Minutes – PVS Excom Meeting – October 28, 2008

The meeting was held at Dottie Villers’ home. Present were Mary Beale, Kerry Hines, Dick Laeser, Dave Lerner, Sue Lyon, Ray McKinley, Ruth Powers, Mike Strand, Dottie Villers, and Dave Warthen.

The September 16^th and September 23^rd minutes were approved as corrected.

The Treasurer’s October Report included revisions of the August and September Reports. The Virginia Corporation fee ($75) had been inadvertently subtracted twice. The current treasury balance is $11,876.05. Treasurer Dick Laeser noted that the Club’s spending pattern is typically a lot less than $300/month.

Dave Warthen provided this month’s Membership Report. Dave assisted Marvin Hass in the mailing of the October TOOT by providing a PVS address labels document (MS-Word) and an addressed envelope document (MS-Word). Dave also sent out the pdf, MS-Word, Emb. Txt., and Text (Att.) versions of the October TOOT to appropriate members. When asked if the USPS TOOTs were double sided, Dave said that they were. There was a question about non-profit postage. Ray summed things up by saying, “we always go first class”.

Dave has not heard from the six potential applicants for membership. He sent reminder emails to their sponsers (where it applied). He was contacted independently by someone who found the Club on the Internet. Dave invited the individual to the November meeting as his guest.

The quarterly revision of the PVS Roster will be sent out to the on-line membership on November 1^st. An additional 14 members will receive printed copies along with their USPS November TOOT.

Events and Meetings:

October 28 – Frank Shelburne Hike. Sally Finan will lead a 4-mile hike at Seneca Creek State Park

November 8 – Open House at the McKinley’s Lake Anna home

November 18 – monthly meeting at the Ski Center. Brian Eardley will present the latest in ski

equipment. Eloise Strand has offered to oversee refreshments.

December 9 – Nov/Dec Excom meeting at Sue Lyon’s

December 16 – monthly meeting at Louann Eadie’s

January 25 – weekend (Sunday) midday monthly meeting at Dottie Viller’s

January 27 – Excom meeting by conference call

February 15 – weekend (Sunday) midday monthly meeting at the Waddick’s

February 17 – Excom meeting by conference call. (tentative arrangement)

March 16 – monthly meeting

April 16 – annual meeting at the McKenna’s

Mike announced that Rosemary Schwartzbard would serve as leader of the Ski Trip Committee (STC) while Bob Marx is on medical leave. Plans for the three 2009 ski trips (Snowmass, Park City, and Taos) are on schedule.

The Tahiti cruise (May 28-June 12) has received BRSC sanctioning. It will appear on the BRSC web page, which will enable individuals from other clubs to sign up.

TOOT Editorship: Excom has been exploring ways to maintain TOOT while Editor Jan Marx is on leave. Mike approached the copy editor of a professional newsletter for which his wife Eloise is Editor.

The copy editor said that he could produce TOOT but that his fee would be $300 an issue. PVS Treasurer Dick Laeser cautioned that this level of expenditure would eventually deplete the budget. Mike added that if the Club went with the copy editor that it would probably mean doubling the dues.

Dottie Villers had previously volunteered to edit the November and December TOOT issues. Kerry Hines said that he would do the January and February issues. There was general agreement that due to the learning curve involved, rotating the editorship every two months rather than every month was more practical. At present Mike has spoken for March and Dave Warthen for April.

Currently TOOT is distributed electronically to 109 members [65 pdf, 30 MS-Word, 7 Emb. Txt, and 3 Text (Att)]. Marvin Hass has suggested that pdf and MS-Word versions could suffice. Dave Warthen volunteered to contact the individuals receiving Emb. Txt and Text (Att.) to see if they would accept pdf or MS-Word versions. Those who declined would be offered the USPS paper version as an alternative. It was noted that there are members with email addresses who prefer the paper version because of its familiarity and readability.

Mike, Dave Lerner, and Dick Comerford attended the fall BRSC meeting in Richmond on September 27th. PVS will be hosting the spring meeting on May 2^nd. Dave Lerner and Dick Comerford are coordinating the event.

An article about the Club written by Charter member Ron Fett appeared in the Washington Post, Times Herald on November 15, 1968. It coincided with the third anniversary of the Club. The article came to Dave Warthen’s attention several months ago. Dave suggested that the article be added to the PVS website. Excom endorsed the idea. Dave will also send the piece electronically to Excom members for their perusal.

Minutes submitted by Mary Beale, Secretary