CDA Meeting Minutes 09/18/2019

Oct 10, 2019 | Meeting Minutes

Chelmsford Dog Association

Board Meeting Meeting

Community Room, Chelmsford Police Station, 2 Olde North Rd, Chelmsford, MA 01824

September 18, 2019  6:30 PM

  1. Call to order: 6:39pm
  2. Roll call:
    • Board members present: Will, Sarah, Sandra, Paul, Danielle, Beth, Joyce, Kathy, Vivian
    • Voting members present: Lauren, Carly, Lisa, Randy, Jaryd, Mark, Catherine, Jay, Mary, Cindy, Mary Ellen, Rachel
    • Guests: Erik (DPAC Chairperson), Matt, Max
  3. Approval of minutes from last meeting- Motion to approve minutes from the August 22, 2019 meeting:
    • Presented by: Joyce
    • Seconded: Kathy
    • Vote: 1 abstention (not able to review prior to meeting) and 8 votes “yes.”
  4. Officer Reports
    1. Website and Media Report (Will)
      • CDP Group: 2,720 (2,434 active ) – (436) (1,579) (8,343)
      • CDP FB Page:  
      • CDA FB Page:     ( about the same)
      • Location: 0 (35)  4.7 (132)     3.8 (4/2)
      • CDA Website: See google report à
    2. Treasurer’s Report (Sandra):
      • $ balance. $ in expenses from the last month.
      • Large number of expenses this month & given some of the income from weekend change raising- Will purchased numerous items on CDA wish list including trash cans, and flag poles, replacement tee shirt order.
      • May be reimbursed for flag poles by DPAC.
      • $ raised so far for the drainage project.
      • Paul: Mentions the park will be needing about $ for seeding soon.
      • Proposal to approve up to $ on seeding and fertilizer materials:
        • Proposed by: Paul
        • Seconded: Kathy
        • Vote = Unanimous.
    3. President’s Report (Will)
      • CDA Memberships: 48 Ind / 41 Fam  (12 non-renewals this year, 1 renewal tonight, 1 last month)
      • Google Drive set up for Board & Committees
        (share access to be sent – need google/Gmail accounts)
      • T-shirts
        1. 100 on order (Short sleeve, 5 each S-M-L-XL, 5 colors) about 35 left 5/8 of which are 2x and 3x. More on order for October 19th including long sleeved shirts.
        2. Order more for Howl’ween- see above
      • Executive session decisions:
        1. No board member can be executive director on more than one (1) committee at a time
        2. No individual can be a formal member of more than two (2) committees at one time (doesn’t mean you can’t participate in more, goal is to eliminate burn out.)
  5. Committee Reports
    1. DPAC
      • Gazebo (& fence work) (date?) – Ready to be installed. Fence vendor is not returning calls, believes he lost quote and/or thought it had been canceled. Erik has been in touch with town to find out who they would use to get this task done- waiting to hear back. Previous fence vendor, not an option. Looking into new vendors and prices. Will is concerned about re-installing fence work with frost on the ground. Erik states we should be ok until early December. Jay suggests a crane to lift gazebo over fence, Erik reminds that gazebo is over 3,000 lbs.
      • The Grant has been filed with Evan. Evan has filed with Stanton. Carley asks for reminder of what was requested. Items requested include: benches, flag poles, money for drainage, trees (?), drip irrigation. Benches also requested (9).
      • The benches themselves = $9,000. Grant only has a $12,000 allowance.
      • Vivian mentions if request for drainage is denied, we can try to ask CPC for funds for the drainage project.
      • Trees (?)- Jim Martin suggests waiting until Spring to get a better selection. He noticed trees in front of the park were damaged when sidewalks were installed.
    2. Fundraising/Events Committee Report
      1. Kathy Gould has stepped down as Chairperson (She will remain executive director- board representative). Kathy has recommended Rachel to take over as chair person.
        • Kathy motions to approve Rachel as committee chairperson
        • Seconded: Paul
        • Vote: Unanimous
      2. Donations- Danielle presents chart of park box donations: All dog side: $/ small dog side: $/ Port-a-Potty: no donations.  
      3. Stop & Shop Bags- completed our month-long fundraiser – $ made for the month. Going forward bags can still be purchased (bags with special tag) and then registered on the website provided on the tag. Will to put announcement on the website. Rachel suggests using the flyer she has made and adding this information.
