Friends of Harrington Beach SP Annual Meeting ~ April 28, 2016
Welcome - Dinner
Call to Order: Ronnie called the meeting to order after a delicious lasagna (Ronnie) dinner with salad (Nancy), homemade bread (Elaine S-K) and Bob's famous desserts.
Roll Call: 18 people were in attendance.
Review of 2015 Annual Meeting Minutes: Bob Burant made a motion to accept the April 2015 minutes, Diane Keller seconded and all approved. No discussion
Financial Report: Neil Kraemer, Treasurer, handed out the past year financial report. We carry a balance of $15,153 with a statement of revenue and expenses attached to the report. Cabin expenses were totaled at $175,000 with the exception of a $3,000 maintenance account balance required by the DNR kept in our money market account. Completing the lawn is the only outstanding expense; $5,000 will be supplied by DNR. Firewood continues to be a bigger percentage of our revenue. This coming year with the ash lumber cutting because of the emerald ash borer, there is a lot of wood for campers to pick up. Wood sales may not be as brisk. We have signed a new 3 year wood supply contract with Three Oaks Wood from Chilton, WI.
Committee Reports
Pancake Breakfast: Sunday, June 5 from 8-12pm we will have the Pancake Breakfast, our 'last' designated fund raiser for the cabin. All donations after this will go toward the general fund. Ronnie Morgan will head up the crew for the breakfast. Anyone wanting to help flip cakes or cook sausage, contact her. Last years event raised $1100. This is also a free admittance weekend in Wisconsin State Parks. A flyer was printed by Heritage Printers and distributed in the surrounding communities.
Concession Stand: Tara Kos gave a report on concessions. 71% of sales was from ice cream with remaining sales from beverages and snacks. The tablet's ability to take credit cards generated 7% of the sales. A concessions volunteer coordinator and ordering person is still needed to run operations this season.
Nature Programs: The Friends budgeted $1,000 for park program fees and expenses. The budget will be used for speaker fees, material purchase for the Monarch Butterfly and Sand Tracks program. Friends of Wisconsin State Parks has up to $1000 Affinity grant money for park programming. Neil Kraemer will submit a grant request to the WSF.
Accessible Cabin: The Friends were awarded the Friends of Wisconsin State Parks HERO award for building the accessible cabin. A dinner and award ceremony were held in Madison last November. Pictures were posted on the Friends of Wisconsin State Park website. FWSP_Awards_Banquet_2015 Our group is featured in pictures 53 (John Hise), 59 (Neil Kraemer) and 102-104 (award presentation). Ray Carey, Elaine Nulph, Kellie Goldsmith and Nancy Hise will work together on memorials.
Volunteer Recognition: Ronnie Morgan made a motion to recognize volunteers by donating $200 toward a future playground. Elaine Nulph seconded and all approved. She did not specify any one person or group of volunteers but applauded the hardworking volunteers as a whole. So many hours and skills contribute to the volunteerism through the Friends at Harrington Beach State Park.
Board Elections: Ronnie Morgan will step down after over 15 years as President of the Friends and many more serving on the board. She was presented with our gratitude and a small gift from the board. Ronnie made a nomination of Tara Kos for President, Nancy seconded the motion and all approved. The Vice President position will remain open. Elaine Stecker-Kochanski will finish out Ronnie's two year board term as a member-at-large. Neil Kraemer will pass the Treasurer position to Jim Schmit as of June 1st but will remain on the board as a member-at-large.
Park Manager Report: Carolyn Morgan, Superintendent, presented the park report in Manager Ken Severn's place. Many 2015 project were completed including replacing the beach access stairwells, accessible cabin build, heaters in the Welcome Center bathroom, campground septic repairs and drainage issues and a new park road entrance repaving. Accessible Cabin landscaping up to $5,000 will be covered by the DNR.
There are many on-going 2016-17 projects.
Park Manager, Ken Seven, start mid-November 2015. We now have 3 full-time staff at Harrington.
She congratulated Ronnie on a long and productive term as Friends president. Carolyn shared when she was a park ranger at Harrington and would check the Welcome Center later at night, the lights would be on and Ronnie would be cleaning the floors after a rental!
The accessible cabin is filling fast in its first full season of camping. There aren't many vacancies left from May through October. Carolyn clarified the reservation process in response to a Friend's member questions.
**Other Business: Marjie Tomter from Treasures of Oz gave us information about the June 18th Treasure of Oz Eco Tour. Elaine N and Nancy Hise will have a table with information about Friends of Harrington Beach. "The Treasures of Oz 2016 Eco-Tour of Ozaukee County uncovers the Treasures of Lake Michigan and the Ozaukee Coast. Treasures 2016 is a cross between an eco-tour and a science expo. You can go just for the excursions into 7 beautiful and diverse natural areas along the coast or you can go to learn about the natural and historic Ozaukee Coast and Lake Michigan through up close, real-life experience and interaction with top science docents. Go for both." For more information go to Treasures of OZ 2016-eco-tour
Adjourn: Bob made a motion to adjourn. Diane seconded.
Next Meeting: Date change because of Memorial Day Weekend. The next scheduled meeting will be **Thursday, May 19 at 7pm in the Ansay Welcome Center.
**Corrections in italics as of May 1, 2016
Submitted by Nancy Hise, Secretary