Approved Minutes from Ottawa Orienteering Club Board Meeting

 

Date: December 4, 2007

Location: Guttormson's

 

In attendance: Stefan Bergstrom, Linda Connell, Bill Meldrum, Peter Laurich, Richard Guttormson, Cherie Revells, Bill Anderson, Andrew Cornett, Brian Graham, Karen Tippet, Lorna Guttormson

 

  1. Agenda adopted with minor modifications
  2. Minutes from June, 2007 meeting

·        Moved for approval by Andrew; seconded by Karen; carried

  1. Review of 2007 events – Andrew

·        Handout passed out

·        All OOC and LGO events included

·        6 new meet directors

·        Mountain bike O

·        Welcome meet was a new addition and went well

·        Summer Solstice participation continues to decline (2007 < 2006 < 2005)

·        Rogaine was a success again this year

·        OOC & LGO cancelled 1 event each

·        26 OOC events in total; 15 of them were B meets

·        Higher number of starts than last year but this is likely the result of more events rather than more participants at the events

·        Ski O and snow shoe O in Deep River

·        Bill Meldrum and others were involved in a number of beginner clinics through Trail Head

  1. Juniors – Cherie

·        Handout provided

·        OQ has established funding of up to $150 per Junior for travel, accommodation and meet costs for Juniors if matched by the club. OQ has set aside $2,000; we should do the same

·        We have 10 to 14 active juniors in the club of which 8 to 10 were regulars

·        Each junior who went to the nationals training camp (Sass Peepre)  will get $115 from OQ Rod Roy Fund

·        Need more help coaching – Brian volunteered to get involved as well

·        Bill M suggested getting some of the more experienced, older juniors to assist as well

  1. Publicity & meet registration – Linda

·        Brochures – we have used brochures (rather simple and plain). Do we continue with this, improve the brochures or just have the information on the website? We agreed that the brochure would be simpler and more eye-catching.

·        Bill M suggested that brochures are useful in places like stores.

·        Welcome meet went very well. Linda will try it again in 2008

·        Andrew suggested that a clinic at the beginning of the fall season would be useful as well.

·        We should be doing more to attract out of town participants. Can we get a list of contact email addresses for other clubs? Bill A offered to give Linda the email address of his contact in Kingston.

·        Should we do something with the email addresses of the non-members? They add this information to registration forms that are then sent to Michael McConnail where they go into long-term storage. This should be raised to the next Board.

·        See Linda Connell if you have any ideas on publicity. Action: All

·        Need to make sure that license numbers are put onto the registration forms

·        Pre-registration does not really provide additional value. Bills A’s meet and Linda’s meet had about 50% advance registration

·        Late finishes (& starts) – reference Linda Connell’s pre-meeting email. Some people are very late. No real resolution on what to do about late starts other than to leave it as is – advise people that the courses are closing and that controls will be taken down. Other suggestions to help curb the late finishes include not giving them a final time and showing their status as OT in the results.

  1. Membership – Steve

·        Had approx 145 people registered this year; down approx 70 from 215 last year

·        Most of the decrease was in the limited membership category where we had a huge influx one year.

·        In a follow-up discussion the suggestion was made that most of the drop in registered members was due to the restructuring of the fee structure where limited members now have to pay a small fee.

·        Steve will follow up with a more detailed email on the membership within a week.

  1. 2010 COC – Bill Anderson

·        we have a problem with a key landowner not wanting to let us access his property for the COCs. It would be difficult to work without his land. We need to do more to engage landowners.

·        We are meeting with the City to share information on our plans. Once the City approves it, we will start with the base map.

·        Brian Graham volunteered to assist in contacting landowners

·        Foley Mountain is our backup site for the COCs. It is a great spot but somewhat limited in size.

  1. Finances – Karen

·        Handout provided

·        Made money again this year in spite of a plan that should have seen us with a deficit

·        Motion to accept the financial statement by Brian, seconded by Andrew and carried.

