Rocky Mountain Orienteering Club
Annual Meeting, October 29, 2016
Mercury Café, Denver

Minutes

President Doug Berling called the meeting to order at 12:30 pm.

Present: Pablo Fernandez, Craig Murray, Kathleen Brennan, John Crowther, Amy Winston, Troy Bozarth, Tom Bagby, Doug Berling, Galen Moore, Jan Lande, Graham Baird, Cindy Shellito, Sharon Crawford, Michael Rounds, Sverre Froyen.  Also attending Steve Lash, guest.

It was moved/seconded/carried (m/s/c) to approve the minutes of the 2015 Annual Meeting.

President's Report, Doug Berling:  Year over year meet numbers are down because we had 3 fewer meets.  The Cherry Creek meet was cancelled because of the blizzard; we did not have a ZombiePocalypse; we did not have a Frisco Night-O / Day-O.  The CSOL (Colorado Student Orienteering League) attendance was down with the loss of one of its three meets, Cherry Creek.  Ski-Os have low numbers; CSOL meets have high attendance, over 100.

It's been a good year, except for the loss of Kris Beecroft as President when she moved.

Event permits for White Ranch are popular, so Doug has applied for 2017, a year in advance.  Permits for other areas are not as difficult to obtain.  We are in good shape with other agencies for permits.  Jim Baker has worked with Florissant Fossil Beds and we may be able to go there again.  Cherry Creek and Chatfield are easy to work with; we just need to request 90 days in advance.  JeffCo permits Mt. Falcon. (Comment:  Mt. Falcon is not so great for orienteering; the ridges are too steep.)

New maps: White Ranch is finished, and Tahosa is close to finished, both done by Yves Nager.

Possible areas to map:  Golden Gate State Park and JeffCo Flying J Ranch. Brian and the mapping group will look at these and others.

Jim Baker wants feedback on interest in a Ski-O in Mueller SP, located southwest of Woodland Park.

Treasurer's Report, Sverre Froyen:  Sverre distributed and discussed his written report.  RMOC's net worth has been steadily increasing over three years, so we have funds for more mapping.  Mapping expenses: professional mapping costs $3-4-5k per map. We pay $600 per square km.  Total cost for White Ranch was about $3,900 plus expenses.  Yves has about 400 hours into the mapping for White Ranch.  Tahosa is a larger area and will cost more.  We typically don't pay club members for mapping.

We don't have to file tax returns because our income is below $50k.  Our member fees are quite low. Dues revenue is $1,230.  The category service revenue is map sales and meet fees.  Gross inventory is T- shirts and dinner, $2,568.  Federation fees we pay to OUSA, which covers insurance.

Income fluctuates by meet. Meets located closer to Denver have higher income; lower income at meets further afield; income is higher with CSOL participation.

Meet expenses have been growing:  permits, building rental, porta-potties have all increased and we have not increased meet fees.

Our A-Meet had higher income than prior years due to raising the fee by $10 to $40 per day, the national par.  It did not impact attendance.

Secretary's ReportBrooke Mann's written report was distributed.   We have 252 family and individual memberships, better than average.  Compared to last year, our local meet days are down by about 25%, due to the loss of the Cherry Creek (blizzard/95 runners in previous year), ZombiePocalypse (191 runners in previous year) and Frisco night/day meets.  Chatfield had the highest number of starts; Bear Creek Lake Park and Manitou Park were next.

Volunteer Recognition:  Kathleen Brennan recognized Doug and Brooke as RMOC's most valuable volunteers.  Brooke is our communications guru, keeping us informed about meets and individuals, takes meet pre-registrations, and publishes results.  Meets are well attended and run smoothly because of her work.  Doug is the most frequently named volunteer on the year's volunteer logs; he takes on multiple tasks at every meet.  Doug stepped in as President when Kris departed for an out of state job.  Brooke and Doug were presented with “helping hand tongs” and given an ovation for their work.

