Draft Agenda (PDF)
WWALS Quarterly Board Meeting
7:30 PM Wednesday 13 April 2016
Farmhouse Restaurant, 5123 Mill Store Rd, Lake Park, GA 31636-5103
That’s at I-75 Exit 5 Dial-in Number: (641) 715-3580
Meeting ID: 855-676
Related Materials

All WWALS Board Members are expected to attend in person or by telephone.
The more done on the board list, the less time we’ll have to spend on them in this meeting.

All WWALS members, especially committee members, are invited to attend, as is the general public.

Board Members:

• John S. Quarterman (President, PR Committee Chair, Watershed Issues Committee Chair)*,
• Garry Gentry (Secretary)*M,
• Gretchen Quarterman (Treasurer and Membership Committee Chair)*M,
• Dave Hetzel (VP Ambassador)*M,
• Bret Wagenhorst,
• Chris Mericle (Outings Chair and Withlacoochee and Little River Water Trail Committee Chair),
• Al Browning

* Executive Committee; M Membership Committee

1. Call to Order
2. Secretary
   1. Agenda Review: Additions and Changes
   2. Approve Minutes
      1. 13 January 2016 WWALS Board meeting
   3. Next Meetings:
      1. 13 July 2016 WWALS Annual Membership meeting
      2. 13 July 2016 WWALS Quarterly Board meeting
   4. Discussion of term limits: –Chris Mericle
      Current rule in WWALS Bylaws, Article V Section 3 is two consecutive full 3-year terms. Since the corporation will be four years old this summer, nobody is currently at their term limit. Are any changes needed?
   5. Reconstitution of nominating committee; previously President, Ambassador, Treasurer, and Chris Mericle (Board Member).
   6. Known board candidates; possibility of election to unexpired term at this meeting.
3. Treasurer
   1. Income
   2. Current Balances
   3. Upcoming Payments
   4. Current Commitments
   5. Grants: who will talk to whom, about what, and when: numerous water quality grant opportunities in Georgia and Florida right now.
   6. Fundraising to hire Executive Director and Waterkeeper https://sites.google.com/site/wwalswatersheds/staff
      Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software: Salesforce Zoho.
   7. Liability insurance and ramifications of any potential lawsuit. For example, does our insurance coverage provide for legal representation and would it cover comments posted by either one of us or anyone on a blog or FB page?
4. Committee system; see purpose, dos, and don’ts -jsq
5. Events Committee; See WRWT, and these three went well, especially the second two:
   1. Rhythm & Ribs, Fulwood Park, Tifton: all day Saturday 15 March 2016.
   2. Azalea Festival, Drexel Park, Valdosta: 10AM-6PM Saturday 12 March, 10AM-5PM Sunday 13 March 2016.
   3. Little River Fest, Reed Bingham State Park: 10 AM to 4PM Saturday 26 March 2016.
6. Watershed Issues Committee (formerly Pipeline Committee)
   1. Sabal Trail pipeline and all its ugly stepsisters; see numerous updates here: /issues/stt/
   2. Suwannee-Satilla Regional Water Management Council (Georgia), attended, spoke, and videoed. Need to send them informaition. THey meet quarterly now.
   3. SRWMD, still need to send information and questions to new E.D. and need to participate in North Florida Regional Water Supply Partnership.
   4. Yet more Valdosta wastewater spills and target date May for new force main and WWTP online, plus a Lowndes County spill: see /issues/vww/.
   5. Corporate agricultural purchases, chicken manure as fertilizer, and chicken farm. See /issues/corpag/
   6. Waycross mess now includes unidentified radioactive materials, missing city and county water reports, and cancer clusters right on the edge and inside the WWALS upper Suwannee territory, next to the same CSX railroad that crosses the Alapaha River and continues into Valdosta, where there are GA-EPD hazardous sites next to it. We’ve been asked for assistance by the Waycross organizers. Coordinating with Satilla Riverkeeper. Need to find a hydrologist to advise. See map.
7. Membership Committee: Newsletter, measurable goals, new members.
8. Public Relations Committee: Could use more help.
   • Two new members because of meetup, thanks to Shirley Kokidko added 18 January 2016 to assist with meetup.
   • Two LTEs in the VDT, before 2016-03-22 and after 2016-04-10 historic 34 aye to 128 nay Georgia statehouse victory against Sabal Trail river easements.
   • Article forthcoming in Waterkeeper monthly newsletter.
   • The usual WWALS blog, facebook, twitter, etc.
   • Basic PR guidelines: post only facts substantiated by evidence, or opinions clearly labelled as such.
9. Withlacoochee and Little River Water Trail Committee
   1. The committee organized and held its first WaterTrail Workshop 2016-02-27, including announcement of logo contest winner Eboni Patterson; see press release. The WWALS Board approved special thank-you letter to Julie Bowland for her role in organizing the Workshop.
   2. This next quarter the committee needs to focus on raising funds to layout and print brochures and continue mapping the trail.
   3. Have rough draft 8.5×11 trifold stopgap brochure.
   4. Have $500 from Valdosta-Lowndes Tourism Authority for brochures; need to raise rest and print WLRWT brochures.
   5. Buy outdoor literature boxes, put them at each access point, stuff WLRWT brochures, refill whenever one of us goes there? At about $25 each times 24 access points that’s $600. -jsq
10. Alapaha River Water Trail Committee
    1. 5,000 brochures funded by Hamilton TDC are reprinted and being distributed.
    2. GDOT is sticking with its new sign price of $382.40 each or $764.80 for a pair of 96″ x 48″ signs. jsq suggests WWALS ask Berrien County to foot half and WWALS foot half of a pair for US 82 Alapaha River.
    3. Buy outdoor literature boxes, put them at each access point, stuff ARWT brochures, refill whenever one of us goes there? At about $25 each times 12 access points that’s $300. -jsq
11. Outings Committee; see: /2015/11/24/wwals-outings-and-events-late-2015-early-2016/.
    Added Tom Potter 29 February 2016 and Phil Hubbard 11 April 2016.

