BAOC Board Meeting Minutes
Date: June 14, 2004
Location: Ian Tidswell's home
PRESENT: Scott Aster, Ev Beuerman, Jean Beuerman, Steve Beuerman, Nick Corsano, Meg Gerstner, Trinka Gillis, Dan Greene, Rosemary Johnson, Gary Kraght, Jeff Lanam, Nancy Lindeman, Cheryl Madson, George Minarik, Mark Prior, Ian Tidswell.
The meeting was called to order at 7:00 pm at Ian Tidswell's home. In the absence of the secretary, Terry Farrah, the minutes were taken by Meg Gerstner.
1. APPROVAL OF MINUTES - Ian Tidswell
The minutes of the March 1, 2004 board meeting and the April 4, 2004 Annual General Meeting were approved as published in the bulletin and posted on the website.
2. PRESIDENT'S REPORT - Ian Tidswell
Ian thanked Gary Kraght and all of those who helped with the successful Tahoe A-meet on June 5-6, 2004. Ian thanked Evan Custer, the departing Event Coordinator, for his excellent work, and welcomed Cheryl Madson as the new Event Coordinator. Cheryl's appointment was approved by the Board. Her first tasks will be to work on a schedule for the rest of the year and to find a replacement Event Director for the November A-meet. Ian reported that things are going well for the club and thanked everyone for their volunteer efforts. One topic that will be discussed is whether changes need to be made to the pricing of memberships and event fees.
3. EVENT COORDINATOR'S REPORT - Cheryl Madson
Cheryl has been trying to locate an A-meet director for the November event, as well as crew chiefs. (George Minarik reported that Dennis Wildfogel has been very active in seeking crew chiefs; see discussion below.) It was suggested that it might be useful to have two positions for A-meets in the future: one to act as the CEO (chief executive officer) and one to act as the COO (chief operating officer). Tentatively scheduled for the fall are meets at Montebello, Big Basin, and Calero. A meet director is needed for Joaquin Miller in August; George has created the courses. The National Orienteering Day event at Spring Lake scheduled for September 18th has been canceled due to another event at the park. It was decided to not try to replace this event with another as we already have two NOD events scheduled for that weekend. There was some discussion of whether we should have a series of "Come and Try It" meets, although it was pointed out that all of our standard B meets also have white/yellow/orange courses that are appropriate for beginners. Cheryl's goal is to have 2 events/month. While one of these preferably would be a B-meet, the exact format should be left to the event director who has volunteered. (We have a lot of members who are capable of setting courses and directing events; we just need volunteers.)
It is important that we set our dates for our planned A-meets for 2005 soon, so as to get them on the USOF schedule. It was proposed to have a barebones event in Tahoe (possibly at Burton Creek), and a fall A-meet at North Joe Grant. Needed are event directors and course setters. It was suggested that a barebones event might be held in the Bay Area, while a standard A-meet would be held at Lake Tahoe (a location to which nearly all participants must travel and might be more likely to participate in A-meet activities, e.g., the dinner). Possible changes/enhancements to the Event Coordinator position were discussed. These include having assistant event coordinators responsible for one season of events (e.g., Spring), an A-meet coordinator, and/or regional coordinators (e.g., North Bay). It was agreed that the most important issue was to try to get our local events scheduled and confirmed.
4. TREASURER'S REPORT - George Minarik
George reported our bank balance of $13,361 is the largest we have had in several years. Although there have been fewer events than in past years, those events have been better attended. Our non-meet income (e.g., memberships) has been good, and we are doing very well on expenses, although a bill for e-punch equipment is expected. Our park use fees have not increased to the extent we expected. As of today no one has applied for either the Junior Training Grant or the Senior Training Grant, both of which have funds budgeted.
