Minutes – PVS Excom Meeting – March 24, 2009

The meeting was held at the home of Marsha and David Warthen. Present were Mary Beale, Sara and Charlie Huggins, Dick Laeser, Sue Lyon, Carolyn Maurer-DeVilbiss, Ray McKinley, Ruth Powers, Mike Strand, Dottie Villers, and Dave Warthen.

Minutes from the February 24^th Conference call meeting were approved as corrected.

Dick Laeser provided the Treasurer’s Report. The Club’s bank balance ($11655.09) has gone up, noted Dick, in part because members are not submitting their expenses. Several individuals said that they had receipts for expenses to give to Dick. Dick encouraged them to do so.

Events & Meetings

Mar 24 Excom: Dave Warthen May 2 BRSC Meeting – Best Western Fairfax

April 1 Mike Hatanaka Birthday Celebration May 19 Meeting: Pat Vagonis

Apr 21 Annual Meeting: Sherri and Tom McKenna May 26 Excom: Kerry Hines

Apr 28 Excom: Carolyn Maurer-DeVilbiss June 16 Meeting: Ilse Keel

May 1 Ski Trip Expo – Bethesda June 23 Excom:

The May 1^st Ski Expo is primarily for ski trip leaders. Mike and Eloise Strand, Dottie, Marty Rine, Charlie and Sara Huggins, and Dave and Carolyn DeVilbiss will be attending. Ski Trip Committee leader, Rosemary Schwartzbard, is keeping the list of attendees. Dave Lerner has been the chief organizer for the PVS hosted May 2^nd BRSC meeting. Generally the BRSC meetings wrap up around 2:30 or 3 in the afternoon. This year BRSC will be subsidizing three attendees from each club by paying $24 of the $49 attendance fee. Mike has recommended that Dave Lerner, Rosemary, Charlie, and Dottie attend. It’s not unusual for five members of the host club to attend. Mike designated Dave, Rosemary, and Charlie as the voting members for PVS since each club is limited to three.

Dottie announced that she plans to organize another Wolf Trap evening for members. Last year the event was preceded by a picnic. It was a great success.

Membership Report Dave Warthen provided an updated Membership Report (3-24-09). Dave continues to give assistance across many fronts. In addition to helping Mike Strand with the March TOOT, he provided the monthly “Membership Corner” and both a write-up of the Obama Inauguration and a moving tribute to Mike Hatanaka. An enthusiastic ski club member, Mike passed away in February ’09. Dave sent out the electronic versions of TOOT and assisted Carolyn and David DeVilbiss with the USPS mailings. As in the past, Dave sent out email reminders of meetings (using the PVS Database) and emergency announcements when needed (using the Hotline distribution list).

In honor of Mike Hatanaka and as a gesture of appreciation to his close friends, Alan and Caroline Gelb, Dave assembled a photo album (38 pictures) of Mike’s 2001-09 adventures with PVS. The album will be presented to the Gelbs during a dinner on April 1^st at their home. Mike would have turned 80 on April 1^st. Dave wrote a dedication to the Gelbs thanking them for everything they had done on Mike’s behalf. Dave will be sending a duplicate copy of the album to Mike’s brother in Japan. He also created a CD of the 38 photos with captions. Robert Gelb will show the photos on a large screen at the April 1^st dinner. Dave said that he particularly benefitted from input provided by Barbara Leonhardt. “This is the first time I’ve done a photo album on-line,” said Dave. “It takes a long time and repeated proof reading.” He was happy with the way that it turned out. Mike said that the Club would cover the cost of the duplicate albums ($60.84) and any postage fees incurred.

There are four applicant members who have satisfied the requirements for full membership (Angie Hale, Ingrid Dallaire, Louann and Bob Eadie). A couple from Columbia, Maryland (Ray Rosenbaum and Kelly Wolslayer) who went on the Taos trip has emailed Dave requesting an application.

Ski Trip Status A January ’10 Snowmass trip has been approved. Dottie and Marty Rine are looking into a Jackson Hole, Wyoming trip for the last week of February ‘10. Dick Comerford may be leading a PVS contingent on the BRSC European trip (Euro fest) to Bormio, Italy (3/6-3/14/10). The deadline for ski trip proposals is April 15. The April TOOT will include a reminder.

Ski Trip Statistics Charlie Huggins went on the Internet to determine how many states one can ski in. It turns out “lots”. There is skiing available in 38 states. There are even ski areas in states as far south as Tennessee (1), Georgia (1), and Alabama (1). There are approximately 396 ski areas in the US with Wisconsin (39) and Michigan (32) leading the pack. Colorado weighed in with 26, Utah 13, New Mexico 8, and Wyoming 11.

Concentrating on skiing within the Club, Charlie found that 35% (62/176) of individuals in the PVS roster went on PVS trips in 08-09. This compares to 33% in 07-08 and 45% in 06-07. There were 33 Club members (+5 guests) on the Snowmass trip, 23 on the Park City trip, 17 (+4 guests) on the Taos trip, and 3 who took a long weekend at WISP. Fourteen PVS members went on two trips. No one went on three. Mike thanked Charlie for attending tonight’s meeting and for maintaining accurate records for the Club.

Annual Meeting The nominees for President (Dottie Villers), Vice President (Kerry Hines), and the Executive Committee (Ellie Thayer, John Seabold, and Cara Jablon) will be proposed to the membership at the April 21^st Annual meeting. Applicant members qualifying for full membership will also be put to a vote either by ballot or by acclamation.

Sign-up Packet Coordination One of the functions that Carolyn and David DeVilbiss have performed while serving on the Membership Committee has been to maintain a uniform sign-up and collection system at the monthly meetings. They created a set of guidelines and a sign-up packet for meeting hosts. Now that their term is ending, Carolyn has drafted a description of their duties (“Instructions for PVS Meeting Sign-up Coordinator”) to pass on to their successors(s).

PVS Website Several deficiencies on the Club website that were brought up during the last meeting have been addressed. The Fett and Beale Washington Post articles about the Club have been posted. Names of the Club officers and Excom members have been updated. However, eight links on photo gallery still do not work. It was suggested that the links be deleted if the photos weren’t available. It was agreed that it was important to keep the website current. The Internet is one way in which the Club is advertised. MetaNames (keywords for search engines) need to appear on the site so that Internet surfers interested in skiing will be directed there. “I think this should be an ongoing topic for Excom at each meeting,” said Carolyn. Mike agreed. Charlie said that it would help to have someone younger involved. “It makes a difference. More energy.”

TOOT Editing Guidelines Dave Warthen summarized his feelings about TOOT by saying “temporary editors have done an excellent job but they’re not the Marxes”. He went on to explain that when photos are inserted, they cannot be high resolution because there is not enough room. There are techniques available to compress pictures. Dave describes these and other aspects of the editing process in his “TOOT Format Suggestions for Temporary Editors. 11-3-08 (Revised 3-29-09)”.

Toot Management Kerry Hines will be editor of the May TOOT. Carolyn and David DeVilbiss have volunteered again to mail out the printed copies.

Summer Schedule for Meetings/Excom/TOOT In the summer of 2008, the Marxes put out the June TOOT and a combined July/August TOOT (sent out on June 30). Marvin Hass was guest editor for the September TOOT (sent out August 25^th in part to remind members of the early September Crab fest. The Crab fest was ultimately cancelled). Marvin was also guest editor of the October TOOT. The 2008 June and August Excom meetings were held at members’ homes. The July meeting was held by conference call.

Mike thanked departing Excom members and others for their contributions. Members present thanked Mike for his service as President.

Minutes submitted by Mary Beale, secretary.