FRIENDS OF THE ELEPHANT SEAL MINUTES FOR BOARD OF DIRECTORS MEETING – January 15, 2020

CAVALIER PLAZA

Friends of the Elephant Seal Mission Statement: Friends of the Elephant Seal is a non-profit organiza7on dedicated to educa7ng people about Elephant Seals and other marine life and to teaching stewardship for the ocean off the central

coast of California.

THE FES BOARD OF DIRECTOR’S MEETING WAS CALLED TO ORDER AT 1:00 PM by FES President Kathleen Cur7s.

DIRECTORS PRESENT: Cur7s, O’Bannon, Beck, Arnold, Fowles, King and Kneeland.

STAFF PRESENT: Wendy Sheridan.

COOPERATING AGENCY LIAISON REPRESENTATIVES AND GUESTS PRESENT: Robb Mullins, Supervising Ranger - State Parks and BeYe Bardeen, FES Docent.

APPROVAL OF DECEMBER 18, 2019 BOD MEETING MINUTES:

➢ MoMon to approve the FES Board meeMng minutes of December 19, 2019. / Arnold / King / Unanimous.

STAFF AND COMMITTEE REPORTS:

• AYached reports include: Board Report, Communica7ons Report, Research Report, School Program Report, Table Report, Training CommiYee Report and FES Balance Sheet from Treasurer’s Report.

PRESENTATIONS TO THE BOARD:

• BeYe Bardeen reported that there are seals on San Simeon Beach. Robyn Chase said she will try to have a State Park Interpreter present at San Simeon Beach when there are seals on the beach. The Board decided to obtain portable signs that can be placed on the beach near res7ng seals to help alert the public to give sufficient space to the res7ng seals. There will be a gathering for winter guides at BeYe’s house on February 7th.

• It was agreed that winter guides can be mentored to become bluff docents and we will accept seasonal docents who may not live on the Central Coast all year long.

• Robb Mullins reported that he learned about a person on Instagram who was going onto the beach to be photographed with elephant seals. He said someone will be assigned to inves7gate.

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ACTION ITEMS:

• Beck and Kneeland spoke briefly about the ad hoc commiYee’s revisions to Docent Duty Statement. The revised duty statement was given to Board members for comment and approval.

➢ MoMon to approve the commiVee’s revised Docent Duty Statement without including the line requiring docents to be at least 18 years of age. / Arnold / Fowles / Unanimous.

• Beck reviewed the names of docents who have previously received FES awards for Docent Of The Year and

Life7me Achievement.

➢ MoMon to present Brandt Kehoe the LifeMme Achievement Award. / Kneeland / King / Passed.

➢ MoMon to present Mary Forbes and Will Skinner Docent Of The Year Award. / Beck / Fowles / Passed.

• Cur7s said that she was informed that the cost to install a web camera on VP3’s North Beach would be about $10,000. We will need to consider the possible problems associated with the camera ocen needing to be directed towards the sun as it is focused on seals on the North Beach.

➢ MoMon to collect addiMonal informaMon on the requirements and scope of a project to install a camera on the North Beach at VP3. / Arnold / O’Bannon / Unanimous.

➢ MoMon to form a sub-commiVee to review and recommend addiMonal signage for VP3. / Fowles / Arnold / Unanimous. The signage sub-commiYee will be: Fowles, Arnold and King.

➢ MoMon to remove Timothy Bridwell as an authorized signer from all FES bank accounts at Pacific Premier Bank and to add Kathleen CurMs as an authorized signer to all FES bank accounts at Pacific Premier Bank. The authorized signers on the Pacific Premier Bank accounts will be: Kathleen CurMs, Michael O’Bannon and Stephen Beck. / Beck / King / Unanimous.

➢ MoMon to remove Timothy Bridwell as an authorized signer from the FES Vanguard account and to add Kathleen CurMs as an authorized signer to the FES Vanguard account. The authorized signers on the FES Vanguard account will be: Kathleen CurMs, Michael O’Bannon and Stephen Beck. / Beck / King / Unanimous.

• O’Bannon reported that he met with the FES accountant and that the accountant thought it was a great idea to upgrade the FES Vanguard mutual fund account to a Vanguard brokerage account.

➢ MoMon to upgrade our Vanguard mutual fund account to be a brokerage account. / Arnold / Beck /

Unanimous. 2

INFORMATION ITEMS:

• Cur7s stated that it could be beneficial to consult with an organiza7on or individual to help FES put in place the infrastructure that a nonprofit organiza7on such as FES should have.

➢ MoMon to research available resources to assist FES with our infrastructure, polices and procedures.

King / Fowles / Unanimous.

