Board Minutes: August 2022

Siseebakwet Lake Association

Board of Directors’ Meeting Minutes

August 13, 2022

 

Call to order – The meeting was called to order at 8:38 am by President Tom Huettner in Sugar Lake Lodge Dining Room.  In attendance were Tom Huettner, Roger Quern, Deb Hagenbuck, Bill Hagenbuck,

Vickie Hoppe, Gordy Hoppe, Cindy Hillegoss and Dora (Holly) Hayes.

 

Announcements and Correspondence –  There were no  announcements and no correspondence, 

 

Secretary’s Report – Gordy Hoppe moved approval of the Secretary’s report.  The motion was seconded and approved.

 

Treasurer’s Report – Treasurer  Roger Quern reported that as of 8/12/22 the Checking Account contained  $2,904.18 and the Savings Account contained $35,770.84.  Total income for the year was $1,411.12 and total expenses were $669.17.  ICOLA dues  ($51.00) have been paid.    The portion of the resources in the AIS fund was  $21,747,00.  Tom Huettner moved acceptance o f the Treasurer’s Report.  The motion was seconded and passed.

 

 The SLA continues to seek a stable financial institution that offers a satisfactory interest rate for a deposit of  a portion of the funds in our treasury.

 

Committee Reports – Communications:   Chair, Gwynne B. ; Co-Chair, Betsy M. – No Report.

Membership:  Chair, Vickie H.; Co-Chair, Deb. H.  – Consensus was that a mass mailing should be sent out some time in the spring; probably a second mass mailing should be sent out at an appropriate time.  The data base should be updated on a regular basis.  The use of bulk mail was discussed. 

Techniques for collection of dues monies were discussed.  Roger Quern urged use of Pay Pal because of the capability for automatic recurring dues payments.  The possibility of facilitating use of VENMO, credit cards, etc., was discussed.  It might be possible to have a “knock-on-doors” campaign for collection of dues.  Dues will also be collected at the fall meeting.

 

Water Quality , Management and Education:  Chair (temporary) Tom Huettner –  Tom hasTom reported that the water was not quite as clear (18 – 19) when an earlier measurement was made, but the quality has improved recently.   Tom has reached out to members on the north side of the lake.  Tom has not spoken to Bruce lately. 

 

 

 

 

Considerations in manning the decon stations include use of the bar code for the station.  There are also problems manning the stations and managing effective decontamination of boats and other equipment used on the lake.

 

Social:  Chair, Betsy M.; Co-Chair, Gwynne Bobich – The Fall Membership meeting will be our next meeting.  The Committee  will attempt to reschedule the speaker originally engaged for the 2022 Spring meeting for our Fall Membership Meeting.  The financial state of SLA will be reviewed and Tom H. will review the status of the organization.   The need to recruit members for the SLA Board was discussed.

The date of the annual meeting was informally set for the Labor Day weekend. 

 

SLA discussed the Mad Bear development being proposed in the approximate location of the former Ski Hills.  Developers are considering how this project could benefit Veterans. 

 

Investment summary:   SLA is a 501 c(3) organization and the Treasurer is maintaining the appropriate records and communications with IRS.   SLA continues to hold the Ice-Out Contest. 

 

Special Project: - Records Retention Update:  Betsy M. summarized the progress in digitizing the records and storing them in the cloud.  Consensus was that we would define the data base and  delegate the scanning of records and photographs. 

 

The meeting was adjourned at 9:36 am.

 

Respectfully submitted,

Dora K. (Holly) Hayes, Secretary

Board Minutes: July 2022

Siseebakwet Lake Association

Board of Directors’ Meeting Minutes

July 16, 2022

 

Call to order:   The meeting was called to order at 8:32 am by President Tom Huettner (on ZOOM) at 8:36 a.m.  Members present in Sugar Lake Lodge meeting room (Main Dining Room) included Gordy Hoppe, Deb Hagenbuck, Bill Hagenbuck, Roger Quern, Betsy Martin and Dora (Holly) Hayes.  

 

Announcements and Correspondence:  The Shoreline Review came in.  Bill Hagenbuck will review and examine details regarding trails, wood, walkways, etc.

 

Secretary’s Report:  Betsy Martin moved approval of June 11, 2022 report;  motion seconded and carried.

 

Treasurer’s Report:  Roger Quern presented detailed printed report as of 7/13/2022.  Total in bank accounts:  $38,596.41.  Income Year to Date (YTD 10/01/2021 - 7/13/22) -  $1,269.24.  Expenses YTD - $669.17.  Cindy may be able to assist the Treasurer.

Tom moved to approve ICOLA dues of $19.00 plus $0.50 per member.  Motion was seconded and approved. 


