January 2021 Board of Directors Transition Meeting Minutes

MORE Board of Directors Transition Meeting Minutes
January 24, 2021
Location: Virtual Due to COVID-19 Restrictions (Zoom)
 
  • Meeting Attendance
    • Ernie Rodriguez - President
    • Peggy Flaxman - Executive Director
    • Tom Howe - VA Advocacy Director
    • Rob Lowe - Membership Director
    • Sharon Maloid – Outgoing Membership Director
    • Clay Deming - Activities Director
    • David Beugelmans - Vice President
    • Dave Magill - MD Advocacy Director
    • Neil Blake - Treasurer
    • Kathy Mihm – Communications Director
    • Eric Crawford – PVSP Liaison and President, FPVSP
    • Elaine Hess – Family Ride Program Coordinator

 

  • Introductions and Background (20 minutes)
    • Position Responsibilities (may be modified to individual strengths)
      • Committees and Staff (organizational chart)
        • Ernie
          • Will add MoCo Epic under the Executive Director
          • Something that’s important is the MoCo Epic is an activity, but it got so big that the Activities Director couldn’t take care of it. At one point we hired someone to run the MoCo Epic, but it was cost prohibitive. So that’s why it ended up under Executive Director. We may need to be flexible with this.
        • Dave M
          • Do the other committees shown on the org chart actually function? Trails committee functions, but have others been active?
          • Tom: We did do something with Bob for an Operations committee, but that’s it.
        • Executive Director
          • Peggy
            • 10th month as executive director
            • Forced us to think outside box due to COVID
            • Looking forward to this year’s MoCo Epic. It can be truly epic MoCo Epic with pent up demand.
          • Vice President
            • Serves secretary function
          • Other standing committees
            • Spring Fling
            • MoCo Epic
            • Fall Camping Trip
            • Family Ride Program Coordinator (sMORE’s)
              • Elaine
                • Been doing sMORE’s for 8-9 years. Also have helped with Women’s group.
              • Description of positions elected
                • Communications Director – Kathy Mihm
                  • Been biking all her life. Got into it more seriously 10 years ago.
                  • MORE is a great group of volunteers and had opportunity with job to have time to do this.
                  • Still trying to figure out what the role is.
                  • Objectives
                    • Bring in, educate new riders
                    • Updating website to make information easier to find
                  • Dave M: We need to figure out regular social media updates. Maybe every three days. Want to discuss how we will get that done.
                    • Kathy: Need to discuss and coordinate.
                  • Activities Director – Clay Deming
                    • Sharon (Outgoing)
                      • Became involved with fall campout and was organizer of that and Ernie asked if she could help with that
                      • Summer picnic didn’t have an established committee but got a lot of support on that
                      • Then the fall camping trip, was part of that for many years so have an established plan.
                      • MORE membership meeting.
                      • This year will probably be a little rough, but think summer and fall will happen this year.
                    • Clay (Incoming)
                      • Don’t have a grand plan, but have been brainstorming.
                      • Want to keep positive attitude, but need to think about contingencies for how to deal with things if we aren’t allowed to.
                      • Lived in Maryland most of life and bikes most of life and has been riding since late 90s. Live in Potomac.
                    • Membership Director – Rob Lowe (New Term)

 