5. MAPPING REPORT - Ian Tidswell for Bob Cooley
The map for Tilden Park is in progress. Suggestions from Board members for mapping projects included a San Francisco street map, Ardenwood Park (which might be a good site for a permanent course), Henry Coe State Park (which has been reviewed by Bob on several locations and is reported to be steep with somewhat poor access), and Rock Creek Park (where there may be a lack of parking). George Minarik reported that Sarah Minarik is working on permission to map the UC Santa Cruz campus and may use as a base map a campus map prepared by the university's geology department. Scott Aster reported that he has received permission from the Presidio Land Trust to put in a permanent course at the Presidio.
6. NOVEMBER A-MEET - George Minarik/Cheryl Madson
Day 1 of the A-meet will be the US Short Course Championships to be held at Morgan Territory with courses set by Evan Custer. Day 2 will be the US Long Course Championships to be held on the newly-mapped North Joe Grant map with courses set by George. Most of the important items for the event are in place, with the exception of naming an event director since Cheryl Madson has assumed the role of Event Coordinator. Dennis Wildfogel has been instrumental in lining up a number of crew chiefs. Suggestions were made for an appropriate dinner location and Jeff Lanam will investigate. Remaining items include creating a flyer and a tee-shirt, and submitting an announcement to ONA by the deadline of July 15th.
7. PRICING EVENTS AND MEMBERSHIP - Ian Tidswell
Ian plans to kick off a major discussion of how the club prices our events and membership in a few weeks with a committee of volunteers. Ian indicated a ground rule for the pricing policy should be that membership should be cost neutral in view of bulletin costs and USOF fees. Wearing his Registration hat, Ev Beuerman requested that any price increases result in a dollar number when divided in half so that no change requiring coins needs to be made. Other considerations from the attendees included the need to enhance our revenue, how to provide for hardship cases, whether to have a season pass, whether to create a non-bulletin-receiving membership, whether to have a discount for volunteers (either in the membership fee or event fees). Ian's goal is to have a proposal by the September board meeting. Volunteers for the committee included Gary Kraght, Evan Custer, George Minarik, and Steve Beuerman. Others who are interested should contact Ian.
8. ACCESS TO LOCAL PARKS - Gary Kraght
We recently have lost access to Indian Valley (for large events using the trails), and did not receive a permit for Annadel. The reasons for these events varied; Rosemary Johnson reported that the Annadel situation was a budget issue. Suggestions for maintaining/improving our relationships with the parks included doing a service project for a park, providing a park with one of our maps, minimizing any "non-official" club runs by large groups. It was suggested that the Event Coordinator create and maintain a database of issues for each park/event so that future event directors are aware of the issues and concerns.
9. 7th WAVE ADVENTURE RACING CROSS-SPONSORSHIPS - Mark Prior
Approximately 15 - 20 adventure racers participated at the Tahoe A-meet. Last year BAOC participated in the Big Blue Adventure Race, four adventure races organized by Todd Johnson of 7th Wave. No agreement has been reached yet for this year, although a proposal has been made to 7th Wave. In contrast to last year, this year each participant would get a map. BAOC would receive a set fee for the first person on each team (e.g., $5), with an additional fee (e.g., $2) for each additional person. We would provide help (e.g., in course setting) for four events this year, with clinics as appropriate. Club members who are interested could volunteer to help at the clinics and/or at the events.
10. OUTDOOR ADVENTURE SPORTS EXPO - Ian Tidswell
BAOC has signed up to participate in the Outdoor Adventure Sports Expo to be held at the San Mateo County Fairgrounds on August 27-29, 2004, which is good timing for the National Orienteering Day events scheduled for mid-September. Ev and Jean Beuerman volunteered to chair this event, Nancy Lindeman offered to recruit volunteers, and several others (including Scott Aster and Steve Beuerman) volunteered to help. Ian will inquire as to whether we could present a seminar on orienteering.