      4. Mobile phones? – Doesn’t have enough to send a box out- needs 15, only has 12. Kathy works with a company that collects old phones, we get about $10 per phone. Lisa mentions she will forward info to Kathy about phone collection program for military.
      5. September Spare Change (ongoing)- From two blue large bins: $ in change so far/ $ in tee shirt sales, etc./ About $ now for drainage project from previous funds raised and the last two weekends.
        Change collection fundraiser is ongoing for another 2 weekends.
      6. Farm Fair (Sept 21) – Sarah, Danielle, Vivian, Sandra to run booth. Event is run by the Chelmsford Historical Society.
      7. Howl’ween (Oct 19) 11-3/ Rain date October 20th
        • -Zesty’s pizza (delivered or p/u?) at 11am?
        • -Kathy mentions a wine basket donation will need to be picked up. Other raffle prizes include: McDonalds sent a gift card to PO box- will be on the lookout, $50 dollars in Amazon gift cards, Kings bowling gift card.
        • -Kathy reports she has ordered all the medals. Prize categories include: Best costume (1st, 2nd, and 3rd place), best dog owner & dog costume, funniest costume, best kisser, & best trick. Three judges’ badges are available also.
        • -Grill drop off at 10:30am.
        • -Vendors: Six currently. Joyce is handling permits and judges. ACO Erik Merrill has confirmed he will be a judge. Joyce reached out to a dean at CHS also
        • -Reached out to Agway to get hay, haven’t heard back.
        • -Jenny working with Bob to make photobooth background image. Lisa- how much ink left for printer for pics-Will has ordered 3 more packs of ink. Costume parade in grassy area so more people are able to watch- dogs will not stay there- but do it for walk about. Most grassy area, least likely for dogs to get dirty, actually good for grass to get some light traffic (per Mark).
        • -Beth- need aluminum warming trays for grill.
        • – Lisa offers to do food purchase from Costco. Will to send Lisa what we normally spend on Howl’ween food etc. Lisa suggests getting list first and then letting us know approximately how much it will cost. Lisa and Beth to talk about chest freezer storage for food.
        • -Randy to DJ? Beth- cooking foods. Vivian has her own vendor table. Joyce to get list together, check with people and their jobs. Can register on the website to volunteer for Howl’ween.
      8. Phase III Brick orders (order site is live)-
        • Going to start placing orders. Per Rachel, many brochures have been passed out. Rachel suggests having a picture or sample of what the brick looks like.
        • Do not need a certain amount/minimum to place order.
        • Orders open until April 2020.
        • Rachel raises question- how are we tracking orders? Will explains the spreadsheet on the company website; we will also maintain our own list. Will to upload any manually made orders to a list.
        • Will to coordinate with someone else so he is not the only one with access to the list.
        • Paul suggests hotspot for chrome books to place orders online while at Howl’ween.
      9. Holiday Party planning – Tabled.
    3. Drainage Project Committee Report-
      • Not a lot to report. Carley send meeting minutes for review.
      • Would like the town engineer to do walkthrough of park before moving forward, and have not been able to reach him.
      • Will has discussed with the town- CDA president has to be the point of contact.
      • Erik will try to reach town engineer.
      • Engineer needs to see park after a large rain etc.
      • Mark mentions he also has another suggestion for an alternate approach and he wanted to run it by town engineer.
      • Carly to get together with Lisa to submit grants (5 or 6).
      • Only other option is to hire an engineer.
      • Paul wants to meet Erik when meeting the engineer at the park once he can schedule a visit
      • Donations/fundraising- see above report in fundraising/events committee report.
    4. Volunteers/Membership
      • Committee Charter accepted, Joyce Bean is Chairperson and Executive Director. She is coordinating memberships and volunteers. Randy (DJ) is an individual performing a service for us he doesn’t fall under the volunteer committee. Anyone who wants to volunteer- Joyce to coordinate- Rachel to assign tasks.