  • 2021 Purpose, Strategic Plan and Goals (40 minutes)
    • MORE’s Overall Purpose & Mission Brainstorming/Open Discussion (5 min)
      • Ernie:
        • Great relationship with different organizations. But as somebody pointed out when Eric brought up the idea of allowing runners to use waiver and become part of user base, trying to avoid mission creep and focus on what we are good at. Sometimes there are better organizations better situated to meet community needs.
      • Kathy:
        • Riding bikes and building trails. It’s an all-volunteer organization and don’t want to do too much.
        • Network of trails and volunteerism is the foundation of the organization. Without that, what would the group be?
        • Education is also an important part of MORE’s mission/goals.
      • Clay:
        • Echo what Kathy said about education. It has shown how important educating new riders is. Reaching out to people who might be membership is important.
      • Dave M: We have a system now with liaisons where a lot happens locally. Wants to know from Eric how things are going, what can we do better and what we can make sure we keep doing the same way.
        • Eric Crawford (trail liaisons since 2007, doing it behind the scenes since 98/99).
          • The Patapsco group is big. Trail days have 150+ people show up, even when very cold.
          • Patapsco is large, so has developed almost into a club within a club. Rely on group of 25 people that stand up and participate.
          • As time has gone on, has become President of Friends of Patapsco Valley State Park. The group is an outreach group for MORE. Whenever he does trailwork days, he’s doing it as MORE’s trail liaison.
          • Response to Dave M’s question
            • Will try to push things in new direction. Night riding agreement now covers riders AND runners.
            • In the end, decided that inclusivity is very important. There are runners and some hikers that are members now.
            • Thinks group should focus on being inclusive.
          • Dave B: Asked how board can support
            • We are growing electronic waivers, sMOREs programs, Patapsco Trail Fest
            • Never figured out a good way to get ride leaders to post things on the calendar the right way. Other small events seem to fall by the wayside.
          • Dave M: We are probably underreporting what’s going on in Patapsco in our social media, etc.
        • Peggy:
          • Has been working on processes (for instance, ride leader processes) for consistency.
          • Eric: Once a standard is set, its easier to do.
          • Asked Eric: Patapsco does a good job of engaging sponsors. How do we do this better? Will follow-up later.
        • Advocacy Issues and MORE’s approach (Overview) (5 min)
          • Low key, inclusive, open, stay local
          • Delegate to liaisons on park-by-park basis as much as possible
          • Engaging/Integrating new user groups (Arlington MTB, NOVA MTB)
          • SHOP Liaisons
          • MD: Maryland Bicycle-Pedestrian Advisory Council, Active Transportation Advisory Board, Prince George’s County
            • Mapping Efforts: Gaithersburg (Andy Rhodes and Tom Newton), West MoCo (Kathy Mihm, Dave Magill)
          • VA: NCTC, WABA, Trails, Sidewalks and Bikeways Committee,
            • Mapping Efforts: Loudon County LPST (Erik Scudder)
          • DC
            • Scott Fulton (DCMTB)
            • Ward 8 Wood Conservancy (Nathan Harrington)

 

  • Membership goals – Rob (10 min)
    • Rob
      • Been on BoD since 2011 since ride coordinator, later as Vice-President
      • Goal is to grow membership
      • Would like us to hit 1750 or 1800 members. We should be a 2 or 3000 member club.
      • One of the big clubs in Vermont is almost 5000 paying members.
      • This year we have sustainably climbed back over 1500 members. We have the biggest year of joins, even without MoCo Epic. Awareness drives membership at the level we are at.
      • Signs, kiosks, etc are all useful in driving membership and its way less effort than MoCo Epic
    • Dave M: We don’t have a clear calendar for educational pushes.
      • Rob: Beginner riders have been a big grower of membership. Agrees that it makes sense to have a coordinated, thought-out plan for education.
    • Events drive membership
    • Communication and reminders work
    • Community Engagement – MORE Trails
      • Drove membership, but it was a lot of work to mail stuff out.
    • Family Ride Program – Elaine (10 min)
      • Women’s Rides
      • Elaine:
        • We need to do better with PR on these programs. We need to define different skill levels of rides, which will help with the comfort level of women becoming involved.
        • Agreement we should look at beginners rides for both men and women, although there are more opportunities for men as-is.
        • Supports idea of tapping in new riders, especially ones with bad trail ethics, to becoming involved with MORE activities.
      • sMORE’s
        • Setting up meeting to talk through sMORE’s rides and if parents need to be required to attend.
        • Want to add structure to sMORE’s, including about how to start an offical sMORE’s ride, and basic of what is required (wear helmets, have safe bikes, have water, etc).
        • Support for concept of providing free hydration packs to sMORE’s kids who need them.
        • Clay:
          • We need to make a list of what sMORE’s riders need.
        • Strategic Partnerships
          • MICL
          • Trails for Youth
          • Phoenix Bikes
          • Gearin’ up
        • Youth Advisory Council (Overview)
        • Social Media (Overview, request for inventory)
          • Inventory of sites/accounts
        • Regional support – Ernie (5 min)
          • BoD attendance at regional events (especially events by MORE sponsors such as REI or anywhere liaisons ask for participation)
            • Ernie:
              • This is a soft ask because I know people are busy. Board members need to engage and attend as many of these as you can.
            • Trail Work
              • Important to recognize regional leaders.
            • Fundraising
            • Meetings
            • Rides
              • Anyone can suggest an event on CalendarWiz within the MORE calendar and we will review and make sure it’s correct.

