September 2025 Board of Directors Meeting Minutes and Activity Reports
MORE – Board of Directors Meeting Minutes
September 8, 2025
Virtually present at meeting
Casey Anderson – President
Jali Fernando – Executive Secretary
Alison Wells – Administrative Assistant
David Beugelmans - Secretary
Dave Magill - MD Advocacy Director
Rob Lowe – Membership Director
Neil Blake – Treasurer
Michael Ullmann – VA Advocacy Director
Kathy Mihm – Ride Programs Director
Maris Finley – Activities Director
· Executive Director Report (Jali)
o Moving along with MoCo Epic
§ In good shape with partnerships
§ Permits are all good. Figuring out food trucks (inspections)
§ Main concern is we are 120 people behind where we were last year. Don’t know how much of it is due to political climate, or not an early bird incentive this year. We are going to double down in material in newsletter, social media, and emailing past participants.
o Use of MORE logo by other organizations
§ Need to know the rules for use of MORE logo.
§ There is a sponsor that signed up for the MoCo Epic and owns a bunch of restaurants in Montgomery County. Going to be sponsoring the community dinner for campers and volunteers.
§ Also want to make a jersey for his restaurant and wants to put on the MORE logo.
§ Know logo is copyrighted.
§ What has our rule been in the past, and if we don’t have one, we should put a policy in writing on the website.
§ Neil
· Don’t see an issue with getting the MORE name out there and not needing to pay for it.
§ Casey
· Don’t think this is a big problem, but it’s conceivable that someone could think we are affiliated or endorsing someone.
· We should develop a version of the logo that says “MORE supporter” so if somebody wants to use it, they can use that logo.
· There was general support for this.
§ Maris
· Also want to make sure have a policy for approval.
· President Update (Casey)
o Montgomery Parks
§ Capital Budget hearing
· Anyone can sign up to talk on Thursday evening. Will start at 7. We can go out for drinks after.
· Got five or six people. This is a big one. The last time we put on a push, we got the parks department to recommend bumping deposit from $500k to $1 million. Planning Board agreed to recommend it. Went to council, got it up to $800k.
· Objective will be to bump budget to $1 million.
§ South Germantown shed
· Need to strike while the iron is hot.
· Asked us to sign a short MOU saying we will take it out if it starts to fall down. This is all preliminary.
· Want to work with us first because they have a good relationship with us.
· Dave M
o The next step is to figure out what kind of shed you want. Kathy: I have already done this.
o Then need to submit to county and say that is what we want to do.
o Dave M – Do the same thing, and also go with a bigger one than before.
o Prince George’s land for trails advocacy (Albion Road property, etc.)
§ Got council member to agree to an in person meeting regarding Albion Road. Will take Jali to that.
o Fairfax trails status
§ Made some progress with Fairfax Parks. Put out RFP for contractor who they are ready to finalize an agreement with to do the Brookfield Connector.
§ Also need to develop list of half dozen to a dozen projects we can propose them to maintain momentum.
· Financial Update (Neil)
o $6.6k general fund increase
· $25.0k general revenues
· $15.5k MoCo Epic
· $5.5k Memberships
· $3.0k general fund donations
· $1.2k interest
o $18.5k general expenses
· $10.1k staff costs
· $3.2k clinics
· $1.8k website/IT (Adobe renewal $1.3k)
· $1.1k MoCo Epic
· $2.3k other
o $(12.5k) restricted fund decrease
o $10.4k restricted revenues
· $8.4k Waterworks
· $1.2k River's Edge
· $0.8k other
o $22.9k restricted fund expenses
o $22.0k Frederick Watershed
o $0.9k Other
· Membership Update (Rob)
o August was a slower month than we’ve had for awhile. Down about $1500 from the previous year, which was the best year for August.
o August is always a little slower.
o Down about $1200 in pre-IMBA membership processing, although there were a bunch of MoCo and camping trip memberships that came in a bit late, and will be added in September.
o Membership is down a little to 2091, which is not surprising due to August travel, also local economy may impact things.
· Trails
o Virginia (Michael)
§ Not much to report.
§ The two events (James Long and Lake Fairfax) were awesome and Maris did a great job.
§ Yesterday’s liaison meeting was very good. Had close to 30 people there.
§ We are making some progress with Fairfax Parks.
§ Loudon appears to be moving in a positive direction, including buy machinery to construct trails.
§ Jump Jam is next weekend at Lake Fairfax and they will donate some money to MORE.
o Maryland (Dave)
§ Making more progress on big projects.
§ For Patuxent, executed the agreement with Greenstone Trailcraft to build the trail. Put out bids for 2 miles of trail.
