11 December 2007 Planning Meeting Minutes
SKI BUDDIES Planning Meeting Minutes: 11 December 2007
Address: Ski Buddies; P.O. BOX 20003; Seattle, WA 98102
Attendees
Mark Pollock, Chris Turcotte, Bud Wright, Ray Blocknia, Steve Wegener, Carl Wilson, Vincent Chou, Cathy Jessup, Lisa Sokanoff, Elaine Field, & Greg Snider met at Cathy’s place for our fourth planning meeting of the 2007-2008 winter sport season. Thanks for hosting us, Cathy.
Agenda
• Publicity
• Potlucks
• Website & Membership
• Newsletter
• Treasurer Report
• 2007-08 Planned Trips
• Next Planning Meeting
Publicity:
? Great placement of last ad in the Stranger (right next to “Savage Love” again). Done with our ads for the year – but we should definitely review our options next year to determine where we get the most “bang for our buck.” Mark suggests something along the line of no SGN ads next year, 5 Stranger ads, continue the G&L Film Festival sponsorship – and maybe do 3 nights out at “Purr” since becoming popular.
? SGN bill came in for ~ $850 – which is much higher than expected. Fred checks the email from the SGN and he had mis-read their rates; charges for quarter-page color ads are $170/issue – or $850 for 5 ads.
? Second cocktail event at “Purr” social event was fun, with good attendance by Ski Buddies members. Two new faces also showed up – but neither indicated they had seen our ad in the Stranger.
? Both the Seattle Times & PI daily newspapers have an annual snow sport section – and it would be great to be part of that venue also. Too late for this year but we need to find out the details, and then make sure we have enough advance warning to submit. Cathy Jessup takes the action to determine the procedure for getting a mention in the special issue and report back to us to determine our best approach.
Potlucks:
? The 3rd potluck (12/9) was VERY well-attended at the Mt. Baker Community Center. Mary Douglas was sick so couldn’t MC – but Gil did a great job as MC again; thanks Gil. Gil will be unavailable during January so Bud volunteers to act as MC.
? The raffle stuff is working great (especially the Whistler items): we should definitely continue next year for the first 3 potlucks. Perhaps we can give out ski tickets next year; we should try and work through the ski areas themselves.
? Remaining 2 potlucks (1/13/08 & 2/10/08) will be at the Washington State Garden Club on Beacon Hill. A bargain at $125 rent each night. Bud willing to MC in January.
Website:
? Since Ray does our web content, he needs updates on all trips from the coordinators for the website. Post items to the forum or send them to Ray to post on the calendar (as content mgr) … either action prompts the system to send out a notice to everyone.
? If anyone wants to use PayPal for trip payment through the web they contact Chris (treasurer@skibuddies.org) and he sends them an invoice + 4% fee. Right now they can only pay their membership fees via PayPal.
? Citizens Environmental Coalition Website
Membership:
? Vince reports we have 133 paid members, although over 200 have expressed interest through our website.
? There is still a problem with folks being non-members (& more importantly folks who haven’t signed waiver) going on trips. The Manning Park trip this weekend has several of these instances so Mark will be taking forms to Manning with him – so can get folks to sign up on the spot.
? Since membership fees are reasonable, we decide to implement a new rule next season that says you must be a member to go on a trip. This simplifies trip accounting and encourages membership in the club. This will also assure members aren’t on trip wait lists while non-members get to go. For joint trips with other clubs (e.g., Out Ventures, SAGA) then we’ll waive the fee, but the expectation is the participants will be members either Ski Buddies or the other club.
? In the continuing move to digital, we decide to post the roster in PDF format on the website –available in the member’s only part of the site. A notification will be sent out like all other web notices indicating it is available. Since it can be updated with new folks who join late in the season – or move frequently, it will assure it always has the latest information. Since we used to send a paper version in the newsletter, this will also save additional mailing cost. Vincent has the action to generate the PDF file and work with Stuart to make it readily accessible on the site.
Newsletter:
? Newsletter editor Carl Wilson (victorspaw@comcast.net) has produced the last paper newsletter of the season. The rest of the season will be covered by electronic newsletters posted to the website – and members will receive the website notification when posted.
? These electronic newsletters will cover mostly trip status & availability, so trip leaders are encouraged to forward this type of information (e.g., are they full or not? adding additional rooms? last minute opening?) to Carl & Ray .
? Trip reports will no longer be part of the newsletters but rather can be posted to the forum site by trip. Stuart has it set up so the leaders can type up trip reports or upload pictures, etc. It’s another good way to generate buzz on the trips – since you can forward the PDF file to friends who may be curious about the club or a particular trip.
? We hope the membership adapts to this type of change since it allows us to reallocate the $500-$800 cost per newsletter to other places like member appreciation day. Assuming the electronic format is successful, the plan is to move all of next year’s newsletters to electronic format via the website.