 

  • Key Calendar Items and Expectations of Board Members (30 minutes)
    • Monthly Board Meetings – second Monday of the month from 7 – 8:45
      • Dave B: Asked if we could do some or all meetings virtually
      • Sharon: supports at least some virtual, maybe every other month
      • Eric: Future of all these meetings is going to be hybrid and we need to figure this out.
      • Tom: We have a lot of technology-oriented people on the board and we can come up with a solution that’s portable.
      • General support of concept
    • 2021 Event Plans/Possibilities/Purpose
      • Review past of events and structure
      • Winter Membership Meeting – Date TBD (Combined with Spring Fling/Summer Picnic?) - maybe summer 2021
      • Spring Fling – Date TBD (Combined with Spring Fling/Summer Picnic?)
      • Summer Picnic – Date TBD (Combined with Spring Fling/Summer Picnic?)
        • Dave M: We will probably have a summer picnic, but the other ones will be difficult. Spring events will take more ad-hoc scrambling to make them work.
      • Fall Camping Trip – Date TBD
      • Patapsco Trailfest – September 17-19, 2021
        • Eric: Set up date and there have been suggestions for doing a hybrid, with a month long component.
      • MoCo Epic – October 9-10, 2021
      • MORE Trails
        • Peggy: Working with central Idaho IMBA group on virtual event. Don’t think we can do both events at the same time.
        • Dave: We could do a spring, early summer version of MORE trails. We have so much that’s there, it wouldn’t be hard to do it again.
      • Other Events – ad-hoc CFC, County, partners, swap meets, etc.

 

