October 2021 Board of Directors Meeting Minutes and Activity Reports
October 2021 MORE Board of Director Meeting Minutes
· MoCo Epic
· Financial Updates
o General - $39k increase
o Revenues - $51.6k
§ $10.4k Memberships (includes catch up to correct estimates from prior months)
§ $38.1k MoCo Epic
§ $2.9k General donations
§ $0.2k other
o Expenses - $12.6k
§ $4.5k ED
§ $2.8k MoCo Epic
§ $2.6k Fall camping trip
§ $2.2k marketing (MORE flags)
§ $0.5k other
o Restricted - $4k increase
o Revenues - $5.8k
§ $3.4k Lake Fairfax
§ $1.6k Bacon Ridge
§ $0.8k other
o Expenses - $1.8k
§ $0.9k Kent Island
§ $0.4k Bacon Ridge
§ $0.4k Wakefield
§ $0.1k other
· Request for BOD to approve transfer of 50% of MoCo Epic Net profit to MoCo Reinvestment Trail Fund
o Motion Passed Unanimously for 2021 MoCo Epic
· Updates on coming board elections and who will run again/not run again
o Dave M – Which board members are up for reelection and who is going to run again?
§ Neil – Will run again
§ Dave B – Will do vice president again
§ Ernie – Will do president again
§ Larry – Tom will probably do it again, but he will need to confirm.
o Ernie – We do the nominations in mid-November and elections immediately after Thanksgiving into first week or two into December
§ In the past, we use the newsletter to communicate this information, but all channels are appropriate
· Membership updates (Rob)
o Had very good September
o Almost doubled normal amount
o We typically do $6k, but it was radically busy month with 269 transactions and $12k
o We are seeing a bit of a lag in memberships month due to early renewals from MoCo etc
o With the latest updates from MoCo and fall camping trip, we will be at almost $8200 for month.
o This month will hit $10-11k. In November we should start surpassing last year’s entire membership dollar value. Hoping to end in $90-95k range for year
o We briefly were up above 1800 members in early October, and are down a little lower. By the end of the year we should be back up around 1800 members.
o We are doing pretty well and in last 12 months did $96k before IMBA’s share in memberships.
o We’ve grown by 57 annual auto renewals for the year.
o Peggy:
§ In the last IMBA meeting, they talked about changing the confusing IMBA process in 2022.
§ Rob: We need to provide advanced notice to our auto-renew members.
o Ernie
§ Suggest that Rob write an article about the benefits of auto-renew and a how to for the newsletter, so if folks want to, they will know how.
· Communications
o Kathy – Will do newsletter but needs content.
· Events
o Spring Fling/Engaging VA Community (Peggy)
§ Would like to get this on the calendar. This is starting to fill up and we need to get this scheduled.
§ Want to figure out ways to engage Virginia community in ways we do so for the MoCo Epic
§ In past did two NoVa Epics, but they didn’t work due to the ways the trails are set up. The amount of work compared to the net profit didn’t make sense.
§ General agreement that we should plan this and find a location for it.
· Larry: We should do it at Locust Shade, but the system may be too far south.
o Ernie: It may be too short and not enough connectivity.
§ Peggy: We should start talking about Lake Fairfax. How is this normally done?
· Larry: You need to get blessing from Frank.
o Ernie and Larry agreed to take the lead, but need information like the date they’d like to do it.
o Discuss Winter Meeting options (Clay)
§ Wants to see what everyone is comfortable with (i.e., meeting inside, etc).
§ General thought was that things may change by February, but maybe we should delay until March.
§ Dave – I am an optimist because numbers are dropping and things may be better in February.
· Would be in favor of a Saturday
§ Larry: In previous years it’s been a potluck, can we do something else? Are we doing to say it’s been enough time and we can do it?
§ Ernie: Two venues come to mind. Occoquan regional park his fernanes that they made cannons with. We may approach him.
· What are we willing to do to make this happen and is it worth it? In addition, it’s the 30 year anniversary.
§ Neil: Under the Charter, we need to have an annual membership meeting.
· Ernie: We can just make the summer festival the membership meeting.
§ Dave M: Maybe we can wait and make a serious decision on what to do in November.
§ General agreement to wait.
§ Clay: Also need remind people to get volunteer hours in so we can do awards.
· Trails
o Virginia (Larry)
§ Everyone has seen emails from Martin. Locust Shade is chugging along and is finished.
§ Nothing jumping out at Fountainhead.
§ There is a new park manager at Wakefield.
§ Mark has more gravel to put down at Mt. Vernon and they have a race coming up.
§ Ernie: Lake Fairfax is now doing a fundraiser to pay for additional work.
· Larry: It’s a short section of trail but its going to help out with finishing a loop.
o Maryland (Dave )
§ New RTP Grant awarded to Rivers Edge -- $35k. They will add two miles of trail to the four or so they have.
§ Nothing new at Greenbrier. Mountain bike marathon is coming to Frederick Watershed this weekend.
§ Up at Windy Ridge outside of Mount Airy, they are moving forward with planning a 3-5 mile trail system outside of Mount Airy.
