May 2024 Board of Directors Meeting Minutes and Activity Reports

 Virtually present at meeting

Casey Anderson – President

Jali Fernando – Executive Secretary

David Beugelmans - Secretary

Kathy Mihm – Ride Programs Director

Dave Magill - MD Advocacy Director

Rob Lowe – Membership Director

Neil Blake – Treasurer

Michel Ullmann – VA Advocacy Director

 

Guest: Rick Dotson

 

• Executive Director Report – Jali
  • Busy with membership drive. Trying to switch up the messaging. Got an interesting email.
    • Rob sent a reminder email to expired member, and person responded saying they didn’t see value in membership. Wanted to see place with rides and trails.
    • Interesting that value proposition of membership is working on the trails that you love to ride for free.
    • Trying to work on different types of messaging to appeal to different types of people.
    • Casey: We shouldn’t get bogged down on specifics. We should focus on the big picture: mountain biking wasn’t mainstream and now there are many places to ride.
  • Friends of Patapsco
    • Rolling out their membership on May 25
    • We are ready for that. We are hoping it doesn’t affect our membership that much, and if it does, it shouldn’t be immediate.
    • Working on ways to capture members.
  • Adaptive Ambassador Training
    • Our adaptive ride leaders are hosting a training
    • Once they are trained, they can ride with new adaptive riders
    • The hope is their culminating activity is adaptive ride in the MoCo Epic
  • MoCo Epic
    • Added an additional 20-mile route in Sunday.
    • All rides have an attached sponsor. In good shape for registration opening on June 1.
    • Next step is to do a test ride to see which trails we are add an adaptive route to.
  • Financial Update – Neil
    • -$3.8k Net general
    • $9.2k General revenues
      • $5k memberships (estimate for now)
      • $1.8k Clinics
      • $1.6k interest
      • $0.8k other
      • $13.0k General expenses
      • $6.5k ED
      • $3.5k Accounting and tax fee
      • $0.9k Tools
      • $0.8k Website (Findmygps and GoDaddy both were budgeted)
      • $1.3k other
    • $0.5k Net restricted
      • $6.2k Restricted revenues
      • $3.1k Hill St Pump Track
      • $1k Locust Shade
      • $0.5k Lake Fairfax and SGBP each
      • $1.1k Other
    • $5.7k Restricted expenses
      • $2.8k Windy Ridge (Greenstone invoice)
      • $1.1k SGBP (repairs to Ditchwitch)
      • $0.9k Frederick Cleanup
      • $0.9k Other
    • Assistant Treasurer Position – Neil
      • Identified a person who wants to volunteer
      • Decent amount of finance experience, and good with spreadsheets
      • Willing to work
      • Would need an email address, access to part of intranet.
      • This would be a volunteer position
      •  General support to bring him in.
    • Membership Update – Rob
      • March was not a bad month.
      • In April we started to see a membership decrease, and it looked like May was a problem.
      • Now starting to see numbers creep back up. Saw 11 renewals today. On Friday, we got 20 come through.
      • In April, we missed total by about $400 for YTD. 11 joins, which was a lot slower than last year. We had 84 renewals.
      • As of today, we are a little behind where we were last year, but it’s not bad. If we hit $15,000 this year, it will be solid.
    • Trails
      • Virginia – Michael
        • We’ve had two the trail liaison calls since last meeting
        • Attended several workdays
        • The fire only hit one bridge and Locus shade and have been there twice to repair
        • Added two new segments at Andrew Leech
        • A new sMOREs ride started in Haymarket
      • Maryland – Dave
        • Watershed
          • Good news. The City of Frederick is applying for a $65k RTP grant for kiosk, maps and signage all through the Watershed.
          • Did approach MORE about contributing money.
          • This is a story we should know about.
          • Construction is nearly done at Frederick Watershed project.
        • Grants
          • Been spending a lot of time.
          • We got LBI grant for Clopper Road sidewalk project.
          • Don’t believe we’ll get it done by October because can’t start until June 1 when they assign us a number for the grant processes. We should be able to get a one day permit again.
          • Applying for two grants that we didn’t get (Rosaryville and Patuxent). Trying to get support letters from DNR, which has had a lot of turnover.
        • Ride Program Director Report – Kathy
          • Done a lot of work in trying to connect with all leaders, because it was a free for all.
            • Connected with a lot of people. If you look at the MORE calendar, there are a lot more rides that are actually on there. Should have a much easier time at getting our ride data together at the end of the year.
            • Spend about ½ hour with new leaders as onboarding.
            • Making headway in getting more rides out there.
            • New sMOREs and women’s rides, and also random groups.
          • Been trying to do beginner’s skills clinic at least once a month. Give them a clinic if they are a member.
        • Beers and Gears Ride – Kathy
          • Contact by someone is doing a Beers and Gear Ride at Lake Fairfax.
          • Ernie had been pushing her to make it a MORE ride.
          • She is willing to try it out.
          • The thing that concerns Kathy is the beer part.
          • Want to make it clear that the beer at the end is not considered a MORE event.
        • Events– Clay
          • Ramping up planning for the summer picnic, which is July at Lake Fairfax.
            • We should start doing social media posts to get the word out. Something simple.
            • Should be well attended at that location.
          • Annual Report – David B.
            • Need more content on Virginia and more photos (especially from Virginia and of additional trail work)

