Present: Karen Buswell, Janet Kopp, Gerry Vangen, Gina Hammes, Bill Fuhrmann, and Todd Murray
We started the meeting with a discussion of club officers. Lee is unable to continue as club president due to other commitments, so we discussed electing a club president. The main need for a club president is to organize the meetings. Also, it would be helpful to tell people who the club president is, since some people are confused and pass materials to other people whom they believe are the president. We unanimously decided to elect Bill as our club president, citing his willingness to be helpful (e.g. the club newsletter). Gerry Vangen was elected as the vice president, and Todd Murray became secretary. (Probably because I always take notes at the meetings.) I believe Karen Buswell is continuing as treasurer, though I don't have that in my notes. Janet Kopp offered to help out with social stuff and to recruit volunteers.
We also discussed the newsletter briefly. We would like to get more people interested in the newsletter and contributing to it. Eric and Doug are working together on an article about drafting. We also considered the possibility of offering newsletters via PDF or e-mail.
We had a short discussion about the spring picnic. There are two or three shelters at Oak Grove Park in Brooklyn Park, but they cost money to reserve. Bill will figure out how much this costs. We could probably handle $50 or so for the rental costs. One point of interest is whether the bathrooms will be unlocked.
We talked about club jerseys. Voler makes jerseys that can be personalized or imprinted. Janet has a catalog, and Kim (Schauss?) was looking at designing it.
The next wheel rotation date is December 6. Gerry asked for more volunteers to help rotate wheels.
Bill has been looking at new trails. There is apparently a trail by Highway 55 by Fort Snelling that goes between the south side of Minnehaha Park and Historic Fort Snelling. This connects to the Mendota Bridge and is above the river bluff. (This is not the same as the trail that heads downhill from Minnehaha Park into Fort Snelling State Park. That trail follows the old Milwaukee Road railroad bed, but it's in fairly rough condition.)
Lee is going to start doing the hotline messages. She will update it about every two weeks during the slow winter months.
We had a discussion about the trail reviews on the Web site. Some of the trail descriptions and information need updating. We should ask people at the Dome to review the trail descriptions, and we should have people who regularly skate those trails report changes and construction. This could be divided up among several people. Gina offered to review and update Snail Lake, the North Mississippi park, and the trail by 35W and County Road J by Rice Creek. Bill and I (Todd) will break up the list of trails over the winter. Also, it would be nice to have a big overview map of all of the trails on the main trail review page, but not too large -- probably 800x600 pixels at most. Someone asked if the schedule says "Upper Mississippi" instead of "Northern Mississippi". (It does. Apparently, I must have been listening to the Lamont Cranston Band on KQRS while writing the page.) This brings up an interesting point: Just getting the official trail names is interesting in itself.
There was a brief discussion of the Purgatory Creek Recreation Area in Eden Prairie. The trail system is not finished yet, because they are still doing earthwork to stabilize a portion of the trail that runs through wetland.
Janet brought up a couple points about the Monday recreational skates. We could schedule some skating in April, but we don't have to commit to bringing lemonade, especially since it may still be cold and the weather may be "iffy". We also decided that tailgating at Lake Calhoun in May and October was probably not worth it, because the temperature cools off after the end of our skates. Janet also has some notes and statistics written up for the Monday skates, except for October.
Do we still say that we give a free skate lesson? Do we give it?
The meeting was adjourned before REI closed for the evening. The December board meeting was cancelled. Board meetings are set for the fourth Thursday of each month in the downstairs meeting room of REI at 494 and Lyndale.