Committee Reports: 

Communications – Chair:  Gwynn B; Co-Chair:  Betsy M. – A draft announcement of the SLA Potluck at 4:00 pm, August 5, 2022, has been sent by email SLA members.  Event will be held on half the SL Lodge deck with attendees having access to the SL Lodge bar. 

Membership:  Chair: Vicki; Co-Chair: Deb H. – Chair absent. 

Water Quality, Management and Education – Chair:  Tom H. (Temporary);  Co-Chair: Open.  Bruce took water samples in June.  Clarity:  Main lake – 12 ft.10 in.; South Sugar:  12 ft. 6 in.   SLA indicated that members/lake-owners could use the pressure washer for boat/equipment cleaning/decontamination.  The washer was apparently not ready to function at the time of this meeting.  Betsy will try to talk to Tim about what is actually in progress/status. 

Social:  Chair:  Betsy M.;  Co-Chair: Gwynne B. -  Betsy reviewed  events for Fall  (September)  Membership Meeting .  Betsy will try to schedule speaker we originally scheduled for the Spring Membership Meeting. 

Investments: No activity.

 

Special Projects

Record Retention/Digitization:  Betsy reported that plans are progressing to recruit workers for the project  to digitize and organized the Lake Association’s records/history.   A tentative deadline of 4 years has been set for completion of a preliminary report  on our history.  Individuals interested in participating could include:  The Laska Family in some combination (Roger, Sara and Eric)

 

New Board Member Recruitment:  Danielle Witherill, Cindy Hilligoss and Brad Nelson. 

 

Betsy Martin moved at 9:00 am that the meeting be adjourned.  The motion passed. 

 

Respectfully submitted,

Dora (Holly) Hayes, Secretary

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SS: A Picture is Worth A Thousand Words

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A Picture Worth a Thousand Words 

Photo by Paige Jechort

Ideal Stillness on South Sugar

 

This week’s Siseebakwet Story comes in the form of this calming, reflective photograph shared with us by Paige Jechort.

This picture is truly worth a thousand words (or more!)

Have a Sugar Lake Story you’d like to share? Submit it below!

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SS: A Loon Story by Kathy Mogan

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A Loon Story

by Kathy Mogan

This is a true story that shows the amazement of saving a precious wild animal and the people of Siseebakwat / Sugar Lake working together to make this such an amazingly beautiful place to live.  You just never know what experience is right around the corner….. or in your driveway. 

 

This was the Summer of 2016 when this happened and when I wrote this.  

 

Susie Mogan, Johnathan Mogan, and I were outside in the yard. It was a beautiful day, so I walked to my car to grab a lawn chair that I had just bought.  Sitting in the driveway, right next to my car, was what looked like a grey furry stuffed animal. I got close and bent down and thought that it was the cutest, softest dog toy…….. until it turned its head.  What?!?!  

 

Seriously the cutest fuzziest thing I have ever seen!!  Well, after Susie and I got close and checked it out, Susie said “This is a baby Loon”. Knowing that Loons are unable to walk – we had no idea how it got into the driveway.  It didn’t make any sense how it ended up there.  I picked it up slowly and checked it over to make sure it wasn’t injured. Amazingly, it didn’t have a scratch on it, so I snuggled it up to my chest and carried it to the lake.  

 

I slowly set the baby in the water and it instantly started swimming.  My 8-year-old son (Johnathan) could do an amazing Loon call, so we had him do his call a few times.  Right away we heard a Loon call back that was pretty far out in the water.  Thankfully, that baby must have known momma’s voice because she started diving and swimming in her direction.  The baby Loon started making the cutest sweet baby call & Momma Loon started calling and swimming toward the baby too.  It took a few minutes, but before we knew it, they were reunited!!  We watched with the binoculars for a bit just to make sure it would be okay and they seemed to be doing great. Yay!!!  Not only did we have this amazing experience to save the baby Loon, but we were actually able to reunite it with momma Loon!! How amazing and such a beautiful moment to be a part of!!  (No, unfortunately, we didn’t get one picture – it happened so fast)

Susie Mogan (my mother-in-law) sent me this text not long afterward. 

“Kathy! Someone saw an eagle pick up a loon baby yesterday and fly off with it. I bet that was the one in the driveway. Probably dropped it. You'd think it would have died when it hit the ground, though. Anyway, the person said the loon had two babies. If it was the same parents, maybe when our loon swam back, the other parent had the second baby. The person took pictures of the loons and babies……looks just like ours.”

Hopefully, this is one of the Loons that comes back here every year and we hear their beautiful calls of Happiness!!! And who knows, it may have had babies, grandbabies, and even great grand babies since then…... 

Thank you for reading, I hope you enjoyed our little (true) story.

Kathy Mogan

This photo was taken by the one and only Karen Lucachick