· Dave may come to board about an advance to cover cost of lumber for Greenstone.
§ Other big project is $100k sidewalk effort. Going to get at least five bids for the sidewalk.
· Don’t have the form of grant agreement signed yet – will get in front of Board of Public Works in October, most likely.
· May be open permanent by winter or early spring, which is exciting.
§ The buy American requirements in RTP have been very difficult for the boardwalk for Northwest Branch. We are getting there.
· Ride Program Update (Kathy)
o Things are chugging along this time of year.
o Had a new Frederick sMOREs person wanting to start ride.
· Events Update (Maris)
o It has been a crazy summer and really appreciate everyone’s support
o The picnic and ride series was very well received, with many repeat people at the events.
o Jali and Alison did a very good job, especially at Lake Fairfax. Appreciate their support.
o Would like to do again next year. Pairing with the correct people made it very easy for me.
o Got a lot of very positive responses about getting people to trails they hadn’t ridden before, and people were surprised by quality/difficulty.
o The Bike Lane was very appreciative.
o Moving on to some of the fall stuff – know we have the camping trip coming up.
o Continue to work on the Holiday Lights Ride – going to hear back this week.
o Know we talked about a VIP event for higher end donors.
§ Dave M – lets make a little more progress on the idea of capital fundraising and see where stand. We can do something maybe in the winter.
Activity Reports
· President – Casey Anderson
· Montgomery Parks
o Capital budget hearing
o South Germantown shed
o MOU
· Prince George’s land for trails advocacy (Albion Road property, etc.)
· Fairfax trails status
· Jali Fernando – Executive Director
- MoCo Epic preparations - swag, sponsorship, marketing, vendor coordination, finalized aid station sponsors
- Applied for REI Cooperative Action Fund and OnX grants
- Assisted Alison in application for Trail Accelerator Grant and Orbea grant
- Planning the Trail Liaison meeting on September 7
- Organized a webinar for MoCo Epic 70 & 100-milers
- Attended ride and picnic in Lake Fairfax and assisted Maris in planning and setup
- Processed membership from event registrations
- Regular email, newsletter, and social media communications
· Secretary – David Beugelmans
o Coordinated board meeting and finalized minutes
o Advocate for and advance Annapolis Flow Trail and Bacon Ridge/Waterworks Connector projects
o Waterworks
§ Coordinated and received approval of GTF grant for Waterworks flow trail and other improvements
· MD Advocacy Director – Dave Magill
o Finalized bids for Pax 2 build and selected contractor. Executed build contract
o Sought approval for a $16.5k build contract at Waterworks, which was approved by the TC. Executed contract
o Getting much closer on getting the lumber for the NWB project delivered
o Working with a team to go out for bids for the Sidewalk under clopper road, the grant contract should be approved for signature by the BPW on Oct 1
o Attended and helped organize the liaisons meeting at Wakefield, though Jali did the heavy lifting!
· VA Advocacy Director – Michael Ullman
o Attended the MORE picnic/ride at Lake Fairfax
o Attended the Liaison meeting at Wakefield
o Led two riders trying out adaptive bikes for the first time on a ride at Wakefield for 7-8 miles
o Received an update from Jim Corcoran on the CCT extension/connector at Brookfield. Fairfax parks has committed to fund the project and has booked Ironwood Outdoors for October/November timeframe.
· Membership Director – Rob Lowe
o Processing Membership - Reminders, Thank You's, Reports
o Mailbox Checking
· Ride Program Director – Kathy Mihm
o Set up new sMORE's ride at Frederick Watershed area
o Arranged for night ride permit at Schaeffer and working on MoCo night ride permits
o Set up Lake Fairfax Composite Team Fans rides and Bacon Ridge weekend rides
o Prepared trail map for Emmitsburg trails
· Communications Director – N/A
· Treasurer – Neil Blake
o $6.6k general fund increase
§ $25.0k general revenues
§ $15.5k MoCo Epic
§ $5.5k Memberships
§ $3.0k general fund donations
§ $1.2k interest
o $18.5k general expenses
§ $10.1k staff costs
§ $3.2k clinics
§ $1.8k website/IT (Adobe renewal $1.3k)
§ $1.1k MoCo Epic
§ $2.3k other
o $(12.5k) restricted fund decrease
o $10.4k restricted revenues
§ $8.4k Waterworks
§ $1.2k River's Edge
§ $0.8k other
o $22.9k restricted fund expenses
o $22.0k Frederick Watershed
o $0.9k Other
· Activities Director – Maris Finley
o Organized and ran the final Ride & Picnic of the summer at Lake Fairfax / The Bike Lane. We had over 100 attendees!