June 2019 Board Meeting

June 2019 MORE BoD’s Meeting Minutes

 

In attendance:

Steve DonTigny – Executive Director

Ernie Rodriguez – President

Bob Caverly – Vice President

Neil Blake – Treasurer

Tom Howe – VA Advocacy Director

Sharon Maloid – Activities Director

Rob Lowe – Membership Director

Not Present:

Dave Magill – MD Advocacy Director

Andrew Melito – Communications Director

 

Pre-Meeting guest Jon Posner and Fred Powell – Maryland Interscholastic Cycling League (MICL)

MORE and MICL will develop cobranded advertising materials for sMORE’s rides and MICL.

 

Brief discussion of activity reports submitted by executive director and board members.  No questions regarding activity reports.

Tom Howe briefed the board on media coverage of trail damage by contractor to Dominion Electric at Wakefield Park.  Jay Korff ran a story on WJAL channel 7 documenting the great work volunteers completed and contractors for Dominion Power destroyed.  Dominion Power quickly responded, scheduled a site visit and repaired or placed materials in place for volunteers to restore trails.  Dominion exchanged contact information to avoid repeat damage in the future.  Jay is a rider and has been a friend to our mountain biking community for years.

Ernie briefed the board on recent Combined Federal Campaign (CFC) application denial for 2019 based on our need to switch over to accrual based accounting and audited financials due to our revenue in 2017.  CFC requires we utilize accrual based accounting and audited financial reports.  MORE currently utilizes cash based accounting and reviewed financial reports.  This change would be costly.  Appeal submitted via on-line application system and we have one year to decide if the cost of switching to accrual based accounting and additional cost of audited financial statements in lieu of review is cost effective. 

Neil Blake reviewed finances with the board.  Details included below in activity report. Neil briefed the board on Budget, Taxes and annual Review.  All financials required to prepare our taxes have been provided to our accountant and all questions posed by our independent reviewer have been answered.  We are waiting for a response or completed documents for filing 2018 taxes.

 

Discussion of SWAG and which budget lines expenses should be charged.  Issue was tabled for additional discussion and possibly moving funds between budget line items.

The board acknowledged the great work Andrew Melito is doing in support of printed materials for the Annual report, MoCo business cards, stickers and hang tags.  Hang Tags, stickers and MoCo cards were provided to board members for further distribution to riders and interested parties.

Discussion of content, quality and identification of who Martin should interview next for the very popular podcast for the MORE webpage.  We would like each trail system liaison to have a podcast about their trail system.

Discussion of Social Media Policy and Guidelines.  Tom read the current policy Martin provided a few years ago as part of the communications plan.  This is the same communications plan reviewed at the transition meeting every year.  Bob volunteered to condense the page and a half document into bulleted list.

Sharon briefed the board on planning for the Summer Festival and reminded us to share the event on our personal social media accounts. 

The Frederick Watershed received and increase in the State Highway Administration Recreational Trails Program (RTP) grant to cover the cost of the gravity trails.  The Frederick team will use volunteer labor hours as a match for the grant.  New activity types have been added to Track-it-Forward to ease accounting for labor by type for grant matching.

 

Activity Reports for May:

Executive Director

• Crew leader for Lake Fairfax Corporate work day
• Arlington County Parks conference calls promoting MTBing in Arlington Co
• Staff Bike to Work Day Pit Stop
• Attend and participate in Capital Trails Coalition Meeting
• Attend and participate at Potomac Heritage Trails Alliance (PHTA) Board Meeting
• Attend Purcellville Parks tour of Aberdeen property
• Attend Loudoun County Trails Coalition meeting with Mayor Frasier Town of Purcellville
• Attend Prince William County Trails Coalition meeting
• Organize and attend Fairfax County Park Authority Marc Genberg Trail Dedication ceremony
• Participate in American Trails GoToWebinar series
• Participate on IMBA All Staff calls
• Mail Membership fulfillment SWAG
• Volunteer at Lake Fairfax sMORE’s rides
• Organize and participate on MoCo Epic team planning meeting
  • Prepare and distribute marketing messages and collateral distribution
  • Work on menu planning
  • Research rental quotes
  • reg # 32

