The purpose of this monthly newsletter is to keep Foundation partners and affiliate groups better informed with monthly updates on our activities, upcoming meetings, and other news of interest.  Your input is welcome.  If you have content to add to a future newsletter, wish to subscribe, or want to unsubscribe, please contact the Foundation webmaster/secretary, Karen Townsend at KarenTownsend@rrpfoundation.org.

Board of Directors Meeting Summary - Wednesday September 20, 2006, 8:15 am
Landmark Theater

Foundation President Casey Cockerham called the meeting to order.

Bill Conkle submitted a new partner application on behalf of Friends of Jefferson Park. They are a new group started in reaction to recent issues – mainly surrounding the train tunnel excavation proposed this past summer. The group is already active and getting results--They have met with the Parks Department and Public Works, have worked on graffiti issues and gotten bathrooms reopened. They have officers and a good group of members. Carl Otto moved to accept and Diane Dunaway seconded. Friends of Jefferson Park was approved for Partnership.  Also, the Foundation expects to reconnect with Friends of Paradise Park soon. Donna Joyce will be invited to the next meeting to talk about reviving the Partnership.

Department representative, Larry Miller talked about Conservation Easements. The Department is in contact with the Virginia Outdoors Foundation to go over easement drafts and will set up a final public meeting after that. John Zeugner mentioned that RRPF will be co-holder of the easement and may have some role in monitoring compliance. Joyce Stargardt and Diane Dunaway brought up concerns about clarifying RRPF’s role and who on the board would take responsibility. Bill Conkle make a motion that we serve as secondary co-holder and have one person on the board responsible for monitoring. All voted in favor and John Zeugner suggested that the standing Friends of James River Park board seat have that responsibility.

John (JR) Pope touched on Ralph White’s national award from the Sierra Club. Bill Conkle asked about the parks component of Richmond’s “City of the Future” plan. JR Pope replied that 18M (including Landmark funds) is designated for Parks over the next 5 years. 2M for major parks improvements and 2M for major recreation improvements should be spent in the next 12 months (John Winters is the “City of the Future” capital projects manager). JR gave several examples of coming projects—a concession building at Byrd Park’s Fountain Lake and restoration of the Azalea Garden Pond at Bryan Park.

President Casey Cockerham mentioned that he is working on defining distinctions between partners and partner projects. He is also working on creating a paid executive director position with a goal of having a plan or even hiring by next fall. Ideally, an endowment would be established to fund the position. Estimates are that the Foundation needs someone 10-15 hours a week with a market value of $15-20,000/yr. Drawing 5% from an endowment would require a total endowment of $2-300,000. Suggestion was made to plan for a 3-5 year campaign (publicize with attorneys and CPAs).and fund within the annual budget in the meantime

Casey reported that the 2006 season of Passages camp had 693 paying campers, 16 scholarships from Camp n Kids. Peak Experiences will pay the Foundation $22,031 this year.

Treasurer, Carl Otto reported that Polly Jefferson has taken over the job of making deposits from John Zeugner. Donations continue to come in through online donations as well. The audit is still lingering with a few questions. Farmer’s Market transactions still dominate the Foundation’s monthly activity. The IDA load fulfillment is in the works. Stacey Moulds says she has supporting documents from 2004 to satisfy the loan. There was some discussion of the Market issues – Carl & John’s visit with Dept Econ Dev. Acting Director, Garland Williams. They discussed the authority for the daily Market management, the $200,000 that comes in donations and the donors expectations for how the money should be spent, and the Market management’s decisions re music, publicity, vendors and the Bottom community. Williams implied that Big changes were coming, wouldn’t be specific. Does this mean Shockoe Bottom infrastructure improvements will disrupt the Market? Who’s looking out for FM long-term needs?

Executive Director, John Zeugner mentioned the Battery Park flooding situation and that City Hall had made several inquiries as to whether the Foundation could help with disaster relief. John explained that disaster relief is outside the mission of the Foundation, but we can and do want to help out with park restoration where possible. John is still working on the 2005 Annual Report and hopes to have it completed soon.  Several board members have resigned recently and John mentioned needing to bring new members in—especially a lawyer to take Preston Wigner’s place. Asha Keys and Stacey Moulds have been recruited to fill vacancies.  New board members should come from corporations, Cultural Arts, Luck Stone, Phillip Morris, big supporters.

Secretary, Karen Townsend agreed to follow through with finalizing a new design and printing of Foundation stationary. Asha will help advise and the Department has agreed to do the printing.  Friends of Scuffletown Park requested the Foundation’s assistance in obtaining a non-profit mailing rate for their newsletter. Karen investigated the Postal Service’s application process and discovered that the Foundation is not allowed to lend its non-profit status for another group’s mailing. Better to hire private mailing firm, less expensive too.