• Cur7s suggested that the Board should set a vision and goals for FES before filling Board vacancies. February 5th at 10AM was scheduled as a date for a retreat session. A facilitator will not be hired for this first retreat gathering. Board members were asked to review their own goals for FES prior to February 5th.

• INFORMATION ITEMS:

• Kneeland told the Board that a graduate student of Pepperdine University came into the office and stated that he was interested in doing a summer internship with FES. His proposed internship would be 40 hours per week for six weeks for a total of 240 hours. His area of study is policy. The internship would not involve any cost to FES. Cur7s and Kneeland will talk with the interested graduate student about his proposal for an internship and report back to the Board.

• Arnold and Fowles reported that Create Element has started working on our new website. • Cur7s reported on the last ESAG mee7ng. Topics discussed included signage on Highway 1, the current hours

of opera7on at the Discovery Center (Friday, Saturday and Sunday), geo-fencing that is designed to keep drones out, and the reward poster for the e-seal that was shot. Robyn Chase was congratulated on her recent promo7on. Chase reported on a gaming app called Agents of Discovery and told the group that tours at Arroyo Laguna were going well.

• Monday January 27th will be our second female seal/pup count. OTHER BUSINESS AND ANNOUNCEMENTS:

• Sheridan said that the docent clicker will be revised to be about 5,000 more than what was reported because the earlier number did not include contacts made at the sales table.

• Beck reported that about eight FES docent aYended the memorial service for Dave Dabritz.

NEW BUSINESS:

• None.

➢ MoMon to Adjourn MeeMng was made at 3:43PM. / Arnold / Beck / Unanimous.

SubmiYed by: Stephen Beck, FES Secretary – January 20, 2020

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Addendum To January 2020 Board Minutes

On January 23, 2020, all seven Board members approved the following by electronic consent pursuant to Sec7on 6.10 of the FES By-Laws.

1. I give my consent for board ac7on by electronic transmission, outside of a duly-held mee7ng of the Board of Directors.

2. I approve the acceptance of the proposal by Lisa Gonzalez to carry out the consul7ng services outlined (Part I and II) in her proposal as soon as possible and to ini7ate bookkeeping, payroll, sales tax and federal and state tax prepara7on services on behalf of The Friends of the Elephant Seal, commencing on February 1, 2020.

SubmiYed by: Stephen Beck, FES Secretary January 23, 2020

___________________________________________________________________________________________

On January 30, 2020, all seven Board members approves the following by electronic consent pursuant to Sec7on 6.10 of the FES By-Laws.

1. I give my consent for board ac7on by electronic transmission, outside of a duly-held mee7ng of the Board of Directors.

2. I approve the minutes of the January 15, 2020 Board of Directors Mee7ng.

SubmiYed by: Stephen Beck, FES Secretary January 30, 2020

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January 2020

Board Report

Docents/Office/Visitor Center

Submitted by Wendy Sheridan

January 12, 2019

SHOP/OFFICE

I have completed the 4th quarter use tax report and sent it to Marcella.

The end of year inventory of merchandise sold from the table on the bluff has been completed and

sent to Marcella for inclusion in the report she sends to the state.

The issue with the door codes not working seems to have been fixed by replacing the batteries.

We have a new line of merchandise for 2020. Check out the Heritage Pewter collection next time you

are in the shop.

Shop income comparison graph for 2019 is attached.

DOCENTS

Newsletter items for the February Communiqué should be sent to the office no later than January

27th.

Plans are complete for the February 15th Docent Appreciation Dinner. To date we have 55 who have replied

that they will attend. I expect that number will double. The speaker will be Arina Favilla.

Arina Favilla is a Ph.D. student in the Costa Lab at University of California, Santa Cruz studying the diving

behavior and physiology of northern elephant seals. Her current research focuses on the diving behavior and

physiology of northern elephant seals, using biologging to investigate how marine mammals are able to

conserve heat while diving to cold depths and also dissipate excess heat when actively swimming. She is a

graduate of the University of Miami with a B.S. in Biomedical Engineering and double major in Marine

Science. Arina recently presented her work in December, 2019 at the World Marine Mammal Conference in

Barcelona, Spain.

She will join us to celebrate our FES docent superheroes. Three seals in recent research studies have been

tracked and located by our Citizen Science team when they hauled out at Piedras Blancas instead of returning

to Año Nuevo.

DOCENT HOURS & CLICKER COUNT REPORT ATTACHED.

I will be off January 22nd, 23rd & 24th. Joe will be working all three of those days.

FES Board Meeting January 15, 2020 Research Report

1. Citizen Science team to be highlighted in lecture at Docent Recognition dinner

Arina Favilla, doctoral student at UC Santa Cruz will provide a lecture about her research and experience with the FES Citizen Science team at the Docent Recognition dinner on February 15, 2020. Through the assistance of Leo DeWinter, Peggy DeWinter and Phil Arnold, she was able to locate several seals that had swam south to Piedras Blancas instead of returning to the Año Nuevo reserve.

