October 2022 Board of Directors Meeting Minutes and Activity Reports
MORE – Board of Directors Meeting Minutes
October 18, 2022
Virtually present at meeting
Ernie Rodriguez - President
David Beugelmans - Vice President
Peggy Flaxman - Executive Director
Tom Howe - VA Advocacy Director
Kathy Mihm - Communications Director
Clay Deming – Activities Director
Dave Magill - MD Advocacy Director
Rob Lowe – Membership Director
· Membership Updates
o Memberships have slipped down. Had been at 1955, right now at 1940s.
o We have had a couple busy days with memberships, so this may have changed.
o Have had 43 new joiners in September.
o Several large membership/donors come in in September.
o Paid membership numbers do continue to go up. Our pre-share tracking over 12 months is over $100k.
o Annual renewals continue to go up. Up by 82 over the year. Monthlies continue to stagger.
o We are on good track for the month to meet last year. We are still ahead for year as of September.
o New joins year to date, we are on track to pass 481 we did in 2021. We were at 365 at end of September.
o David B – Do we know if all MoCo Epic joins have been processed?
§ Peggy: There are 14 or so that need to be processed.
· Board Governance
o Structure (VP/President Elect?)
§ Peggy
· Concerned that there are two positions coming up for elections in January. And if Ernie is not going to continue as president, then how do we identify someone to serve in the role?
· So we discussed idea of doing an off-cycle president elect.
§ Ernie
· We need to figure out who is up for election this year. This is only a couple months away. It is going to be communications and activities and membership.
o Rob: Going to continue with membership director.
o Kathy:
§ Thinks communications is redundant given what Peggy has picked up in the last year.
§ Can’t keep up with Peggy.
§ The only things that are not covered are the annual report. This needs someone who knows how to use inDesign well.
§ Quarterly newsletters need to be handled. Peggy can either do this, or maybe the secretary can do that.
§ Dave M
· If people disagreed with you, would you still want to run?
· Kathy: Don’t feel the amount of work justifies the role.
· Dave B: Is there another role you would like?
o Kathy: Possibility something related to ride coordinator
· Dave M:
o Kathy has suggested that we should have a director of rides, in addition to activities director
· Peggy
o There are some communications I can’t do. I can’t do maps. I can’t do inDesign.
o I can handle quarterly newsletter. This should be a message from the Board as a whole to the membership. This is all of our responsibility to give the big picture view of what the organization is like.
§ General agreement that Kathy should continue in role as-is.
· Dave M: We should have a ride director.
· Clay: A ride director is a needed position. I like being involved in the ride program, but I can’t handle everything.
o Clay: Interested in running again, but perfectly happy if someone else is willing to do it.
§ Ernie: What are your thoughts on a Communications/Ride Program director?
· Clay: We need to have ride programs up and running. So having someone with that title at the MORE level is great. Support concept and it brings in new members and foster community.
o Rob
§ I did ride coordinator as a shared position in 2010. Shared it for first 2-year term, and then took over from 2012 through 2015 or 16, before switching to VP.
§ It was something I was never great at. Just like the trail boss position, it was a lot of tracking, because we had 500 to 600 calendar rides that I needed to track. Did all the work on the MORE calendar.
§ Getting new ride leaders out is something I’ve never figured out how to do well. It is not easy, but you just need to try to do it. That was always a big challenge.
§ Regional ride coordinators wouldn’t be a bad idea under a ride director. Trying to expand the beginner rides is a good idea. Clinics are also good and it would be excellent to standard regionally.
§ On Board Positions
· How much time do we think a person needs to give a month to succeed in a given position? I give about 10-20 hours a month.
· Other people give different amounts.
· We need to think about how people are and what they can do in the position.
· I have talked to candidates and they have said even 10 hours a month is hard.
· Some board positions are hard and some aren’t.
· Your board position is what you do what you are there. board position is what you do what you are there. You can do whatever you want to do as long as it’s not against the club.
· Showing benefit to the club is the key to being a board member.
· You generally see two types of board members: younger and passionate or old and retired.
§ Kathy in agreement that we should make the position Communications/Ride Director
§ Ernie: We should try to find someone for the president position from within who knows the organization and make positions about how to handle/change things. We need a different kind of president. We need someone who is more guiding and not just doing.
§ Possible Motion: Create Ride Leader position, eliminate Vice President position, add Secretary position
· Peggy: I am concerned that if assume the president will come from the board, then the person will be burned out.
· Dave B: General agreement that we need to be proactive and try to find someone.
o Ernie: Motion to eliminate Vice President position, add Secretary position, add Ride Program Director, change title of Communications Director to Communications and Marketing Director to be reflected in December 2022 elections that will be effective January 2023.
§ Seconded and passed unanimously.
§ Peggy: We need new descriptions before putting out nominations in November.
· Also need to see if this impacts committee positions.
o Vetting
§ Peggy: Is this something we need to focus on for president position?
§ Dave M: Is this an item you’d want to post? Or is it something that’s purely internal?
§ Kathy: We don’t see any harm in asking people questions to see what their interests are. That said, they would still need to write up why they want the position and run.
