Yahara Lakes Association, Ltd.
Board of Directors Meeting Minutes
Thursday, June 11, 2020 11:30 a.m. - 1:10 p.m.
The Yahara Lakes Association Board of Directors held its regularly scheduled meeting on Thursday, June 11, 2020, via a Zoom meeting.
The following members participated: Dick Adler, Stuart Allbaugh, Caroline Fribance, Tamara Knickmeier, Allan Levin, Eric Olson, Dick Pearson, Nancy Peckham, Dan Schultz, Scott Seymour, Dave Silverberg, Jim St. Vincent, Sal Troia, Eric Vieth, and Brenda Matthias
Members and advisors not present: Eric Englund and Annette Hellmer
11:30 a.m. Call to Order: President – Eric Olson called the meeting to order at 11:30 a.m.
11:32 a.m. May Minutes:
· Dan Schultz made a motion to accept the May 14, 2020 meeting minutes. Eric Vieth seconded the motion. Motion passed.
11:35 a.m. Treasurer Report – Sal Troia
· The financials were reviewed –
o Revenue –
§ Individual membership is at $15,500 which is slightly over the $15,000 budgeted amount.
§ Corporate sponsorship is at $2,200 which is less than the $5,000 budgeted amount mainly due to the economic depression impacting small businesses caused by COVID-19.
o Expenses –
§ Payment processing fees are $91 above the budgeted amount.
§ General liability and D&O insurances along with the website expenses have been paid for the year.
§ The Marketing & Membership Drive expenses are at $3,200 for Administrative and $6,300 for other items which is under the $14,000 budgeted amount.
o Other Income – contributions are at $7,100 through May which is the current budgeted amount for the entire year.
· Stuart Allbaugh made a motion to accept the Treasurer’s report. Dick Adler seconded the motion. Motion passed.
11:55 a.m. Marketing & Membership Committee (M&M) – Nancy Peckham
· Since the May board meeting we have 11 additional renewals and 9 new members. We suppressed the 2020 membership goal of 300 members with 315 members as of June 11th.
· We received the following new corporate sponsorships –
o Four Lakes Yacht Club – Bronze level
o Clean Lakes Alliance – Bronze level
o Great Lakes Ecological Monitoring – Bronze level
o Manke Enterprises – Gold Level
o Pharo Marine – Silver level
o Weed Man – Bronze Level
· YLA membership by lake as of Monday, June 8th
2020 Renewals 2020 New Total 2020 Members 2020 Non-Renewed
Kegonsa 25 25 50 2
Mendota 84 31 115 11
Monona 75 23 98 16
Waubesa 31 16 47 12
Yahara/other 2 0 2 7
Totals 217 95 312 48
· Newsletters -
o Tamara Knickmeier led the effort in May and the newsletter was sent on May 19th.
o Tamara Knickmeier will be leading the effort again in June. The goal is to send the newsletter out by June 18th. Possible articles include President’s message, Allan Levin’s Lakes & Watershed Commission report, update on where to buy fuel on the lakes, and YL-Alerts.
· Lake Alerts –
o Mailer to non-member riparian list was sent June 3rd.
o Email communications to current and non-renewed members was sent June 5th.
o Email communications to lake partner organizations was sent June 8th – Brenda added a lake partner organization membership category to the website - $75 dues to join.
o As of June 8th we received 51 new emails and 3 new members resulting from the YL-Alert mailer and communications.
o Brenda added a form to sign up for the alerts to the YL-Alert web page with a place to enter name, email address, and which lake they live on.
o Eric Vieth, Eric Olson, Dan Schultz, Sal Trioa, and Brenda will meet to discuss what topics should be included in the alerts and how the logistics will be handled. It would be best to send the first alert soon so members and individuals who signed up to receive the alerts see the value.
· Website and Facebook page revisions since the last board meeting:
o Added Current Lake Levels box and link to Home Page and Lake Levels page
o Added Dane County dredging article to Latest News on Home Page
o Added Lake Partner Organization membership option
o Added May Newsletter to News & Articles tab
o Added May minutes and financials to Board area
o Added May Newsletter to Facebook
12:15 p.m. Water Quality, Lake Levels & Flow Committee – Eric Vieth
· All of the lakes are just above Summer Max.
· Dane County Lakes and Watershed – Allan Levin
o The Lakes & Watershed Commission and the Environmental, Agricultural and Natural Resources have a joint quarterly meeting with the Land and Water Resources Dept.
o Will start working on the budget the week of June 15th.
o Land & Water Resources Dept.: 2020 Water-Based Priorities include –
§ Urban Erosion Control & Stormwater
§ Lake Levels
§ Phosphorus
§ Chlorides
§ Equity and Inclusion
§ PFAS’s
§ Aquatic Invasive
§ Community Engagement
§ Beaches
· Eric Vieth is corresponding with John Reimer regarding dredging/new gages and lake levels.
· Stoughton Dam Removal project –
o The biggest issues with the project is not knowing how it will affect the lake flow and how many people this will affect that don’t know about it.
o A virtual meeting is being held the evening of June 8th with city officials, the DNR, and John Reimer so individuals can ask questions about the project.
12:45 p.m. Legislative & Legal Committee – Caroline Fribance & Scott Seymour
· Action items that the committee is currently working on –
o Caroline Fribance reported on Madison Common Council proposed rules on stormwater. The Council passed the proposal, which updates a 2011 set of rules, and contains complicated rules for developers and those concerned with runoff and likely flood sites. The committee will watch this and evaluate to see if these rules could be good for other municipalities around our lakes, giving us educational and lobbying opportunities.
o PFAs – Scott Seymour is doing research on this and seeing how YLA might advocate for this. Reached out to DNR and Dane County this week – effort in place to require permit.
· Because of COVID-19 there is little legislative and regulatory activity to monitor or lobby. The committee will continue to watch for issues that may be of interest to YLA.
12:50 p.m. Events – the in person Annual Dinner set for September 8th may be cancelled and moved to a virtual event. The final decision on this has been postponed until the July Board meeting.
12:51 p.m. Other Business - none
12:52 p.m. Allan Levin made a motion to adjourn the meeting. Scott Seymour seconded the motion. Motion passed.
Next meeting date is July 9th via Zoom conference call.