November 12th, 2009
Suncoast Chapter of the Surfrider Foundation
Chapter Meeting
Location: Angry Pepper
Duhme Road
St. Petersburg, Fl
Call to order 7:14pm
Thank you all for coming. It's a bit chilly. Compared to last meeting when it was sweltering hot. This is a nice change.
Is there anything missing that you as active chapter members would like to see happen within the chapter? Recently key chapter members attended an executive committee meeting among Surfrider and National reminded us that we are a 501c not for profit environmental organization. Running as a company and following company proceedures is te key to sucess. The Chapter has a great amount of funds raised now thanks to a very sucessful year and now its time to put the funds to good use in upholding Surfriders mission. It's time to pump everyone up and get involved in important issues effecting the area.
2010 is the year that Surfrider National set as the deadline for completing 150 victories and your chapter can proudly say that we have one goal on that list as the win for no waterfront stadium in downtown St. Petersburg. In alignment with POWW, the chapter can boast that we sucessfully got the city to designate Al Lang park as dc-p. Which classifies the area as park land only. The reason the chapter got involved in that issue was to save the waterfront from dredge and fill which would have allowed the filling in a section of the basin to seat a new downtown waterfront baseball stadium.
The chapter must be in total compliance with Surfrider Bylaws in everything we do. Planning for events needs to begin 3 to 6 months before the actual event date. In planning events, volunteers must make sure everything is correctly documented and insurance requirements are met. Along these lines the chapter is adopting a well quoted phrase from the military fondly referred to as the 6P's. Proper planning prevents piss poor performance.
In keeping that in mind the chapter is actively preparing the 2010 calendar with happenings throughout the year.
Website work is still ongoing. The chapter has looked at 3 different options and we are considering offer from the new Atlanta Chapter of Surfrider where they could build our website for free and only charge $10 bucks a year for additional email addresses. To check out Atlanta Chapters website please go here http://surfrideratlanta.org/
Bullibrigade was a huge sucess. Special thank you goes out to Chuck Berry who got off work at 7:30am on Saturday morning and came straight to the event where he helped serve the masses. Thank you also goes to John and Jake for cooking all the burgers and dogs and Don, Sandy and Johnnie for serving! You guys really kept that line moving. Jessica for running the Surfrider table and Tyde for being her tiny helper. Thank you Mark, for inviting the chapter. Dollars earned? $1591.
Also on October 10th, the chapter ran a table and hosted a surfboard raffle at Beach Bar at Mandalay. Budwiser suprised us by donating a longboard skate board and a folding beach chair for the event and so the chapter earned some funds, sent 3 people away happy with new gear and raised awareness of Surfrider in north county.
The chapter is full steam ahead with the Offshore Oil Drilling campaign set in place by National. Members present at tonights meeting received "not the answer" bumper stickers as we learned that Don went to a drilling confrence in Gulfport recently. He learned for the chapter that there are a lot of organizations out there who support anti drilling efforts. Sierra Club, for instance, has a post card for folks to sign off on which will be hand delivered to offical offices. Sierra Club, as many know, is very supportive of the Suncoast Chapter because of our efforts on the Fertilizer ban.
There are already some rigs out in the Gulf, they are owned by a company out of China which means that a large portion of the crude they bring up would probably go to the country of China and not be used in the United States.
Hand's across the sands, a February 2010 event, is a Florida wide protest against off shore oil drilling. The beef of the matter is to have as many people as possible show up for 1 hour along Florida's coastlines and join hands to form a chain. There will possibly be 2 helicopters up to film the event. Press releases will go out, and key members of Suncoast chapter will keep intouch with other orgs as this event planning progresses. Check out Not the Answer.org and hands across the sands on facebook. Your chapter will keep you informed as more information comes in.
"Dudes say no to crude!" a catch phrase coined by Josh is perfect.
