The meeting on March 24, 2007 began at 10:00 a.m. at Bayland Community Center.

Present at the meeting:  Sylvie Adams, Mike Laster, Ray Driscoll, Rod Haper, Alice Bergeron, Mary Haper, Jane Vidales, Ruby Bolanos.

Alice, current President, asked for nominations for officers.  None were named for President, although the other positions could be filled by volunteers already known to Alice.  Alice discussed options as to what to do with the treasury if the club folded.

Subsequently, Mike Laster was elected President for the remainder of 2007.  Jane Vidales was elected Vice President, Rod Haper as Treasurer, and Mary Haper as Secretary.  Board Members continue to be Bob Prater, Lena Brooks, Sylvie Adams and the officers as elected.

 It was evident those members present want the club to continue as we expect 2008 to be a more active year and the club should become more and more viable and active in the community.

 Our speaker was Evelyn Merz, who has been very active for many years in the environmental issues concerning Houston and Texas.  Her topic for our meeting was the Texas State Parks.

 There is a grass roots movement to get better funding for repairs (not currently being done) and for new vehicles and maintenance of old vehicles.  There are over 10 million visitors a year to Texas state parks.  These parks generate 60% of their budget, however this is not enough for acquisitions and hiring of educators as the state continues to rob the parks of monies.

We learned that Texas Parks and WIldlife makes grants to local munincipalities to acquire and develop park land--the state has reduced this money also.  In addition, the House Bill 6, Senate Bill 252 do not pass the "smell" test as they eliminate the cap on sporting goods taxes, but the cap is tied to the Texas Historical Commission's desire to transfer properties to itself.  Supporters of the park system do not like the idea of transferring historical sites from Texas Parks and WIldlife to political appointees/political agendas.  All were encouraged to contact their state reps to discourage these bills tthat would "giving more sporting goods tax revenue for parks if you give up 20+ historic sites"!  Texas politics at work.....

The special license plates that Texans buy to support the parks is not working out--the legislature needs to appropriate the special plates monies to the park fund.  So the money sits not being used for the parks which so desperately need these funds.

Ms. Merz introduced us to the Outdoor Section of the Houston Chronicle and the column of Shannon Tompkins--he is the environmental op ed and does some interesting stories.  His column is located in the Sports section so many of us missed it and will now be able to become better informed.

The meeting ended with questions to Ms. Merz and some visiting after her speech.  Mike Laster was congratulated on his presidency and keeping the club afloat. Alice Bergeron was presented with a thank you card for her two years of leadership for the club.  Alice is moving out of state and will be very much missed..

Respectfully submitted,

Mary Haper