Villages Hiking Club – General Membership Meeting Minutes (via Zoom) 26-Oct-2020
Called to Order: 7:35pm by President Al Girolami
Total attendance/participants: 24
Attending Board Members:
President – Al Girolami
VP Hiking & Trails – Faye Swanson
Treasurer – Sandy Petrin
VP Social – Michelle Breslin
VP Membership & Website – Jim Beyer
Secretary – Gordon Carbonetti
Reports
President
Al acknowledged presence of guest speaker, Mark Medeiros – Senior Manager of Community Management for Peninsula Open Spaces Trust (POST) who will discuss his role with POST, and the organization’s areas of focus and current activities.
Al provided a status of Cheryl Allmen who was home now and doing well (it turns out Cheryl was a meeting participant!), and then introduced Gordon Carbonetti as the new Secretary.
Al provided update on Hill Lands proposals – 3 proposals were submitted to the Villages Board (VB). 1) New Steps Trail and Trail Maintenance ($3,000 estimate) and answered all VB questions. 2) Install a new Trailhead Box at the top of Village View Drive in Valle Vista just below the water tank. 3) Install a large sign/map at trail entrances. All three were denied in writing by the VB as they were not in the 2021 Village Budget, but will be reconsidered for the 2022 Village Budget. It was decided to try to complete #2 on our own via a Village Maintenance Work Order. Also, there is a plan to purchase and install a picnic table (identical to those currently at the top of the ridge) at the NE boundary of the Hill Lands. Purchase funds will come from the Hiking Club Hill Lands account (not to exceed $1000) and installation will be processed through a Village Maintenance Work Order at the appropriate time. This has been submitted to the Villages Board for approval with no response to date.
Finally, Al advised copies of approved Board and General Membership meeting minutes will be posted to the website.
Secretary
A motion was made and seconded to approve General Membership Meeting Minutes from September 28, 2020 meeting. Motion passed.
Treasurer
General Fund beginning balance as of August 31, 2020 $6,420.84
Expenses (flowers for Cheryl) $36.04
No Income $.0.00
Ending balance as of September 30, 2020. $6,384.80
Hiking Club Hill Lands Project Fund – August 2020
Beginning Balance as of August 31, 2020 $2,301.82
No income or expenses $0.00
Ending Balance as of September 30, 2020 $2,301.82
VP Membership & Website
Jim advised 2 people will not renew club membership for 2021, but 2 new people (Lillian and Mary Ann) are slated to sign up soon. Al and Faye are working that activity. .
Board Meeting minutes (back to February 2020) are now uploaded to the Hiking Club website. September 2020 General Membership Meeting minutes are on the website, and minutes from previous meetings will be posted as paper copies are scanned.
There are QR-code signs at each of the three trailheads. Those codes, when scanned by a cell phone, will provide direct access to the current Trail Map of the Hill Lands. Trail maps in hard-copy form can also be found in the clear plastic covers at each trailhead. As another option, it was suggested to use Google Maps on your cell phone.
Al thanked Jim Beyer and his son for their continued efforts to improve our website.
VP Hiking & Trails
Faye reported the Club now has fairly regular Rambler and Rambler-Lite hikes. The goal is to have them every week on Wednesday, but the schedule is subject to having enough leaders. So volunteers for Rambler hike leaders would be welcome, and should contact Faye or a Board member if interested.
Faye advised the email survey for Cattle Grazing on the Hill Lands totaled 58-yes votes and 3-no votes. A concern raised by a No-voter was that cattle are not natural to the Hill Lands Eco System and may damage trails and signage. Many comments from the Yes-voters said grazing cattle would reduce fire risk, with one comment saying, “hiking with cattle is fun”. We should now be in a position to take this to the Villages Board for approval. Dan Kato said all the Hiking Club needs to do is endorse the cattle grazing concept and we have done that. The rest is up to Bill Johnston who years ago worked as a cowboy for local ranchers on these hills.
It was asked to Guest Speaker Mark Medeiros for his thoughts on cattle grazing. He said it is an important part of landscape management and fire suppression. Mark also said cattle grazing will open the ground up so that native plants and grasses can better grow and thrive.
VP Social
Michelle said no events are currently scheduled except for Zoom Board and General Membership meetings.
Michelle also advised the annual subscription for Zoom Meetings was approved by the Board for 2021.
New Business
Officer Slate Presentation
Al asked the meeting participants if there was anyone interested in being nominated to run for a Hiking Club Board position, and no one came forward. Cheryl then made a motion to accept the slate of current club officers to remain in place through the end of 2021. The motion was seconded and unanimously passed.
Guest Speaker – Mark Medeiros, Senior Manager of Community Management for Peninsula Open Spaces Trust (POST)
Mark has lived his whole life in Santa Clara, and is passionate about the area.
He’s worked for POST for 5 years and enjoys working with the great people there.
His current activities cover organizing on-line events on various subjects including birding, mountain lions and local history. The website to access those events is www.openspacetrust.org/events
THE POST area is mainly in San Mateo and Santa Clara counties and covers about 80,000 protected acres.
POST’s current broad activities cover public access, redwood forest protection, wildlife and farm/ranch land issues.
One of his favorite books is “Tending the Wild” which describes how Native Americans in California worked the land, including utilizing a burn plan every 3-5 years.
Mark’s favorite hike is in the Bear Creek Redwoods area. The website to see other hikes is www.openspacetrust.org/hikes
Jim Koski asked Mark about the status of Martin’s Beach. Mark said access to the beach, which was once very easy, is now restricted. Evidently a new buyer acquired the adjacent land and is now blocking land access to the beach. Mark is not sure if beach access can be improved in the near term.
Next Meeting
Next General Membership Meeting – November 30, 2020 at 7:30pm, via Zoom with details to follow. Guest Speaker is scheduled to be Matt Dodder, Exec. Dir. Santa Clara Valley Audubon Society. The topic is “Birds on our Trails”.
Meeting Adjourned
The meeting adjourned at 8:42pm
Respectfully submitted,
Gordon Carbonetti, Secretary