Philomath Community Gleaners
Monthly Meeting Agenda
August 13, 2024 @ 7:00pm ZOOM MEETING ONLY
Welcome at 7:02pm
Attendees: Alicia W, Patty N, Johannah M, Melissa B, Karen C, Ann M, Sharon T, Jen L, Sarah N, Jill N, Norma Bronson, Deidre P, Michele H, Valerie S, Michele R, Linda D, Debbie P, Jody T, Deane B, Liza F, Holly K, Danielle D, Karyn E, Renay S.
Updates from PCS –
Sharon explained the need for the name change to PCS Gleaners. She explained how we all need to be a unified group in order to get more funding and help with grantors. We first had the name suggested of Community Gleaners but that name is already taken. Susan James suggested that we use “PCS Gleaners”. At the meeting all seemed to be in agreement. We did not take a vote.
Sharon shared about the current state of the parking lot. The reservoir hopes to be done by the end of October. This will mean that the City will start working on the water treatment plant and that is when our driveway will be compromised. Hughes has agreed to allow for us to use ½ of their driveway to enter PCS. Sharon will be working hard to make sure we have what we need to still continue all programs. The parking lot is ready down by the garden. If we would like to get garden carts for our program to use (as they can move better on the gravel), she is willing to purchase for us.
Valerie S moved to approve the June Meeting Minutes. Patty 2nd the motion. All were in favor. Mottion passed.
Treasurer Report (s) -
June
REVENUES
Yard Sale $276.00
Donations $100.00
Frog Funds $88.00
Total Revenues $464.00
EXPENDITURES
Food Share $427.32
Supplies $111.86
Gas $410.00
Groceries $920.06
OSU Motor Pool $78.12
Total Expenditures $1,947.36
July
REVENUES
Yard Sale $302.00
Frog $45.32
Total Revenues $347.32
EXPENDITURES
Supplies $187.98
Gas $47.17
OSU Motor Pool $138.30
Food Share $912.97
Groceries $397.31
Total Expenditures $1,683.73
Ann Morgan, Treasurer
Michelle H moved to approve the Treasurer report. Melissa B 2nd the motion. All were in favor. Motion passed.
Grant information: (Alicia read information)
Current Grants:
OSU Folk (24-2) $1100.00 (received 4/1) - Not in the reports above. PCS is the holder of this grant, we got $1100.00 of the $4000.00
Siletz Grant Awarded May 2024 (24-4) - $554.93 Available
Reports to be completed (Grants spent in full)
Siletz Grant 23-15 (Nov 2023) pick up $3000.00
Roundhouse Grant 23-13 (Starts 11/1/23 - 10/31/2024)
Grants Pending responses:
Non funded grant:
June Monthly service report -
NUMBERS
Total number of members- 453 (including children)
Gleaner Households – 88
Adoptee households – 70
New households - 3
Volunteer hours recorded – 1155
Donated Miles – 3983
Total pounds distributed to members: 30235
Waste (Pallets, trash, Recycle) – 315
Donation out –
other community groups – 1104
other gleaning groups - 0
Farm / animals – 1937
552 Shops for the Month, average pounds per family was 55# each trip. That is an average value of $106.26 per shopping trip at $1.93 per pound value.
**Hours needed by Gleaner Family – Total Hours recorded (1155) / # Gleaner Families (70) =16.5 hours.
July NUMBERS –
Total number of members- (including children) 462
Gleaner Households – 90
Adoptee households – 71
New households - 9
Volunteer hours recorded – 1253
Donated Miles – 4842
Total pounds distributed to members: 31890
Waste (Pallets, trash, Recycle) – 71
Donation out –
other community groups – 2917
other gleaning groups – 0
Farm / animals – 1811
466 Shops for the Month, average pounds per family was 68# each trip. That is an average value of $132.76 per shopping trip at 1.93 per pound value.
