August 2024 Board of Directors Meeting Minutes and Activity Reports

 

Virtually present at meeting

Casey Anderson – President
Jali Fernando – Executive Secretary
David Beugelmans - Secretary
Kathy Mihm – Ride Programs Director
Dave Magill - MD Advocacy Director
Rob Lowe – Membership Director
Neil Blake – Treasurer
Michael Ullmann – VA Advocacy Director

 

Guest: Rick Dotson

 

• Executive Director Report
  • Updates on MoCo Epic
    • Registrations are good. We are ahead of the curve for 2023 and 2022.
    • We got 27 joins and renews through the MoCo Epic, which we missed out on last year, and that’s just August and July. Good to have this back.
    • Will be focusing on different routes, sponsors, what’s new for the year, what to look forward to during the event.
    • Have Wander Wellness who teaches outdoor yoga and will lead warmup stretch session
    • In afternoon will have vendor with a cold plunge
    • Aid station sponsors are looking good and will start doing highlights soon as well.
    • For Sunday rides, current signup numbers are:
      • Sunday Epic rides - 306 registered participants
        • 13mi - 14
        • 20mi - 51
        • 30mi - 98
        • 40mi - 81
        • 55mi - 29
        • 70mi - 33

 

• FPVSP Joint Membership
  • Haven’t received an update since the 3^rd week of July, and at that time we had 21 people who did the joint MORE and FVSP membership, which brought up our July numbers. This is the best July we’ve had compared to the last two years.
  • It might be worth looking at for other partner organizations we have because it helps drive membership numbers.
  • There are friends of parks of groups where this could work.
• Adaptive Bike Ownership
  • I was under the impression that FVSP wanted to get rid of bikes, but they indicated they will hold onto them.
  • It makes sense for now to leave it as is. Storage is an issue.
• Membership Update (Rob)
  • We had a really good July, mainly due to the Patapsco partnership and MoCo signups.
  • Had 38 new joins and 71 renewals.
  • We are at 1938, which is pretty good, and we are not slipping.
  • Our paid members and our auto renews increased again.
  • The 38 for joins exceeds what we did for the membership drive and brings in line what we were doing for 2022 and 2023.
  • We started to recover a little bit and didn’t lose as much ground as 2022 and 2023.
• Discuss Membership Ideas (Casey)
  • Sent an email for membership ideas and took all of input from board members with ideas and tried to arrange them into three buckets.
  • If we can come up with list of 2 or 3 things, we can try implementing.
  • Events
    • Small weekend “into to MORE” ride event with system ready to sign people up on the spot with some kind of membership premium offer
    • Monthly weeknight dig days – engage liaisons to host these, and then eat/drink later
    • Rethink event schedules to make sure they are paced correctly to keep people connected
    • Spring clinics and one off weekend group rides at various parks
    • Time pop-up events with trail work days
    • Rides at non-typical parks
    • Weekend rides – social, discovery series
    • Help liaisons who don’t have bandwidth organize more events/rides/work days
    • Help Katy with ride organizing leadership
  • Marketing Communications
    • Look for more ways of distribution our real message – the main membership perk is having a ton of trails to ride that will last for decades
    • Produce video on history of MORE
    • Raise awareness of MORE’s role in increasing and maintaining trail access.
    • Membership survey – gather data
    • Use Facebook/SM in general to reach a broader audience
    • Marketing our successes – new project completions, etc with “in progress” list
    • Showcase/frame value
    • Raise MORE profile at partner events/races
    • Highland membership perks via SM – Bryce discount, etc
    • Improve/add trailhead signage
    • Improve trail liaisons shirt
  • Membership Channels
    • Joint memberships – FOVSP, MoCO Parks Foundation, etc
    • Bike shop partnerships – offer free one year membership to MORE with purchase of MTB, provide maps or bar code for membership, online maps at cash register
    • Referral incentives – refer a friend and get a MORE jersey or some other item
    • Add MoCo Epic perks for registration with an active membership
    • Focus on autorenewals
    • Pre-paid membership card
    • Small membership drives in slower months.
    • Jali – Would like a blank in the IMBA form for people to add their other affiliations and then have an incentive program where if they sign up a certain amount of members, a certain amount of money will go to a trail system of the group’s choice
  • Discussion – Casey: we don’t need to go down the rabbit hole too much, but want some reactions now and for people to communicate to Casey in writing and will come to board after talking to see what is manageable to take on.
    • Michael: The one thing that is missing from all of what was there, if we are looking for more membership that’s one thing, but if we are looking to increase money from members, maybe we should give out perks if people are higher paying members.
