BAOC Board Meeting Minutes
Date: March 1, 2004
Location: Gates Computer Science Building at Stanford University
PRESENT: Scott Aster, Ev Beuerman, Jean Beuerman, Mark Blair, Eric Bone, Bob Cooley, Nick Corsano, Evan Custer, Terry Farrah, Meg Gerstner, Trinka Gillis, Dan Greene, Steve Gregg, Tapio Karras, Jeff Lanam, Nancy Lindeman, George Minarik, Ian Tisdswell.
The meeting was called to order at 7:03 pm
1. APPROVAL OF MINUTES - Ian Tidswell
The minutes of the December 8, 2003 board meeting were approved.
2. PRESIDENT'S REPORT - Ian Tidswell
Ian reported that the year has started off slowly. He thanked Van Boughner for the great job Van's done with the website. An environmental statement, prepared by Terry Farrah, has been added to the website. The Board approved the election of two new board members: Trinka Gillis as e-punch director (replacing Robert Lewis), and Mark Prior as adventure racing coordinator (a new position).
3. EVENT COORDINATORS' REPORT - Evan Custer
Evan has finalized a number of events for the next quarter, and has made some changes in the schedule due to conflicts and park approvals. These include a change to Saturday, July 17th, at Golden Gate Park, and a change in the date for the Vasona Lake event (not yet confirmed). Meet directors are needed for China Camp and Joaquin Miller, although course setters have been recruited. Evan is seeking a replacement, as he is ending his tenure as Event Coordinator at the end of March. No volunteers have come forward. Evan suggested that a change in the format of the position might be beneficial in attracting a volunteer. Possible changes include making the position regional (e.g. have Event Coordinators in the North Bay, East Bay, and South Bay, although that would require significant coordination to ensure that dates and parks were not double-booked), and having two or more people act as Event Coordinators (e.g. one "chief" and one or more "assistants"). Interested volunteers should contact Evan.
4. TREASURER'S REPORT - George Minarik
George reported that our event income so far this year has been very good, especially since both Emerald Hills and Huddart Part were C meets. We are still awaiting income from the December 2003 event at Stanford, and expect bills for upgrading the e-punch units. Although it is early in the year, there have been no surprises and cash flow has not been an issue.
5. MAPPING REPORT - Bob Cooley
Bob reported that he has received a drawing of the second half of the North Joe Grant map. He is looking for photographs of Tilden Park and plans to get a base map. We will not be bringing a professional mapper in this year due to our decreased mapping budget. Other areas to be considered are a dairy farm at the north end of Almaden Quicksilver which would expand our existing map of that area. Approximately 2 km at the southeast edge of Briones need to be completed. Calero is mostly done. Terry Farrah and Eric Bone reported that they are planning a 2005 Metrogaine in June or September 2005, hopefully in conjunction with BAOC. This prompted a discussion about the possibility of mapping a number of more urban areas (especially those that connect to parks), including the Berkeley Hills, Oakland Hills, Santa Cruz campus, Hillsborough, San Francisco, and Lake Temescal (a map which Bob said he would upgrade if we found a meet director).
6. SELLING MAPS TO FOR-PROFIT ORGANIZATIONS - Ian Tidswell
Recently a team-building for-profit group purchased 30 11 x 17 inch maps from the club for $3/map. The issue raised was whether we should consider increasing our prices for maps for for-profit organizations. It was mentioned that Cascade Orienteering Club has a two-tiered pricing system for its maps. Our current fees are $2 for 8.5x11 inch maps, $3 for 13 x 19 inch maps, and $4 for 17x22 inch maps. A motion was passed to double the current prices for maps to $4/$6/$8, allowing discounts for educational and non-profit organizations.
7. ADVENTURE RACING CROSS-SPONSORSHIPS - Ian Tidswell
Last year BAOC participated in the Big Blue Adventure Race, four adventure races organized by Todd Johnson of 7th Wave, by selling maps, helping to set up and holding clinics. No agreement has been reached yet for this year. A discussion of the advantages of proceeding with this (and other) adventure racing groups and whether/how to increase our presence with adventure racers was held. Advantages include the fact that we attracted a number of people to our events, especially when a "training session" was offered, and that it was relatively easy to set up a long-orange course for the adventure racing events. A difficulty was the organization on the day of the race. Mark Prior, our new adventure racing coordinator, suggested that we use some of the strengths of adventure racing, e.g. good marketing, as part of our events. For example, our annual rogaine could be held in conjunction with an adventure racing organization. We should be sure to use banners prominently displaying our club name. Mark and Ian will follow up with Todd.
8. CLUB OFFICERS-Ian Tidswell
It is necessary for the Board to approve a slate of candidates for presentation at the Annual General Meeting to be held at the Stanford Meet on April 4th, although nominations for all positions will be accepted at the Annual Meeting. The proposed slate is Ian Tidswell (President), George Minarik (Treasurer), and Terry Farrah (Secretary). We are still seeking an Event Coordinator. A motion to approve the proposed slate was passed.
