Minutes – PVS Excom Meeting – September 22, 2009

The meeting was held at the home of Mary Beale. Present were Mary Beale, Kerry Hines, Cara Jablon, Dick Laeser, Sue Lyon, Ray McKinley, Rosemary Schwartzbard, Mike Strand, and Dottie Villers.

The Minutes from the August 25^th Excom meeting were approved as corrected.

Dick Laeser provided the Treasurer’s Report. The Club received $515 in membership dues. The current balance is $14,610.90.

Membership: Dave Warthen provided the Membership Report electronically. Dave is guest editor for the October TOOT. The renewal period for 2009-2011 expires on October 31^st. Dave has provided a list of the members who have not yet renewed. Dottie read the names aloud. Several Excom members volunteered to contact people on the list. Ray and Dottie received the lion’s share. In a recent email, Jan Marx suggested sending a final reminder out to delinquent members in mid October.

Dottie has been in contact with David Callaway who is in his second year on Excom. Dave has chosen to withdraw from Excom. Dottie asked for recommendations to fill his term which ends in April 2010. The names of Liz Warren-Boulton and Louann Eadie were both proposed.

Excom discussed ways to increase Club membership. “Getting young members is clearly what we need to do,” said Dottie. Rosemary added that the best way to increase membership was through ski trips and members bringing in new people. Concerns had been raised in the past about whether the Club website contained words that an individual interested in skiing organizations would use in a Google search. Dick Laeser volunteered to look into the situation. For example, would PVS come up if someone Googled ski clubs of Washington DC? Rosemary reported that she had heard comments about low membership among young adults during a BRSC meeting. “They’re not joiners.” Ray asked if the Club could get a Face Book page. Dick Laeser said that he would ask Dave Lerner what he thought about the Club having a presence in the social network.

Events & Meetings:

October 2 – Fife and Drum Dinner (Warren-Boulton) October 27 – Excom (R Schwartzbard)

October 18 – Oktoberfest (D Villers/L Eadie) November 17 – Monthly meeting (Ski Center)

October 20 – Monthly meeting (M Beale) December 8 – Nov/Dec Excom

October 22 – Frank Shelburne Hike (M Rine) December 15 – Xmas party (McKenna’s)

Eloise Strand has volunteered to provide refreshments for the November 17th Ski Center meeting. Brian Eardley will be presenting the latest ski equipment.

Rosemary suggested that the January and February Excom meetings be held by conference call. (It was unanimous).

There are now five people on the 2010 Anniversary Party committee: Dottie, Ray, Rachel Abraham, Suzanne Boisclair, and Betty Lawrence. Dottie will contact Jan Marx to see if she would join them. An October meeting is being planned.

Ski Trip Committee (STC): Long time Club member and STC Chair Bob Marx passed away on

September 7^th, 2009. Rosemary who has been acting Chair said that she would continue if the Club wanted her to. “You’ve done a terrific job,” said Dottie. Everyone agreed. Rosemary said that she would put a reminder in TOOT that the Club needs ideas for trips in ’10-’11 and volunteers to lead them. Mike Strand said that he liked the idea of trip leader mentoring. “If someone hasn’t run a trip before for PVS, a good thing to do would be to link up with trip leaders this year.” Rosemary plans to speak to the Eadies who are going on the Snowmass trip in January. They have been mentioned before as potential trip leaders. Dottie said that she would look over the list of people going to Jackson Hole to see if there are any candidates for mentoring among them.

TOOT Editorship: Kerry Hines will be guest editor of TOOT in November and December followed by Mike Strand in January and February. Dottie has emailed Jan Marx to let her know that if down the line she would like to return as editor of TOOT, she would be welcomed. Carolyn DeVilbiss has volunteered to do the snail mail for the November and December issues of TOOT.

Other Business: The fall BRSC meeting is coming up on October 17^th at Tyson’s Corner. A motion was put forth and approved for Rosemary, Dottie, and Dave Lerner to attend as the Club’s 3 representatives.

A funeral service for Bob Marx is being held on October 10^th. The Club is making a donation to the National Marrow Donor Program in Bob’s name. Bob and Jan received a grant from the Program to help with drugs and housing.

Dick Laeser shared a plan that he has developed which could potentially increase participation in ski trips and boost Club membership. He suggested that the Club partner with some of the local chapters of alumni associations for ski trips. The advantage for the alumni associations would be that the planning would be done by PVS at no additional cost. Dick thought that the ideal trip to start the process would be Snowmass in 2010. Excom was very receptive to his ideas. Dick said that he would approach his local alumni club first to gauge the level of interest.

Minutes submitted by Mary Beale, secretary