Ordering, Bank Account Feb 19

Ordering, Banking, Donations: Little Forests Agenda

February 19, 2021

Little Forests Kingston

Last Sunday’s Forest Walk on Belle Island ended up at a tobaggan hill.

Saturday Feb 20 Agenda 1:00 pm

We’re having an extra meeting this week at a special time to finalize ordering. If you have input into ordering (or bank account process) for your group, please join.

Updates

Ordering

Teresa spoke with Verbinnen’s Nursury wholesale grower (one of the suppliers used by Lower Trent Conservation Area) on Tuesday. They are happy to work with us in any way we’d like. We have three options to discuss:

  1. Order seedlings bareroot in Spring -pot and hold for fall planting *original estimates ($690 for 300ish @$2.30) need labour, pots and soil for 1800 ish plants (or each group is responsible to do their own)

  2. Order 1 Gallon plants for fall deliver ($2,242.50 for 300 ish @$7.50 ea) for September/October delivery direct planting.

  3. Order Verbinnen’s Plug Liner (VPL) plugs 20 -40 cm range ($1350 for 300 [email protected] ea) these (custom grown for us) for July deliver. We can pot into 1 gallon pots for strong fall root systems.

To receive this pricing we are ordering in bulk. This its ideal if all groups are agree on the more suitable option to get these pricing estimates (which are based on orders of over 1000). Across the 6 Little Forests we’re planting, our current order quantity is close to 2000. Shipping charge reduced by shipping to one location, one group.

If we’d like a sponsorship from them, we would need to submit a formal ask to their office for evaluation as they have a set budget for donations. There is no timeline on this ask.

Paying

They will accept a deposit at time of order of 3000.00. Can this come from KSS?

Banking

We also need to open a bank account. Sandra has an action item to report back on the 'pieces' we need to put in place to the cash flowing with accountability. Our options so far:

  1. Funneling through Flat Rock Plant Rescue (Sandra would need to check with the volunteers). Funneling through Lakeside or Master Gardeners is not an option.

  2. Opening a Little Forests account through BMO which is the only bank that will open an account with just a letter, not a ‘resolution of a board of directors, bylaws etc…

  3. Astrid shared a fast and easy option. For the Wolfe Island spring tree order she opened another chequing account with her bank at TD (possible to do online in 5 minutes). Everything can be done online (etransfer for payments or donations). And the account is then the accounting for the project. More flexibility, only one signature needed. Then if in future needs to be more formalized, we could consider a more official process. There are fees, but gives us transparency.

Teresa said it was very easy to deal with Mr. Bernard. She has never used this wholesaler and doesn’t have experience with their end product but they are one of the suppliers used by Lower Trent Conservation Area, which is a good sign. Teresa recommends we try them and make them our primary supplier for 2021.

Sourcing free seedlings, cuttings locally

Are there cuttings or seedling we can source locally, for free, that we can remove from our order list to save money? For example, red osier dogwood and willow are very easy to start from cuttings. ECSong is donating some nut seedlings. Other ideas?

Action items from last week’s meeting

Thanks Maureen for capturing these!

  1. Sandra please determine the 'pieces' need to be in place to get the cash flowing with accountability;

  2. DONE. Joyce please get that donation button working (check out the Donate page on Master Gardeners. Haven’t yet added Little Forests as a project as need to discuss with the group at our Feb 22 meeting. Try it here and send me feedback (I still need to get the appearance in the menu bar to be more prominant/look like a button).

  3. Maureen will approach WTPPT Land Council for donation or bridging money;

  4. DONE. Joyce please work with Maureen & Theresa on a spreadsheet for costing. Thanks to Tracey, one of our Master Gardener colleagues, our spreadsheet now reads from the items on each tab onto a summary tab with the totals. Still need to add pricing once we agree on supplier, then the spread will read those numbers back into individual spreadsheets so each group can see what they owe. See spreadsheet here. 

  5. Teresa please share the coop model you recently saw

  6. DONE (see above note). Astrid please prepare a demo of the bank account model / accountability process you designed for Wolfe Island.

  7. Tim. Farming approach for water for Champlain Park.

  8. Tim: please investigate ways to make strategies (and costing) for watering at the park site - and bring about strategies for group conversation

  9. IN PROGRESS: Joanne and Karen. Email sent to Director of Parks & Recreation for planting permission at Champlaign Park. Wating for reply. Tim discussed with Councillor Mary Rita Holland who is on board, as is Oak Street. Still need to approach Molly Brant School. Participants suggested fo the meeting: Joanne & Karen, KSS, Namira, Urban School Trustree. Tom Gingrich, Board Trustee. Director for Parks and Recreation. Mary Rita Holland, Councillor. Ayla & Jen Kehoe, Loving Spoonful. Tim & Nick, Oak Street. Joyce.

Oliver shared this 3 minute BBC video on Forests the size of tennis courts.