June 26, 2022 Board Meeting Minutes

MINUTES OF A MEETING
OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS
OF THE BLACKWATER LAKE ASSOC.

June 26, 2022

A meeting of the board of directors of the Blackwater Lake Association (“the BLA”) was held on the above date at 3058 4th Avenue North, Longville, MN 56655, at the home of Chairman Lloyd Thielmann. Board of Directors Lloyd Thielmann, Carolyn Dindorf, Linda Burns (via phone), Dodi Sletten, Becky Seemann, Tim Marr, Scott Agre, and Shannon Klundt, attended the meeting. Barbie Laughlin was absent. A quorum was present for the meeting.

Call to Order

The meeting was called to order at 8:35 a.m. by Board Chairman, Lloyd Thielmann.

Approval of Agenda

Lloyd distributed the agenda prior to the meeting via email which, upon a motion duly made and seconded, was unanimously approved. 

                                           Approval of Prior Meeting Minutes

The minutes of the May 1, 2022 BOD’s meeting were distributed by Dodi Sletten previously via email and reviewed by the board prior to this meeting. After review by the board which, upon a motion duly made and seconded, the minutes were approved unanimously.   

Treasurer’s Report

      Linda Burns provided an email prior to the meeting with the balances for the General fund and the Lake Protection fund as well as the membership count. The balance in the General fund is $4,106 which includes $790 in Walleye stocking donations. The Lake Protection fund balance is at $11,885 with one AIS expenditure paid of $88. Linda reported membership at 131 and provided membership history going back 5 years as 117, 138, 142, 116, and 128. Linda asked the board to add the payment of the Seedlings bill of $400 and the Jim Hassler payment of $75 for mowing and maintenance of the lake access road to the pre-approved list and the board granted this approval. Linda noted she is holding up the depositing of some membership dues for next year until closer to the fiscal start. Lloyd will ask Pat Schwerin to audit the books. 

Linda opened for discussion changing the current fiscal year of July 1st through June 30th to the calendar year of January 1st through December 31st. for ease in tracking and timing of membership, dues, and expenditures. After discussing the pros and cons; including having to potentially move the board meeting to the first months of the new year (most likely would result in low attendance) to coincide with when most lake owners pay their membership dues; the board decided this approach would have more downside than benefit.  

The board also discussed sending out a pre-stamped membership envelope with a membership application to the members to encourage them to pay their dues. Various board members felt that most members don’t mind paying for a stamp or an envelope. The discussion centered on what was done last year (2021) which was to send out an email/letter reminder to those who have not paid their dues. The timing of this was in August of 2021 after the Annual meeting was completed and the members who had not paid was known.  The board agreed to use this approach again this year.    

After review by the board which, upon a motion duly made and seconded, the Treasurer’s report was approved unanimously.   