9. PRIVACY POLICY-Ian Tidswell
Recent communications on BayONet have raised the issue of the privacy of club members, in particular in connection with photographs that are posted on the website or published in the bulletin (which will be posted on the website in pdf format some time in the future). The advantages of limiting access to information (especially about children) compared to the disadvantages of decreasing the recognition of individuals were discussed. A motion that pictures of minors placed on the website not be identified by name failed.
10. DIRECTORS' REPORTS
There was no report for USOF (Gary Kraght) or Permits (Rosemary Johnson).
Membership (Ian Tidswell for Steve Beuerman): Club membership has slowly decreased over the years (from about 600 to about 500), although it was noted that the club loses money on memberships due to the costs of sending the bulletin and paying USOF fees. The possibility of not having a membership structure (as an alternative to raising fees) was suggested. The entire issue will be a future agenda item. It was also suggested that we have a list of memberships due for renewal available at registration at some meets to encourage those who are unaware of their lapse in membership to renew.
Registration (Jean and Ev Beuerman): A beautiful new map board prepared by the Beuermans was on display.
Equipment (Mark Blair): Mark has prepared new directional signs. Customized banners for the start and finish, as well as a general club banner containing the club name and website, have been submitted to a vendor for manufacture.
E-Punch (Trinka Gillis): Trinka has presided over four meets in her new role, and reported no major problems. She will check with Robert Lewis to see if there are two master units, and will get an inventory of all (~58) e-punch units.
Event Quality (Dan Greene): Dan reported that our events are typically above average in quality, with an occasional control misplaced and some too long/too hard courses. He proposed to revise the notes on the website concerning the difficulty of courses and add some up-front suggested guidelines for course length for various parks. He displayed a draft of his proposed guide, which is a visual representation of course length by course and location (e.g. fast v. slow terrain). He also did an experiment to test "how good is a GPS for vetting courses?". In his test, he found the following sources of error: ~10m for the USGS map, ~10m for the GPS, and unknown amounts for the orienteering map and the actual control placement.
Juniors (Nick Corsano): Nick reported having requests for information from school groups, scouts, and a YMCA dad and son/daughter event. The Scout O had been rescheduled for the Fall. The Junior Training Grant has been posted on the website for interested candidates. Also, juniors may be interested in thewaterstop.org, a discussion group for juniors about orienteering.
Publicity (Nancy Lindeman): Nancy reported Sunset Publications is preparing an article on orienteering for Acura owner's magazine. Gold Country Orienteering has posted its schedule for the entire year on its website, along with maps. Nancy requested that information about recent and near-term events be posted on the website so that it is available when she sends out publicity. The Bay Area Adventure Racing website includes a notice about Big Blue having presentations for women at 5 area REIs. She will let them know about Sunol rogaine and the Golden Goat. The Ski-O events have been very successful and Nancy congratulated Tony Pinkham for generating a lot of enthusiasm for his "Ski O series". (The pre-season mailer from Royal Gorge included a Ski-O event.) We should have a sign for this event at Royal Gorge. Brad Wetmore has placed some BAOC whistles in geocaches, which provides good publicity for the club. Jeff Lanam reported that the Rangers at Almaden Quicksilver required that we put up a notice on their park bulletin board prior to the event, which is a good idea for publicity.
Bulletin (Jeff Lanam): The latest issue of the bulletin is at the printers. Jeff has been researching how to put the bulletin on the website in pdf format. It was suggested that some aspects of the bulletin on the website be made "non-searchable" to minimize the ability for web search programs to locate people.
Website (Ian Tidswell for Van Boughner): In Van's absence, Ian reported on a few highlights of Van's recent revision of the website. About 80% of the visitors to the site are club members. The Most popular page is the stats.
Outreach (Scott Aster): Scott reported that about 450 girls attended a recent Girls Sports Expo in Santa Rosa, at which they tried 16 different sports. Orienteering was one of the most popular events. Two courses have been taught at Santa Rosa Junior College, which made a good tie-in the Spring Lake event. The Marin Boy Scout council is planning to teach all adult leaders about O, and Scott said that it was his goal to get one troop from Marin to the Scout-O event. Schools in San Rafael are incorporating orienteering into their physical education curriculum.
Social (open): Jeff Lanam reported that he is looking at an appropriate venue for the Fall A-meet, and suggests the Hometown Buffet in San Jose at Capital and McKee. No money would need to be collected in advance, and a variety of food would be presented.
Training (Steve Gregg): Steve reported that Vlad Gusiatnikov has been conducting a series of training events. A lot of activity/discussion is reported on the BAOCteam message list.
11. NEXT MEETING - Ian Tidswell
The next board meeting is tentatively scheduled for Monday, June 14, 2004 at the Alta Bates Imaging Center in Oakland. (If this date is unavailable, the meeting will be Tuesday, June 8, 2004 at the same location. Check the website for details.)
The meeting adjourned at 10:05 pm.
Respectfully submitted,
Meg Gerstner
March 31, 2004
