Friday, October 4, 2019

Smiling Dog Landscapes and Learning Center

Attendees: Tom McDonald; Don Johnston; Rachel Traynor; Kim Grady; Anne Ellis; Maddie Ostwald via Skype
 
Desert Botanical Garden (DBG) Workshops
SDNB hosted two workshops at DBG in September: the Seed Ball workshop led by Tom, and a course on native bee biology and identification led by Maddie. Both were very successful, although we felt that the Seed Ball course would be a better fit for the Children’s program. We’ll submit proposals for both of these workshops again, with Seed Balls going to the Children’s program and Bee Biology staying with the adult education program. We also have a ‘citizen science’ workshop in preparation, and that proposal will be sent to the adult education program.
 
Seed Ball Workshops
Several people have stepped up and volunteered to become Workshop Leaders: Kim Grady; Don Johnston; Rachel Traynor. With this expanded teaching group we may be able to offer more Seed Ball Workshops at Boyce Thompson and elsewhere. We’ve been asked for dates in Spring 2020 – and will still need volunteers to help with any additional dates we plan.

Kim had a terrific idea to enrich the Seed Ball Workshop, taking the content in the slide presentation and making it into “Knowledge Cards.” These are a little like flash cards, but half of the information is on one card, and the rest is on another, held by a different student. The students must find the other person with the related content. We can probably get those printed at Ray’s Printing and Kim is working on them now.
Lacey at BTA has asked for a Seed Ball Workshop for the after-school Nature Club; the date selected is Thursday, January 23, 2:30-4:00 pm. Volunteers welcome!
Tom will host a mini “Train the Trainer” workshop for Seed Ball and Bee ID Workshop leaders at Smiling Dog Learning Center, on Tuesday, January 7, 2020, 1:00 pm. If you are interested in becoming a Workshop leader, please let Tom know and plan to attend. You are welcome to attend in any case.
 
Casa Grande National Monument
Tom visited Casa Grande National Monument; they are building a pollinator garden and will be hosting a Speaker Series. Approximately 50-75 people are expected at each presentation. They have offered SDNB two dates to speak: January 29 (Tom McDonald) and February 5 (Maddie Ostwald). The exact time is not known as yet; Tom will contact Casa Grande to find out.
 
Singh Meadows
Tom and Anne have drafted a proposal for SDNB engagement with Singh Meadows, with three main ideas:
·       Bee hotel/kiosk
·       Pollinator Garden(s)
·       Seed Ball workshops
Suggestions to highlight the SDNB mission and goals have been incorporated into the proposal. Tom will send it to Kehar (Ken) Singh and arrange a face-to-face meeting in November to discuss these ideas.
 
Incorporating as a Non-Profit
Kayla has graciously drafted very complete Articles of Incorporation and Bylaws documents, and we are essentially ready to file these papers. One thing we still need is a checking account; Tom is looking into possibilities at Chase Bank and Desert Financial (Credit Union) to find out whether it is possible to open a checking account for SDNB that does not carry a hefty monthly service fee.
 
Bee Festival Nov 16
We have been accepted as a vendor, but to make this happen we need volunteers to staff the booth!  If interested and available, Saturday, November 16, 9:00 am – 3:00 pm, please contact Anne by October 19. We’d hate to back out, but may have to do that if no one can be there. Thanks!
 
Next Meeting – Not yet scheduled

Wednesday, August 28, 2019

King Coffe, Tempe, AZ

Attendees: Rachel Traynor; Zack Shaffer; Maddie Ostwald; Tom McDonald; Anne Ellis

Since SDNB is scheduled for our first two workshops at the Desert Botanical Gardens (DBG), our main agenda was to review our presentations and outline what each presenter needs.

Tom’s Seed Ball workshop presentation is for the most part complete. Tom will review this and send any changes to Anne. The workshop is scheduled for Thursday, September 12 at 6:00 pm.

