13 October 2008 Meeting Minutes

SKI BUDDIES Planning Meeting Minutes: 13 October 2008
Address: Ski Buddies; P.O. BOX 20003; Seattle, WA 98102

Attendees
Bud Wright, Stuart Stoddard, Vince Chau, Cathy Jessup, Mark Pollock, Roy Vermillion, Ray Blocknia, Chris Turcotte, Tom Rowan, Carl Wilson, Fred Grant & Greg Snider met at Bud’s place for our third planning meeting of the 2008-9 winter sport season. Thanks for hosting the meeting, Bud.

Agenda:
• Potlucks
• Newsletter
• Website
• Publicity
• 2008 Membership Dues
• Officer/Volunteer credits
• Treasurer’s Report
• New season trips
• Next Planning Meeting

Potlucks
• First potluck at Mt. Baker Community Center 10/12: great turnout of 90 folks.
• Future dates have been reserved for: November 16th (can’t have the 2nd Sunday); December 14; January 11; February 8.
• Encourage folks to come up with ideas for free shwag to raffle off at the potluck. It makes for fun and keeps members wanting to come back again & again.

Newsletter:
• The newsletter is totally electronic this year (posted on the website), with 1-page reminders in October & November to the “expanded membership + others” list, but cut back to members-only in December mailing.
• Carl did the first 1-page mailing before the first potluck, including potluck dates and the list of scheduled trips. Carl did the mail-merge himself and saved us some money: he got the cost down to ~ 60 cents per mailing (42 cents of that is postage); $173 total cost. Good job, Carl!
• For the 2nd mailing, Carl will make some updates and include trip pricing next time.

Website:
• Reminder to all trip leaders to please get descriptions to Ray Blocknia for posting to www.SkiBuddies.org web and to Carl for newsletter purposes (which will also be on the website).
• Ray requests that trip leaders check their listings on-line and make sure they’re accurate. Currently only waiting on a few trips.
• Everything still working great so no action items for Stuart..

Publicity:
• First “Night Out at Purr” was Thursday, October 9th, and it was well attended. Steve & Ray can continue to coordinate with “Purr” for next ones: 11/13 and 12/11.
• Advertise in the Stranger only for 5 ads total – since they cost $333 per issue. Twice before the first 2 potlucks and once before 3rd potluck: 10/2 & 9, 11/6 & 13, & 12/11. They must like us since the first 2 ads ran on the same page as the “Savage Love” column – which is probably one of the most read parts of the newspaper.
• The 2008 Seattle Lesbian & Gay Film Festival starts this Friday, 10/10, and Cathy will make sure we have Ski Buddies cards & brochures there since we are sponsors.

Membership Dues:
• We haven’t raised dues in 10 years but the new seasonal rates will be:
• $25 – First year sign-up
• $30 – Individual
• $45 - Couple
Vince has updated the membership form to reflect the new prices, and Stuart has updated the website.
• 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.
• Paypal is available to pay membership dues for a flat $1 fee on each membership charge. (it’s a percentage but it makes it easier).

Officer/Volunteer Credits:
• After much discussion, the agreement reached at a previous mtg 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.
• We will review again next year and see if this is a problem – or if we need to reduce our trip credit structure.
• Chris requests that everyone getting a credit lets him know how to apply our trip credits – and make it clear how to run the numbers (since everyone takes multiple trips).

Treasurer’s Report
• Chris provided the detailed summary for our first on-line newsletter – and members who want additional details can make a request to Chris. Chris to generate a summary page (in Excel); Stuart will post to the website. The leadership team will need the detailed version of the report at the next planning meeting.
• All trips made money except member appreciation trip, which was intended to be subsidized.
• Our publicity charges were $3000 since we misunderstood SGN rates last year. Not a problem in the future since we stopped using the SGN.
• Carry-over balance at year end dropped from approximately $10,000 to $5189. Our goal this season is to work back toward a $10,000 cushion between seasons to assure we have the funds to pay all required deposits.
• Taxes are done; accountant used the 1040 E-Z form, so Chris thinks he can do it himself next year.

New Season Trips (2009):
January:
? 1/2-4 Mission Ridge (Jeff Roberts): do it yourself trip; he will act as a coordinator for dinners, meeting times, etc.
? 1/9-12 Manning Provincial Park (Craig Mabie, Mark Pollock): accomodations reserved for 3 nights; already full for 40 people – and may have a waiting list started already. May want to make it every year now that we have better rapport with these folks; difficult to get reservations in the past. Will try again for MLK weekend availability.
? 1/11-18 Aspen Gay Ski Week (Shilpen Patel): One condo: a couple of spaces left. 7 days for $1100 + airfare; $90 lift tickets. 14% cancellation fee as soon as make reservation.
? 1/17-24 Austria (Gil Price) – Repeat of last year’s trip over MLK weekend; everything is already reserved.
? 1/24 Member Appreciation Crystal Bus Trip (Bud Wright) – $1450 for the bus (capacity 57);it costs a lot so price is at: $85/member & $70/new members. 29 folks have signed up and paid.
? 1/30-2/1 Methow “Rendezvous Hut Trip” (Tom Rowan) - Reserved 4 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, but they don’t need payment until the end of the year.

February:
• 2/1-8: Gay Ski Week, Whistler (Shilpen Patel): same as usual. Lee working with Shilpen – since he’s coming up mid-week. [sidebar: 2010 Olympics will be in Vancouver, Cypress Bowl and Whistler. Now is the time to go to the website and apply for whatever Olympics tickets you want: it’s a 5-week window and tickets will be allotted by lottery.]
• 2/13-16: (Presidents Day Weekend: Fri-Mon) Methow Valley (Roy Vermillion): Total /person with 20 people=$220 each. New cabins just being completed, outside of Winthrop along the Methow River. 2 of the cabins include laundry facilities. All sleep 4.
• 2/20-22: Steven’s Pass Lodge 26th annual trip (Ray & Chris): annual trip; already full with 20 folks.

March:
• 3/5-9: Red Mountain (Bud Wright): G&L ski week again, space reserved for 20; ~$600; 4 nights lodging at Ram’s Head Hotel; 3 days skiing; lots of events.
• 3/13-15: Mission Ridge (Mark): annual “do it yourself” ski trip
• 3/19-22: Mt Hood Meadows (Steve Wegener) Hood River, OR, Vagabond Inn. 10 people signed up; 2 days of skiing (tickets are buy one, get one free), lots of flexibility. Less options than last year so less problems.
• 3/27-29: Scottish Lakes (Tim Byrne): Fri-Sun, same as last year, will probably do with OutVentures, but offer to Ski Buddies first. Reservations made but won’t know rates until October when they do their business cycle. We rent the whole place (35 is break-even attendance).

April:
• 4/3-7: Mt. Bachelor (Shane Balleweg): He’s found a different house; Friday to Tuesday.

Banquet
• March 22, Bud to determine a location. March date gets better attendance and fills the spot of the potlucks which stop in February.

Next Planning Meeting:
The next planning meeting is scheduled for 7pm Wednesday, 11/19 at Ray Deardorf’s in Madison Valley (just off 23rd): 1812-A 26th Avenue, Seattle, WA 98122. Cell phone: 206-860-8693. Greg takes the action to post an announcement via website around November 12 - reminding folks it’s meeting time again.

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