Black Jack Ski Club

Executive Board Meeting

MINUTES

March 29, 2006

7:00pm

910 Earl St.

 

Attendees: Kathy Moore, Susan Van Asselt, Richie Mann, Stephen Hill, Kathy Williams, Paul Heikkila

Guests: Bernie Hoffman, Andy Morel, Marilyn Nelson, Rick Ewings,

Regrets: Al Fisher, Darrin Markvardsen

 

Agenda- Call to order- Kathy

 

1)       Presentation by Bernie Hoffman: Ski Academy concept.

a.       Purpose to pursue skiing without compromising academics. 20 year old idea now in first year of implementation. 17 students. Flexible self-paced independent study format. Bernie is resource teacher-facilitator. Uses many online tools

b.      Interested in expanding to include Nordic program. BJ would  hire coach from program fees. Recruit local and outside students. Some interest expressed to Bernie in Nordic

c.       Could end up being Rossland Mountain Sports Academy- embracing several winter sports.

d.      Rossland is unique: offers great school, great town, close to mtn, trails, etc.

e.       Red Mtn very supportive. Redstone also gave grant money.

f.        Students come for 5 or 10 month program. Outsider’s tuition may subsidize local students’ fees to make it affordable.

g.       BJ would have to calculate number of students to make it worthwhile. Skier Dev will consider it , talk to coaches & parents and come back to board with a recommendation. Kids getting to the point where some are ready for high performance coaching.

h.       Rob Grey might want to get involved in skier dev.

i.         Of $3150 fees ˝ goes to school & administration. Program is inexpensive compared to many offered in the east and in the states.

 

3) Committee Chair reports; Update on current plans, events and issues

     

a. Land use agreement- KM- Beaumont – new contract for 3% no further raise in % as under old contract. New one negotiated by Leigh last fall.

 

b. Biathlon-  Rick Ewings- Update & ideas:

i. Off to a rocky start. Wants to know if BJ will support biathlon; if not no need to put effort into it. Games went well. 14 kids in program. Need to be BJ members, Need to integrate with Jr racers to be successful. Biathlon & skier development teams need to look at other ski clubs and to see what they have done to successfully integrate the jr racer and biathlon programs. Good models in the east as well as Prince George and Quesnel. All that will happen as the program gets organized. Grooming budget needs to incorporate needs of additional trails and plan accordingly.

ii. Rick was assured he has support of exec. Biathlon is considered a division of BJ and as such needs to present needs and budget like every other area.

iii. Castlegar might want to share cost of grooming in some sort of exchange. No details.

iv. Range will be closed as of this weekend.

v.Rick will be cleaning up trails with his cat once snow is gone. Given a lifetime membership in appreciation.

vi. Paul Steenvoorden and Roseanne Sones will be fundraiser and grant writers for biathlon and will coordinate with BJ Exec.

vii. George made a BC Games legacy application. KM needs details

 

C Communications update- Susan- .Results of survey

1. Very few responses. Most important concern: grooming. Lack of beginner intermediate terrain, lack of club leadership  & volunteer burn-out.

2. Susan will organize a volunteer appreciation event – need to get list of volunteers- List for BC Games is easy, ask race organizers for others also Bridget for bakers.

3. SH handles volunteers for Red Mtn racers- has great data base that he will give us as a template to track our volunteers in the future.

 

d.       Race committee-

a.       PH: short track relay; Ready to go. Has committee organized. KM sent mass email out today. Susan will get in newsletter and post around town..

b.       KM- 2007 Masters- ad program through the chamber will potentially pay for ˝ of all advertising designed to attract visitors for over night stays. Ian Sibbald is chief of competition, KM is event chair.

c.                             

f. BC Games: KM. – summary: successful event. Legacy possibilities- told that the legacy fund would not be available for 6 months. Need to give SH list of items to be reimbursed from Games.

 

g. Trail Maintenance:  Signs- need more info on difficulty (Lynn Phillips email) Need to discuss this at a later meeting.   Historical signs & bench- Sue Bushell is researching the material for the historical signs we wanted to put up this year. Johann Krus has volunteered his labor to create a memorial bench for Isvan Soos. (Sue B’s idea) We could allocate some of the money he donated prior to his death for the bench.

           

h. Membership & kiosk update; -

1.KW Employment contracts needed for next year. Future: monthly report of day tickets and membership at each meeting. New record of members: 647. Last year: approximately 570

 

i. Financial update.SH.

1. Now have Quicken- list category for all expenses. Will try to get 6 mo liability coverage for LMC. Will raise coverage from $1m to $2m. Budget is looking good for this year. Need to have NEW budget info to SH in May. Must go into new season with budget set ahead of time. Now will have this year’s expenditures to assist budget procedure.