    The Outings committee organized four well-attended outings last quarter:

    • January 16th, GA 122 to Lawson Pond Rd, Little River
    • February 20th, GA 135 to Berrien Beach, Alapaha River
    • March 20th, Staten Rd. to Langdale Park, Withlacoochee River
    • April 3rd, Ray’s Millpond, Withlacoochee watershed

    Three more outings are scheduled to take us through June:

    • April 23, 2015, Alapaha River paddle, Hotchkiss Landing to Mayday
    • May 21, 2016, Big Little Paddle Race, Little River
    • June 4, 2016, Withlacoochee River Paddle, Florida Campsites ramp to SRSP
    Outings Chair Chris Mericle says: “I feel like we have been doing a pretty good job switching things up, paddling different rivers and distances, in an effort to include as many people as possible. There seems to be new people at every outing.”
12. Waterkeeper: recent communications.
    1. Public Interest Environmental Conference, U. FL, Gainesville, FL, Fri-Sat 12-13 Feb 2016, with FL Waterkeeper gathering Sat. morning and noon.
       Went well; video to come.
       Asked for Proactive Clean Energy Strategy by prominent Florida Waterkeepers.
    2. Waterkeeper Conference, Wilmington, NC, 1-4 June 2016.
       Required for Riverkeepers; not required for Affiliates. According to other attendees it’s worthwhile going.
13. (national) River Network, River Rally, 20-23 May 2016, Mobile, AL
    Same weekend as BIG Little River Paddle Race.
14. Adopt-A-Stream, Confluence, Environmental and Heritage Center, Buford, GA , Fri-Sat 11-12 May 2016
    Some of us should go to this one.
15. Paddle Florida, Suwannee River Paddling Festival, Suwannee River State Park, Fri-Sat-Sun, 1-3 April 2016.
    WWALS really should have a presence at this one next year.
16. Other Business
17. How busy everybody is
18. Adjourn

-jsq

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