May 2014 Board Meeting Minutes – Washington Recreational River Runners

Call to order @ 7:05
1. Board Present: David Elliott, Nancy Douty, Jason Cohen, Brenan Filippini
2. Directors at Large: Adam Schierenbeck
3. Members: Pat Sumption, Rebecca Post
Review minutes and approve
1. approved
Review agenda
Officer’s reports
1. Chairperson/President – David Elliott
  1. Membership 140 (last month 147)
  2. No new members at the Green River cleanup (didn’t put out forms until mid-way through the BBQ)
  3. 21 about to expire, 18 expired in the last 90 days.
2. VP River Ops – Brenan Filippini
  1. See agenda below
3. VP Business – Jason Cohen
  1. See agenda below
4. VP Finance – Nancy Douty
  1. Balance in checking $6281.10, stuff still outstanding though
  2. Nothing about CPR and flip practice
  3. Owe money to David and Mary still
  4. Money from Rebecca deposited, still needs to be entered into the spreadsheet.
  5. Money for food and $135 for shirts deposited
  6. Brennan reimbursed for camping (except for White Salmon which we pay at the event), haven’t submitted for the prizes yet
Standing Committee Reports
1. Waterlog – Brian Vogt
2. River Watch – Chris Herman
3. Safety and Education – Jason Cohen
  1. Have brain dump from Pixie, planning on same 1 day class as last year. Targeting a date in June
4. Communications – Adam Schierenbeck
  1. WRRR forums on website, will promote them in the newsletter
  2. Put out message about the Rendezvous
5. Membership – Mary Koncikowski
6. Programs/Volunteers – Jim Johnson
7. WRRR Wear – Nate Dickison
Special Business
1. Nominate and vote for Rebecca Post to fill empty Director position
  1. David Nominates Rebecca Post, Nancy 2nds. Vote:
    1. David: yes
    2. Nance: yes
    3. Brenan: yes
    4. Jason: yes
    5. Adam: yes
  2. Approved
Old Business
1. Flip Practice roundup
  1. Good event, little bit of rain, but not bad.
  2. About 15 or more people.
2. Green River cleanup roundup
  1. Everything went great
  2. What was the deal with the red cones?
    1. Trying new things, marking spots to pick up trash until some people picked up the cones thinking they were trash. Going to mark the cones, but didn’t have the sharpie. Just did word of mouth, need to do better communication next year. Announce next year and better signage.
  3. Didn’t put out the WRRR bucks.
  4. Throw bag golf went well at the pick nick. Went on for about 2 hours.
  5. Probably biggest boating turnout, about 224 registered volunteers (lots at the BBQ – roughly checking membership sheet, but probably need to have someone fulltime checking next year). Least trash (< 1 cubic yard), most rain, and highest flow.
  6. Ideas for next year
    1. Permanent kiosk at the park with list of years/volunteers and aerial map. Rangers are for it, so Brennan and Jay will work on it.
    2. 2015 camping
      1. Shangri-La
        
        Looks like we can get it, but should we pay a little money so we get it? As long as we are before May, we should be good. We just need to call them frequently next year.
        
        Giving us Halloween weekend as a make-up.
      2. Kanasket-Palmer
        
        We thought we had the group camp a few months ahead of time, but there was a mistake they donated it to the girl scouts that same weekend.
        