Elections
We need to discuss the annual elections in the January Planning Meeting. How to gather nominations, how to handle distribute the ballots, etc. since this is traditionally done through the paper newsletter. One option would be since all members have an account on the website, we just send the membership a reminder that it’s election time, they log on and vote.
Treasurer Report
? Chris has completed the treasurer’s report and he has the action to generate it in PDF and work with Stuart to post it on the website soon.
? Currently there is ~ $32,500 in the account, with ~ $12-14,000 in outstanding expenses we currently know about. Chris currently expects we’ll end the season with a balance of ~ $16,000-18,000.
? Chris has also been researching what is necessary to make sure all the club officers are made back-ups on the WaMu bank account. It appears that WaMu requires the officers intended as signatories come into the bank to sign the cards. So Chris will get the cards and then we’ll have to find a time & place to all meet.
2007-08 Planned Trips/Trip Ideas:
? All non-members who want to go on trips need to sign a liability waiver and pay a non-member fee of $10 per trip.
? All members are reminded that they need to sign the liability waiver on-line at the website.
December 2007:
? 12/13-16: Manning Provincial Park, B.C. (Craig Mabie, Mark Pollock) - Leaving in 2 days! Had space for 40, but have a few spaces available – and one person cancelled late for sore back issue (unfortunately, too late to get money back from lodge).
January
? 1/12: Member Appreciation at Crystal (Bud Wright, Elaine Field) – $20 for new members; $45 deal members; we’ll still lose $ per person. Full and 2 people on the wait-list.
? 1/12-20: Aspen Gay SkiWeek (Shilpen Patel): Full, with a wait list. shilpenp@yahoo.com. Coordinated with SAGA North.
? 1/19-26 Austria (Gil) -- Total hotel, half-pension (breakfast and dinner) and ski lift for 7 days. Joint trip with SAGA North, and 10 people have signed up and paid!
February
? 2/3-10: Gay Ski Week, Whistler (Lee Johnson) – Lots of interest. Shilpen has agreed he will take over from Lee for 2008-9 ski season since Lee isn’t doing it anymore. There will be a gay ski week next season – and maybe Mt Tremblat during Olympic year 2010.
? 2/15-18: Methow Valley (Cathy Jessup) -- Presidents Day Weekend, “A Bend in the River Lodge”; FULL and a wait list.
? 2/21-24: Steven’s Pass Lodge 25th annual trip (Ray Blocknia, Chris Turcotte): full up and paid. Folks welcome to come up for day – Ray will send out website notification.
March:
? 2/29-3/2: Mt. Hood Meadows (Jan Bennett & Scott Feest) - stay in Hood River, OR. Downhill & cross-country. 28 folks signed up; not many paid yet; Chris hasn’t got any checks so don’t know what payment status is.
? 3/6-10: Red Mountain (Bud Wright) – stay at new hotel on the mountain. G&L Ski Week there that week, but no details. Arranged for 20 folks; 10 folks signed up. No deadline.
? 3/15-16: Mission Ridge (Jeff Roberts) – Got something onto website & newsletter. Same as Mark did it; everyone pay their own way; get a good deal through hotels in Wenatchee.
? 3/21-22: Heavenly, Lake Tahoe, CA (joint trip with SAGA North) – new trip added as reciprocal for Austria; Mark needs to contact Ervan Darnell (cacheboy@yahoo.com) at SAGA – and will let him know this is the one that works best for us to attend. MARK has the action to contact Ervan, although being a weekend trip it would be really expensive for SkiBuddies.
? 3/28-30: Scottish Lakes (Lisa & Elaine) – 36 spaces are Full, plus 4 on the waiting list.
April:
? 4/5-6: Mt. Bachelor (Shane Balleweg), has 1 house reserved; no idea of how he’s doing. Bud willing to help him since he knows the details.
Banquet:
? Possibly the Elysian: good food, good parking. Lisa is looking at it and will get more details to everyone soon.
Next Planning Meeting
The next planning meeting is scheduled for 7pm Tuesday, January 15, 2008 at Ray Deardorf’s place in Madison Valley. Mark to contact Ray and tell him we’re taking him up on his offer – and let him know to send the secretary (me!) directions to post.
Greg takes the action to send out a reminder email via YahooGroups around January 8 - reminding folks it’s meeting time again. See you all then - when we start looking at trip proposals!
2007-8 Ski Buddies Officers and Volunteers:
? President: Mark Pollock
? Vice President: Cathy Jessup
? Secretary: Greg Snider
? Treasurer: Chris Turcotte
? Membership: Vincent Chau
? Newsletter: Carl Wilson
? Publicity: Fred Grant
? Web Master: Stuart Stoddard
? Potluck Coordinator: Tom Rowan
? Trip Leader Coordinator: open
? Banquet Coordinator: Lisa Sokanoff & Bud Wright
? Pride Coordinator: Gil Price
