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Executive Committee meeting of 15 September 2010

Green Mountain Club, Montpelier Section

Minutes of the Executive Committee Meeting, September 15, 2010

Accepted

John Buddington called the executive committee to order at 7:10 p.m. at the Jordan home.

Officers present: John Buddington (chair), Charlene Bohl (vice president), Robert Lorenz (treasurer), Kathryn Gohl (secretary/LTN reporter), Nancy Jordan (Trail Talk editor), Kevin Ryan (publicity coordinator), Fred Jordan (acting membership coordinator), Cynthia Martin (director), and Priscilla Daggett (alternate director)

Officers absent: Eric Seidel (trails and shelters coordinator)

Section members present: Ken Hertz (Web clerk)

OLD BUSINESS

1. Minutes of the June 8, 2010, meeting. Nancy Jordan moved and Cynthia Martin seconded that the minutes of the June 8, 2010, meeting be accepted as written and submitted earlier by email. The motion passed unanimously on a voice vote.

2. Current status report. John Buddington reported that Eric Seidel, along with Andrew Nuquist, had hiked to the Bamforth Ridge shelter to check on the state of the shelter’s side trail after hearing reports of its deterioration. What they found indicated that there seems no reason to panic. Over the next few summers, during work hikes, trail workers will roll rocks onto the trail to help curtail its bogginess, which should be sufficient. Fred Jordan stated that he will be installing a water pipe to help with the water supply.

3. Officers' reports and other reports, as requested

a. Membership. Fred Jordan reported that in terms of membership the section was doing well; membership has increased, although the number of voting members has decreased. Ken Hertz wondered if the section contacted new members. Both John and Fred said that the main club sends out a letter to new members, and that in the past both John and Fred had called them, but that often people weren’t home, didn’t return messages left on answering machines, and usually had little interest in volunteering as a result of the calls. It was noted that the volunteer picnic was coming up on September 25.

b. GMC board. Cynthia Martin said there was little news from the GMC directors. There was a meeting scheduled for September 25. The GMC was looking for people who could speak about the GMC’s wind power policy and their own love of the Long Trail at a public hearing on September 23 concerning the Lowell wind project. It was noted that the project will be visible from Tillotson Camp.

c. Web site. Ken Hertz reported that the Web site is cruising along. He continues to put trip reports onto the site. He noted that the YAC has submitted a few trips after the Trail Talk deadline.

d. Treasurer's report. Bob Lorenz passed out copies of the quarterly treasurer’s report. He said that $3,000 is still available to the main club for removing Watson Camp. The expenses of Trail Talk remain pretty much the same, and given Nancy’s “personal relationship” with the printer, prices will no doubt remain low. It was suggested that a donation be made to the main club in Dave Blumenthal’s name and that the topic might be taken up at the annual meeting.

e. Publicity report. Kevin Ryan said that he’s been listing events in the local papers—the Bridge, the Middlesex Newspaper, the World, and the Times-Argus—as well as in the Waterbury paper. He sends them all emails, except for the Times-Argus, which requires that each item be typed into its grid. Also, someone puts the activities into the senior center newsletter.

f. Winter outing schedule. Charlene Bohl reported that she was hoping to get more events for the winter schedule. January is filled, but there’s not much for February. Ski trips are needed as well as a date for the chili party. In the past, the best way to create a schedule was through a planning meeting, but that doesn’t seem to be working lately—no one’s come to the last few meetings. The meetings seem to work best if scheduled in Montpelier. Perhaps she should send out requests to people before the planning meeting? Perhaps we should put the deadline for trips and the meeting in the calendar?

NEW BUSINESS

1. Taylor series. Ken and Cynthia reported that they have a speaker and a date of Friday, January 14, at 7:00, for the Taylor series. Cynthia has been the main contact with the speaker. The Grange is taken on that date but the GMC building in Waterbury is available. They now need a few pictures and need to verify the title and send a blurb to Pete Antos-Ketcham and Nancy Jordan. Kevin volunteered to make posters.

2. Section annual meeting. John proposed Friday April 9, 2011, as a date and suggested that we talk more in December about location. Ken suggested that we get space reserved, so Charlene proposed that she go ahead and reserve the Wood Art Gallery.

3. Nominating committee. John said that at the December meeting he will get together a nominating committee; he hoped it could be composed of someone who will be retiring from the executive committee and someone who is not on the executive committee.

4. Membership coordinator. Fred Jordan, by acclamation of the executive committee, is now membership coordinator until April.

5. Web master. Ken is concerned that we find a Web master with technical expertise; he will continue filling in, but he does not believe he is qualified to do the job himself. Ken suggests that the executive committee actively search for a Web master, perhaps by putting an ad in Trail Talk, or perhaps by talking to the GMC Web master or to other sections that have Web sites.

6. Long Trail News article. John reported that the Long Trail News had solicited a report from the section for the next issue, but they now tell him that that issue is full.

7. Inventory. John suggested that we keep an inventory of all sections items and where they are located, for example, the long banner of the Long Trail, the 3’ x 4’-foot banner, the YAC banner, the bandanas, the note cards, items used at the annual meeting, both a new and an outdated display, several boxes of trip reports, and other files. Perhaps we should keep and publish annually such an inventory. It was decided this job would be the responsibility of the president. [The inventory has been posted at http://gmcmontpelier.org/executive/2010/1201/inventory.htm; the revised job description is at http://gmcmontpelier.org/executive/JobDescriptions/President.html.]

8. Nancy mentioned that she wished more people would take photographs when they go on trips and that they would send them to her. She can’t use cell phone pictures; they must come from a digital camera.

The next meeting will be December 1 at Ken Hertz’s home. The subsequent meeting will be at 6:30 p.m., Wednesday, March 9. John will find a place to hold the meeting—perhaps at Kellogg Hubbard library.

The meeting was adjourned at 8:49 p.m.

Respectfully submitted

Kathryn Gohl, Secretary

Drafted September 27, 2010

Edited November 17, 2010

Approved December 1, 2010

The agenda as distributed prior to the meeting.