16 July 2008 Planning Meeting Minutes

SKI BUDDIES Planning Meeting Minutes: 16 July 2008
Address: Ski Buddies; P.O. BOX 20003; Seattle, WA 98102

Attendees
Cathy Jessup, Mark Pollock, Craig Mabie, Tom Rowan, Bud Wright, Chris Turcotte, Ray Blocknia, Shilpen Patel & Greg Snider met at Greg & Fred’s place for our kick-off planning meeting of the 2008-9 winter sport season. Thanks for hosting the BBQ, Fred & Greg.

Agenda:
• Pride wrap-up: participant credits
• Discount Ski tickets through Thai Bui
• 2008 Membership Dues
• Officer/Volunteer credits
• Kootenay Outreach Donation
• Publicity
• Potlucks
• Treasurer’s Report
• New season trips

Ski Buddies Presence at Pride:
Successful – and it worked great sharing space with OutVentures. As promised, everyone gets their membership credit if they worked the 2hrs & a half credit if they worked 1 hour. Here’s who was signed up & everyone worked their shift:
• 10:00 - 11:00 (set-up): Cathy Jessup
• 11:00 - 1:00: Tom Rowan
• 1:00 - 3:00: Lisa Sokanoff and Elaine Field
• 3:00 - 4:00: Cathy Jessup
• 4:00 - 5:00: Shane Ballweg
• 5:00 – 7:00 (tear-down): Greg Snider and Fred Grant

Discount Ski Tickets:
As he has done in past years, Thai Bui has pre-ordered and purchased in advance 60 tickets for the upcoming ski/snowboard season with the Washington Corporate Ski Pass program. He got 25 for Stevens, 25 for Crystal, 2 for Baker and 8 Snoqualmie Summit (or they can be used at any of the 60 other WA Ski Area, including White Pass, Mission Ridge, 49 Degrees North, Mt. Spokane and Bluewood.) He can offer them at $37.50/ticket still can offer them at a discount far below regular cost at the ski slopes.

Mark would like to have Thai come to the next planning meeting – so we can discuss how to commit the money and distribute tickets to the members efficiently and so Thai

Membership Dues:
As everything else seems to be increasing in 2008, our annual dues will go up $5. We haven’t raised dues in 10 years but the new rates will be:
• $25 – First year sign-up
• $30 - Individual
• $40 - Couple
Let Vince know of new rates – and the membership form has to be updated to reflect the new prices. Vince & Stuart can hopefully update and post the revision on the web. Remember, only members go on trips beginning this year: if you want to go on a trip, join the club. For trips with sister groups (like OutVentures & SAGA), if they are members of the sister club they do not need to join our club also. We should also have Carl put something in the first newsletter to inform the membership.

Officer/Volunteer Credits:
After much discussion, the agreement eventually reached was that president, treasurer, secretary, web-master, membership, potluck coordinators, and newsletter would continue to receive $200, while the remaining positions of vice-president & content updater receive $100 each.

Kootenay Outreach Donation:
As was agreed to at the April Planning meeting, SkiBuddies will donate $200 to the Kootenay Outreach AIDS group. We decided to do this since Rose, the Red Mt lodge owner gave us a deal on the lodging and suggested we donate some of our extra profit toward a local AIDS organization. Mark wrote a great letter for the Kootenay Outreach group; Chris to send a check out with the letter.

Publicity:
• We want to be a sponsor for the 2008 Seattle Lesbian & Gay Film Festival since we think it is the correct demographic, we get to splash our stuff everywhere, and we even get freebie tickets to give away at potlucks. Cathy doesn’t have the exact sponsorship rates but last year the amount was $500. Cathy will provide info before necessary commitment.

Potlucks:
• Tom will sign up the space for potlucks: Mt Baker CC will offer us a smaller space for a deal for the Jan - Feb potlucks and the larger space for Oct-Nov-Dec. Like the idea of consistency in location and it seems to get a good crowd.
• Maybe do a pre-potluck movie from Matchstick Productions. We might get more folks as a real social event.

