Board Meeting Minutes 7-16-2018
PO Box 904, Orinda CA 94563
Meeting commenced around 7PM
Reminders:
Save the date: Annual Meeting – Saturday September 8 – 4PM Potluck Dinner – At OHA
Work hours: are due in September 30. Please fill out the hours in the work hour’s book, or email them to Diane Livoti on or before September 30
- 25 hours for one horse per year
- 40 hours for two per year
- New members owe at a rate of 2.25 hours per month (For example a member accepted to OHA on August 1, 2018 would owe 4.5 hours at the end of September -2 months x 2.25=4.5 )
- Members are permitted to pay for up to 50% of their hours, payment should be submitted to the OHA PO Box
Work Parties:
August 4 – Prepare for the Hay Delivery
If you can’t attend – please prepare your pasture’s hay area in advance
August 18 – Hay Tarping
If you can’t attend – please tarp your hay pile in advance
All Members: Hay preparation and tarping is the shared responsibility of all members:
- Know your pasture team- It is everyone’s responsibility to be aware of the work, rotation schedule and preparations needed for their pasture
- Pasture Teams are responsible for hay area preparation and tarping
- If you aren’t assigned to a pasture that has hay being delivered – please reach out to other pastures to assist with this task (or plan to attend the work parties on August 4 & 18)
Pasture Teams – Please be aware of and keep in touch with your pasture team. There are several moves coming up, and it is the team’s responsibility to prepare the pastures, and ensure any maintenance is done in preparation for moves. (Teams are posted on the website)
MINUTES
Board Members Present: Wakean, Linda, Heather, Sally, Diane, Page and Anna
- Proposed Agenda – Approved
- Meeting Minutes from last meeting were approved
- Review Planning Grid
- Feeding Schedule- Allison Bloodworth has volunteered to take on this task – Thank you Allison. Last year the board noted generally positive feedback on the first come, first serve self-sign up process. (Less swapping of dates, positive feedback overall) The board would like to continue self-signup process. Please keep an eye out for information about feeding sign ups from Allison. Feeding begins in September.
- Hay Ordering – David Curto is coordinating orders
- Pasture Teams are responsible for the following:
- Preparing hay areas
- Preparing tarping
- Tarping
- Monitoring hay piles
- It is a crucial weeding time for yellow star and teasel (Contact Suzette or Erica for areas to focus on)
- Pasture Teams are responsible for the following:
- Membership Issues:
- Eddie has interviews scheduled for the July 20th (Result of this was Bob was accepted)
- Cheryl has given up Fazon’s space (she retains 1 space)
- Open Spaces –Eddie is working on filling the two open spaces
- The wait list is getting shorter – the board decided we aren’t going to advertise, but we will add our name to the barn directory on BayEquest.com and TWHA
- EBMUD
- Orinda inspected the bridge, and determined it was in decent condition
- We are continuing to ask the city to post the GVW allowed on the bridge
- EBMUD is grading the pasture’s existing roads
- Wakean will confirm if we are allowed to drive on the new road (it was not allowed by EBMUD originally)
- EBMUD said thank you for clearing the pond drain
- Treasurer’s Report
- Hay Payment – Thank you to everyone who paid for hay – we still need members who have not paid – payment is due when hay is purchased
- Diane/Page are working on putting together a budget – will share in the next week or so
- Grazing rotation
- Erica will work on the GP for next year
- David Curto is working on ordering hay
- Capital Improvement Projects
- The red barn repairs are largely repaired – Wakean continues to work on this
- Ring Pasture Fence – Wakean and Linda will coordinate repairs to ring pasture
- Lower Pasture corral – we are going to do no climb between pasture/paddock, and the rest of the paddock will have e-fence inside of the existing boundary fencing.
- Projects
- Animal ramps – while the board appreciates the idea of saving animals, this has not been a problem in our pastures, and after a thoughtful discussion, and concerns expressed by members, we are not interested at this time in having ramps installed, but we will continue to watch and observe if it is a potential problem and may revisit in the future
- Refuse removal – Caitlin has volunteered to make a monthly trip to the dump – we are going to take her up on her offer – Thank you Caitlin
- Many projects and repairs are underway around the pasture – it is important to remember that horses are not supposed to be loose in saddling areas. Leaving horses loose in these areas, poses risks – these areas have vehicles travelling through them, and equipment may be lying on the ground which is not safe. Members should be aware of their surroundings, and use caution – particularly when work is in progress. As always – horses should not be left unsupervised or loose in saddling areas.
- Work Parties – August 4 & 18 (Information in reminder above)
- Back 40 Corral – Larry has offered to help lead the effort to build a shelter
- Hay Tent – Michael Bowen has offered us a free hay tent, and the board has accepted this
- Emergency Preparedness
- Evacuation Planning – The board is beginning to explore a mutual agreement between OHA, MHA and RR so that in the instance our or their pasture is severely burned/scorched we would have alternative places to go. This idea is in its infancy – and we are going to reach out to MHA and RR to see if they have any interest in developing a reciprocal evacuation proposal. Anna will lead this with the support of Page, and Linda as a sub-comitee. Once they have contacted the other pastures, they will develop a recommendation, present it to the board, and then bring it to EBMUD. More to come – if you have interest in this please email Anna.
- Items on the Draft Agenda for annual meeting
- 2018 – Accomplishments, Learnings and Pasture Updates
- Allison Martin – will be sharing some horse safety information she learned form a recent workshop
- Horse safety/Evacuations – “Hold your horses evacuations” a non-profit that helped with the Napa, and SoCal evacuations will be at the annual meeting to discuss horse evacuations and their learnings
- Capital Improvements/Priorities
- Volunteer task list
- Fall Vaccines/Vet Clinics
Next Board Meeting – Monday, 20, 7PM at Sally’s House – 6449 Harwood Ave, Oakland CA 94618
Thank yous: (Email Anna if you want to “toot your horn” and be included in the next Minutes)
- Wakean & Michael Bowen for work on red barn to obtain AGP
- Suzette – for all of her work on weeding
- Kim – thank you for trying to innovate animal ramps – even though it was not approved
- Sally & Linda for coordinating work parties
- Tanya & Sally for doing dump runs
- Lisa M. for all of her work on the Taj
- Gary for all of his hard work on Pond pasture along with Lisa, Wakean, and many others
- Suzzette for Teasel work and all those who went to the work party
- Kim and Anna’s Dad for temporarily repairing valve on water tank
