by Brenda Giese
The meeting came to order at 7:00 PM at Stanford University, Palo Alto, California.
Board members present were Evan Custer, Scott Aster, Brenda Giese, George Minarik, Bob Cooley, Mark Blair, Ev and Jean Beuerman, Gary Kraght, Nick Corsano, Stacy Goss, Nancy Lindeman, and Steve Gregg.
Other members present were Aileen Abernathy, Steve Beuerman, Thorsten Graeve, Marsha Jacobs, Tapio Karras, Manfred Kopisch, and Tony Pinkham.
Minutes from the December 9 BAOC Board of Directors Meeting were approved unanimously. They are now available on the Bay-O Net.
Congratulations were extended to Stacy Goss for an excellent job on her first BAOC Bulletin publication!
The “old” Bon Tempe Lake map is now re-drafted into O-Cad.
An electronic mail vote was held last month to determine whether to transfer $1600 from the Boca to the Briones mapping projects, due to future logging at Boca. The transfer was approved both by electronic mail vote and by formal vote at the meeting: unanimous yes. George Kirkov will do the mapping at 160 hours for $10.00 per hour.
George Minarik handed out the BAOC 1998 Income/Expense Summary for 1/1/98 through 12/31/98, and the BAOC 1998 Event Income Recap. So far this year there has been a low turnout to events due to rain. This means that we may not have the expected income this year. The current bank balance is $8502.73. The 65.00 expense for the 2/8/98 Spring Lake I event will be returned due to cancellation. The $805.00 expense for the 3/8/98 Golden Gate event includes a $500.00 refundable deposit to be returned.
Evan Custer presented the slate of officers to be proposed for election at the General Membership Meeting on April 5 at Stanford University. The proposed slate is as follows: President: Evan Custer, Event Coordinator: Scott Aster, Secretary: Brenda Giese, Treasurer: George Minarik. The slate was accepted by vote: unanimous yes.
Evan Custer presented a proposed amendment of the bylaws to submit for vote at the General Membership Meeting on April 5. Currently, the bylaws state that there must be a minimum of seven and a maximum of fifteen board members. The proposed amendment is to remove the upper limit. The board must approve the proposal by a two thirds majority in order to submit it to the General Membership. The board approved 10 yes, 0 no, 2 abstain.
The membership survey was sent on the BayO-Net. The survey was authored by Lisa Wiley. Evan Custer wrote a final report to describe the highlights and recommendations. The main goal recommended involves the need to emphasize publicity and marketing in order to increase membership and participation. The action taken was to add more members to the Publicity Committee, and to increase their focus on encouraging volunteers. The members of this committee are Tony Pinkham, Nancy Lindeman, Judy Koehler, and Joan Roos. One of their ideas is to create informal informational handouts on volunteering which could be distributed at events and added to the Bulletin. Encouraging members to get involved in volunteering may be a good way to increase overall club participation.
There is a concern with plummeting membership over the past three years. Participation has been flat over the past three years. There is a need for more ideas on how to increase participation, motivate people to return to more events, and let people feel welcome to the club. One idea is to have a Social Director to look at these suggestions and implement a welcoming policy.
Plan for 1998 Tony Pinkham handed out the 1998 Publicity Plan. He put forth a request for money for more publicity such as newspaper ads, flyers, brochures to hand out at running races, Sierra Club magazine ads, and brochures for specific events including the Sierra 2000. Specifically, he requested $800 for the 1998 schedule and $500 for the Sierra 2000 brochures. Since Boca is not being mapped this year, perhaps some of that money could be put into publicity. The funds available from Boca are $7000 less the $1600 approved for Briones, leaving $5400. A motion was put forward by Evan Custer to allocate $1300 of these funds for publicity. An amendment was put forward by Gary Kraght to reduce the allocation to $800, for funding only the 1998 schedule but not the Sierra 2000 at this time. The amendment was approved by the board: unanimous yes. The amended motion to allocate $800 of the Boca funds for publicity for the 1998 schedule was approved by the board: unanimous yes.
Nancy Lindeman reported that the Great Outdoor Fair was canceled. The Sonoma Independent newspaper has expressed interest in writing a feature article on the BAOC after the Spring Lake event. Bob Cooley requested more feedback from the Publicity Committee so that he can be prepared to make more maps for events with expected higher turnout.
