Meeting Notes 4/8/2022

Vamos A Sembrar
Community Garden General Meeting
4/8/2022, 5:30 pm, Friday, in-garden.

Attendees (8 total; 5 members [of 15]): (see Minutes below)

AGENDA:

  1. Membership updates.
  2. The garden’s Open Hours: Mon-Sun 12 pm – 4 pm.
  3. LUNGS (Loisaida United Neighborhood Gardens) discussion and updates:
    1. Vamos’ annual LUNGS dues ($10/year) payments.
    2. LUNGS CSA, every Friday 5-7 pm, July 8 – November 18.
    3. Spring Awakening (April 23, Sat 11 am – 5 pm).
    4. Theater program (June 11-12).
    5. MakeMusicNY (6/21/2022).
    6. SYEP (Summer Youth Employment Program) 6 weeks July-August.
  4. Amendments to the bylaws:
    1. Discuss any amendments,
    2. Amendment proposals (Bylaws Amendment Process).
  5. To reinstate Vito to the steering committee.
  6. Nominations for any open positions (garden positions, steering committee positions).
  7. Graffiti on the walls (our options?).
  8. Garden layout (“floor plan”) for existing elevated beds (“box plots”) since a casita or shed is coming with a cement floor.
  9. Tree pruning/trimming:
    1. Any of the trees in the garden,
    2. Tree closest to the gate is technically a weed that grew into a tall tree and blocks the morning sun. This tree can be trimmed to give more sunlight to the garden, most of the right side of garden and the wall of the church. 
  10. Other items.

MINUTES:

Hello, Gardeners

The meeting was schedule for 5:30 pm, however, we started at 6:00 waiting for members to show up.
Present at the meeting:
Shig, Jeannie, Santiago, Frank, Rafael, Raul, Joanne and myself [Hannah].

Shig started the meeting discussing the open hours for the garden which are from 12-4 pm, Mon-Sunday, enough hours to fulfill GreenThumb’s requirements which is a good thing.
Following was a discussion about LUNGS Organization, description of LUNGS, and whether we want to be part of LUNGS, to be voted on 3rd meeting.

Re-instating Vito to the steering committee, outcome was that Vito should nominate himself or anyone else can nominate him to the position, to be voted on our 3rd meeting.
Frank Gonzalez’s required hours were discussed, due to the fact of Joanne making up extra hours in order to complete his 20 hours to become a member.

What should be done about the graffiti. Santiago suggested to have the children from the school come to the GARDEN and create a mural around the graffiti.

An eyewitness which is not a member of the Garden, saw and can identify 3 of our members of the garden taking a bag of compost from the Garden. GreenThumb recently made a delivery of compost bags for the garden use, NOT PERSONAL. Lets keep in mind that whatever GreenThumb delivers to the garden, is not for members to help themselves. In addition, this can be a violation of the bylaws.

Jeannie Nieves, which was present in the meeting, Rolando Acevedo and Edwin Cruz, not present in the meeting, raised the issue about the posted sign of the Children’s Garden and The Roost. This is NOT a children’s garden nor has the name of the garden change to the children’s garden. This Garden is still named Vamos A Sembrar. In addition, all three members mentioned that by having the name, The Roost, it was giving a false impression that the Roost Cafe, owned by Vito, was affiliated with the garden.
For those that are not aware, or do not remember, sometime last year or the year before that, Vito offered his raised bed to be used by children, so Shig, suggested the sign should be worded differently. One of his suggestion was to say, the children’s plot or raised bed.

Finally, the deadline for any suggested amendments to the bylaws should be presented at the next meeting, to be scheduled soon. All voting matters would be conducted at our 3rd meeting.

Hannah Negron
Secretary
Vamosasembar.org

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