11. METROGAINE IN SAN FRANCISCO-Ian Tidswell (for Terry Farrah)
Eric Bone and Terry Farrah (Meridian Geographics) have proposed that BAOC co-sponsor a metrogaine (urban rogaine) for 2005. The suggested date is Saturday, June 11, 2005. BAOC would help provide course design, do vetting, and help staff the event. The proceeds would be split between BAOC and Meridian Geographics. The Board passed a motion to accept this proposal.
12. DIRECTORS' REPORTS
There was no report for Social (which is an open position) or Training (Steve Gregg).
Membership (Steve Beuerman): Club membership is generally flat, following a slow decline. There are currently 266 memberships, 551 members, and 391 USOF memberships.
Registration (Jean and Ev Beuerman): Due to Vivian Lee's move to Hong Kong, we need someone to assist James Wilson with East Bay registration. Thanks to Vivian for her service. Also needed is a North Bay registration volunteer. Ev and Jean plan to order a batch of short-sleeve shirts, and will check with club members to determine what color is preferred. Some of them will likely be Cool Max.
Equipment (Ian Tidswell for Mark Blair): Mark was commended for procuring distinctive new customized banners for the start and finish, as well as a general club banner containing the club name and website. These were successfully used at the Tahoe A-meet. Mark has acquired 25 5-foot tall stands for e-punch equipment for use where the soil or sand is very loose and/or deep. He recommends that additional 40-inch aluminum stands be acquired for use with A-meet controls, and will work with Trinka Gillis to determine how many are needed.
E-Punch (Trinka Gillis): Trinka reported that the club currently has 16 e-punch controls that use SportIdent level 6, but 43 are at a lower level and are incapable of working with the new version 6 e-sticks that hold 64 controls rather than 31. As a result, we plan to upgrade the 43 controls. Both level 7 and level 8 upgrades have larger memory and lithium batteries. However, level 8 has a smaller form factor, so would require an adapter in order to use our existing stands. Level 7 can use the same housings so that we just have to replace the interior boards. Trinka has requested pricing information from SportIdent for both levels 7 and 8, but most likely we will purchase the level 7 upgrade. In addition, 25 more rental e-sticks have been ordered.
Event Quality (Dan Greene): Dan reported that he has been working with new event directors, and has been looking at the advantages/disadvantages of using glossy paper for printing our maps.
Juniors (Nick Corsano): Nick reported we have not had any applications for the Junior Training Grant.
Permits (Rosemary Johnson): Rosemary has received the insurance and checks for the September and October meets. Audrey Faist, who has been dealing with South Bay events, has received the permit for Bayfront and will be getting them for Calero and Joe Grant.
Publicity (Nancy Lindeman): Nancy reported that Marty Katz has been helping with South Bay publicity. She mentioned that it is helpful for planning purposes if event directors post their information about their events on the website well ahead of time, and she will check with them to ensure that this gets done.
Bulletin (Jeff Lanam): Jeff has set the 20th of the month before the next bulletin as the deadline for submitting information/articles/pictures. As usual, more pictures are needed. No pdf files have yet been put on the website.
Website (Ian Tidswell for Van Boughner): In Van's absence, Ian reported that Van has created administration pages for updating the website.
Outreach (Scott Aster): Scott reported that he made a presentation at the Fairfax Public Library for about 25 people. He has been contacted by Fair Isaac and UCSF about doing team-building exercises. Ian made a presentation about orienteering at a Mensa event.
USOF (Gary Kraght): Gary will be attending the USOF Annual General Meeting in Georgia in July, along with Steve Gregg. The Board voted to appoint Gary and Steve our delegates to the meeting. Among the topics to be discussed is the financial health of USOF. The US Trail O championships will be held, and Gary plans to participate.
13. NEXT MEETING -- Ian Tidswell
The next board meeting is tentatively scheduled for Monday, September 13, 2004 at Stanford University. (Check the website for details.)
The meeting adjourned at 9:58 pm.
Respectfully submitted,
Meg Gerstner
June 20, 2004