·        2008 budget:

·    draft budget presented followed by discussion

·    decided to increase Jr budget from $1,000 to $2,000

a.       added $1,000 for meet director expenses

·    added $9,000 for mapping (fly some base maps is a possibility)

·    added $2,000 for SI units

·    draft budget approval motion by Andrew, seconded by Cherie and approved by all.

  1. Planning 2008 – Andrew

·        Bill Anderson volunteered to be a course setter for the A meet. Still need a meet director for the A meet. The meet will likely be held on the long weekend in May on the Sedbergh map

·        Frederic to organize a Rogaine again

  1. Mapping update – Stefan

·        Sedbergh map ready for the spring

·        Motion: that the club will pay for mapping if someone puts in a proposal with a cost and a timeline and the proposal gets approval. This is open to anyone in the club. Motion moved by Cherie, seconded by Brian and carried

·        This motion to be added to the club policies and procedures

  1. NCC – Richard

·        No dogs are allowed at events in the Park. Has problems with some dogs at one of the last events

·        Bill Meldrum is collection the numbers of entrants and copies of the maps for all events in the Park. This will be passed to the NCC

·        Bill Meldrum is concerned that there may be a problem in the part if there are too many meets. How do we control the # of events by people who are buying our maps? This problem is most acute at Kingsmere. We should not sell any Kingsmere maps to any other group at all.

·        Bill Anderson is aware of all of the groups who purchase maps from us and they are generally using the maps in a responsible manner.

·        Richard suggested that we ask the NCC how to handle this situation. Advise them that we are not in a position to control what other groups do.

  1. Officials training – Richard

·        Who will take over from Pat?

·        LGO has stated that they will put on an officials clinic that will be open to OOC members as well

  1. LGO relationship

·        Richard spoke with Colin regarding a merger of the two clubs. Colin was against this as it has always led to fewer organized events where clubs have amalgamated in other areas.

·        Decided to modify the schedule more clearly indicate who the organizing club is. The goal is to make it clear which events OOC is organizing. The suggestion was made that we have one table on the website for OOC events and a second table for events put on by other clubs.

·        Generally people were in agreement that we should continue to work cooperatively with LGOC and ensure that we do not create hard feelings.

·        As the prime organizers of the Summer Solstice Series, we should feel free to set the locations for the events – or at least to approve them. Many were in agreement that the sites used by LGO (Green’s Creek and Rockliffe Park) are poor choices to use every year

  1. SI – Cherie

·        Cherie and Mike can’t do it next year so we need to find a new SI crew

  1. AGM – Richard

·        Can’t use the Glebe Community Centre this year so we need to find an alternate location.

·        Peter to look for an alternate location for January 19th or 26th. Need a spot for 40 to 50 people that has a kitchen and is wheelchair accessible

·        Cherie to organize a social activity

  1. Nomination Committee – Richard

·        Richard sent an email to Linda Scrivens to see if she would lead the nomination committee. She has not yet responded to Richard’s email.

  1. Recycle map cases – covered in an email – its up to people if they want to do it or not. Registration volunteers are to ask if participants want a map case.
  2. Meet Directors reporting procedures – covered in emails but not resolved – leave to next Board.
  3. Cost of SI card for members – leave this to the next Board
  4. Waivers – Richard

·        Our current waiver does not apply to minors so the wording needs to be modified

·        The wording also needs to include text indicating that the English language is used by agreement of the parties involved, as is required in Quebec.

·        The next Board needs to address waivers as a priority issue.

  1. Other business:

·        OQ – Bill Anderson

·        Meeting attended by Bill, Randy & ?

·        There are about 100 members in Quebec

·        The relationship between the clubs in Montreal is not great

·        Nomination award

·        Richard is struggling with the form download

·        We don’t understand the criteria but the award appears to be geared to excellent juniors

·        Names including Robbie, Emily, Alexander, Laura T & Margus were discussed

·        Cherie volunteered to collect results from the club juniors and circulate it to the Board

 

Prepared by Peter Laurich,

09-Dec-2007