MINUTES

RIRSC Board of Directors Meeting

4 March 2008

Aldrich’s, 3:30 p.m.

Attendees: Roger, Mari, Holly, Kate, Peggy, Janet, Krist, Erica (Sally and Jim arrive late)

Absent: Gordon

Conventions:

Action Items in Italics

Motions and Votes in Bold

1.  Approval of Minutes of 2/8/2008

Roger motions to accept the Minutes, Kate seconds. All approve.

2.  Treasurer’s Report--Janet

We review income and expenses for the month, including MSC auction, US Rowing (coaching classes) and memberships.  Discuss the club buying US Rowing memberships for Erica and Lara (for taking coaching clinic).  Janet moves that we submit one rowing membership (second one is free due to group deal).  Kate seconds this.  All approve.  Roger notes that the course was very effective, including rowing, safety, rowing wear, rigging, etc.  The course also included master’s coaching, and included a manual.  There are different methods of rowing, clinic taught “natural method.”  Is there a standard way we could adopt as a club?  No, there will always be variation among members. 

Roger reports on Avalon clinic expense for Pope Marine.  This is on for weekend of May 30-31 and June 1, so Roger had to reserve the building.

Peggy motions to accept the Treasurer’s report.  Kate seconds. All approve.

3   Budget --Roger

A suggestion is made to have a pro-rated scale for joining.  If they join by a certain time, they would pay reduced amount, and the rate would go up with time. 

Our current membership is $200.  One suggestion is that if they pay by April 30, it’s $200.  If it’s after this date, go up to $225 or $250.  Also, right now over if they join August-September, it’s $150.  Do we want to raise this to $175?

Should we raise the membership fees?  Potential reasons are more coaching, higher gas prices, etc.  Krist suggests we do the budget and develop the fees based on this analysis.  One option is to make the class the same cost as joining, but this penalizes people who end up not wanting to row after the class.  Green Lake structures it that their novice class is not too much, but after that the fees are higher for joining.  Potentially look at it like a monthly fee: for example, 7 months/year to row at $30/month is $210.

Another question is what the pro-rated fee schedule is as the summer progresses.

Do we have an estimate of the number of memberships?  We don’t have an upper limit.  Last year our membership estimate was too high.

Holly jumps into Education Committee report, to get at this question of memberships.  The EC suggests the following:

·         After March meeting, have a video night with coach there, and to discuss what we see, and have people be able to ask questions, in a casual atmosphere.

·         Sponsor an April sculling day, take out the quads and do a sculling class for a day at minimal cost, with maybe Lara, Steve Chapin, Cheryl Goerger, or Michele Wzga.

·         Offer a Refresher Sweep course in May.  One idea is to charge $50, paid up front with membership.  Positive feedback for this idea. 

·         Discuss the possibility of putting together a membership packet with membership fee, waivers, refresher course information, questionnaire asking when you want to row, etc.  Discussion ensues on whether we want to put a packet together and get it in the mail, or just have available at the meeting.

·         Mari has agreed to continue her sign-up method for Mon-Sat rowing, so people don’t have to be part of a team, there is regular rowing every day (twice/day Mon-Fri, once on Saturday).  Have to work out coxswains and launch drivers for this system.  Include this on Saturday, rather than Open Row.

·         Novice classes with about 12 sessions, to start mid-late May.  Lara not available in May, so they suggested starting first of June.  Perhaps we can find alternate coaches for the first May class.  Suggestion for June novice start after school gets out, mid-June, perhaps two classes simultaneously and focus on intermediate classes.  This might depend on if we are getting a lot of requests.

·         Potentially add sculling classes in June-July (Diane Roberts, Cheryl Goerger, etc.).

March meeting info - Erica also suggests having committee sign-up sheets at the March meeting.  We already have an RSVP list of knowing how is coming to the meeting.

Holly needs a new contract.  Can we use this coaching budget for other people?  Last year her budget was $3750, only used $2500.  Do we need to increase this coaching budget?  Holly will review the coaching/classes budget and get back to Janet.

We still have money in the bank, because we have not yet purchased a boat, and have not used the money earmarked for the Junior’s Program.  So we may not necessarily need to raise the membership.  Krist suggests we figure out how much we need for coaching, and then have the class fees support this budget, and the membership fees cover everything else. 

Erica has an idea: people who donate coaching time can choose to reserve the money that we would have paid for a specific category, such as the junior’s program, equipment purchase, etc.  General positive feedback at this idea.

Should the money for teaching the rowing classes come out of the coaching budget or out of rowing class expenses?   We decide that it should come out of class fees, not coaching budget. 

WT wants to come back to Lake Leland (singles).  This was a popular event last year, but expensive.  One idea is to use some of the budget to subsidize people who want to go.

Do we need to have the budget ready for pre-meeting to develop March meeting packets, or just by the meeting?  It is suggested to have packets ready by the meeting, and for those people who do not pay at March meeting, then send out this packet.

Janet needs a deadline on input from expense input.  Roger is working on move to Cuppola house, so he is working on budget for moving everything, and storage facility or container for storing our gear, short and long-term.  We need this plan for at least two years.  He has calls in to find the container for long-term. 

