MINUTES

SENIORS OUTDOORS! BOARD MEETING

January 28, 2009

Present were: Bill Cagle, Co-President; David Wright, Co-President; Dick Reitz, Treasurer; Clark Lagow, Outings Co-Chair; Dorothy Bregar, Outings Co-Chair; Letha Cagle, Hospitality; Lyle Hancock, Webmaster and E-mail; Barb Hancock, Volunteers; Carroll Groeger, Circulation; Dell Manners, SOS Representative; Mary Handrick, Evening Programs.

The meeting was called to order at 6:40 pm. Minutes of the previous meeting (October), which had been circulated to Board members, were approved.

Clark Lagow would be the voting member for the Outings Committee at this meeting.

Old Business:

· Summary of Decisions followup: All items have been appropriately followed up as agreed upon.

· Update on liability legal review: The revised liability waiver (file “Seniors Outdoors Waiver 12 18 08 clean.doc”, copy with adoption date attached) was forwarded by Dick Reitz on January 13 to the board and formally adopted by e-mail on Jan 15 by Dick Reitz, Bill Cagle, David Wright, Clark Lagow, and Mary Ann Bryant. It has been distributed to the trip bags and incorporated into the membership form.

· Attorney advice on the liability waiver. Clark Lagow will review the practical advice from the attorney, Geoff Craig, for wording to share with trip leaders.

· We agreed that Board minutes should be given a week for review and correction before the webmaster posts them on the SO! website.

New Business

· Discussion of Mary Ann Bryant’s research on liability waivers for other organizations. Mary Ann contacted SJMA, Fort Lewis College, the local archeology society, and Trails 2000. SJMA and Trails 2000 carry liability insurance for their Board of Directors. Bill Cagle will follow up with SJMA’s insurance agent to see if they might be able to arrange affordable coverage for trip leaders as well as our board and officers.

· Membership survey costs. Dick Reitz moved that our prior e-mail authorization for survey costs be increased to $225 to cover known expenses of $206.11, plus a small contingency. His motion was approved.

· Update on use of survey results and volunteers.

o Barb Hancock is our new, temporary, Volunteer Coordinator.

o She has recruited volunteers from the survey results and membership forms, with greatly expanded assistance for hospitality functions, including a group to organize a summer picnic to replace the June potluck.

o Barb has also posted descriptions of officer and committee functions on the SO! Web site along with names of volunteers and backups for club activities.

o We will try having new member orientation before the March and September potlucks.

o Barb will contact members who expressed an interest in supporting a newsletter; if there is still active interest, David Wright will convene the group to help them get organized.

o Barbara Bush has agreed to call new members to welcome them to the club, answer questions, and encourage participation.

o Committee chairs were reminded to review their sections of the survey results for ideas.

o A new “suggestion box” will be added to the SO! Web site, with submissions directed to the co-presidents

o Clark Lagow will serve as backup e-mail coordinator to Lyle and Barb Hancock

· Leadership turnover. Bill and Letha Cagle are going to relinquish their current roles as Co-president and Hospitality Chair, respectively, in June and will be sorely missed. Dick Reitz is ready for us to recruit a new Treasurer, but will continue to serve if none is found. Barb Hancock plans to turn over her new position of Volunteer Coordinator in June, as well. We need to actively recruit replacements. We also agreed that we should attempt to stagger turnover in officer and committee positions as much as possible to ensure continuity.

· SO! participation in a fundraiser hike for the American Cancer Society. While this is a worthy cause, there are an overwhelming number of worthy causes vying for our attention and support. The ACS contact will be encouraged to attend a meeting to solicit volunteers during the pre-meeting social period and to provide materials for the information table.

· Restricting SO! activities to outdoors activities. We agreed that the Outings Schedule would be limited to outdoor activities, but that we will continue to utilize the new “Other Activities” schedule on the web site for indoor activities. Members wishing to list other activities will be encouraged to submit their listings to the Webmaster, following the format of the existing schedules.

· Wednesday Wanderers. Both coordinators of the WW hikes have resigned. Barb Hancock has identified two new coordinators, Chris Weihage and Lydine Hannula, and is working with them to identify and clarify hike descriptions, which will continue to be published in the Outings schedule. Despite the expansion of WW hikes to include a number of Moderate hikes, there was general consensus that we should minimize formalities for these hikes. The Outings Committee will work with the new coordinators to emphasize the importance of maintaining safe hikes and following the posted guidelines.

Committee Reports:

· Hospitality Report: With Barb Hancock’s help, the committee structure has been reorganized with more, smaller tasks than in the past, and positions are largely filled. Dell Manners offered thanks for the expanded hospitality offerings during the five years that Letha has been committee chair.

· Membership Report: Nancy Mead reported 359 paid members including 97 SOS members as of this date – down from 409 members in January 2008. There may have been a slight increase in renewal rates as we reached the date for half-price membership.

· Treasurer Report: Dick Reitz distributed the 2nd quarter financial report. We are at 92% of budgeted income and have spent 37% of our expense budget in the first half of the year. The biggest discrepancy from budgeted figures is the cost of New Member Packets, which appears to have been under-budgeted by at least 50%.

· Program Report: Mary Handrick reported that the Program Committee is well along on filling the schedule for the year. She also reported some logistics problems due to turnover in Rec Center staff.

· SOS Report: Dell Manners reported that the Singles’ activities are going well and that they are relieved that they are not restricted to outdoor activities.

· Outings Report: Clark Lagow reported their next meeting is February 25.

The next meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, April 22, 2009, at 5:30pm and will include a pot luck dinner. Location will be at Lyle and Barb Hancock’s home.

Dick motioned to adjourn; Clark seconded; the motion was carried. The meeting was adjourned at 8:30 pm.

Respectfully submitted,

David Wright, acting Secretary