Approved Minutes from 1/10/2010 Izaak Walton League

[SusanHalvorsen]

Prairie State Canoeists
Board Meeting
Izaak Walton League HouseJanuary 9, 2010


Agenda:
Approve Minutes Old Business
Treasurer’s Report IPC Dues
New Members New Business
Announcements: PayPal
Reports/Committees ACA Instructor Requirements
Membership Canoecopia
Webmasters Spring Dinner
Newsletter (Display, email)
Training Next Meeting Date

Called to order: At 10:30am by President, Tom Croak

Board Members (and assistants) Present:
Tom Croak, President Dave Watts, Vice President
Susan Halvorsen Marcy Fahr, Treasurer
Melinda Tury, Secretary Steve LaPorte
Mike Rzepka John Andersen
Jeff Andresen Steve Shapiro
Brad DeArk Bill Kessler
Regina Watts Milt Levenberg
Vic Hurtowy Sherri Graham
Tom Lindblade Steve Sinderson

Board Members (and assistants) Absent:
Michael Collins

Motion made to Approve Minutes from November 14, 2009 (Riverside Receptions) made by Tom Lindblade and seconded by Brad DeArk. There were no corrections. Motion passed.

Motion made to Approve Minutes from November 14, 2009 Post Dinner (Riverside Receptions) made by Tom Lindblade and seconded by Brad DeArk There were no corrections. Motion passed.

Treasurer’s Report
Marcy Fahr, Treasurer, presented the Treasurer’s Report. Discussion followed. Motion made to approve the Treasurer’s report by Tom Lindblade, seconded by Brad DeArk. Motion passed.

Committee Reports

Newsletter
Bill Kessler, Newsletter Editor, passed around a sample of the newsletter for Trip Reports. He suggested a new display banner for use at Canoecopia and other events. Carol Severson is helping Bill with the display. Photo stands, which can be used to hold the upper bar of the banner, run around $70 each. Bill asked for the go-ahead so we could have this available for Canoecopia. Susan Halvorsen suggested a length of 8’. Tom Croak suggested 6’ will be adequate. Marcy said there might be $100 of wiggle room in the budget. Sherri said that this item would be amortized for many years and not a recurring budget item. Tom Lindblade moved that $100 max be spent for the banner. Seconded by Mike Rzepka. Motion was amended to $200 by Mike. Motion passed.

Bill talked about going to a multi-color brochure—this would have more impact. He’s priced around $350 for 2000 copies. John Zigler, an interested party in attendance, noted that it would be very expensive for the impact of what the brochure is trying to accomplish. Consensus of the board—it’s not worth the cost. Vic Hurtowy suggested that the brochure would not be time-sensitive if the schedule of events wasn’t included, and then it would make more sense. Tom Lindblade moved that we stay with the current brochure. Sherri seconded. There was more discussion. Motion passed.

Tom Lindblade mentioned that Carol Severson is doing a video presentation about the PSC. She is looking for events where we can promote PSC. She needs volunteers to show up for these presentations. Tom Lindblade has created a video about PSC.

Website
Milt Levenberg requested that contact info for Sherri be listed as Webmaster on the newsletter. The Domain name and host name are not the same. Milt will try to get them linked up before it comes due again in November. Hosting service is now $10/month. GoDaddy is only $4/month, but doesn’t provide all the services. Milt is exploring other hosts. He recommended staying with our current hose for the year for continue looking for an “industrial strength” host. Marcy said she has not received a bill for the hosting cost. Jeff Andresen asked if the new logo is on the website. He suggested “Canoe and Kayak” stand out on our website and signage. Tom Croak asked for a motion on the web hosting expense. Milt wanted this to be a budget item and not voted on individually each year. Sherri and Milt will work on setting the web page up so “Paddling Clubs” search will bring up PSC. Milt mentioned ad search in Google, but it can get expensive—it costs per click. Tom Lindblade asked if we know how many hits the site gets.

Membership
There are currently about 205 members per Treasurer, Marcy, and maybe 13 more. Melinda will look into printing postage at home through the computer to send out new member packets for a cost saving. Sherri moved to accept all new members. Mike seconded. Motion passed.

