January 2023 Board of Directors Meeting Minutes and Activity Reports

Attendees:

·      Christina Micek (Guest & MORE Member)

·      Nate Frey (Interim Comm)

·      Ernest Rodriguez

·      Dave Magill

·      Tom Howe

·      Kathy Mihm

·      Clay Deming

·      Rob Lowe

·      Peggy Flaxman

Introductions

Christina is a rider in addition to being a member of Potomac Bridle and Hiking Trails Assoc and the Trail Riders of today. She’s interested in potential projects at Blockhouse Point, MoCo Agricultural Park and potential trailer parking at Seneca Creek State Park. (Contact info share so that she and Dave Magill can follow-up with specific discussions about RTP grants. Christine was a former member of the Essex County Trail Association (MA) where they had a relay race. She’s interested in a similar event in the local area. Discussion followed about getting in touch with Friends of PVSP and about other possible venues.

Nate Frey has volunteered to serve as Communications/Marketing Director. He is from San Diego, and currently is a contractor working on FEMA. Nate mentioned riding in SD and how different trail access is in that area. Ernie offered history on SDMTB.

Financial Updates (Neil, via email – comments below Neil’s Info)

Below are the details and the high level is that MORE ended up with a $16k increase in general funds for 2022 compared to a budgeted decrease of $16.5k. The most significant reasons are that the costs for tools came in much lower, revenues from the gala (none were budgeted) and not all of the funds for the video were spent. Lots of other ups and downs. Overall a strong year!

Dave M says that we are not spending on trails as fast as money is coming in. Dave says that when making decisions moving forward we should not constrained by money but rather by whether or not something is good for the club. Ernie commented that Jason (Ashmore) and Anne (Mader) should be recognized for steering MORE in the right direction when in financial trouble in the past.

Election Results (Peggy)

106 votes cast in election (this is the correct number, error made at meeting.) Noted that a new tool will need to be used in future elections (the free Survey Monkey does not allow for more than 10 votes to be tallied, though was sufficient for uncontested election). Rob will begin tracking this engagement along with membership.

Appointment of Interim Communications/Marketing Director (Ernie)

Ernie led discussion regarding whether Nate wanted to jump in to the roll, or try “training wheels” and then let the board know after a couple of months. Rob suggested the training wheels, and all agreed. When asked if Nate wanted to start with the weekly communications (as there is no one set to do this during the lapse between EDs) Nate said he didn’t know if he’d have the time to do weekly comms. Peggy and Kathy will meet and discuss with Nate what the training wheels might look like to get him started in the roll.

Data management and options (Kathy)

·      Kathy said that her questions relating to data (volunteer hours/rides) management were answered in a prior discussion with Ernie. (Jeff R has written some JavaScript that is allow for manipulation/comparison/management of data.)

·      Jeff’s work is good at finding whole in trailwork, but we still do not have a good picture of ride leaders/sweepers and how many hourse are being put to this effort.

·      Jeff made some changes (to Golden setup) that may improve this, but will need to determine whther we implement this change.

·      Kathy asked if MORE was willing to try Meetup Pro ($30) to see if it would be a better tool. (This was agreed upon and Ernie will work with Kathy to upgrade the account).

·      Kathy will talk to Dave B about waivers in Meetup

·      Ernie asked whether we need to settle on specific tools for tasks or do we follow the lead of volunteers and let them use the tool they’re comfortable with and continue to deal with managing the data at the end of the year?

·      Ernie mentioned that Golden Volunteer may not be a tool offered free to MORE forever (apparently other IMBA chapters are not using it)

·      Peggy voiced concern about continually changing the tools/guidance and rules for volunteers as it’s too much to ask them to change each year.

2023 Planning (Ernie)

-       Make sure events are added to the calendar for planning purposes (Planning Calendar/2023 MOER Calendar)

-       https://moremtb.sharepoint.com/:x:/g/Ea2swsnJPehKqYBkQjPqkYQBIYcS-xNMLuXaxi_RHxrlUA

-       Clay has potential Wakefield event set for April and potential July event at Bacon Ridge.

Membership Updates (Rob) – Discussion Notes follow Rob’s data.

