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2004 Annual Board of Directors Meeting
Minutes June 20, 2004
Board
of Director Members Present:
Maria
Globus, Don Maderos, Hilary Ham, Bradley Graham, Charles Bello, Vanna
Rae Bello, Mark Bello, Margaret
Absent:
Sky Harrison
The meeting of the board of directors of the Redwood Rarest Institute
was held on Saturday, June 20, 2004, at the Redwood Forest Institute
Headquarters at Northspur, California.
Charles
Bello called the meeting to order at 2 PM
The
minutes of the last year’s meeting were read.
A motion was made and passed to accept the minutes of August
24, 2003
Adding
new Board Members: Charles moved to elect Hilary and
Bradley as new board members. The motion was agreed upon unanimously.
Election
of Officers:
Charles Bello; President, Vanna Rae; Treasurer, Hilary Ham;
Secretary
Discussions
and motions:
- Sky Harrison has been absent
for three consecutive meetings therefore relinquishing position on
board.
- Charles and Vanna Rae
mentioned that the studio is available as incentive for current
board members, for use when not currently occupied.
- Treasurer’s report:
As of June 19th, 2004, RFI has $69,844.51 in
Vanguard Mutual Funds – mostly invested in their Health Care
Fund. Up from $60,579 the previous year. Including the trees that were donated in 2000 and 2001
the total assets are at about $120,000.
- We have a total 303 members up
from 298 members last year. I
have not aggressively solicited new members as I had in the past.
Membership renewal dues should be collected, as they have not been
so far this year.
- Hilary offered to work on
newsletter to improve membership involvement.
- Discussion of the vision and
how it can be realized if we could somehow get the support that is
required to set the process in motion so that timber sales
residuals in the process of improving the stands in an
environmentally sound way can be used to purchase and manage new
acquisitions, etc.
Discussions on the future of Charvan Valley and how RFI is
involved.
- RFI holds the Conservation
Easement on the Redwood Forest Ranch and Easements on 479 selected
trees that have been taken out of production for the restoration
of Old Growth Redwoods on this land
- Another 486 trees have been
selected and tagged on the trail leading up to and along the North
Boundary to be donated by the Bello’s, but the easement has not
been recorded to date
- The Adopt a Tree program has
basically fizzled. It
could be that our search engines on the web have not been updated.
Discussion was made to improve Adopt a Tree Program. Possibly more
internet involvement.
- There has been no further
development in the attempt to explore if something could be worked
out with Mendocino Community College that might be mutually
beneficial.
- We are now in the process of
exploring the possibility of transferring the ownership of our
land over to RFI. I
am presently waiting for a report form a Real Estate Attorney to
see if something might be worked out.
- The idea is that we need
someone who aspires to this lifestyle to come live on the land to
be here in an emergency and to carry on when we are no longer able
to function with the programs that are in place.
- Such a person needs to have
some legal attachment to the land so that they can become the good
stewards that the land deserves.
We have had dozens of inquiries so far from advertisements
placed at various schools and other sources – so far Brad and
Hilary are our brightest prospects.
Land
acquisition: We came
within a hair’s breath of acquiring the 74 acres at the Junction of
hi-way 20 and Irmulco Rd. A
donor said he would purchase the land and donate it to RFI.
The selling price was lowered by the seller, from $240,000, to
$170,000. The donor
changed his mind after reconsidering his offer – he said he could
not get the kind of tax deduction he thought he might be able to right
of some of his gains.
Boundary
Problems: Nothing more
has transpired with the Boundary Problem so our position is not to
pursue the matter and make an issue of it but just go ahead and do
whatever we need to do if and when we need to address the situation.
Scott
Shultis of Uncomplicated.com is continuing to host the RFI web site
without cost to RFI, and is offering free consultation advise when
needed. An incentive for this service rendered is that he is welcome
to stay at the farm.
The
Dell computer got a virus and Garry Getchel removed the virus and
repaired the problems that it created for us.
Being
no further business to discuss a motion was made and passed to adjourn
the meeting at 3:30 PM
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