      • Casey: We are not really trying to make money. MORE members are valuable to us in ways that go beyond money. We aren’t reliant on member dues to fund the club. We don’t want to lose money on members, but it’s my view that we’d rather get more members even if the revenue is marginal. To me, what we are missing is members in localities where we don’t have a great track record.
        • Membership is a separate question that fundraising and development.
      • Michael: If we can identify different crews of mountain bikers from geographic region and finding an in with some of these groups, that could be a way to grow membership.
      • Jali: There is some low hanging fruit such as social media. But for events and races, will share tomorrow morning, but put together a QR code for Venmo and a signup sheet to pay and fill out info, and then Jali can then process.
      • Rob: requiring hours out of volunteers and Jali is difficult. If there are low effort wins. Social media and video is great, getting more out of liaisons is more difficult.
• Trails
  • Virginia (Michael)
    • Rick Dotson
      • Had though were good with Fairfax water, but spoke with manager to set up process, and manager said there was a study that identified issues. This is the last piece needed.
        • Says need 600-foot buffer around dam.
      • Equestrians asked for meeting with MORE to discuss how to collaborate. Want to try to get bike priorities in state budget earmark for signs and ROWs. Want to hammer out what the earmark is going to say.
      • Dave M: One area that needs improvement is Difficult Run. It is a total mess.
    • Concrete Buggy for Lake Fairfax
      • Tony had asked to be an expensive piece of used machinery.
      • Is there any concern? It would come from their trail fund.
      • Dave M: If it is over $10k, the BoD needs to approve. But at $6, the answer is no.
    • Vernon Liaisons
      • This has gone by the wayside because nothing is being maintained.
      • Whenever reaches out to liaisons, they just reach out to me, and can’t maintain Mt. Vernon.
      • Need to find a way to bring in additional help.
      • Want to start gauging if somebody else will take it over, but also need to tell old ones that they are being replaced.
      • Dave M
        • This is an interesting problem because some liaisons check out and don’t want to do any work. But at the end of the day, you should reach out and see if they would take on co-liaisons that eventually could take their place.
      • In Loudon County, got lots of calls and emails about attempting to reopen trails at Freedom Center. This is being pushed along.
        • Have identified several people who would like to be liaisons if trail is going to be reopened. Pushing to get OK from Freedom.
  • Maryland (Dave)
    • Trails
      • Good news is the new mile and a quarter to be used in Little Bennett is almost done. Gently downhill trail with a lot of flow.
      • Lots of progress on Wheaton Regional
        • Casey: This was a huge success. Had quite a lot of people, maybe 50, and there were kids, adults, etc. And 4 members of the county council were there.
      • Board of Public Works approved modifications to grant for Patuxent Phase 2 A. Should receive the grant agreement within the next 4 weeks. Written so that MORE would own the improvements, which was a problem. It is a struggle to get the big documents together.
        • Dan Hudson thinks we need to have a plan document in place. Hopefully by no later than November will be out to big for 2.5 miles of trail.
      • The sidewalk under Clopper Road, the state can’t move forward until they assign tracking numbers, and they are late doing so.
      • There is a bridge on Seneca Ridge that is falling apart and is being replaced. Park hasn’t shut down trail pending it get rebuilt. It is a very popular trail.
    • DNR Outdoor Recreation Summit (October 8-10)
      • MORE got invited. New director of outdoor recreation has several important things on the table: technical trail features, e-bikes, etc. There are voices within DNR who are using the growth of e-bikes as an opportunity to reexamine whether to shut existing trails to new bikes. Know e-bikes are going to become more and more prevalent.
      • Trying to do something to promote tourism within the state. They have developed a seminar on outdoor recreation being a lot of stakeholder groups. They suggest that we buy $200 table to show who we are, but the problem is its right before the MoCo Epic. They set this up to go out there for three days, mingle, stay at Rocky Gap Hotel. Thing we have enough budget to this, but don’t have a volunteer to do this. Asking if there is someone who interest.
      • Casey – I would go for a day, and maybe get 2 others to go for other days.
• Ride Program Update (Kathy)
  • Had offerings from two different groups to add two different sMOREs rides to the calendar.
  • Ride program is going pretty well and there are a lot of weekly ride offerings.