  • Major Initiatives and Programs (30 minutes) – Dave and Tom
    • Projects (15 minutes)
      • Frederick Watershed
        • Not sure whether rolling anything out, but will likely do the ShedDuro
      • Patapsco (Eric)
        • Working on setting up a mini-liaison system. They are designating areas for folks to “own” on their own. Will provide tools and guidance.
        • Will do a modified trail day/trail tread system of really small groups working when they want.
        • Hope to be able to do something by National Trails Day (always do their work on Sunday, even though technically on Saturday). This will be the next big event, if possible.
      • Patuxent
        • Over 1100 volunteer hours in 2021. Building is going on as we speak. The first 7 ½ miles will be done by September. Working on permitting for Phase 2 (parking and 3.5 more miles of trail)
      • Bacon Ridge/Waterworks
        • New trails at Waterworks. Skills park at Bacon Ridge
      • Rivers Edge
        • Looking for ways to do more. Has about 1.5 miles of more trail. Will apply for another RTP grant
      • Fairland/MoCo East
        • MoCo Parks have hired progressive ramps to come up with design and plan. Will see this area grow. About a two year project with budget of $300-400k to build this out.
      • Schaeffer/MoCo West
        • Mostly maintenance in this area. Installing new maps
      • Cedarville
        • Challenged with lots of rain.
      • Rosaryville
        • There isn’t as solid engagement for trail work in this region as other areas. Our liaisons work very hard, but do not have as many other volunteers as some parks
        • Bridge will be built soon and there’s a fundraising plan.
      • Kent Island Terrapin Park
        • Steve P got approval to build a mile or two of trail. Right off the bay bridge on Kent Island.
      • Calvert County
        • New park management is now interested in adding mtb trails. County is split between MORE and Southern Maryland Mountain Bikers. Slow progress.
      • Gunpowder
        • In our territory, but it’s a strongly independent and high functioning group: GUMBO.
        • Nice and pretty big trail system but don’t interact a lot with us. Have seen a few rides posted. Want to get more people up there.
        • Eric (Dave M asked if there’s anything we can do to help): They are quiet to me as well. It may be possible to rope in some people from there, but generally they are self-sufficient.
        • Eric suggested reaching out to see if MORE can help promote Gunpower.
      • Fort DuPont
        • Making more progress.
        • Ernie did meet with someone from Ward 8 about more land in DC. This is a way to grow community and get the area involved in building some trails.
      • Mount Vernon
        • Has been our best example of getting the community involved. Neighborhood kids have become very involved. Jumps got bulldozed, but then benefactor became involved to rebuild mountain bike trails and jumps. Everyone is co-existing there. It’s a great example of what we can do with small piece of land. 3+ miles of trail.
      • BROT NOVA Parks
        • Meeting scheduled with NOVA Parks
        • Wakefield: Seen a lot of traffic there. Have a lot of boardwalks and so on that need to be replaced. Have a good community and liaisons there.
        • Lake Accotink: Not getting much response back from Park Management. There is also a lot of rogue trail building and trying to combat that. Park authority does not like it.
        • Meadowood has seen a lot of use. This is BLM land, only one east of the Mississippi that allows mountain bikers.
        • Laurel Hill: just built a kiosk. Plan to use in other parks in region.
        • Dave M: What’s the status of the general public being allowed into Quantico?
          • Ernie: You need 4 DoD people for every public rider. With everything that’s been happening in past few years, they have been hesitant to do so.
        • Prince William Co
          • Locust Shade is a great new trail system. Expert loop built a year ago. The beginner trails have also been finished.
          • Other opportunities in county. One of the challenges and opportunities is there are a lot of people interested in helping. We need to vet them and make sure that when they are out there with the MORE name behind them that they are expousing our best interests.
        • Fairfax County
          • Fountainhead is getting a skills area.
          • Conway Robinson recently had a workday.
        • Loudoun Co
        • Arlington Co.
          • Neil: Making a lot of headway. It is an all hands on effort. Had a meeting with trail stewards. They are starting to come around. The county wants us to find common ground with them. What came out of the meeting is that if we can reduce the amount of random trails they would support that and give us a bargaining chip to have them on board. County is on board with having this happen. It will likely be small.
          • We have an opportunity in West Virginia (Lost River State Park) to help with that.
        • Liaison Vision 2020-2025 (1 minute)– Ernie/Dave/Tom
        • Land Manager Relationships and Relationship Management (1 minute)
          • Primarily a Liaison Function
          • Role of Board Members
          • Current Strengths and Weaknesses
        • Trail Boss – Dave/Tom (1 minute)
          • Trail Building Grants
            • MD RTP
              • Dave M: only three months to RTP applications, they are due by Apr 30 this year. They are complex to administer, but you can get it done if you do it the right way.
            • VA RTP
            • Other grants
          • Year-end tracking
          • Track-it-Forward and Golden Volunteer
          • Calendar Access
          • Waivers
          • Trail Tread Program – Annual waivers
          • Tool order/delivery status
            • Dave M: This is on his agenda and will work with Tom on this.