Treasurer’s Report
• End of Year Balance will be ~ $7000 after writing $200 check for Kootenay Outreach. Other charges over the summer: the $80 web site fee and the accounting fee to do the taxes
• We ended last year with ~$12,000 but we spent more on publicity, the Appreciation Day at Crystal, and lots of trips not making sufficient margin. Most of trips were break even last year – but the expectation is to make money on each one. Since we have problems this way Chris plans to come up with a better way to quote costs to trip participants; probably should be cost + 10%.
• The club now has a new credit card with bigger limit: Chris will use for big early-season numbers (e.g., Whistler, Crystal Bus).
• Chris will do the annual 1-2 page financial report for the membership for the September meeting and publication in the first newsletter. The leadership team will get the detailed version of the report at the next planning meeting.

Next Planning Meeting:
? Sept 2, Tuesday, 7pm. Vince & Stuarts doesn’t work (as originally planned). Tom Rowan has volunteered his place at 76th & Greenwood Ave. N. (7 blocks up the hill from Green Lake) but claims it would be very cozy. Greg may not be back from Burning Man so someone else may have to be secretary. Watch for late-breaking details confirming time & location – to be distributed ~ August 20.

New Season Trip Ideas:

December 2008:
• 12/6-7: Timberline (who?) Put a notice on the web-site to get a volunteer. Cathy willing to check into pricing for bunk rooms (w/shared bath) vs private rooms. Mark suggests checking on renting the Silcox hut.

January 2009:
? 1/9-12 Manning Provincial Park (Craig Mabie): will change reservation to 3 nights
? 1/11-18 Aspen Gay Ski Week (Shilpen Patel): joining up with SAGA again. Chance they may go to Telluride Gay Ski Week in February this year.
? 1/18-25 Austria (Gil Price) – Repeat of last year’s trip over MLK weekend (start the 3rd weekend)
? 1/24 Member Appreciation Crystal Bus Trip (Bud Wright) – check into bus cost
? 1/30-31 Methow “Hut Trip” (Tom Rowan) 3 huts, each sleeps 8-10 (book 6 per hut), in on Friday & out on Sunday. $85 haul (2-3 hours to get to hike). Do a potluck one night at one of the huts. Deposit is on Tom’s card now, and he wants to shift to the club card when club can handle.

February:
• 2/1-8: Gay Ski Week, Whistler (Shilpen Patel): same as usual
• 2/16: (Presidents Day Weekend) Methow Valley (Roy Vermillion): details to come … he’s checking into new accommodations.
• 2/16: possible Telluride Gay Ski Week (if SAGA decides to go here instead of Aspen)
• 2/21-22: Steven’s Pass Lodge 26th annual trip (Ray & Chris): annual trip; standard thing
• 2/26-3/1: Schweitzer Mt (Tom Rowan & Jim McMillan, Idaho): stay at Selkirk, stay 4-nights, combined downhill & cross-country trip, check into bus cost, check into possible bus from Spokane. Tom would not mind passing the co-hosting duties off to Shane Balleweg if he’s interested (since Tom also is doing the Methow “hut trip”).

March:
• 3/5-8: Red Mountain (Bud Wright): G&L ski week again, 4 nights lodging; 3 days skiing. Suggest looking at 2 possible options: option of lodging/lift vs. all-inclusive.
• 3/14-15: Mission Ridge (Jeff or Mark): annual “do it yourself” ski trip
• 3/27-28: Scottish Lakes (Tim Byrne): Fri-Sun, doing with OutVentures.

April:
• 4/4-5: Mt. Bachelor (Shane Balleweg), schedule permitting, and finding a different (bug free) place.

2008-9 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 & committee
? Web Master: Stuart Stoddard
? Potluck Coordinator: Tom Rowan
? Trip Leader Coordinator: Chris Turcotte
? Banquet Coordinator: Bud Wright
? Pride Coordinator: open