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Board Meeting Minutes
Mountaineers Board Meeting
April 14, 2010
The Alpine Experience
Officers Present: Mike Kretzler (Chair), Bruce Towhey (Vice Chair), Mark Brackebusch (secretary), John Flanagan (Trustee), Mike Silverstein (chair elect), Shannon McCray (treasurer)
Members Present: Jim French (wilderness skills), Richard Kennedy (Management), Bob Keranen (scrambling), Eric Quinn (MOFA)
Meeting called to order at 6:00 pm.
Secretary report (Mark Brackebusch): The minutes for March were accepted. The membership count was 725 compared to 666 last April.
Treasurer report (Shannon McCray): The club is requesting documentation for reimbursement checks. Reimbursement request will be placed online. The budget was presents. There was a request to see a breakdown of miscellaneous expenses.
Trustee report (John Flanagan): The club budget is in deficit by $160,000 for this year and next year. It is fairly likely that the branches' funds will be used to finance the deficit. The underlying problem is the club headquarters has a long-term expensive financial commitment, and the building does not generate significant net income.
Management report (Richard Kennedy): Radical Reels: Radical Reels attendance was 285, 20 more than last year.
Vice-chair report (Bruce Towhey); Bruce is looking for a venue for the branch picnic. The banquet will be at St. Martin's College November 2.
Board elections: The open positions this year are trustee, secretary, and chair-elect. The policy manual states that nominations should be presented at the May membership meeting and that voting occurs between June and July 21. Ballots may be presented on the website, in the June and July Go-guides. Paper ballots can be made available at the July branch picnic.
Go-Guide: John suggested that Mike Kretzler’s summary of comments be presented to the Board of Trustees.
There is an activity checklist that is to be used to ensure that field trip participants are appropriate for the field trip. There were opinions that the checklist was not a replacement for talking to the leader or getting leader permission.
Cabela's is requesting that the Olympia mountaineers staff an information table at Cabela's on an upcoming weekend.
MOFA The June MOFA schedule will be available shortly.
Climbing: The mentor committee has a list of students who did not show up at Snow 2. Drew Logerwell is part of the equipment management committee.
Cragging: Six students are signed up for the course. That is the planned full enrollment.
Scrambling: The snow I field trip is completed. Snow II was rescheduled.
Wilderness skills. The wilderness skills class begins May 5. Help is needed on the first 2 nights. Allen Mote will be the member in charge as Jim French will not be available these two nights. The list of attendees at January's orientation night shows fewer people than the physical attendance count. Some of the discrepancy may represent family membership, and other discrepancies will be resolved outside of the board meeting.
Hiking: Hikes are ongoing.
Navigation: Mike experienced first hand the Tacoma Navigation course, which he thought was well done. There were 2 exercises, good exercises and on field trip.
Conservation (Jim French) Jim has conservation projects Tanya Mercier is organizing a project at Nisqually Wildlife Refuge.
Safety: Safety committee the annual report came out.
Meeting adjourned at 8:00.
Mark Brackebusch,
Secretary, Mountaineers Olympia Branch
Mountaineers Board Meeting
March 9, 2010
The Alpine Experience
Officers Present: Bruce Towhey (Vice Chair), Mark Brackebusch (secretary), John Flanagan (Trustee), Mike Silverstein (chair elect), Shannon McCray (treasurer), Doug Ruth (member-at-large)
Members Present: Jim French (wilderness skills), Patrick Chaffeur (HARK), Richard Kennedy (Management), Bob Keranen (scrambling), Eric Quinn (MOFA), Mike Rowswell, Andrew Logerwell
Meeting called to order at 6:00 pm.
Secretary report (Mark Brackebusch): The minutes for February were accepted. The membership count was 760 compared to 650 last February.
Treasurer report (Shannon McCray): Shannon, who is the new treasurer, is sorting out the budget. Her tasks include allocating revenues and expenses among the course and comparing of actual income and expenditures to the budgeted amounts. A year-to-date view of data was also requested. A reimbursement form should be made available on the Internet.
Trustee report (John Flanagan): At the meeting last week a budget report was presented. The unified budget, which includes the various branch budgets, is in better shape than the club budget, which is in deficit. On April 10 there will be a retreat that will review ways to meet the club goal of membership growth. There was discussion on the Go-Guide, ideas for club growth and creating a 501-3(a) entity.
Management report (Richard Kennedy): The youth policy was passed. Youth activities are those with a majority of the participants under age 18. A medical release is required for all minors. The intent of a medical release is to allow minors to get medical treatment should a minor be injured during an activity. There were some questions about the availability of medical releases. Richard presented Olympia Mountaineer caps that he proposed should be given to volunteers.
Radical Reels: Ticket sales are slow so far.
Vice-chair report (Bruce Towhey): Maxine made recommendation to consider Chris Duff and Helen Thayer as speakers at the November banquet. There is a need for a branch equipment manager.
Drew Logerwell presented a proposed cragging course. Initially the course will be limited to 6 students. There will be a trip-by-trip evaluation of student progress.
Resolution approved: The proposal cragging course was approved.
Bruce brought up the proposal to have a mentoring committee under the Climbing Executive Committee with the goal assisting students in completing the climbing course. There was discussion of reimbursement requests. Invoices may be mailed or scanned and e-mailed. Evergreen college may restart their climbing course.
Activities
Climbing: There is a request for ideas about improving Priest Point Park field trip.
Scrambling: Two lectures and one field trip have been completed. The second snow field trip will be held in three weeks. Help is needed for the rock lecture and field trip.
Wilderness Skill: There will be a wilderness skills class in May. The class needs publicity.
HARK: There was a snowshoeing activity. Hark needs some Intercity Transit certified drivers so that Intercity Transit vans can be used for activities.
MOFA (Eric Quinn): Reservations at the Knox Center need to be set up. The spring MOFA course is full. Half of those students belong to other club branches. Eric is considering a proposal for a weekday course as well as a proposal to limit student to Olympia students. Eric is looking for course venues. The creation of standards has been delayed because there are new Seattle MOFA chairs. There is a proposal to hire "remote medical" to run the course.
Meeting adjourned at 7:55.
Mark Brackebusch,
Secretary, Mountaineers Olympia Branch
Mountaineers Board Meeting
February 9, 2010
The Alpine Experience
Officers Present: Mike Kretzler (Chair). Bruce Towhey (Vice Chair), Mark Brackebusch (secretary), John Flanagan (Trustee), Mike Silverstein (chair elect), Shannon McCary (treasurer)
Members Present: Mike Riley ( Equipment), Darlene Dickenson (Hiking), Dean Taylor (webmaster), Ron Jones (kayaking), Henry Romer (kayaking), Patrick Chaffeur (HARK), Richard Kennedy (Management, Banff), Bob Keranen (scrambling)
Guests present: Elaine Fisher
Meeting called to order at 6:00 pm.
Secretary report (Mark Brackebusch): The minutes for January were accepted. The membership count was 712 compared to 693 last February.
Trustee report (John Flanagan): Former members will be given a $20 coupon upon rejoining the Mountaineers.
There was much discussion about the proposal to eliminate publication of the Go-guide in magazine form. The details of the proposal are not clear. The cost of publication in the present form is $12.50. Mike Kretzer has taken email comments from a number of members and will generate a response.
Tab Williams is the chair. Mona West is the chair elect. The new treasurer is Gavin Woody.
The Books division has started to repay its loan. There is KCTS-TV programming about Fred Beckey.
Management report (Richard Kennedy): Mona West is the management committee chare. The mileage rate for car pool purposes was adjusted from $0.15 to $0.12 per person. The standards for MOFA and avalanche instruction are still being developed. Tom Pierson will be the safety committee representing Olympia. The current safety focus is the avoidance of party separation.
Treasurer report: Shannon McCary was elected as treasurer to fill a vacancy. There was discussion aimed at helping her get started in her position.
Beyond Basic Ice (Bruce Towhey): One area of instruction will deal with crampon technique, which is a skill weakness for many basic graduates. The fee for the course will be $60.
Orientation night: Although orientation night was more successful than in the past there are still improvements needed. St. Martin’s College was a good venue for orientation night. Patrick suggested an open house format so that everyone does not have to sit through all the presentations. Suggestions for presentations included having a knot tying demonstration and library information.
Radical Reels Film Festival will occur in March 12. Posters were distributed.
Publicity: The Olympia did publish one hike. For the future the Olympia branch can get shared billing if Olympia helps develop the hike information. There may not be enough resources in the branch to do 2 hikes per month.
Activities
Kayaking Funding information is needed.
Hiking (Darlene Dickenson): The committee met and would like to teach leaders how to use the web site.
HARK (Patrick Chaffeur): There was a snowshoe outing with 6 kids and the respective Big Brother/Big Sisters. Patrick met with REI with the goal of receiving funding for HARK.
Climbing: The course starts in 1 week. People are needed to help with signups.
Scrambling: There are 15 students signed up for the course that starts Tuesday February 16 at the Knox Center.
Meeting adjourned at 7:55.
Mark Brackebusch,
Secretary, Mountaineers Olympia Branch
Mountaineers Board Meeting
January 6, 2010
The Alpine Experience
Officers Present: Mike Kretzler (Chair). Bruce Towhey (Vice Chair), Mark Brackebusch (secretary), John Flanagan (Trustee), Mike Silverstein (chair elect)
Members Present: Eric Quinn (MOFA), Jim French(conservation, wilderness skills), Bob Keranen (scrambling), Mike Rowswell (climbing), Dean Taylor (webmaster), Ron Jones (kayaking), Patrick Chaffeur (HARK), Richard Kennedy (Management, Banff), Curt Rosler (Navigation)
Meeting called to order at 6:00 pm.
Secretary report (Mark Brackebusch): The minutes for December were accepted. The membership count was 660 compared to 638 last January.
Treasurer report: Joe had earlier distributed a budget categorized by activity. MOFA and kayaking may need to update their budgets.
Trustee report (John Flanagan): There has not been a Board of Trustee’s meeting since the last branch meeting. John did report that the Club librarian was laid off as a cost saving measure.
Management report (Richard Kennedy): The paid attendance at the Banff Film Festival was 748 on Saturday and 546 on Sunday. The films grossed $13,606 and after expenses and payment to the partner organization, the Olympia Film Society, the Olympia branch netted $7323. The Radical Reels Film Festival will occur in March.
Publicity: There was discussion of the Olympian newspaper carries more articles relating to the Tacoma branch than the Olympia branch. The two newspapers share a common ownership, and the Olympian publishes articles originally written for the Tacoma News Tribune. The Olympian will also not have its own outdoors journalist.
Orientation night: There was extensive discussion of the registration process covering both the online Club system registration and fee payment as well as the branch paper registration and payment by check. A couple special situations were noted. With the online registration it will not be possible build the discount into the credit card payment system. Those individuals will need to receive a check. There may be some who register via the branch system, but do not have a check. An option will be to record the credit card information for billing after orientation night.
Events calendar: After some updating the calendar will be sent out via e-mail and subsequent date changes or new events will be published via the web or Go-guide.
Activities:
MOFA (Eric Quinn): The MOFA instructor class starts January 9 with 5 students from Olympia and 3 students from Tacoma. This year the Olympia MOFA will incorporate the Red Cross course, which will help with consistency of instruction.
HARK (Patrick Chaffeur): The Big Brothers Big Sisters of Thurston County newsletter had an article about their partnership with the Olympia branch of the Mountaineers.
Leadership (Curt Rosler): There will be a leadership presentation at orientation night. Initially leadership had been omitted from the list of classes in the orientation night information as leadership was considered a course that would be taken by branch members who had completed other courses. To some extent this is also true of navigation, which was also not list on the orientation night list of courses offered.
Meeting adjourned at 7:55.
