PLANT WNY FIRST ANNUAL MEETING MINUTES
Thursday, February 2, 2017
Salvatore’s Italian Gardens -6461 Transit Road, Depew, NY 14043
6:00PM

6:10 Meeting called to order. In the absence of our current board president, Kristin Pochopin, director, called the meeting to order at 6:10pm.

Committee Reports:

Arbor Day – Mike Frank informed us that NYSNLA is no longer putting the funds out for an Arbor Day poster and he does not know the latest about the poster. Question was raised to whether we can do this poster just in our region. Dave McIntyre suggested making an ad hoc committee spear headed with Region 5 and Region 6 (would include all the regions) and leave out the DEC. Phil Colarusso will ask to add the Arbor Day poster to the State agenda.

Audit Committee – Audit will we done again later in the year. Nothing new to report.

Botanical Gardens – Kristin Pochopin announced that Lumagination is currently taking place. New houses 2 and 3 are open. Volunteer orientation is in February.

CNLP/Awareness & Promotion – Thank you to Kim Schichtel. Kim has volunteered to be our CNLP coordinator.
CNLP t-shirts, sweatshirts, magnets are available for purchase.

Ed Day/Trade Show – Roger Restorff announced the 2018 dates as Thursday, February 1 and Friday, February 2. This year attendance was 70 on CNLP Day and 32 for Hort 101 Day. We will run Hort 101 Day again next year as it was well received. Roger thanked the sponsors – Batavia Turf; Draves Tree & Landscape; Bobcat of Buffalo; Unilock; Siteone Landscape Supply; Becks Garden Supplies and Scranton’s Thruway Builders.

Foundation – Dave McIntyre announced the recipients of the spring 2017 scholarships as Bryce Gossel, Nathaniel John Buckley, Holly Bloom – all students at Niagara County Community College and Marie Myers Shearing, a student at the University at Buffalo

The Foundation underwrites Ed Day $8,000 and allows all the NCCC students be attend. The silent auction held during Ed Day helps to fund our scholarships.

Golf Outing – The golf outing will be at the Buffalo Tournament Club (same location) with the date to be determined.

Membership – Teresa Buchanan stated the membership brochure will be updated and distributed at Plantasia. The brochure will be going through a make-over. Last year we printed 1,000 copies and we have less than 100 left. The brochure is a nice advantage to being a member.

Leaf a Legacy – Different projects are currently in the works. We are looking at what we can do for the garden writers in August.

NCCC – Carolyn Stanko thanked the Foundation for all the assistance provided to them for the benefit the students. NCCC be adding more classes in the fall for community education classes. NCCC will be hosting the CNLP review classes. Send your job openings and internship requests to Carolyn. DEC recertification classes are also being held at NCCC. Carolyn thanked Dave McIntyre for presenting a STEM center at NCCC to the Board of Trustees.

Nominating Committee -We are always looking for new board members.

Plantasia – Preview Night advertising has started by Entercom. Lakeside Sod is our sponsor for the 3rd year. We are always in need of volunteers for the show. Plantasia needs a new co-chair for 2018, contact Chris Zeisz for more information.

Social Media/Rebranding/Marketing – Let Susan-Marie Fonzi know if you have anything for the Nurserylines report.

State Reps – Mike Frank gave a State update. The strategic planning group has met and somewhere around mid-year, they will present to the State Board and then it will be brought forward. Region 6 is the strongest region because of the “older” members who are getting the younger people involved and the mix of our membership. Mike stressed the importance of our region reps being involved with the State.

New Business
Advertising Co-Op – membership benefit. Discount for using the PLANT WNY logo or CNLP logo with Upstate Gardeners’ Journal, Buffalo Spree and Buffaloniagaragardening.com

Garden Writers Convention is coming in August. Sally Cunningham gave an overview of the convention in August. Sally gave kudos to Tom Draves and his arboretum stating we have an official arboretum here in WNY.

Bob Smith represents our state in NY farm viability research. 8 – 9 people are on the reviewing team for research. We need to get our landscapers involved in the research. Contact Bob for further information.

Roger Restorff motioned to accept the minutes of October 12, 2016 and it was second by Kim Schichtel. All in favor

A motion to adjourn was made by Kim Schichtel and was second by Ed Dore. All in favor. Meeting was adjourned at 7:15pm.