Decision: budget inputs to Janet by next week March 11.

Roger also talks about finding a place to park the whaler. 

Holly notes that we probably won’t do weekend clinics again.

Janet thinks this is not the year to bump up membership, because of the uncertainty on the NWMC move. Also, when the new NWMC building is up, then there will probably be a jump in the cost then.  General agreement with this.

Kate was thinking about getting together an evaluation form to give to novice rowers perhaps two weeks each class, to be used as feedback for the Education Committee.  General positive reaction about this idea.  Johanna is also working on concept of class packet to be given out at the beginning of the class.

Jim talks about he and John Collins looking at boats on Monday to Vancouver.  One boat is a Vespoli similar to the Lorna for $4500.  Three Hudson quads will be available around June 1, they will evaluate these.  There are also Pocock quads that were first listed at $1500 OBO.  Although they need some work, Jim proposes that if they can pick up a Pocock for $500 that is in decent shape, we should jump on it.   If the riggers are in tough shape, we can use the riggers from the Buffalo.  Holly warns that they should look carefully at rigger mounts, because once they are soft, it’s not worth it.  If they are in reasonable shape, do we want them to get it?

The Board already approved $4500, so they are asking to bump this up to $5000 for bargaining leverage.

Janet motions that we authorize raising the spending ceiling from $4500 to $5000 for buying a boat or boats.  Kate seconds.  All in favor.

Note there may be other expenses (sales tax, import duty, other hidden expenses), plus expenses to travel there and bring boats back.  We may need to add another set of oars to the budget.

4   March Meeting

The March meeting is at the Fire Hall at 5:30 on March 25.  First we will watch Safety Video, then go over budget and vote on it.  Then we will offer a quick summary of what we will be offering this year.  We should have Committee sign-up sheets there.  At the meeting, we will set up a table right up front, hand out the package. People write will a check for membership and dinner (can be one check).  We need to make sure if we know who paid for dinner.  Kate and Sally and two other people will be handling that job, probably need 4 people.  Idea is suggested to give out tickets for dinner?  General approval, but some people will have to pay at the restaurant who will not attend dinner (for example, spouses).  No resolution on this.

Roger has an idea for a rowing fashion show idea, perhaps rowing clothes, PFDs, etc.  Can we do this at Laurettes?  Possible, but kind of crowded.  Many separate conversations ensue.  No apparent decision on this idea.

Peggy asks what we need to do to prepare packets and membership information? Kate reports that we will take the packet from last year, change date on renewal form, adding the part about the late fee, and update the information.  She notes we had a letter last year about what the club accomplished the previous year. 

Kate will update the renewal form

Roger will do the summary of what we did last year.

Peggy will do what we are offering this year, working with Holly.

Should we do the Questionnaire/Survey based on what John Collins had done before?  Main interest we have is in how many people want to row, when they want to row, etc., for Mari to work with.  No clear action item on this.

Kate and Janet will update the Waivers.

We decide to eliminate the pay per row option.  We will still have the Student rate.

Kate will need final decision on fee for the year, and penalty for discount.  Janet and Krist will be getting together to finalize the budget after inputs are in.

Suggestion is to estimate 80 people for number of memberships.  Janet suggests talking to Diane on renewal and potential new members.  Sally will look through Diane’s information on memberships.

Peggy will send digital forms to Kate (they are also available on the internet).

At the March meeting, we need to browbeat people to join committees.  Suggestion is made that the Committee chair will stand up and talk about each committee.  Do we have time for this?  How about a table near where they come in for sign up sheets?  Generally this has not been that successful in the past, except for social committees (Erica).  The committee sign-ups should be on membership renewal form.  We can have Clipboards at the dinner where we can recruit people, useful to limit the choices, and  making sure people sign up right away.  No clear decision on this.

Jim talks about boat maintenance.  We also need to browbeat people to help with maintaining boats this year, as they are suffering from use.  He suggest we tear apart rigging and take it apart and clean each seat; it makes a huge difference on how boats work.  Jim suggests we get people to sign up, assign them a seat, and then they are responsible for that seat.  General agreement on this.

Peggy has to leave, Sally submits the following minutes.

There was a little more on the discussion on getting members to get more involved in the care and maintenance of the boats.

Jim thanked the Board for the two membership donations to the Marine Science Center Auction last weekend. They went for close to the actual price.

Rounding up things for the March 25th meeting: 

There will be a Board meeting on Tuesday, March 18th at 3:30 pm at Aldrich’s to finalize the budget.

On March 25^th, those who are helping with sign ups will set up at the Fire Hall at 4:30. Sally will call Grace and Diane to help.

Erica said Sue Dandridge will be coming to the dinner as a guest not a speaker.

Krist reports on information from the Internal Revenue Service on what we need to do to set up a 501 organization.  The board briefly reviews the information, and the subject is tabled until next month.

Next months meeting will be on Tuesday, April 8th 3:30 pm at Aldrich’s. Erica would like on the agenda to discuss the JCC school student and safety. Erica thought we could discuss the membership book Theresa Lawson and she put together a couple of years ago.