Present: Melissa (facilitating), Morgan M., Monica, Randi (new member), Greg, Lauren


Synopsis of Thursday’s policy meeting (Molly/Sarah)
•    Mostly supporting BUFC and their goals
•    Sarah and Molly attend BUFC monthly meetings
•    Molly has joined two BUFC subcommittees: Grow Boston Greener and Organizational Development
•    BUFC working on creating a database for tree planting inventory management and fundraising efforts
•    Case study of the American Elm
•    Molly will get in touch with Tobin’s office
•    100th Tree planting event (end of October)
•    Who is interested in doing policy/conservation work on behalf of JP Trees? Commitment? Coordinate?
•    Discussed potential meeting with Jim Hunt. Has been put on the back burner by Molly until we come up with a solid plan.
•    Follow up meeting—TBA by Molly

Impromptu strategizing meeting on September 8 (Greg)
•    Mission statement (Plant, Preserve, Protect)
•    Two primary objectives
•    Next meeting to focus on JP Trees’ short and long-term goals(i.e Strategic Plan) will be on Monday, September 24, 7-8:30 at June Bug

Tabling: past, present and future (Melissa/Morgan)
•    JP World’s Fair, September 9: 20 potential stewards signed up and 15 volunteers
•    Informal tabling opportunities: Stop & Shop in Jackson Square (need approval beforehand), First Thursdays, Open Studios (September 29 & 30)—Melissa will send out a YG email asking if anyone would be interested in doing any of these
•    NfN social on September 11 at Alchemist, 6-8pm—Randi said she would represent JP Trees
•    NfN Fall Community Organizing Expo on October 9 at Milky Way, 6-9pm—Morgan and Melissa will table
•    Greg mentioned creating a more permanent JP Trees display. He an Monica, and possibly Stina, will work on this
•    Will Brokoff (of Prudential Realty) mentioned he would be willing to do some PR. Morgan will follow up with him.
•    Greg inquired about having physical storage space for tabling props
•    Melissa will coordinate tabling after the Community Organizing Expo in October


Fall Plantings (Lauren)
•    September 22, 29, October 13, 27    9:30am-12:30pm
•    Lauren will follow-up with Kathy about thank-yous for Bella Luna’s donated pizzas during our spring plantings
•    Outreach/Site Evaluations
•    Morgan and Monica will do planting coordinating: Morgan will handle emails, Monica will follow-up on phone calls

Website (Melissa)
•    Create a more informative volunteer section with printable flyers, tabling info, sample site evaluations, etc

HSTF Youth Group (Lauren)
•    HSTF youth focused on watering trees on Centre Street
•    Lauren is working on creating a Spanish translation for businesses about the importance of watering their street trees

PR/Media (Kathy)
•    Melissa is sending a letter to the Editor of the Gazette about a recent tree cutting near her house
•    John Ruch of the Gazette entered a photo and caption of the cutting and is putting a follow-up article in the next issue
•    Greg suggested that we need to include both positive and negative pieces in the media (i.e. good and bad tree events/issues)

Pending Projects
•    Art Group—Did Stina send out a request for a new meeting?
•    Educational Outreach—New idea at the last Strategizing meeting about “Commitments” of tree owners (i.e. pledges to preserve trees)
•    Street Tree Care

Next meeting? Facilitator?
•    How often should we have meetings? Greg thinks we will have more frequent meetings once we get better organized and have more committees (with their own meetings). Melissa said we should still have the general meetings once a month (second Monday of every month).
•    Morgan asked that the Strategizing meetings not always be on Mondays or Wednesdays due to class conflicts
•    Randi suggested that we put the minutes as a document on Yahoo Groups and then send the link to the group, as a means of getting more people used to referring to Yahoo Groups
•    Melissa will create the monthly agendas for meetings in addition to facilitating