Firewise Meeting                                                                                                                                 May 8, 2024

LCMC Board Room

Meeting was called to order at 10:15am by President Alec Pennington

Alec Pennington – President, Gregg Dahmen – Vice President (via Zoom), ….. Gary Nelson – Treasurer (via Zoom), Dennis Wicks – Secretary, …………………. Ray Menard – Lake Cushman Fire Department Liaison. ……………………………… Guest – Kathy Stafford – community member, volunteer

Dave Peterson – Historian/Navigator – absent (excused)

_________________________________________________________________________

The minutes of the April 10, 2024 meeting were approved following a motion by Dennis with a second by Gary

Treasurer Report – Gary Nelson. 

The Treasurer’s Report presented verbally and submitted to FW drive.  Online banking has finally been set up for use.

Dennis motioned the report be approved with a second from Alec, motion passed unanimously.

General Business:

Election of Board Officers

Gregg Dahmen has resigned from Vice President due to personal issues but is remaining on the Board.

Dennis Wicks has resigned from the Secretary position.

President and Vice President positions are open for new officers.

Alec is running again for President.  Ray motioned and Dennis seconded to elect Alec as President.  Passed 100%

Dennis is running for Vice President   Ray motioned and Gregg seconded to elect Dennis as VP.  Passed 100%

Kathy was nominated to be on board and to be elected as Secretary to serve out Dennis’ term. Alec motioned and Dennis seconded to elect Kathy to the Board as Secretary. Passed 100%

The President and Vice President will serve until 2026. Secretary and Treasurer will serve until 2025.

Shed Update

Shed floor and walls have been completed and erected. Roof trusses have been assembled but still need to be erected.  Walls and roofing need to be applied.

Much discussion was had to put together a build schedule. A tentative date of May 18 was discussed as the weekend to complete the build working around the Arts & Craft event.  Alec indicated we are not limited to only working on the weekends. Discussion ended with no firm schedule decided. Alec indicated he would be working on the shed following the Board meeting to put up the wall sheathing and invited anyone who wanted to help to come on out. Discussion ended with no action taken to spell out and hard code a formal build schedule

Dennis proposed a motion to wave the $30.00 fee for an address marker to be put on the new LCFW shed with the #1 on it.  Ray 2nd motion and it was passed with 100%.

Wildfire Preparedness Day

Wildfire Preparedness Day was held May 4, 2024. Kathy distributed over 70 flyers to advertise the event but only 20 people attended. An After-Action report and follow up discussion about the event were held. Discussed:  heavy competition for other events; moving to another date to avoid conflicts; create interactive events to draw participants such as sand boxes with props for attendees to build their own Wildfire Ready Home model at the event; have attendees perform an Assessment on the new Firewise shed; utilize an Emcee or Facilitator to be more proactive in running events and keeping speakers on time and managing the event. Also discussed replacing the Realty office sign and using it to hang a Banner announcing the WPD event ahead of time; hang  additional Banners on properties fronting Hwy 119 (Ray) and other locations (Kathy); more effort to involve Hoodsport businesses in promoting the event and participating in the event.

The DNR’s Wildfire Ready Neighbors has a redesigned Assessment form and Jesse Duval has provided LCFW with a digital copy which we can use for assessments.

Realty sign on Hwy 119

Discussion was held regarding refurbishing the Firewise sign by the realty office on Hwy 119. We need to decide what we want on the sign and Ray indicated he will try and put together mock-up of a new sign. Once we figure out what we want the sign to look like we can contact vendors/individuals to produce the sign that we can then use to replace the existing sign.

Arts & Craft Day

Kathy has volunteered herself and her mom to woman the table at the event.

Alec will try to get a canopy, table and chairs for the event.  Alec and others to set up the table before the event and tear down at the end of the day. Setup begins 9-9:30. Teardown at 2:00pm

Stump Dump

Discussed manning the Stump Dump. As of this meeting we have two couples who have volunteered to take the first two shifts on the first day. Gary will also be at the first shift to insure procedures are promulgated. Discussed having a board member in each shift to monitor proper procedures are followed and proper handling of any monies received.

Alec spoke with Jes of Public Works indicating we have not had many volunteers sign up so far. He requested an early heads up if we will not be able to fill all the slots so he could have his people fill in.

Future of LCFW

Open and ongoing discussion of the future of LCFW going forward in light of struggle to get more volunteers.  Gregg strongly argues for becoming a membership organization and having a Membership coordinator to lead this effort to recruit new members. Some discussion of activities we could do that do not require more members but can bring benefits to community i.e. grants to homeowners to pay for readiness work/improvements, out-reach etc.  Discussion will be on-going.

Meeting was adjourned at 11:55 am

Next Meeting June 12, 2024