November 2021 Board of Directors Meeting Minutes and Activity Reports
November 8, 2021
November 2021 - Board of Directors Meeting
Virtually present at meeting
Ernie Rodriguez - President
Peggy Flaxman - Executive Director
Tom Howe - VA Advocacy Director
Clay Deming - Activities Director
Kathy Mihm - Communications Director
Rob Lowe – Membership Director
Dave Magill - MD Advocacy Director
Larry Cautilli – VA Advocacy Co-Director
Not present at meeting
David Beugelmans - Vice President
Neil Blake – Treasurer
Financial – Neil Blake - not present – see attached Activity Report
Finalize Election Timeline
Peggy suggested altering the schedule for elections to occur earlier to avoid conflict with the Holiday season. Suggested timeline of Nov 15 through Dec 3 for nomination period, with elections during Dec 4 to Dec 19th. This schedule was agreed upon by the Board.
Peggy to work with Jason Miller to prepare or approve content to do announcements. Announcement for elections will be through Constant Contact for members only.
Discussed whether to announce if current Board members were rerunning during the nomination process; decided not to announce this information although it is publicly available through prior meeting minutes. The reason to not announce is to encourage more people to come forward and express interest in running.
Waivers and Insurance
Discussion on updating/reviewing current waiver to be sure it is comprehensive and consistent with insurance requirements. Recent review of Waiver by Dave Scull resulted in no changes except to remove the ‘Witness’ portion at the bottom.
Dave M suggested including language “including, but not limited to” for covered parties.
Discussed and agreed to establish a group to review the waiver and also the Policy on trail/ride events. Group will include Peggy, Dave M., and Kathy. Work with Dave Scull and IMBA resources as needed.
Policy – what do we do with these waivers, who is on contact, phone, email, how long to hold onto these waivers, and who to send them to. Also protocol
Dave M – says Dave Scull has reviewed; don’t need specific waiver for MD DC VA.
Issue of how to get leaders/liaisons to get waivers, and turn them in
Rob L – historically only gotten some portion of the waivers;
Need to develop and implement policy on what does it take to be a MORE ride (on calendar, ride leader/sweeper, advertised more than 3 days out, waiver signed). Also ride leader/sweeper should be behavior-approved (standard conduct acceptable). Ride Leader must be MORE member; sweeper membership maybe not required?
How do we check who is MORE member to verify in the field? (information is available on IMBA chapter dashboard).
Shop sponsored rides – how do we handle this – needs to be included in Policy
Need to develop policy on ride leadership, sweeper requirements, waiver requirements
Volunteer Training/Resources
Developing Liaison guide and Ride Leader Guide - a work in progress, Peggy, Clay, Kathy reviewing
Membership – Rob Lowe
2021 YTD - @ $82,024; current total memberships at 1774;
Paid members $90430 = pre-IMBA shares; about 100 more memberships compared to 2020 at this point in the year.
Some indication that past members aren’t renewing; Rob looking into ways to track non-renewals.
See Membership Report – below.
Communications – Kathy Mihm
Fall 2021 Trailhead Newsletter distributed – somewhat difficult to get content but enough gathered to fill out the document
Peggy suggested we share a PDF of the document on Social Media and encourage people to join MORE if they want to be sure to get a copy via email.
Giving Tuesday – post something on Social Media for Giving Tuesday – gentle reminders for members/partners to donate. Peggy and Kathy and Dave to work on a message.
Dave M – note for year-end giving – we should put notice out on what MORE does through the year and how donations go back to trails/programs
Peggy and Dave will work on content to announce on Social Media
Activities – Clay Deming
MORE Jerseys:
New jersey for 2022, ride leader jersey, Jason Miller will work on this; Question – do we want a 30th anniversary jersey too?
Dave proposes that we put money aside for 30th anniversary celebration –
Ernie – says he has 30th jersey ready – already designed
Ernie suggests that 3 jerseys are acceptable –
Discussion on how jersey purchase work, but there is no committed costs and investment; only costs $100 for template prep.
All agree to move on 3 jerseys – MORE, 30th, Ride Leader
Events - Peggy
Ride event at Mt. Vernon District Park 5K course; with 50-60 riders, great community event; permitted through Fairfax County; ride at your own risk; Ernie says since no charging fees, no timing offered – it is not a ‘race’, Dave M suggests calling it a Rade (ride + race). Dave M -expressed concern over insurance if such an event is a race. This type of event may provide a new model for events, although significant prep work is required, it could be held/sponsored by a particular park to promote their trails.
Movie premier MTB movie – thoughts on movie showing – perhaps Frederick group may be in interested. Available for streaming Dec 5; Dave M suggests MoCo parks may be able to display on their outdoor screen; Peggy will contact MoCo parks for perhaps an outdoor showing in the spring at a park.
December 5th – Lake Fairfax park – looking for volunteer to work the tent.
VA Trails Report – Larry Cautilli/Tom Howe
VA parks- held liaison meeting Nov 1, not getting great turnout; Shenandoah – some trail damage due to increased COVID use; Fountainhead – started trash pickup contest, also leaf blowing issues; Lake Fairfax – about 4 miles new trail coming on, some trail work needed; Meadowood – boardwalk work, swampy area to reclaim, funds from BLM, signage work; Mark Thompson – Mt Vernon – looking for someone to take the lead for Mt Vernon; Wakefield – planning meeting scheduled; Boy Scout kiosk project underway; Andrew Leech park – new trail plans underway; Accotink – not much happening – users are taking care of things, a lot of rouge/new trails;
Peggy asked about new trail at Lake Fairfax – some confusion over new trail.
