QUARTERLY MEETING

November 16, 2010 | Berkeley City Women's Club

Mark your calendar for the next meeting: February 15. Location to be announced.

1. Chalet Recreation Field Documentation:

   Janet introduced Steven Quiñones-Colón who has donated his time and film expenses for both the Fleming Garden and the Chalet Recreation Field. He shared with us proofs of his photos of the Chalet Recreation Field. Janet noted that the will be doing the drawings. The short format history has been written by Cate Bainton and Mary Nelson.

2. Berkeley Women's City Club Documentation:

   Our meeting was held in the loggia, and at the beginning of the meeting, Chris Pattillo took the group on a tour of the gardens and showed us the drawings in their current state. The drawings are nearly complete, and there is a draft of the narrative underway by Celia McCarthy.

3. ASLA Annual Meeting:

   Chris Pattillo noted that the traffic at the ASLA marketplace to the HALS booth was very good. She showed the group a binder she received as part of the HALS Documentation and Techniques and Standards Tour that contains lots of good information on the HALS processes. She passed along the meeting notes from the ASLA Annual Meeting, see attached.

4. Update on Standards - Qualifications for Historical Landscape Architect:

   Janet was able to get clarification on the process for Landscape Architects to be able to get on the list of consultants on the CHRIS website. She noted that Wayne Donaldson did make the change so that Landscape Architects could use the CHRIS archives. Getting qualified as a Historical Landscape Architect will apparently require an act of congress as the process is stuck at the federal level. Any ideas about how to keep the language moving is welcome! Cathy Garrett suggested that we bring the issue to ASLA for support, but the group agreed that any more direct routes should also be considered. http://ohp.parks.ca.gov/?page_id=1068

5. Submitting materials to HALS NPS:

   Cate Bainton reported that CDs, negatives, or anything else that could be damaged by irradiation should not be sent to the Department of the Interior's address (on C Street) that is listed in the Transmittal Guidelines. Please contact NPS for an alternate address for these materials before sending to prevent damage.

6. Fleming Garden Update:

   Cate Bainton and Steven Quiñones-Colón have been working on the documentation of the Fleming Garden, a late 1950s native plant garden. Steven shared his photographs of the garden, noting that it was a challenge to photograph because the light was right for only a small part of the day. Cate showed the group existing and period plant lists for the site. The garden will be open to the public for free in early May on the Bringing Back the Natives tour. http://bringingbackthenatives.net/

7. Piedmont Way:

   Fredrica let the group know that as of November 6th, 32 Pistacia chinensis trees were planted on Piedmont Way. They were paid for with the 2007 grant award from the Chancellor's Fund which also covered a three year watering contract and ten tree well cuts.

8. Roeding Park:

   Chris Pattillo noted a shift in attitude and awareness in the City of Fresno's Historic Preservation Commission. She spoke at their meeting November 15th. Chris also performed a field survey back in September. TCLF featured the park in Landslide and it has been recently getting national attention. Letters were submitted to the city by the California Preservation Foundation and the National Trust of Historic Preservation in support of the park. HALS NCC (thanks, Janet!) sent a letter to the City of Fresno earlier this month (which was distributed 24 November to the group), and some other members sent personal letters. Links:
   http://tclf.org/landscapes/roeding-park
   http://tclf.org/landslides/fresnos-roeding-park-threatened-by-master-plan
   http://tclf.org/sites/default/files/HALS_roeding.pdf

GROUP BUSINESS

1. Change in leadership next meeting! Please keep your eyes open for a request for new secretaries to volunteer.

2. Next year's calendar is mostly set; we are trying to iron out a date for the May meeting due to a conflict. Set meeting dates are 2/15, 8/16, and 11/15.

3. Meeting venues for next year:

   Suggestions are always welcome. We discussed the idea of taking day trips or tours once a year as well as holding our usual meetings. If anyone has ideas for activities that could help us keep our membership active, please let someone know and we'll include the idea in the next agenda. Ideas discussed included joint events with CGLHS, or attending Open Days.

4. Website payment and other disbursements:

   Future disbursements shall be submitted to Joe Owen at Professional Communications. They have an agreement with ASLA. Cate paid and was reimbursed $59.88 for the website.