Executive Committee Meeting October 21, 2025

Meeting

GREEN MOUNTAIN CLUB, MONTPELIER

Minutes of the Executive Committee

October 21, 2025

The meeting was held at Missy Ethridge’s house and was called to order by Steve Bailey at 6:33.

Present were: Steve Bailey, Heather Bailey, Phyllis Rubenstein, Robert Penney, Scott Richardson, Heidi Kunkel, Charlene Bohl, Ken Hertz, Missy Ethridge and Andrew Nuquist

Approval of July 15 Minutes: A motion to approve them was made by Heidi and seconded by Scott and all approved.

President’s Report (Steve Bailey)

Steve had emailed the website designer and had not heard back for awhile but has since heard back and he apologized for not getting it done sooner. He is wrapping up the templates and will work on it for the next few weeks and hopes to have it done maybe by the end of October. If we don’t have a demo by November we will contact him and say we are really looking forward to seeing it. He works full time. We also appreciate it that he has not asked to be paid for this project. We discussed possibly making a donation to his non profit organization in lieu of paying him. Ken states that he would like someone else to work on the website. He would train someone to take over the job.

Steve then discussed that since the main club has non-profit status and we don’t as a group we need to make sure we don’t do something that is not appropriate. We do use a non profit account for our bank accounts.

Steve was emailed by Lorne Currier about the first day of hiking that is held on January 1. These are actually organized by the Vermont State Parks. They could always use volunteers to lead hikes. Steve and Heather are leading one. They do publicize these hikes.

Again, we discussed how to increase participation in hikes. Rob reported that from June thru October there were 6 led hikes as well as the October work hikes. Steve commented that the easier hikes seem to draw more people. Maybe more of a variety will attract some. It appears that the hikes scheduled way ahead seem to work better than the short notice hikes. But we really could use more trip leaders. At one time we put hikes on the Burlington Meet Up group but the organizer stopped maintaining it. Heidi said she may put in a ski trip and Scott could possibly set up early morning weekly trips before work so would meet around 6:30 am. They will notify Morgan by November 10 so she can get them in the next Trail Talk.

We then discussed when to have the next membership meeting. January would be a good month to have one. Scott could possibly talk about his trip to Patagonia but will let us know. We would again need that info to make sure it gets to Morgan by November 10. Andrew mentioned an hour long DVD created by Reidun about Women in the Long Trail that could possibly be shown but Steve will discuss this with him. There are two possible places where we could have a meeting – Scott will check with Onion River Outdoors as they have held meetings there. We also have had meetings in the Library and they are relatively cheap. They have supplied a key if we meet there after they have closed but maybe we should schedule the meeting so people would arrive before they close. But we should have a sign in for any of these meetings.

Membership Report (Heather Bailey)

As the GMC is migrating the database to a new system, the section reporting has not been refined. We should have received our funds for the August/September renewals. There were 10. The new system is contacting members directly so we no longer have to do that. Hopefully the new system will be up and running soon and we will have an accurate count of memberships. Scott mentioned that we had received $210 so apparently more people have renewed their membership.

Trails and Shelter Report (Heidi Kunkel)

Someone commented to Heidi about the sign in boxes and wondered if there was a plan to create these. We need trail work on Sterling Pond and she wondered if we could use their drives to get up there. Steve noted that they have previously given permission. She will schedule the following May work hikes – May 2 for Banforth Ridge and May 23rd for Barnes Camp. We switched these dates as previously over the Memorial Day weekend traffic has been bad around Stowe. Also some boardwalks have rotting boards so we wondered whether new wood could be dropped off earlier before the work is done. We still don’t have new hats yet as there is an issue with the logo. But we plan on ordering about 50 of these.

Will there will be another certification class for chainsaw use this spring? Heidi will check on this and also reach out to people. It would be good to have more people take this. Scott may be interested.

A question was raised if we had enough money for equipment but we have plenty of tools.

Directors Report (Phyllis Rubenstein)

The last meeting was on 9/13. They have a healthy budget. There are still ongoing discussions about governance issues. One of the issues is whether the Board is working well with 31 directors. Directors seem to rubber stamp decisions made by the Executive Committee and/or staff. There is a proposal to reduce the number of section directors; a director could represent several sections. Phyllis thinks that at-large members should be encouraged to join sections and the number of at-large directors should be reduced. She thinks it would be difficult for a section director to establish a relationship with and attend meetings for more than one section. The club used to be run by volunteers so it is looking at the whole governing model. There are many committees. One doesn’t have to be a board member to serve on a committee. The club raised $73,000 on Long Trail Days. The federal government shutdown has not affected trail work on state lands. Trail work on federal lands is funded through the USFS. As for now, there are no problems with work contracts.

Treasurer’s Report (Scott Richardson)

Current Checking Balance ……………………………………………………$11,939.92

Expenses ………Trails and Shelter and Events………………………………$278.15

Income………….Section Dues from GMC……Dividends………………….$211.97

Current Savings Balance…………with $1.14 interest……………………$1,685.19

TOTAL CASH ASSETS……………………………………………………………$13,558.93

150% of projected operating budget is $7,950

We have the $3000 that was approved previously to send to the main chapter

Editor’s Report (Morgan Irons)

Morgan sent an email to let us know she needs articles by November 10 for the Winter Edition of Trail Talk. We then discussed the best way to send it out as we sent the last one out in batches. There are many platforms to use to send out bulk emails so this will be researched to see what might work for us.

Next Meeting The next meeting has been scheduled for Tuesday, January 13th at 6:30 and Ken Hertz will host it.

The meeting was adjourned at 8:03.

Respectfully submitted,

Missy Ethridge – Secretary