Narragansett Chapter Board Meeting

February 9, 2016

235 Promenade St . Providence, RI

Call to Order – 6:00

Attendance: Bob Tessitore, Mike Krabach, Debra Huntington, Chris Shafer, Gregg O’Brien, Russ Miller, Chris Josephson, Ed Poyer, Dav Cramer, Bill Rafferty, Scott Disnard, Linda Pease

Business Meeting

Minutes - The minutes for the previous meeting were approved as written.

Treasurer’s Report: Bill reviewed the budget and commented that there are a few missing committee reports. He answered questions about the budget. Chris added that he expects that the club will receive reimbursement from the state for trail/bridge project. The budget was passed unanimously with the caveat that the executive budget will be added.

Chapter Chair Report: Bob handed out samples of the new trip cards. These will be sent out to all trip leaders. Bob also explained this is his last year as chairperson. The vice-chair will be moving into the chairperson position. This will leave a vacancy in the vice-chair position. Mike will put a notice on the website and send an email to the list-serve members regarding the vacancy.

Ed asked about any other board positions that may be open. He also asked if there are term limits for positions. The answer was no, there are no term limits for board members. Members are asked to serve a minimum of two years.

New Business

Fall Gathering: There is another planning meeting coming up. Things are moving according to the overall schedule. The event is scheduled for 10/14 – 10/16 2016.

Governor’s Council on Outdoor Recreation – Gregg and others attended the meeting. She put together an information sheet about the meeting and distributed it to the board. The next meeting is March 30 and board members are encouraged to attend.

MOU - There was a discussion about the Memorandum of Understanding that states that leaders from other chapters can lead for any AMC chapter. Ed discussed the concerns with it and the history behind it.

Committee Reports

Conservation: Linda reported that she attended the summit and went to the conversation meeting. She explained that the other chapters do a lot of legislative work. Some of the other chapters were interested in the amount of education work that the Narragansett chapter is doing for it’s members.

Paddling: Linda also attended the paddling meeting at the summit. They showed a movie she would like to share with other paddling leaders. She also commented that she likes having the history of the gazettes and has kept all the gazettes back to 2006.

Leadership Training: There will be a 1-day leadership training on April 9 at Camp Cookie. The following weekend, there will be Wilderness First Aid at Camp Hoffman, April 16 – 17. The chapter will help to subsidize the leaders and chapter members. On May 7^th a map and compass class will be held.

Membership: The membership numbers have been consistent over the year. Gregg has scheduled a spring event that will be held on Sunday, May 22. She already has insurance and the pavilion. She has organized with two hike leaders and recently recruited two kayaking leaders.

Trails: Nothing going on at the moment but they will be having a meeting in March.

Webmaster/Communication: The new AMC website (outdoors.org) is expected to be live in March. The chapter has the option to join the AMC website. Once outdoors.org website is live and ‘settled in’ the Potomac chapter will join it as a test for the impact of a chapter joining the main site. Other chapters who will be joining include Worcester and Connecticut. We have not committed to joining the new website. But, we can see the success of these sites and then decide if we want to join it. The decision doesn’t need to be made until later in the 2016.

Bob asked if Mike needs an assistant. Mike said it would be nice but with the change in the website it might be better to wait and see.

Young Members: Scott reported that he has been in touch with Susanne from Joy St. about kick-starting the young members events. He reported that he is having a planning meeting in next week. He is working with Rebecca Swagger. Chris J. reported that he is a member of our chapter but works in Boston and has been doing a number of activities with the Boston chapter. He also said that he is interested in leading YM hikes.

Joy St. is putting together a leadership training weekend for YM leaders. Initially, they asked for $2,800 but found money to hold the event. There will be a registration fee of $40 and Joy St. said that the chapters will be encouraged reimburse the attendees.

Meeting adjourned at 7:35.