§ Dave M: Our members elect our board members, so what’s the purpose of this information? Are we having people fill this out and it’s what we post about the person? Not a fan of the idea that we are pre vetting people who are going to run.
§ Peggy: If we have multiple people interested, we need to treat them equitably.
o Board Meeting Frequency
§ Peggy: We should consider whether we do this 12 months a year and whether we should do things in person sometimes.
§ Kathy:
· We can probably cut out a summer month.
§ Clay
· Don’t mind missing a meeting and knowing that it still happens. Like that we can miss certain meetings.
§ Ernie
· At the core of this question is whether we are a working board or a policy board. Think we are a working board.
· With respect to in person meetings, maybe we can think about quarterly in person meetings.
§ David B
· Support less frequency
§ Tom
· Thinks we can make good decisions remotely if we don’t meet monthly.
§ Peggy
· We shouldn’t have board meetings in October because of MoCo Epic.
§ Tom
· Also supports idea of skipping the month of the winter meeting or in March.
§ Dave M
· Doesn’t support eliminating October, November, or December due to the board elections
· Events
o MoCo Epic Report (Peggy)
§ Peggy
· Don’t have final numbers.
· We should be around where were last year on budget.
· Would like to see shorter volunteer shifts next year.
· Memberships at the Epic were way down this year, by about $3000. Is this because we captured memberships earlier in the year, or at they just not renewing.
· People sign up for membership at the epic, then we need to look up their status, and then put into a spreadsheet and put them in manually or have IMBA put them in, which takes 3 weeks. There are opportunities for errors here.
§ Dave M
· Went in thinking we wouldn’t do as well as last year, but we did better. Peggy did a fantastic job, including managing the food issue.
o 30th Anniversary Event (Clay)
§ Everything is on track as far as planning
§ Talk to venue every other day.
§ We can show up at 4pm and need to be out by midnight. Going to start accepting guests and start getting them out at 11.
§ Talked to food vendor, and all good with them. Once we get a clear number on the tickets, we will confirm the food. Will do this three days before.
§ We have indoor and outdoor options, depending on the weather.
§ Terrapin Bikes is going to offer some money to buy beer, including at wholesale pricing. Also talking to Sierra Nevada, which may be able to donate some beer.
§ A lot of people are stepping up for donations. Have gift cards and random items to give out.
§ We need to decide: how we are going to entertain people, what information to give them. Working on a slide show.
§ Going to present Scott Scudmore Award.
§ Dave M: We need to make sure we have wine.
§ We need people to buy tickets. We are only at 10-15 right now.
§ Peggy will work with Clay on presenting what the evening will look like to people.
§ Dave M: We need to have a coordination all to discuss who will speak and what they say.
o Awards for 21 (Clay)
§ Ordered awards and had them delivered. Thinking about doing them at the Epic, but couldn’t.
§ Ernie brought up the point at doing it at the 30th. Wanted to see what board wants to do.
§ Dave B: We probably need to do most of them outside of the 30th event.
§ Tom: Will deliver awards to folks in VA.
· Trails
o Virginia (Tom)
§ Did not hold monthly meeting.
§ Went downtown and met with visiting IMBA folks and had great happy hour.
o Maryland (Dave)
§ Slow and steady progress in a number of areas.
§ Have permit from SHA to build under Clopper Road. Now working on wetlands permit. Believe they are going to get that section open by the time of the next epic.
§ Patuxent Phase I is finished. Won’t give us $18k until we mow stilt grass. Phase II, we did get an expert to say that the stream crossing is not over a wetland. Hopefully we can get this done without building a crazy structure.
§ Rivers Edge is almost ready to get NTP to start digging.
Activity Reports
· President – Ernest (Ernie) Rodriguez
o Attend and help with Fall Camping Trip
o Participate in US Forest Service Planning Committee
o Assist Clay with 30th Anniversary Gala planning and Thank You notes for registered attendees
o Add memberships into DonorPerfect
o Send out thank you notes to donors
o Help Peggy and MoCo team as needed
· Executive Director – Peggy Flaxman
o MoCo Epic
· Vice President – David Beugelmans
o Volunteer at MoCo Epic
o Coordinated board meeting and finalized minutes
· MD Advocacy Director – Dave Magill
o Trailwork prep for MoCo Epic.
o Four days of volunteering at the Epic, including setup and tear down.
o Continued work to obtain permits for Clopper Road underpass, Patuxent Phase 2, and Rivers Edge Phase 2.
· VA Advocacy Director – Tom Howe
o [*]
· Membership Director – Rob Lowe
· Processing Membership Emails
· Reminders Sent - Lapsed Members in Sept 2022
· Thank You's for Joins and Renewals
· New and Renewal List to Exec Dir for Raffle for Aug 2022
· Membership Questions/Issue with IMBA
· Communications Director – Kathy Mihm
o Fall Newsletter
o Maps for Kent Island
o MoCo Epic Maps
o MoCo Epic Planning and Registration
· Treasurer – Neil Blake
o [*]
· Activities Director – Clay Deming
o Epic Family Day planning
o Epic support
o 30th planning, events and rides
o Awards