Minutes from the Wednesday, February 28th, 2007 Planning Meeting

Club Tread Planning Meeting
Swan Lake Nature Sanctuary
February 28, 2007
Approximately 30 attendees.

Meeting opened the meeting at 7.35pm.

Prior to the business meeting, Russell led 20 minutes of brainstorming ideas to increase membership (see Appendix 1).

Executive Reports

President: Tom Gore

• Over view for new members – we have four planning meetings a year.
• Thanks to all the passing executive and welcome to the new executive.
  • Pam Renny for many years of diligent secretariat service
  • Penny Codding for recently filling in as secretary
  • Russel Page - past past president
  • Chris Vardy – past president
  • Leo Vezina - vice-president
  • Joyce Vezina - Keeping Track editor
  • Dana Waite and Liz Williams for the Xmas party.
• Update on CRD Sea-to-Sea Regional park reserve planning process: (see http://www.crd.bc.ca/parks/)
  • CRD did not want help or money from Club Tread to deal with storm damage (liability issues).
  • Tom will attend a focus-group workshop on March 20 as part of the park planning process.
  • The process is being fast-tracked and may result in changes to current non-vehicular use bylaw.
  • Potential uses vary from low-impact ecosystem conservation to mountain biking and ATV use.
  • Ideas around how best to provide input to CRD Parks were discussed.
  • Club members are encouraged to send comments and ideas using Canada Post rather than email.
  • It was suggested that executive come up with a few suggestions and email to members ASAP.

Survey of Members’ wants and needs:

• George Welsh is leading the survey design.
• Sue W and Bette Anderson volunteered to join this small committee.

Safety Committee:

• Executive have received a number of proposals from the Safety Committee.
• Tom thanked the Committee for its work.
• The Committee is now disbanded.

The Club Projector:

• A ‘projector use’ policy has been passed by the executive.
• The chief provision is that it is for Club use only, not private use.
• An alternate keeper will be designated in the event that Fred Trudell (current custodian) is out of town.

MEC:

• MEC has offered to host a display about the Club and has valuable prizes!

Emergency Drivers:

• George is establishing a roster of drivers for emergency cases, such as car breakdown or injury of driver.
• Drivers will be paid the government rate which has been confirmed by Liz to be 47c/km.
• 6-12 people are needed for the list - George currently has four.
• Bette Anderson volunteered to be on the list.
• It was suggested that this list should be on the back of the waiver form.

Tuscany Villa:

• Tom told us that a Tuscan villa for 24 is available for $10K per week, or $400 per person, and that interested persons should keep this in mind for a year or two’s time.
• Tom also spoke of recent Club trips to Tuscany (2005) and the UK (2006).

Secretary - Liz Williams:

• Liz provided a summary of November 22, 2006 Planning meeting minutes

MSC: Approve the summary of the November 22/06 minutes.

Treasurer - Susan Kirk:

• Susan handed out banking summary sheets showing the Club’s net worth is $5,630.03.
• Tom requested that members move to approve the budget once a year (not quarterly updates).

Past President - Chris Vardy:

• Assembly of all the Club’s policies is moving forward but not too fast.

Vice President - George Welsh:

• [Again] Emergency drivers with a cell phone are needed in the event of car break down or injury.

Membership – Jacquie Hunt:

• As of February 28, 2007 there are 97 paid members, including 6 new members.
• 2006 ended with 184 members.
• March 1, 2006 we had 140 paid members.
• Unpaid members were reminded by email – seven sent regrets.
• Hike leaders should ensure that the membership forms are up to date and don’t reflect the wrong (higher) membership fee.
• Gary Lunn, MP for Nanaimo / Alberni, has invited the Club to send a member to an event announcing the restoration of Pacific Rim National Park, at 11am, March 5^th, at the Parks Canada headquarters in Sidney. Interested people should let Jacquie know.
• TransCanada Trail Challenge, June 24^th, Vancouver – walk, bike or run. Is this the kind of item members would like to be notified of?
• Discussion: a link could be put on the website for such events. More information is better than none. People can use the delete key!

Outdoor events – Don Ferster:

• Don provided a report on types of events, leaders, and locations (numbers based on waivers returned):

  Year	Number of events	Event attendance	Breakdown
  2006	146	1269	(971 members and 306 non-members)
  2005	199	1608
  2004	205	1882
  2003	172	1265
  2002	148	1065

  Type Hikes 106 Walks 17 Bike 7 Backpack 5 Skiing 5 Bowling 4 Disc golf 2

  Leaders Geoff Smith 15 Judy Brown & Gail Clark 15 Leo Vezina 10 Tom Gore 10 John Ward 9 Chris Vardy 9

  Location East Sooke Park 16 Juan de Fuca Trail 15 Jocelyn Hill 10 Matheson-Roche 7 Mt Work 6 Goldstream 4

Keeping Track – Barry Gaetz:

• Barry requests articles – anything interesting you’ve seen or done, want to tell others about or even warn them about.
• Members should send articles ASAP – a Word document as an email attachment is fine.

Webmaster – Mike Motek:

[Apparently Mike is having a great time in New Zealand]

• Discussion: we could invest some of our surplus money in professional web design. Mike has already talked to Geoff Smith in this respect.

Schedule Editor – Fred Trudell:

• Note: Leo’s hike this Sunday has changed from East Sooke Park (long and fast) to Cougar Bluffs (average paced).
• Event sheets area welcome.
• Apologies for any past errors.

Schedule Distribution – Chris Irving (absent):

• Tom stated that hard copies are not being taken from the Sidney library very fast

Social Coordinators – Dana Waite and Liz Williams:

• Dana noted that Xmas party numbers were down by about 10 this past December.

Business arising:

No business arising.

New business:

The Planning meeting was adjourned at 8.25pm. A coffee break followed.

Bob Crane then gave a presentation on a camping/hiking trip to the Kootenay Glacier (beautiful alpine area!)

Event planning occurred after the presentation, finishing at 9.30pm.

Minutes recorded by Liz Williams

Appendix 1: Brainstorming Session

Thanks to Russ and Dana for the brainstorming session. This transcription of the notes organizes the suggestions into two themes: event-related and promotion-related.

EVENTS IDEAS:

Different timing of events: Afternoon hikes Night hikes Hikes around lunch or dinner Creative Hikes: Photo hikes Water-colour/sketching Different Activities: Snowshoeing Kayaking Intro novice backpacking (actually doing it) Day hiking up island (Hostels in Comox) Ski trips More cycling

Nature-focused hikes: Owl hikes (night) Botanical Mushroom Ethnobotanical Birding Geological Something completely different: Scavenger hunts Murder Mystery walks Pub Crawls Wine tours More picnics

Note: More contacts are needed for talks and walks, and extreme hikes. Also, more villas in Italy!

PROMOTION IDEAS:

• More P.R. needed – need to advertise the club.
• Public service announcements on UVic radio, Camosun Radio, TC Monday News Group Create visual aid posters for MEC etc.
• Posters for workplace.
• Interviews with club members in media.
• Get information to the Welcome Wagon and Victoria Newcomers Club
• Circulate more Club Tread business cards to people we see out and about.

• Support members to give presentations for the general public.
• Bring in speakers for trips.
• Build a reciprocal connection with American groups, (Doug Terry) up island and Vancouver groups.
• Liaise with Victoria Outdoor Club (Jackie); Kludahk (Russ); Cowichan (Marion)
• UVic outdoors club (Judy); and Alpine club (Liz).