GCWG Board Meeting Minutes 4/1/06

Location: The Board met at the Haith's house for a light breakfast followed by the meeting.

Attendance: Board members in attendance were: Marshall Haith, Joan Shaw, Jerry Stahl, Carolyn Manly, Mary Bernard, Jim Moat, Al Rothenbach, and Toni Wujek. Board member Joyce Clair was absent. Also in attendance were: Sue Haith, Roger Shaw, Jeri Moat, and Donn Manly.

Opening: Marshall called the meeting to order at 10:45AM

Treasurer's Report: Carolyn M. gave the board a written financial report. A copy is included with these minutes. Currently, the balance on hand is $314.28. Since the last report in September, GCWG has taken in $636.00 and expended $721.45. There is $360.00 outstanding in unpaid dues. There may also be some monies leftover from the upcoming Arches trip that will go into the treasury. The club currently has a large inventory of shirts and no new shirts will be ordered. Club membership stands at 130.

Jerry S. stated that a financial statement will be necessary if the club pursues a grant. Carolyn M. offered to prepare one if needed.

Upcoming Member Meeting: The spring members meeting is scheduled for April 23rd.

Marshall asked if committee reports should be included on the meeting agenda. It was noted that the purpose of the meeting is to recruit members for our summer activities. The board decided that reports don't serve this purpose.

The board discussed whether or not to have a speaker at the meeting. It was agreed to let Mike Ricketts speak for a few minutes to give the club any Forest Service updates. We will also invite Mike Braddy to talk about the Middle Park Land Trust. Mike will have up to 15 minutes. Finally, Dieter Becker will give a report on his experience at the Forest Service meeting last fall.

One of the purposes of the meeting is to get people involved with cabin hosting. The board discussed ways of getting people to commit to specific dates. GCWG is committed to covering weekends and holidays at Junco and the days that the intern is off at Monarch. Joan noted that this is about 24 days at each location over the summer. It was agreed that a calendar for each location will be posted at the meeting so that members can signup on-the-spot. An e-mail will be sent out to the membership ahead of time asking them to give consideration to the days that they can work and come prepared to signup. Joan S. noted that we need to verify the exact days of the week that the Monarch cabin will need coverage.

Review of Board Members and Responsibility Heads: Marshall distributed a list of “Board Members and Responsibility Heads” and asked the board to review it for accuracy. A copy is included with these minutes. A correction to Mary Bernard's term needs to be made to indicate that it began in 4/04. Carolyn Manley's re-election and Toni Wujek and Jim Moat's first board term need to be confirmed at the members' meeting. The board agreed that these terms begin as of the spring meeting confirmation, even though the individuals have been functioning in these positions awhile.

A review of the Responsibility Heads found all listings accurate with the following exceptions/comments :

• We need to ask Ann Feucht to head the Monarch cabin hosting again.
• We will ask Dieter Becker if he wants help with the Junco cabin host scheduling
  Al mentioned that we should contact Ann and Dieter and review the cabin hosting signup procedure that we plan to use at the spring meeting ahead of time
• Requesting trail hosting sign-up at the spring meeting is generally unproductive.
  Marshall will talk to Tara Jamison about how to do it. It was noted that we need to emphasize to the members that any days they hike a trail count as hosting days, even though they have not signed-up for that day.
• Donn M. will do Training again. Donn noted that we always guess at the opening day of Junco cabin; he suggested that we schedule the training for sometime in the last two weeks of June and that, if cabin hosts are needed before then, experienced hosts be scheduled. He will ask the Cabin Hosting Coordinators at each location to help with the training orientation.
  It was noted that, if the training is delayed, the cabin cleanups will need to take place before the training. In previous years, John Ehlen used to organize his own informal group to clean Junco. Monarch needs to be cleaned before the intern arrives. We will contact Ann F. to spearhead that effort.
• We need a GCWG contact to coordinate with Steve King of the Forest Service for the Audubon Xmas Bird count. Toni W. volunteered to do this.
• We need a Historian. It was suggested that the publicity person could do this. We will ask Marsha Braddy if she is willing. It was noted that the information book that we have positioned at Junco cabin got water-logged last season. Joan S. volunteered to restore it.
• Ann Ginsberg has resigned as the Newsletter chairman. The board discussed whether or not we need a newsletter, especially since our website will be online soon. Joan S. and Roger S. volunteered to do a newsletter if they get three reporters. Roger S. observed that maybe only a third of our members will use the website, so a newsletter would still be useful. He suggested we might want to do it off-season, to keep our presence before the members, maybe featuring articles reminiscing about the previous season or highlighting our accomplishments. Joan S. will ask for volunteer reporters at the spring meeting, targeting new members to get them involved. Mary B. suggested that one approach could be that a reporter be assigned to cover specific events, such as the upcoming Arches trip.
• We will ask the Hogans to head up our representation at Public Lands Day. They have done it in the past, but were not able to do it last year.
• We need to ask Jerree Stroh to head up the Smokey Bear effort again.
• Jerry Stahl will be the primary liaison to the USFS; Ed Jackson will be his backup.

