GMNC Meeting Minutes 12-13-22

Meeting called to order on Zoom.

Dan Tille read our mission statement.

Guests: Kelly Huffman–new resident of GJ. Member of GMNC and big fan. Grateful for the work that we do. Visiting the board meeting because she wants to see how we work, and may apply to join the board. Marguerite Tuthill: interested in getting more involved in GMNC. Grew up in Avon, and came to GJ for a job and has stayed. Loves GJ area, and loves the greatest skiing being so close up on GM. She has a big Newfoundland who skies with her–and she will say hi to other skiers.

Nov 9 2022 meeting minutes–Motion by Dan Tille to approve, seconded by Christine Noel, no corrections and will be uploaded. 

Financial Report: John Traylor  comments–Up for the month year over year. Keeping an eye on grants which need to come in Jan and Feb. Our memberships are up. We are not in the black as yet. Big announcement: Christine Noel has agreed to be our new treasurer. Thank you Christine! 

• John Traylor posted the investment actions the Financial Committee has approved. FYI year to date the investments have given us $1400 which is ahead of last year.
• Budget modifications for our mid-year review, will occur this month. Please review the budget closely and to suggest modifications to the Financial Committee asap. This includes current or anticipated overages.
• Kelly Huffman asked our biggest source of revenue–membership donations. 
• Marguerite Tuthill: asking What is CERF. Capital Expenditures Reserve Funds. Why are non-government grants so low compared to last year? We budgeted $19,000- and only showing $1000. But, the WCCF grant is $10K and not filed correctly–it’s showing up in Other. This will get fixed. 

Additional guest: Bob Thomas, lives in Montrose since 1982. Attending meeting because he has skied on the Mesa for quite a few years, and is a membership. He thinks GMNC is world class. He is interested in being on the board if he fits. He’s a retiring attorney–and he has non profit legal background, but not quite retired as yet. He has skied his entire life all over the state, and been involved with other ski companies and organizations. 

Board introduced themselves to the 3 guests.

Back to Financial–Susie Attaway made the motion for Christine Noel to be new treasurer, and John Traylor seconded. Unanimous vote.

Grants–Grand Junction Sports Commission grant $3600 for new bibs. And the Goodwin Foundation approved $15,000 this year for outfitting the new building, and another $15,000 as seed money for funding the solar system.

Executive Director Report

• Scales Lake Road is now back to us for skiing. 
• Appreciations for the groomers for the by-passes
• The Annual Operating Plan has been signed by the Forest Service. Mike has assured us that they will review the Master Development Plan this month–this is important for creating designated snow shoe trails. We are looking at grants for the snow shoe project, but waiting on the forest service. 
• Grants–looking at several for the new building project. 
• Working on new business supporters. Trying to expand to non-ski oriented businesses.
• Working on long term planning for bigger donors, and ways to engage them in our projects.
• Website is functional–big time investment for the little tweaks and training of staff. No major snags. 
• Beth Klein and Melissa Newell are all trained on website and really do fabulous work. 
• Slopeside has been responsive and really great to work with on website.
• Ops–big news is Scales Lake Road, and Dave Smith will be training new snowcat groomer so we have a back up.
• Free ski clinics are a raging success–we are at capacity. 
• Members used to get discounts for lessons but we no longer provide that–instead we ask non-member lesson people to give a one day use donation. The lesson prices have been revamped.
• Appreciations to Christie for the brilliant idea of free clinics.

Questions: will logging company or Forest Service repair the road damage on Scales Lake Road? Response: yes, but we have seen that there is very little enforcement in the past. There was quite a bit of damage and we will need to handle that ourselves. The logging company also damaged our snow fence, and posts, and we will ask to be compensated for that. Dave Smith will document all damage. 

Events Report–Melissa Newell

• Successful membership tables happen frequently. Great feedback.
• Membership table the day after the free ski clinic was really appreciated by new skiers.
• Facebook promotions–once or twice daily. Promoting on local radio stations, and press releases to area newspapers. The reach, and shares, of these posts is growing exponentially. Big impact.
• First full moon ski on Dec 4 was a good success considering the weather. Lots of new people attended–and families. Family Fun day this coming weekend–announced on KVNF. Hoping for a good turnout but weather will be cold. Great donations of food, drink, and goodie bags–also GV Nordic Ski Club and the Nature Connection involved.
• Ambassador training was moderately successful but weather was not cooperative in terms of cold and wind. 9 people came, and some have already started doing the trail ambassador work, and  the membership tables. More ambassador trainings coming up.
• Volunteer engagement–tracking volunteer hours.  Board members need to report the hours of work they perform each month. This is helpful for our USFS permit, and grants.

Big Appreciations!!! To Melissa for all the engagement she is getting on social media, and membership tables.

• Recommendation made by John Traylor to get into google analytics. 
• John Traylor asking about future surveys to get data from our members. Put this on Christie Aschwanden and Melissa Newell’s list.

Operations: Tiller and track setter issues on the snow cat. CV joint fixed for tiller, but electronic connections then don’t work for classic tracks. Dave Smith working with snow cat companies to get this repaired as quickly as possible. In the meantime, Dave Smith is running the cat around the trails, and then 2 other groomers are doing snowmobile grooming to set classic track. 

John Traylor asks if there are any concerns with our snowcat maintenance given the series of problems we’ve had. Joe Ramey believes we are not having more than normal problems other than the unfortunate problem with batteries at the beginning of the year. We switched to Prinoth  this year because of poor work from the prior maintenance company. 

Building update:

• We are in middle of design process for this permanent building. We have received a sign off from the Forest Service at our 30% point of design. We have signed a contract to go into the next phase.
• Timeline for breaking ground is September 1 2023–working on getting this process pushed forward to June 1, 2023. We need a 30 day public comment period, and then admin time to go through and respond to all the comments. We are at a point where we can initiate the comment period with the public.
• Building is a 2 level construction with only 1 level visible which is the community building. Beneath it is equipment and workshop area.
• Dan Tille is looking for legal help to review contracts going forward. 
• Kelly Huffman–does construction of building depend on the comment period? Yes, per USFS. Comments go to Chad Steward, head ranger of GMUG, and he reviews and can only then decide if they can support the project in full or if changes need to be made.. 
• Building has not been announced formally to the public–it will happen at a joint press release with USFS, just before the comment period. This will also initiate the capital campaign.
• Marguerite Tuthill recommended outside influencers and advisers to help us learn some of the ways to move this forward. One specific person recommended is Sams Clifton with IAS Consulting who has done work that could be useful. Christie Aschwanden requests board to connect her to other professionals that can help us work faster within the USFS system. 

Dan Tille will reach out to guests post meeting, and the board appreciates all guests for their attendance. 

Appreciations to Dan Tille for running efficient meetings.

Board went into Executive Session.