Chapter Meeting Minutes
February 21, 2024
Intracoastal Brewing Company
6:30 Call to order – Kris Baker, Chair Welcome!
- Special guest speaker tonight, Space Coast Audubon Society, Bill Fisk
- Bill unfortunately highlighted the decline in shorebirds (100,000 less peeps counted this year than in past) as well as overall decline in birds counted during surveys [all over the United States]- habitat loss being a major factor.
EC/Program/Campaign Reports
- Chair Report: Kris
- Nina & Kris have been brainstorming about ideas for the future with membership ideas & website updating. She comes to our board with wonderful ideas and energy. Please check out our website.
- Membership: if you are donating to Surfrider, please make sure to go through our website, not National. We won’t see any donation if you go National website. We get 80% if you go through our website donation.
- Bill & Kris have been working hard on 3 grants for Ballard Park buffer garden & Indialantic bioswale projects. Thank you, Brandon, for having your eyes on this as well. If don’t receive grants, will look into more sponsored beach clean-ups
- Kris/Mary/Brenda working on partnering with local schools
- New members Mary and Brenda have offered to assist in being a liaison for Verdi Eco School. Pineapple Cove in Palm Bay sent students for dune planting day – will reach out to thank
- Nina attended Surfrider Florida Healthy Beaches Day, Tallahassee Jan 22 & 23. She spoke about plastics and will be sharing her report at the April Meeting
- Brevard County Commissioners meeting: We shared a link from IRL Coalition, to attend this meeting. Nina & Kris attended, and Kris spoke supporting the need to continue funding for EEL’s program. The result of the vote was as follows:
- The maintenance and operating costs for existing properties will be included in the County's aggregate tax millage not requiring it to be funded by bonds, which allows the potential to bond up to $50M on land purchases alone.
- The Commission voted to acquire $6.2M in bonds: $3.2m for facility capital improvements and $3M to purchase new properties.
- $3M will not buy much property and was much lower than what we were hoping for, but it is a first and important step. One concern mentioned was that the cost of bonds is high now, but expected to decrease this year, so it might be best to hold off on purchasing large bonds until the rates come down. The problem with this is that the list of properties of interest are shrinking and may become more expensive offsetting any savings in bonds.
- We collaborate with Tobacco Free Brevard. They promote no smoking & we don’t want to pick up butts. We will be meeting with the Melbourne Beach Mayor asked to support no smoking and no butts in parks/beaches. It will be brought up March town meeting
- Kris attended a volunteer appreciation luncheon on behalf of our chapter, at ORCA, for A Day in Life program.
- Adopt A1A Hwy relocation: Our new section is between Spessard Holland South Beach Park & Coconut Point Park Beach. We have signed a 2-year contract with FDOT. They will be putting our sign at this new location.
- First clean up at new location will be 3/9 from 8:30-10:30AM. Looking to collaborate with Sea Turtle Preservation Society as Coconut Point is their monthly clean-up beach.
- April 13th, we will be a beneficiary from the Space Coast Classic Run. We are promoting if you want to run in the event. In March, we will be promoting to help volunteer during the race. We will be manning a water station, to be together as a force. Please plan on showing your support.
- Ballard Park: Met with the City Park & Rec to discuss Ballard park buffer garden plans. Discussion about having a BWTF sign graphic has also been reviewed.
- Looks promising to have our first BWTF sign to show we hare checking water quality at this location!
- Kris spoke with Indian River Lagoon Clam Restoration Project, to see how we could collaborate to help the Lagoon. Ballard doesn’t qualify, not enough salinity
- Kris had a Zoom call with HQ & Congressman Bill Posey asking him to continue to be cosponsor for the BEACH Act, as well as a Plastic Pellet Free Waters Act.
- Congressman Posey shared story of how clean water has affected him- will see what he does
- Kris met with Satellite Beach sustainability department regarding collaboration. They are interested in putting in buffer garden at the Desoto Library Pond. Discussions are preliminary.
- Kris will be speaking on the radio about what Surfrider, AM 1510 Catch a Memory Outdoors radio show with Captain Jim Ross Date TBD
- We have 2 locations that our Chapter is supporting (we have funded plants) this year! One location is Coconut Point Beach, Melbourne Beach & the other is Barrier Island Center. We have purchased $500 sea oats for Coconut Point Beach. Our contact with the County selected this restored beach for us. We also have collaborated with the Barrier Island Center, and have purchased $1000 native plants (Beach Elder, Spartina patens, panic grass, sea purslane, beach morning glory to support their sea oats that they have purchased.
- We planted 1560 plants! With 57 volunteers came out to help us!
- Vice Chair Report: Nina
- Excited to be working on upcoming events & collaborations for 2024
- Updates to the website: Added a Private Beach Cleanup page, updated team bios, and updated events for the year on the events page
- Recent trip to Tallahassee was a success! Can read about it on the website under news, and a more thorough presentation will be given in April
- Have been testing out different ways for Surfrider events to be seen - posting on volunteer match
- Working on different ways to share BWTF & the process to collect & test water
- Nina & Kris attended an event at the Brevard Zoo in January with the Brevard Indian River Lagoon. Kris & Nina networked & met with other organizations
- Secretary Report: Kelly
- Treasurer Report: Chris absent. Kris to report
- Blue Water Task Force BWTF: Kris
- New location Suntree Rotary park was lit as well as the usual contaminated sites. Careful at Ramp road as well.
- Volunteer Coordinator: Christine
- Social Media Chair – Kelly
- Ocean Friendly Gardens– Bill
- 4/26 looking for volunteers to help with a swale in Indialantic. ~5ft wide swath down middle of swale; looking to plant natives. Will be in AM
- Ocean Friendly Restaurants – Joanie
- Reach out to Joanie if would like to help with Ocean Friendly Restaurants. Tiny Turtle event the other weekend went well; people interested in the program and Kelly from Tiny Turtle has had a good amount of coverage lately being the only Ocean Friendly Restaurant in Brevard.
- Beach Bucket Foundation
- Andy working with Satellite Beach for potential installations
- Other sites going well
Past Events Recap
- January 27 A1A cleanup, Sebastian
- Feb 17: Dune planting @ Cocoa Beach, Coconut Point Beach, Barrier Island Center
- We planted 1560 plants! With 57 volunteers came out to help us- awesome turn out!
Upcoming Events
- March 9th Adopt-A-Hwy clean up at new location. See above for details • March 16 Thousand Island Festival, table event
- 2 volunteer shifts available 10:30-6:00 for a couple of volunteers each shift. Cocoa Beach Aquatic Center 4800 Tom Warriner Blvd Cocoa Beach, FL 32931
- March 20 General Meeting @ Tiny Turtle, possibly Lagoon Watermen speak about seagrass
- April 6 8:30-10:30 Sponsored Aquarina beach clean up @ Aquarina in Melbourne Beach
- April 6 International Coastal Cleanup- trash bash, Thousand Island: KBB event
- April 6 Movie night @ Cocoa Beach Playhouse
- Showing ‘Radius’, documentary about the history of surf industry in Brevard County. 2 showings (3pm and 7:30pm with happy hour before the evening show). Live music by Aquanauts. You can find the most up-to-date information on our events calendar.
- April 13 Space Coast Classic Race: Need volunteers to work water station and hand out packets prior to race at Running Zone.
- We are beneficiaries of race
Updated/New Business
General Meeting Adjourn