Contributed by Josh Grier May 2, 2018
The Board of FOBC had their first meeting of the 2018 season this past Saturday, April 28. Attending were Ramsay Adams, Patricia Adams, Simone McGurl, Barbara Trelstad, Josh Grier and Jane Sokolow. We thought the Friends might be interested in plans ahead for this Spring and Summer:
1. Simone and Mimi will host a “Friends Raiser” get-together at their house on Saturday, May 26 from 4-6pm. This will be primarily a social event, however we will also have the annual meeting then – primarily to present and vote on the slate of new officers up for consideration. Invitations/announcements for this party will be handled by Simone and Jane – using our traditional methods (email and posting on the FOBC website) and a paperless post. Simone is considering setting up an Instagram account, as well.
2. If there is interest, two new committees will be established (Mary Hall and Bob Jones will continue to take care of the Beaverkill Church committee) :
a. A campsite committee, which will work with the NYSDEC (NY State Dept of Environmental Conservation) and OSI (Open Space Institute) — on ways to further enhance the campsite/picnic area by the beautifully restored covered bridge. DEC and OSI have funds to work on this area but need a local organization to partner with them. There are many ideas of things to do, but this will be discussed and decided by the new committee. Josh will sign and send back to DEC the “Volunteer Stewardship Application,” which should establish the FOBC as the official local contact for these projects.
b. An archives/heritage committee. Barbara has collected and organized what photos and “hard copy” items we have for FOBC and will continue to catalogue and preserve these items. If there is interest, we could start on a new series of interviews with people who have moved here since the ‘70s. Most of the interviews for our “Stories of Beaverkill” were about Beaverkill River Valley before the ‘70s.
3. The date for the summer picnic was set for Saturday, August 18, from 5pm on. Josh and Jane will work on establishing the locale and other details.
4. We look forward to having the new FOBC member directory completed soon, either in time for the May 26th party or the August 18th party.