Mark Brackebusch,
Secretary, Mountaineers Olympia Branch
Mountaineers Board Meeting
December 9, 2009
Olympia Center, Olympia
Officers Present: Mike Kretzler (Chair). Mark Brackebusch (secretary), John Flanagan (Trustee), Doug Ruth (Member at Large), Joe Crossland (treasurer), Mike Silverstein (chair elect), Bruce Towhey (vice chair)
Members Present: Eric Quinn (MOFA), Jim French (conservation, wilderness skills), Bob Keranen (co-chair scrambling), Dean Taylor (webmaster), Darlene Dickinson (hiking), Carolyn Burreson (potlucks)
Meeting called to order at 6:00 pm.
Attendees introduced themselves.
Treasurer’s report: (Joe Crossland): The budget as returned from Seattle had different budget categories than the categories used by the Olympia branch. The budget as returned by the Club was not understandable. There will be further review of the budget.
Secretary report: (Mark Brackebusch): The minutes for the November meeting were accepted. Branch membership was 649 compared to 624 in December 2008.
Trustee’s report: (John Flanagan): The Board of Trustees for the mountaineers met Martinique Grigg, the new executive director. The books division reported positive fiscal news.
For the first time in a while the month-to-month membership of the Club experienced an increase. Proposals to use portions a bequest of $2 million now exceed the bequest amount.
There was a new policy to manage sick people in lodges.
Management report: Richard Kennedy was not present but others observed that the Banff Film Festival was a sellout Saturday night, and approximately 50 seats were unfilled on Sunday.
Orientation: Orientation night is scheduled January 11 at the Worthington Center at St. Martin’s College. Doug Ruth is completing posters. Doug Souliere has been contracted to print 100 posters. Five hundred fliers will be needed. Posters can be picked up at Alpine Experience. Bruce Towhey will look at placing public service announcements and will contact KOAS. Advertising may be with the Olympian, although there is not control of ad placement. The plan then is to have public service announcements, newspaper advertising, flyers, and posters.
There is an orientation night agenda. All courses need to have their fee schedule available. Bruce will solicit activity chairs. Bruce Towhey will be the master of ceremony and Mike Kretzler will speak briefly. Rob Plankers will have a few prizes or gifts.
There was a discussion of the orientation night registration process. There are two methods for registering for courses and paying fees. Registration can be done via the club site and fees paid online using a credit card. Alternately, the branch can register via a paper process and collect fees via check. Course tracking is better with the club registration process.
There needs to be further discussion of the methods to apply the new member incentive course discount. Logistics to figure out how to do this can be through records committee consisting of Shannon McCray, Mike Garrick and Dean Taylor.
Certain information needed from each activity: maximum number of students, the starting date of the course, course fees, a basic course description, and the prerequisites for the course.
Activity reports
Potlucks: The portion of the potluck featuring the activity speaker is generally fully attended. There is a need for someone to answer membership questions and membership materials need to be available.
Hiking (Darlene Dickenson): The three hiking co-chairs, Vera Sutton, Carla Jonientz and Darlene Dickinson met.
Calendar: The intermediate climbing schedule needs to be set for the calendar, but all other activities are complete. Due to conflicts with other events there will be board meetings January 6 and February 9.
Climbing: The CEC met and considered offering 2 new courses 1) “beyond basic ice” which is an introduction to ice climbing, and 2) a cragging course that would be a fully recognized course meeting Club standards.
MOFA (Eric Quinn): MOFA standards are going to be presented to the management committee.
Meeting adjourned at 8:00
Mark Brackebusch,
Secretary, Mountaineers Olympia Branch
Mountaineers Board Meeting
November 11, 2009
Alpine Experience, Olympia
Officers Present: Mike Kretzler (Chair). Mark Brackebusch (secretary), John Flanagan (Trustee), Doug Ruth (Member at Large), Joe Crossland (treasurer), Mike Silverstein (chair elect)
Members Present: Eric Quinn (MOFA), Tom Echout (MOFA), Jim French(conservation, wilderness skills), Bob Keranen ( co-chair scrambling), Mike Rowswell (climbing), Dean Taylor (webmaster), Darlene Dickinson (hiking), Curt Rosler (leadership), Chris Lott( co-chair scrambling), Patrick Chaffeur (HARK)
Guests present: Jim Harvey (secretary, Tacoma branch)
Meeting called to order at 6:00 pm.
Attendees introduced themselves.
Guest appearance: Jim Harvey, secretary of the Tacoma branch introduced himself to the meeting. He noted that the Mountaineers had poor communication between branches and within branches. This leads to the branches “re-inventing the wheel” as they run their various programs. He gave an example that the Tacoma branch had tried merging climbing and scrambling, but this failed, yet other branches were considering this very move. He would like to visit other branches in the interests of improving communication.
Secretary report: (Mark Brackebusch): The minutes for the September and October meeting were approved after changes were accepted. Branch membership was 652 compared to 616 in October 2008 and 624 in December 2008. There was not a November 2008 meeting where membership count was presented.
Treasurer’s report: (Joe Crossland): Joe presented a balance sheet of the branch finances. There are 2 bank accounts with small balances. Joe did not know of a purpose of these accounts and he recommended that they be closed. Budget status reports are pending.
Resolution approved: Two unused bank accounts are to be closed.
Trustee’s report: (John Flanagan).: Martinique Grigg was chosen as the new executive director. The new comptroller is Blair Cossey. Newly trustees include John Ohlson and Mark Scheffer. Mona West was re-elected as a trustee.
Management report: Richard Kennedy was not present but he had forwarded an e-mail from Ken Hahn in which Ken was seeking branch representatives for a Program Development Committee. Jim French volunteered to represent Olympia on such a committee.
Banquet (Mike Krezler). There were 99 attendees at the banquet. Originally 94 people had signed up, but there 5 of those who signed up did not attend and 10 who had not registered but showed up at the banquet. Fortunately 100 meals had been requested. Mike thought it was important to emphasize that advance signup was required. The venue was successful although there was the impression that the Urban Onion was stretched to its maximum capabilities. Jim French recommended that outgoing officers should receive more recognition at the banquet.
Calendar: Mike presented a calendar for the year. Some incomplete information and conflicts had been resolved and a number of missing events were identified.
Orientation Night: Orientation night is scheduled January 11 at the Worthington Center at St. Martin’s College. The contract with St. Martin’s includes having a sound system and 4 to 5 computers with internet access. Curt Rosler will contact vendors who may have a booth and a brief announcement of their presence. There will need to be a practice session for the registration process, which will include club signups and course registration. Jeff Bowman of the Club will present a Club web site instruction session in Tacoma. This will be the 4th time he has held this class. He should be asked to consider another computer class in Olympia. On the club website there are online instruction as to how to sign up in a FAQ section within an activity community. There needs to be a meeting a week prior to orientation night. Having participants fill out a paper with their information and choices already made may speed up the online registration process. If a copy machine is available this paper could be copied and used as the receipt.
Advertising last year advising included public service announcements, Banff and posters and newspapers. The most frequent media for the wilderness skill class was via personal recommendations. It is not known how effective newspaper or radio advertising has been.
Activity representatives for orientation night have been identified.
The members of the Olympia board as well as others in attendance expressed disappointment with the club’s stance in its refusal to allow the initiation fee to be waived as has been done in the past. Olympia members believe the past waiver of the initiation fee at orientation night has been one of the reasons for Olympia branch membership growth while the Mountaineers as a whole have lost membership. There was concern that the Olympia branch needed to offer an incentive to prospective new members to join. A proposal was made to offer those who join the Olympia branch on orientation a discount on class fee or books of up to $35 if redeemed within one year.
Resolution approved: Members who join on orientation night will be given a voucher for a $35 discount on course fees. Alternately the discount can be applied to purchase of “Freedom of the Hills” through the Olympia branch.
Leadership: (Curt Rosler): Ron Lavigne, Doug Hutcheson, and Curt make up the leadership committee. There was concern that the club sign up process does not accept some Olympia leaders. The approval of leaders is a function of an activity chair. This year’s class will be at the Flight Museum on April 20, 22, and 23 and at the Knox Center April 29. There is a field trip May 2. Curt raised the issue of the question of whether a fee should be assessed to students in the leadership class. The current fee is $25 and Curt felt that the fee was helpful by ensuring a commitment of those taking the class.
Hiking (Darlene Dickinson): There will be an organizational meeting December 2.
Climbing (Mike Rowswell): There were 5 graduates this year, 2 from the 2008 climbing course and 3 from this year’s course. The low number of graduates is related to difficulty completing experience climbs, although other reasons for not graduating included work conflicts and personal scheduling choices.
Bob provided feedback that there were not enough glacier climbs, part of which is due to a shortage of leaders. There is a need to encourage recent graduates to enter a leadership tract within the branch. Some recent basic graduates are leading climbs outside of the Mountaineers and they should be encouraged to lead climbs for the branch. While some branches require that leaders be in intermediate students or graduates, the Olympia branch does not. Also students should be encouraged to seek out climbs outside of the Olympia branch, especially the Olympia does not have many climbs in certain regions such as the North Cascades. Student can also post on community stating that they are interested in finding a climb in a certain area with the possibility that a leader could set up a climb in response to the posting. There should be some type of outreach to students who started the course the prior year.
There was a summit meeting last Friday to review the various proposed dates of key popular climbs to avoid multiple branches having climbs in the same location at the same time.
Scrambling (Bob Keranen) there was a committee meeting with Dean Taylor, Chris Lott and Bob Keranen attending to set the calendar for the coming season.
Other business: There was a suggestion that there be written information for key positions so that new chairs or others with a position in the branch have a written guide to help them know how to perform the duties of the position. The branch should consider having more family-oriented activities since a sizable number of members have families.
MOFA (Eric Quinn): There are 9 leadership students signed up for the January instructor class.
Website (Dean Taylor) The web site has a calendar. There is Banff promotion on the website. Dean requested to have the branch minutes posted.
Meeting adjourned at 8:00
Mark Brackebusch,
Secretary, Mountaineers Olympia Branch
Mountaineers Board Meeting
October 14, 2009
Alpine Experience, Olympia
Officers Present: Mike Kretzler (Chair). Bruce Towhey (Vice Chair), Mark Brackebusch (secretary), John Flanagan (Trustee), Doug Ruth (Member at Large), Joe Crossland (treasurer), Mike Silverstein (chair elect)
Members Present: Eric Quinn (MOFA), Jim French(conservation, wilderness skills), Bob Keranen (scrambling), Mike Rowswell (climbing), Dean Taylor (webmaster), Darlene Dickinson (hiking)
Meeting called to order at 6:00 pm.
Treasurer report (Joe Crossland): Joe presented a Quickbooks budget summary and asked for feedback on presentation formats. A budget has been sent to the club. The branches tend to have a positive cash flow with the club cash flow is negative.
Trustee report (John Flanagan): A PBS crew made a presentation to the trustee regarding their National Parks Film. An ad hoc committee recommended that the conservation and recreation divisions be merged and John felt this would likely happen. A copyright policy was passed as well as the youth policy. The accountant gave a report of the 2007-8 year. The books division is doing better.
Management report: No report was available, but John Flanagan explained the role of the management committee in the Mountaineers.
Secretary report (Mark Brackebusch): The minutes for September were not available and will be presented later by Mike Kretzler. The membership count was 662 compared to 616 October last year.
Vice-chair report (Bruce Towhey): The banquet with be held November 7 in the Urban Onion ballroom above the restaurant and will be catered by the Urban Onion. Planning is nearing completion. Bruce requested help with a person to be the master of ceremony and a person to coordinate. Mike Kreztler volunteered to be the MC and to help with coordination. There is still a need for clean up crews. Activity chairs will handle the presentation of awards and graduate certificates. There was a request to have a list of officers appear on the program as this is sometimes used for gathering information.
The Worthington Center at St. Martin’s College has been reserved for orientation night. There is a need for a year’s calendar to avoid conflicts. The Knox Center has a lot of room available, so there should not be a problem in finding space. Curt was looking for a meeting of activity chairs to coordinate schedules.
Banff Film Festival: Richard Kennedy and Ron Jones are working on this.
