The Vermont Paddlers Club

Id

15

Mtgdate

2006-09-11

Purpose

Executive Committee Meeting

Officers

James Raboin, Dan Beideck, Rich Larsen, Tony Shaw

Opening

The meeting was called to order by President James Raboin at 7:10pm at the Larsen residence in Essex Jct.

Reports

Budget Outlook – Richard handed out a cash flow summary. Year 2006 liquidity stands at $2427.56, assuming all the checks written have been cashed. This figure does not include our $100.00 donation to the VRC, a new banner ($185.00 estimated), website costs for July-December 2006 ($150.00), or the remainder of gear-related expenses that was previously approved by the executive committee but not yet spent (~$100).
Tony moved that we replace the VPC banner at the $185 rate quoted by VPC member John Floyd of Design Signs. It was seconded and approved.
James moved that we spend a maximum of $50 to print a number of VPC brochures. It was seconded and approved.
Dan, for 2007, proposed that we come up with a more formal budget, as opposed to the ad hoc “tactical” budget process that has sufficed in the past. This will require that we look at each club activity and it’s potential impact on the budget, with the aim being for the aggregate of all club activities to be revenue-neutral. We agreed to consider this in detail at the next meeting.

Website – Tony mentioned the website make-over currently in development will make it very simple to password protect individual web pages. He asked board members to give some thought to which content on the website should be so protected. He proposed that their be multiple levels of authorization, depending on the web page in question, ranging from unrestricted access on one end of the spectrum to admin pages that require special privileges on the other end of the spectrum. In between, there would be pages that are exclusively available to members in good standing, and there could also be pages that are available only to registered users (members and non-members alike). The data and email address information that we collect on those non-members who become registered can be used to market the club to the folks that are active users of the website, and thus presumably active paddlers. Dan is excited about having a members-only online member directory on the website.

Newbiz

1. Winooski Harvest Festival – Winooski VT, September 30, noon-7pm
Last week Dan, Chris, and James met with Trevor Squirrel, event organizer, and he was enthused about a VPC presence at the event. The streets will be closed off and there will be vendors, food, music, etc. Chris Weed has agreed to be the river portion lead. James put it on the online events calendar as a club trip, but no one has contacted him. He is waiting to hear from Kim to see if she still is planning to man a table/booth. We’d like to have brochures at the booth, the remaining paper copies of the August Bow and Stern (Bogen und Heck, in German), the VPC banner, some boats to see and sit in, and several folks there paddling. Trevor was made aware of the club’s interest and support for a whitewater park at this location between the Mills, and he agreed to advocate for this in the community. In particular, installing some stairs on town land off the “river walk” on the Winooski side would facilitate taking out below the horseshoe, and be good for the town, economically.

2. Brochures – Tony has a decent soft copy, and James proposed the club spend up to $50 printing a stack of brochures in time for the Harvest Festival 9/30. Richard agreed to get quotes from Copy/Ship/Print on September 12. A cost savings measure might be to print one side in color and one side in black and white.

3. Holloween Party – There was an offer by two members to host a Holloween party for VPC. We felt that there were potentially a lot of schedule conflicts at this time, and that it was pretty much after the paddling season. We agreed to have the next 'sanctioned' club social event at the beginning of the paddling season - perhaps after the first pool session - and we should offer the interested members a role in helping with or hosting that event. James will follow up with the members.

4. Dan proposed that he will request by October that members interested in hosting pool sessions at UVM, Barre, Bristol, or other venues contact him with at least a 'statement of concept'. This was approved.

Oldbiz

1. Clinic rebates: Novice clinic volunteers from June are still going to be offered a small amount of money to help defray their expenses, and Rich is working with Norm to confirm that his list of volunteers is accurate. Rich is anticipating $175.00 will be paid to novice clinic volunteers ($25.00 each) to help defray their travel and camping expenses for the weekend out of town.

2. The August picnic cost was $167.00. There was a crowd of ~20. The rain probably kept some people away, but those who showed up had fun.

3. It is getting late to organize a rescue clinic for fall 2006. Unless Norm has the details all ironed out, we won’t have a rescue clinic until 2007.

4. ACA safety plan: Rich’s first draft of club guidelines (from June) has been reviewed by Dan. Dan recommended utilizing the Appendix A language, verbatim, in the cases where this is appropriate, and Rich agrees that this is a good idea. Dan agreed to send a copy of the marked up version to other members of the board, with a detailed discussion planned for next meeting…hoping that the draft can be finalized the next time the executive committee meets and sent to the ACA for their approval.

5. Recruiting executive committee members – few have expressed interest. Rich pointed out that it is usually necessary to identify potential candidates and “target” them. A few names were discussed. Those that have let their VPC membership lapse could be offered free membership as an inducement, James suggested.

6. Supporting American Whitewater and the Vermont Rivers Conservancy: The $100 donation to AW that we approved at the last meeting has been sent. We discussed other non-profit clubs that help protect rivers and/or access to them. James moved that we donate $100 to the Vermont Rivers Conservancy. Dan seconded, and the motion passed.

Closing

The next executive committee meeting was tentatively scheduled for October 24. Folks that are not members of the committee can attend if interested.

The meeting adjourned around 9:20pm.

Nextmtg

2006-10-24

Author

Tony Shaw

Postdate

2006-09-20

Blessed

1

Joomla

170