VOLUNTEER
& CONTACT

December 4, 2007

In attendance: Charlie Loeb, Mary Loeb, Noelle Carbone, Paris White, Karey Larson, Amanda Olson, Barbara Holmes, Anita Golton, Tasja Williams, Christy Seay, Loudon Wilson, Erica Valentine, Nancy Juergens

Charlie’s financial update:

We have a bit more than $14,000 in the bank. We are getting close to having raised $30,000. We will continue to apply for more grants:

• Charlie: Borough Bed Tax Grant, Rasmuson Foundation, Mat-Su Health Foundation.
• Karey: Will be asking the Talkeetna Bachelor’s Society for a donation.
• Erica: CIRI, AK RR, Mailman Family Foundation, Usabelli Foundation, AK Community Foundation, Murdock Foundation, AK Council of Arts
• Other contacts for possible donations: Royal Celebrity, Princess, Holland America, Tauck Tours, AK Wildland Adventures. Charlie will talk with Suzanne Rust regarding her contacts with these groups and come up with a follow-up strategy.

Pickets are the major way to meet our fundraising goal. Selling 400 pickets will give us $12,000 profit. Charlie would like to see 15 people commit to selling 25 pickets each. We need to identify these people and sign them up. This will really boost our picket selling effort. So far we have these people committed to selling 25 pickets. Charlie, Loudon Wilson, Barbara Holmes, Paris White, Amanda Olsen. If you are interested in helping Please contact Charlie or Karey

Component list update:
To date, the stage, a bench, climbing wall, and log cabin, train engine, rubber bridge have all been sold.

Public facilities update:
Final meeting is Thursday, 12/6/07. It will be important to have some committee members in attendance. The Friend’s of the Library are not in support of Option A.Charlie is going to meet with them before the public facilities meeting and hopefully resolve this issue.

Tom Kluberton, assembly person, was concerned with the cost for maintenance and upkeep of the playground. Karey will check with John Dean about what to expect with maintenance and upkeep.

Looking ahead:

Organizational Day: We need to think about planning the Organizational Day with Leathers. This day helps get us organized for our build days. Would like to combine it with Seward’s O.D. to share Leathers’ travel expenses. O.D. should happen a minimum of 8 weeks before the build date. We are looking at sometime in April.

Handprints: Tasja is researching process of creating the tiles from wood rather than ceramic tiles. Leathers suggested using wood. Paris will help Tasja prep the wood tile boards. We have a goal of starting to sell hand prints at the December 29th concert.

Kids Concert: Esther Golton has volunteered to perform for a free concert for kids on Dec. 29, at Whole Wheat Radio. Would like to see new families and community members at this event other than just committee members. Spread the word Committee will have hand prints, pickets, bags and components available for sale.

Still need someone to head up the site prep (survey work and dirt work) for the playground.

Charlie is going to attend the upcoming Chamber of Commerce meeting to share our playground plans.

Karey will make a presentation to the Bachelors at their Dec 12th meeting. We will be asking them to purchase the VW Bus.

Noelle will make sure the Feb. 9th wine tasting event is in the newspaper by Jan. 15.

We need to encourage community and committee members to donate NOW. This is important because it shows community financial support which is required in some of the grants we are applying for. Donors can also use it as a tax deduction for this year.

Anita will organize an artists meeting in January to determine the color schemes of the playground.

Next meeting Tuesday, 12/18/07, 6:30 pm at the Roadhouse.

Thanks to Nancy for taking notes and typing up the minutes.

Please note I am forwarding these after the Public Facilities Meeting. The meeting went very well. We have resolved the issues and the friends of the library, Patti and other community members are supporting the playground being built on the library property. We will update you with the details at the next meeting. We still do not know if the playground will be on the North or the South of the creek. It may be up to further information from DOT. Reguardless, we have made a huge step forward. Thanks to everyone involved! Big thanks to Charlie and Howard for getting out and flagging the area this morning and meeting with the friends of the library. Also to Brian Kingsbury for his new access idea.

We are making great progress!! This is very exciting! Keep selling components and Pickets. Spread the word about the Kids concert on Dec 29th.

Thanks to all the volunteers! Hope to see you at the next meeting.