 

• Events Update (Clay)
• Had Summer Picnic at Lake Fairfax and it rained a bunch before, which knocked down attendance a bit, but there were about 100 people there. Everything went smoothly and the Yeti guys said it was one of the best demo days they had that summer. Didn’t hear of any complaints. Jump clinic was a big positive.
• Next up in the fall camping trip in the third week of September. Last I checked there were about 40 people signed up, which is pretty good a little over a month out. Those numbers will start popping up soon. Will get in touch to see if organizers need anything. It is a fun event.

• President – Casey Anderson
  • Spoke at ribbon cutting for Wheaton bike park
  • Calls with Montgomery Parks staff re: hosting adaptive mountain bikes
  • Gathered membership ideas

 

• Jali Fernando – Executive Director
  • Working with Fairfax County Parks Authority Board on budget advocacy
  • Met with Congressman Connolly's office and FCPA on CCT projects and funding
  • Met with Arlington County Parks & Rec for next steps of paved pump track project
  • Represented MORE in ribbon cutting of trailhead kiosk in Patapsco
  • Helped organize Adaptive MTB Day in Patapsco and adaptive training in partnership with Montgomery Parks
  • Processed memberships from MoCo Epic and Fall Camping Trip
  • Assisted in Summer Picnic preparations and day-of
  • Set up MORE tent in Wednesdays at Wakefield races
  • Assisted liaisons with trail merchandise, updating trail webpages, setting up work days on calendar and Golden Volunteer, etc.
  • MoCo Epic, MoCo Epic, MoCo Epic
  • Regular email and social media communications

 

• Secretary – David Beugelmans
  • Coordinated board meeting and finalized minutes
  • Attend Anne Arundel County Crownsville Memorial Park Recreation and Trails Committee meetings
  • Various regulatory filings

 

• MD Advocacy Director – Dave Magill

• Set up two workdays at Little Bennett to help build new trail and worked in one of them so far
• Trained a volunteer on Golden 
• Assisted in procurement for bridge replacement on SRT
• Worked on drafting procurement document for NWB boardwalks
• Working on three new large signs for the MoCo Epic

 

• VA Advocacy Director – Michael Ullman
  • Helped Martin and John with the logistics for the Locust Shade jump fest on 9/15
  • Attended the workday for the Locust Shade jump line revamp
  • Zoom calls with Matt Levine regarding future Arlington trails
  • Working to get Freedom park to reopen trails in Loudon; working with Erik, Stephen Carlo and others
  • Coordinating to help Rick D. With his efforts on the CCT extensions as well as additional future plans for funding.

 

• Membership Director – Rob Lowe
  • [*]

 

• Ride Program Director – Kathy Mihm
  • Meet with Gears and Beers and get Thursday evening ride set up 
  • Meet with new Rockburn sMORE's leader and work on new sMORE's group set up in PTAP
  • Coordinate and communicate for MORE Bike Boxes loan outs
  • Help with MORE Summer picnic and coordinate ride leaders and groups
  • Attend Summer Picnic, lead Beginner's clinic and Beginner ride at Lake Fairfax
  • Lead/sweep rides at Cabin John and Schaeffer
  • Set up MoCo Monday rides at alternating locations
  • Continue Golden Volunteer setups and MORE Calendar ride announcements

 

• Communications Director – N/A

 

• Treasurer – Neil Blake
  • [*]

 

• Activities Director – Clay Deming
  • Planning and volunteering at the Summer Picnic
  • Help with MoCo epic socks.
  • A little reorganizing in the shed
  • Helped a volunteer with GoldenV
  • Reaching out to MoCo epic sponsors for Kids bikes and swag