The meeting was held at the home of Mary Beale. Present were David Abraham, Mary Beale, Charlotte Eddy, Charlie and Sara Huggins, Bob Knopes, Dick Laeser, Bob and Jan Marx, Ray McKinley, Burr Schuler, and Dick Schwartzbard. The minutes of the November 28th meeting were approved as corrected.
Dick Laeser gave the Treasurer’s report. He will arrange for former Treasurer, Ray Jones, to send the archival Treasury Reports to him. Cardinal Bank is proving easy to work with. The books balance. It’s estimated that membership dues generate $8000 per 2 years. Excom expenses are estimated at $1500/yr. The cost of mailing TOOT to 70 of the members is approximately $1000/year.
Events: Betty Lawrence is hosting a 3-day stay at her Blue Knob home, February 13-15. More information will be made available by email. The PVS/Williamsburg contingent is working on putting something together for another PVS visit in an April-May time frame. Betty Byrne is leading a zoo walk on February 7th. The next Excom meeting will be held on Wednesday, February 28th at the Schwartzbard’s. The March monthly meeting will be held at the Callaway’s (March 20th). Excom will meet the following Tuesday, March 27th, at David and Rachel Abraham’s.
Nominations: The nomination committee led by Sharon Mulholland has drawn up a new slate of officers. Each of the nominees has agreed to serve if voted in. The nominees are President- Mike Strand, Vice President-Dick Comerford, Excom members-Ruth Powers, David Warthen and Carolyn Mauer
Ski Trip Guidelines (STG): The Ski Trip Committee (STC) recently completed a comprehensive review of the STG. Bob distributed electronically the 21 page document with the proposed changes to members of Excom. He has incorporated the minor word changes, inclusions, and removals that were brought to his attention by various readers. He suggested focusing on the areas where opinions may vary the most. The number one issue is the optimal number of ski trips for the club. There were 6 trips approved for this winter. One trip was canceled. There were unhappy feelings about that. No trip has over 40 people. David felt that the existing approach of the STC deciding which trips should and should not be run is acceptable. Ray said that that was what was done this year and it didn’t work. Dick Schwartzbard said that the problem might not be due to too many trips. The trip that was canceled was one that didn’t have enough people signed up by September. Ray’s trip got into trouble because there were only 5 days between his trip and the one after it. Ray changed the dates of his trip and 6 people from the canceled trip came on board. Dick said that it could be because Ray changed the dates. Both Dick and Bob Knopes were uncomfortable with putting too many constraints on the STC. Ray reminded the group that it takes a lot of work to put a proposal together. “We are not going to do that if there are six trips.” Dick suggested considering a longer interval requirement between trips.
Responding to these comments, Bob Marx offered the following change in wording for the guidelines: “The total number of PVS endorsed winter ski trips should not exceed five – or four if no ski trip is proposed in December of that ski season.” The revision was passed unanimously. With respect to the interval between trips, Bob suggested an increase to 8 days from 5 with a minimum of 6 days. In addition, any pre-and/or post-trip extensions would be treated as part of the trip proper. Again there was unanimous support from Excom. Bob would like everyone to understand that the STC doesn’t accept all BRSC trips. Only those that have a PVS ski trip leader (STL) are considered.
Ski Trip Insurance: The STC would like to know Excom’s position towards medical insurance for ski trips. The particular medical insurance encompasses emergency medical care, evacuation, and repatriation. Such insurance is included in the fee for BRSC trips. David feels that the insurance should be optional. One concern expressed was that the insurance could raise the trip fee by as much as $200. In addition, it’s no longer “one price fits all”. Between the ages of 35 and 75 years, the cost as much as doubles. Bob plans to treat both medical insurance as well as trip cancellation & interruption insurance as options in the Guidelines rather than mandatory purchases for trip participants.
Disclosure of Surcharge: Considering the surcharge imposed to offset the fractional lost compensation share caused by a “land only” participant, Excom felt it wasn’t necessary for STL’s to selectively disclose it. Trip fees represent the sum of many separate costs including pre- and post-trip party expenses. It has not been customary to itemize them.
STL’s request for senior and family discounts: The revised guidelines suggest that price negotiations with the wholesaler include queries about senior and family discounts. In discussing this, the point was made that a group rate favors everyone while the senior/family rates are more limited.
Dangling singles: The protocol regarding singles who would like to share a double room but for whom a roommate has not materialized will be further clarified.
Trip Selection Criteria: There were several objections raised about the existing point system applied to trip selection. #1 Fills a desired niche…(20 points) and #2 Trip attractiveness…(total 25 points) were considered over weighted. Bob said that the STC was willing to go back and look at the point spread. It will do a little more work on the evaluation process as a whole.
David passed on some observations Charlie had made. Excom has not been receiving trip evaluations or financial reports. Bob said that the papers have been submitted to the STC. He will compile them and forward the information to Excom. Other observations: The club is aging. There are only 83 skiers. Our trips cost too much. We should continue to support the BRSC Club because they have good trips.
David thanked Bob for the wonderful job the STC had done on the Guidelines. Ray concurred: you “have really tightened them up. They are as good as they have ever been”.
Bob said that the STC would be open to comments for another week. He will submit a final version of the revised Guidelines to Excom for approval at the February 28th meeting.
The meeting was adjourned at 9:45 pm.
Minutes submitted by Mary Beale, Secretary