Director's Report by Bob Papp, Executive Director
Written report in board packet

Legislative Status- 2 issues
• Willing seller
• Funding

• 8% decline overall, but reflects usual drop off of direct mail campaigns at 6 mon intervals
• now in transition to one per year direct mail
• steady base of memberships is still increasing

• Have increased by factor of 40 in 10 years
• Average amount of money given per membership is also increasing

Financial Report- report by John Leinen
Written report in board packet

• Revenues lagging a little, but so are expenses
• Negative $5K balance at 6-month point is not alarming especailly with annual appeal still ahead
• Papp- direct mail campaign still ahead also Economy concerns may drop response to under 1%
• Papp- line 60- cash reserve set aside which can offset negative balance if needed
• Tait- what is the status of equipment to solved computer problems
• Papp- equipment is not problem, set-up is
• Leinen- Business Dues are weak- BOD members are supposed to bring in these
• Blount- Ameritech grants disappeared when SBC acquired them- may be reinstated

NPS Report - by Tom Gilbert
Written report in board packet

• Introduced Ken Howell as Land Protection Coordinator for NPS in Madison office
• Trail Manager position still empty, but eligible list of applicants is almost complete. Hope to have it filled by late September
• How to acquire land even if we had authority and money?
  • Trail corridor boundaries are more fuzzy- hard for Management Authorities to deal with
  • Will be meeting in Ashland, WI to try to get purchases begun- Ken will work on this
• Arrowhead Reroute Planning Process with be reactivated
• No new certifications to report
• Gilbert has committed the bulk of new money to go to establish regional field offices
• Willing Seller- reality-with authority will come management responsibility
  • There will not be staff available, might be agreement with volunteers org
  • AT is model
  • Points out need for field offices along the trail
• Mountain Biking issue-- We are still sorting out responses which will be sent. We will need to sit down face to face with them
  • Veit- board had authorized him to write response to NPS
  • Also wrote to IMBA
  • Letter focused on assertions made in the statement paper
• Blount- NY Times article on bikes vs. hiking trails
• Tom Ross was scheduled to attend this meeting, will be arriving tomorrow
• NPS has continual failure to recognize trails as units of the National Trail System
• Confusion over who has the right to speak for certain trails
• Points out need for Unit Status
• Ross has talked with Papp, and is interested in "mending fences"
• Tait- AT has agreement with each State and many agencies over who has jurisdiction for problems. Thinks we should begin to consider similar agreements

Cartography Report presented by Tiffany Halfmann

• 2 new 1:100,000 maps, 2 more ready soon
• Grant for more software- just came 2 weeks ago, getting up to speed
• Yost- how are map sales?
  • Need to defer question to Glory
  • Most of web orders are for maps
• Tait- is there a revision policy
  • Maps have date
  • Update looked at annually.. but will not print till stock runs out
• Tait- do we throw maps away?
  Only if there is something seriously wrong
• Papp- open to input on priorities for production
  • Want hot spots of use
  • Try to stay away from Affiliate mapped areas
  • 1:000,000 have better margin- we are switching to all those
• Halfmann- usually print 150 for first run, but need 1-2K for commercial printing
• Comments from Cador Olive who is hiking parts of trail are generally good

Trail Foreman Report by Bill Menke
Written report in board packet

• In transition to retirement- functions in NPS office doing some work
• Also is working on land purchase issue in Wisconsin, contacting owners, flagging routes
• Getting to backlog of GPS files, computer problems have impacted this

Report on North Star by Werner Veit

• Next issue will have better software, should be big improvements
• New Feature will be new or improved trail since previous issue
• Wants State Coordinator of TC Chair to check on trail updates from chapters / 3 months
  • Beye- NY
  • Tait- PA
  • Dill/ Sprague- OH
  • Norlin- WI
  • Leinen- MN
  • No assignment in MI

Website Report by Joan Young
Written report in board packet
Hits at 596/day
Contest had 42 entrants- high time investment, but increased hits, and received lots of good comments

Priorities:
• redesign of site
• searchable event calendar
• NPS manual on line still waiting for software

Development Committee report by Rich Harris

• Have been looking at the direction we should be going
• Hiring of Development Director has evolved by looking at how to use Papp's strengths
• Ongoing discussion of what positions we should create
• May ask for consultant to help with this plan
• No specific report at this point

How and when to support Common Causes raised by Gaylord Yost
Environmental happenings, comments on development near trail, etc

• Would like board to authorize Exec Dir to review these requests and draft responses
• Veit- issues need to relate to trail
• Dill- OH uses standard answer can be to request info.. this ends most requests
• Szabo- this is a serious problem from groups who are ill-informed, and increasing in frequency

Using Key Measures by Bob Tait
Written proposal in board packet

• Need to give people a way to measure progress
• Menke- signed connector miles are available, blazed roads could be added, e.g. Ohio
• Chapters and Council Chairs can answer some of this.

Chain Saw Training by Bob Tait
Proposes that State Coordinators look at training process that AT uses for chain saw training

• Veit- FS has their own required training
• Blount- could fit into same kind of agreement between management agencies