      • Review Membership Fees for 2020. Make a recommendation to the board in November if fees should stay the same or to raise the fees. If changed, would take effect from January to January (calendar year).
  6. Old Business/Open Issues
    1. Tiles for Memorial Wall (next year)- Tabled. Brick orders available through April 2020. Will consider tiles after more info on where the memorial wall will be, etc.
    2. Pins- tabled. If good vendor would like to order enamel pins. Paul mentions seasonal/different pins for different events to collect.
    3. Rental Space – the 28th Coonhound meetup.
  7. New Business
    1. Destruction of agility equipment-
      • all the equipment has been destroyed either by children or dogs.
      • Weave poles are broken in the middle-can fix.
      • High walk- got brittle- cracked when moved. P
      • erhaps permanently mounted equipment would be better.
      • Mary Ellen to reach out to Nashoba Tech to see if they want to weld items for us.
      • Do we want to repair or replace broken agility equipment?
      • Motion to dispose of damaged equipment:
        • Presented: Paul
        • Seconded: Joyce.
        • Vote: 2 oppositions, 7 yes votes.
      • Work Party (Nov 2) 8am- noon/ (Saturday)- Lauren mentions a new park goer does landscaping (leaves in particular) will talk to him.
      • Open Nominations for four (4) positions on the Board of Directors for a 2-year term (2020-2022).
        1. Nominations will remain open through October and the vote will be held at the Annual Meeting (November).
        2. Nominations may be presented and seconded in person at the September and October Meetings. “In person” nominations will be closed at the end of the October meeting, However, interested nominees must submit their nomination in writing after that.
        3. Per Article V, section D: Additional nominations may be presented, in writing by a member and signed in affidavit by two additional members. Such presentation must be mailed to the organization no later than 15 days prior to the Annual Meeting.
        4. Per Article VII, section A: All Board members shall have been members, in good standing, for at least one year prior to their nomination and during their term.
          1. A member in good standing shall be defined as a member who is current on dues, has no legal restrictions barring the appointment, has attended at least four (4) meetings of the organization in the past 12 months and has volunteered or otherwise actively participated in at least two (2) events run by or attended by the organization in the past 12 months.
          2. Per August executive session: “… volunteered or otherwise actively participated …” requires participation in at least 75% of the duration of an event sponsored by the CDA or as an official representative of the CDA at an event sponsored by another organization. / Suggestion of utilizing a volunteer sign in sheet at events.
        5. Board directors with expiring terms: Vivian, Beth, Kathy, Danielle.
        6. Nominations presented:
          1. Mark nominates Carley. Lauren seconds. Carley accepts nomination.
          2. Jaryd nominates Lauren. Cindy seconds. Lauren accepts nomination.
          3. Joyce nominates Kathy. Will seconds. Kathy not present to accept nomination in person.
          4. Paul motions to nominate Rachel as a board member and waive requirements of length of membership and volunteerism. Vote: 2 in favor, 1 abstained, 4 opposed. Motion does not pass.
          5. Sandra nominates Danielle. Sarah seconds. Danielle accepts nomination.
          6. Sarah nominates Beth. Beth respectfully declines.
          7. Matthew nominates Jay. Lauren seconds. Jay does not meet requirements to be nominated at this election.
          8. Joyce nominates Vivian. Vivian respectfully declines.
          9. Carley nominates Randy. Tabled until October- as Randy has not attended required number of meetings to be nominated, as of this September meeting.
          10. Paul motions to nominate Lisa as a board member and waive requirements of length of membership. Motion is not seconded.
        7. Nominations will remain open until October 28th, 2019. Any nominations sent by mail must be post marked by October 28th.
  8. Next Meeting(s)
    • Oct 9- 6:30pm
    • Nov 13 –Annual Meeting
  9. Adjournment: Motion to adjourn by Joyce at 8:55pm.
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