March 2023 Board of Directors Meeting Meetings and Activity Reports
MORE – Board of Directors Meeting Minutes
March 13, 2023
Virtually present at meeting
Ernie Rodriguez - President
David Beugelmans - Secretary
Tom Howe - VA Advocacy Director
Kathy Mihm – Ride Programs Director
Clay Deming – Activities Director
Dave Magill - MD Advocacy Director
Neil Blake – Treasurer
Rob Lowe – Membership Director
Nate Frey – Communications Director
· Financial Updates (Neil)
o We need to approve the financials. Dave M. has reviewed. If anyone has any questions or wants to go through anything, then should go through that.
o Will get Dave M’s comments adjusted. If there are no further questions, then I’ll ask the board to approve. Board needs to approve as part of the tax return.
o Board reviewed 2022 financial statements and tax
o Neil motioned for Board to approve 2022 financial statements and 2022 tax return form 990 in addition to confirming the accountants for 2023 with the corrections discussed at the meeting.
§ Ernie seconded motion.
§ Approved unanimously.
· Membership Update (Rob)
o YTD VS 2021 - 2023 YTD = $9,761 vs 2022 (YTD) = $11,934== (Neg) -$2,173 YTD
o All Members (New, Current) – 1974= (1963+11) vs 1974 (Jan) vs 1970 (Dec)
§ We have been stable here.
o Lapsed/Expiring - 83= Feb 2023 and Jan 2023
o We are up in paid members versus last month.
o February 2023 continued the slower trend of joins we have seen since late 2022, probably in part due to the loss of our Executive Director and her media work and also generally unfavorable ride conditions in much of February this year.
o We are not in a bad track for March. Getting ready to send out reminders. As the weather starts to improve, we will hopefully trend back up towards regular normal.
o Ernie
§ Peggy would recognize monthly joins and would send them some SWAG.
§ Rob: We are going to need to do some catch-up with this because we are in transition.
§ Ernie: Let’s do this in Q1
· Initial Discussion of Completed Rider Survey Responses (Nate)
o We are at about 350 responses to the survey. Responses are 86% members.
o Building/maintaining trails was most common answer for people’s “perception” of MORE
o People want to see more group rides and trailwork
o Email and Facebook are popular for main communication channels
o People want to see information about trail conditions, additional trail information, and trail workday information
· Trails
o Virginia (Tom)
§ Virginia liaisons are getting less attendance, which makes sense given the season
§ Meadowood is looking for a liaison
§ Tom walked with Brock through Wakefield. Going to rehab Phase 2. Contract will be in the low $20k. Money to cover it in the Wakefield RTF.
§ Jeff R. at Fountainhead is looking to put together a grant proposal for Fountainhead modeled after some of the stuff at Pocahontas.
§ Forest Greens is still on hold. Waiting for MOU to go through.
§ Lake Fairfax, nothing new at this point.
§ Andy Geist State Park – got approval for 2 miles of trail to build this fall. Greg has been working on it a long time.
o Maryland (Dave)
§ Jug Bay
· Need to follow up with Chris Garret. Ernie and I rode it. 10 minutes and five miles east of Rosaryville. On the edge of Patuxent River.
· Terrain is hilly enough for interesting features. There is about 20 miles of singletrack. A lot of it has been redone. Rode 12 miles.
· Done a nice job of working with the land, which is an eroded plateau.
· We are going to want to get more people to see it and feature it. Need to find liaison.
· Managed by Prince George’s County Parks.
§ Rosaryville
· Recruited two new liaisons. There is a lot of interest.
· Going to put in bike repair stands.
· Park management is inventorying all social trails and have decided everything is multi-use.
· Looking at making connections so that you can do shorter rides.
· There is also going to be a major refurbishment there.
§ Bacon Ridge
· Mike has mentioned there is a property by Crownsville Hospital to become available for trails.
§ This year has been a very good year for collaborating more strongly with the Gunpowder Team.
§ Patuxent
· Dan Hudson has filed the permit for Phase 2 for MDE
· Grant is going to expire because it has taken so long. SHA says we can reapply. They still don’t want to build any more trail until a new parking lot is built by DNR.
§ Montgomery County
· They did 2 plus miles of trail improvements at Little Bennett fixing the wet areas
· MoCo only builds 1000 feet at a time and the move. Do this for erosion control.
· At Clopper Road, finished engineering for the sidewalk under bridge. Completed the construction plans for the biggest part, a 100 foot concrete sidewalk in the 100 year floodplain of Great Seneca Creek.
o Request has been filed, and then learned within 3 days that MDE received application and more applications were needed. Since then, are on the verge of completing the other pieces.
o Working for co-liaison for bid package.
§ Hagerstown
· Julie and Bernie stepped up to be liaisons at Greenbrier, but there is an ad hoc team there. Deciding whether to seek IMBA chapter status.
· Our message was that they would do better financially if affiliated with MORE.
· Mike has another park in Washington County. At some point, we may find that MORE has expanded into Western Maryland.
§ Eastern Shore
· Queen Anne’s County potentially has purchased 500 acres and is looking to build a trail system and skills park. Would be 20 minutes from Bay Bridge.
§ River’s Edge
· Carlo and I signed contract for trail expansion at River’s Edge with Greenstone
· Carlo is working hard and will likely raise more to go beyond that.
