Present: Scott Aster, Mark Blair, Everett Beuerman, Jean Beuerman, Bob Cooley, Nick Corsano, Evan Custer, Harold de Moss, Meg Gerstner, Steve Gregg, Rosemary Johnson, Nancy Lindeman, George Minarik, James Scarborough
1. APPROVAL OF MINUTES - Scott Aster
The minutes of the Sept. 11, 2000, board meeting were approved.
2. PRESIDENT'S REPORT - Scott Aster
Evan, the 1999 winner of the Service Award, presented to George Minarik the 2000 Service Award for his work as Treasurer and Convention Director at the Sierra 200 O-Fest. Scott noted that although fees have been raised, we continue to have increased entries at our meets. However, club memberships have declined. A discussion is in order of whether to include a World Ranking Event (WRE) with our A-meet. Online registration is now available for all BAOC meets at Active.com. Scott felt that this would be invaluable for A-meets but was uncertain how much use it will get for local meets. The site charges the user a fee for using the service but the club would get a check for the usual entry fee. There are Board openings for South Bay Publicity, Outreach, and Social Director.
3. TREASURER'S REPORT - George Minarik
Eight events in 2000 netted over $1000. Sierra O-Fest had many line items not directly related to meet costs, such as lodging, bike rentals, and lift tickets. Not all the money budgeted for map-making was expended. We do not expect the 2001 A-meet to be as big a draw as the Sierra O-Fest. Mapping is 40% of the proposed budget (7 projects). USOF fees increased to $1800.
There was discussion regarding whether it was worth the expenditure to spend money on upgrading the Bon Tempe map since only 40-50 orienteers can use the venue. It was felt that if we could have more than one meet a year there then it would be reasonable. Budget was amended to include $5000 for mapping Bon Tempe. $1500 has been budgeted for a laptop for the E-cadre. The budgeted amount for the US team was increased from $1000 to $1500. There is a potential for BAOC to have 2 members on the US team. The budgeted amount for registration supplies (e.g. map cases) was increased from $1100 to $1500. There was a discussion about whether to purchase 5 Watt radios. The club does own family-style radios but there is greater range with the 5 W. It was felt that they were only used during A-meets and it is more cost effective just to rent for the few days.
Since the club has a substantial cash balance, George is going to investigate looking into a Money Market account or short-term CD to earn interest on our funds. He will ask for a vote over e-mail when he has a proposal.
4. MAPPING REPORT - Bob Cooley
Dennis Wildfogel and Russell Greene are working on mapping Skyline County Park. Expansion of the Calero map may be good for use as the 2002 A-meet site. George Kirkov expects to be finished with the new expanded map of Morgan Territory by the end of May. Two square kilometers have been added to the Briones map. The Fallen Leaf Lake map is expected to be completed in 2003. There are other mappers who we could use to work on Briones or Calero but they would need housing. To this point no members have been willing to put up someone long-term, and Bay Area housing costs are exorbitant so this may not be feasible.
OCAD conversion of the Joaquin Miller Park map by Scott Donald is taking longer than anticipated. Mark Blair and Dwight Freund have joined their OCAD conversion programs. There is a potential that by next fall all the maps could be converted at no cost to the club. Discussion resumed about Bay Area housing for mappers. There was a suggestion to offer to pay members for housing them. Bob noted that there was a 4-month waiting list for a trailer. There was a suggestion of renting an RV. No proposal was voted on; issue tabled.
5. EVENT COORDINATORS' REPORT - Harold DeMoss
Not many scheduled meets are without meet directors (MD) or course setters (CS). Harold put the list out on e-mail. Harold and Penny plan to do a ROGAINE later in the year at Wildcat Canyon and Tilden. There is no Golden Goat scheduled so far. Lots of meets are scheduled for Santa Rosa (i.e., Spring Lake and Annadel) with no MD or CS. Scott said that either he or Gary Kraght would ensure that the first date in April would be covered.
6. E-PUNCH CADRE REPORT - Evan Custer
Robert Lewis is planning to send the e-punch units back to SI in Sweden to have voltmeters attached. Battery packs from SI are expensive, but making them would entail soldering parts. There was discussion about how the design of the units could be improved if external pins allowed the recharging of batteries without opening the units. New units are updated to allow a query of the check unit for a list of participants. This should resolve the problem of how to tell who is still out on the course when cross-checked to results.
7. 2001 A-MEET - Scott Aster
Scott as Meet Director intends to do a checklist and budget shortly. The headquarters motel and banquet restaurant need to be selected. He asked for suggestions. The entry fee will be $21 ($3 USOF discount). Also needed are a T-shirt design and duty roster.
If we are going to include a WRE, it must be decided now so that it can be included in publicity for the event. A lengthy discussion ensued. Positives: prestige for event, learning experience for members working with IOF controller, publicity for sport in the Bay Area. Negatives: paying for IOF controller's travel and housing (nearest controller is in Canada and BAOC has no control over selection). Evan made a motion to have a WRE at BAOC 2001 A-meet and Bob seconded. Motion was approved, contingent on getting a controller. George will gather a team to work on WRE portion, suggest controller to IOF.
8. REGISTRATION ON-LINE - Scott Aster
Registration on Active.com is available for all B-meets, and will be used routinely for A-meets. Issues discussed: With online registration, how will we get e-punch number, license plate number, stub to take to start, and waiver form? May have to have separate area to take care of just these things, then will this save time for person who uses online registration?
9. DIRECTORS' REPORTS
There were no reports for Technical, Event Quality, USOF Liaison, or Website.
Juniors (Nick Corsano) - Anneliese Steuben has reported on her activities as the recipient of the 2000 Junior Training Grant. Nick is now starting to publicize the 2001. He reported that he routinely receives calls from teachers and scout leaders who want assistance with orienteering events, and needs people who can assist during the day.
Equipment (Mark Blair) - After the O-Fest we experienced uneven distribution of equipment but it seems to be getting back into order.
Membership (Scott Aster reporting on behalf of Steve Beuerman) - There has been about a 10 percent decline in membership, with 293 memberships, 573 members, including 90 new members.
Training (Steve Gregg) - Steve hopes to have summer training sessions, and possibly some weekend training sessions. Evan reported on an interesting training session held as a US Team fundraiser during the US Champs.
Registration (Jean Beuerman) - We need to change the color of the classic mint green T-shirt, as that color is no longer available. Possibilities are blue or straw. Will probably do blue.
Publicity (Nancy Lindeman) - No color flyer is ready yet. We need to start National Orienteering Day advertising. It was suggested we shouldn't pay for The Schedule advertising any more, as prices have gone up and we don't see any evidence that it is effective. Will check out City Sports which is more widely available (free distribution).
Bulletin (Scott Aster reporting on behalf of Jeff Lanam) - Jeff can always use pictures.
10. NEW BUSINESS - Scott Aster
The club will no longer accept advertising on the Website. There is a possibility of having a Night-O at JMP with an associated potluck. There was a brief discussion of a possible location for the 2002 A-meet. Evan is making a Salt Point map but the N and S ends are divided by monster terrain so don't know how suitable it will be.
11. NEXT MEETING - Scott Aster
The next board meeting will be Monday, March 5, 2001, at Stanford University at 7:00 pm. The meeting adjourned at 9:59 pm.