Open a copy of the Policies and Rules of the CSA by following the link you’ll find by opening this article.

To open a pdf file of the Policies and Rules of the CSA, click this link:

http://summerassembly.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/Policies-Rules-of-the-CSA.pdf

At the time this calendar was approved the Gibson Series had not yet been finalized.  Dates to be published soon.

August 2, 2013
7-9 pm

Come take a nostalgic stroll down the CSA memory lane!  Visit with your ancestors,
check out cottage curios, catch up on CSA weddings and baptisms and see the many additions made to the archive’s albums and memorabilia.

Due to the work involved putting it together, History Night is a once-every-4-year
event only, so don’t miss this opportunity to reconnect with your summertime past.

If you have a unique cottage item from yesteryear that you’d like to share, please contact Tamara Royle.

Hal Knight, winner of the 2012 CSA Citation – for devotion and faithful service…

ECOLOGY  COMMITTEE Annual Meeting Report

August 4, 2012 – Nancy Baglan, chairman

(1)    One of our first actions as a committee this season was to decide that it was important to get more information to the CSA community about the threats coming from Emerald Ash Borer Disease and Beech Bark Disease. We wrote and sent out a letter to CSA property owners on June 29^th. We appreciated the support of the Building & Grounds Committee in that effort and also Ken, Lou, and the CSA office. The first-class mailing was paid for with donations just for that purpose.

(2)    The Ecology Fun program began on June 25 with our new Director/Teacher Amalia Fernand from Benzonia. It will continue through the end of the season with last day being August 17. As before, the activities are on Monday and Friday afternoons for ages 4-6 and 7-11. Attendance has grown steadily since beginning Ecology Fun three years ago, but this summer it really spiked during the two weeks of the Children’s Operetta: the classes averaged 45 children/day during that time and 25/day for the other weeks. One day we had almost 60 children! The two junior staff members Ken hired to help us are invaluable, as are the several adult volunteers who help each time. The Ecology Committee is committed to providing volunteer help and management for the Ecology Fun program. Amalia is committed to providing science content in an interesting and fun way for young children to learn about their natural environment. We made a good team this year!

(3)    Other Ecology activities this summer have included some work on invasive species, including garlic mustard removal. For the first time, we didn’t have access to a free disposal site for it, so the CSA had to pay for garlic mustard removal this summer; we hope to avoid that next year. We also worked on additions to the Native Wildflower Garden by the Meeting House. We’ve tried to publicize Benzie County’s recent expansions in their recycling program – Single Stream Recycling and their acceptance now of Styrofoam (with #6 on it). We’ve kept information in the Ecology Rack up-to-date.

We again worked with the Benzie Audubon Club to set up Bird Banding here in July. Approximately 100 people attended during the two banding times. The most amazing catch was a little 5-inch  warbler, an American Redstart,  which already had a band on its leg from 5 years ago and he was 2 years old then. That meant he is now 7 years old, born at the CSA and has made 7 roundtrip flights from here to Central or South America and back . . .  to breed in our CSA woods! A great story!

(4)    We had hoped to have our interns Lauren and Katie back this summer to work for a few weeks and follow up on some projects from last year, but due to several unusual circumstances they were not able to work with us this summer. Those efforts will be made in the near future, however.

(5)    For the first time, we sponsored an Ecology Speakers Series (Mon.-Thurs. this week, noon-1:00) which has been well-attended and stimulating. Different experts in our NW Michigan area presented varying topics, but especially about Forest Ecology. Attendance (28-38/day) included a number of interested people not at CSA but drawn by posters and emails we distributed.

(6)    The committee held an Arbor Day on Aug. 3, from 2–4 pm for families and all ages, which took the place of Ecology Fun for that day. A forester went with us outside and discussed the CSA woods, then children were able to do several forest-related activities before going to help plant three trees in an open-canopy area west of the Meeting House. The purpose of this event was to make a start at increasing the diversity of tree species in our woods, in light of the many tree deaths threatened by several tree diseases in our area.

Ecology Committee 7/23/12 Meeting Minutes

Attendance: Nancy Baglan, Linda Campbell, Jane Comings, Elizabeth Hill, Lauren Hoerr, Molly Jones, Michael Kennedy, Julia Nerbonne, Marjie Pearsall-Groenwald, Ed Petrick, Heidi Smith, Chris Toole, Carol Allbright

I. Approved previous minutes from 6/21/12 Ecology Committee Meeting

II. Ecology Fun Safety Concerns with High Number of Children Attending

• Encouraged by Ken Cox and Board of Directors to have kids sign in and out of Ecology Fun to keep a better record and make sure no child is unaccounted for
• Suggestion of having children split into different groups with assigned #s/colors for walks away from regular meeting area
• Suggestion of having a zone around Ecology Fun where cars can’t park during Ecology Fun to address safety concerns around high volume of traffic near Ecology Fun location
• Discussed whether or not we should move the Ecology Fun location to increase safety

III. Intern Lauren Hoerr

• Lauren Hoerr is here until August 4^th.  Her goal: formalize into an organized document what we learned from the previous summers, by archiving the various conversations with specialists.  Draft out to committee sometime this summer.