Kathleen summarized volunteer contributions from logs which Brooke compiled:  RMOC had 23 different volunteers contribute to the “primary” jobs for our meets:  meet director, course setter, e-punch coordinator, and meet equipment.  Doug Berling appeared on the log 27 times over the past year, performing primary volunteer jobs.  Galen Moore, Kris Beecroft, John Crowther, and Mikell Platt were high on the list.  Brooke logged volunteers for the “secondary” jobs, also essential for our meets.  RMOC had 57 different volunteers helping with tasks such as onsite registration, set up, instruction, starts, results, and control pickup.  Again, Doug Berling appeared on the log the most frequently, 23 times.  Galen Moore, Neal Barlow, Brooke Mann, Troy Bozarth, and Sharon Crawford also appeared frequently. Sheryl Lehman contributed handcrafted pottery to RMOC, and each volunteer was invited to select pieces of Sheryl's pottery for their volunteer contributions.   

Elections:  Elections were held for the positions of Vice President and Secretary, each for two-year terms.  It was m/s/c to elect Brooke Mann as Secretary and Galen Moore as Vice President for two-year terms expiring at the Annual Meeting in 2018It was m/s/c to elect Doug Berling as President to fill the remainder of the term vacated by Kris Beecroft, expiring at the Annual Meeting 2017.  Sverre Froyen remains as Treasurer through his term expiring in 2017.

Mapping Report:  Brian Coleman distributed and discussed his written report.  The Camp Alexander map was completed and presented to the Boy Scouts in May.  Amy Varble, Simon Maybury, and Brian went to the camp, trained the staff, and helped them set up their first permanent course.  Steve Willman is expanding the map to the north toward Blue Mountain.   White Ranch was completed and used in October. Initially the map was based on data provided by JeffCo Parks.  ­­­­ Yves Nager did extensive field work and built a challenging orienteering map for RMOC.  Camp Tahosa:  Brian compiled data sets from GIS data.  The BSA camp ranger was able to get permission for right-of-way access to adjacent private land which connects Forest Service sections and enlarges the map area to an A-meet level.  Yves will complete the field work by the end of the year.

Brian has been named the national Boy Scout liaison with Orienteering USA.

Mountain Bike O:  Brian is looking at what it takes to convert an O map to a Bike O map.  Possible areas are Bear Creek Lake Park and Frisco.

Future projects:  Update Cherry Creek State Park.  Possibly map Golden Gate State Park.  San Isabel Scout Ranch has contacted Brian; it is SW of Pueblo in the Wet Mountains between Beulah and Rye.

2017 Schedule:  Doug will talk to CSOL coaches then build a tentative schedule.  He needs volunteers as course setters.  Jim Baker is looking into Mueller State Park.  Chatfield SP is raising the dam and the lake elevation will rise by 12 feet.  But the area we use will not be flooded; the ponds are spring fed, will be preserved, and the area will be protected by an earthen berm to be constructed across the road, north of the area we use.

ZombiePocalypse:  Tom Bagley introduced Steve Lash, who represents Troop 311 in northern Colorado.  The troop has 42 scouts of which 10 are Eagle Scouts and 12 are Order of the Arrow.  The scouts are very sad that there was no ZombiePocalypse (ZP) this year; it is very popular for the scouts.  Troop 311 would like to take on ZP as a troop project, using Peaceful Valley Scout Ranch as the venue and continuing what has been done for the event in previous years.  Steve has approached the Metro Order of the Arrow for help.  Steve proposes October 7, 2017, as the first choice of date.  The Order of the Arrow has a traveling food truck.  Troop 311 would camp out beforehand in the summer to get things ready.  He would like for RMOC to provide e-punching and online registration. Troy Bozarth offered to be the lead with course setting and setting the flags.  This would be an RMOC/BSA event. The costs would be kept low so everyone could participate.   Consensus:  to move forward with Troop 311 on ZombiePocalypse. 

Map sales:  Sverre asked for a review of our policy that maps are available for group use.

It was m/s/c to adjourn the meeting at 1:50 pm.

Officers Meeting:  The RMOC officers met at 1:55 pm. Doug Berling, Galen Moore, Sverre Froyen attending, also Kathleen Brennan. It was m/s/c Be It Resolved that Bob Ellis and Kris Beecroft be removed as authorized signatures on the bank account, and that Doug Berling be added as a signor.  Sverre will remain a signor.

Respectfully Submitted,
Kathleen Brennan, Acting Secretary

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