President

• Attend meeting with Phoenix Bikes and Arlington Recreations and Parks
• Walk and flag trail corridor at Locust Shade with Martin Fernandez
• Trail work at Wakefield Park
• National Trails Day - Marc Genberg Trail Dedication
• Participate on Summer Festival Committee
• Participate on MoCo Epic Committee
• Order ez-up repair parts
• Accept O'Sullivan Family equipment grant - $10,000
• Attend and deliver MoCo Epic marketing materials to QMTB
• Add new activity types to Track-it-Forward
• General Volunteer
• Supervisory Volunteer
• Skilled Labor Volunteer
• Send out Donation emails to donors
• Work with Martin to create new product on MORE store - Hat and Waterworks t-shirt
• Attend and participate in meetings with Potomac Heritage Scenic Trails for Lorton VRE trail, Georgetown Pike, Difficult Run
• Walk Bull Run Occoquan Trail with Equestrian, Running and Hiking groups to promote sustainable trail building/maintenance

 

Vice President

• Lots of tree cutting!
• Bridge built
• Working on MoCo items
• beer w/ Scott McKernon
• MoCo Committe mtg
• Supported DCXC - Additional $104 donation!
• Worked with Todd Bauer to secure $250 donation from DCCX

 

Treasurer

• A summary of the financials through May is below. I am still waiting on some receipts to finalize but those shouldn't impact the overall results.
• YTD restricted - $32,664 - Donations came in for the Pepco trail fund $1,020 and Waterworks park $800
• Significant expenses came in for MoCo reinvestment $4,300, Patapsco REI work $2,500, Wakefield $1,618, Pepco trail fund $500, Waterworks Park $575
• YTD general - loss of $6,166
• Membership revenue of $7,363 and general donations of $3,083.
• Expenses $4,340 exec director, sMORE program $2,045, Spring Fling $591

 

VA Advocacy

• Helped Lead 4 Trail Work Days at Wakefield Park
• Attended Bull Run/Occoquan Trail Meeting with NOVA Parks along with representatives from equestrian, running, and hiking groups interested in the BROT Trail Assessment
• Met with representative from Dominion Energy to ensure that future activities in the transmission corridors are communicated that may impact trails in the corridor and to establish points of contacts for both Dominion Energy and MORE
• Attended the Marc Genberg Trail Dedication at Lake Fairfax Park on National Trail Day

MD Advocacy

• Activities included lots of trailwork including
• Helping on a big bridge on the Pepco SRT loop
• Wandering in woods and fields trying to figure out how to get big equipment in 1.5 miles on the SBT to fix a giant mud bog before the MoCo. We will get it done
• Standing barefoot in the middle of Seneca Creek to advocate for a bridge across it. People came to the meeting from both sides and since there is no bridge someone had to get wet.
• Speaking w finance committee about how to manage to growth of transactions going into individual trail funds. What new systems does treasurer Neil Blake need?
• Shed team received additional RTP funds to upsize their grant to cover the low bid. We should hear back from SHA in a week or two regarding bid award.

 

Activities Director

• Summer Festival Saturday 15 June 10:00 - 4:00pm.(park closes at dusk)
  • Rides at 10:30
  • Beginner, intermediate, sMORE’s
  • Women's 'info table' followed by Women's ride (1morning)
  • Co-Ed beginners clinic (morning)
  • Lunch 12:00 - 2:00: potluck lunch and BBQ burgers and hotdogs
  • Rides in afternoon
  • Beginner, intermediate
  • Games + in afternoon
  • horseshoes, Cornhole (?), volleyball, playground
• Fall Campout, 20-22 Sept
  • BigBear Campgrounds
  • Breakfast caterer secured
  • Rides

 

Membership Director

• Membership Processing - 160+ Memberships, 20+ Changes Submitted to Cleanup Lists, $8410'ish (MoCo Level Month (Sept/Oct)) - Best Non Moco Month in 29 Months.
• Spring Fling 2019 - Prep, Lead 2 Rides, Cleanup/teardown
• Lead 4 Wakefield Thursday Night Rides
• Trailwork Group Leader for Large Corporate Workday at Lake Fairfax
• Trailwork Leadership at 2 Wakefield Workdays
• Research on Current Annual Membership Schwag
• Communications with Former Members who did not want to renew (1 out of about 1000 people, agreed to donate to FredShed Trail Fund instead).
• MORE outreach at Aid Station in Quantico MTB Event.