Foundation meeting time was discussed and the question of whether 8:15 am was convenient for most board members. It was agreed that the next two meeting would be shifted on a trial basis to afternoons—4:30 pm on the third Wednesday of the month, at the Landmark.

Calendar of Upcoming Board Meetings and Other Events

October 18 - Landmark Theater
November 15 - Westover
December 19 - Board Breakfast at Cafe Ole
January 18 - Hotchkiss
February 15 - Highland Park

Regular board Meetings are held at 4:30 pm on the third Wednesday of each month. (NOTE THE NEW MEETING TIME!)  Locations vary as noted above.  Partners are cordially invited to join any or all Board Meetings.  For directions, please refer to the City's web page for community center information.

Partner News

FAN DISTRICT ASSOCIATION ANNOUNCES A DISTRICT-WIDE PARK CLEANUP...

Residents and business owners in the Fan will be joining Richmond Recreation & Parks Foundation partners on Saturday, October 21, 2006 at 9 AM to volunteer for a neighborhood-wide Park Cleanup.  Jointly sponsored and coordinated by the Fan District Association and the Fan Women’s Club, this Second Annual Fall Park clean up is an effort to supplement seasonal maintenance activities completed by the City. Volunteers will report to the neighborhood parks, where coordinators will assign tasks like weeding, mulching, planting, picking up trash/litter, raking and other tasks specific to each park.

Volunteers working alongside friends and neighbors will foster a stronger sense of community as they “play in the dirt,” a stronger pride in our parks as a valuable natural resource and treasured green space, and develop a broader use of neighborhood parks as a public community asset. Volunteers are encouraged to wear sturdy shoes; bring gloves, garden tools, rakes, shovels, pruners, wheel barrows, spades, brooms, any implements at your disposal to make the job easier.

In the past few years, groups of citizen volunteers have formed “Friends of” groups for most of the Fan neighborhood parks. These groups have worked with city officials to develop park plans that meet the needs of their neighbors, from a children’s playground to community gardens. Some of the Fan’s parks are very visible green spaces that dot the Fan neighborhood and are visible from streets and avenues. Other parks are pocket parks secluded in block interiors and accessible only from alleyways, but still treasured by urbanites. The parks and Friends of groups participating are:

Federal Park (pocket park between Main and Floyd, Rowland and Shields)
Grace Park (median park of Allen from W Broad to Monument)
Lombardy Park (the playground at Lombardy, Hanover, and Park)
Meadow Park (park at Meadow, Stuart, and Park)
Monroe Park (our largest park at Belvidere, W Main, Laurel, W Franklin)
Paradise Park (pocket park between Floyd and Grove, Vine and Allen)
Scuffletown Park (pocket park between Stuart and Park, Strawberry and Stafford)

Contact Don Tracy, FDA Parks and Trees Committee, on (804) 355-6133 or Mimi Herington, Fan Woman’s Club Neighborhood Improvement Committee, on (804) 523-1178 for questions or additional information.
 

From Friends of Scuffletown Park...

We had an end of the summer party on Sunday October 1, 2006 with neighbors and friends of about 40 people with lots of food and friendship. Mary Lois Mitchum and Bill Conkle attended along with the neighborhood children and dogs. Weather, flowers and everything was beautiful.

Also Style magazine did an article this week on John Patterson and our donations campaign which is in full swing.
This "pocket park" continues to be used by children, neighbors friends, dogs and owners and community garden lovers. We are now closing up the community garden end of the season and water service for the park which is paid for by the friends group will be turned off in November until next spring.
 

From Richmond's Department of Parks, Recreation, and Community Facilities...

Richmond’s Department of Parks, Recreation and Community Facilities is offering a series of eight new field trips in its James River Park System that will help public schools and their students meet the state’s Standards of Learning (SOLs).  Developed by the park system’s Lorne Field, each trip takes approximately one hour and provides hands-on learning experiences for the children. “We are very excited about this new endeavor,” said the department’s Director J.R. Pope. “We have always known how much children can learn from visiting our James River Park System and exploring nature and natural settings. Now we’ve formalized some of these learning opportunities into programs that will be fun for the children as well as help the city and the state to meet their educational goals,” Pope said.  Teachers are encouraged to visit the department’s website for more information and to call the park at 646-8911 to schedule a field trip.

Resourceful Links for Partner Groups

Each month we include links to a few websites that might prove helpful or informative to our partner groups.

http://www.bikewalkvirginia.org - BikeWalk Virginia's mission is to educate its members, the general public, local organizations, and state and local officials about the health and environmental benefits of biking and walking.

http://www.nrpa.org/newsletter - The National Recreation and Parks Association publishes a wide variety of e-newsletters related to various parks and recreation specialties that you can receive by e-mail for free.