QUARTERLY MEETING

February 10, 2009 | Garden Center, Lakeside Park, Oakland

Mark your calendar for the next meeting: Tuesday, May 12. Location to be announced.

The meeting was hosted by Bruce Cobbledick and Anne Woodell at the Oakland-East Bay Garden Center, 666 Bellevue, in Oakland. Bruce Cobbledick, president of the Oakland-East Bay Garden Center, gave us a tour of the seven-acre Lakeside Park Gardens. The gardens were begun in 1907. The Garden Center grew out of efforts by the superintendent of the parks, William Penn Mott, and several clubs and celebrates its 50th anniversary this coming year. There are plans to continue to revive the gardens and make them more visible to the community. A new master plan and new logo are being developed.

Many groups and clubs continue to use the buildings and gardens. When the gardens were established there were fourteen city gardeners to care for the grounds, now there are one and a half city positions for the work. Volunteers perform many tasks today in the several types of gardens; there are Mediterranean, palm, community vegetable, and Japanese gardens, among others, and a world-class bonsai garden.

1. Lobby Day

   Chris Pattillo suggested that those participating in Lobby Day talk about the work of the group and take an example of the work, if possible. As she understands it, some of the money allocated to the NPS documentation programs will be used in the DC offices, but some will also be allocated to local chapters to advance their work.

   Thomas Brown asked about the possible use of these funds and the apparent difficulty in getting a local photographer who is familiar with or willing to learn the guidelines for HALS photography. It was suggested that Brian Grogan, a HABS photographer, might be willing to do some local training.

2. Piedmont Way

   Pattillo reported that PGAdesign has finished existing conditions construction drawings for the improvements to Piedmont Way (part pro-bono and part funded) and that working drawings to install new landscaping are nearly done. Photography for HALS documentation is in place, but there is no narrative yet and Fredrica Drotos has not had any luck in finding a volunteer to write the narrative.

3. Olompali

   Diane Einstein reported Carol Roland is working on the narrative. HALS photography has been completed. Working drawings for the reconstruction of the Mary Burdell garden, by PGAdesign, are complete. Einstein is working with State Parks maintenance staff to determine which aspects of the reconstruction can be completed by staff within their budget. Propagation of existing bay laurel and pomegranates is under way, and The Olompali People (TOP) is working on getting their water rights in order. Einstein relayed the expected phases of work, which will include the restoration of the paths and fountains in the first phase, and securing funding for a gardener and installing more hardscape features in the second phase. She reported that TOP is also looking into partnering opportunities for funding options.

4. Kaiser Roof Garden

   Pattillo showed copies of the original set of drawings for the garden. She had a set of black and white scanned copies of the 21 sheets. The sheets were in poor condition and parts were illegible. Cate Bainton has been volunteering her time to clean up the sheets, and has spent 80 hours on the project so far. PGAdesign has completed the Existing Conditions drawings, Marlea Graham has nearly completed the narrative, and the HALS photography is done.

5. HALSCA Website

   Bainton reported that there have been 1000 pages requests since the site went live. So far no one has created a link to our website from theirs, a next step in getting recognition for the site. Janet Gracyk offered to contact UC Berkeley, UC Davis, Sonoma State and CalPoly. It was suggested that others also think of any connections they might make to groups and agencies. JC Miller has been paying for the domain name and discussed how to get that domain name transferred to the hosting account, which is funded by UC Berkeley.

6. The Inventory Form Challenge

   Pattillo reported that she is enjoying visiting new sites on the weekend, doing a little research and writing up inventory forms for the challenge. Flack shared a copies ones she did, but reported that the HALS form is problematic. Bainton and Pattillo recommended using the form in a "save-as" format before doing anything else, and using the "save-as" function repeatedly. There was discussion about asking firms with long histories in the area to do forms for work that originated in their offices; it was requested that Kerri Liljegren, of RHAA, investigate the possibility at that office, and Kerri offered to contact the organizations for which we have links, and ask them to link back to us from their websites. JC Miller said he would probably have an assignment for students to do inventory forms when his UC Extension class starts. Messenger said she could do forms for at least one Church garden.

7. $5000 Grant Money

   A $5000 grant was received from the Swig Corporation, as reported in the November minutes. Pattillo reported that $200 was sent for the Fiscal Agreement, leaving $4800. Pattillo proposed the group make a wish list of projects and use some funds on the out-of-pocket expenditures every project incurs. Bainton proposed the group document the Donnell garden. Messenger said she had done research on the garden and would share that. It was noted that copyright fees to use images from the UC Berkeley archives can be expensive. Brown pointed out that Marlea Graham had incurred expenses for her work on the Kaiser Roof Garden, and that it would be appropriate to use some of the funds to cover this kind of expense for HALS work. Gracyk suggested that the group decide whether to use the funds to complete existing projects or to start new projects, and if new projects are chosen the group should determine a cross section of project types throughout Northern California. Pattillo wondered if the group should pay someone to do inventory forms or short forms, but noted that some had questioned paying for this kind of work when others are already doing the forms on a volunteer basis. Costs for printing on mylar, to meet HALS standards, was pointed out as being expensive, and the costs for a set as large as the Kaiser Roof Garden could be quite high.

   Pattillo made a motion, seconded by Pam-Anela Messenger, that $2500 be allocated to the Friends of Piedmont Way to hire someone to write the narrative, and that up to $500 be allocated to cover copyright costs for any HALS project. Brown said that $2500 may be too much and suggested changing that amount to $2000 and suggested amending the motion. Bainton brought a motion to accept the change from $2500 to $2000. Gracyk seconded the motion, which was passed unanimously. The motion, as amended, was passed unanimously.