· Rides
o Background Checks for New Ride Leaders (Kathy)
§ When somebody contacts Kathy and we don’t know who they are, Kathy would like the opportunity to do a background check. Found a place that does checks for groups like the Boy/Girl Scouts.
§ Question: Is there an option through Golden Volunteer?
· Ernie: There is an option, but it’s also probably $30.
o How deep do we want to get into the process?
§ General agreement to require background checks for new ride leaders and for MORE to pay for it. Kathy will administer policy.
· Will require ride leaders to fill out form online and not give us any information.
o Skills Clinics – For Members Only (Kathy)
§ There are two types of clinics. Free and paid. Want to make these required membership. Willing to do check to make sure people are members.
§ General agreement for Kathy to do this.
· Misc. Admin
o MORE SharePoint Site Cleanup (Kathy)
§ There are many old folders. Lacking organization. Would like to throw out idea that new ED can reorganize it at her discretion. Other people can note things that shouldn’t be moved.
§ Ernie:
· The organization of reflective of our volunteers and our board members because was trying to control it, but it wasn’t possible.
· Would encourage us to ask what ED wants to organize.
§ David B
· We should let her take a look and tell us what she wants to do
o Timeline for Annual Report (Ernie)
§ Put this in a placeholder for Board to start sending content in to complete annual report. Review last year and year before’s report and see if there is something positive we want to communicate
§ Annual reports are useful for communications purposes.
o Computer stipend or purchase for new Executive Director (Ernie)
§ Told new ED that we are supportive.
o Renewing membership with partner organization Friends of Seneca Creek State Park (Ernie)
§ Based on address of application, this was done with Erin Rickter.
§ This is a partner organization. Do we want to renew and at what level?
§ General agreement to become $100 member.
Activity Reports
· President – Ernest (Ernie) Rodriguez
o Work with Jeff Ravenhorst to finalize 2022 Volunteer Hours reports
o Interview and selection team for Executive Director
o Acquire and begin using GrantStation - preliminary projects for Wakefield Renovation and Frederick Watershed Clean-up
o Thank you notes to donors
o Mail swag to large donors
o Participate with US Forest Service Strategic Subcommittee
o Assist Nate and Kathy with membership survey
o Attend IMBA Local webinar
o Discussion with Greenbrier team for possible expansion, maybe Pennsylvania
o Golden Volunteer training sessions
o Attend MD Liaison Meeting
o Attend VA/DC Liaison Meeting
o Attend TrailForks training sessions
o Discuss new features to support mountain biking with RideWithGPS leadership
o File VA Annual Report
o Review IRS 990 and Statement of Financial Position
o Begin working on statements for MORE's Annual Report
o Serve on IMBA's committee for hiring Sr VP Advocacy and Engagement - help formulate questions and conduct interviews
· Secretary – David Beugelmans
o Coordinated board meeting and finalized minutes
o Participated in executive director hiring committee process, including in person interviews
o Reviewed and edited MORE waivers for electronic signature compatibility
· MD Advocacy Director – Dave Magill
o Organized chainsawing to get Schaeffer trails open. Surveyed and swamped.
o Working on permits for sidewalk under Clopper Road. Engineer CPJ finished the plans, and submitted one application to MDE, another is in the works. Will start putting bid package together
o Meeting with SHA regarding Pax phase 2. Investigating getting a grant from the state of MD through a bond bill for this trail.
o Recruited co-liaisons for Muddy Branch, Clopper Lake area, Rosaryville and Upper Rock Creek. Did Rosaryville walk/ride with current and new co-liaisons, discussed maintenance and growth options, fixed mud puddles
o Rode Jug Bay trail system in PG county. 20 miles of singletrack, much of it recently built. Will begin recruiting for a MORE liaison for this park.
o Worked with Dan Green and Ernie on a support letter for a skatepark in Frederick.
o Assisted in preparing annual liaison tool survey
o Surveyed possible major reroute on Seneca Bluffs trail with liaison Ted Diss. Assisted submitting a proposal
o Finalized 2022 trail mileage stats
o Call with potential co-liaison for Greenbrier
o Assisted in submitting a grant application to Athletic Brewing for Rivers Edge
o Executive director candidate interviews in person
o Negotiated and executed trail building contract for Rivers Edge funded by an RTP grant. Construction to start in June
· VA Advocacy Director – Tom Howe
o Executive Director In-person Interviews
o Winter Membership Meeting attendance
o Monthly VA/DC Liaisons Meeting
o Walked Wakefield with Larry and Brock (Ironwood Outdoors) for upcoming Trail Work
o Looking for a Co-liaison for Meadowood
· Membership Director – Rob Lowe
o Membership Processing for Feb 2023
· Ride Program Director – Kathy Mihm
o Social Media posts
o 2022 data Evaluation and compilations
o MORE Membership website page update and correlate with IMBA webpage
o Executive Director - review resumes, plan for interview questions, interview, announcements
o Update Interactive MORE Trail Map and submit for web posting
o Who is MORE flyer work
o Misc Ride Leader communications and prep for 2023
o MORE Member survey review
· Communications Director – Nate Frey
o Introduction to Meta Business Suite and Constant Contact
o Social media posts
o 2023 MORE Rider Survey updates
· Treasurer – Neil Blake
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· Activities Director – Clay Deming
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