ALLENS POND YEARLY MEETING, 2022
SATURDAY, JUNE 18, 2022,
262 Jordan Rd., Dartmouth MA 02748
Officers present: Vanessa Anderson, JP Powel, Betsy Powel
Board members present: Rick Burnes, Ed Flynn, Jeanne Motha, Sam Powel
General Members present: 22
The meeting was called to order at 11 AM by the president, Vanessa Anderson, who led us in quiet appreciation of the moment and the place and people who have come before, then the officers and board were introduced.
SECRETARY’S REPORT: Because the whole report of last November’s meeting is on the website, this was limited to describing the amendment changing our corporate purpose to simply keeping the gut open, and, most importantly, changing the bylaw concerning membership to include “any person who - for whatever reason – has a compelling interest in the welfare of Allen’s Pond, may become a member by duly applying for membership and paying dues…” Everyone was encouraged to spread the word and encourage participation.
TREASURER’S REPORT: The current balance is $4250; expenditures have been $1,000 so far. JP recommends planning for a goal of $12,000 in the next two- and one-half years when the gut may need to be reopened. People notice it is heading rapidly in that direction. In the future the fiscal year will be January to December 31.
DISCUSSION: The last opening, February 3, 2021, cost $6,000. We can anticipate a shorter interval between openings and a rise in costs so it would be good to have a war chest. Our mailing went out to 125 people in our data base. We now have 38 paid up family members and 9 paid up Individual members for a total of 47 paid up members, plus $250 in overpayment donations. It would be good to have an automatic renewal of dues, but the current website platform is unlikely to support that. JP will investigate. Chris Baldwin says that fees for permits are modest. $1,000 for a state 10 year permit, and no fees for the Federal or town permits.
PEOPLE NEED REMINDERS to pay dues.
Ed Flynn, head of the Little Beach group will provide us with their members contact information. He also invited any interested APA members to attend their yearly meeting at 9:AM AUGUST 7, at the Back Eddy. This is their donated rain or shine meeting place before the restaurant opens at 12.
Should the website have a short history of the pond and the group? This might engage larger interest. It would be good to include a list of gut opening dates.
Could there be notice at Barneys Joy Beach that their members are invited to be part of keeping the pond healthy? What about a QR code at the parking lot? This would have to be presented to the Barneys Joy family by Vanessa.
If the pond closes in winter, it might be best to let it fill really high, so it scores out a deeper trench when it does get opened. If it closes during the summer, it really damages the life of the pond and should be opened as soon as possible.
CHRIS BALDWIN REPORT ON MASS AUDUBON AND GOOSEBERRY CAUSEWAY PROJECT:
MASS AUDUBON spends $18,000 a year on monitoring Allen’s Pond. This is because the Endangered Species Act, passed during the Nixon administration in the 1970’s, has Piping Plovers on the endangered list and the Barneys Joy beach next to Allen’s Pond is a nesting ground. The Act mandates monitoring a number of data points including nesting sites, the number of eggs, the number of chicks and the size of their population. Mass Audubon does all this so we can be in compliance with the law, and thereby they make possible the summer human habitation of the beach. Some other towns close their beaches during plover habitation. SO, We don’t know how good we’ve got it! Mass Audubon! RAH!
Some permits are coming up in 2023.
The GOOSEBERRY CAUSEWAY PROJECT is a result of a $1,000,000 grant from a Westport family with a $300,000 matching challenge for a three-year study of the effect on the local coastline of closing off the flow of water and sand between Gooseberry Island and the shore by the causeway built in 1943. The participants are Boston University, The Woods Hole group, and Virginia Institute of Marine Services administered by The Buzzards Bay Coalition. The latter is spearheading the funding challenge. This will be a state-of-the-art data collection and modelling. For years people have wondered if that causeway had a role in the changes of coastline from Mishaum Point to Little Compton. This deserves our attention and support. People wanting to follow this can find a wealth of information by googling Gooseberry Causeway Project or checking the links below.
https://www.eastbayri.com/stories/1-million-pledged-to-study-gooseberry-causeway-impacts,102106
https://www.savebuzzardsbay.org/news/gooseberry-causeway-study/
Meeting ended at 11:50
Respectfully submitted,
Betsy Powel, Secretary
THE ALLEN’S POND ASSOCIATION ZOOM SPECIAL MEETING NOVEMBER 13, 2021 4PM
Lloyd Macdonald presided and started with an update after a long period of informality during which Kissy soldiered on alone filling all the offices.
By law recording a meeting cannot be done without informing the participants. No one objected or left.
