March 2018 Board meeting minutes

Attendees

Ernest Rodriguez – President
Bob Caverly – Vice President
Dave Magill – MD Advocacy Director
Tom Howe – Membership Director
Jeff Niner – VA Advocacy Director
Steve DonTigny – Executive Director
Steve Harper – Communications Director

Not Present

Carlos Alfaro – Activities Director
Michael Hillstrom – Treasurer

Guests

Jonathan Kidwell – Trail Boss – Non-Voting
Rob Lowe – Assistant Ride Coordinator
Jon Posner – Maryland Interscholastic Cycling Association
Fred Powell – Maryland Interscholastic Cycling Association

Jon Pozner  – Fred Powell – NICA

• New sponsors:  Kelly Benefits – Silver Level sponsor, Squirt Lube, Joe’s Bike Shop
• Grant application – M&T Bank
• Working with UMD – Public Health school
• Leader’s summit this weekend from across Maryland
• Request – $8000 for the first year.
  • For trailer, finish arch – MORE branding on both.  
  • On race days they would like to co-brand the Saturday rides as sMORE’s ride.  This would give MORE good visibility among new riders.
  • They would also push our messages on  Social media, e-mail and press releases.
  • They would encourage us to do member recruitment at our races/events.  

Ernie Rodriguez

• Action – get monthly reports, cash flow and operating
• Action – get restricted fund monthly balance
• Fundraising – We should all be actively fundraising at every opportunity.  

Jeff Niner

• got no response to letters that he sent out.

Dave Magill – $3,000 from Pepco – for liability insurance premium increase.  

• Frederick team – going after large Maryland historical association grant.  
• RTP for river’s edge grant was signed.  Must spend before getting reimbursed – can do partial.
• Action – Steve – ask NICA fund raiser if she might be able to help us be more strategic.

Rob Lowe

• has a line on a potential donor.

MD Trail reports

Dave Magill

1. Brunswick – River’s Edge -Procurement should go in this month for 1 and half miles of trail
2. Carlo used a portion of his special purpose funds to have Elevated Trail Designs to adjust the trail design
3. MHA – Grant request – Watershed team submitted the request in late Feb
4. Looking into to options to help Tim with Emmitsburg grants
5. MoCo- close to opening a new park – Oak Ridge, conservation park – Damascus.  1-3 mile trail with technical features – Mountain bike focused.
6. PePCO trail – remaining piece on DNR property.  DNR supported a proposal to eliminate a road section by building multi use trail along Seneca Creek west wide.  Ribbon Cutting is May 17th.
7. Schaefer – MORE entered a contract with Elevated to reroute trail.  Should be done by the end of March. Four other reroutes in approval process – in Schaefer and SRT.  Total of 2.5 miles of additional trail. Getting rid of bad trail and adding really good trail. Using MoCo reinvestment funds
8. Patapsco – kicked off fun series.  Good project to extend the ridge trail all the way to the parking lot.  
9. Patuxent – south end.  We have been encouraged to hand build as many trails as possible and reasonable.  Could be up to 10 miles.
10. Davel Powell – tremendous supporter of MORE and multi-use trails.  Actively supporting Patuxent, Schaeffer and opening Seneca Creek greenway to bikes.  
11. Bacon Ridge – First Liaison training – very good experience.  Everyone including seasoned trail building experts learned something new.  
12. Steve Harper reports that he will lead a ride in Severn Run on the five miles of recently  signed trails by July.
13. Rosaryville – big bridge is gone.  Another one is gone. Bridges are a problem.  

VA Trail Reports

Jeff Niner

1. New Liaison – Rob Molinas volunteered aas co-liaison for Fountainhead Regional Park.  
2. Another person – Benji Jones.  Jeff has not yet met him is volunteering to help as trail liaison.
3. Fairfax County Sports Tourism Committee – Ernie put together a white paper.  4 phase improvement – county seeking approval for $690K for beginner trail, pump track, retail and pavilion at Fountainhead.   
   1. Paul Gilbert – on Fairfax county sport tourism commission.
   2. Ernie explained comparables, Riverfest, MoCo, etc.  Was asked what can you do to get 2,000 people in a single event?  In the past a NOVA epic wasn’t possible – seems like conditions are changing for the better.
4. June 23 Specialized, Trek demo day at Meadowood.  Spokes etc. sponsor. Trek trucks will be there.
5. Discussion about chainsaws – land managers to decide policy and approval process for use if at all.
6. Steve DonTigny –  Loudoun Co. Met with Parks/Recs/Open Spaces board.  Will present to them this month. Purcelville wants to develop some space.  
7. Announcement – DC Government will spend 4 million developing Kingman Island at Anacostia waterfront – RFK stadium.  Sports field. Natural surface trails on Kingman Island. DCMTB crew leading the charge along with Gearing-Up, REI, MORE, Student Conservation Corp.  
   1. Potomac conservancy – land trust, own property.  Have volunteers who want to help with trails. Have land in Hancock MD.  Have millions of dollars worth of land.
   2. Youth bike coop – Sterling Stone director.  Underserved community. Teaching them to build trails.  Would like to send a couple of people to liaison training.
8. Tom – Working with Julie Childers to open CCT trail from Brookfield pump track to CCT.   
9. Rob – Bike doctor shed race 11/12 August to benefit Frederick Watershed trails.

Bob Caverly

• Track it forward.  Costs a lot of money.  Pay for each e-mail user.  All registered users are costs.  Most people aren’t entering their own hours.  Phil VanWerkoven will clean up the database. They will figure out who is doing the logging. Pare down to the ones who do manage users.  Would like to have a system for e-mailing about workdays that doesn’t cost so much.

Tom Howe

1. Spring Fling (attempt to reinvent the NOVA epic)  will be Saturday – April 28. Trails for Youth, Julie Childers – will do a ribbon cutting at Brookfield park.  Kathy Ridel is coordinating with the pool. Want to do a number of rides, including with members of the MORE board and others.  Pool is a mile and a half from the Brookfield pump track. Plan is to bring your own sides and shareable eats. MORE lead rides will go to Accotink and Wakefield.  Riders may choose self-guided rides to Laurel Hill or Lake Fairfax Park on their own.
2. MoCo Epic – Registration live.  Same fee structure, same general routes.  Trail work discounts. Use bike reg. And constant comment to advertise the discount.
3. Steve DonTigny. Making payments for permits and various vendors, park fees, etc.  
   1. Needs to meet with the team – more one on ones.  
   2. Working on list of aid station sponsors.  

Bob Caverly

• Communication infrastructure.  Trying to get connected to Jason Ashmore and Martin Fernandez.  Need connection to the systems. Wants an IT inventory. Then wants to put together a comprehensive plan back-up plan for operational support.  

Steve Harper

• Need to agree on a message.  Ernie/Dave – let’s start by updating “Who is More?”
• Responses from his first foray into asking a small Facebook group in the Annapolis area – “what would you like from MORE?”
• Teen Rides
• Advanced Trails
• MTB only uni-directional trail
• Semi organized Epic rides – Saturday Rides
• Kid/Family rides – east of MoCo
• Bike Helmet Donations
• Beginner Skills Clinics
• All Weather Trails – Gravel
• Friendly local rides (other than epics)
• Organized overnight rides – Beginner bike packing.

Dave Magill

• Who is MORE – one page.  Distribution. Tom should send it to members.  Bike shops should have copies.

Steve DonTigny

• Where is MORE.  Map. Working on it.