**Hours needed by Gleaner Family – Total Hours recorded (1253) / # Gleaner Families (71) = 17.64 hours.
Old Business
Children must be able to touch parents – Discussion about the rule of no children at the site. Discussion about if children are allowed, etc. We will look at the policy and how it is written for children to make sure children are allowed and welcome. Children do need to behave and if they become a liability – will be asked to leave. Alicia and Patty will review the policy.
New Business
Alicia read and shared about the Shopping list – please be aware that things can change. We had a complaint because I put someone in line before someone to make sure every family has a shopping opportunity. The person in charge has the authority to make changes to best fit the program and the member needs.
Alicia requested that everyone -- Please be patient when in line waiting.
Alicia reminded everyone that the “Person in Charge” for the day is who you need to listen to. This could be also the person in charge for cleanup. The person in charge for the day is the one that has to answer to Patty.
Monday cleanup – goal is to be done by 5:30 to 6pm. Patty says Saturday tries to be done by 5pm. Reminder to everyone that sometimes Patty or Timmy start their day at 7:30am so they do like to get home. Patty also has an hour of deliveries after her day at the site is done.
At the end of Monday, we do take items from the cooler and put them in the freezer if they will freeze well (Lunchmeat, chicken, etc). This will change though starting in September as we will be sharing with a group of members at a Benton Plaza. Benton Plaza members will pickup weekly on Wednesdays.
Cardboard boxes – Make sure to break down. Need advise on what to save or toss. We will save the shorter boxes that we get in. We can dispose of the weak boxes.
Boxes for distribution – no longer use the clear totes. We are trying to use the cardboard boxes to save money on water and all the dishes. We will continue to use plastic totes for the farm as GTF and other fams don’t want cardboard and cross contamination.
Sharon did talk to Susan J. and other groups use 100% cardboard so it is possible.
There was discussion that it was harder to set up for distribution without the clear totes. Jen and Michelle both said they are willing to continue to try to do it without the totes and hopefully it will get easier as time goes on.
PCS Event – September 15. Do we want to have a table for selling items? PCS offered that we can host a table for no charge. Families can sign up to bring items for up to 2 hours of volunteer time to donate your craft. Opportunity to also sit at the table at the event. Liza said the board still needs to approve the day and costs. Alicia moved that in the case that the board has the event, that we move forward with having a table at the event. Motion was 2nd and all were in favor.
Patty said that we were able to clean out some of the older yard sale items and donate it to the Marys River Grange Sale. We donated 2 pallets of stuff to them last week
Patty announced that Alicia has given her notice that she will no longer be active or taken on the secretary position aftger 12/31. We need to consider who would be willing to take on this volunteer job.
We discussed the next few months and how any of our distributions might be affected.
Discussion of end of year
Thanksgiving – No Changes needed
Christmas Eve – Likely pickup for LBFS
Christmas Day – Wednesday (Do we have store pickups)? No pickups this day
New Years Day – Wednesday – regular pickups
2.1 Nominations for Coordinator, Co-Coordinator, Secretary, and Treasurer
will be open starting at the October 8th monthly meeting and will continue to 7 days prior to the November meeting. No nominations will be accepted after the 7 days prior to November voting meeting. We will have nominations on google forms as well as a paper nomination at the site. NOTE: LBFS says this nomination period must be 30 days so we will have it open until November 8th.
9.2.2 Any nominee may have the opportunity to decline nomination for the seat(s) to which he/she has been nominated before the election starts. The Secretary will reach out to the nominees between November 9th and December 1st.
9.2.3 Any member may make a nomination. One of our gleaner board members will contact the nominees to confirm acceptance of the nomination.
9.2.4. Any member in good standing may be nominated. There will be no campaigning allowed prior to an election.
We will post the voting online as well as have it in person for positions. Voting should start as soon as we can get responses from nominees. For purposes of scheduling, let’s plan around 11/15 we have the vote up for 2 weeks. Voting can end of November 29th so our new elected members can get training in December to be ready for a Jan 1st start day.
