Embedded Files
Working group updates
Board
Robert Messick is working on incorporation papers.
Boats
We have a couple versions of position papers/talking points that we could send to senators, DPNR, etc.
Comms
Alyssa is prepping some FB posts. We need more volunteers. If you have friends who post about Magens, please tell them about our group.
Sara is maintaining a calendar of events. Again, more volunteers are wanted.
We are having difficulty keeping track of when MBA meetings are. MBA is sharing notices with the Daily News, etc when meetings do happen, but we only know they’ve been cancelled by the absence of a notice or by asking. Also there was confusion about whether meetings were in person or on zoom, but we’re hopeful that has been addressed.
The MBA board committed in their Jan meeting to publicizing and holding a town hall. Soon come??
Community
Ideally we’ll hold at least 3 summer events: one for kids, one for seniors, one for all-ages. Ideas and volunteers wanted.
Not us, but the Slider Showdown and King of the Wings are coming up.
Concession & facilities
Will ask MBA board about contracts – including environmental & safety concerns re size of turtle snorkel tours – at the next available in-person opportunity.
Plants & animals
Great plant walk in April with Eleanor Gibney and MBA managers.
We have a public plants photo album with ~100 labeled plants. (Thanks to Eleanor Gibney and others for help labeling!) We will talk to MBA and see if there is interest in us doing something with plant labeling on the grounds. Or maybe we want to do a virtual tour/online curriculum for students.
Would like to do a low-key bird/animal walk soon.
Traffic & accessibility
Any update on the bathrooms renovations? May need to refresh accessibility info on friendsmagens website.
Trash
We discussed box water as an alternative to plastic and recommended it to the bar & grill, who said they’d look into it.
Might do a Friends trash walk after King of the Wings, weather permitting. (Expect they’ll do a good job cleaning up their area, but large events draw people to the beach and then they stay and sprawl the whole beach.)
Want to discuss the possibility of plastic and/or metal recycling with MBA. Also VI reef-safe sunscreen posters to remind people of their impact on the ocean.
Watershed
Has been very rainy, but so far the water under the bridge hasn’t breached to the ocean again.
General discussion
Low turnout at these meetings, and it’s the same people.
Maybe that’s partly a good thing? People will turn out when they are upset about things. Group catalyzed around mooring concerns and the chair concerns. Haven’t heard much about either lately. (Are chairs less obtrusive? How is the beach club arrangement working out in general?)
Or people aren’t upset about things because they don’t know what is happening. Fewer MBA board meetings and less coverage recently.
Asked on Friends’ mailing list about varying our meeting time to see if more people could attend, but it sounded like we’d lose as many people as we’d gain. May still vary as an experiment.
May try shorter targeted meetings by focus group, could even be working meetings (e.g., addressing envelopes to senators, drafting FB posts, planning a community event).
The biggest thing is we need to get the word out to more people to add new energy and so the group better represents/has involvement from more of the community (frankly, our demographics skew to white retirees). Facebook posts are a critical piece of this.
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