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October GMNC Board Meeting

Wednesday, October 19, 6:06-7:41PM

Bill Heddles Recreation Center

Present: Christine Noel, John Traylor, Susie Attaway, Joe Ramey, Christie Aschwanden, Tom Ela, Dan Tille, Larry Gruel, and Melissa Newell

  1. Approval of last month’s meeting minutes 
    1. Tom Ela moves to approve.
    2. John Traylor seconds. 
    3. Motion passes.
  2. Last month’s financial review 
    1. Bookkeeper Beth Klein made corrections on LGL per Susie Attaway’s request and Dan Tille’s direction in an effort to get the LGL to accurately meet the financials.
    2. Restricted gifts instead of non-government grants are still listed incorrectly and need to be adjusted.
    3. Susie Attaway had a question on the monthly P&L on grooming reports to date. This year they will be covered by the website grant, but next year GMNC will be covering the expense out of pocket.
    4. John Traylor requested that the entry on 10/11/22 balance sheet be corrected to show purchase.  This does not affect this month’s financials, but will show up on next month’s.
    5. GMNC Investment Report
      1. John Traylor reports that the board approved the policy to do quarterly financial reports, and accordingly, this is his first.
      2. Money market account – John researched if there are accounts that will yield a higher interest rate.
        1. Edward Jones 0.5% a bit better, offering 1-year CDs at 4.25%
        2. Options available if we want to move money market account to higher investment
        3. Advantage of working with Edward Jones is that they have a broker that can buy and sell for us
        4. Can handle equities if someone wishes to make donation in stock
        5. Approval to reinvest t-bill for another 8 weeks – this will renew in January 
    6. Christine Noel will be joining the financial committee and may take over as treasurer eventually.
      1. Christine teaches accounting at CMU and is a CPA, licensed since 2000.
      2. She feels well qualified to take on the role, but would like to wait a month or two before taking on the treasurer role.
      3. Tom Ela makes motion to accept Christine’s nomination to become new board member; Susie Attaway seconds this; board approves the motion.
  3. Executive Director Report 
    1. Christie Aschwanden reports that we are in good shape
    2. We are $1000 over where we were last year at this time in memberships, and memberships are starting to roll in following the Mailchimp newsletter sent out this week.
    3. USFS paperwork has all been submitted, and Christie has a message into Mike Jones regarding doing early season snow pack prep.
    4. Christie wants to stand hard and fast to November 15th deadline on logging along Scales Lake Road as she is concerned they exceed this deadline.  The USFS could conceivably plow the road until November 15th.  This said, the worst case scenario is that Scales Lake Rd would not be available to groom until November 15th.
    5. Dave Smith is ready for the season with a crew in place.  Christie sent out contracts.
      1. GMNC will need to sell off old snowmobile once the season starts, and per Dan Tille, this is up to Christie and Joe to set a price.
    6. Website – 
      1. Christie reports that we hope to go live next week.  Once this happens, we can update all content with 2023 events and Paypal, Venmo, Apple pay, and Google pay can be set up as well.
      2. The e-commerce website should be more user-friendly
      3. Dan reports that we will be paying a small monthly stipend to have web designers available to us for support.
      4. Also, our email server will move from GoDaddy in December, and this will be covered by the website grant.
    7. Alpine Bank grant 
      1. Christie was excited to announce that we were awarded a grant from Alpine Bank to cover underwriting advertising on KVNF.  She would like to use this to get the word out on family ski days, free ski clinics, and other events that are inclusive of skiers of all levels, abilities, and income brackets.
      2. Christie and Melissa have a meeting with the Nature Connection who also received one of these grants.  She would like to coordinate efforts to publicize events.
        1. Partner w/Nature Connection for Family Fun Day, Full Moon Ski
        2. We, GMNC, create the space and infrastructure while others provide the instruction and support.
    8. Empowered Energy Systems gave $1500 to be the 2022/23 race sponsor again.  Possibly event swag will be made with some of this money. Also, the Grand Junction Sports Commission has a $5000 grant to cover race prices, advertising, swag, etc.
    9. Christie will be meeting with Debbie to finalize free and masters ski clinics and Women’s Wednesdays.
  4. Trail work Update / Ops
    1. Joe reported that an excavator was rented for two weeks, and work was done on Dog Loop, Scales Glade, Vista Ridge, Will’s Hill, Winslow, Sunset, and Summit (equal to all the other work combined).  It was a very productive two weeks, beyond our wildest expectations.
    2. The project came in at about budget, maybe a bit over.
    3. Summit widening trail – labor money was donated back to the organization – $5000
      1. Nine days total were spent on this trail, and effort was spent to maintain the intimate feel.
    4. Signs and donation boxes have been put at all three trailheads.
    5. The snowmobiles need oil changes – Dave will take care of this.
    6. Kiosk sign is unusable, and we need to talk to Mike about this.
    7. Weather Update: Winter will be arriving this week.  Expect 10 inches on top, less at Ward; more snow coming in early November.
  5. Newsletter
    1. It was decided by the board that it is better to have more frequent and shorter emails.
    2. In the past we have done a larger November 15th newsletter that is a call for membership donations and serves to get folks excited for the season.  Question was posed, do we want to do this again this year?  Board decides after some discussion, no.
    3. Handwritten notes to larger donors will be Christie’s strategy to get more donations.  Possibly have a major donor house party?
    4. Highlight different stories with each newsletter – circle it back around to costs, donations, and memberships
    5. Joe’s weather report was the most popular part of last year’s newsletter and the second most visited page on the website.
  6. Building update and discussion
    1. Estimate came in at $936,000 – this is a ballpark figure.
    2. We have a donor of $800,000, but this is knocked down to $700,000 to work with after design fees are paid.
    3. Huge amounts of money can be cut out of schematic design, according to Asset Engineering.
    4. Actual costs will come when they do design in the next couple of months.
    5. “It is our job to make sure that they come in at or under $700,000” – this is what Asset reported to Dan in their conversation.  They understand there is no way to ramp up a capital campaign at this point.
    6. We are encouraged to go into the design phase.
    7. Currently, our legal commitment is to pay Chamberlain and Buckhorn Engineering.  Chamberlain bills on percentage completed.
    8. Christie’s point is to not allow the donation to drive the project. Project must suit GMNC, not only the donor.
    9. Meeting with USFS, didn’t give any parameters; Chamberlain has worked with Park Service, USFS, and BLM
    10. There may be grant opportunities for electrical system.
    11. It was decided to move forward with design development – no motion required.
  7. Next month’s meeting – on Zoom
    1. November 9th at 6PM
    2. There is a need to bring on new board members.  Dan will write up a description of what we’re looking for.
    3. Meeting ended at 7:41PM
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