GMNC Board meeting via Zoom August 11, 2021
Present:
Christie, Joe, Cam, Lynea, Colleen, Tom, Dan, Kris Khelle, Larry –
Mission Statement read:
Secretary – minutes are late. Need to finish by September and get all back months finished and available.
Christie – ED report:
Sent a report for the meeting beforehand describing what she’s doing.
Has phone now for GMNC, Admin set up, social media and will start posting.
Joe has been working on getting something up regularly. Two meetings with the Forest Service. 10 August meeting notes with Mike too. Try to signal we are not going to accept current non-responsiveness on big issues. Mike and Christie are both new, so we are hoping for a new era. Mike will be an advocate for GMNC and is open to getting annual operating plan done early and approved. See report for balance.
Christie is going to ask Forest Service for a real deadline date given the contract and memo. Forest Service may not limit the dates, but we should try and then let the members know.
Let Mike know that’s the plan. He’s still getting up to speed.
Behind because wet, slowing down Montrose Forest Products timber extraction work. Get the records to Christie – Forward the emails from Nicole to Christie. Scott Armantrout and person from GMNC had a discussion at that point. No one could recall when this was.
Christie’s point is we should be able to just ask for this stuff – in a partnership; we shouldn’t have to do FOIA request.
9/3/21 meeting with FS. Annual Operating Plan – permission to groom connector trail. Where is it located and pretty short – crosses the snowmobile corridor, should be easy. Mike running by wildlife biologist in reference to the lynx habitat issue. Bill allowed some temporary trails due to timber sale already. If logging company creates new roads, there is an opportunity for new trails. Dan – whenever asked, Bill stated we could possibly use these as ski trails.
Winter Ranger Shane and second ranger – the USFS asks us to contribute money. No – was Shane not an enforcer, outside of shoveling the bathrooms, he was not useful. Decision to not support a winter ranger was made in April and Christie will forward that to Mike.
Grants: Going to do some new ones – see Christie’s memo.
By next meeting – elite membership idea (K Club). Doing more to ask for more and incentivizing good, but people will donate anyways. Working on business sponsorship program with different tiers. Will share a draft of that soon.
Trails – looking good. Lynea walked Ward trails – some signage problems. Some poles down. Ward needs some work. One big tree down blocking signs.
Dave Smith – phone calls had several. He will be the Operations Manager this season, but Christie is asking him for a plan. He wants 3-4 full-time people, but budget does not support that. Never going to be able to commit to full-time grooming; it is weather dependent. Precariousness of wages is an issue – Dave’s initial ideas are a little big. Dave’s concerns may not be concerns of the other Operations staff. Operations committee working on – clear that Dave and Rich had conflicts, and Christie going to think about how to deal with this. She would like to have Rich back – he’s the best mechanic. Dave’s input needed to define jobs offered to Ops staff. Will meet in person and decide by end of the month. Lynea offered to help and get employment agreements done.
Met with Martin about ski school and he will run it. He doesn’t really want to be a director long term. Martin wants to be on the snow and giving lessons. He is trying to make it more professional and do more clinics rather than random scattering of lessons. He’s going to do a schedule of lessons/clinics. Kids’ program or clinics this year get going, and coincide with adult clinics. Talk with Christina/GVNSC about it – don’t want to step on their toes, but want to make sure to have programs that work with us. Christina is interested and will be coming to us with a proposal. Dan has emailed her.
Hardest part = keeping track of people Christy has been talking with. Talked with Christie Hicks at Crested Butte Nordic, she was helpful, and had contacts. Christie is going to talk with their race program director, and see if they want to partner on any of our races. Put her in touch with their ski school. Model this year is split cut on programs/lessons. Need to revisit long term. Martin – fine to incentivize PSIA, but not make mandatory. Grant has gone from $10,000 to $5,000 to $2,500. Maybe ask for grant for trails ambassador program – Christie would like to bring back.
Christie wants to do stickers for members – put money in the budget. Reason for K Club – signal membership and get people interested in it. Member stickers. Have some 30 year stickers 1990 to 2020. Have sold hats in the past. Do at membership tables. We do not want to have to ship, package, etcetera. Could have some stuff people could get at membership tables. At events, could have some stuff to sell. Dan has already done this and has had some people stitch it up. Has 50 hats. Honestly after doing t-shirt printing – coming up with patch. Kierkegarde hat blue printed was a good seller. Tom says go through the same company and may have the design.