Maddie has updated and added a lot of content to her “Bee ID” presentation and it really looks nice. Anne will format it into our logo green (done). We also “test drove” the Bee ID game “Kahoot” and it is fun and easy. Zack suggested splitting it into two shorter quizzes and adding some pop culture questions. He and Maddie will work on making those changes to the quiz. Maddie’s workshop is scheduled for Wednesday, September 18 at 6:00 pm.

Rachel showed us how to add and update the calendar on the website, and it turns out to be pretty easy. Anne has added our scheduled events, presentations and appearances to the calendar through March 2020.

As for workshops, BTA would like a series of seed ball workshops – we need another person to be a workshop leader since right now it all falls on Tom. If you are interested, please let Anne know and we’ll get you everything you need. We also need volunteers for the workshops already on the calendar.

To help get our iNaturalist projects going, we have developed and tested an instructional presentation. The instructions seem to be fairly complete for use on a computer; the only thing missing is instructions for use on smart phones.  This presentation will be posted to the web page. We may submit a proposal to teach a class at DBG and BTA: learn how to use the app, then go on a nature walk at the Garden, take some photos and upload them.

Tom and Anne toured the garden areas at Singh Meadows, and Tom has some great ideas for SDNB gaining a presence there. These include placing a bee hotel in an existing garden, starting a wildflower pollinator garden in a former sand bunker, and hosting seed ball workshops where the participants can come back in a few weeks when the seed balls have dried, and plant them in the bunker garden.  We’ll write up a proposal for Ken Singh and see where it goes.

Last but not least, we have been accepted for the 2019 Honey Bee Festival!  The event will be held from 9 am to 3 pm on Saturday, November 16 at the North Phoenix Baptist Church, 5757 N. Central Ave. in Phoenix. We’ll need volunteers to help staff the booth. If you’re interested, please let Anne know – thanks!
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Date and time of our next meeting has not been decided but will probably be in the East Valley at the end of September.

Classes at DBG: We are preparing for our two classes at DBG this September – Maddie’s bee identification class (Wed, Sept. 18, 6:00 PM) and Tom’s seed ball class (Thurs, Sept. 12, 2019, 6:00 PM). Maddie suggested that it might be interesting for students in her bee identification class to be able to look at bee specimens under a microscope.  Action: Anne will contact Tara at DBG to find out if we can use them and whether the room spaces for both classes have been assigned.
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We also have to complete the PowerPoint presentation on plants for native bees, for both Tom and Maddie to use. This is where the plant descriptions will go, so thanks to everyone who completed one or more and sent them in! We’ll be able to use this presentation for other occasions as well. Action: Anne will populate Maddie’s PowerPoint template with one slide for each plant on our list with the information received from everyone.

More classes! SDNB has been invited by Boyce Thompson Arboretum to present the seed ball class again, twice this fall and then on an ongoing basis, weekly or biweekly, in the spring. To accomplish this we’ll need a group of volunteers that we can count on, maybe even an alternate lead or two depending on how many dates we commit to. Action: If you’re interested in volunteering or leading, please let Anne know.

Bee hotels: Our white paper on bee hotels has been published to our web page and is now available. Part 2 of this paper will be “how-to” instructions for people to make their own or for us to use as a basis for another class. Woodworker Mike Herrera of Mesa is going to help us get a bee hotel built, and hopefully we’ll be able to get some photographs as he goes along, as well as measurements and step-by-step instructions.

Bee Festival in November: Tom has contacted the Festival organizer and we have been accepted as a vendor, at no charge because we are a non-profit organization. The Festival will be held Saturday, November 16, from 9AM to 3PM at the North Phoenix Baptist Church, 5757 N. Central Ave. Action: Need volunteers to help staff the booth – thanks!

Singh Meadows pollinator garden: Tom will meet with Kehar Singh about the needs that Singh Meadows has for the garden. After this we will be able to draft a proposal for improvements to the garden.

Next Meeting: Wednesday, August 28, 8:00 AM – King Coffee, Tempe AZ
Notes prepared by Anne Ellis – please advise of omissions and errors
July 13, 2019