Training
Steve LaPorte said schedules for classes have been set up except for whitewater. We will have kayak training in Moving Water II. PSC lost Conant as a training site. Steve Shapiro said we are on the list for next year but got bumped this year. Vic suggested Northeastern or Northwestern, Main South Park High School in Park Ridge. Vic will look into and report to Steve as soon as possible. Melinda suggested indoor pools at the Park Districts and asked that they be centrally located. Tom Lindblade said we don’t want to lose Conant if this is only a one year thing. Steve LaPort said rescue clinic with kayaks and canoes is in the planning stage. Paul Klonowski is certified for River Camping. IEW/ICW Training is coming up for canoes and none for kayaks due to price, which can run $600-700 per person. Only have one Instructor/Trainer for canoes and none for kayaks. Reimbursement for mileage of instructors was brought up. Tom Lindblade suggested this should be discussed under New Business.

Old Business

Email Announcements—still not have been resolved. Milt asked about the tax status of the club. Vertical Response is free if 501c3, which we’re not. Tom Lindblade was asked if PSC can piggyback off IPC, and he agreed. Steve asked what happens when membership applications comes in. Sherri, Milt and Melinda will be working on getting email out next month. Tom Lindblade needs updated email addresses, when known.

Stan Popelar is now doing the trip tallies. Sherri is working on Stan’s ability to load info up to the website directly.

New Business
Tom Croak asked for any comments about using PayPal for membership. Brad is against using PayPal, due to security breaches at PayPal. Tom Croak asked how to collect liability forms and what benefit would we get going through PayPal. Milt Levenberg said PayPal charges 3-1/2%-4%. Steve Senderson said there would have to be an electronic signature on the form. The benefit is an instant follow-through of the purchase when on the website. Tom Lindblade mentioned the convenience might be worth looking into. He suggested checking with CASCA at the end of the year to ask about their experiences. Susan mentioned her church is using credit card acceptance twice a year for planned fundraising. She also mentioned that the liability form as part of the membership is not required because everybody signs up for a trip and the liability form is part of the signup form. John Ziegler suggested coming back to the next meeting with the costs. Marcy asked where the costs get billed. Bill asked what would happen to the signed form. Milt and Sherri tried to explain. Tom Croak asked for volunteers. Steve Sinderson will look for info on PayPal. Sherri will look at how the website will work.

Steve LaPorte said that ACA instructors as of January 1, 2010, must have CPR and appropriate first aid training in addition to their other certification. The instructor will have to send in a copy of the certification with their application to ACA. Classes can be taken through the Red Cross for about $70 each which will cover two years. He knows a fireman that will perform certification training for half of that. Steve requested that any instructor who has been a trainer in the last year be given reimbursement for training up to $35. Ten people were trainers last year. He thinks it might actually be $100-200 liability to the budget as not everyone will apply for reimbursement. Sherri said the cost of training expenses should be passed on to the trainees through the class fees. She suggested $20-25 per class. Brad proposed recommended trainer charge $20 fee per class with $10 going back to the trainer with no reimbursement at the end of the year. Steve LaPorte said $5 still has to be collected for ACA insurance on top of that. For a family of two, that would be $50 and a family of 4 would be $100. More discussion followed. Steve LaPorte will have to address anyone who is an aide in training and gets certification later. Tom Lindblade moved to reimburse instructors up to $35 for first aid and CPR training for a two-year certification. Vic seconded. Tom Lindblade suggested Steve LaPort should manage filling a class with aides if class is not pull. Motion passed.

Canoecopia
Bill is working on booth decorations. Tom Croak asked for someone to setup volunteers. Tom Lindblade talked about the social event. Carol Sorenson is helping. It will be between 5:30 and 7:00 on Saturday of Canoecopia. 7 clubs have already signed up to join us. Rutabaga is supplying pizza. Regina Watts volunteered for the signups. Marcy said we didn’t get reimbursed last year. Marcy will email Rutabaga again.

Spring Dinner
Tom Croak asked for comments about holding a potluck at Izaak Walton again. Parking is limited. We could use both the up and downstairs. Mike suggested people bring in 5-6 pictures to talk about trips from the last year. John Ziegler needs a date for the League house. Tom Croak asked for a volunteer.

Treasurer
Sherri moved that Marcy will research to determine most responsible way to handle the CD rollover and authorize her to move forward. Seconded by John Andresen. Motion passed. Marcy brought up the double-paid dues. Brad suggested putting a notice in the newsletter saying that if you think you’ve double-paid, contact Marcy. Tom Croak suggested that Marcy send an email and if they don’t respond, it’s a donation. Steve LaPorte suggested a personal call. Marcy said this will take a lot of time. Tom suggested March email first.

Sherri moved that $100 be given to the Izaak Walton League. John seconded. Motion passed.

Meeting adjourned at 12:18pm


Tom Croak, President