 

  • Ride Programs (Overview)
    • Group Rides Leader - Brad/Rob
      • Rob:
        • Group ride leader has been a non-voting “staff” position for some time. The purpose of this has been to coordinate group rides and make sure information is kept, including waivers.
        • This year we haven’t had many official rides. This year will probably be under 100 rides, normally is 200-300 rides
      • Calendar Access
      • Waivers
        • Rob:
          • As we work on digital waivers, this will be one of the big turning points, as we get it figured out.
        • Family Ride Program sMORE’s – Elaine Hess
          • Wakefield Juniors Program – Bike Lane – Mondays
          • Lake Fairfax Park – Mondays
          • Meadowood – Monthly on Wednesdays
          • MoCo – Tuesdays
          • Bacon Ridge – Wednesday and Thursdays
          • Balti-sMORE’s – Monday and Fridays
          • Frederick Snallygasters – Wednesday’
          • MoCo (2)
        • Relationship with MICL
        • Advertising Group Rides
          • Washington DC Mountain Bike Meetup
            • Paid for additional 6 months in Dec, 2020
            • Who has administrative rights
              • Ernest Rodriguez – Admin
              • Michael Winings – Ride Czar
              • Sean Johnson – 304 Bikes
              • Simona Vincenciova – MORE Women’s Rides
            • Meet-up (MORE Mountain Bike Rides)
              • Dave M
                • We have struggled to do a weekend ride program for years. Personally is fine with idea we should be supportive of Meet-Up and its serving a purpose because of its ease of use.
                • Ernie
                  • We pay for Meet-Up account. This was visionary in that Meet-Up has qualities we needed (ability to limit group size, have RSVP, etc). But this is similar to fundraising. There are many channels to get people involved and get to our goals of getting people on bikes.
                • Who has administrative rights
                  • Ernest Rodriguez - Admin
                  • Michael Winnings – Ride Czar
                  • Bob Caverly - Admin
                  • Tom Howe - Admin
                  • Jeff Niner - Admin
                  • Many Others – Editors
                • Organized Night Rides
                  • There are at a least a few going on at Patapsco.

 

  • Clinics (5 minutes)
    • MORE Beginner’s Clinics
      • High demand, good opportunity to engage new riders
        • Kathy: Would like to offer to demonstrate program that they go through
        • Dave B: Supports idea, especially to present riding to land managers as something that’s open to everyone.
        • Dave B: Idea of teaming up with instructors with MORE branding.
        • Clay: Concept of having 1, 2, 3 levels of classes for people to build up.

 

  • List of MORE Members who are Trained Instructors

 

  • Open Business (30 minutes)
    • 2021 Budget
    • Winter Membership Meeting/Virtual Awards
      • Ernie: Want to take a vote on this. Down to awards as recommended, except for land manager of the year.
      • Ernie: Motion to give awards to everyone listed, with land manager of the year going to the Annapolis team
        • Motion Passed
      • Ernie: Motion to move trail boss off board to a staff position.
        • Motion passed
      • Dave: Moved to remove operations director from the club rules as a director position.
        • Motion passed.
      • Tom: Conway Robinson needed pavers. Issued preliminary approval. It is going to be able $800 and will go to trail committee for approval.

 

  • Current Status (30 minutes)
    • Financial - Neil
      • Current status, accounts, balances
        • David B – raised idea of general fund balance and whether amount is correct.
          • Eric C – raised idea of creating a committee to figure out what to do with excess funds. Eric said his group is putting excess funds into an ETFs so they are responsible stewards of cash.
          • This comes with some risk, but this is something we can consider. The output of this entire conversation is what should we do with the excess funds. Mountain Club of Maryland has a grant program that’s funded by this kind of thing. Make grants available in certain amounts. Once you begin to stage conversation in that way, you may get liaison attention that way. Once you give people ideas of grant funds being available, ideas come up.
          • Rob: MD RTP grants can be small, but VA grants need to be $125 k or more. It’s just not a feasible number
            • Likes idea of being able to tie grant programs to membership funds.
          • General support to continue discussion.
        • Tax Status
        • Delinquent filing resolution status
      • Fundraising – Peggy/Ernie
        • General Fundraising
          • Trails Specific
          • General Trail Fund
          • General Fund
        • Year-End giving - report
      • Membership - Rob
        • Current status
        • 2021 Strategies
      • Insurance

 

