Board Meeting Minutes – 12/13/16
Meeting commenced around 7:15
Held at Heather’s townhouse
Potluck with lots of yummy food
1) Proposed Agenda – Approved
2) Minutes from 11/8/16 approved (with corrected spelling to Page’s name)
3) Members Present: Linda, Anna, Wakean, Sally and Heather
4) The Board discussed member concerns about stall usage. Members are reminded of the following OHA Procedures:
“a) An uninjured horse cannot use a stall or corral for more than 14 consecutive days, or for more than 21 days in a one-month period. Dieting horses, either gaining or losing weight, are subject to these time limits. Members may petition the Board for an exception to this time limit
b) The Ring Pasture is to be used primarily for enclosing horses in an emergency.
c) Overnight usage of the ring pasture is permitted in medical emergency situations when all other corrals are occupied, but must be approved by the President. The condition and quantity of forage will be taken into consideration in authorizing the use of the Ring pasture.
If a member needs to put an injured or sick horse in a stall, and all stalls are occupied, the member is encouraged to call the owner of any horse that is in a stall for a non-medical reason and ask if they can put the uninjured/well horse back in the pasture or in the Ring Pasture. The member can call the President to ask for permission to use the Ring Pasture as needed.”
5) Standing Items:
a) December – Herd wormers were ordered for Decmber – Liz will communicate with members (After meeting update: Wormers were provided at the 12/18 move, and if you haven’t yet wormed your horse, please do so ASAP, THANKS!)
b) 990N Form needs to be completed – Heather/Eddie will work with Page to ensure he has the necessary information to complete this on time.
6) New Member selection
a) Interviews were held at Sally’s house: Members present were: Sally, Page, Kim, Suzette and Cheryl.
b) Cheryl will provide an update on this, but all members agreed we had some great candidates.
c) Letters of recommendation need to be received and reviewed prior to final decisions/offers of membership.
7) Treasurer’s Report – to be provided in the January Minutes
a) It was also decided the following items would be included on the January Board Meeting Agenda as we review the budget, to determine if/what we can afford out of the following items:
i) Review of work and proposed improvements on old stalls
ii) Review and discussion of pear orchard stall or emergency holding area
iii) Review of “back forty” shelter and division
iv) Emergency preparedness kit; (emergency horse supplies such as bantamine, bute, previcox, imunal, etc)
v) Review of other key expenses for the year
vi) The wheel barrows at the pavilion seem to be in bad shape – Diane Livoti requested and the board approved the purchase of a new longer lasting/better quality wheel barrow ( up to $200 maximum)
vii) If you have other suggestions or critical OHA Purchase needs please email the board so we can include these in our budget reviewboard@orindahorsemen.org
8) Elise has requested an extension to fill her vacant horse space and this was granted until May 31, 2016.
9) EBMUD Annual Grazing Plan (AGP) Meeting:
a) Linda, Wakean, Heather and Erica were at the AGP meeting
i. For an in-depth overview of the meeting, please review the detailed meeting summary prepared by Erica (attached)
ii.The purpose of the AGP meeting is to review potential capital improvement projects for which OHA could receive credit back on our lease. For example, if OHA put in an estimate to repair the red barn for $XX then after we made those improvements we would receive that amount off of our next lease payment.
iii) Highlights from the meeting include:
b) General impressions were that the meeting went well.
c) EBMUD may be able to help us with various items at no-cost to us:
i. They offered to swap out the old gate in the forest, on the fire road to Wildcat Canyon Rd.
ii. They will add gravel to the pond barn and gravel for our main road
iii. They will help by providing a panel for the USR enclosure
iv. These would not count against our AGP; no timing was established for when these would occur. We greatly appreciate EBMUD’s assistance with these projects.
d) In a preliminary review of our proposed pasture improvements (see prior minutes) they provided very positive feedback suggesting that we could submit the following as proposals:
i. Red Barn improvements (Wakean will take the lead on getting cost estimates)
ii. Fence chargers
iii. Mowing weeds
iv. Hand pulling of weeds is not reimbursable
v. Wakean will lead getting estimates on the red barn improvements, and other AGP improvements for their review/approval
10) Herd Split/Need for more hay:
a) Erica notified the board that based on our annual grazing plan – and the current condition of the lower pasture – there is a need to reduce the number of horses in the lower pasture. Discussion occurred over the best method, taking into account the fact that we split the herd at this time of year.
i. The idea of moving the “fed” group up to plateau was explored, but discarded because of the amount of hay that would need to move, and the quality of the roads might make this passable.
ii. The option that was decided on was to move the “unfed” group, and a week of food up to the plateau – Erica will manage the communications around this, and will work to ensure that both pastures have a healthy number of horses/enough hay etc.. Please be sure to reply to Erica’s request about where you’d prefer your horse to be the first week of January.
- b) It was noted that we have no more personal hay in the red barn – the board reviewed/approved the purchase of 40 or so/~2 tons of hay for the plateau and all leftover will be used for individual purchase. The price will of hay for personal use will be the price OHA paid for the bales. Heather will contact Cheryl to coordinate hay order.
11) List of priorities for this year
a) The board is attempting to streamline its process to identify and spend time on the key priorities in a timeline that reflects when these items are important.
- Here are the upcoming items (also to be included in board agendas):
- January: Budget & Website
- February: Emergency Preparedness, Trailer Training Proposal
- Heather is to provide a digital copy of the remainder of this list.
12) Task List: discussion occurred about tasks list and items folks signed up for at the board meeting. The board is going to continue to reach out to members to confirm their interest in tasks before disseminating the final list. If you are interested in a particular task – please email board@orindahorsemen.org
11) Next Meeting – Tuesday, January 17 at 6:45 PM at Sally’s home 6449 Harwood Avenue, Oakland – Please let Sally know if you plan to attend
Thanks You to the following Members:
Eddie & EBMUD coordinated a massive weed pulling effort and all the folks who helped this happen – thank you!
Diane & Linda for working around the pavilion and also for moving 10+ wheelbarrows of chippings – back breaking work!
Erica for her relentless work on the pasture management, pasture rotations and APG work with EBMUD and so much more.
Elise for facilitating an injury free move and everyone who helped with this.
Cheryl for organizing, Sally for hosting and the membership committee for taking the time to interview new prospective members.
And everyone else for your hard work to help at the pasture – sorry if we’ve missed anyone’s great effort!
Happy Holidays!
