This was originally posted to: Guemes Island Planning Advisory Committee

GIPAC Minutes February 2, 2015

 

Guemes Island Planning and Advisory Committee

 Meeting February 2, 2015

 

Present: Members Nancy Fox, Allen Bush, Stella Spring, Sandy McKean, Michael Brown, Hal Rooks, Patty Rose. Ex Officio member Gary Curtis and citizens Marianne Kooiman and Edith Walton.

Minutes of the January meeting were approved as amended.

Hal Rooks, Treasurer, reported a balance of $3,754.89.

  1. Communications regarding plan implementation with county departments

There will be a Land Use Meeting February 10 at 11:30. Our proposed changes will be addressed. We also want to get notices of land use actions and will ask to receive monitoring reports.

Meeting with Health Department regarding seawater intrusionWe are waiting for a response to our proposals.

  1. There will be a continuation on the marijuana hearing tomorrow… Hal was able to testify at the last meeting. Guemes Environmental Trust also testified. Hal encouraged us to testify, because there is strength in numbers. Comments can be made online for a couple of more days.

  2. The Groundfloor group held their second meeting, Marianne reported. There is talk of expanding the orders with Azure.com and creating some kind of food coop. Kathleen Phillips urged people to use the community hall, although there is a question of zoning. There is talk of a tool exchange or a “free store”. Allen suggested that people go to all island organizations, and see how much interest there is in a specific part of the project. Stella described the Hornby Island Free Store. Allen told about some people in St. John buying land in common. (http://oasisproductionshq.wix.com/creatorsclub).

  3. By-laws

    Michael reported on his board insurance research. The Museum of Northwest Art has a policy that costs $1500/year, but that seems like too much. Michael has names of a couple of agents who he can talk to.  Gary and Sandy shared unhappy experiences where the insurance process took over. Hal would like to consider insurance. It was asked whether being a corporation would protect the board members. It was stated that we need to be careful not to express our own opinions in the name of GIPAC and we wonder if there are other organizations that have the same issues? The conclusion was that we need more information on the insurance issue.

There was a discussion of Robert’s rules. Perhaps we need procedures and understandings more than Robert’s Rules. We want to be sure that everyone has a chance to speak. At the beginning of every meeting, maybe we need to just reiterate our understandings. RR might help us when things go wrong. Our chair has the responsibility to be sure that everyone gets a chance to speak. In RR the president isn’t supposed to vote.

Hal reported that he has examples of bylaws which he will share. Bylaws are for when things go wrong. Shall we be very terse in our bylaws and leave a lot of the details to the board? Hal will try to have a draft of bylaws by next month. Nancy’s suggestions: officers should be elected at the first meeting after the annual meeting by the board. Who are the voting members? Members are anyone who lives on Guemes? What does the county language say? Ferry committee has just tax payers vote. We represent the island residents. At our Annual meeting we can convene board meeting as soon as possible. Other islanders can stay, but not vote.

We should have a procedure in the bylaws for how we amend them. Members should ratify. Sandy will send us information from the county about our composition. We need to publish board accepted bylaws before a vote. We need to formalize 3 year terms which are staggered. Everyone’s term is three years. Patty should write when each board term expires. Annual meeting will occur during the first half of November.

  1. Conservation easements

Michael suggested linking different parcels of land that have been conserved, and Marianne mentioned the possibility of wildlife corridors. Should we look into placing more protections on island DNR land? (Three 40 acre lots) Perhaps we can raise a fund to help people with the costs of getting conservation easements. There was a discussion of open space preservation vs/conservation and what that might mean. A conservation easement gives a tax benefit. 

Next session we will look at island maps and talk about our priorities possibly using Skagit IMAP and a big screen TV. Stella will look into printing maps. Perhaps we can meet with Skagit Land Trust representatives in April and eventually present a bigger public forum on options for conserving Guemes lands.

GIPAC will send a card of sympathy for Joan, remembering Roz.

Respectfully submitted,

 

Patty Rose,

Secretary

 

 

 

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