October 9, 2012

Meeting called to order 7:14 pm

ANTENDEES: Russell Davis, Cherry Stogsdill, Jack and Sam Nelson, Dan Merewether, Vicky Seymour, Pat Vice, Katie Zipperer

Agenda: Dan presented the agenda. Homecoming Float and Holiday Baskets were added. Katie moved to accept with changes. Russell 2nd. Approved.

MINUTES: Russell moved to approve the minutes as written. Jack 2nd. Approved.

TREASURER’S REPORT: Vicky is going to invoice the Shortgrass Prairie Partnership 41 plates at $12 and $25 building rent. The Food Pantry and brochures have been paid for. Vicky is working on getting online access to check the account information. Russell moved to accept the Treasurer’s report. Katie 2nd. Approved.

PRESIDENT’S REPORT: Dan has started writing the information for the common grant application. He intends to email us draft

HOMECOMING FLOAT: Frances, Cherry, Katie, and Tricia Pepper put together the Alliance Float. Dan thanked those individuals for their work. Sam and Jack pulled the trailer and threw candy. We won 2nd place and $20 with our “Karval Nature Trail”—on a small trailer a dirt path was made with plants and animals that would be seen in the area represented on the trail.

CALENDARS: 150 calendars have been ordered. If there are no problems we will have them in late November. Carl and Cherry solicited ads. They received some new ads as well as many return customers.

POSTCARDS: Tammy has been collecting pictures. She reported to Dan that she was about ready to get them printed.

KWEC: Pat presented information on an EDA (Economic Development Area) planning grant. We are in EDA districtElbert, Kit Carson, Cheyenne, and Lincoln counties. Pat has put on the goals for Lincoln County a Research Center for the Karval area. Pat feels that doing this planning grant is our best course of action. This will answer most of our questions of how we will end up implementing the project. She explained that the $35000 to $40000 for this grant will go to paying the contract analysis and reimburse the grant writer’s hours. We have to come up with cash and in-kind funds up to a 50-50 match. Pat has come up with the 35-40 thousand from an average of similar grants. We may get further into the grant process and find that this is not the final total. Russell and Vicky feel that we should look strongly to look at using the Karval School. If we decide to and are able to use the school it may also lower the cost of the grant. Dan wondered if we could look at a nature education charter school. Pat suggested making it a RAW center for wildlife education. It was decided that a meeting to further discuss the uses, potential partners, and possible places for the research center should be held before we further pursue this grant.

It was decided to have a special meeting on October 29th @ 7:00pm. It was requested that Katie send an email out to invite the Alliance--member wide.

PLOVER FESTIVAL ADVERTISING: Dan has not talked with Jeff yet. He is planning to do so soon.

SCHOOL BUS PURCHASE: The school is selling the both big busses. Are we interested in purchasing them? What would we bid? How would insurance work? Where could store them? Could the school still house them? Dan will get more information. We should have enough time to figure out if and how much our bid might be at the next regular meeting.

REVIEW RAW FUNDING: Vicky is changing the books so that the RAW funds will have a separate category. We are holding the money for RAW given to us by Fish and Wildlife. We are still looking into copyrighting the curriculum. We could also look at Trademarking the RAW name. This would also allow for the curriculum to be more fluid adding and removing information for Russell reported that the out of state interest is growing. A school in Wyoming is really pleased with their implementation of the program. Russell also suggested that we need to discuss the financing the program in the future. There is currently funding for this year.

STUFFED BIRDS: Sheri Logan has 12 stuffed birds, we used some of them on the float. She would like to sell them for $8 a piece. Cherry moved to purchase the birds. Russell 2nd. Approved.

YEARBOOK AD: Do we want to have an ad in the school yearbook. Russell motioned to have a 1⁄2 page ad in the yearbook. Sam 2nd. Approved. Katie will design and give the ad to the school.

HOLIDAY BASKETS: Vicky will call to get more information to help us decide how much or how to participate. We will bring this to our next regular meeting.

OTHER NEW BUSINESS: Dan brought up a Mile Savers Ad that was requesting project proposals to receive funding. He was wondering if we should try for a funding for a gas station or another idea. This brought up the old school property that was being considered for this purpose. Mike Dorman is still working with the new owners. Dan asked if Carl would be willing to contact Mike to check on the status of this property.

HALLOWEEN CARNIVAL: Katie moved to donate the same amount as the previous year, $50. Cherry 2nd. Approved.

NEXT MEETING: November 13th Meeting adjourned at 9: 

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