Minutes of June 1997 BAOC Meeting

Minutes, Board of Director’s Meeting, June 16, 1997

notes by Allison Bennet, transcribed by Evan Custer

	Board members present were Tony Pinkham, Bob Cooley, Mark Blair, George
Minarik, Gary Kraght, Evan Custer, Ev and Jean Beuerman, Robert Lewis,
Allison Bennet, Steve Beuerman, Derek and Steph Maclean, Nancy Lindeman, Joe
Scarborough, and Sharon Evans.  Other club members present were Cheryl
Madson, Steve Gregg, Scott Aster, Leslie Minarik, and Thorsten Graeve.

	The meeting was called to order by the president, Evan Custer.  The minutes
of the March 3, 1997, meeting as published were approved unanimously.  The
approval of the e-mail action by the board to contribute $100.00 for uniforms
for the BAOC Jukola team was also unanimously approved.

	Nominating Committee report.  The board unanimously adopted the nominating
committee’s proposed slate of officers for the upcoming year.  The slate was
Evan Custer for president, Scott Aster for event coordinator, Allison Bennet
for secretary, and George Minarik for treasurer.

	President’s report.  Evan thanked Sharon Evans and Tony Pinkham for two
years service well done as treasurer and event coordinator, respectively.  He
also congratulated the Jukola team, which was seeded 937th, but came in
870th, so they beat their goal.  He encouraged all to attend the VWC to be
held in Minnesota at the end of September and early October.  He announced
that Nick Corsano will take over as director of junior’s activities,
replacing George Minarik.  Thorsten Graeve will be the event director for the
1998 “A” meet at Big Basin on November 14-15, 1998.  He summarized BAOC’s
activities for the last 12 months.  These included 50 different orienteering
events, and production of 9 new maps.  The complete report will be published
in the July issue of the Bulletin.

	Treasurer’s report.  Sharon stated that the balance of the checking account
was $1,111.00 and of the savings account was $4,922.68 as of 6/16/97.  There
are no projected mapping expenses until September or October.  We are on
budget with regard to projected event income through the Joseph Grant event.
 We have slightly higher than expected event expenses.  We have received
$2500 in memberships since the beginning of the year, with a projected
revenue of $4200 for the year.  There is $87.50 remaining in Jukola pledges,
and it was decided to designate that money to help replenish our T-shirt
stock.

	Late submission of expenses for reimbursement.  It has been club policy for
several years that reimbursement requests should be submitted as soon as
possible, and definitely before the end of the calendar year. If not
submitted in a timely fashion, the board as a whole has to approve late
requests for reimbursement.  Joe Scarborough submitted a request for
reimbursement for expenses from 1994, 1995, and 1996.  The motion carried
with 10 in favor and 1 abstention to reimburse Joe.

	Contributions to US Team and members.  Joe Scarborough proposed that BAOC
should give more financial support to individual team members rather than to
the US Team as a whole for the 1997 WOC.  He feels that the US Team is not
being well managed now, and the money would better be spent to help
individuals.   Gary and Evan both agreed that James’s goal of being the
number 1 ranked orienteer in the US deserved our support.  James is currently
training in Sweden, and spending about $4,000 of his own money for the three
months he is going to be there.  It was proposed that $500 be given to James
Scarborough and $250 to the US Team for help in the 1997 WOC.  Gary then
moved that the club donate $500 to James and then match individual’s
donations up to another $500.  Mark Blair moved that the motion be amended by
increasing US Team support to $500.  The amendment passed with 7 votes for, 3
against, and 3 abstentions.  The initial motion then was passed with 12 votes
for and 1 against.

	Control stands.  Mark Blair stated that the VWC is looking for member clubs
to buy aluminum punch stands, and then loan them to the VWC for its event.
 Mark reported that 9 to 10 designs have been rejected so far, but will
probably end up with a T-bar design with space for two punches.  He
recommended that $500 worth of stands (about 40-50 in number) be purchased
contingent on Mark’s approval of the final product.  The unit price would be
limited to $10 apiece.  The motion passed with 12 votes for, and none against
and no abstentions.

	Publicity.  Growth of orienteering depends on two factors:  (1)publicity and
marketing and (2)providing a quality “product” or event.  Nancy wants input
on potential target groups, e.g., families, Europeans living in the US, etc.
 She says we are missing many opportunities by not providing a representative
to Trail Days, REI clinics, etc.  We need more help.  Evan suggested that a
new position be created for coordinating representation at special events.
 He also suggested consolidating flyer responsibility.  Currently Marsha
produces the text, someone else copies it, and someone else distributes it.
 It might be better if one person handled it all.  Also it might help if we
had more regional publicity efforts to build relationships with publishers
and sports stores.  Tony commented that publicizing the sport is different
from publicizing events (strategic vs. tactical).  Cheryl suggested more
people might volunteer if we held some training sessions on how to promote
orienteering.  USOF has created a very nice brochure, and Gary said that it
would help the USOF Board to commit to producing these brochures if clubs
would use them.  It was also mentioned that we should do more to nurture
younger children so that they continue to advance in orienteering and build a
larger pool of juniors.