            2. Need policy on MC use: only 2 cards out. Guido has one, skier development has the other. Large expenses must be budgeted for. Any purchase over $500 must be called or emailed  into treasurer immediately. SH- need advance notice of use of card- email, call, fill out expense form

            3. Richie to set up accounts for BJ (& Guido) at Rossland Pro and Seven summits then he doesn’t need to use the card at all.

            4. No surprises outstanding? PH has some racer bills outstanding- $1k but will be reimbursed.

 

 

j. Grooming & Equipment- Richie

1. City owes us $4500 for grooming. Richie will bill for $4k because we didn’t groom as much as anticipated. Difficulty getting through Ash property. Next year wants to get permission to cross Hansen’s and across highway at red entrance.

2. Big maintenance coming up. New radiator for the bombi- $3100 or $2k

re-cored. Alpine will run again without expensive repairs.

3. Exec  authorized Guido to take bombi course in Calgary again. April. $225 (for course) plus accommodations. Richie will drive and pick up parts; take radiator. 4.Wants to pay Guido $30 per hour to do specific list of complicated repairs- still same $20 rate for normal maintenance. Approved by exec.

5. 51 hours of grooming at biathlon, 48 on centennial.

6. Bombadier will get us manual for LMC (ours went missing last year)

7. Richie will take the skidoo up to Castlegar and see if it could pull the ginzu. If so we might be able to get the grooming device only ($5k) and not need a new snowmobile.($15k). Ginzu with snowmobile will use about 1/10th the fuel as our large cat and be easier & less costly to repair. Should groom faster too.

8. Will need a new large groomer someday soon- need to start a fund ($1k already donated by Richie) May use fund for ginzu.

9. Will try to groom until mid april if conditions allow.

 

k. Building and services: Need person in charge. Need loft or built-in cabin storage. Need to coordinate Gibbards cabin if that project flies.

 

             l.Grants-

1.KM- NO word on CBT or Gaming grants yet.

2. Forestry- podiums, cabin, trail plan: Forestry is willing to help us develop the trails at the Hanna Creek Nordic area. Donated $5600 of material for the new Gibbards cabin. Haven’t heard yet if Murray of RSS has gotten grant money for cabin project. We will need to come up with some money depending on grant amt.

 

  1. Other issues arising:
    1. Summer trail use by KCTS- KTCS covers insurance issues & has agreements in place with Beaumont and Forestry- probably easy to extend to the lands we use. KTCS will work on trails as needed for bike use. No cutting without contacting us first. May be able to coordinate signage.Exec agreed to trail usage. KM will contact KCTS
    2. Motion to grant Rick Ewings a lifetime membership in exchange for cat work at biathlon of equal or greater value. Rick would like to buy fuel from BJ at current price. (passed in email)
    3. AGM & short track relay. Catered and hall confirmed for April 9th. Short track on 8th. Susan and Marilyn will help KM with AGM
    4. Ski for Diabetes- Apr 2nd
    5. Winter challenge- john reed- Cancelled until next year.
    6. Focus groups: Km – going well, lots of good feedback. Members interested in great grooming and in more trails at biathlon. More thorough report will be given once completed.
    7. Exec board for next year- ideas? Vacancies to fill. Nomination notice sent in email and snail mail to those without email. Ditto AGM announcement. Volunteer chair. Social chair, scrap-booker (maybe Sue Bushell- should be a committee under communications to do scrap book. SV will contact her) KW. MN & KM will call several people,

                                                               i.      Need to amend by laws to expand board. Current group of 10 is too small to handle all the committee chair needs.

    1. Kiosk staff need to be more proactive in duties- social chair role could be handled by Bridget. Need job description that includes phone work.
    2. Chamber of Commerce’s new group-need member to sit. KM and MN will attend first meeting tomorrow
    3. Lights to be turned off. Al was to tell Reino to do it. Not sure he did. KM sent email. Energy audit done by Reino- need to examine ways to make the equipment shed more economical.
    4. Idea: compensation for rabbits and jr racer coaches: free pass if agree to coach all season. ˝ pass if agree to coach ˝ time. Need more coaches for rabbits especially. Nellie did fantastic job with very few resources. Total cost: maybe 10 passes x $80 = $800 PH will take idea to skier develop and come back with ideas. Rabbits need to be integrated in with jr racers. Coaching as well.
    5. Idea: get 8 pr of skate skis for rabbits to use as loaners. Need to motivate them to stick with sport and move up to jr rabbit. Better idea to talk to Val and see if she would stock them then the club could rent them for the kids.
    6. Proposed membership fee increase from ccbc. Discussion? Latest amendment asks for discount for kids. Doubling price is really unfortunate.
  1. KM put the letters on the city banner for George Grey (Sue Bushell’s idea) will go up Monday.
  2. Set date of next meeting-Date needs to be confirmed in email- several conflicts arising. social meet and greet new exec?
  3. adjourn

 

Our mission is to build a community of Nordic skiers by providing and sustaining excellence in programs and services.