The well attended annual community meeting and board meeting at the Tesuque school began at 5:35 with a welcome from Co-chair Lynn Pickard and an opportunity for all those present to introduce themselves. Several new attendees said that they came because they had seen signs announcing the meeting.
Present at the meeting were: Cathie Sullivan, Chris Mechels, Norm Armour, Salita Armour, Mary Helen Perea, Kathleen Jimenez, Jacob Clemens, Chris and Thao Romero, Kathleen Bryan, Jan Wisniewski, Bruce and Debbie MacAllister, Hannah Burnes, Richard Fisher, Mary Currier, Carol Sorenson, Cam Duncan, Jack Jackson, David Dougherty, Jeanne Boyles, Lynn Pickard and Margo Cutler. Lynn had proxies for Annie Laurie Coogan and Richard Renaldo for the whole meeting and Bruce MacAllister for the time after he left. Quorum requirements were met.
Lynn then asked any present who were not yet but would like to be included in the TVCA email list to provide their email addresses to Bruce MacAllister. His email address is Bruce@bizexteam.com.
After discussion about the duties of the directors to either attend meetings or send a proxy if they can’t be present, the election to serve for the two-year term of 2023-2024 was held. Current directors who are willing to serve another term are Cam Duncan, Bruce MacAllister, Annie-Laurie Coogan and Jerry Barron. Chris Romero and Jacob Clemens were also elected as new directors. The currently serving directors whose terms will expire at the end of December 2023 are Lynn Pickard, Jeanne Boyles, Richard Renaldo, Cathie Sullivan, and Kathleen Jimenez. Since Lynn and Cathie have already said that they do not want to continue after 2023, there was discussion about reducing the number of directors specified in the by-laws from eleven to nine at that time. TVCA has held four meetings a year, usually on a Monday at 5:30. In 2023 the two combined general and board meetings shall be on May 22nd and December 4th. The directors’ meetings shall be on Feb. 27th and Oct. 2nd. The May meeting might be more of a social event held in the field in front of Jeanne Boyles’ home. This would allow more time for TVCA volunteers and members to get to know each other.
Cam Duncan will contact Principal Cheryl Romero about updating the paperwork needed to meet at the school. Lynn then read through the list of tasks that were contained in the agenda to confirm those that have people fulfilling the roles and to solicit others to help.


The current list of tasks and the people who have confirmed their responsibility are:
1. Maintains and safeguards documents, such as organizational documents,
bylaws, old agendas, minutes, tax forms, miscellaneous documents (Jeanne
Boyles)
2. Organizes meetings, such as ensuring that required meetings are held [four board and two general per year], securing location, creating agenda,
communicating agenda to Bruce for distribution (Christi Clancy and John
McCrory)
3. Meeting Chair/Facilitator ( Lynn Pickard)
4. Takes minutes during meeting, writes them up, gets tentative approval, sends to Bruce for distribution (Margo Cutler)
5. Keeps email list and distributes notices (Bruce MacAllister)
6. Maintains bank account and treasury (Jeanne Boyles)
7. Files yearly IRS notice (Jeanne Boyles)
8. Is official County contact, meaning receives communications from County and decides what should be distributed and receives notices of development and neighborhood meetings (Bruce MacAllister and Margo Cutler)
9. Organizes Land Use Committee, such as notifying Committee members of potential developments and neighborhood meetings, writes up reports of Committee views, communicates them to the County as necessary (Margo Cutler and Chris Romero)
10. Code enforcement contact, meaning accepts complaints from residents,
communicates them to County code enforcement officer, takes further
appropriate action (Margo Cutler and Bruce MacAllister)
11. Makes and posts signs for meetings and BBQ (Cam Duncan)
12. Firewise contact, meaning asks residents for yearly reports and submits them, and performs other necessary tasks such as updating assessments and other community documents required by program (Rachel White)
13. Organizes BBQ, including planning, buying, getting and coordinating with sponsors, setting up, cooking, cleaning, and other necessary tasks (Cam Duncan and Richard Renaldo)
14. Website (Jerry Barron and David Dougherty)
15. Liaison between County Planning Committee and TVCA, meaning report to membership what County Planning Committee is doing (Lynn Pickard and Margo Cutler) [This may not be necessary any more since Plan was adopted, but when Code is amended to conform to new Plan, action may be required]
16. Participate with other COs in workshops and organizations such as Council of Community Organizations or United Communities of Santa Fe County (Jeanne Boyles)
17. Participate in Road Study, including getting Welcome signs in appropriate places (Lynn Pickard, Margo Cutler, Jeanne Boyles)
18. Try to get historic marker for Traditional Historic Community of
Tesuque (Lynn Pickard) Jeanne Boyles gave the Treasurer’s report. As of December 5, 2022, the bank balance was $3,817.55. Of that $2,143.21 is earmarked for future legal fees and $1,674.34 is available for other uses.
Rachel White had given the Firewise Report to Lynn. The amount expended this year as of Nov. 15th to reduce fire danger in the community exceeded last year’s total significantly. It was over $200,000 and approaching 2000 hours of work, a very significant portion of which was reported by the Santa Fe Institute. Lynn reminded people of items that could be reported to qualify for continued Firewise certification: brush and tree removal, leaf raking, clearing defensible space around buildings, etc.


A general discussion of the recently completed Tesuque Traffic Study by Lee Engineering of Albuquerque agreed that it was well done. The issues of most concern to those present were ways to reduce speeding on Bishops Lodge Road and Tesuque Village Road, the ongoing mess and flood challenges around the Tesuque Village Market, and what to do to ease the flow of traffic into and out of Big Tesuque Canyon. The need to have mud and gravel removed and road edges repaired along Bishops Lodge Road was also mentioned. The concerns about speeding resulted in a consensus of opinion that lowering the 25 MPH speed limit to 20 MPH and the 30 MPH to 20 in accordance with the WHO recommendations is the way to go. Many noted that it would also take increased enforcement efforts to make this work. Mary Currier mentioned that the signs asking people to “Drive Slower” and then “Even Slower” had been effective in getting people to realize that they were entering a community. Lynn suggested that TVCA ask the county to install three “Welcome to the Traditional Historic Community of Tesuque “signs near where the plan’s recommended traffic slowing medians will eventually be put. This is likely to happen considerably sooner and help with the overall traffic slowing effort. There was consensus that this should be done. The last item discussed was the county’s impending approval of the Santa Fe Institute’s request to amend their plan to include the construction of an auditorium on their property on Eddy Road, just off Bishops Lodge Road. This was over the opposition of TVCA. It is hoped that it might still be possible to negotiate some concessions to help shield the immediate neighbors from the impact of increased noise and traffic, but no specific plan of negotiation was adopted.


The meeting was adjourned at 7:10 PM.