CRAMBA Board Meeting Minutes 6-23-16
CRAMBA Board Meeting Minutes6-23-16 (added/corrected 6-29-16 by Mike Fitzpatrick)The meeting was called to order at 7:35PM.Board members present were:
- Rodney Gullet - president
- Roger Class
- Jeremy Verbeke
- Drew Williams
- Alice Jacobs
- Kristen Barry
- Mike Fitzpatrick
Non-Board attendees
- Ben Lindstrom
- Zandra
- Ernie
Recording Secretary’s ReportMinutes of the 5-19-16 board meeting were read and approved without additions or corrections.Old Business
- Massive Fallout Update
- Kristen Barry and Roger Class will help mark the trails
- Robin and Shari Scurr and Pete Kresarey will help with food
- Rodney will be the Massive Fallout event manager
- Rodney will procure T-shirts for the event
- Scott Cerdin will help with grooming the Conklin Road connector
- Addison Oaks Race on 9-11-16
- Bill Sloney from KLM is the race coordinator
- Roger Class said that his chiropractor might be interested in being the corporate sponsor for both the $1000.00 and number plate $500.00
New Business
- Oak Wilt Disease
We received an email from a rider named Liz that noticed Oak branches being trimmed at River Bends. She sent us and email alerted CRAMBA to the Oak Wilt disease exacerbated by cutting and trimming oaks. The following statement was read. “"The best way to deal with oak wilt is prevention. Avoid wounding oaks from April to August. Don’t prune during that time. Be careful with the lawnmower and weed-whacker. If possible, put off construction activities around oaks until the late summer.If an oak wound does occur in the spring, this would be one of the few reasons to apply a wound sealant. In most other cases, wound sealants are not recommended. However, when the sap-feeding beetles are active, immediate application of a sealant will prevent them from reaching freshly exposed tissues"
- Jeremy Verbeke forwarded Liz’s email to the River Bends Land Managers
- CRAMBA will educate our trail maintenance volunteers to avoid trimming oaks to avoid this Oak Wilt disease
- Survey of New Members Results
- 93 new members, 16 responded or 17%
- New members come from 47% social groups, 53% individual although social groups are probably more because of MDMB and the Guinness groups
- Reasons for joining are many and varied
- Conclusions – maybe just keep doing what we are doing.
- New Rider Robert’s Complaint Email
- Robert sent CRAMBA an email complaining the way new riders are treated on the no-drop Wednesday rides at Stony Creek. His email in part reads “…I could not wait for the event to end or the first opportunity to leave the group and head back to the Stoney Creek High School Parking lot event meet point. What was that made me feel this way was a bunch of arrogant egotistical spandex clad clowns who became impatient toward less experience Mountain Bikers…”
- Chris Westerlund, a CRAMBA board member who was on this ride replied to Robert with a conciliatory email which reads in part “…I really am sorry to hear you felt this ride was awful. CRAMBA is a large organization of 300 members. Our group rides are a mix of members and non-members, as well has old friends and people meeting for the first time. Sometimes people that show up are not pleasant, some people say things others find offensive, often not towards each other, but just in general. It is a social gathering with random strangers. Everyone is always afraid to ask questions their first time…”
- Some further discussion and possible action and remedies for future rides of this type
- Educate our CRAMBA board members to adopt a leadership role in the presence of new riders
- Start out the ride with a reminder of the etiquette of a no-drop ride
- Maybe, with a large group, split into three skill groups led by experienced riders
- Why the Stony Creek High School start – implies we are skirting the park fees and are riding as bandits?
- Remind all CRAMBA members through our social media that these rides are mainly a recruiting tool – e.g. be nice!
- Jeremy Verbeke suggested that Stony Creek be categorized as an intermediate trail and River Bends as a beginner trai
- Genesee County Park Possible Trail System
- Ben Lindstrom, blackbeardben@gmail.com, who lives in Davison, attended our board meeting to promote the idea of a new mountain bike trail at Richfield Park, in Genesee County, maybe 5 miles.
- Questions came up as to how to gage the depth of local support for this new trail.
- A suggestion to Ben was to drop off a petition at each of the 3 local bike shops to get names and email address of riders that are interested.
- Ben said that he is relatively sure he has 12 local riders, including BMX riders, that will support building the trail
- He also has the support of Al, the owner of Al's Quick Release Bicycle Sales and Service in Davison. This is the closest shop to the trail.
- Jeremy Verbeke commented that this is a long process even with support from local riders. Ben will have to have the support of the local park authorities, local political officials, DNR, etc. – Ben has to be in it for the long haul.
- Jeremy Verbeke assured Ben that if he has local support, CRAMBA will support his efforts
- Take a Kid Mountain Biker Feedback
- We had 52 kids and 42 parents – a great turnout (6 kids last year)
- Mike F. said the race number plates were a hit with the kids
- Having spare helmets is a good idea
- Board Meeting Dates and Times
- Mike Fitzpatrick suggested that our meetings be held at 7:00 PM instead of 7:30 PM. All were in informal agreement.
- The tentative forward meeting schedule is as follows
- Stony Creek Need for Volunteers
- Jeremy Verbeke passed on a memo from Katie Kowalski, volunteer services coordinator for Huron Clinton Metroparks, asking for volunteers to help with park visitor counting. This is more an FYI for the board and will not be posted on our social media
Treasurer’s Report
- Kristen reported that we have about $10,000 in the bank.
- She suggested that we have our official address a post office box in lieu of Nick and Marty’s house. It was motioned, seconded, and passed unanimously. Kristen will set this up.
- Jeremy Verbeke said that the chapter trailer can be stored outside at Universal Storage for $380.00 per year. It was motioned, seconded, and passed unanimously to do this.
- Jeremy Verbeke asked for up to $400.00 to rent a mini-excavator to cut a new .3 mile trail at River Bends. It was motioned, seconded, and passed unanimously. He will do this work on July 8 & 9. Rodney cautioned that using this equipment requires skill-experience so don’t expect to master the machine quickly.
Next board meeting will be on July 21 at the Firehouse at 7:00 PM (please note the new time).Meeting adjourned about 9:28 PM.