Mike, Patty, Mary, Hunter, Judy, Meridian, Michael, Pat facilitating. A planned 1.5-hour meeting.

Meeting structure
     Previous meeting suggested that the Board meet monthly two Fridays (9 days) prior to each Community meeting, with special meetings as necessary. We agreed that there is a need to evolve toward a Board and Committee structure where the bulk of the work takes place in special-focus committees. It was agreed that good feedback from committees is crucial to this kind of organization. Mike and Mary were concerned that monthly meetings would be too infrequent, but were reassured by the agreement to meet more often as needed.
     Moved by Meridian, second by Michael and passed unanimously to meet once a month or as needed.
     It was also agreed that Pat would facilitate Board meetings, Michael would take minutes, with Patty as back-up.

Events Committee
     Patty, Judy, and Michael will try to get a prototype Gorse sweatshirt and t-shirt design ready for the March 6th Gorse Grubbers Ball.
     Meridian requested an honorarium for the 5 musicians of $50 each, since they have been asked to perform at two benefits this year. Patty asked if this would become policy for all musicians playing benefit gigs; Michael said it would help line up good bands, and that it would also be acceptable if musicians decided to donate their stipends. Mike offered to sponsor the upcoming Gorse Grubber's Ball if other sponsors cannot be found.
     Michael urged Directors to approach local companies for sponsorships for the two upcoming events -- Ball and Gorse Grubbing.
     Patty and Judy agreed to manage the canteen for the Gorse Grubbing event on March 13th. Meridian shared her vision of the gorse warriors marching to battle at Jughandle as a good photo op, possibly for Judy's LA Times contact. Meridian also suggested some kind of yellow ribbon insignia be designed and available for Gorse Warriors at the Ball.

Fundraising
     Patty suggested that fund-raising other than events be handled by a separate committee or committees. Grants would be one such group; the newsletter is another activity that may require a committee; a non-voting subscribers campaign might be another; a stewardship committee might be formed once acquisition started to move forward. These ideas were referred to the recycling bin.

Newsletter
     The newsletter will appear one week later than originally planned, and should be mailed about March 8th. Michael requested that nominations for the mailing list be submitted electronically as emails containing label-formatted data, by 4 March. Patty suggested that the Traffic Brigade be asked for help with the mailing. A phone campaign to follow-up on the newsletter is tentatively scheduled for 16 March at the Community Offices; Michael can arrange for 4 or 5 phone lines for that day. Nobody stepped forward to manage this phone campaign.

Grants
     Hunter is accumulating a list of open-space granting agencies. Pat anticipates that our 501(c)(3) will become active within three months; she expects to mail it today. Otherwise, we need to seriously search for appropriate grants, and move forward on applications for them. Patty volunteered to form a Grants Committee, and Mary, Hunter, and Pat agreed to serve on the committee.
     Our grant application to the Coastal Conservancy has been received by Joan Cardellino, who has referred it to someone else on the CC staff.

Board Manuals
     Pat noted that several Board members had expressed a desire to have loose-leaf binders similar to those prepared for TPL and Oscar. She will prepare an estimate of the cost, and will email Board members to ask if they want to have a binder.
     Michael mentioned the idea of a Caspar Book, and Judy enthusiastically picked up on the idea, suggesting it be assembled during the summer and printed no later than September. It was noted that Rachel, one of our TPL visitors, is in charge of "pretty books" for TPL.

Community Meeting
     Patty reported on last Sunday's Community Meeting, where there were "25 people and 5 times that many cookies." She noted that 16 questionnaires were received, and that the double-lining and northern entry were the "hot" issues. Only one respondent used the "priority" box on the form to prioritize his requests. New issues were also identified, but Patty doesn't feel the results are ready to be shared, except with the Traffic Brigade.

Traffic
     Patty will report the questionnaire to the Traffic Brigade, who will probably want to do some additional door-to-door canvassing using the questionnaire to get a fuller representation of Caspar's wishes.
     Patty attended a meeting on 18 Feb with Eugene Calvert, the County's Director of Transportation, who mentioned that there were as yet no applicants in county for the new T21 funds. Calvert has a traffic calming show he'd like to present to the Board and the Brigade. Action on this item will be taken after the next TB meeting, scheduled for Tuesday, 23 February, at 4:30 in the Community Offices.

Stewardship partnerships
     After a successful exploratory meeting with TPL this week, we are continuing to plan meetings with stewardship partners and with development consultants.

Journalists
     It was suggested that any journalists interested in writing about the Caspar project be requested to fact-check with us prior to publication, and designated Michael as the fact-checker.

Plan and Acquisition Committee
     Michael requested that all interested parties review the first draft Land Use Descriptions associated with the Caspar Village Plan in preparation for next Friday's P&A meeting, 9 am in the Community Offices. The Board authorized Michael to approach Linda Ruffing for feedback on the draft.

The next regular meeting of the Board will be at 9am on Friday, 5 March, in the Community Offices.

respectfully submitted by Michael Potts