        They gave us 8 spaces this year, and then 7 more when we raised a stink. There were plenty of sites, so remained empty all weekend but some may have stayed away because we didn’t have the group camp.
3. Pat Sumption – wants 10 minutes to speak
  1. Jay, Brennan, and Pat agree we need to do something spectacular for the 30th Anniversary
  2. Pat organizes the ground crew and wants to coordinate with WRRR better next year. Pat wants to hand off ground crew duties. Ground crews are the best way to get the most trash. If members have people in groups (scouts, churches, etc.), contact Pat help coordinate. Best if we have someone who lives near the river for more credibility. Let us know who has helped in the past, maybe Volunteers of Washington since they started the event. Pat looking for intern/community helper to try to get paper notes into list to use for cleanup and city of Tacoma. David suggest we start this in January, but we could do some stuff now. Brian going to add pictures about the cleanup, but good to get articles from different people. Pat handed out pamphlets to try to get personal stories about their experience, but none back yet.
  3. The FOG agreement with Tacoma is up for renegotiation again.
4. Wenatchee Rendezvous status
  1. All good. Still want to find 2 people for membership, 2 people for raffle tickets, 1 person for potluck time (6:30) reminder (Nancy/Randy volunteer, can do membership also if now one else volunteers). Usually get these at the event, but nice to have these ahead of time.
  2. Not sure about the Hyrdro-flasks for prizes, but still should be okay.
5. White Salmon status
  1. Aaron and Kat are trip leaders (want to do more trip leader model going forward so river ops can take care of loose ends).
  2. Camping cost is based on head count, non-members will need to pay.
6. Poker Run planning
  1. Need helpers for River Ops
  2. Jason to take care of the cards
  3. Any worry about the rangers being there ahead of time because last time they warned that we are not allowed to land and setup along the river. Not too worried about it.
  4. Are cash prizes budget separate from the prize budget? Yes it is. Usually have cash from the hand sales, but we can bring cash. Do we have the laminated cash prizes from last year? David to plan on making new ones unless he hears otherwise (he has them already)
  5. 5 poker stations, 1 at put-in and the others along the river.
    1. Meet ahead of time so they can launch at 9.
    2. Idea to do appetizers at each station, but they are pretty hectic.
    3. Try to bring back lunch if we get volunteers.
    4. Brennan, Nancy, David, Rebecca are tentative station volunteers.
    5. Do we need to write down hands
  6. Can we do something for the volunteers (aprons have been done in the past)?
7. Tieton Rally discussion
  1. David talked to Brenda and Bruce from OWA at the Green River Clean-up
  2. Actually get 5 toilets (1 for Big Wave Dave, 1 for OWA, 3 for WRRR) this year.
  3. Anything special like the costume contest we did a few years ago?
8. Review Waterlog ads and sponsorship program
  1. Have the same ads, no one has expired (Jim and Casey are updated). River Booty considering sponsor, David to hook them up with Brennan
9. Stickers
  1. 18 small @ $2.30 – charge $5 each. 5 large @ $10 – charge $20.
  2. Will have them for the Rendezvous
10. Hydro-flasks
  1. Not sure on the status, need to talk to Nate.
New Business
1. 2015 Proposed Calendar – get it done now so we can start reserving
  1. Cedar New Years – Jan 1
  2. Tilton – Feb 14-16
  3. April Flip Practice – Apr 19 (Easter is Apr 5)
  4. Shangri-La Cleanup – Apr 25
  5. Green River Cleanup – May 2
  6. Wenatchee Rendezvous – June 6
  7. Sauk Overnighter – June 27
  8. White Salmon – July 18 (Nancy – make sure it doesn’t conflict with Arlington Fly-in)
  9. Poker Run – Aug 15 (Nancy – make sure it doesn’t conflict with market anniversary event)
  10. Tieton – Sep 12
  11. Rogue – Sep 24
  12. Sauktoberfest – Oct 24
  13. Cispus is not here because we don’t control / get the dates till January (contact Eric and Gina), great entry level event.
2. Cable Drop work this weekend – May 16/17
  1. Found out a little late from Phil, finishing up some more steps and guard rails this weekend. David not sure where Brennan is putting the events, they are not up on the WRRR web site (or Facebook), just on Yahoo groups. Will run the river after if it isn’t too high. Will be the only real legal put in except for the confluence. At the bridge in index is mostly private property. Roomer is there is an old park that could be developed as a put in and another one on the Sauk at Bachman park (money to put in more facilities) or maybe the mill.
  2. Brennan is okay with his pinky email posted on Facebook.
3. President and VP River Ops need to contact the President of OWA to discuss plans for the Tieton
  1. See above
4. Patches and more stickers
  1. David requests permission to use the WRRR text logo to create iron on patches. Brennan 2nds the motion. No one opposes, approved!
  2. The stickers Jason is getting are fairly expensive, but we have done cheap ones to give out in the past. David looked into getting more, 2×3 water proof stickers @ $.45 if we get 250. Can use them to logo the prizes. David will get together a quote to talk about next meeting.
5. Waterlog articles needed by 5/20
  1. VP River Ops
    1. White Salmon full article
    2. Poker Run teaser
  2. Need to talk about the overnighter.
    1. 4 years ago we got feedback about more trips and overnighters. Need to make it clear it is an overnight on the river.
    2. Need groover and cooking gear coordinated.
    3. May need to limit the size of the group, but can split into pods.
    4. David, Brennan, and Jason to work on the article over email, and can do more planning at the Rendezvous.
Announcements and good of the order
1. Middle-middle on Friday, should be a decent flow (about 2800, but could be higher).
2. Pat writing 2 things for the newsletter, will send them to Brennan and Adam for review, and then Brian as text (or email)
Adjourn @ 8:14