Spirit of the Woods minutes of meeting of November 13, 2001

Members present were Joan Young, Gordon & Betty Wilkes, Ed & Nan Chappel, Robert Campbell, Stub & Pat Willick, Char Holly, and Ramona Venegas.

Meeting was called to order at 7:00 pm, by President Joan Young. Membership is at 64. No treasurer's report was available. New contact lists for members were passed out, and the Fall Newsletter is also printed.

Coming activities include Dec 8 hike. The work day to make routed signs was altered due to the wood which had been ordered not arriving. The router also had to be exchanged for one which was not defective. We will reschedule.

Please bring some cookies to share to the December business meeting.

Trail Work:
• All the blazing is completed!
• Turn signals near 96th St. still need to be fixed
• 4 carsonite posts are being added on two-tracks between Centerline and McCarthy Lake
• Ed is planning for 200 ft. of puncheon N of Highbridge, cost about $600
• Continue work in Sterling Marsh. It is about 1/3 done. We will lay the edging and prison crew will fill
• Ed Chappel needs to know ahead of time who is coming to work days. This summer there were problems with fitting the amount and kind of work to the people who showed up.

Forest Service Issues:
The trail now seems to cross Tribal Land north of Blacksmith Bayou. The Forest Service is not really allowed to contact them, but Ramona will check with Gary Cole to see if he knows the status of the problem. Ed does not think that we actually are crossing their posted area. We might write to the Council after we hear from Gary.

National Park Service Issues:
New Trail Manager has just been hired. Fred Szarka will take over this position on Jan. 14, 2002.

Charter Changes:
The Traverse City Chapter wants to take over the section north of Marilla Trailhead to the Forest Boundary. If we agree to this we need to change our Chapter Charter. There are many issues relative to this since it will add a management authority to their relationships and also will force the Forest to deal with yet another chapter. Joan will contact TC Club and see if they are willing to reconsider.

Meeting adjourned at 7:40 pm.

For Trail Time, Vice-President Char Holly showed a video about Egypt and added commentary based on her trip to that country this past spring.