The Arboretum section of the Golden Gate map was mapped. George Kirkov will have 40 hours done on Briones this spring and will field check Burton Creek this summer. Bob Cooley discussed laser range finders, which can be purchased at Tasco for $280.00, and recommended that the club buy one in the future. The Morgan Territory photos are not done yet. We still need the GPS from Lans Taylor. The Burton Creek basemap is being prepared in Norway.
There was discussion on selecting a site for the meet to be held in October or November 1999. Bob Cooley said that Morgan Territory would be okay, but parking is a concern. Brenda Giese offered to check with two friends who own ranches nearby to determine if they might be willing to provide parking. Evan Custer recommended Morgan Territory, and Marsha Jacobs recommended Rossmoor Bar. The final decision was deferred until the parking situation at Morgan Territory could be further explored.
George Minarik recommended three days of A meets plus a Convention, and to make it the U.S. Championships if no other club bids for it. The proposed location is Spooner Lake. Evan Custer offered to check into lodging at Heavenly and Incline Village.
This championship (APOC) will be held in 2002. The BAOC was invited to bid for this event, which has never been held in the U.S., so it would be an opportunity to hold the first ever in the U.S.! It has been held in Canada; the last time was 1990. The APOC consists of several events, and attendees tend to be mostly from Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong, and Japan. Alberta will bid for this event bundled with the Canadian and North American Championships. Perhaps we should not bid for this, but rather, support their bid. Evan Custer mentioned that enthusiasm has diminished dramatically for tackling a huge event. The board and members present agreed that we will not put forth a bid.
Thorsten Graeve handed out a list of the volunteers working for this event. He expects about 150 competitive and 40 recreational participants. The anticipated budget is $8,000 income and $6,000 expenses. This event is also the Western State Championships, and will be called the “Run in the Redwoods”. He would like to send a results bulletin afterwards to each participant, so needs to increase the entry fee to cover the cost. The board approved the fee increase to $17.00, but did not approve the results bulletin.
There is an article in the current Bulletin about the training program. Steve Gregg reported that the first training session will be 3/29 in Pinole, and the next will be 6/28 at the Joaquin Miller meet. He said that the Wednesday evening events are popular, but that it is hard to find Event Directors.
Gary Kraght made a motion that the BAOC rankings be based on:
The board approved this motion: 10 yes, 0 no, 2 abstain. It was recommended to print the rankings in the Bulletin on a quarterly basis.
Steve Beuerman proposed that a group membership be created to allow youth groups to join more easily. A motion was put forward to create a group membership for youth groups of members age 18 and under only, and that the group membership be considered a family membership. The board approved the motion: unanimous yes.
Scott Aster, Event Coordinator, discussed the Morgan event to be held 5/16. He suggested we hold a “Golden Goat” event, and that we invite Ian Tidswell to direct at Briones to continue the tradition sometime before July. Rosemary Johnson is getting the permits and insurance documents for all events.
Mark Blair, Equipment Director, bought fifty stands from the Minnesota Veterans World Cup at a discounted price, reduced from $10.00 to $7.50 per stand. A rucksack for carrying stands will be built by Penny and paid for out of the equipment budget. There is a need for more AccuSplit digital timers. He will get three more for $400.00. He wants to buy more Silva controls next year to round out all three regional equipment kits. He mentioned that Event Directors need to be more careful with equipment to avoid theft.
Nick Corsano, Junior’s Director, requested that we charge schools $1.00 per O-Cad map to cover our costs. He would like to make map photocopies for the Girl Scout competition. He mentioned that a Junior’s Coach and Junior training camps would be good ideas, but that first we need more Junior members. He recommended putting together a Kid’s Corner Web page, and having a Social Director for more family social events. He also proposed more non-competitive Scout O’s, and suggested that the Junior results be listed separately from the adults in the Bulletin and that we hand out fun stickers to the Juniors for course completions.
Gary Kraght, USOF Liaison, extended his congratulations to Evan Custer for his work on the membership survey, follow-up action list, and results summary.
The meeting was adjourned at 10:45. The next meeting is scheduled for Monday, June 1, 1998 in Oakland.