Meeting Minutes 2021-04-08

 

 

Baltimore Canoe and Kayak Club Board Meeting

Meeting commenced at 7:05pm on 4/12/21 Zoom Virtual Meeting

Attendees:


Ed Blizzard, Jean Blizzard, Lew Glaeser, John Kemper, Chris Moize, Bill Offutt, Nick Shockney, Andrew Rabinowitz, Andrew Froom, Ryan Whiteleather, Cait Whiteleather, Beth Ryan, and George Currie

 

Secretary’s Report: The meeting minutes from the 2/8/21 board meeting were read/reviewed. A motion was made by BillO to approve the minutes and was 2nd by JohnK and was accepted unanimously.

Treasurer’s Report: The report was read/reviewed - a motion was made by BillO to accept the report and was 2nd by LewG. It was approved with a unanimous vote.

Safety Report – AndrewR – Announced that they will be doing 6/12&13 safety course – have at least 10 participants signed up so far. Things seem to be going in the right direction thus far with COVID protocol. This year they will allow no more than 15 persons per AndrewF. Fall back venue will be Little Falls – if anything else is running closer to home we will use it. AndrewF has to recertify for the safety instruction certification and so does AndrewR & KellyM as well. Andrew will make the connection with Tanya to find out when recertify classes are available. Jean will check on motion for reimbursing the safety team for their recertifications and their annual dues.

Membership – JohnK says we currently have 77 members that have paid $20 since Oct 2020. There are 3 new ones which bring us to 80 members. There seem to be 9 persons that tried to register but the payment process didn’t seem to go through. JohnK will send emails out to those to see if they need assistance.

Update on Marketing Info – CaitW – she says the calendar is up to date. The event for the Beginner’s Sessions is on FB. Cait will check that the Yough Weekend, etc. is on the calendar.


 

Lindsey Fundakowski (LF) & Nick Murray (NM) who are BCKC Members, joined the meeting. The topics they wish to discuss are leveraging resources to better meet club goals and to improve communication.

LewG’s response to LF’s statement: we are currently meeting the club goals and everyone here on the board participates in order to accomplish all the goals we have set. There is a significant amount of work done by many people on the board toward making the club a success.

LF: We want BCKC to expand the Beginner’s Program.

It was explained to LF (by AndrewF) that we are limiting the number of students this year in order to keep safe COVID protocols. It’s unfortunate but necessary. We did not have a safety/rescue class in 2020 at all due to COVID restrictions.

LF> Communication: someone (who is not active on the board) has deleted discussions from the Beginner’s Event post on FB.

It was explained to LF that posts are removed if they contain other info than what relates to the topic and/or if any remarks are disparaging to the club. However, the Board will look into the reasoning for her post being removed.


NM> Clicks are forming and it makes new members feel unwelcome. Funds are not being used toward the return to the members. GeorgeC and LewG both listed off many of the items/actions where money has been spent for the good of the club such as; events like the Yough weekend, Stony Fest, donating to keep Stony Creek releases running, buying equipment for loaning to members, buying repair items for club inventory, buying equipment for safety classes, paying for board members to get safety training certified (we currently have 3 safety certified members) and many other things. This seemed to remedy the concern for NM.

Website – RyanW – Eric reported a problem with emails spamming him every minute and he was getting hundreds of emails in his inbox. Ryan is proposing that we get rid of Juma (web tool currently in use) and he would like to switch to WordPress. Ryan will look into the details of using WordPress and report his findings to the board.

Posting Meeting Minutes – we agreed that meeting notes would be posted 10 days after they are approved at the next meeting. Example: 2/8/21 meeting notes were approved this evening at the 4/12/21 meeting so they will be posted on the website by 4/22/21 and a link to those notes will be posted on FB as well.

Minors on the River – they must be with a parent or legal guardian “on the river” – not standing on the side. AndrewR made a motion that no minors are allowed on the river for club events unless a parent or legal guardian is with them on the river. It was seconded by EdB and it was voted in by the majority with one member voting against.

 

 

Stony Creek Rendezvous – We agreed up to $650 to be allowed for donation at 2/8/21 meeting. Beth will send it ASAP. AndrewR will let Beth know who to send it to.

Patapsco Team River Runners Event – May 8th – NickS has 8 volunteers so far. He met with 3 team leaders and everything is good to go. Nick Bowley has been a crucial part of the organizing also and he hopes to be able to attend if his work life will permit.

Beginner’s Program – Eric has all his support boaters and all that he needs. Eric has several boaters that really don’t belong in the Beginner’s Program. Ed will be looking for volunteers to help with those boaters as Eric passes them on to us. AndrewR volunteers to come into play at the end of the Beginner’s Program to pick up those who want to move forward into the Intermediate stage. Ed/Jean and some other volunteers may be asked to work with some novices/intermediates that Eric says are too experienced for Beginner’s Classes but they still need some help and instruction on various things.

Motion to adjourn at 9:28pm made by BillO and 2nd by EdB, vote unanimous.

 

 

 

 

 

Meeting notes cleaned up, corrected (for typos) and emailed to the board on 4/26/21 by Jean Blizzard, Secretary.