Minutes of the Board Meeting of the Greater Phoenix Orienteering Club (GPHXO) Location: Boulders On Broadway, Tempe, AZ Date/Time: Jan. 9, 2016 5-6PM Participants: Glenn Haselfeld, Forest Brown, Sheryl Berling-Wolff, Charles Wolff, Jill Kyle, Erik Ringnes, Derrick Beracy, Gary Hickey, Ron Birks Agenda: - Introduction - Establish Quorum - Reports: Treasury, Membership, Permits, Equipment - Ideas For Improving The Club - Election of 2016 Officers - Proposed By-Law changes - Summary and Adjournment Minutes: Note: in the following, the term "agreed" means unanimous approval by all Board members present. Note: the entire Board was present, as were all Volunteer Officers. Derrick opened the meeting. A Quorum was established: we had 27 participants present at the meeting, nearly all of whom are paid members. Forest gave the Treasurer's report. In summary, in 2015 we brought in over $1300, plus several hundred dollars yet to come in from the Petrified Forest event. Ron Birks took an action to send the Petrified Forest events proceeds to Forest. We spent $1500 last year on two new canopies. So, our bank balance increased during 2015. Today we have $5440 in the bank. Erik talked about permits. There are basically two main permits each year he must do, Tonto and BLM. Also, he got an overcharge situation straightened out with BLM. No refund is possible, but we will no longer be overcharged in the future. We rented a differerent storage unit. It is Deer Valley II Self Storage, located in the NW valley, near the intersection of I-17 and Hwy 101. Equipment. We bought two new high-quality canopies last year. Forest found a very good product. They are easy to set up and take down, large and very stable. Also, Glenn fixed our existing contrrols and purchased additional controls. We have about 90 controls now. Also, Glenn and Ron built about 50 control stands which we used at the Petrified Forest event. Glenn presented some info about the club, 2015 summary and highlights. There was a lot of good information on the slides. They slides will be posted on the website. Some highights: - We are a small club and we want to grow and improve the club. - We need more volunteers. - Our maps need more detail and higher-resolution elevation data. We asked the membership for suggestions on how to make our events better: - Rick Eastman suggested displaying people's results instantly, on a small screen, at the event. People enjoy the quick feedback. We could do this with a spreadsheet on a PC. For now we will use our little whiteboard. - we should be specific on where we need help. Maybe course directors could plan ahead and say exactly what help they need, and when they need it. This would make it easier for people to volunteer to help. - there may be non-competive runners who would want to retrieve controls as they run the course. This could be a way to help get bags retrieved. - we will try leaving some bags out after the event, and then have the course setter lead a small mentoring clinic the next week to pick up bags and explain how the course was set. - keep doing lots of beginner's clinics - maybe host an orienteering weekend. This would be a family overnight event featuing beginner's clinics and some events - make flyers and put them in REI, Hiking Shack, etc. Gary did some of this 3 - 5 years ago, with few results. - teach a clinic at Hiking Shack (REI does their own clinics). Rick Eastman volunteered to do that. We asked for volunteers for course setting and event directors. Naomi volunteered to help on Registration Desk. Other Volunteers can contact the Board, Meet Directors and Course Setters via email or phone. We listed some incentives for volunteers, such as a mileage rebate, etc. We discussed the rewards of being a course setter. We asked for other ideas, etc. - Derek has begun keeping track of what people do (via a points system) and we will give awards/recognition at end of each year - e.g., volunteer could get fees waived for next event The Board thanked everyone for the many suggestions given at the meeting. Additional suggestions can be sent to Board members via email, etc. Jill spoke about the Cafe Press Account she set up for us. It lets people order club logo merchandise via the web. Many products are now available, whereas previously we just had T-shirts and mugs. Election of Officers for 2016. - There were nominations for the four officers, one name per post. These were recorded on the Nomination Sheet document and read to the membership. These were as follows: President: Ron Birks, Vice-President: Glenn Haselfeld, Treasurer: Forest Brown, Secretary: Gary Hickey - The Board asked the membership for additional nominations or volunteers. None were made. - Derrick moved that we conclude the election "by acclamation," meaning that because there was only one person nominated per office, and there were no further nominations or challengers, the four persons nominated for the four positions should be elected into those offices without need of performing the voting process. - This motion was seconded by two or three Board members. - The motion was voted for in the affirmative by all paid members present at the meeting. - The Election was therefore concluded. - Results: President: Ron Birks, Vice-President: Glenn Haselfeld, Treasurer: Forest Brown, Secretary: Gary Hickey By-Law modifications. Presented three changes to membership. For each of these, a vote was taken (by show of hands) to adopt or not adopt the change. All three changes were adopted by 100% of the voting members present. - Article 6.1: will be changed to remove requirement that monthly Board meetings be held. Board will hold meetings as needed. - Article 4.3: will be changed so that the given order of business for General Membership meetings is not mandated, but rather, will be a guideline. We may also try to clarify that the item called "Program" refers to having a Guest Speaker or a Special Presentation. - Article 11.1 and 11.2: we will replace all instances of "USOF" with "OUSA" to reflect our national orienteering organization's current name Thanks were given to everyone for attending and particpating. We reminded everyone about Arizona Orienteering Week, Feb. 20 -28, 2016. Events take place in Tucson Feb 20-21 and in Phoenix Feb 27-28.