A year schedule was discussed with members making suggestions including election dates, class schedules,
Activities:
MOFA (Eric Quinn): The fall MOFA class starts Saturday with 35 students and 2 refresher class students. The class is budgeted. There is a meeting of MOFA chairs October 15 to discuss club wide MOFA standards. The manuals and syllabus willed be changed in the standardization. The additional consistency should allow more recognition by other branches and organization. Eric requested guidance on how he should present reimbursement requests, whether he should make requests as the expenses occur or whether he should present multiple expenses at one time. Joe said it could be done either way.
Scrambling (Bob Keranen): Bob is the new scrambling chair.
Climbing (Mike Rowswell): There needs to be some modification of the format to allow recognition of the Olympia course by other branches. The result will be that Olympia students should be able to participate in Olympia branch activities for which the appropriate module has been completed, but will be required to complete the course before participating in other branch rock and glacier climbs. The new modification may be done with a single course fee, although there was much support for finding a way to breakup the payment schedule for the students. There was also a discussion about coordination of the schedule of priority climbs, those popular climbs where there is potential to have 2 groups attempting the same route on the same day.
Conservation (Jim French): Jim spoke briefly of an upcoming 70th birthday recognition for Norm Winn.
Hiking (Darlene Dickinson): Hiking is reorganizing with a new chair.
Navigation: The Tacoma branch made a proposal to have club wide standards for navigation.
Publicity: There was discussion about radio versus newspaper advertising. Last there was both newspaper and radio spots. There was a suggestion to consider advertising in the Alpine Experience flyer.
Web: The Olympia communities on the club web site is working.
Meeting adjourned 7:50.
Mark Brackebusch,
Secretary, Mountaineers Olympia Branch
Mountaineers Board Meeting
August 12, 2009
Alpine Experience, Olympia
Officers Present: Bruce Towhey (Chair), Mark Brackebusch (secretary), Tim Nagle (Member at Large), Mike Kretzler (chair-elect)
Members Present: Eric Quinn (MOFA), Mike Rowswell (climbing), Dean Taylor (webmaster)
Meeting called to order at 7:05 pm.
Secretary report (Mark Brackebusch): The minutes for July were reviewed and approved after modification. The membership count was 655 compared to 637 July last year and 621 last September. There was no August meeting last year, so there was no comparison with last August.
An e-mail with instructions on voting was sent to those with listed e-mail addresses. There were 475 members with e-mail addresses and 180 without any e-mail address on file. The election is open for another 2 weeks.
Vice-chair report: The branch picnic was a success. A speaker is still being sought for the banquet.
Climbing: Mike Rowswell has agreed to run the training program again and the same team will be back with him. Wilderness Skills Equivalency was a problem last year and needs to be resolved before January. Also, more climb listings are needed to support student needs. Graduates need to pass all modules to be club-certified in order to go on climbs outside of Olympia branch.
Winter Travel: Eric reported that winter travel course graduates are unable to get on trips offered by other branches. Olympia’s course is not recognized by other branches.
MOFA: There are 15 people signed up for the fall class. One day of class will be shared with the refresher course. There is the availability of no-cost space for the refresher course. CPR is a challenge to organize.
The MOFA chairs met in Tukwila last week. Progress is being made on club-wide standards for MOFA. It seems more likely the MOFA class will follow Red Cross standard instruction. The club is not set up as a first aid authority and the Red Cross training is recognized as an authoritative training. Shortcomings in the branch MOFA class included weakness in teaching splinting, bandaging and taking vital signs would be addressed by the Red Cross training. In order to follow Red Cross standards there must be certified instructors who must take a 30-hour course that costs $80. This cost is included in the MOFA budget.
Trustee report: John Flanagan was not able to attend the meeting but submitted a report to the officers:
“Policy on youth events is being considered. The current proposal has a requirement that leaders of groups that are primarily youth (17 and under) file a disclosure and agree to a background check. It will likely pass at a vote next meeting as most branches favor it.
A Mountaineers global warming policy was proposed. It passed after being changed to a Mountaineers position on global climate change.
A proposal to Policy to combine the club’s Conservation and Recreation Resources committees was contentious. An ad hoc committee was formed to study this issue. The Conservation Chair resigned last month.
The Search for Executive Director has been narrowed down to a reasonable number of candidates.
The books division is has improved financially so that was able to return the second $200,000 previously advanced by the club for Books Reserve fund.
The Olympia branch has attracted attention for its success with increasing membership when the other branches have lost membership. In response to questions about Olympia’s success, John Flanagan credited the great resources of people like Jim French and Patrick Chaffeur, along with the crews they have assembled. He credits the centerpiece of Olympia’s success as being the wilderness skills class that is the introduction to the climbing and scrambling classes, and notes that the initiation fee is waived for most members joining with this class.”
Hiking (Mike Kretzler): In September there may be a new leader with social walks in the Olympia area.
Climbing: The September climbing committee will meet and consider some aspects of the modular climbing course approach. The Club does not recognize completion of a module as qualifying students for climbs of the same type as the module.
Intermediate climbing: Minor issues are being dealt with.
Records: The records committee consists of Mike Garrick, Shannon McCary, Dean Taylor, and Jeff Foster.
Web site: There was discussion covering the content on the branch Web site, especially the new member page.
Orientation night: Discussion center around the registration process to review changes that need to be done to avoid delays that occurred with this year’s orientation night. On-line registration with multiple computers would be helpful although many members would not know their user name or password. There is consensus that the policy of waiving to initiation fee on orientation night should be continued.
Meeting adjourned 8:30.
Mark Brackebusch,
Secretary, Mountaineers Olympia Branch
Mountaineers Board Meeting
July 8, 2009
Alpine Experience, Olympia
Officers Present: Bruce Towhey (Chair), Mark Brackebusch (secretary), John Flanagan (Trustee), Tim Nagle (Member at Large),
Members Present: Eric Quinn (MOFA), Tom Eckhout (MOFA), Jim French(conservation, wilderness skills), Chris Lott (scrambling)
Meeting called to order at 6:05 pm.
Vice-chair report: The branch shindig will be July 24 between 6 and 11 pm. and is open to members, friends, and interested people. A motion was presented to allocate $100 for door prizes.
Motion Approval: Approved of the spending of $100 for door prizes.
For the November banquet there is space available at South Sound Community College, but the cooking program that catered last year’s banquet has been cut. An outside caterer will be required. There is no speaker yet.
Secretary report (Mark Brackebusch): The minutes for May had been reviewed and approved. The membership count was 668 compared to 637 July last year.
Treasurer report: No issues. Awaiting budgets.
Wilderness Skills(Jim French) There has been a contact made by a Boy Scout Troop from the Pacific County. The Scout leader asked if the branch had considered offering a 2-day weekend course in September. While this is feasible and intriguing (there may be a market for such a course) others present questioned the use of the current fee structure, availability of instructors and availability of classroom with overnight accommodations.
Conservation: (Jim French) Activities are being scheduled on the first of each month. Recent activities have been on the Church Creek trail.
Trustee’s report: Mona West is the interim director while a search is on going.
MOFA: Preparation is ongoing for the fall class. Registration is open on the web. MOFA needs certified instructors. There will be a class in Tacoma and six are signed up.
There is a proposal for club-wide MOFA standards. Most programs are connected to the Red Cross. An advantage is the gaps in the current MOFA program would be addressed. Disadvantages include an additional cost of $25-30 per student; additional instructor materials would be needed and there is a detailed teaching agreement. Other options for the future MOFA class direction include a free-standing program, an American Heart Association type program, or a Wilderness First Responder style class.
Scrambling (Chris Lott): The scrambling class is going well. There were 16 students originally and there are expected to be 11 graduates.
Manager report: Youth standard were passed. There is a need to have release forms signed that would allow medical treatment for injured youth. MOFA standards have not yet been passed.
Elections: The nominating committee has a candidate for each position except for vice chair. Bruce Towhey may consider running for the vice chair. There will be on-line voting. Bylaw modification of elections is a possible next year vote due to a process involving more than the board.
Meeting adjourned 7:30.
Mark Brackebusch,
Secretary, Mountaineers Olympia Branch
Mountaineers Board Meeting
June 10, 2009
Alpine Experience, Olympia
Officers Present: Bruce Towhey (Chair), Mark Brackebusch (secretary), John Flanagan (Trustee), Tim Nagle (Member at Large), Mike Kretzler (chair-elect)
Members Present: Dean Taylor (webmaster), Mike Riley (Equipment), Patrick Chaffeur (HARK), Marilyn Miller, Eric Quinn (MOFA), Tom Eckhout (MOFA), Tab Williams (president, Mountaineers), Mike Rowswell (climbing), Richard Kennedy (management committee)
Meeting called to order at 6:05 pm.
Each person present introduced himself or herself.
Secretary report (Mark Brackebusch): The minutes for May had been reviewed and approved. The membership count was 662. There was a question about the location of the projectors and branch computers.
Vice-chair report: So far there is no speaker for the banquet. The options presented include having no speakers, having several branch speakers, or having a graduation ceremony only. The cooking program at south Sound Community College might close or downsize such they will be unable to cater a banquet. The banquet loses money. The charge of $25 has been the same for that last five years approximately. As far as a graduation only event, course graduates often do not attend the banquet. An analysis will be presented at the next meeting.
Trustee’s report (John Flanagan): Two proposed bylaw changes have been placed on hold. One of the proposals was to have quarterly board meetings. In the books division there have been salary cuts, layoffs, decreased offerings, and there is some improvement in the financial picture of books. It is important to get the Olympia branch budget turned in on time.
Hiking (Mike Kreztler): Mike is seeking a hiking chair to replace him as he assumes the branch chair position. The duties of the hiking chair include field
Wilderness skills (Jim French): The wilderness skills course finished May 8. There were 18-20 students completing the class out of an initial group of 24. Jim French is overworked by the wildness skills class and has suggested that there be a committee of 3-5 people to run the course.
Conservation (Jim French): National Trails Day had 13 volunteers working on the Church Creek Trail, work that included cutting some large trees crossing the trail. Conservation activities are open to the public, but need to be publicized as such. There was a more general discussion about activities that were open to the public and methods to reach out to the public. The web site does not currently have a public page. A reference was made about “The Olympian” hike of the month which is open to the public
MOFA (Eric Quinn): There was a meeting discussing improvements to the MOFA class. There are curriculum gaps that including basic skills such as bandaging, splinting, and monitoring vital signs. The refresher course was thought to be too short. For the revised refresher course, there will be 15 hours of instruction including the final day of the regular MOFA course. The tests, both written and practical, will be the same as the main class.
Service award: The Service Award Committee consists of John Flanagan, Jamer Lange, and Don Lund.
HARK (Patrick Chaffeur): A grant was obtained from Bank of America. Application is being made for a Department of Justice grant that would fund into next year. There may be consideration of a branch grant in reserve.
Elections: Marilyn Miller and Heather Hansen may participate in the nominations committee. There was a request to move back the elections date to August 24 and to allow electronic notice and voting of the elections.
Management Committee report (Richard Kennedy): One branch has decreased the price of the intermediate climbing course. Some courses have been dropped. There is a search to fill the director’s position. There was discussion of the minimum standards issues. Minimum standards will need to be approved by the board. At this point the Management committee has been asked to develop draft standards and this process has started with an outside consultant. There were questions as to whether the board will approve specific standards.
Tab Williams, president of the Mountaineers attended the meeting to meet Olympia branch members and to make himself available. Tab suggested that a new director could help the club significantly. A very important long-term need is to develop the next generation of leadership for the mountaineers. There may need to be increased use of modern medias to reach potential mountaineers. While there have been problems financially, the financial condition of the club is okay.
Meeting adjourned 7:30.
