CFSB Board Meeting Minutes - May 3, 2021

Attendance:

Chris Voss, Bernard Friedman, Garrett Rose, Harry Liquornik, John Colgate, Michael Harrington, Paul Teall, Kim Selkoe, Mike Nelson, Marco Ferell, Mary Nishimoto, Bob Kryczko

Absent: Gary Burke, Mike McCorkle

Notes:

BR Hoover

Agenda:

Guest Presentation by Blue Latitudes: Fishing activity at oil rigs for informing decommissioning
Update on infrastructure project
Financial update and budget approval
Vote on strategy for pursuing grants
Vote on accepting a grant for beach clean ups
Discuss Open Board Seat
Saturday Fishermen’s Market
Other News

Chris Voss opened the meeting on May 3, 2021 at 3:00pm. Meeting was held via Zoom.

1. Guest Presentation On Fishing Activity At Oil Rigs For Informing Decommissioning, By Blue Latitudes

Amber Sparks from Blue Latitudes gave a presentation on their current project investigating “How will the decommissioning impact the fishing community?”. Blue Latitudes is a Non-profit Organization from San Diego. This project is funded by Mary Jameson Foundation ($10,000), Patagonia, and by individual donations from the community. Today, they hope to share their work and receive feedback from the fishermen and ideas on how to improve their data.

So far, their organization has worked with Global Fishing Watch and AIS technology to visualize marine area use around the Oil Rigs. This does not offer a complete picture of fishing activity since tot all vessels have AIS, which is only required for vessels over 300 GT.

Teall suggested the use of VMS data. VMS is required for all groundfish trawling that occurs in federal water, or the catch is transported through federal waters. They are working to get VMS data and said they would circle back with us when it has been added to their maps.

Voss mentioned that all the rigs have unique characteristics based on their geographic location, depth, no-take listings, etc… which impacts each rig’s value for fisheries and conservation, and suggests that they look into Milton Love’s presentation on Rigs to Reefs. They agreed with this approach.

Many Nishimoto (joint oil and fisheries liaison officer) chimed in to explain a few points about oil rig decommissioning. Stakeholders must consider how the oil companies will be working with the state throughout the decommissioning process, since those details have not been hammered out yet. This includes who will be liable for the rigs with the “Rigs to Reef'' scenario. If they are decommissioned, they are capped at 15ft and below. They do plugging and abandonment before any structure is taken down. The process of plugging and capping is the same, regardless of disassembling or rigs to reefs.

For additional comments and questions, please reach out to Amber at [email protected]. The presentation given during the meeting will also be sent out for those interested.

2. Update On Infrastructure Project

CFSB had a meeting with our 2 City Council Liaisons, Mike Jordan and Eric Friedman, to progress our infrastructure project. Mike Jordan reported on a meeting he had with the owner of the boat yard property, Tony. Dave Davis was also at the meeting. They raised the possibility of a long term solution for setting up an expanded, enhanced storage yard for CFSB on the Wright property, either by purchasing a parcel or establishing a long term lease, in exchange for the City releasing zoning restrictions on another parcel of theirs. Tony mentioned he would consider this. Harrington confirmed that Tony is very sympathetic to our situation, but also sympathetic to other tenants that would need to be relocated.

This led into the need to get grants that can be used for a land use analysis, and engage staff at Community Development and Planning to lay the groundwork. The city appears supportive and willing to contribute “matching funds”. This will be presented at the Special Council Meeting for the Waterfront Department's 2022 budget review and approval on May 5th. Specifically, the line item is $25,000 to be set aside from the Waterfront Dept's coffers to contribute 'matching' funds for federal grants we are pursuing to support our goals of expanding the shoreside infrastructure for maritime industry, including a permanent home for our boat and gear yard.

Nelson reports that he spoke to his contact at the EDA regarding grant opportunities. EDA grants will most likely require as a prerequisite that a ‘Comprehensive Economic Development Strategy’ has been made for the geography/industry of focus before EDA will fund a construction project. Our local EDA office has already established a relationship with a group called REACH in San Luis Obispo that is planning a CEDS process that would cover all of SLO and SB Counties, and recommended we ask to be included in their process. Nelson is pursuing this.

Selkoe has met with Greg Gorga from the Maritime Museum in regards to CFSB’s need for an official “business address”. Having a business address is greatly beneficial and sometimes a requirement when applying for grants. The meeting was successful and if CFSB and the museum partner up in this capacity, they will be more involved and collaborative in future grants for outreach and education, maybe provide space for meeting for the grants.

