2008 Review of the Year
Secretary’s Report presented by Madge Baker at the Annual Meeting February 11, 2009
The Board met at least once/month.
Because of national and state level pressure for land trusts all over the country to become more publicly accountable to their members and donors, the national umbrella organization for land trusts, the Land Trust Alliance(http://www.lta.org), has adopted a set of “Standards and Practices” that all member land trusts must adopt. The state umbrella organization, Maine Coast Heritage Trust (http://www.mcht.org), has adopted the same requirement. We are members of both organizations. Therefore, we are working toward improving our own practices so they conform to the LTA model. In ‘08 we spent time adding to our strategic plan and becoming more diligent in complying with updated policies. For examples:
- The board follows a standardized method to calculate stewardship costs for each conservation easement;
- The board follows a standard form when conducting annual monitoring of every easement to ensure we are collecting all the information that needs to be in our records;
- The board follows a written conflict of interest policy which includes documenting annually in writing all possible, unavoidable conflict situations;
- The board bought and set up on a concrete floor a fireproof file cabinet to ensure safe storage of records and legal documents; and
- The board conducted a self-evaluation to identify areas that need improvement;
- In conclusion, 2008 was a productive year thanks to a board of trustees and a membership that are loyal, dedicated, wise, and generous.