Alicia discussed out new volunteer program. Civic Champ – we will be starting our new Civic Champ program September 1st (Fingers crossed). All volunteers will be sent a link to join the Civic Champ program. You will register with your cell or email and then you can sign up to volunteer on the app. So far, this is set up for the same shifts that we have on the sign up genius. Members who do store pickups, weekly shifts, etc are NOT on the form but will be able to sign in and out via cell phone app or at a kiosk at the site.
Reminder -- Every position must be signed up for unless you are part of a designated crew.
We need a new KFC pickup team – Team could train the last Thursday of the month (Aug 29th). Always the 3rd and 5th Thursdays of the month
Monthly Hours Requirement – Rules will be enforced. I am tired of begging for help. We need a solution. Danielle asked if maybe the reason we are getting less help is from when we limited the number of signups per day. That was a lightbulb. We had discussion and Patty and Alicia will re-write the policy to allow for signing up for mulitple shifts when the list comes out.
This also brought up the talk on kids. We previously had a rule on kids and getting volunteer hours. We will look at the policy and re-post. Kids are allowed hours if they are actually helping. Kids who are not helping won’t be allowed hours.
Reminder: ONLY MEMBERS can shop. You cannot bring friends or neighbors. Also, Non members can not shop for you or prior members. (we need to add as a policy)
Reminder: You are not allowed to come early and expect to be allowed to shop.
All members will be required to sign a paper that states they have read the policies and procedures and understand that they are responsible for the contents. We have had a lot of members say they didn’t know the rules. You are required to read the policies as a member.
There is no more fuel reimbursements through LBFS. LBFS did not write the grant this year to allow for mileage reimbursement for personal vehicles driven to stores.
Open Questions and Answers -- What's going well, what’s not?
Discuss Gleans and leftover gleans – what to do with it. Do the people who do the glean come back or release their ½ to the program? `
We explained the glean rules again to everyone. Discussion happened on gleans and food that doesn’t get taken is ending up with the pigs and we need a fair way to distribute it. We are not getting a lot of gleans this year. The apples this year are bleak (and after last year an apple break is OK). Alicia moved that we set aside a certain amount of gleaned items for our adoptees (based upon number). The volunteers who are working at the site while the glean is happening (who can not get to the glean because they are volunteering at the gleaners site) will be able to take gleaned items at the end of the volunteer shift. The rest of the gleaned items will be make available for MEMBERS IN GOOD STANDING only. If you have missed volunteer hours in a month and gotten a letter then you are not allowed to take the glean. Motion was 2nd by Norma Bronson. All were in favor.
REMINDERS:
Gleaners need to sign up at least once for a cleanup shift.
You are allowed to volunteer more than 8 hours per month. Adoptees need to wait 24 hours after posting the volunteer sign up to sign up to allow for gleaners to get hours in first. If you have your 8 hours in – please allow 24 hours before you sign up.
As we heard earlier from Sharon, this program is the best in Oregon. PCS Gleaners follows the rules set by OFB and LBFS, as well as PCS. If you don’t like the way this program is run, there are 13 other gleaner groups in the area you are welcome to join.
Budget question came up about why we are not allowed any more grants. Patty explained that Sharon has taken the grants on and we are allowed the Siletz Grant. Elaine asked about bake sales and Patty said the bake sales brought in contention as not all members were allowed to bake and sell at the sale. We opted to stop bake sales before Covid hit. We are having the sale at the PCS event and people can bring baked goods to that. For funds, we will continue to have the bottle drop account as our fundraiser.
Johannah asked about the gleans and that the last blueberry glean she didn’t know it was in Lebanon. It made it hard on her with childcare and the length of time to get there and back. Alicia concluded that it was possible we didn’t post on the blog that the glean was in Lebanon and that we need to remember to post the location (at least the city) when offering gleans. Alicia says we will try to be better. Patty said if we don’t put it on there to please reach out to us.
Next monthly member meeting will be October 8, 2024.
