Onondaga Ski Club

Board Meeting Minutes

September 2, 2008

Present: Tom Button, Mary Clay, Bob Dewey, Christa Foster, Scott Foster, Lloyd Howse, Kay Kotwas, Jack Lancette, Marian LaPierre, Leo Naylor, Marvin Patnode, Neville Sachs, Allan Smith, John Tuttle, Bob Wiley, Marilyn Woyciesjes

Excused: Mark Bidwell, Dave Devendorf, John Sonne

Guest: Jan Carr

President Marv Patnode called the meeting to order at 7:06 pm.

Secretary’s Report: The August board minutes were submitted to members electronically and posted on the OSC web site. John T. made a motion to accept the minutes, Scott seconded. Motion passed.

Committee Reports

Finance: Since John Sonne is out of town, a finance report has not been submitted.

Membership: As of August 31, total active membership is 596, up 12 members since beginning of August. Since January 2008, Jack has processed 98 new member applications.

Lodge: Neville reported on his family’s week at the lodge. They found many activities to partake in and enjoyed staying at the lodge.

Allan mentioned a lodge committee meeting will be held by the middle of September to plan the upcoming work weekend in October. Due to severe rainstorms, flooding occurred in a number of homes near the OSC lodge and we should take preventative measures to avoid major leakage problems.

The issue of sales tax on the lift tickets we sell hasn’t been resolved yet. It may be that the NJ Ski Council already pays the sales tax on the tickets. Allan Smith and Ken Robbins will pursue this further. Information on lift tickets for the upcoming season is traditionally available by November.

Marketing: Tom reported that we have an opportunity to have a booth at the ski sale at the Fairgrounds September 12 to 14 and he encouraged board members to sign up to work the show. John T. will look into finding a new backdrop for our display that can be used at other functions as well. Neville and Tom will look into obtaining a used one, similar to the one Neville owns for his business.

Trips: The Lake Tahoe trip is almost sold out. The Stowe bus trip is a mid-week trip rather than on a weekend. Leo is looking for volunteers to host some day trips this winter and plans to approach the general membership about it. Garnet Hill is a go.

Jan reported on the final three weeks of biking in September and the wind-up party at Spaghetti Warehouse.

Upcoming Events: Annual Road Rally will be October 19, John S. and Bill Beaudin will coordinate and Jan will prepare food.

Bike weekend at the lodge will be September 26-28. Columbus Day hiking weekend at the lodge will be October 10-12.

Old Business: The review of drafts of a mission statement was postponed since Mark was unable to attend the meeting. Jack reported from the July meeting that many good ideas were brought up on how to close the gap in income vs. expenses.

Per Marv, three club committees play a major role in being able to define the financial impact of implementing several income-producing strategies: finance, marketing, and lodge. He will set up a meeting between these committees for this purpose. John T. pointed out that as a board we should make a decision on the timing of changes but that we must realize it can’t happen overnight. He suggested we wait two years to give the marketing committee a chance to put various efforts into action.

Another avenue open to us is to explore how we can work with other clubs, such as GE Ski Club and Ski Hawks, to increase lodge usage. Marv will set up meetings with these organizations to explore how we might act together in a way that provides mutual benefit to GE, the Hawks, and OSC. Other suggestions were to have a monthly planned activity at the lodge and also to interest more member families to rent it for a week, as was done twice this year and once last year.

In summarizing the meeting, Marv stated that the board of directors would move ahead with several initiatives:

· The marketing committee would work toward increasing membership to the 700 level while especially attempting to bring younger people into the club.

· Marketing will also work with the lodge committee to plan activity weekends such as hiking, biking, golfing, skiing, XC skiing, etc., and find members who will take ownership for each weekend. The lodge and marketing committees will then publish and distribute a lodge yearly calendar of events that highlights these special weekends so members can plan to attend.

· Marv will work with the finance, marketing, and lodge committee members to establish the potential financial impact of implementing several income-producing strategies. Finally,

· Lodge rental rates should be increased due to increases in fuel oil and taxes, but there shouldn’t be a membership dues increase in the same year.

New Business: Neville mentioned October 4 as Adopt a Highway clean-up day. Marilyn was appointed as chair of a newly formed Community Outreach Committee. She asked that people inform her of organizations that have fundraisers and are looking for volunteers.

There being no further business to discuss, Kay moved to adjourn, seconded by Marian.

The meeting was adjourned at 8:50 pm.

Respectfully submitted,

Christa Foster

Recording Secretary