Narragansett Chapter Board Meeting

July 8, 2014, Tuesday, 6:00pm

155 South Main St. Providence, RI

Call to Order – 6:07

Attendance: Debbie Mitchell, Chris Shafer, Linda Pease, Tom Eagan, Dav Cranmer, Debra Huntington, Mike Krabach

Business Meeting

Review and Approval of June2014 Meeting Minutes, Approved by Chris, second by Linda, all in favor

Treasurer’s Report – Tom gave treasurer’s report. It was voted on and approved.

Chapter Chair Report

Debbie spoke about the marketing initiatives at Joy St. They would like to participate in events so that they can give out marketing material. They asked if we would like to have a leadership event. But since we have recently had a leadership event we will gladly accept the items and then give them out at our events.

EMS discount e-mail has been sent around.

Chapter Vice-Chair

Bob reported that he is actively looking for his successor. He made a list of people who attended the last leadership course. He will approach the individuals to see who may be interested. Debbie commented that a nominating committee is needed. Chris recommended that the candidate know that he/she could be the vice chair for a year before committing to being the next chair. Bob asked that Mike put a ‘Save the Date’ notice to the website regarding the Fall festival that is scheduled for Oct. 3-5.

Old Business

Annual Meeting Speaker Project – Debbie had e-mailed a list of speakers that were recommended by Joy St. to the board and asked for input. She reviewed the recommendations that she received. Debbie will send out the list of recommendations to the board and ask for their input. The speaker needs to be contacted within the next couple of weeks.

Website Succession – As a reminder, Joy St. is encouraging chapters to have a website succession plan. Tom has researched two companies that develop webpages. He has received feedback from one of them. The idea is that the website would be developed by an outside company and maintained by Mike K. Mike pointed out that someone would need to run the content management site.

New Members Survey – The questions have been updated and the survey streamlined.

Financial Reserves – Tom requested that the board discuss what to do with the financial reserves that are currently available. There was a suggestion to offer incentives to board members, for example, an AMC membership. Other suggestions included awards for committee leadership and/or awards for new leaders. Other suggestions included purchasing additional gear for rental and giving gift cards to either EMS or REI as awards.

New Business

Other – Debbie encouraged people to begin thinking about ‘Appie of the Year’.

Committee Reports

Activities – Chris commented that RI DEM Fish and Wildlife division is requiring that trips leaders have a permit and approvals to park at the fresh water site kayaking put in sites. The permit must be requested three-weeks in advance of the trip. The trip leader would request a permit and let the DEM know how many boats would be used and the DEM would issue a permit and parking pass per car.

Conservation – Linda updated the board on the Community garden and Edible Forest event scheduled for July 12 at Roger Williams Botanical Garden. There is also a paddle on that day. It is a retracing of Roger Williams escape.

Linda asked about advertising in the ‘Backcountry’ section of the AMC Outdoor Magazine for the Camp Winaukee weekend on Labor Day. Mike pointed out that it is too late to advertise in the section. There was a discussion about the purpose of the section. Debbie will contact Joy St. to see how much flexibility there is in submitting materials.

Trails – Chris reported that they successfully completed projects on the Walk-about-Trail. There were a number of areas that were wet and impassable that they put down logs and built lumber bridging to improve the trails. Chris also commented that there has been approval for the Wood River bridge project. Chris also reported that he has received a $4,000 grant to repair a shelter on the Ben Utter trail in Arcadia. They also recently did erosion control work at the Blackstone Park. Other work including considerable planting has been done by outside help there that was funded by a grant and the park is looking a lot greener than it has in the past. There is also a grant to work on the Vin Gormley trail building additional boardwalk. This project is slated for September.

Young Members – Scott asked via email if members who lead three trips could get a refund on the WFA training. Tom said that Scott should let him know who lead the trips and how much they paid for the training. He will coordinate the refund.

Meeting adjourned at 7:25

Next Meeting is August 12