Mark Brackebusch,
Secretary, Mountaineers Olympia Branch
Mountaineers Board Meeting
May 13, 2009
Olympia Community Center, Olympia
Officers Present: Bruce Towhey (Chair), Mark Brackebusch (secretary), John Flanagan (Trustee), Tim Nagle (Member at Large)
Members Present: Jim French (Conservation Chair), Dean Taylor (webmaster), James Pierson, Mike Riley, Heather Hansen, Patrick Chaffer (HARK)
Meeting called to order at 6:05 pm.
Secretary report: (Mark Brackebusch): The minutes for the April Branch board meeting had been e-mailed to officers earlier and copies were presented for review.
Resolution approved: The April officers meeting minutes were approved.
The membership count for the branch was 652, which compares to 634 in May 2008.
Mark reviewed understanding of quorum requirements for meetings. A quorum of 10 is required for a membership meeting. Members are allow to vote on issues presented at the meeting, but the bylaw do not state what issues may be brought up for vote. A quorum rule does not exist for an officers meeting, but a majority of the officers is required to approve resolutions, which would be 4 of 7 officers. Recently there was an understanding that the chair did not vote except to break a tie vote. The basis for this understanding could not be found in the bylaws, and in fact with the absence of several officers, the chair’s vote might be required to reach the required majority. There is no statement that officer approval of actions must be done only at meetings, and to recent practice of getting electronic communication approved appears to be acceptable under current bylaws.
The upcoming election was reviewed. At the time of the meeting a nominating committee had not been approved. Bruce will attempt to constitute a nominating committee via e-mail communication. The positions up for election this year are the chair-elect, treasurer, vice chair and member-at-large. It is the secretary’s responsibility to see that ballots are mailed out by June 10. The mailing of ballots could be combined with a flyer for the July branch shindig, formally called the branch picnic. The current bylaws state that the ballots are to be sent out by 1st class mail. Because of low turnout in recent there was an interest in being able to vote via a web-based method. Dean said that his could be easily done.
Vice-Chair report (Bruce Towhey) The branch picnic will be July 24 at the American legion hall next to Priest Point Park. Present plans are to have a live band, catered food, and alcoholic drinks for purchase. Anyone having a suggestion for a band should e-mail Mike McIntosh.
Trustee report (John Flanagan): Helen Thayer will be signing her new book at the Lacey Library, May 16 from 2 pm t 3:30 pm.
There was a discussion of the Club budget issues. The budget is no longer published. Attendance at the budget meetings has been sparse. There has been a tendency for the branches to have conservative budget projections that tend to result in a larger surplus, while the club has actual deficits larger than budgeted deficits. There has been a tendency to approve special one-time appropriations, for a variety of “noble” projects, but done in the setting of anticipated club deficits. There has also been a philosophy of “budgeting for success”, budgeting as if membership and revenues would continue to grow, but the reality is that climbing as a sport on a national level has seen small declines in participation over recent years. The books division has also suffered as book purchases have decreased nationally, with younger people spending less on books than in past years. The books divisions have requested and receive additional funding from the club. These funds have been taken from reserves, but that has resulted in an increase in the yearly deficit.
Management issues: The executive of the Steve Costie has recently resigned as has the Club executive and Brian Horstman, the controller, resigned yesterday. The club has been fairly Seattle-centric with club policies and expenses being dominated by Seattle, yet the fall in the membership has been most pronounced in the Seattle branch. Aside from books the two largest deficit-generating activities are the building division and the administration division.
There have been two recent proposals that have raised concerns of branches. First there is a proposal to have a standing nominating committee, which would serve increase the Seattle-centric problems the club. Also problematic is a proposal to have only quarterly meetings of the Board, which would tend to result in less oversight of the executive committee. John noted that a trustee can be on the executive committee, but that this is not usual. Books and lodges are represented on the executive committee. The attention of management has been directed towards addressing the falling membership and safety issues following two fatal accidents involving mountaineers activities.
A national executive search is anticipated.
im French presented his impressions of Steve Costie. Bruce questioned whether there was a defined goal for discussions involving the Club’s problems. Heather raised the question of whether the staffing levels were appropriate.
The idea of an all “branches” meeting to discuss the problems faced by the club was presented.
Activity Reports
Conservation (Jim French): June 6th is National Trails Day. The Olympia branch will observe this with a Church Creek project.
Kayaking (Tim Nagle): The class is finishing up this weekend. Will Greenough has been teaching classes. Ron Jones chairs the kayaking activity committee.
Wilderness Skills (Jim French): A new wilderness skills class started with approximately 24 students representing a wide mix of people. Assistance is needed Saturday May 30. Jim is looking at a weekend wilderness class in the fall.
Intermediate climbing: The current intermediate climbing committee consists of Mike Riley, Ron Lavinge, Jeff Foster, Howard Weaver, Dave Sanford, and Charlie Yates.
HARK (Patrick Chaffeur) An additional $5000 is needed to fund at the current level, mainly due to the loss funding from the Olympia Parks and Recreation Department for the Big Brother/Big Sisters partnership.
MOFA (Eric Quinn) Eric will be coordinating MOFA program organization branch wide. Eric reviewed the current program. James said that Seattle had a “WFR” first aid course and wondered if Olympia was interested in having one.
Records (Dean Taylor): The Club website will soon have the capability to store branch records. The levels of access for records will include communities for branch members, for trip and course leaders, and for board members.
Other business:
Jim French made a comment about a presentation to Paul Wiseman at the branch banquet.
Mike Riley raised the possibility of having a foundation set up for the Olympia branch.
Meeting adjourned at 8 pm
Mark Brackebusch,
Branch Secretary
Mountaineers Board Meeting
April 8, 2009
The Alpine Experience, Olympia
Officers Present: Bruce Towhey(chair) Mark Brackebusch (secretary), Mike Kretzler (chair-elect), Mike McIntosh (vice-chair)
Others present: Patrick Chaffeur (HARK)
Meeting called to order at 6:00 pm.
Secretary report: Minutes for March were accepted and approved. There were 666 Olympia branch members as of April 9. With respect to a quorum for board meetings the bylaw requirements do not adequately define the quorum requirements. Mark will review and present his understanding of quorum requirements. The formalization of the ability to approve motions through electronic communication may be considered in a revision.
Vice Chair Report (Mike McIntosh): Mike and others are looking at a different format for the July summer picnic. This year’s picnic may be a catered event, possibly with music, held indoors at the American Legion Hall. The exact date in July depends on availability of the hall, but the date decision will be made shortly to get it into the Go-Guide. This is in contrast to the outdoor potluck event in the past.
A speaker for the annual banquet has not been selected, but several ideas and possibilities were discussed.
Trustee’s report: Steve Costie is resigning as president of the Mountaineers.
Activity Reports
Radical Reels: On the basis of preliminary information the Radical Reels film generated a small profit and was thought to have been a worthwhile endeavor.
HARK (Patrick Chaffeur) : The “No Child Left Inside”grant from the state for the Big Brother/Big Sister Olympia Mountaineers partnership will not be renewed this year. There is still a possibility that funding may be achieved from the Mountaineers Foundation.
Meeting adjourned at 6:45
Mark Brackebusch,
Branch Secretary
Mountaineers Board Meeting
March 11, 2009
The Alpine Experience, Olympia
Officers Present: Steve Lerch (treasurer), Mark Brackebusch (secretary), Mike Kretzler (chair-elect), John Flanagan (trustee), Tim Nagle (member-at-large)
Others present: Eric Quinn ( MOFA co-chair), Jim French (conservation)
Meeting called to order at 6:15 pm.
Secretary report: Minutes for February were accepted and approved. There were 650 Olympia branch members as of March 10.
Treasurer report (Steve Lerch): Steve has received a new set of checks and will be writing checks for reimbursements. His impression is that earnings are running ahead of budget. There was earlier e-mail consent of the board approving an appropriation of $80 to celebrate Paul Chaffeur’s 80th birthday. The event is at the Olympia Center March 24.
Trustee’s report (John Flanagan): The board did a self-assessment. The top priority was the budget and handling the loans to the Books Division. A suggestion was made that the Olympia Branch might consider purchasing new books as opposed to receiving free copies of newly published Mountaineers books.
Activity Reports
Wilderness Skills (Jim French): There is still an introductory offer waiving of the initiation fee for those who join the Mountaineers via Orientation Night. There is a need for another person to assist with orientation night registration.
MOFA: (Eric Quinn): There are 17 new students, 5 refresher students and 1 MOFA equivalency application. There was discussion about 2 individuals who were requesting to split their courses between Everett and Olympia. The consensus was that this uncommon situation should be accommodated without charging a fee to the individuals.
Basic climbing: There were 30 students at the Priest Point park module.
Conservation (Jim French): The date initially chosen for a Black River cleanup is in conflict with the Outdoor Life Festival at which the Mountaineers have a booth. Jim will set a new date for the cleanup. There is a need for volunteers to help staff the booth at the Outdoor Life Festival.
Orientation Night Workgroup: There is a need for online registration, although this may not be possible this year. Eric Quinn will look into the ability of the club's system to handle a mass registration event such as orientation night.
Meeting adjourned at 7:50
Mark Brackebusch, Branch Secretary
Mountaineers Board Meeting
February 11, 2009
Olympia Community Center, Olympia
Officers Present: Steve Lerch (treasurer), Mark Brackebusch (secretary), Mike Kretzler (chair-elect), John Flanagan (trustee), Tim Nagle (member-at-large), Mike MacIntosh (vice-chair)
Others present: Richard Kennedy (Management Committee), Patrick Chaffeur (Community Outreach), Tom Eckler (MOFA co-chair), Eric Quinn (MOFA co-chair), Richard Irwin, Tom Pearson (safety), Jim French (conservation)
Meeting called to order at 6:10 pm.
Secretary report: Minutes for January were accepted and approved. There were 693 Olympia branch members as of February 10.
Treasurer’s report (Steve Lerch): Reimbursements are delayed until the availability of new checks.
Management Committee (Richard Kennedy): There is a form which seeks to disclose potential conflicts for those working with kids, those involved in leading programs. This does not apply to trip leaders. The youth protection policy emphasizes “Two deep leadership”. Release forms are required to allow medical treatment of minor before they participate in activities. There is a need for a compliance officer.
Trustee’s report (John Flanagan): John recommended that members visit the club headquarters in Seattle. The budget was in balance until additional funds were transferred to Mountaineers Books that has now received $200,000 from the club. Mountaineers Books is planning to reduce the number of titles. Non-mountaineer brand books may be dropped. Seattle is trying to break their climbing class into smaller units. Membership is declining in the club as a whole. The decline appears to be leveling off in the Olympia.
Safety Report: Tom Pearson attended the yearly safety meeting. Dan Loren heads the safety committee. Reportable incidents include report major incidents, involving severe injuries or search and rescue, incidents involving injures that are less severe, but require medical care and a new category of minor incidents.
The new category of minor incidents includes injuries not requiring medical care or events that risked injury without resulting in injury. There is a need to communicate the reporting system to leaders. The goal of reporting injuries and accidents is to help the club to develop injury prevention strategies.
Activity Reports
Kayaking: The Kayak class has 13 of 18 spots filled.
Wilderness Skills: The wilderness class had 72 in attendance. Jim gave his first impressions of the class. First there is significant interest. Second, all the instructors are scheduled well in advance and have continued to make improvements and add hands-on activities where possible, Finally, additional volunteers with appropriate direction will be needed for the Outdoor Workshop coming as the last class exercise. The registration process needs improvement.
Jim presented a request to receive reimbursement to attend an Environmental Issues Course.
Resolution approved: To reimburse fees for Jim French to attend an "Environmental Issues Course".
MOFA (Eric Quinn): There are 3 members who will be going to the MOFA instructor certification course. With 3 more instructors certified there would be a total of 5 instructors. Eric is seeking 3 more instructors. The certification course costs $80 per person. There was discussion about reimbursing those who attend the course.
Resolution approved: To reimburse 3 members who are certified provided that they teach a MOFA course.
For the current class, there are 12 students, four of whom signed up at orientation night. There is one pending application for MOFA equivalence.