Mary B. noted that the Responsibility Heads list needs to be updated after the individuals mentioned above are contacted. We will do this after the members meeting.

Grant Opportunity: The National Forest Foundation (NFF) has teamed up with REI to offer a grant of up to $5,000.00 to qualified organizations, based on invitation. The GCWG has been selected. Jerry S. indicated that the letter came out on March 26th, and that the grant request is due at the NFF office by April 14th, so this effort is a rush. He has already met with Mike Ricketts of the Forest Service and they agree that the work and goals of the GCWG meet the NFF requirements. Jerry S. reviewed the 10-Year Wilderness Stewardship Challenge Elements attached to the NFF invitation, and the board agreed that there are a few categories under which we definitely qualify. We discussed several options that might qualify for a grant, including reimbursing volunteers for expenses, providing for supplies for the cabins, tools for sign building, cabin repairs, adding generators to the cabins, and offering wilderness classes led by hired instructors. Donn M. mentioned that he had seen volunteer groups in other areas wearing official Forest Service volunteer shirts, and he felt that the shirts gave trail and cabin hosts a more official presence and therefore more impact. The board agreed that, in the short time available, this was probable the best way to go. Carolyn and Donn M. offered to write the proposal and will include the group's projected growth rate in determining the number of shirts to ask for.

Web Site: Al R. has put up a sample GCWG web site for the board members' review. He distributed a handout, the Web Site Proposal, breaking down the costs for a site over a couple of options. (A copy is included with these minutes.) Al explained that rkymtnhi.com will host the web site for free, but that all updates must be done by them and, to date, these updates have not been timely. Mary B. moved that the group fund the web site under Al's proposed Option B (a $19 setup fee and a $90.74/year hosting fee) with the domain name www.gcwg.org reserved for one year (a $19/year fee). Toni W. asked about a backup for Al. The site pages are written in HTML. We will ask for a volunteer backup at the spring meeting.

Registration Boxes: Roger S. has been the registration box chairman and is looking to be relieved of the responsibility. He explained that the position involves getting each of the registration boxes adopted (each of the nine boxes is currently adopted and there are no known openings), getting the registration forms to the adopters (the Forest Service will help with the form), collecting the forms and compiling the results. Each adopter is expected to maintain their box. Donn M. asked if we can get one volunteer to make the rounds of the boxes, visiting each box once each season to perform maintenance, to offload that responsibility from the adopters. Roger S. suggested that would be up to the next chairman. Jim M. volunteered to takeover the chairmanship. He and Roger will meet to discuss collating techniques.

Getting New Members Involved: Joan S. observed that the group cooperation with the Forest Service has improved tremendously since the group started informally, but, now that there are 130 members, it is time to work on getting new members more active. We discussed early season hikes, car exchanges, inviting new members specifically to scheduled hikes, holding hikes into some of the lesser known areas, maybe one into each of the four Wilderness Areas, double hosting registration boxes. Roger S. noted that hikers are easy to reach; we need to make efforts to include non-hikers. Jerry S. offered to contact new members for specific non-hiking events, such as cabin hosting orientations and workdays. Carolyn M. noted that there are approximately 32 people (16 couples) would might benefit from being approached individually about upcoming events. We don't want to “nag” these members. Mary B. offered to call these couples to ask them about contact and if they would prefer a phone call or e-mail when she returns in June. Carolyn M will supply the list of names to Mary B. Al R. observed that the membership form asks new members to check areas of interest. We do not have historical information on older members, but we can begin keeping this for new members in our membership database.

Miscellaneous: Jerry S. noted that Mike Ricketts of the Forest Service offered to make the GCWG website a link on the Forest Service site, once our site is available. We will do the same for them.

Marshall reported that there is an Indian Peaks Wilderness training meeting in Boulder on June 3, in conjunction with the Forest Service. He asked if anyone for our group is willing to go and present on our activities. Several members of the board are familiar with the Indian Peaks group and felt that their goals and approach are too different from ours. The board decided not to attend.

The MPLT is hosting a celebration on June11. Tara Jamison has enquired about whether the GCWG would like to have a booth at the event. Joan S. and Roger S. will talk to Tara about what would be allowed at the booth and we will decide this later.

We discussed the food for the spring meeting; members are getting bored with Sam's Club's selection. We decide to stay with Sam's Club this time. Jim M. and Jeri M. will check on Costco's selections next time they are in Denver. Sue H. suggested a cake for Marshall's birthday. They will handle dividing up the potluck appetizer, salad, vegetables, and/or dessert assignments.

Adjournment: The meeting adjourned at 12:53PM.

Toni Wujek, Secretary

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