January 9, 2023
The January Board meeting is the time when any newly elected officers are officially recognized, and all At-Large members (appointed by the elected Board members) are either reappointed or new members appointed. Jerry Sebestyen opened the meeting and immediately transferred his position of President to the newly elected Eric Ness. Eric thanked Jerry for his leadership through difficult pandemic times, and also his incredible energy at setting up the ski school (which has been very successful) and leading Sunday day-skis. All other elected Board members remained the same and are:
Vice President: Sue Sullivan
Treasurer: Eileen Woodward
Co-Treasurer: Glen Van Cise
Secretary: Jan Cigoy
The new Board then proceeded to reappoint current At-Large members, and appoint Warren Preston to fill the seat vacated by Eric Ness. The five At-Large members and committees they serve on are:
Linda Frost Past President
John Fertig Webinar Committee
Kelly Cleman Hiking Committee
Gary Elnan Wood Stocking, Communications, and Webinar
Warren Preston Communications Committee
The budget was presented, and appears quite healthy. Sue Sullivan (head of Trails committee) oversaw two grant applications last year that were funded. One, from Deschutes Trails Coalition, funded the materials for new trail signs; hopefully you’ve seen these brilliant, blue signs out on the trails as they are gradually replacing the old, brown signs. The second grant CONC has is to assist the US Forest Service in replacing all of the Kiosks at the Sno-Park trailheads. CONC acted primarily in the role of grant receivership, as we anticipate the USFS will be doing most of the work.
CONC has a Volunteer Service Agreement with the Forest Service to help maintain the shelters on our trails. We have also contributed in the past to being the primary supplier of labor and money in constructing such shelters as the Swampy shelter. In the coming year, we are facing the task of potentially providing money and labor to replace the Edison shelter. It turns out this is not at all straight-forward. The Forest Service is trying to reduce the number of structures it must maintain, and at the moment it is not clear they want to replace the shelter. CONC is no longer the only affected citizen’s group in the area, so any shelter replacement must meet the needs of all interested parties. Sue Sullivan is heading up the effort to bring all parties together and advocate for a new shelter; a monumental task!
We also discussed the newly created Communications Committee (Laura Seaver, Gary Elnan, Warren Preston, and Isabel Milkovich) and their primary task of identifying the best platform for communications in CONC. Warren has taken on the job of keeping the website updated and given it a few new makeovers. For instance, the Events page has a totally new, more efficient look. This committee stepped in to manage memberships while Gary Kelley is on vacation and off the grid. The club has been managing with spreadsheets and Google Groups, but there are other, more efficient platforms out there, so the committee is evaluating the costs and benefits.
The Board also sanctioned a new Welcome Committee that Ann Padgett suggested. Since December 1, CONC has had over 30 new members, and Ann has volunteered to contact each one and introduce them to the club through a social setting such as meeting at a coffee shop.
