Minutes
Gustavus Mental Health Lands Group
January 17, 2001
Gustavus Public Library, 7 p.m. – In attendance: Hank Lentfer, Judy Brakel, Maureen Bond, Kim Ney, Tom McCabe, Greg Streveler, Nathan Borson, Kathy Streveler, Chuck Rice.
Greg reported on recent developments.
- About 1 month ago Randy Hagenstein (sp?) of the Nature Conservancy called (he’d heard of us from Steve Planchon of the Trust Land Office). Nature Conservancy has offered to help us. They have just established a Juneau office run by Jim Ferguson and they are ready to help Southeast Alaska and are especially interested in the Icy Strait area.
- Conversations with Nature Conservancy have been extremely positive. 3 Nature Conservancy folks are coming out next month. That visit will be an opportunity to show off the lands to locals as well as visitors. In June, the state or national Nature Conservancy board will be renting Glacier Bay Lodge for their board meeting (unrelated to our efforts but it gives us another opportunity for education).
- We have also been talking to Ducks Unlimited. Two contacts there have both said they are quite interested I the project.
- Nature Conservancy has no problem working with Ducks Unlimited.
- Greg presented draft “Our Best Thinking as of Now on Major MHLT Questions” (see http://gustavus.lib.ak.us/public/gca/committees/mhlt_lands/faq1.htm ). Questions addressed were Terms of Sale, Management, Ownership Structure, Fundraising Strategy. Discussion followed.
- Tom McCabe outlined Gustavus Land Legacy Ownership Options http://gustavuslandlegacy.org/ownership.htm - He reported that the best way of preserving our current interests is to have someone own the land and someone else own easements in sort of a checks and balances arrangement.
- Nature Conservancy is willing and able to be the land owner, and they are also able to manage the land, which would be under a management plan. They can also hold the easement in a case where someone else is the landowner. In either case they would involve the local community in developing the management plan for the area.
- Management costs are typically an endowment of about 20% of the land value.
Decision: Have Nature Conservancy accept and hold donations for the Gustavus Land Legacy, subject to the answers in the following questions. This will give the donors a tax break. Meadow and Greg will get these questions answered and get the accounting set up.
· Will donors get their money back if the deal follows through (as promised).
· Who will keep the list of donors?
· How will we pay for operating expenses (keep the $10,000 we’ve raised so far separate for this purpose?).
Decision: We agree to adopt the basic management statement in Greg’s draft answers document. We also agreed to the Terms of Sale, Ownership Structure, and Fundraising Strategy.
Greg presented the draft job announcement for the Gustavus Land Legacy Executive Administrator. It was greeted with pessimism about finding someone with the low rate ($15/hr) proposed.
Decision: The job announcement was approved except that the “minimum of $15/hr” was changed to "minimum of $20".
Maureen reported on her findings from the Alaska Funding Guide. She found five likely donors in the $5,000 - $150,000 range and six others that make smaller grants. Tom mentioned Barbara Berg at the Juneau Public Library as a good resource for grant writing; See http://www.juneau.lib.ak.us/library/FoundationCenter/default.htm Also see http://www.juneau.lib.ak.us/library/FoundationCenter/weblists.htm
Pamphlet. Started by Andrea Byrnes and Stacy Farley have put together a preliminary design with depiction of the areas with map, photo, and brief description of each parcel and some text with a tear-off contribution form and envelope and cover letter.
Next meeting: Meet the week before the Nature Conservancy gets here, which is about February 21. Check those dates and maybe see if we can steer them towards the weekend.
(Prepared by Nathan Borson)