Lynea – requests for upcoming all day board retreat 28th all day. Needs questions we as board want answered and priortize them. Hut, snowshoes trails, collaboration and fees with COPMOBA, etcetera – longer vision things. Fits with what the FS was wanting. 9/13/21 board meeting – in person? Need to see what Delta situation is. Do Zoom – and in person for the “visioning” meeting.
Christie going to try to put that event up on Facebook.
Dan – John Lorenzon meeting – willing to give up to $350,000, but we need to present John a plan to get that. Only $150,000 right now. Full building/half building – need to figure out what we want to do. Joe thinks the board should decide and tell John right away, as he has been waiting for 1.5 years. As soon as Forest Service says approves, we need to start doing onsite EIS and Joe is going to push for that. Tom – asked about equipment shed. Joe – John not interested in funding that. Dan asked John’s purpose – didn’t specifically ask for what, let him know $150,000 not enough and Forest Service is the biggest block right now. He said if we need more money for a permanent warming hut, he’s got more. Larry pointed out approved steps from Forest Service will make fund-raising easier. Joe submitted a Master Development Plan that was a lot of work, they need to review and hopefully approve that document. To honor his wish we need to give him information quickly.
Committee updates:
Race – Christy, Tom, Colleen, Dan – met and set dates for races. Five races, Dec, Jan, collegiate, Feb (Hearthrob race), March. GJ sports commission – we would fit their grant program per Dan. Excited we are going to apply – would fully fund the program. Just apply – maximum of $10,000. Wide-ranging use of funds – just not salary. Submit by the end of Septembert. Plan to order new race bibs.
Membership – Colleen. Dates – Social event 1/1/22. 1/15 full moon ski. Membership table on 11/27 and 11/28. Races and eventhe ts on same weekend. Poker run on ½ as a social event. Dan talked with Assistant Manager at REI – they are not doing community events yet. REI is happy to do Intro to x-country this fall as well as a waxing clinic. Sometime this winter. Tom – outreach mailchimp – when do we want next message to go out? Christie will write anExecutive Director introduction. Volunteer Days article too – call for volunteers. Hold off on Forest Service. Could publish race dates – do not want to conflict with other races. Add membership dates too. Want people to join soon – three fall events want to give notice of. Paonia, kids’ pasta project, etcetera. Cedar Edge event. Tom Ela will organize the Kannah Creek event. Have had raffles for prizes – can do as much as we want. Discount for members at Boulder Nordic Sport or elsewhere? Christie will pursue.
Dan – newsletter. Newsletter always has upcoming events – not want things to get lost in Mailchimp – too much information. Tom – is a question. Do a real newsletter? More involved. Most people joining on-line – only email newsletter decided last year and no envelopes – just a link to button on website. Tom says Tina did our last newsletter October 2020 before the Mailchimps – charged for her work. $30/hour. Christie find someone to do the graphic design part? Tom – can do rudimentary. On-line has been working, stick with that. Joe says we have a large box of hundreds of membership envelopes. If someone wants an envelope – we can do it (to mail us money). Lynea suggests we look at last year’s – that Tina did. It was nice and professional. Not hard – just putting things in columns. Tom will take a look at it. May be a capable member who would volunteer to do. Request that in the mailchimp.
Map: Tom holding off until we know how we want to deal with businesses. Need to look at and make changes, which Tina can do at $30/hour. Tom thinks we should start now. Tom, Joe and Christy want to work on the changes. Nothing in the budget – can sell enough map ads to cover printing per Tom. Joe – prior to hiring an ED, most GMNC paid was $25/hour (Tina asked for $30/hour). Last year’s services. Tina donated her time for several years Tom notes. Tina also emailed Christie to let her know she’s available. She expects the project. GMNC gave a limit and paid her twice that prior year. Tom, Joe and Dan will go over the map in detail. We will find a new graphics person to put it together and the newsletter. Christie will provide the information on the ads and how they will look/cost.
Budget:
Larry’s Excel spreadsheet. Shared before the meeting. It’s on the Google Drive.
Lynea taking notes.
Budget approved unanimously. Cam moved; Tom seconded.