November 2019 Board Meeting

 

November 11, 2019

 

November 2019 - Board of Directors Meeting

 

Present at meeting

Ernie Rodriguez - President

Steve DonTigny - Executive Director

Tom Howe - VA Advocacy Director

Sharon Maloid - Activities Director by phone

Bob Caverly - Vice President by phone

Dave Magill - MD Advocacy Director by phone

Neil Blake – Treasurer

Rob Lowe – Membership Director – by phone

Mauricio Carvalho - guest

Not present at meeting

Andrew Melito - Communications Director

 

Meeting Minutes

Neil Blake – Financials

We had a good month with donations to both general funds and restricted trail funds

MoCo Epic came in $3,000 over budget in revenue. Expenses are not yet finalized so the final net proceeds from the event are not yet known

MORE BoD’s approved an increase of $5,000 to the Workday Expenses including Tools budget to $7,500 for liaison tools

Major expenses included funding for Locust Shade and Frederick Watershed contracted trail work.

Neil to prepare draft 2020 budget and circulate for approval at the December board meeting.

Discussion of Shared Equipment - All

MORE does have shared equipment which trail liaisons may borrow from each other

Canycom – mechanical wheel barrow

Brush Mowers

Utility loader – earth moving

A safety check and training is required for shared equipment, basic safety and how-to

Maintenance required for all equipment

 

Discussion of adding additional Board position for Trail Boss - All

Motion to increase the board by 1 to 9 to include the Trail Boss position as MORE BoD position (Ernie, Neil 2nd; Passed with Unanimous vote)

Will need to amend the charter document and repost to the website

 

Trail Boss Duties and Responsibilities - All

Liaison Meeting / Dinner / etc

Annual Tool Survey

Keep Liaison List Up to Date

Training, coordination with MD and VA Advocacy Directors

Tool acquisition / distribution

Track-it-Forward / Golden Volunteer tracking hours for trail work

 

Elections - All

President, VP, MD Advocacy Director and Trail Boss are up for election in 2020

Ernie will ask Brad Hawk to run the elections; Ask Jason Miller if Brad is not available / able to 

Dates for election - propose opening nominations November 25 to December 13, Voting December 16 to December 27, results posted January 3, 2020

 

Trailhead News - All

Andrew has been working on the Fall Trailhead News

Add elections

Featured volunteer

Draft forthcoming this week

 

Liaison Vision - All

Asked for input and updates by end of Nov

Thanks for identifying need to include a specific date for completion

Liaison Vision is important to identify and communicate projects MORE liaisons are working on, help fundraise and recruit volunteers to complete trail projects

 

MoCo - All

Kudos to Steve for a great MoCo from the BoD’s

MoCo Epic Post Ride Survey

• 235 respondents
• Overall positive response
• 20% shared their email

 

Motion to put %50 of net profit into MoCo Reinvestment fund (Dave, Bob 2nd; Passed with Unanimous vote)

 

Year End Donations - Ernie

Discussion of best approach to solicit year end donations; Trailhead News, email, social media

Agreed, as many channels as we can utilize is good

Donations are tax deductible

Publicize spending on trails / hours worked (Expand Who is MORE to include money / hours per trail / region; Annual Report; Year End Review; President’s Letter)

 

CFC - Ernie

Ernie will share communications from CFC for participation in 2020

We should qualify based on 2018 revenue

We may have issues with requirement for Accrual based accounting instead of our Cash Based Accounting

 

Activities - Sharon

MORE Winter Membership Meeting (Sat, 2/1)

• Possible Location: Community College of Baltimore County – Dave Ferraro is helping secure venue
• Guest Speakers: Dave Wiens from IMBA and State Representative from Department of Natural Resources
• MORE/IMBA will host a Singletrack Society Ride / Fundraiser – 10 AM
• MORE will host pre-party ride – 3ish PM
• Community / Key Leader Awards: Recognition; Make it efficient; Leaders nominate award recipients
• Frederick County, MoCo, Patapsco/Baltimore, Annapolis/PGCo, VA
• Scott Scudamore Lifetime Achievement Award
• We need a historical listing of BoD positions and previous awards (Leverage 25th Annual Gala); Post in About MORE as PDF / Word Document; Timeline; Historian function is currently spread across roles and may need an official position

 

Spring Fling Sat, May 1, 2020

• Location: Lake Fairfax Park
• Tom will reconstitute the committee to begin planning

 

Summer Picnic Festival

• June 13; Location: Ernie will reach out to Mike Klasmeier and David Beugelmans to host at Bacon Ridge and Waterworks

 

Fall Camping Trip

• September 18 - 20
• Location: Big Bear

 

MoCo:

• October 10 & 11
• It’s never too early to plan, we’ll be seeking volunteers to begin the planning process

 

Transition Meeting

• Hold the date; 1/11 or 1/12
• Strategic workshop and planning
• Board Ride
• Possible Location: Gambrill / Shed; Fishing Creek Rd Cabin

 

Activity Reports:

Ernie Rodriguez - President

• Attend NICA - MICL event at Rivers Edge in Brunswick
• Working with Sharon and Dave Ferraro to secure venue and sponsor for Winter Membership Meeting
• Process donations and "Thank you" emails to donors
• SWAG for major donors
• Working with Andrew on Fall edition of Trailhead News
• Social media posting
• Meeting with and organizing Prince William Trails Coalition
• Working with Martin and Tom for night riding MOU with Fairfax County
• Trail work at Wakefield - Save the Berms
• Recruitment for Board Positions
• Working with Steve on DC Parks and Rec youth program development
• Charitable registrations completed for MD and VA
• Apply for grant from Kuat