MORE - Membership Summary – Dec 2022 (as of 05 Jan 2023 – 11PM)

YTD VS 2021 - 2022 YTD = $100,918 vs 2021 (YTD) = $97,370 == (POS) $3,611 YTD

All Members (New, Current) – 1970= (1960+10) vs 1970 (Nov) vs 1987 (Oct)

Lapsed/Expiring 92 = Dec and Nov 2022

Other Stats Dec 2022 Nov 2022 Oct 2022

Joins 10 9 61

Renew – N/A (Under 15 Days) 64 50 118

Renew Short – (15 Days to 3 Mo) 16 6 27

Renew Middle – (3 Mo to 6 Mo) 4 2 16

Renew Long – (6 Mo+) 7 8 37

Large Donors (Annual over $100) 30 @ $4200 21@ $2090 29@ $3500

Money/Members –

Paid Members – In last 12 Months – Total - 1584 of 1970 Total Members (Dec 31, 2022)

Value - $100,918 – Pre-IMBA Share

Auto Renewing Members – Annual - Total - 658 (Members n Family) - 509 Paying

Value - $35,038

Original 2020 -- 202 ( +82 for Year), 2021 – 284 ( +78 for Year)

Original 2022 -- 362 ( +147 for Year)

Auto Monthly Members - Total - 76

Value - $645 per Month/ $7740 per Year

Avg Mem Value -- $103.85 per Year

Original 2021 – 59 (+12 for Year) - 2022 – 70 (+6 for the Year)

Jan 2023 – (As of 09 Jan 2023) Total – 45 Value – $1837 vs (169@$7161)

Dec 2022 Memberships Total – 178 Value – $8317 vs (188@$9872)

Nov 2022 Memberships Total – 151 Value – $5399 vs (150@$5474)

Oct 2022 Memberships Total – 331 Value – $14539 vs (294@$13187)

Sept 2022 Memberships Total – 244 Value – $10143 vs (269@$12167)

December was another slow month for Membership, we actual stayed at the same level of 1970 as November 2022 finished, we had only 10 new joining members. We did have a good month of High Value memberships at $100 and higher with over $4k. Overall we had a very strong first 3 quarters but November and December we saw a drop in New Joins and in Memberships. It may reflect people moving on from the sport/etc post pandemic.

Membership Discussion

-       Ernie says the trend for other clubs is a decrease in membership, our has merely slowed down

-       Peggy has data that can add event attendance to DonorPerfect so that we can track engagement of membership. Peggy will send file with Donor IDs of attendees to MoCo Epic and Women’s MTB Day to Ernie for import. (Fields already added in DP constituent records).

-       Both events had approximately 50% of the attendees as members.

-       Agreement that new trailhead signage needs to be planned for spring rollout that highlight MORE’s roll in trail and the importance of membership. These should be posted in time for IMBA spring membership drive (May?)

ED Resignation / Plans for transition

-       Discussion of reasons for leaving, including the nature of the MoCo Epic.

-       Peggy mentioned that permits are filed with NPS and M-NCPPC. DNR has been contacted regarding minimal use agreement. All 2022 file are organized on the Epic Team Site, and the 2023 Epic Team file structure has been created. Planning documents and permits can be found at 2023 MoCo Epic/Planning.

-       Peggy’s files are

-       Ernie has setup a committee to discuss potential changes to event.

-       Kathy would like to have a time to talk with Peggy regarding issues so that she can better understand what is manageable/unmanageable.

-       Peggy indicated that outside of the Epic the tasks were manageable.

-       Peggy discussed level of weekend/night availability necessary for position, not as an issue but something that candidates need to be aware of.

-       Peggy added that physical nature of the job (moving/hauling items for events) should be included in job description if ED is expected to provide that level of support for all MORE events.

-       Peggy will work on high level description of all tasks (including MoCo Epic related) which were done by ED to Ernie no later than 1/16.

-       Post job ASAP, hopefully prior to 2/1.

Events (Clay)

Upcoming Membership Meeting

-       Need to start advertising

-       Clay will reach out if he needs help with food/awards/speakers

-       Clay is not sure if we need a program

-       Ernie says he has speakers, will coordinate

Trails (Info included in activity report)

Virginia

Maryland