 NEW Business

  1. 4th of July Boat Parade: The boat parade will take place at 2:00 p.m. starting by little Blackwater. Brandon and Cindy Larson will again chair the parade. Registration of your boat and voting will be done by text this year to allow households on the shore to vote as well as those in the parade. This change and procedures will be communicated in the short version of the email/ Blurb at end of June. A $100.00 prize will be given. Linda will pay Cindy who will provide cash to the winner.
  2. Annual meeting:  Lloyd provided the board with a proposed agenda and related annual meeting topics via email prior to the meeting and also at the meeting. The meeting will be held at Woodrow Township hall and will start at 10:00 a.m. preceded by a coffee and meet your neighbor beginning at 9:00 a.m. Donuts will be provided. The board agreed to order sandwiches, potato salad, cookies, pop, and water as well as paper plates, paper coffee cups, and napkins from Costco.  Becky Seemann will provide the utensils. Luncheon coordinators were suggested as Terry Thielmann, Elizabeth Agre, Jan Marr, and Shannon Klundt. The Silent Auction will be set-up by 9:00 a.m. and will run through the meeting. The agenda and information regarding the annual meeting will be contained in the short email/blurb sent out at the end of June. Tim and Jan Marr volunteered to provide music during the meet your neighbor and coffee time. After discussing, the board felt that people might want to sit to listen to the music and not be as inclined to introduce themselves and engage in camaraderie with other folks. Thanks to both Mike and Jan though for this generous offer. The agenda was discussed as approved is as follows:
    1. Call to order with pledge of allegiance and introductory comments by Lloyd Thielmann
    2. Ask for additions to the agenda and approval of the agenda
    3. Approval of minutes of 2021 Annual Meeting posted on Website by Dodi Sletten
    4. Guest speakers are Jacqueline Hughes our conservation officer and Becky Seemann on one use plastics
    5. Treasurers Report and finance facts by Linda Burns
    6. Audit report from Pat Schwerin
    7. Remembrance of our friends and neighbors who are no longer with us-Fred Nutz
    8. Committee Reports:
      1. 4th of July Boat Parade update by Cindy Larson
      2. Beaver Control, waterway clearance by Lloyd Thielmann
      3. Water Quality Report-Carolyn Dindorf for Jim Sletten
      4. Aquatic Invasive Species report by Carolyn Dindorf
      5. Membership report and AIS Lake Protection fund raising report by Linda    Burns
      6. Seedlings Report by Pat McKee
      7. Website by Scott Agre
      8. Fishing committee report
    9. The Board of Director’s nominations for re-election. Dodi Sletten (Secretary-3 yr. term), Tim Marr (Director-2 yr. term), Becky Seemann (Director-2 yr. term), Shannon Klundt (Director-2 yr. term) and Scott Agre (Director at Large-1 yr. term).
    10. Cabin Coffee-Otto’s recognized, Zbikowski’s-July 8th, Ceausceac’s and Belenuic’s-August 12th
    11. New Business
    12. Adjournment
  3. Fall Blackwater Blurb: Becky introduced a proposed topic for the Fall BWR Blurb as “Pick a time in the Past on Blackwater”. She relayed the history of the Seemann family and showed a pictorial arrangement of old photos from their 100 years on the lake. She also conveyed information about other folks whose lake property has been passed down through the generations. The request is to find and send her historical photos from the past to include in the blurb.
  4. ACCL Meetings: Lloyd reported on the last ACCL meeting held on June 24th. Doug Schultz from DNR fisheries and John Sumption of Northern Waters Land Trust both spoke. Lloyd mentioned the dates and times for the next two meetings which will be held at the Backus Land Office on July 29th at 9:30 a.m. and on August 26th at 3:00 p.m. Again, Lloyd encouraged us to attend as board members.   
  5. Beaver Control: Lloyd received a report from the trapper for the annual meeting and summarized for the board. Due to the late ice out, activity was light with 13 beavers trapped. He reported no fresh beaver activity and good water flowage.
  6. New Member Packets: Becky presented the new member packets with updated material including the new membership application and lake information.   
  7. Website: Scott reported on the updates he’s made to the website. He also talked about a redesign of the site in the future to make it more appealing. He will post any photos that folks would like posted. He recommended in light of the text and email scams in the past couple of years, to list the board members by name and position but remove phone and email addresses from the site. The board agreed to this approach and Scott will update the site. Thank you Scott for taking on the management of our website.
  8. DNR Fish Stocking: Lloyd reported the DNR fish stocking will take place in October and said the size of the fish will determine the amount. No actual date is set at this time.   

        Next Board Meetings and Annual Meeting

         The remaining Board of Director’s meeting for 2022 will be held on October 2nd.  The Annual meeting will be held on 7/16/2022.

Adjournment

There being no further business to come before the Board, and upon motion duly made and seconded, the meeting was adjourned by unanimous approval at 10:11 a.m.

Dated as of the date first written above.

       ____________________________________

         Dodi Sletten, Secretary