  • Fundraising Plan (45 minutes)
    • Internal Assessment and Analysis
    • Current programs
      • Amazon Smile
      • Catalog for Philanthropy
      • Care (this is LuvTrails)
      • Facebook personal fundraisers
      • Employer Sponsored (Benevity, YourCause, Network for Good, etc.)
      • Trail Specific Fundraising (Liaison Led)
    • Give, Get, Influence (Board member expectations)
      • Ernie: We are not saying BoD members need to donate, but we want members to give, get or influence people to donate.
    • Brainstorm Action Plans
      • Tom H: Signage and outreach have been a great impetus for people to donate.
    • Ernie on Big Donors: Anyone who donates more than $100, he or Peggy sends a pair of socks. Anyone who does $250 or more, they are offered a club ride jersey or a branded vest as inventory permits.Additional items under consideration.
    • SWAG for big donors
      • Peggy: The issue with clothing is its size specific. The size thing is an issue with inventory. All the weird sizes get left over. Want to explore idea of swag that is not size specific.
      • Ernie: Idea of giving a certificate for buying something on MORE store.
      • David B: How much are we spending on “high value” items?
      • David B: Raised idea of doing a gift card on store for a high-cost item so it’s free.
    • Ernie: It is important to do a hand written note for big donors to show appreciation.
    • Peggy: We need to figure out levels needed for donations
    • General consensus that we should make a decision for levels of donations needed for swag, and what we should give. General agreement on using Shopify for automatic fulfillment.
    • Tom H: We need to make it clear when people make large donations that they should be giving us a check instead of using the website.
      • Peggy: Said this should be reflected on the donation page.
    • Neil: Raised possibility of making a Venmo account.
  • Peggy: We are not getting traffic to individual trail pages and we need to find a way to push traffic there
    • General agreement to discuss further.

 

  • Financial guidelines (30 minutes) - Neil
    • Credit/Debit Cards
      • Who had them, who needs one?
      • Receipts and tracking
      • Application – Who needs one?
    • Restricted funds
      • Fundraising
      • Disbursements
      • Approvals – Most Accountable Person
      • Tracking
    • Financial reporting
      • Monthly
      • Quarterly
      • Yearly

 

  • Questions/Open Discussion
    • Kathy: Is there anything else that any of the board members want to see from the communications director?
      • Neil: We need to do the annual report.
      • Dave M.: We haven’t done a high quality, durable pamphlet to put at trailhead kiosks. We could do a program that is “Who is MORE, this is what we do and this is how you can donate”. We can make them out of aluminum or high quality plastic.
      • Ernie: We need to figure out the main social media connections to MORE and make a comprehensive list so we can share.
      • Ernie: Do not be afraid to solicit assistance.
      • Dave B: Recommend to focus on promoting liaisons and region. Support videos.
      • Peggy: Was trying to do certain kinds of posts on certain days, but ran out of content. Peggy asks for BoD members to let her know who to highlight.
      • Dave M: Suggestion to Kathy and Peggy is to call liaisons and talk to them about what they can do to promote that they are doing.
        • Eric C also supports of calling up to do an interview that they can post online.
        • David B: Raised idea of sending email to liaisons with short Q&A about trail system.
      • Clay
        • Raised idea of setting up at certain trails to have some people there giving out information.
        • Ernie: We need to give Clay a pop-up tent and MORE flags.
        • Ernie: Who has a MORE EZ-UP or flags?
          • Eric has 1 with broken frame and 2 MORE flags.
          • Peggy had one but gave it to Martin. Peggy has 2 MORE flags.
          • Tom has 1 EZ up and two flags
          • Rob has a flag
          • Sharron has a flag.
        • Kathy has experience with GIS and Maps. If there are needs for maps, she can do it.
        • Peggy: An app called Strava Metro gives you historical heat maps and rider data, which gives urban planners ideas for where they are riding bikes. She applied for Fairfax County. The idea is to figure out at Fountainhead where people were riding.

 

 

 

 

 

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