Executive Committee meeting September 26, 2018

Executive Committee meeting

Wednesday September 26 2018

EC Minutes of 9/26/18

Green Mountain Club

MONTPELIER SECTION

Executive Committee Minutes

September 26, 2018

Present: Steve Bailey, President; Ken Hertz, Vice President; Morgan Irons, Treasurer;

Kevin Ryan, Publicity Coordinator; John Buddington, Webmaster; Alan Paschell, Trails and Shelters Coordinator; Linda Trono, Membership Coordinator; George Longenecker, GMC Director; Andrew Nuquist, alternate GMC Director; Phyllis Rubenstein, Secretary; Zack Porter, Northeast Wilderness Trust, and Kassia Randzio, Montana Wilderness Ass’n.

Absent: Nancy Jordan, Trail Talk Editor.

Steve called the meeting to order at 7 p.m. at the home of Kevin and Christie Ryan.

Old Business

Ken moved that we approve the minutes of the meeting held on June 6, 2018. Linda seconded the motion, and it passed.

Annual Meeting Committee Report

Steve reported that he, Morgan, Ken, Phyllis, and Andrew/Reidun are on the committee.

a. What we’ve done so far: The committee has chosen Windridge Tennis Camp in Roxbury as the location for the annual meeting the week-end of June 1, 2019. The committee met with Kristin from the main club on September 20 to discuss the event. We chose as potential Saturday night speakers Brian Mohr and Emily Johnson. If they are not available our second choice is Tom Wessel, who wrote “Reading the Forested Landscape.” Kristin will contact the speaker(s). We have other speakers in mind but haven’t ranked them yet. Kristin is going to ask the caretakers from 50 years ago to do storytelling on Friday night. Kristin told us that the club spent $1500 on alcohol and the bartender (required for serving alcohol) last June and she would like to avoid that expense. She will see if a local brewery will donate beer and a bartender. We discussed with Kristin that we want to keep the price down, especially for people who are only attending the business meeting.

b. What else needs to be done:

1. We need to organize 8-10 activities, usually 8 hikes, 1 bike ride, and 1 paddle.

We may also show a movie about the VT outdoors. Zack suggested a movie from the Northeast Wilderness Trust. The committee will choose the activities by December and then ask for volunteers. There is an editable google doc of proposed outings listed in the EC meeting Agenda. We may also schedule early morning bird watching, a trail run, afternoon yoga, etc.

2. Silent auction items: Our section is responsible for getting donations for silent auction items. Steve is going to get a list of last year’s auction items from Kristin. Linda agreed to coordinate our efforts in soliciting auction items so that only one person contacts each potential donor. We don’t’ have to begin soliciting items until the spring.

3. Our next meeting with Kristin is on 10/26 at noon at Phyllis’ office.

President’s Report

Steve asked that we schedule our membership meetings. We discussed the possibility of the fall membership meeting on 11/2 or 11/15, with Phyllis presenting on her August hike of the Walker’s Haute Route in the French and Swiss Alps. (After the meeting the date was confirmed as 11/15 because Phyllis realized she was leading a hike on 11/3).

We also decided to have membership meetings on 1/17/19 with Zack presenting on the Northern Rockies, and tentatively on 3/14/19 with Andrew and Reidun presenting on their September cruise in Europe. We also decided to have the next annual meeting on 5/4/2019 with Zack as our guest speaker, talking about the work of the New England Wilderness Trust.

Steve announced that the GMC needs volunteers to help a field staff member on Camel’s Hump on busy week-ends in October from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Vice President’s Report/Web Clerk –

Ken reported that he publishes trip reports. He used to wait several months to ask people to submit trip reports if they hadn’t yet done so. Often people responded they had forgotten what happened. Now Ken contacts people a week after the scheduled trip.

Although we would like to have the 5/4/19 annual meeting at the North Branch Nature Center, Ken reported that NBNC will not confirm the availability of the facility until December. Morgan suggested that if we cannot use NBNC, Ken be authorized to contact Christ Church, where we have met in the past.

Trail and Shelter Coordinator’s Report

Alan reported that the next two work hikes are on 10/13 and 10/20 with raindates the following day. Alan is not available on 10/13 so John is organizing that work hike. The main club has worked on the Sterling Pond Trail so Alan expects that it is in good condition. There are still some issues on the Bamforth Ridge Trail. Last month Dana Lawrence notified Alan that the water went dry at the Bamforth Shelter. Otherwise the shelter is in excellent shape. The main club is aware that the bunks need work. There were numerous blow downs on the Bamforth Ridge Trail this year, which the caretaker took care of. He also repaired some puncheon.

In response to a question about the current road walk from the Bamforth Ridge Trail to the bridge, Andrew responded that he did not think the 8/10 mile road walk can be rerouted because of private property issues.

Director’s Report

George reported that there is a new director of field programs in the main club. The shed at the main club was recently broken into, and 8 chain saws and 2 generators were stolen. People have generously been donating tools. George reported that the main club approved a 4 million dollar capital campaign which will begin as a silent campaign in March 2019. The public campaign will begin a year later. The capital campaign funds will be used for efforts such as trail work, land protection, campus completion and endowment. An employee will be hired to manage the capital campaign. George reported that the Tucker Johnson Shelter is being rebuilt as well as the building owned by UVM on Mansfield. There are 31 people on the board. Their next meetings are 1/5/19, 3/23/19, and 6/1/19.

Publicity Coordinator’s Report

Kevin said he sends a listing of our events to the Bridge, the World, Vermont Sports, Stowe Reporter, and the Waterbury paper. He has started sending individual submissions to the Times Argus as the procedure has become easier. He publicizes work hikes and special events in the Burlington Free Press, and Seven Days. Steve posts on Front Porch Forum.

Webmaster’s Report

John reported that he has been putting randomly selected photos on our current events page, which he changes daily. He appreciates that Ken posts the trip reports. He and Ken are working on revising the trip report submission page to make it simpler.

Treasurer’s Report – Morgan said the CD was closed. We sent the main club $4000 and moved $3000 to the checking account. We spent about $450 on the newsletter, about $90 on tools, aver $100 on the annual meeting, and $50 to Fish and Wildlife for the permit for Phyllis’ hike to Victory Bog Basin. We currently have $4,117.38 in our checking account and $1,670.97 in the savings account. We have a projected budget of $2800 this year. We should have $4245 on hand (150% rule), leaving us with a surplus of $2755. We kept some extra meeting for the main club annual meeting. Phyllis suggested we give our section members a rebate in the registration fee for the main club annual meeting. Ken suggested we give them a credit at the GMC store. Zack suggested we offer scholarships to UVM students.

Trail Talk Editor’s Report

On behalf of Nancy, Steve said that the deadline for articles and listing events for the next Trail Talks is October 15.

Membership Coordinator’s Report

Linda reported that we have 20 new members, 92 renewed members, 6 rejoined members, and some who dropped. Our membership numbers are fairly constant. We have about 320 memberships, which includes households; so there are over 500 people in our section.

New Business: None.

Next meeting: The next section meeting will be on Wednesday, January 9, 2019, at 7 p.m. at the home of George Longenecker and Cynthia Martin, at 11 East Hill Road, which is before Molly Supple Hill Road.

Morgan moved to adjourn the meeting and George seconded the motion. The meeting was adjourned at about 9:00 p.m.

Respectfully submitted on October 12, 2018,

Phyllis Rubenstein, Secretary

Respectfully submitted, Phyllis Rubenstein, secretary