Steve DonTigny – Executive Director

• Bank deposits
• Final MoCo payments and P&L statement
• Attend and participate in PWC Trail Coalition
• Discussions with DCPR youth program organizational meeting
• Capital Trails Coalition meeting
• IMBA meetings
• Loudon County trails meetings

Bob Caverly – Vice President

• Completed purchase of new 20x30 tent - ~ $1000 
• Volunteered/Attended Halloween Ride at Schaeffer (New tent was a big hit!)
• Recruiting new board member(s)

Neil Blake – Treasurer

• MoCo income and expense sent out to BoD’s with the financials
• Total revenue was $73k and expenses were $38k
• Need to finalize MoCo Membership revenue
• We will need to determine the MoCo reinvestment amount based on the final net proceeds from the event

Dave Magill – MD Advocacy Director

• Patuxent work days and field visit with the RTP grant manager from SHA, Cheryl Ladota, and liaison Tom Newton
• Invoice processing and reimbursement requests for Frederick Watershed RTP grant
• Working with a team to design, replace and expand the maps at each intersection in the Schaeffer and MoCo South
• Ordering tools for liaisons

Tom Howe – VA Advocacy Director

• VA Advocacy
  • Worked with Ernie and Ryan Delaney to craft MORE’s response to NPS request for feedback on the Re-imagined future of Claude Moore Area of Turkey Run Park
  • Approved purchase of brush hog out of the Wakefield restricted trail fund

Solicited contributions for the Fall edition of the Trailhead News

• Working with Ernie and Martin on night riding MOU with Fairfax County
• Working with Ernie and Dave on tools order and budget
• Need to start planning for Winter Liaison’s meeting
• Plan to attend NOVA Parks 60th Anniversary Gala on Sun, Nov 17

• Spring Fling
  • Picked an initial date of Sat, May 2nd for the 2020 Spring Fling
  • Need to spin up the Spring Fling committee for 2020
• Wakefield
  • Trail Work Day Prep - 11/8
    • Mowed, trimmed, and staged materials
  • Trail Work Day “Save the Berms”  - 11/9
    • Thanks to Brock (Ironwood Outdoors) and the ~35-40 volunteers that showed we addressed:
      • Sweet rebuild of upper half of the berms
      • Rebuild of the armored rock climb and closed the cheater line that was threatening to become an erosion issue
      • Raised the trail bed on Phase IV back up to address erosion issues in three spots after the armored rock climb and before the whoops
    • Wakefield team is working on creating a “Save the Berms” t-shirt to sell via Shopify to help drive donations to Wakefield

Rob Lowe – Membership Director

• Membership Processing
  • Regular
  • Moco Pre-reg
  • MoCo Day Of
  • FCT Final
  • 299 Memberships in Oct 2019 - New Record of 108+ Previous High.  
• Wakefield Thursday Night Rides
• Various Ad-Hoc Discussions on Trail Advocacy and other issues
• Brush Mower Acquisition for Wakefield, etc
• Wakefield Trailwork Stuff
  • Prep Day - 4 Hours
  • Primary Day - 8 Hours
  • Post Day - 4 Hours

Andrew Melito – Communications Director

• Posted Moco Epic Images and Photos
• Thank you email and survey to MoCo Participants. Have not had a chance to go through the results.
• Working on the Fall Newsletter, hoping to send out soon
• Did Ptap November trail work day

Sharon Maloid – Activities Director

• MORE Winter Membership Meeting
  
  
  • Saturday, 01 FEB 2020
  • Location: Community College of Baltimore County
  • • location and alcohol permit pending confirmation from Dave Ferraro
    • venue & beer - Dave trying to get for free to small fee
  • Guess speakers: Dave Wiens confirmed; possibly Nita or gov't appointee to DNR 
• Agenda: All day event or just morning ride and evening meeting & pot-luck dinner? Still planning, might be 3 distinct options
• • 10:00 - 12:00 PM IMBA Ride_Single Track Society w/ Dave Wiens, major IMBA donors and MORE BOD
  • ? 12:00-2:00 lunch - ??
  • ? 2:00 - 5:00 PM MORE rides (? ask Mike Winnings, Sean Punga, Tom Newton, Martin Fernandez); (need to work on still)
  • 6:00 - 9:00 PM - pot-luck dinner, meeting with awards, speakers 
• Awards (need BOD discussion about)
  • Plaques - need awardee names by end of December
• Regional leaders to identify & present awards 
• • Ride Leader, Trail Builder, Land Manager, Volunteer - of the year; ? optional/write-in category
• Distribute Tool Awards(Dave McGill)
• Scott Scudamore Lifetime Achievement Award (need info from BOD

• 
  Spring Fling 2020: Tom Howe is planning this again, needs to recharge the planning committee; possibly Saturday, 02 May, need to check events/race schedule

 

• Summer Festival 2020: possibly Saturday 20 JUN, need to check events/race schedule

 

• Fall Campout Trip 2020:likely 18-20 SEP, need to check events/race schedule