Roll Call: Bill Prescott, Bill Souter, Peter Ouillette, Susan and Tom Peters, Robert and Tanya Powel, Niko and Debbie Kovaks-Sullivan, Gina Purtell, Eva Sommaripa, Joscelin Hamblett, Dexter Mead, Kate and Fred Dabney, John and Rochelle Ross, Justin Roach, Sam Powel, Sally Johnston, Ed Flynn, Jeannie Motha, Dedee and Bill Shattuck, Vanessa and Ben Anderson, Margaret King, Lloyd Macdonald, JP and Betsy Powel. (Apologies for spelling errors. Let me know)
The Bylaws require 30% attendance of the members. The members here plus the proxies held by Lloyd and Fred: Chris Baldwin, Peter Macdonald, Steve, Rick and Donna Wildes, and Vicki Cunningham fulfil that requirement.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT: Thanks to all the participants who came to the meeting and most especially all our gratitude to Kissy who has, basically singlehandedly, kept the APA going, overseeing activity and collecting dues. We owe her a lot.
OPERATIONAL BUSINESS. From a list of 90 plus members, Lloyd counted 38 who had paid dues for 2020 and 2021 as current. He sent the notice of this meeting to all 90 plus members from which he got 5 checks from unpaids and some bouncebacks.
PROPOSED Amended Corporate Purpose. “TO PRESERVE AND PROTECT THE FRAGILE ECOLOGY OF ALLEN’S POND AND ITS WATERSHED IN DARTMOUTH, MASSACHUSETTS BY PREVENTING THE OBSTRUCTION OF ITS TIDAL FLOW BY THE PERIODIC RE-OPENING OF THE CHANNEL AND BY SUPPORTING OTHER MEASURES TO ENSURE THE POND’S HEALTH AS A NATURAL ECOSYSTEM.
What has been stripped from this proposal is the support of educational and research activities, encouraging propagation of various species and wildlife. These activities have been ably taken on by organizations that were not here when APA started: MassAudubon, DNRT and Buzzards Bay. This in no way suggests that the APA should not be interested in those pursuits, just not responsible .
The amendment was carried without objection.
Bylaw changes. The bylaws require “ten days notice by mail” . The vote was for a waiver and retroactive consent to allowing notice of meetings by Email and additionally allowing the meetings to be on Zoom.
Further, the vote was for a waiver and retroactive consent to allow nominations for officers and offers of amendments from the floor without the 30 days notice period. This does not affect the requirement that such “from the floor” motions have 10 people for nominations and 20 people for amendments.
No nominations or amendments were offered.
All the bylaw changes were carried without objection.
SLATE OF NEW OFFICERS
President Vanessa Anderson
Treasurer JP Powel
Secretary Betsy Powel
Directors: Sam Powel
Rick Burnes
Ed Flynn
Jeanne Motha
They all were voted in without objection
Acknowledgement: Lloyd and Fred were honored for their service.
Lloyd will make himself available should the new president have legal questions.
COMMENTS FROM OUR NEW PRESIDENT. (Loosely quoted)
“ I am honored and excited to be doing this. Thanks to Dad and Fred for the decades you have devoted to the pond. I grew up here where I was so close to my grandmother, Angelica, with her love for the area from the beginning till we finally sent her ashes into the channel.” She hopes to streamline membership and dues operations as we go towards the annual meeting in June.
COMMENTS FROM OUR NEW TREASURER.
We have secured the domain of Allenspond.org with an email, support@allenspond,org
We now have a website under construction, www.allenspond.org where this meeting has been posted with the Zoom instructions and outline of the issues to discuss. These minutes will be posted in due course and anything else deemed instructive.
We will work on ecommerce, a new checking account, membership submissions and keeping financial information ready to hand for the officers. There will be a tab for these programs of about $500.00 per year.
GENERAL COMMENTS:
Does the appellation, “.org” suggest we are tax deductible? We are not since at the beginning the cost of the filings seemed to outweigh the gain. JP will make it clear on any dues web page that APA is not tax deductible.
Chris Baldwin, arguably the most important member since he has been organizing and executing all the necessary permits for opening the gut, has agreed that he will be continuing this service through the next opening. Gina says that a three year track seems to be where we are on now.
The cost of the opening is around $7500.00. Are $25.00/year dues sufficient? It will be important to locate all the abutters and abutters of abutters, who can become members. Lloyd will underwrite this effort to get the information from town records. And perhaps some form of membership can be extended to a wider group. And perhaps dues can be increased.
ADJOURNED 5PM
Respectfully submitted,
Betsy Powel
Secretary