BAOC Board Meeting Minutes

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Date: (Tue.) Sep. 20, 2005
Location:
Event Director: - 415.681.7075
Type: Quarterly meeting of the Board of Directors -- all club members welcome


Table of contents

Present: Board members Ian Tidswell, Evan Custer, Trinka Gillis, Steve Beuerman, Ev Beuerman, Jean Beuerman, Mark Blair, George Minarik, Terry Farrah (recording), Rosemary Johnson, Scott Aster, Gary Kraght, and Jeff Lanam, and welcome club member Werner Haag (arrived at 9:00).

The meeting was called to order at Alta Bates Imaging Center in Oakland at 7:04 p.m. by President Ian Tidswell.

1. APPROVAL OF LAST MEETING MINUTES – Ian Tidswell

The minutes of both the March and June meetings were approved unanimously.

2. PRESIDENT'S REPORT – Ian Tidswell

Ian thanked all volunteers who help keep the club going, stating that the number and quality of our events is a testament to their contributions.

3. FILLING BOARD POSITIONS – Ian Tidswell

Ian appointed Rex Winterbottom as Social Director. Nick Corsano would like to step down as Juniors Director and has suggested replacements. We need an East Bay Event Coordinator. Rosemary Johnson would like to step down as Permits Director; she suggests breaking up the job geographically, and is willing to keep East Bay for a short time in order to train others. Evan suggested advertising positions on the web. Trinka will export a database of participants at recent events from which we can glean candidates.

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4. EVENT COORDINATOR'S REPORT – Evan Custer

About 10 events are left in 2005. A few are scheduled already for 2006 including two A meets and several ski events. Mark Blair and Kelly Wells are planning a 4/7 hour rogaine at Joe Grant.

Evan gave a brief update on progress for O in the Oaks next month. Everything seems to be on track.

5. LONG-RANGE A-EVENT PLANNING AND 2006 A-EVENT SCHEDULE – Gary Kraght

At next spring's Tahoe A meet, Day 1 at Fallen Leaf will be a short course, Day 2 at Spooner will be a regular long course. Evan suggested adding a sprint. In November 2006 our A meet will be at Morgan Territory, west side for one or both days. Martin Kuntz will be course setter. Event directors are needed for both 2006 A meets.

In 2007 we will have the first west coast Ski-O Championships. The new Tahoe-Donner map is nearly done. Tony Pinkham is making the map but it is unclear which club will own the final product. Specific dates are still being worked out with Larry Berman. Tony is negotiating with GCO to pick up a couple days of the festival, which will encompass two weekends. The champs will be at Burton Creek.

We will probably want to put on a regular foot two-day A meet later in 2007. Gary has floated the idea of Big Basin, but people are unenthused due to the steepness and map quality. Evan suggested that one day could happen on the new Tilden map; others think the terrain is not good enough for advanced courses. Briones would work except that it's not nice in the fall. China Camp was suggested. Gary would like to nail down the venue(s) ASAP.

2008 is wide open. There has been talk of bidding for several US Champs events (sprint, short, and trail) for a festival in 2008 or 2009. We may wish to bid for APOC (the Asia Pacific Orienteering Championships) or WMOC (the World Masters Championships) sometime. Only at Tahoe do we have high enough quality terrain for such a festival. Gary thinks it will be easy to find course setters, but difficult to find an event director. Ian noted that putting on a large event such as APOC or WMOC might fatigue the club.

Attendance for the 2005 SF Night & Day Challenge (about 210) greatly exceeded expectations, bringing in over $3500 in net proceeds, which were split 50/50 between BAOC and Meridian Geographics. Terry Farrah, co-owner of Meridian Geographics, proposed that the club again co-produce the event in 2006, but with the club receiving 20% of the net proceeds rather than 50%. The club would be responsible for vetting and day-of-event staffing. Terry will present proposal in writing to Board email list. She proposed June 3-4 as dates.

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6. Treasurer's Report – George Minarik

George distributed budget summary documents. Event income is right on track; there is a chance we will go over budget by year's end. Expenses are under budget in most areas. We planned for a $14,000 deficit and so far we have only a $2000 deficit.

