Minutes - PVS Excom Meeting - April 26, 2011

The meeting was held at the home of Rosemary and Dick Schwartzbard. Present were Mary Beale, Melissa Fitzgerald, Reg Heitchue, John Holt, Cara Jablon, Jan Marx, and Rosemary and Dick Schwartzbard.

The March 22, 2011 Minutes and the April 24, 2011 Treasurer’s Report (submitted electronically and showing a combined Savings plus Checking Account balance of $12,057.15) were approved.

The April 26, 2011 Membership Report submitted electronically by Dave Warthen indicated that the Club currently has 130 “Active Members”. Dave continues to provide the feature, “Members’ Corner”, for the monthly TOOT. He also sends the TOOT electronically to all but 10 PVS members (the latter receiving the snail mail version). He reports that there were no complaints from the 22 members whose MS-Word versions of TOOT were changed recently to the pdf format.

Events and Meetings:

April 29 – Ski Travel Show (Bethesda) June 21 – monthly meeting (Warren-Boulton)

May 1 – BRSC meeting June 28 – Excom meeting (Beale)

May 17 – monthly meeting (Knopes) July 17 – All Trips Party (Lawrence)

May 24 – Excom meeting (TBA)

Several members of the Club plan to attend the Ski Travel Show including Rosemary and Dick Schwartzbard, Carolyn and Dave DeVilbiss, Jan Marx, Dave Lerner, and Charlie Huggins. Rosemary, Cara, and Dave Lerner will be attending the spring BRSC meeting that will be held in Columbia on May 1^st.

Betty Lawrence will be hosting the All Trips Party again this summer. Betty welcomes assistance from members. Rosemary suggested that a few people arrive early to help out. Jan said that she would like to arrange another hike for some time in May. She’s thinking about the area near the Maryland side of Great Falls.

Ski Trip Committee Report:

The Snowmass 2012 trip (Jan 18-25) has 8 people signed up. More are expected. Carolyn DeVilbiss and Sharon Mulholland are back by popular demand as co-leaders. Accommodations will be at PVS favorite, Mountain Chalet.

The Andorra (March 1-12) 2012 trip has 40 people signed up. It will begin with a 3 night stay in Barcelona. The McKinley’s who will be leading the PVS contingent on the trip are offering a four night extension (March 12-16) in Madrid.

While there has been mention of a third ski trip in 2012, possibly to Telluride, Rosemary would like to save it for 2013. In the meantime, she wants to encourage local skiing. Cara suggested developing a roster of members who would be interested in local or away skiing that might materialize unexpectedly. “We might be able to get a bunch of people to go to Park City with just a one month advance notice. We can be creative. As the Club changes, we have to change.”

TOOT: Jan Marx will be editor of the May TOOT, Dave Warthen of the June TOOT, and Marvin Hass of the July/August Supplement. Barbara Leonhardt and Sharon Mulholland will continue to print and distribute the snail mail version of the newsletter in deference to the few members who do not receive TOOT electronically.

New Business:

Summer activities and volunteers to lead activities – In recent years the Club has enjoyed a night at Wolf Trap during the summer, especially when there has been a show with wide appeal. The last few have been organized by Dottie Villers (now living in North Carolina) and have included a picnic on the adjacent grounds beforehand. The Heitchues have hosted a gathering at their Annapolis home on two occasions in the past which have been popular with members. Someone raised the possibility of hiking in WISP where a few members have homes. Cara welcomes additional suggestions.

Member recruitment – Participation in ski clubs is down. The SCWDC has about 2000 members now whereas several years ago, it had about 6000 members. Cara related that she had gone on a couple of Slopeduster trips. She described the Slopedusters as an ad hoc group of enthusiastic skiers. “Not a formal club.” Several members of PVS are familiar with Slopedusters and receive their emails. Cara inquired about the possibility of offering Slopedusters membership in PVS. Dick Schwartzbard pointed out that Slopedusters didn’t need to be members to participate in PVS trips. “I like your idea of trying to link up with other clubs,” said John Holt. Reg suggested writing to Slopedusters and conveying the fact that we have mutual interests. He recommended sending them the June TOOT which will have information about the All Trips Party as well as the fliers for the 2012 trips. “Invite them to join us on the trips,” said Reg.

Website updates – Cara reported that Dave Lerner has made a lot of updates to the Club Website. Dave is the Club Webmaster.

Programs for monthly meetings – Cara noted that there are opportunities for members to share their interests and talents through presentations at our monthly meetings. “Those who travel could share their experiences,” said Cara. She asked Jan to put something in TOOT inviting members to talk about recent trips they have taken. People could sign up to do presentations. “They should be short,” added Cara.

Update of Bylaws – In the future Cara would like to revise the Club Bylaws particularly pertaining to the trip leaders. In its current form there may be too much responsibility placed upon the trip leaders.

Survey of members about meeting days and times – there was general agreement within Excom that Sunday afternoons were a better meeting time than Tuesday evenings in the winter. A motion was made and approved to have the holiday meeting on a Sunday afternoon this year. The March monthly meeting should also be on a Sunday afternoon because it still gets dark early and the weather can be iffy in March. A recommendation was also made to omit one of the winter meetings entirely because people are away skiing.

Before adjourning, it was decided that there would not be a May Excom meeting. If issues arise they can be decided by communicating through email. There will be a June Excom.

Submitted by Mary Beale, Secretary