Executive Committee Meeting August 12, 2020

Executive Committee Meeting August 12 2020

Members present: Dana Lawrence, president; Ken Hertz, vice president; Alan Paschell, trails and shelters coordinator; Steve Bailey, treasurer; Heather Bailey, membership coordinator; Kevin Ryan, publicity coordinator; George Longenecker, director; Nancy Jordan, Trail Talk editor; Andrew Nuquist, alternate director; John Buddington, webmaster; Kathryn Gohl, secretary

The meeting was called to order, on Zoom, at 7:00 p.m., and the minutes of the June 3 meeting were amended and approved. The amended version can now be found on the section’s website.

Dana thanked Phyllis Rubinstein for her work with the main club on various issues confronting the GMC as a result of COVID. He reported that a training session was held by the main club to help trip leaders comply with the various new safety measures put in place and that one person from the Montpelier section (Steve Bailey) attended. Dana wondered if that session had been recorded and if it could be shared with others. He said he would query the main club on the topic.

The first big topic was: Where do we want to go with Trail Talk and outings? Someone asked how much time Nancy needed to put out an issue. Nancy replied that currently she has nothing for an issue. There was no director’s report to publish. There had been almost no outings. Overall most sections seemed to have had few outings: although Ottauquechee appeared to have a full schedule, there were few Burlington section hikes. Burlington, it was noted, has linked the new COVID rules to its hiking schedule.

Do we as a section want to lead hikes, or perhaps do something less formal and with less structure. Steve thought it would be possible to lead hikes. Ken said that when someone wants to lead a hike, he puts it on the calendar and reminds leaders of the new regulations. The leader needs to follow up by informing participants of the new requirements when they they call.

Kevin summarized how he handled publicity generally and wondered if and how we should continue to publicize events.

John asked Steve and Heather to speak to some of these questions since they have continued to hike. Have they been using the guidelines, what has been working for them? Steve said they have been hiking in small groups, without publicity, and mostly just calling friends to participate. They have been choosing the hike location carefully, looking for less known spots. George said they had been hiking with a few people as well. And GMC bikers had been out on their own.

Ken said that there haven’t been lots of people wanting to schedule events, but if events are scheduled and added to the website, then leaders must adhere to the GMC requirements. And the schedule should link to the list of requirements.

The questions were then asked: Will Trail Talk have a list of outings? Would there be a Trail Talk without such a listing?

Kevin said he will continue to check the calendar and publicize any events that are there. Ken said that anyone can add things to the calendar, and he would send out a message to members inviting them to add events.

Alan said that in regard to trail work, there was no reason to organize it: people know where the tools are and can go out and do what they’d like. It would be helpful if folks would contact him after work has been done so that he can keep track of it. He has workers who are willing to lug lumber up to Bamforth Ridge shelter to build the last tent platform. GMC volunteers will do the actual work: building an 8×8 platform as well as deconstructing the old ones.

Still the question remains: What do we want to do about Trail Talk? Someone mentioned that we’d not received complaints that it was missing. The general feeling seemed to be that we should continue to postpone publication. It was noted that the main club would not be publishing an Autumn edition of Long Trail News.

On the topic of training leaders, it was remarked that we already have experienced leaders but not a lot of people who actually want to lead under the guidelines. Steve said that he found nothing really new at the actual training event—that there was no “value added” beyond a rehashing of the guidelines. Ken reminded us that no carpooling was problematic for people in Montpelier who didn’t own cars.

Heather then reported on membership: in March, we had 543 voting members, with 45 lapsed; in August, 552, with 81 lapsed.

The treasurer’s report, which had been emailed to everyone, showed the section had $7,700 in the bank.

After deciding that the next quarterly meeting would be held on Wednesday, Nov. 11, via Zoom, the meeting adjourned at 8:14.

Respectfully submitted,

Kathryn Gohl