Board Meeting – Oct 13, 2014

In attendance

MORE BOARD
Ernie Rodriguez – President
Martin Fernandez – Operations
Jason Miller – Membership
Kevin Adams – Treasurer
Melanie Nystrom – Events
Dave Magill – Trails

MORE Staff
Ryan Delaney

MORE Volunteer
Christina Higgins

Trail Activity Report, Dave Magill:

• Looking at replacing a few open spots – Julie Guy and Dee Reeb have decided not to continue on in 2015. Need replacements.
• Going to pull together trails priority list – polling liaisons together to see what’s going on, creating a single document. One theme was concentrate on park improvements: dispersed maintenance program is going slowly. Need to buy small, pocket sized tools so people can ride & do maintenance. Ernie recommends to buy tools & give them as incentives and gifts. Looking at quotes from Julie & Mike.
• Approval for 7 miles that will connect Black Hill & Schaffer any day now. Need a Trail Liaison for that job.
• Nothing new on Fredrick Watershed.
• No tangible updates from Baltimore city on Loch Raven – bureaucracy is a slow painful process.
• Fountainhead  project almost done.
• Meadowood, Rockburn (per last month, money will rollover into the account for 2015 use) all done.
• Schaffer – going to work on bridges – Will be test bed for new slip resistant product.
• $12k available thru SFF for trail advocacy – trying to extract some of those funds. Jason will put in a SFF grant request, will talk this with Trail committee.
• Mt. Vernon – waiting on approvals- from park  – reached out to IMBA for bridges then will begin work.
• Patuxent – formal request for approval is in – Patrick Miller said MORE may receive a $40k grant.
• Emmitsburg – easement to get into to town needs work – trail to town completed as far as it can go. First Trail Conservancy invoice was rejected by SHA. MORE has invoiced SHA on RT1016 and RT0713 and both invoices were approved for payment.
• RADAR SCREEN:
  • Hashawa/Bear Run (Carroll County); 10 miles of trails that need work – looking at a member base – Ernie will task Ryan for a listing of members in the area (Dave F. might be interested), share the list with Melanie & Dave. From there, we will identify the “ring leaders” & move out from there.
  • Gunpowder work, trails around Jerusalem Mills.
  • Howard County
  • Lake Fairfax Park
  • TREK, People for Bikes, & The Bike Lane partnership, up to $10k for roundup programs – Will advertise to members so they participate in the round up program by purchasing from TBL – 50/50 designated for trail work. This is a pilot program.
  • Oct-Sept 2015. Ernie met with Frank Raiti and the possibility of building a pump track in VA will probably be on that list of trail.
  • Patapsco, Ryan’s working on completing carsonite  signage/information kiosk with REI/MORE logo

Financials, Kevin Adams:

• Member numbers not as high – 50 people signed up thru the MOCO and fall camping, but accounting will be given at a later date. Jason will get those names in.
• We need to send reminders with a link on the new site. Jason M will send out an email to the members whose membership expired in the last year. It will explain the IMBA renewal process and highlighting new programs, initiatives.
• Receive forgiveness in the form of reclassification of the non-recourse loan from SFF for the “Cranky monkey” trademark to a grant
• Transfer the “Cranky Monkey” trademark to SCORE
• Receive a monthly grant from SCORE in the amount of $2,726.20 for 48 months

Operations – Martin Fernandez:

• New website – Almost launched! Lots of work has gone into it; Need help finishing venues section but that should not hold us back. Calendar is most important improvement. Streamlined forums. Will take members getting a little used to them, but the goal is to make things easier to manage.
• Trail (venue) section is being worked on. Hoping to recruit trail liaisons to take ownership of their venue pages so that not a single person has to manage them.
• Need MORE participation in adding MORE content. Martin/Ryan will publish, but Board/staff needs to regularly submit content for publication.
• MORE involvement in Social Media. All board members should be active participants and communicate with membership continuously. Reach out and engage more.

Activities – Melanie Nystrom:

• Fall camping trip – 110 people;
• Over budget by $103. The camp was great!

Membership, Jason Miller:

• XXL is interested in leading trailside repair classes before major MORE events (ex. Epics)
• Trail rat project – This might be revived in 2015. Jason M will develop plan prior to new year. One idea is that riders could earn Merit Badges and periodic Bingo.

MOCO Epic debrief

• Kids/Family day was perfect, both rides went on without a hitch.
• Kids loved pump track and jump line
• 650 pre-registered riders, 75 same day registered riders: Total 725 riders.
• Stick to schedule, especially with band.
• No food lines! no beer lines! Rain arrived late in the day, but atmosphere was great, received lots of positive comments from participants and sponsors
• Only issue: Same day register unhappy with size selection for day-of registration t-shirt; one rider (same day registration) was refunded after his bike suffered a catastrophic failure.
• Decision “to go” was “brave” and well made after careful consideration. Trails were perfect.
• One minor route issue at Little Bennett, signs were confusing and sent people through wet area but in right direction.

Ernie is pushing recruiting for the following:

• Advocacy managers, VA and MD
• Trail boss
• Family ride programs membership
• Bike shop liaison.

Misc.

• Dave Magill requests to change his title from Advocacy Director to the Trails Director – scope is advocacy, funding, construction , & maintenance. Motion to vote, second by Ernie. All in favor
• Conflict of Interest – No members of the board can benefit financially by the board service. A board member cannot be paid by the club to perform duties associated with the club. i.e. Martin cannot be paid for the work he does on the website. The current Club Rules Conflict of Interest policy is specific about this requirement by prohibiting any person with a financial interest in a contract with MORE from serving as an Officer or Director of MORE. The policy provides for an exception process as it pertains to the contract but is silent as to whether the exception may also pertain to the officer or board member. The board voted unanimously, with one abstaining, to add the following sentence to the Club Rules, Article X. Conflicts of Interests:“For avoidance of doubt, if a contract exemption is approved, the Officer or Director with the financial interest in the contract may continue to serve in their capacity and will be required to recuse him/herself when appropriate.”