MINUTES OF 3rd GENERAL MEETING 2/19/11

MINUTES OF THE THIRD GENERAL MEETING OF SLOLA

(Seed Library of Los Angeles)

Saturday, February 19, 2010

Executive members present: David King; Clara Yoshihara, Lucinda Zimmerman, Sarah Spitz, Cheryl Noda, Elizabeth Bowman

Executive members absent: Ledette Gambini, Linda Preuss

I. Welcome to members and Guests

At 2:30 pm, Chair David King welcomed the attendees, which included several committee chair people and members. Approximately 40 people were in attendance.

David explained that SLOLA hopes to be a seed library that is available to as wide a membership as possible, and especially to serve as a source of seeds for those who cannot afford to purchase.

THE MAIN COMMUNICATION TOOL OF SLOLA, UNTIL OUR WEBSITE IS UP AND RUNNING WILL BE “THE RECORD OF THE SEED LIBRARY OF LOS ANGELES,” FOUND AT THIS LINK: http://slola.blogspot.com/

All minutes will be posted there; and committee chairs are encouraged to put minutes of committee meetings and announcements of future meetings on the blog as well.

II. Secretary’s Report

Secretary Sarah Spitz reviewed highlights from the Minutes of the meeting on Jan. 15. One printed copy was circulated; the official Minutes of that meeting will be updated to reflect one additional name (Lucia Burke) on the Best Practices committee, and will be posted to the blog, at the link above.

III. Treasurer’s Report

Ledette Gambini was absent. However, as explained during the Executive committee meeting, which took place just prior to the General Meeting, the balance in the bank was reported to be approximately $485. After the meeting, it was learned that this amount is short of the actual total in the account.

IV. Committee Chair Reports

Database committee chair Linda Preuss was not available for the meeting. David King reported that the committee has not met but that Shelley LaRocca has created (or is in the process of creating) a form for seed inventory, which eventually can be printed out and folded into a seed packet by users accessing the library from their own computers.

Membership committee chair Cheryl Noda stated that SLOLA has 62 paid members. And Co-Vice Chair/outreach coordinator Clara Yoshihara is spearheading an effort to get the Safe Seed Pledge, which members sign when they join, translated into multiple international languages. The one-sheet Safe Seed Pledge approved at a prior meeting will be two-sided, with English and Spanish, but many other translators will convert this document into many languages to encourage as diverse a membership as possible. Forms with languages other than English and Spanish will be posted online. CLARA WELCOMES CONTACTS FROM MEMBERS WILLING TO DO THESE TRANSLATIONS: to contact Clara please visit our FACEBOOK PAGE and post a message to her here: SLOLA@groups.facebook.com

Organization/Bylaws committee chair Lucinda Zimmerman points out that the proposed bylaws posted to the blog are basically a boilerplate from other sources and need to be customized to represent SLOLA specifically. Members are encouraged to review and comment on bylaws so that by the next meeting, they can be finalized. Please send all suggestions to Lucinda at the SLOLA Board Facebook page and post your comments there: SLOLA@groups.facebook.com The text is online at http://slola.blogspot.com.

Web/Outreach Committee Previous committee chair Sarah LaVoie had to step down and Elizabeth Bowman has taken over for her. Currently the committee is seeking a web designer, and will reach out to sources such as Time Banks, Santa Monica College etc, to find someone willing to donate time. The website designer will help decide where the site should be hosted and aid in designing the website based on what templates are available. A Google document was created with outreach ideas, contacts etc. Patty Kestin, member of the committee, was able to get numerous postings for this meeting from a number of these outreach contacts, including Slow Food LA, GoToGreenLA, LA Bioneers, The Gardenerd, Envirochangemakers and others, as well. To contact Elizabeth, please post your comments to the SLOLA Board Facebook page, SLOLA@groups.facebook.com

Best Practices Committee chair David King explains that members will be responsible for determining the minimum requirements for growing seeds. For example, regarding “outcrossing” versus “incrossing” pollinated plants, incrossing are easy to save as some self pollinate or pollinate protectively while outcrossing will not breed true (if you have a machata squash next to a different squash, they will pollinate each other and seeds from that will not be “true” to either). These are the kinds of issues Best Practices deals with. The committee is seeking individuals to take responsibility for a particular “portfolio” – i.e., an area of expertise. For example, one person would research and become an expert on Peppers, or Corn or Tomatoes, and then will provide education to the membership on these seeds and plants.

V. Old Business

David introduced SLOLA’s officers to the membership. Vice chair is a shared position between Lucinda Zimmerman and Clara Yoshihara. Website issues were covered in the Web/Outreach committee report.

VI. New Business

A. Approval of committee actions—authorized treasurer to work with Web/Outreach as needed with regard to costs of doing business.

B. New members – committees are seeking members because committees are the place that the work of this newly forming group will be done. The goal is to be able to meet only twice yearly instead of monthly.

C. Logo decision: three designs for the Logo were passed around. They are posted on the Blog. Vote was taken to decide which one to use, if only temporarily: On a majority vote, the first of the three designs was chosen; but a second vote called for reversing the image of the seed. David King will speak to Sarah LaVoie, who designed the logo, about reversing the seed shape.

Also: The Web/Outreach committee was authorized to work with Treasurer to investigate Kickstarter.org as a potential future fundraising mechanism for SLOLA.

The possibility of videotaping Best Practices education panels was discussed. A volunteer -- Kathryn Linehan -- has volunteered to do this as soon as we are ready.

A membership email list is being developed. David will continue to send messages to Board members and will coordinate with Membership Committee to inform all members via the email list.

A membership email list is being developed. David will continue to send messages to Board members and will coordinate with Membership Committee to inform all members via the email list. A members-only protected area on the future website would be offered, and members will have the option of whether or not they wish to share their information in that members-only area.

THE NEXT MEETING WILL BE HELD ON MARCH 13, 2011 at 2:30 pm. Committee chairs and executive officers will meet at 1:45 prior to the meeting.

Respectfully submitted,

Sarah Spitz, SECRETARY