IV. Ecology Committee Letter on EAB

• Daniel Schillinger will be here for Arbor Day
• He is a forester who for approximately $80 does a full assessment of property and provides contacts for the specialists you may need depending on your situation
• Vic Lane, forester for GTRLC, commented that he was impressed with our EAB letter posted on the CSA website.  Shows some people outside CSA are reading it.
• Michael Kennedy: brief discussion of EAB article from NY Times last fall.  Purple traps do not help mitigate the disease, they just let you know that EAB is present.
• Idea of sacrificial tree: girdle a tree to selectively attract EAB to largely one tree.  CSA Building & Grounds interested in trying this here.
• Larry Reed from Bear Lake logs trees using horses, which leaves less of an impact on the landscape.
• Building & Grounds Committee made a decision not to preemptively cut down Ash trees on common ground, unless deemed a hazard .

V. Bird Banding July 15-16

• Great success in terms of attendance – about 100 people in and out during the two times.  Interest from all ages and from a variety of places.  Many more birds captured early Monday AM than Sunday PM.

VI. Invasives

• Garlic Mustard was bad this year everywhere!  CSA hired workers again. Jim Boecker is willing to organize a work day for CSA members early next June to pull Garlic Mustard.
• Nature Conservancy contacted Joel about helping eradicate Baby’s Breath from our beach. Their staff from Grand Rapids would help 1 day with tools and manpower.  Several people indicated they could help with this, including Jane, Margie, and Carol.
• Concern about lack of blue bins throughout the CSA. Julia will address this.
• Margie brought up her concern about an increase in the aquatic invasive Chara in Crystal Lake. It’s a stinky plant!
• Nancy discussed the appearance in recent years of an aggressive Nettle on CSA grounds, especially along wet areas of Edwards and Alden. It is harmful to touch, causing pain and a dermatitis. These plants are spreading quickly in areas where people walk. We will bring it to the attention of Ken and Maintenance staff and suggest removal.

VII. Ecology Education Series July 30-August 3 – details from Elizabeth, Julia, and Linda

VIII. Arbor Day

• Budget: $1000 donated by Women’s Association.  Please remember to express your appreciation. They have supported our Ecology Project efforts all four years!
• Linda looking into purchasing trees for planting on Arbor Day. Checked with Crystal Gardens but found they don’t have many natives we are interested in using.  She has liked consulting with Four Seasons Nursery – Brian Zimmerman, owner – near Traversed City.  Getting Red Oak and Ironwood trees from them.  Couldn’t locate White Oaks to plant.
  • Haven’t bought trees yet, just have them on hold
• Also purchasing Tree Gators – watering bags that can be filled with 15 – 20 gal. water
• We will need to find people to commit to refilling the water bags twice a week
  • Elizabeth volunteered and Nancy can at times in the fall
• We need to find people to bring watering cans/shovels for Arbor Day
• After discussion about recent drought conditions and the budget, a decision was made amongst attendees to plant fewer trees than the 12 trees originally discussed. The  location for planting will be in the open canopy on the West side of the Meeting House. Could also get two trees (Yellow Birch) for the beach.
• Daniel Schillinger will talk for 30 min. at start of Arbor Day and be involved in the tree planting. There will also be several forest-related activities young children can do, at several picnic table “stations” and Amalia will help with those.
• Holes for the trees need to be dug ahead of time, probably on Thursday
• Michigan DNR has booklet on what they do for Arbor Day

At its November 2010 winter meetings, the Congregational Summer Assembly (CSA) Trustees authorized a survey of all adults who have participated in the CSA’s activities.   The core purpose of the survey has been to attempt to discern what have been the elements of the “glue” that binds together the community of those who come to the CSA each summer.   To further strengthen that sense of community, the survey asked of participants what factors shape the extent of their participation, where they put their time, talent and energies when they are at the CSA and might in the future, their opinions concerning the quality of the CSA’s programs and activities, and how these programs and activities might be strengthened.

Click here for a summary report on the CSA Survey. (It’s a WORD doc)

Click here for a table of all the remarks. (It’s an Excel spreadsheet)

Click here for a table of all the questions and responses. (It’s an Excel spreadsheet)