Other Business
Radical Reels The Branch is a sponsor of a Radical Reels film showing in Olympia March 13. The were posters available to help publicize the showing.
Orientation Night Workgroup A workgroup was proposed to review problems and revise procedures for the orientation night. The workgroup consists of Steve Lerch, Mike McIntosh, Tim Nagle, John Flanagan and Patrick Chauffer.
Meeting adjourned at 7:50
Mark Brackebusch,
Branch Secretary
Mountaineers Board Meeting
January 10, 2009
Alpine Experience, Olympia
Officers Present: Bruce Towhey (chair), Steve Lerch (treasurer), Mark Brackebusch (secretary), Mike Kretzler (chair-elect), John Flanagan (trustee)
Others present: Richard Kennedy (Management Committee), Patrick Chaffeur (Community Outreach)
Meeting called to order at 6:00 pm.
Treasurer’s report (Steve Lerch): Bills are still being paid for the Banff Film Festival and orientation night, but preliminary indications are that these two activities were both financially successful.
There were comments on the orientation night. There is a need for standardized forms to be used from year to year. Mike Kretzler has a checklist to assist in setting up orientation night. John Flanagan requested that he have access to a current membership list to be used to confirm the membership status of course participants. There was a question whether credit cards could be used to pay for course fees. Currently this is not possible.
Secretary report: Minutes for December were accepted and approved. There were 638 Olympia branch members as of January 1.
Trustee’s report (John Flanagan): Several policies are under review. John expressed concern about the appointment of a permanent member of the nominating committee. Within the book division there have been layoffs and the number of new titles will be reduced from 30 to 20. With the earlier cash infusion to the book division by the club, the Club’s budget is in deficit this year.
There was a discussion of which part of the Club holds the Olympia reserves. The Olympia Branch reserves are in an Olympia Branch account.
Vice Chair’s Report: Orientation night had approximately 100 attendees, with 18 people signed up for climbing and 9 signed up for scrambling.
Wilderness Skills: The wilderness skills course starts Tuesday January 20.
Hiking (Mike Kretzler): Mike and Eric Quinn are seeking a new leader for hiking prior to October when Mike becomes the Branch chair. Note was made that The Olympian has a featured hike in its outdoor section. There was discussion about whether the Olympia branch could have one of its hikes featured in The Olympian.
Banff: There were 1349 seats sold at the Banff Film Festival. This compares to 1249 in 2007 and 1020 in 2006. There was a proposal to sponsor a Radical Reels show that is produced by the Banff Film Festival producers. The show date would be March 13. One of the main concerns expressed was that the show duration of 90 minutes including intermission was considered to be short and could limit the success of Radical Reels. In addition to financial backing posters are needed to advertise.
Resolution approved: To pursue sponsoring a Radical Reels show in Olympia March 13.
Management Committee (Richard Kennedy): There was discussion about how to handle the participation of minors within branch and club activities. The policy for this is being sent to the branch and emphasizes a “Two deep” approach with kids, so that a young child is never in the company of only one adult during Mountaineer activities.
The branch should have a member on the Club safety committee.
Library Committee: Board members have expressed support for a new projector in previous e-mail communication. In this context it might be help to have a computer to be used for potluck presentations. Also there is a need for improved equipment tracking.
Resolution approved: To have Mike Kretzler develop a proposal to purchase a projector, laptop computer and needed software.
Community Relations and Outreach Committee (Patrick Chaffeur): The possibility of partnerships with Safeplace and 4H via HARK was presented.
Meeting adjourned at 7:50
Mark Brackebusch,
Branch Secretary
Mountaineers Board Meeting
December 10, 2008
Alpine Experience, Olympia
Officers Present: Bruce Towhey (chair), Tim Nagle (Member-at-Large) Steve Lerch (treasurer), Mark Brackebusch (secretary), Mike McIntosh (Vice Chair), Mike Kretzler (chair-elect), John Flanagan (trustee)
Others present: Mike Rowswell (Climbing), Curt Rosler (Leadership), Jim French (Wilderness Skills), Chris Lott (scrambling), Eric Quinn (MOFA co-chair), Tom Eckhout (MOFA co-chair), Dean Taylor (webmaster)
Meeting called to order at 6:00 pm.
Secretary report: Mike Kretzler, on Mark Brackebusch’s behalf, distributed draft minutes of the November 12 meeting minutes via e-mail. There were 624 Olympia branch members.
Treasurer’s report (Steve Lerch): Steve is still attempting to get the needed help from the Club to move some of our surplus cash into a more interest-bearing account. Richard Kennedy will see if he can help this move forward at the Management Committee meeting this week.
Vice Chair’s Report (Mike McIntosh): Mike has focused on the Orientation Night. There will be two outdoor retailers, REI and The Alpine Experience/Olympic Outfitters, offering door prizes. Curt will check whether Backpacker’s Supply would want to be represented there as well.
Resolution approved: To fund two $50 gift certificates from The Alpine Experience/Olympic Outfitters as door prizes.
Notices have been placed in the Go Guide, the branch Web site, and flyers have been placed in TAE/OO. Mike has received a good, but not yet complete, response from activity chairs for participation. Public service announcements have been placed with 2 local radio stations. Bruce Towhey, on his own initiative, placed paid ads with the MIXX 96 and The Olympian. Jim French noted that word of mouth is how most people find out about Wilderness Skills.
Resolution approved: To reimburse Bruce Towhey for the cost of the paid ads.
Eric Quinn will ensure the key is picked up in time to open the doors and that coffee, water, and sundries are moved to Columbian Hall for the night. Set up will begin at 6:00.
MOFA (Eric Quinn): Cost savings have been achieved by holding MOFA at Griffin Fire Station where the rent is $25 compared to the previous rent of $200 at Kennydell. Eric thought it would be appropriate to pass the cost savings to the students, lowering the fee by $25. Currently the course fees are $85 for members and $100 for nonmembers. Eric felt it would also be possible to reimburse leaders to that the MOFA instructors course in Seattle.
Resolution approved: The board approved changing the fee for the MOFA class to $60 for members and $75 for nonmembers.
Trustee’s report (John Flanagan): There will be an open house Saturday, December 13 for the new club headquarters at Magnuson Park. Mountaineers Books is continuing to face financial problems and its likely current economic conditions may hurt holiday sales. There will be layoffs.
Climbing Executive Committee: The current components of the CEC are climbing, scrambling, MOFA and leadership.
Climbing: Currently the climbing committee is developing plans and preparing for the climbing course. Basic leader qualifications were last revised in 1999, but will be reviewed in the context of club-wide minimum standards.
Scrambling: No special report, but a question was posed as to whether it was possible to sign up on line for activates. There is no online signup for branch activities.
Wilderness Skills: (Jim French): The Climbing and Alpine Scrambling courses start with the Wilderness Skills Module January 20 and continuing each of the following Tuesdays for 4 weeks plus a workshop Saturday, February 14. All instructors have been identified, but Jim said he would need other help at each of the evening classes and during the February 14 Outdoor Workshop to assist with student questions and student instruction.
Hiking (Mike Kretzler): Hikes are continuing during the winter.
Leadership Committee: (Curt Rosler) The leadership course is on track to be held at the Olympia Flight Museum April 21,23,24. The committee consists of Curt Rosler, Ron Lavigne and Doug Hutcheson. Leadership is currently part of intermediate climbing. There was discussion of where the leadership activity should be represented within the branch.
Resolution approved: The Leadership activity will be part of the Climbing Division and represented within the Climbing Executive Committee.
Conservation Committee: (Jim French): The conservation committee is looking to have 2 people to go the December 13 club headquarters opening The trail maintenance days schedule in 2009 for a Church Creek Trail, the Branch’s adopted trail are as follows:
Banff: Attendance was good at the Banff Film Festival.
Navigation (Curt Rosler): There is a class April 30, and a field trip in Olympia May 2.
Records (Bruce Towhey): There was further discussion on the issue of records. The formation an ad hoc records committee was approved. The membership will consist of representatives of all activities, in addition to Shannon Arndt, Steven Bremmer, Dean Taylor, and Jeff Foster. There is a desire to avoid duplication of records and in this context there was discussion of the Club web site which has record keeping capabilities. There is space for all the branch activities on the Club web site, but difficulty in learning how to use the Club site has created a barrier to its use.
Resolution approved: To convert Record Keeping to an ad-hoc committee, the purpose of which is to inventory records being kept, develop procedures, ensure continuity, and coordinate record-keeping in the branch and with the club.
Meeting adjourned at 7:50
Mark Brackebusch,
Branch Secretary
Mountaineers Board Meeting
October 8, 2008
Alpine Experience, Olympia
Present: Bruce Towhey (Chair), Tim Nagle (Member-at-Large) Steve Lerch (treasurer), Mark Brackebusch (secretary), Bruce Towhey (Climbing Chair), Mike McIntosh (Vice Chair), Mike Kretzler (Chair Elect), Ron Jones (Kayaking),Patrick Chauffleur (HARK)
Meeting called to order at 6:00 pm.
Secretary report: (Mark Brackebusch): The minutes for the September meeting were approved. Branch membership was 616.
Treasurer’s report: (Steve Lerch): There have been discussions with the club as the handling of funds. Currently all funds are in a checking account and there is a desire to have a second account for income and security reasons.
Climbing Commitee (Bruce Towhey): There is a search for a new basic climbing committee chair as well as a new leader for the “introduction to climbing” module.
Hiking (Mike Kretzer): Mike would like to groom a new chair for hiking as he will relinquish this up when he assumes the position of Chair next year.
Kayaking Committee (Ron Jones): The minimum standards report was completed. Kayaking is required to have the same 10 essentials as climbing, although this is of limited benefit for some of the trips. This is an area where full compliance with minimum standards was incomplete.
Banff: (Ron Jones): A contract has been signed.
HARK (Hiking and Active Recreation for Kids) (Patrick Chauffeur): There has been one activity per month approximately. The BBBS program has some limitations in that overnight trips are not permitted and group size restrictions can quickly restrict the number of BBBS matches that can participate in an activity. There will be consideration of options to expand HARK.
Trustee’s report: (John Flanagan). A new treasurer, Mike Dean, has been appointed. Mountaineer Books has been losing money and has required infusions of cash from the Club recently. Budget reductions were approved.
Vice Chair’s Report (Mike McIntosh): Several tasks for November banquet were identified. A $25 gift certificate was approved for a special service award.
Meeting adjourned at 7:15
Mark Brackebusch,
Branch Secretary
Mountaineers Board Meeting
September 10, 2008
Alpine Experience, Olympia
Present: Stan Springer (Chair), Tim Nagle (Member-at-Large) Steve Lerch (treasurer), Mark Brackebusch (secretary), Bruce Towhey (Climbing Chair), Mike McIntosh (Vice Chair), Tim Nagle (member-at-Large), Curt Rosler (Leadership), Richard Kennedy (Management Committee)
Meeting called to order at 6:00 pm.
Secretary report (Mark Brackebusch): The minutes for the July meeting were approved. Branch membership was 621. The election results of the July election were: Mike Kretzler, chair-elect, John Flanagan trustee, Mark Brackebusch, secretary. There was discussion about the small number of ballots returned for this election. The ballot was in the Go-Guide. To improve voting participation it may be necessary to have ballots mailed for next year’s election. Included with the ballot could be an announcement of next year’s branch picnic.
Treasurer’s report (Steve Lerch): The club has requested a $5000 reduction in the Olympia Branch budget. The branch budget has been conservative in projections of income and expenditures. Steve will see where it is appropriate to make the expenditure cuts or record increased income, but he did not believe there would be substantial changes in operations.
Currently checks can be written on the Branch account with only one signature. Steve Lerch will investigate the possibility of having two accounts, the larger of which would require two signatures per check and a smaller account would require one signature and would be used for day-today expenses.
