Minutes of the General Meeting of the Greater Phoenix Orienteering Club (GPHXO) Location: Boulders On Broadway, Tempe, AZ Date/Time: January 25, 2019 7-9PM Agenda ====== - Introduction - Establish Quorum - Info About The Club - Election of 2019 Officers - Reports: Treasury, Membership, Permits, Equipment - New Business - New Event Sites/Outreach/Important Upcoming Events - Bag Rigging Proposal - Event Fee Proposal - Summary and Adjournment Minutes ====== Note: in the following, the term "agreed" means unanimous approval by all Board members present. Ron Birks opened the meeting. A Quorum was established: we had 5 board members present, and 17 total attendees. General Info About The Club: - Ron spoke about Club Goals and the various types of orienteering events we offer. Election of Officers for 2019: - For 2019 the Board recommended that we keep the same set of Club Officers as in 2018. - Ron Birks opened the floor for nominations persons to serve on the Board and/or in Volunteer positions. - There were no nominations or volunteers. - Gary proposed that the existing set of officers be re-elected "by acclamation." - This motion was seconded by Forest and Erik. - The motion was voted for in the affirmative by all present at the meeting. - The Election was therefore concluded. - Results: President: Ron Birks, Vice-President: Glenn Haselfeld, Treasurer: Forest Brown, Secretary: Gary Hickey Volunteer Officer position appointees remained the same as 2018 also. Charles Wolff is no longer producing the Newsletter. We need a volunteer to assume the Newsletter Editor position. Ron has a new tool that can be used to do it. It is different than the toolset Charles used. Another important form of volunteership is the taking on of course setting and meet director duties. We added approximately 11 new course setters this past year. This enabled us to hold more events. Last year we put on about 30 events. Forest gave the Treasurer's report. The club has sufficient funding. There is $3253.85 in the bank acct. There is $347.31 in the Pay Pal account, $247.31 of which will be transferred to the bank acct at the next monthly transfer date (Forest does that once a month). All monies from recent events have been deposited. No major expenditures are foreseen for the near future. Gary said last year's meeting minutes were approved and delivered to the club officers. Ron will put them on the website and in our electronic archive. Erik talked about permits. He obtained the necessary permits from BLM and Tonto National Forest for our 2018 events. Ron Birks handled permits for events held in the City of Phoenix and Maricopa County and Coconino Natl Forest and the US National Forest. Glenn handles permits from the National Forest Service in the Prescott area. BLM may not require a permit in 2019 if we can get an authorization letter. Erik also kept us up to date with insurance certificates. A new certificate needs to be obtained each year for each event site. We put on several Beginner's Clinics last year, and more are planned for 2019. New Business: Ron listed some new Event areas: new maps, etc. Recently Jack Kelly approached Ron about creating maps for Girl Scouts to use. Ron is going to make maps of four Girl Scout camp areas in Arizona. The club will work with the Girl Scouts to deliver training. We need volunteers to man our booth at the AZ Game and Fish Outdoor Expo Mar 23-24, 2019. Two to three volunteers per day. Ron proposed a new rigging method for our bags that should make bags easy to fold. This would separate the bags from the hanging string/identifier tag assembly. This was seen as a good idea. Ron purchased materials and is going to create a few bags that we can try out. Jack Kelly created an electronic timing system which records each runner's start and finish times. He created control and tabulation software too. The system produces a report of elapsed times, etc. The system works like a building access control system, with each runner scanning their assigned plastic RFID card on a card reader. We tried it at the Buckeye Hills/Robbins Butte events and it worked very well. Jack donated the system to the club, including the card reader. Ron and he plan to improve and possibly expand the system. We thank Jack Kelly very very much! The electronic timing system would require us to have a laptop and a power source at the race site. We'd have to buy a generator because many race sites do not have grid power. Ron noted that when checking runners in, race directors have had difficulty knowing who is a club member and which members owe their dues. This leads to confusion when collecting fees. And, most members do not remember when they paid their dues. We would benefit from having a current list of members available on each race day. Ron proposed a new membership fee schedule. We'd offer two plans to members: 1) Member, Annual renewal fee (Ind $10 family $12) plus $2 for extra maps. Discount for pre-register. 2) Member, O-Pass. Annual renewal $60/$90 unlimited events and maps. Discount for pre-register. Also, Non-members would have their own fee schedule. Discount for pre-register. This proposal was discussed. It is more complicated than the current fee schedule. We have to think about it more and identify any confusing situations that will arise. For example, as Telia pointed out, what would the race fees be for a group containing a member family and a non-member single person? etc etc. This is still a proposal at this time. Ron will continue to refine it. This proposal would require us to obtain and use a better memberhsip database system/tool. Sheryl continues to maintain the list of paid members using the existing method and tools, and she reports related info to OUSA. Ron wrote a large course setter's document. Dan Yamashiro read it and updated it. Telia has read it too. The floor was opened for Questions and Answers. This was concluded quickly. The Board thanked everyone for attending and particpating. Additional suggestions can be sent to the club or to Board members via email, etc. These Minutes submitted for review and approval by Gary Hickey, Secretary, GPHXO, on Dec 29, 2019.