§ In Cumberland, they are moving ahead with developing a couple miles of trails. Has budget for trail design from the city.
§ Patuxent – nothing new is happening.
§ Patapsco – School’s out loop is finished. Also won a grant for a connector for between Daniels and Ellicott City.
§ At Loch Raven, making minor progress getting Baltimore County people to listen to him. Has been in contact with a Baltimore County Park and they are adding him to a trails committee.
§ Bacon Ridge – Skills Park/jump line area has been approved. He is going to put forward a request to the trails committee for $10k.
§ Kent Island – Had ribbon cutting and it was well received locally.
§ MoCo – The Fairland Skills park is in construction and there will be a massive skills park there in less than a year. The trail building crew put in a 60 foot long bridge across Seneca Creek. There is a new five miles trail system called Upper Paint Branch near Fairland.
· The parks department in Prince George’s County reached out to Dave. They have $50 million in budget that they have no allocated.
September Activity Reports
· President – Ernest (Ernie) Rodriguez
o Participate on joint IMBA/REI/Outdoor Alliance Racial Equity workshop/training
o Send out Donor "Thank you" notes
o Posting to Social Media accounts
o Participate on IMBA's quarterly Round-Table conference - Take-a-Kid Mountain Biking, Membership Drive, Grant Opportunities, etc.
o Attend Virginia Trail Alliance meetings and strategic advocacy discussions
o Work with Potomac Heritage Trails Alliance (PHTA) for access to Harpers Ferry National Historic Park (NPS)
o Attend meetings with National Park Service to advocate for access to Catoctin Mountain National Park and Great Falls National Park
o Hike with PHTA to plan route for access advocacy with Virginia Senator Marsden and staff from U.S. Senator Tim Kaine's office
o Coordinate visit with Arlington Board Chair de Ferranti to Mount Vernon District Park in Fairfax County for sample community/trails
o Attend and speak at ribbon cutting for Kent Island Terrapin Nature Trails
o Trail work at Wakefield Park
o Lead rides at Wakefield Park
o Help Plan, organize, pick-up supplies, set-up, volunteer (registration), clean-up and tear-down with 2021 MoCo Epic
o Helped with fall camping trip
· Executive Director – Peggy Flaxman
o MoCo Epic
o TKMBD (Oct 5 & Oct 31)
o Wakefield sMORE’s Night Rides
o Met with Arlington Trails and Matt de Ferranti
o Mailed Membership Recognition
o Attended Kent Island Ribbon Cutting
o Attended Land Conservation/Trails/Greenways Conference Planning Committee Meeting
o October Membership Drive Communications
· Vice President – David Beugelmans
o Volunteered at MoCo Epic (both days)
o Waterworks trailwork, including new boardwalk
· MD Advocacy Director – Dave Magill
o MoCo Epic – volunteered 4 days Mon thru Friday
o MoCo Epic prep – 16 hours of trailwork in six sessions to prep the trails
o Hashawha – connected more volunteers with our new Hashawha liaisons
o Parking in state parks – worked with liaison team to prepare and send a letter to the Maryland Joint State park Investment Commission on parking issues in state parks where MORE is active
o Worked with newly formed Poolesville High School trail club to train them on trail maintenance including repairing the Schaeffer whoops
o Attended ribbon cutting for the new Schools Out Trail and MICL race loop in Patapsco
o Meetings and calls with SHA and DNR on path forward for Pax Ph 2 RTP grants
o Put forward request for and obtained approval of ~$2600 of General Trail Funds for Kent Island trail, attended ribbon cutting
· VA Advocacy Director – Tom Howe
o [_]
· Membership Director – Rob Lowe
o Membership Processing - Regular + 2 Sets of MoCo
o Membership Reminders - September
o Lead Rides at Wakefield
o Ad-Hoc Trailwork/Support for Wakefield
· Communications Director – Kathy Mihm
o Prepared and edited MoCo Epic trail/event map
o Frederick Area Trails map options
o MoCo Epic directional signage
o Lead MORE Womens rides @ Cabin John
o Lead MoCo Epic Training ride
o MoCo Epic Skills Clinic and ride
o MoCo Epic onsite work - Sat, Sun, part Monday
o Put out requests for Fall Trailhead Newsletter and start compiling newsletter
· Treasurer – Neil Blake
· General - $39k increase
· Revenues - $51.6k
o $10.4k Memberships (includes catch up to correct estimates from prior months)
o $38.1k MoCo Epic
o $2.9k General donations
o $0.2k other
· Expenses - $12.6k
o $4.5k ED
o $2.8k MoCo Epic
o $2.6k Fall camping trip
o $2.2k marketing (MORE flags)
o $0.5k other
· Restricted - $4k increase
· Revenues - $5.8k
o $3.4k Lake Fairfax
o $1.6k Bacon Ridge
o $0.8k other
· Expenses - $1.8k
o $0.9k Kent Island
o $0.4k Bacon Ridge
o $0.4k Wakefield
o $0.1k other
· Activities Director – Clay Deming
o Supported and attended Fall Camping Trip
o Attempt to organize TKMBD
o Led sMORE’s rides
o Finishing up ride leader distribution list
o Volunteered at MoCo Epic