Vice Chair’s Report (Mike McIntosh): The branch picnic was held at Burfoot Park July 25. There were approximately 40 people attendance with a 90% participation in the President’s Challenge which was a test based on “Freedom of the Hills.” A considerable amount of food was left over. Mike proposed that the budget for next year be about $600 as compared to $1000 spent this year. Mike requested volunteers for a number of activities for the November banquet.
Community Relations and Outreach (Mike McIntosh): A revision of the charter was presented and will be discussed and voted upon in October.
Trustee’s report (John Flanagan): In the context of the budget discussion John pointed out that there was a significant increase in the allowance for depreciation due to the move of club headquarters to Magnuson Park.
Management Committee (Richard Kennedy): Minimum Standards forms are not yet available for Branch review.
Leadership Committee: (Curt Rosler) A navigation committee has been set up consisting of Bruce Towhey, Curt Rosler, Jim French and Mike Kretzler.
HARK (Hiking and Active Recreation for Kids) (Stan Springer): In the context of this program it may be possible to rent Intercity Transit vans at a very reasonable cost.
BBBS (Stan Springer): A number of low-key activities have occurred. At each activity the participants have been given a ten essential type of item as an incentive for participation. Activities have included activities at Priest Point Park, Millersylvania Park, and Mclane Nature Trail. Future outings include Frozen Lake, Ape Caves (October), Kennedy Creek (November), and an indoor rock outing.
Banff (Richard Kennedy): Ron Jones and Richard Kennedy will co-chair this event that is co-sponsored by the Alpine Experience. A contract is pending.
Hiking (Mike Kretzler): Several new leaders have been identified.
Operating Plan: The plan was presented.
Branch Calendar: Activity chairs have been contacted regarding schedules in 2009.
Web site: There was a request to list co-chairs on the web site.
Retiring chair: Officers extended there thanks to Stan Springer for his leadership as chair over the last year.
Meeting adjourned at 7:50
Mark Brackebusch,
Branch Secretary
Mountaineers Board Meeting
July 9, 2008
Alpine Experience, Olympia
Present: Stan Springer (Chair), Tim Nagle (Member-at-Large) Steve Lerch (treasurer), Mark Brackebusch (secretary), Bruce Towhey (Climbing Chair), Mike McIntosh (Vice Chair), Henry Romer (kayaking), Curt Rosler (leadership)
Meeting called to order at 6:00 pm.
Treasurer’s report: (Steve Lerch): The proposed Branch budget was presented to the Branch. Two new significant expenditures were an allocation of $2500 for level 1 avalanche training for intermediate climbing students and an allocation for community outreach. There were no objections to these two items. The budget needs to show the Mountaineers Foundation grant revenue and the corresponding expenses. Bruce Towhey presented a revised budget for climbing division activities. Rather than approving the budget as presented together with the climbing divisions revisions, but not presented in a unified document, the board requested to see the unified budget including the climbing divisions changes electronically and the board would vote on the budget via electronic means in lieu of a separate meeting. The due date of the budget is July 18.
Secretary report: (Mark Brackebusch): The minutes for the June meeting were approved. Branch membership was 637 unchanged from last month.
Vice Chair’s Report: (Mike McIntosh): The branch picnic will be July 25 at Burfoot Park. Mike requested volunteers for a number of activities. Than banquet will be November 1 at the Percival Room, South Puget Sound College.
Trustee's Report: Henry Romer reporting that the climbing rock wall will be going up at the new Club headquarters and it will be open to the public by agreement made with the City of Seattle.
Nominating Committee: The ballot due date is July 21. Mark Brackebusch will deliver the ballots to Curt Rosler who heads the ballot counting committee whose other members are Tom Whitney and Donna Doerer. The suggestion made previously of having ballot completed or delivered at the picnic was not feasible due to the proposal’s inability to meet the required deadlines.
MOFA: Eric Quinn and Fred Inman will co-chair MOFA. The MOFA class will be held either in the sequence of October 2, 9, 11, 18, and 19 or in the sequence of October 9, 16, 18, 25, and 26.
Leadership Committee: Curt Rosler commented on the discussion from June about the revenues and expenditures for each activity. He reported that leadership lost a total of $48 for the entire class, but the consensus of the Board was that leadership was a core function of the Branch and a small deficit for leadership activity was acceptable. In the past there was discussion about giving the students their books but Curt said that by purchasing the books they invest in the course.
Community Relations Outreach: (Mike McIntosh) A proposed implementation of the charter is pending.
HARK (Hiking and Active Recreation for Kids): Stan reported that the Tacoma Branch HARK program is not active and that he and Patrick Chaffeur picked two loads of outdoor equipment that was used in this program. Some of the items including water bottles and ground pads were granted to the Olympia Branch and others including packs are being loans. Alpine Experience is assisting by supplying first aid kits at supply cost.
BBBS: Four big/little matches attended an activity at Priest Point Park. Next Wednesday 40 people are signed up for an activity at Millersylvania Park.
Activity Reports:
Climbing Division: (Bruce Towhey) The climbing division will meet next Wednesday to consider record keeping issues. Mike Garrick is expected to be the climbing activity chair next year; Chris Lott will remain as scrambling chair. Bob Adams is a possible navigation chair, but this is not certain. There is a tentative proposal to offer the navigation course in September, but some uncertainties remain. The navigation course is a requirement for the completing the leadership class.
The climbing class schedule for next year is being worked on. Presently the Orientation Night is schedule January 5. The dates of the class depend on the location chosen for class with consideration of as the Columbia Center, the Knox Center, or the Salvation Army. Depending on the class location selected only certain days of the week are available.
Kayaking: (Henry Romer): Seventeen students are in the process of completing the course. To graduate the student must have one paddle experience outside of the course activities. This extra paddle is ofter the most frequent reason not to graduation from the course.
Potlucks:Carolyn Burreson is looking for speakers for the December, April and May potlucks.
Operating Plan: Revisions have been made. The revised operating plan will be circulated to the Branch officers. This will be presented to the Club Management Committee. Henry spoke of the self audit regarding minimum standards that will be sent out shortly and will be due October 1.
Library and Records: There has not been a records committee meeting in the last month. Stan resated this hope that the while records could be decentralized within activities that the secretary should have an index of which records exist and where they are located. Mark may need to get together with a climbing division records custodian to understand the climbing records. As far as a Branch report Stan is awaiting information from the various activities.
Master Calendar: There was discussion of the usefulness of a Branch calendar. Opinion was divided as to how useful this would be. No decision was reached.
Meeting Schedule: (Stan Springer) It was approved that no meeting be held in August unless a circumstance requires it.
Meeting adjourned at 8:00.
Mark Brackebusch,
Branch Secretary
Mountaineers Board Meeting
June 11, 2008
Alpine Experience, Olympia
Present: Stan Springer (Chair), Tim Nagle (Member-at-Large) Steve Lerch (treasurer), Mark Brackebusch (secretary), Jim French (Conservation Chair), Mike Kretzer (Hiking Chair), Bruce Towhey (Climbing Chair), Chris Lott (Scrambling Chair), Richard Kennedy (Management Committee), John Flanagan (trustee)
Meeting called to order at 6:00 pm.
Secretary report: (Mark Brackebusch): The minutes for the May meeting were approved. Branch membership was 637 on June 1 compared to 634 May 11.
Treasurer’s report: (Steve Lerch): The Branch budget will be presented to the Club by July 11. Budget information was missing from several activities, and in these cases last year’s information will be used.
Stan raised the question whether some activities were bringing in revenue significantly in excess of costs. Jim French noted that wilderness skills looses money, but that these cost were recouped via the climbing and scrambling courses. Wilderness skills also functions as the first module of the climbing and scrambling courses. Stan suggested an activity-by-activity review comparing course revenues to costs. On a cost per class day basis the wilderness skills class is significantly less costly than climbing or scrambling. Room rental costs were expected to be increasing.
The recognition of volunteer efforts is currently a small expense, but increased funding may be appropriate. One example given of a volunteer award was Banff Film Festival tickets.
There is no navigation class in the budget plan although having passed a navigation course is a requirement for the leadership class. Reserve funds have not been frequently used in the past, but these can be used when needed.
Vice Chair’s Report: (Mike McIntosh): The branch picnic will be July 19 at Burfoot Park.
Trustee's Report: (John Flanagan) The budget will need to be presented at the next meeting. There should be a report to the Club about the status of the Big Bother/Big Sister (BBBS) program.
Management Committee: (Richard Kennedy) Approval of a youth protection policy was delayed. The following policy statement was approved by the Olympia Board to be presented to the Club at the Management Committee:
“The Olympia Branch of the Mountaineers affirms the proposed policy of youth protection including Barriers to Abuse within the Mountaineers exclusive of requiring background checks for leaders.”
Several minimum standards were approved. Navigation standards are yet to be developed. There will be an audit to whether activities are in compliance with the minimum standards. Beginning August 1, a questionnaire will be sent out regarding the compliance with club minimum standards. These questionnaires will be due October 1. In the following year, a minimum standards compliance audit will be performed by an outside entity. The question was raised whether ropes needed to be carried on scrambles. The current wording of the minimum standard requires that a rope be carried for scrambles in challenging terrain.
The travel policy is under review. For carpooling a 12¢ per mile reimbursement to the driver is recommended. This is based on the IRS allowance of 50¢ per mile with 4 persons per car. There was a discussion of volunteer recognition. There will be presentations of new programs. The Mountaineers Foundation is open to looking at new proposals. Possible proposals could include trail maintenance, the Banff film festival, and MOFA.
Nominating Committee: The nominating committee has made a submission for the July GoGuide. The GoGuide ballots can be mailed to the Olympia branch or dropped off at the Alpine Experience. A suggestion was made that ballots could be dropped off at the branch picnic, although it was not clear if it would be possible to publish this information in the Go Guide in a timely fashion.
Policy manual update: A suggestion was made to reference Club Policies in the Branch policy rather than copying the text as part of the Branch policy manual. This will allow the Branch policy manual to remain current when club policies, such as minimum standards, are changed.
HARK (Hiking and Active Recreation for Kids): There is a meeting June 12. Tacoma’s HARK program is not active now and it may be possible to borrow equipment that the Tacoma branch using for HARK activities.
Big Brother Big Sister: For BBBS participants there will be a 1/2-hour presentation June 21 at Priest Point Park to go over aspects of outdoor activities including ethics and clothing and equipment. There will be a short hike in small groups following the presentation.
Activity Reports:
Scrambling: Toby Tahja-Syrett was the leader of an Olympia Branch scramble that came to the aid of a hiker injured in the chute on Mt. Ellinor.
Climbing: The climbing class is winding up. There is an adequate number of experience climbs available. Usually most Branch experience climbs give preference to Olympia Branch climbing students.
Wilderness Skills:The course is winding up. Chris Lott felt that the students were coming to the scrambling course from the wilderness skills class with good skills.
Hiking: (Mike Kretzer): Activities are proceeding. Interested leaders are sought for BBBS or HARK activities.
Conservation: (Jim French) Access to the Church Creek trail, a trail adopted by the Olympia Branch, was recently not accessible due to road damage. It may now be open.
Library and Records: A $250 donation was made for bookshelves. Kayak course DVD’s have been purchased. The usage of the library is higher now that books can be dropped of at the Alpine Experience. There has not been a records committee meeting in the last month.
Potlucks: Carolyn Burreson is looking for speakers of the December and January potlucks.
Meeting Schedule: (Stan Springer) It is possible that there will be no meeting in July or August. The membership meeting may be moved to September, as that would meet the requirement of one membership meeting per quarter. Activities chairs should make room requests. Stan may generate a room calendar for all activities. Climbing and scrambling orientation is scheduled Jan 5.
Meeting adjourned at 8:00.
Mark Brackebusch,
Branch Secretary
Mountaineers Board Meeting
May 14, 2008
Alpine Experience, Olympia
Present: Stan Springer (Chair), Mike McIntosh (Vice Chair) Steve Lerch (treasurer), Mark Brackebusch (secretary), Jim French (Conservation Chair), Mike Kretzer (Hiking Chair), Christy Ridout (Records Chair) Robert Arnsdorf (member), Judy Kennedy (guest)
Meeting called to order at 7:00 pm.
