Minutes: 2005 BAOC Annual General Meeting

Stanford University
April 10, 2005

The meeting was called to order at 1:00 pm on the Stanford campus by President Ian Tidswell. Twenty-three club members were present.

ELECTION OF OFFICERS: The proposed slate of officers was approved by unanimous vote. Serving BAOC for the 2005-2006 year will be: Ian Tidswell, President; Terry Farrah, Secretary; George Minarik, Treasurer; and Evan Custer, Event Coordinator.

STATE OF THE CLUB: Ian gave a report on the state of the club. 2004 was challenging; we started with nearly no money, but pulled out OK. We also had difficulties staffing the office of Event Coordinator, but pulled out of those as well. We put on plenty of great events.

We began 2005 with much improved finances. We will spend some of our money on mapping. We have a very strong schedule of events, thanks to Event Coordinator Evan Custer and regional coordinators Chuck Spalding (South Bay) and Mark Prior (North Bay and S.F.). Evan remarked that it has helped a lot to have regional coordinators.

Twin Peaks, in San Francisco, and Tilden Park, in Berkeley, are currently being mapped. We continue to have strong turnout at events. We will have an event fee increase as of June 1, as voted by the Board in March.

Our biggest challenge now is issues of land use. Because our events are growing, land managers are becoming more aware of our presence and are enforcing more restrictions. Ian suggested a two-pronged approach:

1) Give back to the land. Terry Farrah is planning a trail maintenance party at Monte Bello Open Space Preserve for the fall; we may want to have more such activities.

2) Become more visible and proactive when land use decisions are being made. Jeff Lanam suggested that we form a "political action committee" to represent our interests at relevant meetings.

Gary Kraght suggested a third approach:

3) At those venues where parking is tight, plan for outside parking and shuttle people to the site.

Ian mentioned that we need lots of volunteers for our A meet this October. He recognized that many club members present at the meeting were already active volunteers, and thanked everyone. Evan mentioned that we especially need a volunteer to help Rosemary with permits, since she lost her South Bay assistant. This job needs attention monthly, but is not a lot of work.

The meeting was adjourned at 1:21 p.m.

Respectfully submitted,

Terry Farrah
Secretary, BAOC
April 10, 2005