Minutes – PVS Meeting – June 24, 2008
The meeting was held at Ruth Powers’ home. Present were Mary Beale, David Callaway, Marvin Hass, Sue Lyon, Carolyn Maurer-DeVilbiss, Ray McKinley. Ruth Powers, Dottie Villers, and David Warthen. Dottie presided over the meeting.
Minutes from the May 27th meeting were approved.
Dottie distributed the Treasurer’s Report that Dick Laeser had provided. The Club’s current balance (6-24-08) is $12,468. There were no questions or concerns.
Dave W. Passed out his Membership Records Report. There are now 176 members – up one since last month’s meeting. Of the 32 Charter members of the Club, eight are Founding members. Dave was able to access electronically an 11-15-68 Washington Post article written by Charter member Ronald Fett. The article mentioned the names of the Founding members: E. Anderson*, C. Armat*, R. King, D. Mair, M. Rura*, W. Stecher*, H. Thomas*, and P. Wiederhold. Five of the Founding members are deceased (*). Dave forwarded the list of Charter/Founding members to Dave Lerner. Dave L. has posted it on the PVS website.
Tied over from last month’s meeting was the matter of an applicant member who wanted her husband to join her on the Snowmass trip. Dottie spoke with the member and she will change her application from single to couple.
Since Marvin Hass will be sending out TOOT while the Marx’s are away, Dave has sent him his Excel files. Currently there are 52 address records for US postal service delivery of TOOT, 65 for pdf versions, 30 for MS-Word format, 7 for Embedded form, and 4 for Text as attachment. Taken as a whole, 33% of TOOT recipients obtain their issues by regular mail and 67% electronically.
While assembling information on the Club membership, Dave noted that birthdays (without the year) were available for 39 of the 157 members who had email addresses. He thought it would be nice if the Club sent E-birthday cards to members who are on-line. He asked how others felt. Jan Marx had a cautionary response that she expressed by email. “My opinion about the birthday card is not to do it…some like to celebrate and some ignore the day.” Both Ray and Carolyn agreed with Jan. “Some people are very reluctant to give their birth dates.” Excom was also concerned that the practice might involve too much work if not for Dave then for those who may succeed him. “I get the picture,” said Dave.
Ray described the events and meetings ahead:
July 12th – All Trips Party at the home of Sally Finan and George Welti. Dottie has only
received two affirmatives from the notice in TOOT. She plans to send out a
reminder email requesting people RSVP. Ray reminded Excom that
historically members were not inclined to RSVP.
July 22nd – Excom teleconference meeting
August 1st - Wolf Trap Picnic/Show. Dottie obtained 20 tickets – the cutoff for group
rates. Exactly 20 people have signed on for the show. A reminder
for the event and the All Trips Party will go in the July TOOT.
August 19th – Excom at Carolyn and Dave DeVilbiss’ home
August 23rd – Picnic at the Heitchue’s Annapolis home. Rain or shine. Limit of 25
people. Ten people have committed to date (6-24-08).
September 13th – Annual Crab fest at Betty Lawrence’s home.
[With the Annapolis picnic fast filling, Marvin reasoned that an August/September TOOT (going out around August 15th) would not be necessary. Instead a September TOOT would be planned that would go out on August 25th, after the August Excom but before the Crab fest.]
September 16th -Monthly meetings resume
September 23rd -Excom at Mary Beale’s home.
October 18th – Segway tour at Gettysburg battlefield (Barbara Leonhardt organizer)
October 26th – Leonard Bernstein’s Mass at the Kennedy Center
Ski Trip Status – The 3 trips planned for 2009 are on track. Carolyn reports that the Snowmass trip will cost $100 more than it did last year. This does not take into consideration the baggage charges that airlines have recently tacked on.
Two requests have come in from Timberline Ski Resort in West Virginia. One is to place an ad about Timberline in the Club’s fall newsletter and the other is to give a presentation about the resort at a Club meting. Both requests were discussed at some length. It was pointed out that the Club hasn’t done a resort ad before. Acquiescing would leave the Club open to other requests. The Club has received requests to place ads in TOOT for members (at no charge) but not for nonmembers. If agreed upon, decisions would have to be made about the appropriate fee and the actual size of the ad. Suggestions for the fee ranged from no charge to $10,000. Dave W. suggested simply running a link to the Timberlake website in TOOT. Marvin pointed out that a portion of the membership is not on the net. Dottie felt that the ad should be allowed but that future requests would be decided on an individual basis. “To be frank, I don’t think we’re going to be inundated with this,” said Ray. “The advantage,” said Carolyn, “is to insert something that talks about skiing”.
With respect to a one-time appearance of a representative at a Club meeting, the consensus was to allow it. Ruth emphasized that the presentation be limited to skiing. Any digression into commercial areas such as the sale of condos would be discouraged.
Carolyn and Ray agreed. It should be a “brief informational presentation of 10-15 minutes” in length.
Carolyn suggested that TOOT carry a line or two about a representative from Timberline attending a meeting along with a link to the website. The posting can appear with other “Upcoming Events”. Those present agreed with this approach. Dottie said that she would explain to Timberline that the Club currently does not carry commercial ads in its newsletter.
One concern that emerged from the discussion was the need to make Club meetings more interesting.
Tahiti trip: Reg Heitchue has provided Excom with a draft of the flier for the Tahiti cruise trip. The trip is 14 days and will run from May 29 – June 12, 2009. Participants will sail aboard the Star Flyer (360 ft long, 170 guest capacity) as the ship makes its way to islands in the French Polynesia. The cost per person double occupancy is $5943. Single occupancy is $7925. These prices include round trip airfare from DC to Tahiti that is estimated at $1840. A deposit of $400 ($50 nonrefundable) is requested. The remainder is due by March 7, 2009. Passengers may assist with the sailing but it isn’t necessary. Reg went on one of the company’s Caribbean cruises a few years back.
Ray pointed out that there is no deputy trip leader designee. (Reg is the trip leader.) If modeled after the ski trip guidelines, there should be an assistant trip leader who can assume responsibility if the need arises. Carolyn asked who would be collecting the money. It was assumed that Reg would be. His travel agent drew up the flier.
It is the second year that the company has offered the Tahiti cruise. Questions came up during the meeting about the company’s track record in terms of safety, on board infections etc. Ray recommended that the flier be placed in TOOT. Dottie will ask Reg to designate an assistant trip leader and to add directions regarding payment to the flier.
She will also mention that Excom had questions about the company and that others may as well. “There’s actually quite a bit of interest in the cruise already, serious interest,” said Dottie.
Marvin suggested that the flier be treated in the same manner that ski trip fliers are handled. It will appear in its entirety (2 pages allowed) initially. Shorter versions up to half a page may run in subsequent issues.
Old business: Only 17 of the 20 tickets Betty Lawrence purchased for the June 12th British Players performance were sold. Betty has asked the Club to reimburse her ($25 a ticket for a total of $75). Excom had assured Betty at the outset that it would cover any losses she incurred. The request was approved. Treasurer Dick Laeser will be notified.
Minutes submitted by Mary Beale, Secretary