	Jukola sponsorship proposal.  Brown-Forman, owner of Finlandia Vodka, has
expressed an interest in sponsoring the Jukola team for next year.  We need
to submit a proposal.  It was suggested that we ask for $10-15,000.  Evan
said a preliminary analysis indicates it would cost about $12,000 to send a
team.  Gary said it is very important to try to get sponsorships, but not to
treat it as an entitlement.  He said we should try to sponsor a reasonably
competitive team, but does not think we should go for sponsorship of a
women’s team at this time.  There was some disagreement with this view.  It
was decided to try to determine what the sponsor is looking for and explore
the possibility further.

	Uniforms.  Joe has investigated possible suppliers;  color and design are
the main issues.  He showed a picture of the ‘97 US Team uniform (red, white
and blue).  He suggested having three choices and allowing club members to
express their preferences.  Most people preferred a basic conservative color
with perhaps one or two accenting stripes.  He took an informal survey of
color preferences, but did not receive a consensus.  However, 17 people voted
to maintain the oak tree logo, vs. the older compass shield.

	1997 A meet at Annadel.  Tony Pinkham, the event director, stated that all
permissions have been obtained at Spring Lake and Annadel for use of the park
and for camping.  He is not sure if we will have the Vampire-O because the
Spring Lake rangers do not want us to use the park at night for orienteering.
 Parking is a major issue, and some form of shuttle between the Spring Lake
parking area and the staging area in Annadel will have to be developed for
day 1.  He is still working on banquet arrangements, but is thinking of using
the Cantina.  They would charge $8-15 per person, depending on what the
dinner is.  Nancy has arranged camping for $15 per night.  An article about
the event will appear in the August issue of ONA.

	Mapping.  Bob asked whether we are still interested in using Golden Gate
Park as an event site.  Dwight Freund, who is doing the mapping, did not want
to continue to work on it if we were not planning on using it again.  The
board felt the GG event was very successful, and wants to hold another event
there next year.  GCO wanted to hold events at Boreal and Sugar Bowl this
summer, but both wanted a minimum of $500 for use permits.  As a consequence,
GCO canceled those events.  The Briones base map is done and in OCAD, and is
available for members to start field checking.  Bob will have a new printer
for Annadel that will have a resolution of 1440 x 770 dpi and be able to
print maps up to 17 x 21 inches.

	Sierra 2000 O’ Fest.  We must decide on the format.  The original proposal
was to have 7 days of orienteering over a 9 day period, including two
weekends.  Derek favored the Scottish 6 Day format, starting on a Sunday and
ending on a Saturday, with 6 days of competition, and Wednesday a rest day.
 USOF will be deciding this year whether the classic champs should be a 1 day
or 2 day event.  If we host the event, we will have to follow the USOF
designation.  Gary moved that we have the NA Champs on July 29-30, 3 days of
A meets on August 1, 2, 3 and the US Classic Champs on Aug. 5-6.  Monday and
Friday would be rest days.  The motion passed with 6 voting for it, 4
against, and 4 abstaining.  Evan will be the overall festival director, Gary
will direct the US Champs;  Marsha, Steve Gregg, and Aileen Abernathy may be
willing to direct one or more days.  Nancy will do publicity, George will be
in charge of the convention, Ron Gross will be the GCO liaison, Mark Blair
equipment, Steve Beuerman registration, Aileen results.  Others have
volunteered to help at some task.  Many others have not volunteered yet, but
will be solicited by Evan.  Bob Cooley is going up to the Tahoe area this
summer to look at many areas and identify by the end of the summer good
potential sites to hold the events.  Nancy will create a brochure with the
dates for distribution at the VWC.  We have not asked for formal sanctioning
from USOF yet, but Evan has corresponded with Ed Scott, the USOF sanctioning
chair, about our intentions.

	Member Survey.  We discussed whether distribution should be in the Bulletin,
as a separate mailing, or on the Website.  We will ask Lisa Wiley’s opinion
and send whichever method will elicit the highest response rate.  We will
also develop a questionnaire for beginners to distribute at a series of
events and see whether it is valuable enough to do on an ongoing basis.

	North Bay Club.  Gary discussed starting a new club in the North Bay, but he
personally won’t do anything until he steps down as USOF president in two
years.  This would involve splitting some club assets, including maps and
equipment.

	Website.  Greg and Kathleen Lennon have moved the site to a new ISP.  We
are getting about 50 hits per day.  25% come from outside of the US.
 Thursday is the most popular day, followed by Wednesday.  Sunday is the
least popular.  Therefore, any event information should be sent to the
webmasters in a timely basis so that it can be on the Website by no later
than the Wednesday before the event.  They are still looking for a digital
camera.  They would like photos before the event so that they can be used for
publicity.

	Beginning course difficulty.  Marsha communicated via Sharon that she thinks
the beginning courses are getting too difficult physically, and may explain
why some people don’t come back for another event.

	Director’s reports.  These were deferred until the September meeting because
of the lateness of the hour.

	Next board meeting.  It will be held Monday, September 15th at Stanford.