 

 

Activity Reports

• President – Casey Anderson
  • [*]

 

• Jali Fernando – Executive Director
  • Helped organize the Intro to Windy Ridge event
  • Assisted with online registration and day-of activities for Women's Mountain Biking Day
  • Helping organize Adaptive Ambassador Training on May 19
  • Finalized featured sponsors for the MoCo Epic, coordinating with other event and aid station sponsors
  • Met with City of Frederick and Watershed Liaison team about RTP wayfinding project
  • Coordinated with the Monocacy NICA team for the Reels for Wheels event in Frederick
  • Got MORE accredited for SSL hours in Fairfax County, working on Prince William County currently
  • Set up partnership with Vegetable + Butcher (membership discount and 10% kickback for trails)
  • Met with Maryland Office of Outdoor Recreation
  • Represented MORE in Our Virginia Outdoors membership call
  • Attended in-person Micrsoft nonprofit workshop in DC
  • Attended MD and VA Liaison calls
  • Regular newsletter and social media posts

 

• Secretary – David Beugelmans
  • Coordinated board meeting and finalized minutes
  • Attend Anne Arundel County Crownsville Memorial Park Recreation and Trails Committee meetings
  • Coordinated content for and prepared 2023 Annual Report

 

• MD Advocacy Director – Dave Magill
  • Working on submitting two RTP grant applications – Pax and Rosaryville.  Application forms keep getting more detailed
  • Working on paperwork for new $100k grant for sidewalk under Clopper Road – need to wait until June 1 to get a tracking number assigned to it
  • Working on NEPA for Northwest Branch $45k RTP grant
  • Developed non-binding letter of support for SMMB in southern MD for their RTP grant application for trails near St. Mary’s City
  • Field visit with DNR to scope out stream crossings for Pax Phase 2B RTP grant application
  • Attended Windy Ridge grand opening ride
  • Distributed last of the 2024 tool orders
  • Approved numerous liaison expense reimbursements
  • Worked with John McKenna and Jali to renew/maintain MORE’s SSL status in MoCo.
  • Wrote article about MORE for a local magazine that covers the Agricultural Reserve in MoCo

 

• VA Advocacy Director – Michael Ullman
  • [*]

 

• Membership Director – Rob Lowe
  • [*]

 

• Ride Program Director – Kathy Mihm
  • Participated in several Ride Leader Training sessions and set up numerous rides 
  • Adaptive Ride Ambassador training and MORE Rides meeting with Marty and Dave
  • Work with Golden Volunteer on glitch with receiving check in kiosk emails
  • Participated in Windy Ridge Soft Opening and swept beginner ride
  • Participated/assisted with DEI Clinics and swept ride
  • Met with DCMTB on ride leading 
  • Met with James Long sMORE's ride leaders and set up for sMORE's rides
  • Coordinated/organized Women's MTB Day event and clinics - planned for continuation of activities on rain date
  • Held Beginner skills clinic at Women's MTB Day
  • Lead/sweep rides at Muddy Branch trail
  • Lead/sweep women's rides at Cabin John

 

• Communications Director – N/A

 

• Treasurer – Neil Blake
  • -$3.8k Net general
  • $9.2k General revenues
    • $5k memberships (estimate for now)
    • $1.8k Clinics
    • $1.6k interest
    • $0.8k other
    • $13.0k General expenses
    • $6.5k ED
    • $3.5k Accounting and tax fee
    • $0.9k Tools
    • $0.8k Website (Findmygps and Godaddy both were budgeted)
    • $1.3k other
  • $0.5k Net restricted
    • $6.2k Restricted revenues
    • $3.1k Hill St Pump Track
    • $1k Locust Shade
    • $0.5k Lake Fairfax and SGBP each
    • $1.1k Other
  • $5.7k Restricted expenses
    • $2.8k Windy Ridge (Greenstone invoice)
    • $1.1k SGBP (repairs to Ditchwitch)
    • $0.9k Frederick Cleanup
    • $0.9k Other

 

• Activities Director – Clay Deming
  • [*]