December 2018 Board Meeting Minutes
MORE December Board Meeting
December 10, 2018
Present:
Frank Raiti – Lake Fairfax co-liaison
Neil Blake – Treasurer
Steve DonTigny – Executive Director
Dave Magill – MD Advocacy Director
Bob Caverly – Vice President
By Phone:
Ernest Rodriguez – President
Tom Howe – Membership Director
Jeff Niner – VA Advocacy Director
Budget presentation: Dave Magill $81,000 net revenue, $78,000 expenses. Full charge for Steve DonTigny. $18,000 for insurance, $25,000 for staff costs (plus $20,000 in MoCo). Revenues down in MoCo 10 – 15 percent. A donation of $8,000 to NICA, other costs bumped total advocacy costs to $13,000. About even on unrestricted. We have about $137,000
Budget next year is similar. A little bit more on MoCo and fundraising. The budget reflects 100 percent of Executive Director salary funded by MORE. Unless we improve fundraising, the budget will be short by about $10,000. That’s not a long term solution. We should look at increasing membership and donations. Donation base is growing. By 2020 we need to get back to break even.
Bob Caverly – boils down to $10,000 net decrease in unrestricted cash next year. Acceptable for now, but not a long term thing.
Decision: Dave made a motion to approve the 2019 budget, Tom seconded. It was unanimously approved.
Frank: Lake Fairfax update. Committed to costs that exceeded the budget. Pump tracks need maintenance – been doing that. 4/10ths of a mile of trail building. CapCX race money goes into the park. Could be a source for paying some trail building. Already 8k in the fund from last year. Contacted IMBA trail solutions for cost estimates. RTP minimum 125 K – max 500 k. Would include some bridges. Additions could include jump trails, pump track expansion and signage. Looking at naming segments and using it as a fund raiser. Ernie – park has asked us to help name the trails – but there are rules. Ernie and Frank will work on it. RTP would be in 2020 – June submission, October grant work the next year. Don’t have the volunteers yet to maintain the pump track but working on a grant for better infrastructure. Strong trail community, but not for the pump track.
Decision: Dave made a motion that $3261.74 be forgiven with funds from the general funds for Lake Fairfax Pump Track. And transfer the balance after that (100 dollars) to Lake Fairfax and create a new Lake Fairfax Pump Track account. Bob seconded and it was approved.
MoCo discussion: Registration down 11% with $800 in donations to MORE for total revenue of $69k. General discussion of the survey. MoCo reinvestment will net approximately $8k.
Decision: Dave made a motion to move $8,000 from general funds for MoCo reinvestment which includes the funds collected that day (about $800). It was seconded and approved unanimously.
Dave – MoCo reinvestment funds will probably all be spent next year. A large mud bog, and other wet areas and bridges to build. $20 to 25 k, for two miles of new trail and a mile of re-worked trail. One bid in the process.
Election status – four candidates. Tom Howe for VA advocacy, Sharon Maloid for activities director, Rob Lowe for Membership director and no candidates for MD Advocacy Director.
Ernie – Silver Branch Brewing – for the winter party. Might be available for January. Charge for drinks only. Metropolitan in Annapolis. Commercial venue, no discounts. Silver Branch is metro accessible. Space is big. Good timing. Ernie will continue to work with Carlo.
Bob – we should think about doing another gala event. Maybe not wait another 25 years.
Ernie- IMBA board meeting. Kent McNeil is the newly announced CEO of IMBA. The November board meeting in DC proved to be very effective at engaging board members with advocacy on the hill and riding local trails. Look for updated e-bike and wilderness policy statements on the IMBA resources page soon. There was a lot of attention given to listening to chapters and other mountain bike organizations. The value of the IMBA brand and how to best leverage building a united community with focused strategic goals like renewing and permanent funding for “Land Water Conservation Fund”, “More Trails Close to Home”, “Recreation Not Red Tape”, “Kids on Bikes”. MORE’s members, leadership and especially MICL student athletes helped carry the message to elected officials with guidance from IMBA’s staff and board.
Ernie – Fund Raising – Committed to work on “Giving Tuesday” “Year-End” donations and fundraising to fund the great work MORE does in support of “Riding Bikes and Building Trails”. Board members make good faith efforts to fund raise as demonstrated by social media campaigns of late. Each board members is committed to “Give”, “Get” or “Influence” fundraising to support MORE’s vision and mission. Additional discussion centered on our one-time donation to MICL with commitment from MORE’s board to raise funds to replace the donation throughout the year. We agreed, we don’t give away member money.
Ernie – Golden Volunteer App – West VA Fall Camping trip. Integrated with other apps. Replacement for track it forward.
Dave – third party costs for payroll services. Pay IMBA 25 percent – for administrative and back-office human resource support.
MORE – IMBA relationship will be discussed next month during transition meeting in W Virginia.