An article came out in the paper down south. Out on Longboat Key of Sarasota, residents are promoting geotube like structures on Whitney beach. Seems residents there want to proclaim the public beach as theirs, erect private fences, thus cutting off beach access to public beach users. It's a beach access issue. One commissioner on the county board doesn't want it to happen. He could really use activists support to help keep this beach public. Amanda, the chapters south of the bridge volunteer is working on this issue. Everyone south of the bridge should be concerned. On December 9th there will be a commissioners meeting on the topic. You don't have to do anything except show up. "Don't let them do to Whitney Beach what they've done to Upham." Says Roger, a life long surfer of Upham Beach, who is very passionate about the disaster of the groins project.
Also on December 9th, Wednesday, there is a meeting at the Hillsborough County Board of County Commissioners. Meeting at the Envirnmental Protection Commission for an "open public workshop on fertilizer management relating to a proposed fertilizer ordinance." Be there, meet with a Sierra Club member and receive a bright neon sticker that reads "Stop Nutrient Pollution with a Strong Fertilizer Ordinance."
Location: Hillsborough County Center 2nd Floor Boardroom 601 E Kennedy Blvd, Tampa.
Time:2pm -5pm
Sierra club extends the invitation to "stay in the area that night (Dec 9th) for the Sierra club's Holiday Party" 7pm at Latam at the Centro, 1913 N Nebraska Avenue. "All participants in the workshop will receive special recognition by
Sierra Club for your spport for cleaning up our county's waterways!" As read from the flyer.
Suncoast Chapter has been invited to table an event at JP Morgan Chase. It's a not for profit expo. 3 different dates. Deadline to reply is November 13th. Any one interested in tabling one or all the events should speak up.
In May 2010 the chapter has been invited to a 3 day beach event geared towards Parrot Heads. The chapter would be responsible for all aspects of the event such as getting tossout gear and promoting the event.
Upham updates. The Beach Stewardship Committee has asked the chapter again to present facts to the committee regarding Upham Beach. As recent as November 12th, an article was posted in the St. Pete Times and Google news that the committee plans to review all the solution options suggested by the engineers of CP&E in the spring.
The chapter voted yes to sending Jessica with a powerpoint presentation stating just the facts, reminding the committee of statements and figures in the past that may have been overlooked or forgotton. We don't want to display any solutions or our opinions, just the facts at hand based on actual documents. The presentation will be on Monday, November 16th, at 6:30 pm. Please come out for support. Council chambers, Corey Avenue, St. Pete Beach, FL. It is learned that at least one representative of CP&E will be on hand for this meeting.
The expert under contract for Suncoast chapter is "back in the loop" and is flying down here on December 1st. At that time the Upham Committee will meet with him out on Upham Beach.
New business cards and the new website will be coming out together. So when the chapter gets the new website, the chapter will get new business cards.
Brandy's son's school began the "green team" and so she'd like to see more family and kid oriented things to do on next years calendar. The dune planting project is a good one for that. So the chapter will work on marking off a couple of dates in the coming year to attend to the Madeira Beach Dune Planting Project.
The end of year party will be held on January 9th. Volunteers are working on securing a venue and looks like a modeling contest with local surfshop participation is in the works. Brandy has securred a modeling contract as a top prize for this years event. The chapter aims to get more local people to participate in this years event and see it as an opportunity to get more people active in the chapter. Specific rules designed for the contest portion of the event are also being worked on. Bands such as Localism, Hip Induction, Tribal Style and Buffalo Strange are being approached about donating their time to the event.
SurfExpo 2010 is coming fast. The chapter may be paying for a room for a volunteer to go up to Expo in January and again in September. January 14th to the 16th. If you'd like to go the requirement is that you volunteer some time at the Surfrider Exibit and pickup free stuff from the vendors. 1st come 1st serve as they say since the chapter can only pay for 1 room.
Also on the calendar for next year, ISD is June 20th, and July 11th is Suncoast Proclaimated Rescue the Beach Day at Upham Beach.
called at 9pm