Mount Rainier National Park Volunteers: Judy Kennedy made a presentation about volunteer opportunities in MPNP. She suggested that a good starting point for volunteering at Mount Rainier was to be a Meadow Rover and noted that a Meadow Rover training class would be held on June 28. This is not the only starting place for volunteering. Information about volunteering is on the Mount Rainier web site.
Secretary report: (Mark Brackebusch): The minutes for the April meeting were approved. Branch membership was 634 May 11 compared to 643 on April 1.
Treasurer’s report: (Steve Lerch): The budget information had been e-mailed by Steve. Steve noted that he needed next year’s budget requests from a number of activities. The overall budget would need to be approved by the Branch Board in June prior to presentation to the Club.
Vice Chair’s Report: (Mike McIntosh): Mike sought input about whether the July event should be a catered event with a band, or an event with relays. The proposed location at Priest Point Park would restrict the ability to serve beer, which is prohibited in city parks. For this reason a location change to a county or state park, which allow alcohol, may be considered, although a liquor license for the event must be obtained from a liquor store. Tom Whitney talked about past picnics that had a chairman’s relay with outdoor skill related events.
Nominating Committee: The committee comprised of Tom Whitney, Craig Bussack, and Curt Rossler nominated the following candidates: Mike Kretzer for chair-elect, Mark Brackebusch and Christy Ridout for secretary, and John Flanagan for trustee. A call was made for nominations from the floor and there were none. Brief statements were made by Mike Kretzer, Mark Brackebusch, and Christy Ridout.
Activity Reports:
Wilderness Skills:The May wilderness skills course began with 27 students on May 8 and runs through June 5. The course offers 15 hours of instruction, aims to include as much hands-on activity as possible and requires about 15 to 17 volunteers. It appears the spring course meets a need in our community for backcountry travel instruction and is becoming a useful new member recruitment tool. There was a question about offering another wilderness skills class for members of Big Brothers Big Sisters (BBBS), but at present the human resources to do so are not present. There may be consideration of a shorter presentation to BBBS participants.
Hiking (Mike Kretzer): Activities are proceeding.
Conservation Bonnie Betts, an Olympia Branch Conservation Committee member, will lead the Fossil Fuel Free Challenge again in 2008, giving members some incentives to reduce their use of fossil fuels. Information on the Fossil Fuel Free Challenge will be included in the July and August Go Guide along with other conservation activities. Jim noted that there were meetings about the recreation plans for Mt. St. Helens. Input given at the Gifford-Pinchot National Forest task force meetings has generally been predominately given by outdoor enthusiasts who use motorized off-read vehicles and there has been limited input from hikers, skiers and climbers. Rich Curtis will represent our branch at the next meeting.
Community Relations and Outreach Committee (CROC) (Mike McIntosh): Mike presented a charter for this committee that was approved. There was discussion about whether oversight was needed to ensure that partnerships involving the Olympia Branch and a second organization were adequately congruent. The consensus was that the CROC should have a general approach approved by the board such that CROC could apply individual judgments without bringing all proposed partnerships before the Branch Board.
HARK (Hiking and Active Recreation for kids) & Big Brothers Big Sisters partnership: At an April 24 meeting six activities were discussed and one trip date has been planned.
Records Committee. The records committee has not meet, although Christy and Steve Bremmer have been met to discuss records issues. The Google site has potential for storing the Branch documents, however, there are a few anomalies Christy is working on with Stephen Bremer. One, is the site does not support PDF. Conversion Software has been used to convert and store PDF. There now appears to be a size limit on documents. The other factor is ease of use. Training will be required of members wanting to post on the web site or use the collaboration functionality. More testing and research will be required to make a formal recommendation on use of the site.
Operating Plan and Budget: Activity chairs need to get their information into Steve Lerch and Stan Springer.
Meeting adjourned at 9:00.
Mark Brackebusch,
Branch Secretary
Mountaineers Board Meeting
April 9, 2008
Alpine Experience, Olympia
Present: Stan Springer (Chair), Bruce Towhey (Chair Elect), Mike McIntosh (Vice Chair) Steve Lerch (treasurer), Mark Brackebusch (secretary), John Flanagan (Trustee), Henry Romer (Sea Kayaking Chair), Tim Nagle (Member at Large), Jim French (Conservation Chair), Mike Kretzer (Hiking Chair), Susan Kingrey (MOFA Chair), Steve Bremer (Climbing Committee Member), Dean Taylor (Webmaster)
Meeting called to order at 6:00 pm.
Treasurer’s report: (Steve Lerch): Steve presented a report of the club finances broken down by activity. Note was made that revenues and expenses occur at irregular times and that it is helpful to anticipate changes due to participation numbers different from original projections.
Secretary report: (Mark Brackebusch): The minutes for the March meeting were approved. Branch membership was 643 on April 1.
Vice Chair’s Report (Mike McIntosh): A Branch summer Picnic in the planning stage. July 19 at Priest Point Park was reserved. Consideration will be given to changing the date to Friday July18.
Trustee report (John Flanagan). Ed Henderson requested a detailed Magnuson building project report to be presented at the next meeting. In light increased transportation expenses the travel policy is being reviewed. Age requirements for participation in Mountaineer activities were discussed with no decision being made. A relaxation of guest participation restrictions in activities was requested for the potential partnership of the Olympia Branch and the Big Brothers Big Sisters of Olympia. Note was made that there seems to be a higher membership retention using a mentor approach to the climbing class in Seattle.
Managing Committee report: The participation of minors’ participation in Mountaineer activities is under discussion. Richard Kennedy indication to the Managing Committee that the Olympia Branch did not want a change in policies that would hinder the potential partnership of the Olympia Branch and the Big Brothers Big Sisters of Olympia.
Activity Reports:
Climbing (Bruce Towhey): The Climbing course is entering the glacial module. The MOFA course is in progress. The leadership course starts April 15.
Wilderness Skills: The Wilderness Skills class that begins May 8, 6:30 pm at the Knox Center, 1113 Legion Way SE, Olympia.
Kayaking (Henry Romer): The class is full and ready to start. Note was made that the Tacoma course is full as well. This has not been happening in the past.
Hiking (Mike Kretzer): Activities are being planned.
MOFA: Susan Kingrey reported that the class is in progress. A new chair is sought. Susan may provide mentoring to a new chair. Bruce Towhey suggested that the Climbing Executive Committee could take care of the administrative work of MOFA to ease the duties of a new chair. The fall MOFA class has not consistently been held mostly due to inadequate signup. A thank you was expressed to Susan Kingrey for her work with MOFA.
Community Relations and Outreach & charter (Mike McIntosh): There has not been recent activity within this committee including no writing of a charter yet.
Big Brothers/Sisters partnership: A grant request has been made of the Mountaineers Foundation. A possible decision may be known in the next mouth regarding the approval of the grant. The ad hoc committee writing the grant consists of Tom Whitney, Stan Springer and Patrick Chaffeur.
Other business:
Bylaws update: An ad hoc committee chaired by Mike Kretzer was approved to suggest revisions to bylaws. The consensus at this time is not to do a comprehensive and complete revision, but to focus on changes that require revision based upon needs at the time.
Records Committee. The records committee is comprised of Christy Ridout (chair), Mark Brackebusch (board representative), Tom Whitney, Jeff Foster (temporary member). According to bylaws the Library and Records activities are one committee although the library has functioned independently under the direction of Maxine Dunkleman. She would like not to extend her role into records. Steve Bremer and Christy Ridout have been communicating about issues related to this committee.
Nominating Committee: Tom Whitney, Craig Bussack, and Curt Rossler comprise the nominating committee.
Operating Plan and Budget: Activity chairs are being contacted to make any needed changes and chairs are reminded to get their information into Steve Lerch.
Webmaster/data management: Richard Barringer headed a meeting March 13. He expressed a desire to have the Olympia Branch web site to have more consistency with the Club website. The data portion of the meeting consisted of instruction about the process of online activity posting.
Calling all members: Check your info on club database and initiate corrections. Correction of errors may be delayed until a better structure is in place.
Meeting room scheduling for 2009: A discussion of alternative meeting room options showed there was interest. No decisions were reached.
Meeting adjourned at 8:00.
Respectfully submitted,
Mark Brackebusch,
Branch Secretary
Mountaineers Board Meeting
March 12, 2008
The Olympia Center, Olympia
Present: Stan Springer (Chair), Bruce Towhey (Chair Elect), Mark Brackebusch (secretary), John Flanagan (Trustee), Henry Romer (Sea Kayaking Chair), Tim Nagel (Member at Large), Jim French (Conservation Chair), Donna Doerer (Big Brothers Big Sisters of Thurston County)
Meeting called to order at 6:00 pm.
Big Brothers Big Sisters/ Olympia Mountaineers partnership: Donna Doerer presented the background to the “No Kids Left Inside” grant request that was submitted February 15. The proposed grant involves a partnership between Big Brothers Big Sisters of Thurston County and the Olympia Branch. The terminology in the context the Big Brothers Big Sisters (BBBS) program is a “match” which is one mentoring adult, a “big” and one child or teen, a “little”. This grant proposal was based on the participation of 60 matches. Grant proceeds would be used only for the direct benefit of the littles and might be used in part to fund the purchase of a pool of equipment for the littles. There could be a funding need to purchase equipment for bigs’ use in Mountaineer activities. A motion was approved to seek a grant from the Mountaineers Foundation to fund costs related the adults in proposed partnership. The approval status of the grants will not be known until May or later, and further discussion will be needed based on the approval or rejection of one or both of the grant proposals.
Treasurer’s report: A report of the club finances was presented. John Flanagan requested that the report broken be down by activity including a comparison of the actual expenditures to the budgeted amounts.
Secretary report: (Mark Brackebusch): The minutes for the February meeting have been posted on the Branch web site and all officers had an opportunity to review the draft copy of the minutes. A request was made to present membership statistics quarterly.
Trustee report (John Flanagan). Magnuson Park construction has started. A financial report was present to the Club Board a copy of which was presented at this meeting. Mountaineer Books, which has had several unprofitable years, has shown a profit in recent months. Tab Wilkins was elected Club vice president. Dave Claar was elected vice president of Properties. A grant was approved to the Kitsap Players.
Managing Committee report: There was no meeting in the last month. Stan Springer reported that age requirements for participation in Mountaineers are under discussion.
Activity Reports:
Climbing (Bruce Towhey): 26 students completed the first module. The Climbing Executive Committee has been meeting regarding the qualifications for leaders. The intermediate course will have a meeting to set up climbs. A meeting is planned regarding the posting and reports of trips will occur. There are 20 students in the scrambling course, which is ready to start.
Wilderness Skills (Jim French): Jim French presented a flyer for use in publicizing the Wilderness Skills class that begins May 8, 6:30 pm at the Knox Center, 1113 Legion Way SE, Olympia.
Kayaking (Henry Romer): The class is full at 18 students. Next year’s budget is being prepared.
Hiking (Mike Kretzer): Activities are ongoing. During the meeting the question of the qualification process for hiking leaders was raised. Mike Kretzer submitted this statement for the record:
The Hiking Committee recruits new leaders from the ranks of hiking participants. New leaders are identified through the Leadership class, or by recommendation by other members, or by volunteering. Each prospective leader works though a mentoring process, where a leader-mentor supports the new leader in setting up, scheduling, running and reporting one or more hikes. The mentor provides information and support, while the leader candidate does most of the work. The mentor also attends the hike, assists the prospective leader, and evaluates the new leader's performance.
If both the leader and the mentor are comfortable with the prospective leader's performance, then the mentor recommends that the prospective leader be added to the leader list. The new leader can then lead hikes independently. If one or the other is not comfortable with the performance, then another mentor hike is planned or other course is taken.