2. Communications with Año Nuevo /UC Santa Cruz

Patrick Robinson has notified Friends of the Elephant Seal of a new website showing live-tracking data from satellite-tagged elephant seals. UC Santa Cruz is now contributing data to a new national data archive that creates similar plots and invited our participation and encouraged us to share the link:

https://portal.atn.ioos.us/#metadata/edc4b2d0-b90d-484b-86da-e1e4212409f6/project

3. Winter 2019-2020 Birth count

Following consultation with Brian Hatfield, Kathleen Curtis and Phil Arnold planned a process for the 2019-2020 Female/Pup Count to document the results of this season’s birthing and breeding process. Members of the Citizen Science team will count adult female seals on all the rookery beaches, on December 26, January 27 and February 28, with the final count also including total weanlings. The December 26 count went well, with 152 females counted across the range.

Submitted by Kathleen Curtis January 13, 2020

FES Board Meeting January 15, 2020

Communications Committee Report

1. Goals: Goals in the last month have been to: (A) continue to develop our user base on social media accounts (B) kick off website revision process on January 2, 2020. (C) complete mailing of Fall 2019 Among Friends membership newsletter (D) advance FES visibility and monitor accurate information on all platforms

The status toward these goals:

A. Social Media accounts Facebook: The top post in the last 30 days was on January 9, 2020, featuring a poster originally posted by Marine Fisheries Office of Law Enforcement, reaching 9700 people. Next highest was an update on the 2nd pup of the season, reaching 4600 people. Total page likes: 4131 (up by 133). Followers: 4144 (up by 150.) Many thanks to Leo DeWinter for his editorial work and skilled photography.

Youtube: FES is now registered and has a dedicated YouTube channel. Ten videos have been uploaded. We will go public soon. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCiwAct6MquO7RhygMVtnjIw/videos?view_as=subscriber

New Social Media: Twitter: Has now been established @fr_elephantseal (21 followers) Instagram: Has now been established @friendsoftheelephantseal (11 posts and 60 followers)

B. Website Revision:

Website revision began with a kickoff meeting on January 2, 2020. The first phase of the project (to be completed by February 3, 2020) will create design and concept, including source technology, user experience, content organization, creation and rewriting.

C. Among Friends

The Fall, 2019 issue of Among Friends, the membership newsletter, was mailed in mid-December.

D. FES Web Presence

Updates: • Google My Business reports 116,00 searches where the FES Visitor Center and Gift

Shop came up in the last 28 days. “Elephant seals” and “Elephant seals California” are the most common search terms!

• The Friends of the Elephant Seal Visitor Center and Gift Shop has now been claimed on the search engine Bing Places for Business, in addition to Google My Business, Yelp for Business, & Trip Advisor. Ratings remain strong at 4-5/5 consistently.

• Social media accounts now include Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Youtube • FES also has an account with Mailchimp.

E. Media Stories

The Piedras Blancas Northern Elephant Seal Rookery has been featured prominently this month in several news stories:

Mark James Miller: San Simeon’s elephant seals find a way (Santa Maria Time) January 12, 2020 (https://santamariatimes.com/opinion/columnists/mark-james-miller-san-simeon-s-elephant-seals-find-a/article_78cac08b-22f8-523c-8f6a-aaa4a3ede74f.html)

Reward offered after elephant seal shot, killed near San Simeon (KSBY News) January 7, 2020 (https://www.ksby.com/news/reward-offered-after-elephant-seal-shot-killed-in-san-simeon)

Elephant seal shot in the head and mutilated near San Simeon — police want answers (SLO Tribune) January 7, 2020 https://www.sanluisobispo.com/news/local/environment/article239048093.html#storylink=cpy (* multiple other outlets as well carried this story)

State Parks Offer Guided Elephant Seal Tour in SLO County. (SLO Tribune (and multiple outlets) January 3, 2020 . https://www.sanluisobispo.com › community › cambrian › article238946348

Babies on the beach: It’s elephant seal breeding season on California’s Central Coast (SLO Tribune by Christine Heinrichs ) January 2, 2020 https://www.sanluisobispo.com/news/local/community/Cambrian/article238593258.html

Elephant seal pupping season begins on the Central Coast (KSBY News) December 28, 2019 https://www.ksby.com/news/local-news/elephant-seal-pupping-season-begins-on-the-central-coast

SLO Tribune video featuring Stephen Beck (December 2019) https://www.sanluisobispo.com/news/local/environment/article238077294.html

Submitted by Kathleen Curtis January 13, 2020.

