MORE Board of Directors Meeting – April 16

 

 

 

Attendees:

 

MORE Board Members:

 

Ernie Rodriguez

Bob Caverly

Tom Howe

Carlos Alfaro

Steve Harper

Steve Dontigny – Executive Director

Guests:

Tom Newton

Rick Meyer

Tim O’Donnell

Board members not present –

Dave Magill

Mike Hillstron

Jeff Niner

 

Ernie Rodriguez opened the meeting with a discussion about his discussions with Mike Hillstrom and Dave Magill regarding  financials for the year and restricted funds balances.  Board members should have received the spreadsheets related to financials and restricted fund balances.  IMBA – will bill us for Steve DonTigny.

• Financials – will be done on a monthly basis
• Confirmed that Mike is ok with being Treasurer for three years

Bob Caverly – MoCo funds – no Schaefer funds deducted in the spreadsheets we received.  Will be in the next financials.

There was a motion to fund the request made by the new Maryland NICA league (AKA Maryland Interscholastic Cycling League – MICL) and a discussion.  The discussion focused on how to fund this, whether it will be a regular contribution and the need to fundraise to replace any funds expended on this.  Board members committed to fundraising to replace the funds if unrestricted funds were used.  Board members were also in agreement that this was important for the continued growth of the sport and for MORE membership.  The vote in favor of funding MICL for one year in the amount of $8,000 carried unanimously.

Ernie Rodriguez  – Family ride program manager is planning to recruit additional ride leaders and volunteers for Wakefield sMORE’s so she can focus on organizational development and growth.

Tom Newton – need MORE discovery rides, literally.

Ernie Rodriguez Fountainhead planning meeting – with NOVA parks for continuation of trail work on Bull Run Occoquan Trail.  Planning continues and we applied for grants to fund the needed work.  Ernie working with FCPA to name a trail for deceased member Marc Genberg.

Ernie Rodriguez – DC contingent – working to build bike facilities and possible pump track on Kingman Island.

Steve Dontigny

• MoCo – marketing piece to the printer by the end of the month. Permit application process is underway.  Tent rentals are in process, food provider, volunteer coordinator and volunteer assignments.  May have EMT for a day.  Action item, contact Jason Hade to recruit first aid volunteers.
• Working on Who is MORE? Steve Harper offered to assist.
• Loudoun County – homeowners are interested in building a skills area for teens and tweens.
• Leesburg – meeting to re-opening evergreen mills.
• Meeting this week – city park – Natural and wooden features South Riding – near Dulles.

Carlos Alfaro

• Spring Fling April 28th – Karl Liebert asked to make sure we updated the schedule on the Facebook and MORE webpage page with rides and events, he’s in charge of the grill! Rob Lowe has a good list of volunteers for the ride leaders, but maybe could use a few more.  Thanks to Tom Howe and his team of volunteers, the trail connection is open south of Accotink. Thanks to Cathy everything seems set with the location. Brad did a great job with the invites and facebook advertisements.  Ribbon cutting at 12:00 at the pumptrack.  Ernie will send a blast about it.

Brad Hawk – encouraged board members to sign up to lead rides on weekends.  Board members and volunteers are encouraged to sign-up to lead weekend rides with Brad.  Brad will coordinate post to Facebook and MORE calendar.

Steve Harper – Will take the action to get people on the schedule for board rides on the weekend.

Steve DonTigny  – Has the action to make sure board members have a list of people to call for fund raising.

Tom  Howe – Membership is at 1300 this month.  Tom continues to send email reminders to new and expiring members to drive membership renewals.

Bob Caverly – Sharepoint – who uses it?  Trying to figure out how much we’re using it.  Sharepoint in Office 365 account is the primary repository for MORE historical documents.  Discussion around social media used for groups and rides while MORE webpage is used for ride/event calendar, stakeholder and liaison documents.  These documents are outward facing for grant applications, stakeholder information and education.  MORE’s Office 365 Sharepoint account is the repository of MORE’s history and documents.

Ernie Rodriguez and Tom Howe – Will communicate the new IMBA Local changes and updates.

Bob Caverly and Tom Newton  —- took the action to organize a Schaefer Ride – first board ride/ Ribbon cutting.  With park people.  Plus Dan Hudson.

Tim O’Donnell (trail liaison for Emmitsburg trails)

–           Organizing a  Community Day

–           There is a possible RTP Grant Modification

–           Developing trail Community.

Tom Newton (Trail Liaison Patuxent River State Park Trails)

• City of Gaithersburg may have funds available to help fund mountain biking infrastructure and may be interested in build trails. Members should unite to advocate the City of Gaithersburg build mountain bike infrastructure and possibly a BMX park.
• Connecting Seneca – greenway – upper rock creek.

Bob Caverly

• Schaeffer Farm White Loop has been significantly updated by Elevated Trail Design using MoCo Re-investment funds. Rider feedback is overwhelmingly positive. Two additional re-routes are in the works for Schaeffer Farm – one on Yellow (abandon field section before sign post 9) and one on White to move trail across the stream and onto side slope before signpost 2.

Pepco Trail – Groundbreaking was a success and excitement is building for a trail from Montgomery mall to the South Germantown soccerplex.

There was a general discussion about safety at trail heads and on trails.

• Call 911 if there’s an emergency or something sketchy.
• MORE can’t be responsible for security, but we should all report anything either by calling 911 or if it’s not an emergency the appropriate park/local authority.