FOSC Board Meeting Minutes May 12th, 2016
Board Members Present: Kit Gage, Bruce Sidwell, Dee Clarkin, Delia Aguilar,
Mike Smith

1). June program meeting is cancelled as only one Councilmember available; Kit
will invite Councilmembers Elrich, Hucker, Leventhal, Navarro, Riemer, as well as
the Neighbors of the Northwest Branch, to a potential FOSC July program
meeting.

2). Treasurer Dee Clarkin presented financial report. Chesapeake Bay Trust told
Anne Vorce that their grants should not be used for food purchases; FOSC board
approved up to $100 of FOSC funds to cover food for Water Watchdog workshops
and June 12th bike ride.

3). Spring Sweep the Creek better attended than last year despite rains.

4). Remove Invasive Plants report from May 12th email by Jim Anderson:
FOSC and Parks have hosted three garlic mustard harvesting events involving local
schools. On April 20 80 sophomore students and several faculty from Stoneridge
High School came out and pulled some 40 bags of GM in section 6 inside the
Beltway. Weed Warrior Supervisors Rita and Paul Marth, and Kathy Treat helped
make this successful.
On April 21, 31 students from Landon Middle School and 3 faculty came out and
worked in section 7 just south of Dennis Avenue pulling GM. We ran out of bags
and had to make a large pile of GM. Besides the pile, we had 10 bags.
On April 30, 9 students and one professor from Montgomery College came out and
helped Barbra and myself harvest 14 bags of GM on Long branch Creek by the
swimming pool.
There is still a lot of GM to harvest. Most sections have had outings for harvesting
GM.

5). Natural History report from May 12th email by Michael Wilpers:
Please report that we had 30 volunteers (by Ross’s count), including ours and some
from WW and Pope Farm Nursery, plus staff from Parks. 650 seedlings put in the
ground in 2 hours
An important that follow up is for FOSC to work with Carole (at her request) to
expedite signage for the Parks’ mowing crews. “No mowing Mar 1 – Oct 31”
perhaps. She seems to feel that we can help make it happen sooner than her
working only from within. To be followed by some educational signage for the
public.

6). Water quality – based on the results of Pat Ratkowski’s monitoring, MCDEP is
doing dye tests to try to find bacteria sources coming from buildings in Takoma
Park.

7). Kit and Delia participated in AWCAC Latino outreach meeting; AWCAC is
trying to have Latino River festival at Bladensburg Waterfront Park on October
15th; FOSC board approved of FOSC support for this effort.

8). Pat Ratkowski and Sarah Jane Marcus at the most recent FOSC summit agreed
to make an informal audit of FOSC’s finances.

9). FOSC needs to have a secretary under Maryland state law; newly formed
Nominations Committee will search for new FOSC board members, President.

10). Kit proposed paying a staff person to arrange FOSC program meetings and
walks; will discuss at next FOSC board meeting.

11). FOSC Board approved of extended Amy Wesolek’s contract for another year
to maintain database; contingent on work not exceeding 10 hours per month, with
recognition that monthly hours worked will most often be well below that.

12). Committee established to look at FOSC web site issues consisting of Clair
Garman, Dee Clarkin, Mike Smith, Sarah Jane Marcus, and Andrew Marcus.

13). The Board passed a resolution naming Kit Gage, Dee Clarkin and Sherrell
Goggin as signatories on the FOSC bank and investment accounts.