Hike leaders are generally quite experienced in both hiking and leading groups. They are not required to have a current MOFA certificate, nor is the Leadership class required. Over a third of current leaders have taken the Leadership class, and those who have not taken the class are encouraged to do so.
Conservation (Jim French): The conservation committee plans to schedule activities on the 1st Saturday of each month. There is a need for leaders and participants.
MOFA: Susan Kingrey has notified the Branch that she will not be continuing as the MOFA committee chair after the spring class. Requests for potential replacements were sought. The Club has a MOFA instructor class. The Branch will support paying class fees for members seeking to instruct the Branch MOFA class.
Other business:
Nominating Committee: Stan Springer complied a list of Branch members who might serve on the nominating committee.
Operating Plan and Budget: An operating plan and a budget the 2009 fiscal year will need to be developed. Stan will present to each activity committee set of documents to assist the creation next year’s budget. The document set includes The Mountaineers Strategic Plan: 2007-2012, the Branch operating plan, and the budget for fiscal 2008, and the branch budget for 2007.
Data management: There will be a meeting about the Club and Branch data and web management March 13. Henry Romer spoke in support of using the Club digital achieving resources in preference to having the branch create resources for archiving. There was discussion of how accessible the budget information should be. There was no vote on this point although there was an expression of limiting access to Branch members in addition to standard administrative access by the Club.
Aid Climbing Seminar: An Olympia Branch Aid Climbing Seminar was approved by vote.
Meeting adjourned at 8:00.
Respectfully submitted,
Mark Brackebusch,
Branch Secretary
Mountaineers Board Meeting
February 13, 2008
The Olympia Center, Olympia
Present: Stan Springer (Chair), Bruce Towhey (Chair Elect), Mike McIntosh (Vice Chair), Mark Brackebusch (secretary), Steve Lerch (treasurer), John Flanagan (Trustee), Henry Romer (Sea Kayaking Chair) Curt Rosler (Leadership Chair), Tim Nagel (Member at Large), Jim French (Conservation Chair), Richard Irwin, Stephen Bremer, Mike Garrick, Dean Taylor (webmaster), James Pierson, Paul Wiseman, Steve Thompson, Ron Lavigne, Robert Barnaski
Meeting called to order at 7:05 pm.
Treasurer's report: (Steve Lerch): There was a cash outflow in January related to sending a check to the Club for an amount representing initiation fees waived during Orientation Night. These funds were returned to the branch subsequent to January. There is a Club policy to allow fee waiver for this type of special event.
Secretary report: (Mark Brackebusch): The minutes for the January meeting have been posted on the Branch web site. The reading of the minutes was waived.
Vice Chair report (Mike McIntosh): The recently constituted ad hoc Community Outreach and Public Relations Committee met. The committee has set a goal of having a proposed charter written next month. Mike Macintosh and Bruce Towhey have been thinking about a new plan for the summer branch get-together, but no proposal was presented. The Banquet will be November 1 in the Percival Room at South Puget Sound Community College.
Trustee report (John Flanagan). The Club election was held and Eric Linxweiler was elected president, Steve Sears secretary, and Jordan Roderick treasurer.
There is new software that will be used for a membership survey. A contract has been signed for the remodeling of the new Mountaineers Headquarters.
Managing Committee report: No report.
Activity Reports:
Climbing (Bruce Towhey): There have been several meetings and decisions reached regarding how leaders are promoted, and how to handle equivalency. Leaders will initiate requests within the activity committee. From approval at the activity committee level, the Climbing Executive Committee (CEC) will approve or return a request with a recommended modification. The CEC has 6 weeks within which to return a leader application. The appropriate activity committee will approve equivalency.
The CEC is requesting that policies in an image format ("PDF") be converted to a text format. Mike Kretzer has volunteered to attempt to start this project. Image formats may still be used for general membership purposes.
There were 7 students interested in the intermediate climbing course of which 2 have signed up.
Scrambling: Stan Springer reported that the scrambling course is ready to start. There are 15 students signed up.
Wilderness skills (Jim French): Forty-seven students completed the course and there were 9 applications for equivalency. Evaluations returned by students were helpful. The course will be offered again in May two weeks following the Outdoor Life Festival of which the Olympia Mountaineers a sponsor. John Flanagan spoke in support of the initiation fee waiver that occurred at the orientation night as a method to build club membership. He moved that 1) The Branch waive the collection of the initiation fee for new member s joining at the Outdoor Life Festival, and 2) that the wilderness skill module be free to branch members. The motion was seconded and passed.
Hiking (Mike Kretzer): Activities are slated beginning in May.
Winter travel: No report.
Kayaking (Henry Romer): Registration opened this month and 15 of 18 openings are filled.
Conservation (Jim French): The conservation committee meeting has been postponed to March 1.
Leadership (Curt Rosler): The leadership course will be held April 15, 17, and18 at the Olympia Flight Museum. 18 are interested. Stan Springer noted the climbing and scrambling leaders are required to have passed the leadership course. Curt Rosler noted that Navigation and MOFA are not required in order to take the leadership course. Kayaking has its own process for developing leaders. MOFA and Leadership are not required, but Henry Romer noted that the kayaking course covers first aid applicable to kayaking. For example the recognition and treatment of hypothermia was an integral and key part of the kayaking course.
MOFA: No report.
Safety (Barney Barnowski): There are reports and recommendations for 2006 and 2007 on the Club Web Site. It was noted that significant events happened during non-technical activities. Incidents that are reported with via the Club web based trip reporting system are forwarded to the safety committee. The Safety Committee is a committee of the Club.
Other business:
Reports and Records Management: The Branch is seeking to reinitiate annual activity reports and an annual branch report. Tom Whitney is proposing a form for annual activity reports that can be compiled to produce a Branch annual report. Included in the minimum requirements for annual reports would be a clear listing of individuals who passed the various courses. Steve Bremer noted that it was important to be able to check leader qualifications.
Tom Whitney wants to pass on records maintenance responsibility. Christ Ridout has volunteered to assist in this process but other assistance will be needed.
Information system meeting: A date is being sought for a meeting with Richard Barringer in Olympia. Issues include use of the website, privacy issues, management of course registration signup, and utilization of the leader database and activity database. The knowledge gained needs to be institutionalized so it can be taught to others and passed on.
A nominating committee needs to be formed for this year. Note was made that the branch operating plan is due in May and the budget for the branch is due in June for presentation to the Club. The modular course format should be evaluated in the next year.
Snow Boarding: (James Pierson). A successful trip less the photographic record of the course occurred at Meany Lodge January. There were 3 students, who all did well. There is consideration to repeating the course in March. Appreciation was extended to James.
Branch web site: Dean Taylor was thanked for his fine work on the web site. There was discussion of who would be permitted to request postings on the web site. There was a past practice of having the secretary review proposed web postings before presenting them to the Webmaster. Present consensus was that activity chairs, potluck chairs and other ad hoc chairs should be allowed to send postings directly to the branch webmaster, and that others should go through a board member or activity chair. The Webmaster maintains discretion to have any proposed posting reviewed by a board member or activity chair prior to its posting.
Potluck funding: It was moved seconded, and approved that potluck activities receive and additional $60 of funding.
Meeting adjourned at 9:00.
Respectfully submitted,
Mark Brackebusch, Branch Secretary
Mountaineers Board Meeting
January 9, 2008
The Alpine Experience, Olympia
Present: Stan Springer (Chair), Bruce Towhey (Chair Elect), Mike McIntosh (Vice Chair), Mark Brackebusch (secretary), John Flanagan (Trustee), Henry Romer (Sea Kayaking Chair) Curt Rosler (Leadership Chair), Tim Nagel (Member at Large), Jim French (Conservation Chair), Chris Lott (Scrambling Chair), Jeff Foster (Climbing Committee)
Meeting called to order at 6:05 pm.
Minutes from the previous meeting were not available.
Treasurer's report: Stan Springer reported that the balance is $76,286 and income for the fiscal year is $5,242. Consideration is being made to opening a higher interest account for part of the balance.
Secretary report: Stan Springer introduced Mark Brackebusch as the new secretary.
Vice Chair report (Mike McIntosh): Mike thanked all those involved in a successful orientation night. There are a number of new members from this, a number of who did not sign up for a class at the orientation. A recommendation for future orientation would be to speed up the reservation process. Book requests need to be made soon.
The date of the banquet was chosen to be November 8 pending availability of facilities. July 17 was selected as the date for the branch picnic. In the past Burfoot Park has been used. Bruce Towhey suggested that the picnic format could be changed, possibly with live music, among other suggestions and this may necessitate a change of location.
Trustee report (John Flanagan). The election is coming up. Ed Visteurs will be in Seattle 7 pm January 28 at the Mountaineers Building with a reading and book signing of his new book No Shortcuts to the Top. A climbing boulder has been selected using separate fund raising. Henry Romer noted that the new headquarters in Seattle would have a climbing wall. Consideration could be made to using that new facility as part of a class related field trip.
Leadership (Curt Rosler): 15 people has signed up for the leadership course which will be held April 15, 17, and18 at the Olympia Flight Museum. The book for the class is "Outdoor Leadership" by John Graham.
Activity Reports:
Scrambling (Chris Lott) At the orientation 8 people signed up for the Scrambling class that starts on February 18. Bruce Towhey will follow up with Chris on purchasing cord for prusiks.
Steve Lerch has all the information from the orientation signup. Once Steve has managed the payments the list should go to Jeff to give the new signup to the appropriate committee chairs.
Winter travel (no representative) Stan made note that he would like to discuss class dates with Judson Lang or Tom Keller.
Kayaking (Henry Romer): Sign up for the kayaking class will occur in February with the classes held in April and June. The timing of the class is done early in season to allow for adequate time for kayak graduates to use their new skill in the same year.
Conservation (Jim French): The conservation committee will meet February 2 at Nisqually wildlife refuge with a walk followed by a business meeting at which the course for the next year will be set.
MOFA: No report at this meeting.
Other business:
Review of committees: Stan Springer has been doing an ongoing review of how the policies of the branch match the actual operation of the various committees. In particular, in reviewing the membership committee of the branch, he made a proposal that this committee be reconstituted as the "Public Community relations and outreachmembership Committee" having as members the Vice-chair (Mike McIntosh), the Membership chair (Dino Patiag), an at-large member (Patrick Chaffeur) and the Potluck Chair (Carolyn Burreson). The Vice Chair will report to the Board on behalf of the committee. The committee is to be an ad hoc committee and is to write its own charter for presentation to the board. In addition to functions implicit to the committee, it was noted there was a need to interact with the membership and records keeping marketing efforts of the main club to improve effectiveness and minimize duplication of work. The motion was presented by Stan Springer called for a motion, which was made by Bruce Towhey and seconded by Mike Macintosh, and approved unanimously.
Equivalency and Wilderness Ethics need chairs.
The Climbing Division will meet January 24. There was discussion about interfacing with the member databases.
Snow Boarding: Conditional approval has been given to an snowboarding course under the leadership of James Pierson. Note was made that participants of the course needed to present that the scope of the course covered snowboarding at in-bounds resort areas only and was not intended to cover out of bounds snowboarding due to avalanche risks. Out of bounds snowboarding would avalanche training from another course not offered as part of this introductory course for in-bounds snowboarding.
Maxine Dunkelman (Branch librarian) has requested funding for new bookshelves with an estimated cost of $600, an amount that is less than the value of the work due to the planned use of volunteer labor. There was consensus that she should proceed, although a specific motion was not made.
Donation: A donation was received in the name of Luanne Austin with an indication to use it for conservation. Jim French will use the $50 donation for a conservation purpose to be determined.
Used gear sale: Plans were made for a used gear sale from 6-7 pm February 4, preceding the scrambling and climbing classes which are held in the same facility.
Note was made that the branch operating plan was due in May and the budget for the branch was due in June for presentation to the main club.
Meeting adjourned at 8:00.
Respectfully submitted,
Mark Brackebusch, Branch Secretary