7. Budget Items – George Minarik and others

a. Support for BAOC juniors
Nobody is applying for our junior grants. The new Juniors Director should work on how we can better support our juniors. Jeff suggested we use this money to put on a junior training camp.
b. Reimbursement for Dan Stoll-Hadaiyya's WOC expenses
Since we haven't spent our junior grant money, Dan Stoll-Hadaiyya requested reimbursement for some of his 2005 World Orienteering Championship expenses.
Gary moved that we reimburse Dan up to $1000 in expenses, along with thanks for being a supporting member of the club as well as a top-notch competitor. The Board approved this unanimously. Jeff will ask him for a WOC report for the Bulletin.
c. Contribution to Saturn relay charity
The Saturn Relay is a running relay in which BAOC regularly enters a strong team. It goes from Calistoga to Santa Cruz. This year it is scheduled for October 15-16 and is in support of Organs "R" Us, an organization that supports organ donation.
Werner Haag, a team member, explained that the team wants to raise club awareness of the relay. Last year we had a full BAOC team and came in fourth place. There are about 250 teams of 12 in the race, and the entry fee is $840 per team. Werner would like results to be posted on website (Evan suggested asking Brad Wetmore). This year the team proposes having a BAOC booth at the beginning of the race. Cost is $600; a discount may be available to us as a non-profit. A booth will likely not bring in many new members, but, in combination with a high-achieving team, will build club awareness over time.
Ian suggests paying for a booth, especially if it is only $300. No need to vote; this would come out of our Outreach budget. Nancy Lindeman will work on staffing. Orienteering coupons will be given out. It is unclear how much of the booth fee will go to Organs "R" Us.
There was some support in favor of putting out a donation jar at BAOC events, on the order of, "Support organ donation – sponsor BAOC's winning Saturn Relay team". However, would we be setting a precedent for others wanting to collect donations for events they are running in? George said that, in the past, people have wanted to put on O' events and channel a percentage of the proceeds to a particular cause (e.g. Scouts). We have always said that the entire proceeds have to come to BAOC, and then BAOC can make a donation to the cause if it chooses.
Werner said that his intention was that the donation jar proceeds would be used to defray the cost of the booth. It would be a way for club members to support the team. There was general agreement that we don't want to do this. The team can email the BAOC mailing list to promote the team's efforts.
d. $200 for Skyline Ridge work (lunch)
Terry would like up to $200 to buy lunch for 20 volunteers at the November 3 Skyline Ridge volunteer work party. Gary moved to authorize $200 for Terry to spend on volunteer benefits of her choice for this event, to come out of the Outreach budget. Approved unanimously. It was suggested that this be added as a separate budget item in the future, since, if this event is successful, we will organize more "giving back to the land" events.

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8. 2006 Budget Committee – George Minarik

The President, Mapping Director and Treasurer are required to be on this committee. The Event Coordinator is welcome, as are any other interested club members. George requests that people notify him of any expected 2006 expenses that are out of the ordinary. A committee meeting will be scheduled later.

9. Mapping Report – Bob Cooley (absent)

Scott talked about a privately owned 1800 acre forested ranch in Lake County (north of Middletown) which is a possibility for a new map. Putah Creek originates in this property. The owner is very positive. Scott was advised to send Bob Cooley there to check it out and meet the owner.

10. Directors' Reports

Membership (Steve Beuerman): 230 memberships, 453 members. The trend is slightly down. Some postcard renewal reminders should bring the numbers back up.

Registration (Ev & Jean Beuerman): People like self-registration and it is working well. Some people would like to use it for manual punch event, but logistically it doesn't work as smoothly. North Bay registration director is an open slot; currently the work falls onto Scott and Gary.

Equipment (Mark Blair): We gave 25 old canvas control bags on indefinite loan to the adventure race people.

E-punch (Trinka Gillis): We have a new laptop. No more sticky keys. 17" screen, enough to have all windows open at the same time. It consumes a lot of battery. Trinka replaced the velcro on some of the epunch units. We have 49 numbered controls. Do we need more? It was decided to consider adding epunch to White and Yellow courses, in which case we will need more units. Trinka will survey clubs that already have white/yellow on epunch.

Event Quality (Dan Greene; absent): No report.

Juniors (Nick Corsano; submitted report by email): "The main item of news from the Junior Director is that I am stepping down from the position once a new person is named. I have discussed the issue of a successor with Ian, but I don't know if he is in position to make an announcement yet or not.

"I have been on the board for a decade or so. It has been a great pleasure to be part of such a dedicated group, but it is time for someone else to take the lead in our services to youth. There is potential for a lot of good things to happen in the coming years, both in junior development and in youth outreach. I still plan to do my part in that, especially as a liaison to Girl Scouting. My other special focus within the club is to help build up interest in Trail Orienteering."

Permits (Rosemary Johnson): The insurance company continues to provide poor service. Turnaround can be up to 4 weeks for endorsements, one week for certificates.

Publicity (Nancy Lindeman; absent): No report.

Bulletin (Jeff Lanam): Reminder – The bulletin deadline is the 20th of even-numbered months.

Website (Van Boughner; absent): No report.

Adventure Race Coordination (Mark Prior; submitted report by email): "We have successfully set up two long orange courses this season for different local race promoters, Big Blue and Shooting Star, this season with a total of 300+ participants. We had to revoke our support of the remaining Shooting Star event this year due to their lack of suitable organization and planning required to offer a quality course, but we continue to work closely with Big Blue. Anne Gorby and Bruce Wolfe will be coordinating an event at Northstar this Saturday and we will host two courses at Spooner/Burton for a 12-24 hour race on Saturday, October 15th.

"Complete financial and outreach summaries for 2005 will be available at the next board meeting. In addition, I will supply a recommendation for how we should work with AR (and other outing groups) in 2006. Our lack of clear policy on independent maps purchases has become an issue. Additionally, we need to assess the organizational cost of working directly with these promoters in the context of the success of our marketing and financial goals."

Rosemary suggested we review pricing for selling maps to for-profit organizations. Terry will pull up what we discussed in a Board meeting last year.

Outreach (Scott Aster): A couple of scout groups have contacted him; Scott referred them to Nick Corsano.

Social (Rex Winterbottom; absent): No report.

USOF (Gary Kraght): We will have a new insurance broker and company next year; we don't know who it will be yet. BAOC may expect recharter fees to be based on a mix of club membership numbers and event "starts".

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11. NEW BUSINESS (including date of next meeting) – Ian Tidswell

The next meeting will be Monday, December 5, at Stanford, assuming we can get a room.

12. ADJOURNMENT

The meeting was adjourned at 9:57 p.m.

Respectfully submitted,
Terry Farrah
November 21, 2005