Attending: Bill Kurtz, Kathi Cambiano, Sonia Dyer, Linda Delgado, Joel Parker, Roger Lane

Called to order at 11AM

After the last meeting Acting President Loyd called for an online vote and Linda Delgado was unanimously elected club President by the board. This was announced to the general membership in the most recent Cactus Courier.

Sonia has started a markup copy of the roster to give to Sandy Carter.

We have received a very nice thankyou card from UC-Santa Cruz Arboretum for our recent donation.

Kathi suggested considering moving all future meetings to the second Sunday of the month starting in 2015. We will take a closer look at the schedule possibilities in the next meeting.

Roger handed out the most recent Treasurer's Report. The Christmas Party cost us less than it did the year before.

Bill K. has had to change our Oct meeting meeting day to one week later due to a schedule conflict with the park.

Joe Hildalgo has brought in a stack of books that he would like to recommend for the club library. Linda moved that the club librarian be given the discretion to fill in the gaps in our library up to $500 per annum, MSP.

Joe is also working on a presentation he could give. Several other potential speakers were mentioned by Joe and Roger. Loyd to follow up.

The Show and Sale has been moved up a month to mid-March due to a scheduling problem at the school. Should we have a March meeting? We decided yes, as we already have a speaker and we need the opportunity to sign up helpers for the show. Should we have an April meeting? Yes.

Loyd will be the board's primary contact with Rich Kroll, with Sonia as backup.

Old Business:

Roger Lane has created a catalog of the club library books in .doc form. It would be great to get this put up on the club web site.

A club member has suggested to Loyd that we do a better job identifyingwhich of the two Prusch meeting rooms we will be in. This is decided by the Park, and sometimes changes with short notice. Kathi has a picture of each building and we agreed we could put a copy of the picture of whichever room we expect to probably be in in the newsletter. Loyd to discuss with Rich.

Three of the Prusch folding tables are defective. Kathi suggests we buy new tables for the park. We agreed this would be a good idea. We don't know what the tables will cost but are expecting $200+ each. Kathi will investigate the cost of the tables. Bill K will broach the subject with the park to make sure they think this is a good idea.

There was a discussion of Rich Kroll's email suggesting a plant/disease contest, as he is getting about one request per month as webmaster. Having it be a contest was generally vetoed in the previous meeting. There was further discussion -- the newsletter seems an inappropriate venue. A presentation at our general meeting wouldn't reach random members of the public that are asking the questions. Kathi suggests we possibly refer questions aboout diseases to the Master Gardeners, and we possibly could also invite them to give a presentation to the club. She will investigate their hotline numbers. Also we could provide links to other sites that are good for plant identification. - Kathi has gotten the contacts to give to Rich. Loyd will discuss with Rich.

Bill K will mark up a copy of the Procedures document for show dealings with Buchser, so that it's apppropriate for Peterson and give it to Sonia to put on the web site.

The question was raised whether we should have a fixed day of the month for publication of the club newsletter, even though our actual meeting date varies considerably. We have agreed that having a fixed time is preferable, such as the last weekend of the month. Loyd will discuss with Rich Kroll.

Loyd would like the club to have team tee shirts and caps. Kathi and Sandy Carter have a computer file of the club logo. Kathi has sent a copy to Loyd for followup. Linda and Bill say the last time the club made T-shirts it had trouble selling them, so this idea is now shelved.

A new member recently joined via our web site, and reported that two weeks later she had not received any kind of acknowledgement of her application and her check had not been cashed. It was generally agreed that we need more clarity on what the process is when someone joins via the web site, and we need to have a committee to address ways to make new members feel welcome, such as by some kind of Welcome Package. Sandy Carter reports by email that we now have 167 members, and that she will be putting together a membership process for the Board to review.

Adjourned at 11:50 AM.