, Mike Whalen, Jerry Harmon,
Dick Althouse and Jim Schafer.
Minutes
and Treasurer’s Report: Fred opened the meeting at 7:00 pm at his
home. Mike moved to approve the minutes from the April meeting. Fred
seconded and the motion passed unanimously. Rick P had previously emailed
his treasurer’s report. He noted that he had recently received a lot of
checks. The donation amounts were as high as $250 and along with many other
amounts deviated from the standard amounts as suggested on the Daley Ranch
website and newsletter for the purposes of donating and membership. This
led to a short discussion that Rick M’s recent efforts in the area of a
membership campaign which included his fundraising letter had in fact been
very productive so far. The board sincerely thanks Rick for doing this.
The letter was recently mailed to everyone on our database who had not
donated in more than a year. It was clearly felt that this led to the
recent surge in donations. Rick P also noted that the recently created
Paypal account was both working and generating new donors that had not
previously donated to our organization.
School
Visits: All twelve 7th grade
field trip school visits to the Ranch have been successfully completed.
Fred’s mastery in the logistics in accomplishing this endeavor was nothing
short of impressive. The countless hours of all the volunteers, including
our own Rick M, the ranger staff and teachers made this a highly successful
and rewarding experience for the students. Fred has utilized approximately
$15,900 of the original $17,500 grant so far in funding these trips. All
accounting is not yet complete. He plans on having a preliminary accounting
on or around May 30th.
The final and official accounting is due in October. The board wants to
once again thank the Escondido Chartable Foundation for funding these trips
and hopes that the Foundation members themselves also feel a deep sense of
pride in what was accomplished in the hearts and minds of the students of
Escondido.
Utility Building Restoration: Dick has permits for the Foreman’s
Quarters building restoration!!! He has been talking with Tony Smock
regarding the need to coordinate his movements onto the site with the ranger
staff. The initial work will involve the complete removal of the roof and
assessing the condition of the rafters and joists. After the building has
been allowed to air out, the paneling on the inside walls removed, and the
condition of the flooring and floor joists assessed, he will be able to meet
with the city building inspector to determine what needs to be done to
restore the structure. He had planned to start work on the structure this
weekend, but a city approved social event inside the Ranch House and the
grounds around it this weekend precludes his ability to do this.
El
Caballo Park: Information regarding the Charros situation and both the
parties involved were shared. Discussions continue between the Charros and
the city, and it is hoped that stability will soon be restored to the future
plans for the park.
Memorial
Benches: Jim and Jerry have not gotten together to determine the exact
location of both city approved benches and actually installing them. Also
discussed was the possibility of utilizing the monies received to date for
both Sally’s and Irene’s memorial funds towards the design and construction
of the low curving rock wall around the benches that Jerry has previously
discussed with the city. The hope is that the wall will also function as a
type of walkway guiding people towards the benches.
Newsletter: The importance of frequently submitting a single article to
the website such as highlighting a single plant or animal on the Ranch would
be beneficial to both the rating of the website, and in its composite would
create the quarterly newsletter content.
Legacy
Gift: Rick P discussed the implications of needing to file a more
complex tax return for any years in which a certain income threshold is
exceeded for our 501(c) (3) status. A possible future scenario would be a
year in which we received a single large donation from a source such as from
the Akin Trust. It was determined that for a year like that we would simply
approve paying for the services of a professional tax preparer and not
expect the board treasurer to do that.
FODR
Outreach: Jerry shared that the ECWA (Escondido Creek Watershed
Alliance) received the letter Rick M sent its current leader, Olga Diaz,
regarding a formal request for FODR to be an active member of the group.
Jerry said it has been approved and that FODR should expect to receive a
letter in the mail regarding this. Jim plans on being the FODR
representative. The group meets the second Tuesday of every other month
during the daytime and they are open meetings. The next meeting is July 9th.
Fred hopes to also attend the meeting.
The next meeting will be June 20th,
7:00 pm at the Train Depot in Grape Day Park.
Respectfully submitted,
Jim Schafer