MD Trails Report – Dave Magill
Upper Clopper Lake -Seneca greenway trail – working with SHA to get under-bridge area with trail across; sent letter to MD for expansion of parking areas; 2 new parks in MD – Lake Roland (Baltimore County) 3-4 miles trail, Upper Paint Branch 4-5 miles trails; meeting with official at PG county – to get more motivated riders; have a lot of funds for rec; meeting on 12/2 for Hashawha to let liaisons start work; work with Clay on night rides
Peggy/Ernie will run zip codes for PG county to prep for meeting with Co officials.
Action Items – Peggy is keeping track of action items and completion
Prepare and approve content for Elections announcements – Peggy, Jason Miller
Work on liability waiver and policy for rides and trail work – Peggy, Dave M., Kathy
Giving Tuesday message- Kathy, Peggy, Dave M.
Year-End giving message – Peggy and Dave M
Movie showing - Peggy will contact MoCo parks for perhaps an outdoor showing in the spring at a park
Meeting Adjourned – 09:00 PM
October Activity Reports:
President – Ernest (Ernie) Rodriguez
o Attend American Trails webinar
o Attend IMBA meeting to address American Rescue Plan opportunities
o Attend Virginia Liaison monthly call
o Attend Wakefield planning call
o Help with sMORE's rides including Halloween ride at Lake Fairfax
o Arlington MTB advocacy follow-up meeting with Rick and Matt
o Attend Bacon Ridge community outreach ride and event
o Attend IMBA quarterly board of directors meeting
o Send welcome messages to new meetup members
o Send donor "Thank you" emails
o Attend Prince William County council briefing for Locust Shade
o Submit final grant report to National Park Foundation for Locust Shade
o Schedule Locust Shade grand opening ribbon cutting for November 21st at 2:30
o Conduct Golden Volunteer demonstration and training
o Post social media and website communications
o Help with Jersey contest
· Executive Director – Peggy Flaxman
o MoCo Epic
§ Survey
§ Thank You/Feedback from Aid Stations Sponsors
§ Finalizing Income/Expenses
§ Review of 2021/Changes for 2022
o Take a Kid MTB Celebrations @ Wakefield/Lake Fairfax
o MICL Race
o Monthly Liaison Mtg
o Support of MVP Event
o USAC MTB Marathon National Support
o MORE Swag
o Land Conservation & Greenways Conference Planning
o PTF Partners Calls
o American Trails Trail Ambassador Webinar
o s’MOREs Planning/Coordination
o Liaison Guide (in progress)
o Ride Leader Guide (in progress)
· Vice President – David Beugelmans
o Ad hoc Waterworks trailwork
· MD Advocacy Director – Dave Magill
· Bridge designs for RTP grant projects – SHA undertaking very detailed review of trail bridge designs and actual construction methods. SHA has identified small inconsistencies between the design drawings and what MORE proposes to do, and is insisting that the engineering drawings be updated so that MORE will follow them exactly. SHA has insisted that railing heights be increased 1 foot, but backed off a request to increase bridge width from 5 to 6 feet. New bridge drawings are expected to be finished by the end of 2021
· Patuxent – Phase one final bridge on hold until new drawings approved.
· Worked with Tom Newton and SHA to define an amended plan for the $80k Phase 2 grant, changing some parking and trail plans
· MD Joint State Park Investment Commission – polled liaisons at MD DNR parks and submitted a letter detailing 15 locations where parking expansions are recommended. This commission was created primarily to address parking and access issues in state parks, following so many summer park closures due to overcrowding
· Seneca Creek State Park – beginning to explore again opening the Seneca Greenway trail from Clopper Lake up to Rt 355 to bikes. While park management is supportive, there is no easy solution to safely crossing or going under Clopper Road, which may derail the effort
· Prince Georges County – setting up meeting with deputy parks director to discuss growing mtb related trails and events in the county
· National MTB marathon Race – volunteered as course marshal
· Upper Paint Branch trails – collected gps tracks and posted on Trailforks for this 5 mile new trail system in MoCo. Recruiting MORE liaison
· VA Advocacy Director – Tom Howe
o [_]
· Membership Director – Rob Lowe
o Processing Membership
o Thank You's
o Leading Rides
o Random Ad-Hoc Trailwork at Wakefield
· Communications Director – Kathy Mihm
o Trailhead Newsletter - Fall 2021 Edition prepared and distributed
o Mapping for PAX map, Kent Island map
o Ride Leads - women’s ride and 11/7 beginner+ ride at Ten Mile
o Establish night riding permit at Cabin John and contact Park Manager
o Ride Leader discussion and planning
Treasurer – Neil Blake
o MoCo YTD through October (not all expenses are in):
§ Revenues $109.2k (excludes memberships)
§ Expenses $48.1k
§ I will work with Peggy to go through the net results to ensure they match with her records. I am missing some receipts as of now so I assumed that some expenses were MoCo and they may not be.
o General net $9.9k
o Revenues $52.4k
§ Moco Epic $33.8k
§ Memberships $10.4k
§ Fall camping trip $5.4k
§ General donations $2.7k
o Expenses $42.5k
§ Moco Epic $35.3k
§ ED $4.5k
§ Fall camping trip $1.7k
o Restricted net $1.2k decrease
o Revenues $29.5k
§ SHA check for Patuxent, carsonite posts & wayfinding $26.6k
§ Lake Fairfax $2.4k
o Expenses $30.7k
§ Locust Shade $27.6K
§ Kent Island grant $1.8k (lumber)
§ Bacon Ridge $0.9k
· Activities Director – Clay Deming
o Ride Leader Communications
o Help with Ride Leader Guide
o Golden Volunteer Guide for Ride Leaders (in progress)
o sMORE’s Halloween Ride
o MORE Jersey Contest
o Ride Leader Swag
o Looking into Night Ride Summaries- Taking over night permits looking into new ones
o 2022 Ride Planning