Meeting Minutes for March 7, 2000,
Board of Directors Meeting
MN DOA, 2nd Flood Conference Room, St. Paul, MN.

Persons attending Glen Shirley, President, Ken Holman, Dwight Robinson, Michael Max, Gary Johnson, Mark Stennes, Janet Larson and Kirk Brown. Excused: Bob Slater

Meeting called to order at 3:18 p.m. by President Glen Shirley

Approve Minutes of 8 February.
Max / Stennes / Passed

Discussions on having a Federal representative provide a presentation on the pending Federal urban and community forestry legislation.

Discussion about the need for MnSTAC to follow and comment on the Generic Environmental Impact Statement (GEIS) on Urban Development. Bruce Bacon was recommended to chair the MnSTAC task force to track and provide comment on GEIS. Motion to appoint Bruce Bacon to chair GEIS Task Force.
Max / Stennes / Passed

Discussion about membership, sponsorship or advertising to underwrite the Shade Tree Advocate. The Advocate is printed four times per year. Each issue is approximately 3500 copies. Pros and cons were presented. There is a desire to maintain the professionalism of the publication. Sponsorship appeared to have the most support of the Board members present.

Kirk Brown reviewed the status of MnSTAC's budget. A letter was sent out to committee chairs requesting a revised committee budget by 3 March. Northeast STAC was the only committee that felt they would have unencumbered funds at the end of the fiscal year ($280). West Central and HA STAC requested additional funds to finance professional services and a regional newsletter ($800).

The Board expressed a desire to have the West Central and HA STAC newsletter included as part of the Advocate. If the newsletter can not be included in the Advocate this time an effort for inclusion should be made for future issues. The consensus was that inclusion provided other STAC members valuable regional information and kept the Advocate as the "common voice."

Strategic Planning and Admin overspent their budgets by $26 and $64 respectively.

Motion to provide additional funds for West Central and HA STAC's ($800) and Strategic Planning and Admin ($90) from Outreach's budget.
Stennes / Johnson / Passed

Gary Johnson stated that the Shade Tree Short Course, Minnesota's premier gathering of urban and community forestry professionals, will be under financed by $30 per person attending. The Short Course is in the dilemma of charging more and reducing attendee or keeping the price low to ensure the practitioners have the most up to date information on tree management and care. At present the goal is to reach as many practitioners as possible.

Motion to use all MnSTAC funds not encumbered by 1 June to support expenses incurred by the Shade Tree Short Course.
Stennes / Max / Passed

Ken Holman stated that the DNR is developing a data base of Urban and Community Forestry. Discussion ensued about the desire and benefit of the inclusion of MnSTAC in the data base. MnSTAC member access to the data base would also be very valuable. At the next meeting a proposal will be presented on the parameters and expense of having MnSTAC included in the data base.

A fiscal year 2001 budget is due 7 April. This early schedule will allow MnSTAC to match with the DNR budget schedule.

Mark Stennes reported that the MSA forum on planting depth was very successful. A follow up meeting will be held on 16 March with nine key players. They will help determine the next steps to prevent the practice and make professionals and public aware of the problems in planting depth.

Ken Holman reported that Phyllis Kahn, State Representative from Minneapolis, stated in her presentation to the Greening Conference that MnSTAC was the wisest thing the Legislature has done in 25 years.

Motion to adjourn
Johnson / Holman / Passed
Meeting adjourned at 5:11 p.m.