3. Financial Update And Budget Approval

The financial report and budget was put together by Selkoe. Selkoe presented financials, since Rose (treasurer) was driving.

So far in 2021, CFSB has not received additional grant money. Expenses thus far have been drawn from grant funding remaining from previous years as well as dues and memberships.

The William Corbit Fund was originally granted for a boiling station, however Selkoe spoke to the foundation and confirmed that due to the COVID circumstances, it can be used for something other than a boiling station but still focused on the Saturday market.

Income generated from memberships is low this year compared to previous year. This is in part due to Harrington requiring membership payment in full for members using the boatyard. This revenue was recorded in the 2020 financials and thus not showing up in 2021.

Several members of the board expressed interest in discussing how CFSB can increase membership. Selkoe noted that we are now subscribing to a membership management software that can be used for a membership drive. This can be an agenda item for the next meeting.

Colgate expressed that the board should be notified if/when we start dipping into the reserved $50,000 in the CFSB bank account. Voss agreed and suggested the budget be approved as a starting point for how CFSB will spend funds, but be revisited when revenue and expenditures change. Selkoe assured that to date, we’ve never spent money that wasn’t tied to specific funds raised and approved for expenditure, and would always get board approval if we were put into a situation that we had to dip into reserves.

Motion made by Voss to approve 2020 annual financials. Seconded by Teall. Unanimous approval.

Motion made by Voss to approve January 2021 financials. Seconded by Teall. Unanimous approval.

Motion made by Voss to approve February 2021 financials. Seconded by Rose. Unanimous approval.

Motion made by Voss to approve March 2021 financials. Seconded by Rose. Unanimous approval.

Motion made by Voss to approve the proposed 2021 budget as is, and revisit it later in the year to approve deviations from it if necessary. Seconded by Teall. Unanimous approval.

4. Vote On Strategy For Pursuing Grants

Selkoe reports that the current strategy for pursuing small foundation grants is to highlight continuing our Food Bank Donation program because it aligns with many small foundation priorities, the need at Foodbanks continues to increase, and is easily scaled up or down according to our funding success.

Motion made by Liquornik to support this strategy for reaching out to family foundations. Seconded by Teall. Unanimous approval.

5. Vote On Accepting A Grant For Beach Clean Ups

New grant opportunity with TNC - CFSB will be granted $14,000 to beta test and pilot a beach cleaning app. Our role will be to organize fishermen and citizens to report marine debris through an app that will identify debris hotspots to guide clean up efforts, and conduct 3 clean ups. The grant money will be used to pay for fuel, staff time, fisherman participation.

Harrington raised concern that there are some fishermen who have reservations about joining CFSB due to our involvement with TNC. Colgate would like to see more members, so that more fishermen can benefit from grants such as this and suggested that participation is open to all SB fishermen, regardless of membership.

Motion made by Liquornik to accept the grant for beach clean ups on the condition that the program will not be limited to CFSB members, and this will be used to enhance membership of CFSB. Seconded by Teall. Unanimous approval.

6. Discuss Open Board Seat

Currently, there is one open board seat that needs to be filled. At the last meeting we erroneously thought there were two open seats and Paul Teall and Ben Hyman both expressed interest in switching from alternates to board members. Chris suggested we get this done and elect Paul since Ben was not present, and keep Ben in mind for the next board seat opening.

Motion made by Liquornik to elect Paul Teall as the new board member. Seconded by Colgate. Unanimous approval.

The board discussed the need to update the organizations bylaws, including adding a section outlining procedure for filling a board seat mid-term.

7. Saturday Fishermen’s Market

The vendors and the market board will be meeting this Saturday after the Market to discuss the bylaws concerning selling other fishermen's catch. BR will be coordinating with the Market Board regarding this issue.

8. Other News

Selkoe reports that she is hoping to step back from the routine tasks associated with running CFSB such as arranging and running board meetings, managing the Saturday Market, and member communications but continue to assist in a targeted fashion in the infrastructure project in ways that utilize her expertise, functioning more like a consultant. Over the next 6 months, she will be training BR to take on the routine responsibilities.
Harrington suggests revising the bylaws be on the agenda for the next meeting. They were written for a coop structure not a 501c3 non-profit organization.
During Selkoe’s meeting with Greg Gorga from the Maritime Museum, there was mentioned that they will be doing some type of celebration for Mike McCorkle and invited us to co-host.

Voss adjourned the meeting at 5:30PM.