QUARTERLY MEETING

December 1, 2009 | PGAdesign Office, Oakland

Mark your calendar for the next meeting: Tuesday, February 16, 2010. Location to be announced.

1. Leadership Change

   Chris Pattillo opened the meeting by noting the group has been in existence for five years, and that she has been thinking about the future of the group and its organization. She enjoys the job of being chair, but realizes that leadership should not be stationery. She outlined a system for leadership change: three roles for three members; the officers would rotate through each of the positions, starting by taking minutes and then rotating through the other two proposed roles in subsequent years for a total of a three year commitment. Positions would be filled via an election, and the positions would be:

   1. Minutes: take and distribute meeting minutes
   2. Chair: set the agenda, organize and run meetings
   3. Venue: select and arrange the meeting venue and arrange or provide refreshments

   In this system the outgoing chair would fill the venue position and would also be available to lend assistance. After serving three years, any officer would be ineligible to be elected for a period of one year. Chris's proposal was met with general consensus.

   When questioned about the existing positions of the three founding co-chairs (Chris, Cathy, and Betsy Flack), Chris said they'd be happy to retain their titles as founders.

   Discussion next turned to how to organize an election. There are about 90 members. There are usually about 10 people at any meeting, and the group agreed that it would be best to send election information via the listserve to try to get maximum participation. New member Jennifer de Graaf suggested using an online survey service to run the election, and it was agreed that we would try this approach after soliciting volunteers from the membership to run for office, but the current co-chairs may also nominate a slate. We agreed that a simple majority of respondents would be sufficient to elect an officer. If an officer were to step down, the chair would appoint a replacement.

   The election is planned to take place early in the new year, with new officers to be installed at the February meeting. If three to four weeks are needed to contact the membership and process results, those willing to serve will have to submit their names soon.

   Cathy Garrett suggested that leadership transition guidelines be created as a separate document so they could be included in any future by-laws that might be created.

   Janet Gracyk would be happy to run for the position of Chair for the one year appointment.

2. What's Next?

   Chris listed the impressive accomplishments of the group to date:

   1. Our HALSca website is up and has become a very useful resource of information.
   2. Cate created a superb database of potentially significant sites, with input from several members, in Northern California
   3. We have completed the documentation for 3 sites: The Kaiser Roof Garden in Oakland; Piedmont Avenue in Berkeley and the Mary Burdell garden at Olompali State Park in Oakland. Documentation has been submitted to HALS Chief Paul Dolinsky who is preparing it for submission to the Library of Congress.
   4. We challenged our members to each fill out an inventory form for their favorite site and send them to Washington, DC for inclusion in the HALS system.
   5. We conceived the idea for the Theme Park Challenge: Revisiting Cultural Landscape of Childhood, solicited and received a donation for prize money from the National Trust for Historic Preservation, and issued the challenge to the rest of the nation to submit an inventory form for a Theme Park in their state. (The National Park Service likes the idea of the challenge and is interested in announcing a new challenge every year.)
   6. 7 members met with staff from the Office of Historic Preservation in Sacramento. We had a two hour meeting and briefed them on our activities. They subsequently published an article in the SHPO digital newsletter that went out to other states that described our activities.
   7. We successfully lobbied OHP to gain access to the state's California Historical Resources Inventory System (CHRIS).
   8. We spoke at two public hearings to suggest that HALS documentation be done as mitigation for impacts to historic landscapes and in both cases were successful in convincing the public agencies involved to do so.
   9. Six donations totaling $8700 have been received to support our services. Of these funds, $3074 is left.

   Chris opened the subject of future projects to consider which led to a lively discussion about possibilities. She has been doing volunteer work at Western Hills Nursery in Sonoma County, which is an important 40-year old nursery with extensive gardens. The current owners are struggling to keep the nursery going and maintained, and Chris wondered if HALS efforts could be of benefit to them. Everyone expressed interest in documenting landscapes that could be on the verge of losing their significant qualities, or landscapes whose designers are still available. Suggestions included Levi Plaza, Sea Ranch, Western Hills, China Camp State Park, and the Ruth Bancroft Garden. It was agreed that having a variety of projects, as before, was a good idea and it was suggested that finding projects in various geographical locations would also be a good way to increase interest and awareness.

   Two of the three previous projects already had active friends groups, which was an important factor in the completion of the projects. It was also noted that a handful of the membership did the bulk of the work, and that it is hoped that more members could come forward to help share any new projects.

   It was agreed that the membership would be asked to submit possible documentation projects at the next meeting in February. An inventory form would be part of the submittal, and landscapes for which there is already an inventory form are also eligible. Forms need not be completed by the February meeting for the landscapes to be eligible.

   Discussion veered off here to the subject of past inventory forms that were submitted to NPS in DC, and someone will be contacting NPS to try to find out which landscapes were inventoried.

   Funds collected were used for narratives, and there are no plans currently for the use of the remaining funds. Fredrica Drotos wondered if the group would want to actively seek more funds. Garrett suggested the remaining funds be used to promote HALS in some way, rather than be used on a single project; the suggestion was positively received.

3. Theme Park Challenge

   The date for the submission of Theme Park Challenge entries was extended to July 31, 2001.

4. HALS at ASLA 2010 Annual Meeting

   Winners of the Theme Park Challenge prize money will be announced at the ASLA annual meeting in Washington DC next fall and submittals will be on display. Our members are encouraged to participate. Paul Dolinsky, HALS chief, is working Paul Kelsch and others towards a half day of HALS-related speakers and events at the conference.

5. Announcements
   • The Burdell Garden at Olompali and the Piedmont Way narratives are completed
   • Annual report was made to ASLA Historic Preservation PPN
   • A presentation on HALS and Doyle Drive was accepted for the 2010 CPF annual meeting and for the National AIA meeting
   • SWIG Corporation had asked for suggestions to honor Ted Osumundsen. The corporation has not replied to the suggestion of nominating the Kaiser Roof Garden to the National Register
   • Pattillo has a new blog on HALS at http://HALSca.blogspot.com
   • Garrett handed out a checklist she had obtained for HABS HAER HALS final submissions. Submittal requirements are available on line, but Cathy wanted to point out some details that surprised her, such as the importance of naming all elements the exact same way across all media and the importance of sending items FedEx. Mail going to the National Park Service in DC is subject to irradiation, and photographs and negatives have been ruined this way
   • The Cultural Landscapes Foundation has launched a searchable database called What's Out There: http://www.tclf.org/landscapes/advanced-search
   • There is proposal to build a lighted soccer complex in the western end of Golden Gate Park. See www.sfoceanedge.org
   • Members are invited to start thinking about possible HALS project
   • Dates for next year will fall on third Tuesdays, starting in February, and are Feb. 16, May 18, Aug. 17, and Nov. 16