Spirit of the Woods -September 12, 2000 minutes

Minutes of September 12, 2000 Meeting

For Trail Time we watched the video, Discovering the North Country Trail, produced by Senator Carl Levin. Joan added some comments updating statistics at the end.

Meeting was called to order at 7:50 by President Joan Young. Minutes of the August 8th meeting were read. Correction was made to the balance in the Operating Fund. August balance should have been $802.41. Char Holly moved to approved the minutes as corrected, Ramona seconded. Passed.

Membership is at 61 with two current requests for information from newly interested people. Treasurer Ed Chappel has worked with the NCTA office to determine the correct balance in our account. This is currently $781.53. Final accounting on National Trails Day shows us to have finished in the black with a balance of $52.85.

Keeping in mind that the trail marking is our year’s Challenge Cost Share Grant project, reports on the progress were solicited from trail section adopters. There are about 12 miles of trail that are not blazed in blue yet, and lots of posts and stickers to update. People volunteered to help finish the blazing. Several people are working on the sign updating.

Mary Soule reported that Harold does not have the right tools to make routed signs but she has contacted Brook Shafer about making them and he is willing to donate the labor if we pay for materials. Joan reported that we need to spend our remaining $235 within the next two weeks or we will lose it because the NPS closes the books on the yearly grant accounts. We need to turn in an invoice to them for that amount of money. There was discussion about whether materials for the signs would cost that much. No one knew for sure. Char moved to approve Brook Shafer to purchase wood and bits to make routed signs for Spirit of the Woods for $235. Stuart Wolf seconded. The motion passed. Joan will contact Mary to make sure the invoice is turned in on time.

Ramona Venegas reported on Forest Service issues. She has attempted to update the District Rangers about the trail and the chapter. She encouraged them to use the web site to stay informed. Ramona reports the ongoing problem with quad runners; she is no longer issuing warnings, but is giving $100 tickets. She has literature available to give to users on the regulations. The trail re-route north of Skocelas Road has been approved. On October 2, the trail from Marilla to Red Bridge will be closed. Helicopters will be used to plant trees for fish habitat along the river. Another group has filed for a permit to remove trees from the river!

Joan mentioned that we could be using the Trail Council as more of a resource, but our representative, Gordon Wilkes was not present to report.

Past chapter activities:

12 of our folks joined with 13 Grand Traverse Hikers on August 26. Char reports that everyone seemed to have a good time. It was a nice route, we saw bottle (closed) gentian, good informative comments were made about funding such construction projects.
About 80 NCTA people met to hike the Mackinac Bridge. 13 of them were from SPW. 1750 bandanas with trail info were given out. Mary reported that the lodge was hard to find, but the walk was fun. Nan said they talked to many people who liked to hike but had not heard of the NCT. Joan explained why the NCTA booth was off the main street (Mackinaw City does not allow “outsiders” downtown). She added that this fulfilled the NCTA’s requirement to host a Millennium Trails event.
The backpacking trip had 6 participants in various segments. The Sunday portion was canceled due to heavy rain.

Coming activities: Joan has the opportunity to attend a conference in Clarion, PA. The NPS, NFS and NCTA will continue to discuss the progress toward the Desired Future Condition of the Trail. Chapter Presidents who have trail within National Forests are urged to attend. This will mean Joan will be gone for the regular October meeting date. However, there is an option to change the October meeting to directly follow the boardwalk dedication on October 14. Ed Chappel moved to change the Oct. meeting to follow the dedication ceremony. Nan Chappel seconded. The motion carried.

Steve Webster reported that everything is nearly done for the Striders Run on Sept 23. He distributed maps to help workers find their stations. He will call the people who have signed up to help, to give them more information.

There was little further discussion about the change in procedure for conducting future business. Ed Chappel moved to extend Trail Time to a longer segment of the meeting and to give the Executive Committee power to make more decisions. Char seconded and the motion passed.

Joan read the by-laws’ descriptions of the officers’ duties, then turned the meeting over to the Nominating Committee chair, Angie Addington. She presented a slate of candidates: Joan Young, President; Char Holly, Vice President; Ed Morse, Secretary; and Mary Soule, Treasurer. Young commented that she will appoint the Vice President to be in charge of organizing the presenters for Trail Time. There were no nominations from the floor. Dave Bass moved to close the nominations and accept the slate of candidates. Seconded by Judy Bass and the officers were elected as proposed. Volunteers for non-elected rolls are: Ramona Venegas, Government Liaison; Angie Addington, Newsletter Editor; and Ed Chappel, Trail Work Coordinator and Trail Council Representative.

Joan commented again that the Executive Committee meetings would be open for anyone to attend. She added that the key to making this system work is to have a large enough Exec Com so that several people will always be available to help make decisions. Char moved to add the Govt. Liaison, Trail Council Rep and Trail coordinator positions to the Committee. Nan seconded and the motion passed. Young asked for a nomination to add Newsletter Editor to the Committee. Mary so moved, Ed seconded. Carried.

Angie asked that the fall newsletter deadline be set at September 25. This way a report on the Strider’s Run could be included, and the letter might be ready to be given out at the Boardwalk Dedication.

Young reminded everyone of the importance of turning in volunteer hours to be used to leverage federal money for the trail. Ed gave out copies of the form to record this time.

Mary moved to adjourn at 9:50, seconded by Ed. Meeting adjourned.

Members Present: Dave and Judy Bass, Joan Young, Jerry Freels, Maureen Haupert, Mary Soule, Char Holly, Steve Webster, Ramona Venegas, Angie and Mark Addington (Forrest), Ed and Nan Chappel, Stuart Wolf.

Guest Present: Mark Nelson