Jan. 13, 2020

FES Board Meeting January 15, 2020

Training Activity Report

1. 2020 Training Dates: Basic: March 28, and Sep 12

Advanced: Oct 10 and 24

2. Training Meeting – Jan. 13, 2020

a. Next meeting March 6, 10 am

3. New Member: Diane Nathan

4. 2020 Committee a. Stephen Beck

b. Judy May

c. Lynette Harrison

d. Diana Barnhart

e. Kathy Escobar

f. Keith Mueller

g. Diane Nathan

h. Cam Arnold

5. Work is underway to prepare for 2020 Training Sessions

6. One current application: Jim Wilson

7. 2019 Docent Review and Feedback session a. Dave Bauer has again offered his home and cooking b. Date TBD

8. 2019 Fall Docents Peer Reviews – to be completed by end of April

January 2020 School Program Report

Since our last board meeting on December 18th, we have had 1 visitation to the Boys and Girls Club SLO in Oceano where we did three presentations to 60 elementary aged students. The same 60 students came to the bluff later in the week to see the seals up close and personal. Although it was more work to go to them first for the presentation, it was much more valuable than just seeing them on the bluff as they only have one chaperone per 20 kids, which is much too large a group for the tables on the bluff, and too large to really do much interpreting on the bluff.

We have 6 more schools coming out the second half of January. Few have 4 schools scheduled for February. Spring months are still wide open.

Submitted by Max Fowles, January 2019

2019-2020 School Year Totals to Date

# of Students Visiting # of Schools # of Docents

654 12 66

From: Sue King partagergtpyrs@yahoo.comSubject: Table report January 2020

Date: January 14, 2020 at 6:01 PMTo: Cam Arnold camarnold@yahoo.com, Stephen Beck stephendalebeck@gmail.com, Bill Kneeland bill1914@att.net,

Michael O’Bannon mobannon1950@charter.net, maxfowles@gmail.com, Kathy Curtis curtis_kathleen@yahoo.com, FES Officefes@elephantseal.org, Tim Bridwell tim.bridwell@yahoo.com

We have several new items - pewter pins, earrings, key chain, glass stein and shot glass with the FES logo on them -really nice/ I took several out last Friday and the response was very positive.Hopefully the rains will not flood us off the bluff this next month.Thanks to Cam and Stephen who stepped up to help me last Friday!Several table docents are expected back on the schedule in the several weeks. Hurray!

Sent from my iPhone

2020 Goodger Internship Report

We now have 2 new interns on board and both have started their FES training and Cal Poly orientation.

Our interns are Michael Tillman, a 4th year student, and Katie Saenger, a 3rd year student. Both are marine science majors.

The interns have had their first and second mentoring sessions and are scheduled for 2 more by the end of January. After that I hope to have them start off by spending time on the bluff, at Hearst San Simeon beach, and a session(s) with school groups.

The interns will be spending 2 half days per week with Dr. Heather Liwanag whom you may remember from a presentation she gave to us at a docent dinner last year. She has recently returned from Antarctica where she was studying Weddell seals. Perhaps in the future we can get a presentation from her about that! The interns will be part of a Cal Poly team that will, among other things (I just don’t yet know what those other things are), weigh and tag seals -- I presume weaners.

The interns will also be at the February 15 docents dinner. Please take the opportunity to introduce yourself to them. They are both very friendly and excited about this internship.

Submitted by Bill Kneeland, January 2020

Cash Valuation-Non GAAP Dec 31, 19

ASSETS

Current Assets

Checking/Savings

Restricted Checking Account

2018 SSTA Grant 1,494.11

Speakers Bureau 200.00

Restricted Interest 69.40

Translation System 75.00

Inservice for Docents 650.00

Coastal Trail Develop/Signage 410.14

Restricted Checking Account - Other 12.87

Total Restricted Checking Account 2,911.52

Heritage Oaks Money Market Acct 47,794.87

Bank Cards -608.70

Cash On Hand 335.00

Heritage Oaks Checking 35,888.72

Total Checking/Savings 86,321.41

Total Current Assets 86,321.41

Fixed Assets

Fixed Asset 12,991.50

Office Equipment 2,063.63

Accumulated Depreciation -15,055.13

Total Fixed Assets 0.00

Other Assets

Vangard 105,227.30

SLO Comm Foundation 36,091.23

Total Other Assets 141,318.53TOTAL ASSETS 227,639.94

LIABILITIES & EQUITY

Liabilities

Current Liabilities

Other Current Liabilities

Docent Jacket Deposits 2,135.50

Payroll Liabilities -2,601.66

Total Other Current Liabilities -466.16

Total Current Liabilities -466.16

Total Liabilities -466.16

Equity

Unrestricted Net Assets 190,416.13

Net Income 37,689.97

Total Equity 228,106.10TOTAL LIABILITIES & EQUITY 227,639.94

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