July 2009 River Meeting Notes

Attendees: Chris Thorsen, Kevin Jordan, Lam Coong, Jen Lies, Margery Lazarus, & Anthony Scott

Location: Chris Thorsen's home, Walnut Creek

June Trip Reports

Narcotics Anonymous June 13/14– Natasha ATL– 35 people – 9 IKs and 5 boats.  

• There was some mixup with returning gear (rented IKs from PRS) pump was not immediately returned, and 3 throw bags are potentially at Oakland shed.  Need to check gear for throwbags not labeled as ICO.  Participants were picking up gear: IK helmets were not picked up.  

• Apprentices got a lot of stick time. (with G’s in a boat).

• Group leader & group were very together

Today's Youth Matters: June 18/19- no representative

Oakland High: June 19/21: Kevin TL

• Flow was high 2000 cfs (below 3000).  3 swimmers & 2 on Sat.  25 kids total.  

• Mel helped a lot sorting out the legal issues with the School District

• Trucks had flats on dirt road (end of day so did not hold up trip).  

• Chicken provided a lot of support.  

• Short 19 paddles had to borrow KRE lent paddles.  (Kings River Expedition).   

• Only one kid from 2007. 3 potential guide apps.

• Willa supported with campsite

July 4th Fundraiser Update

• • Due to low turnout and costs, trip is reduced to Saturday only.

• As of 7/1 cost per person was $71 a head despite advertised cost of $50 a head.  We would lose money with only 16 guests on Saturday and 9 on Sunday.  Costs include DSUSA permit, transportation, and food.  DSUSA has allowed us a pro-rated permit for the single day.

• DSUSA permit only allows 17 guests per day, and therefore we could not move all guests to one day to offset costs.

• Moving forward, Finance team should be involved in fundraiser trip planning to better set a minimum cost.

• We will also reevaluate the standard to have the fundraiser on the July 4th weekend because finding willing guests for this weekend was difficult.

• Gear needs to be transferred from the Oakland shed.

• There will still be a fundraiser in September hosted by All Outdoors (AO).

Gear Discussion

• Chris reports that as gear manager he is not informed on location of gear.  Gear should be only at one of two locations 1) Oakland Shed and 2) Lotus shed.  Taking gear to homes out of convenience is not acceptable as it leads to confusion and inconvenience to subsequent trip.

• We will evaluate including a "gear" status in the online trip reports to assist in gear management

• Comm Kit location in Lotus or Shed is not known.

CARP

·      Reminder that all Trip Leaders need to complete online CARP training.  Follow up with Ryan for detail (email was sent mid-April)

ATG

•  ATG trained by AO (Jeremey Gove) was on the Narcotics Anonymous Trip.  He had submitted an ATG application to be discussed at the June meeting. Margery reports he is a good candidate for "G" status.  He will need to be signed off by two more trip leaders because all ATGs are apprentice status until checked off.

• Margery reported that Check off process should have a check list to make the process more objective, standardized and improve feedback.  Margery will follow up with Bill to include this in training curriculum.

Q&A/Open Forum

Death With Project Go on June 29th

• • proposal that staff  from groups attend pre-trip.

• Our training/safety talks seem Inconsistent between lounge and cannonball position.  We need to evaluate (with support from river community/Julie Munger) if feet up is ok? 

• In pre-trips and safety talks we should not hide the fact that the death occurred, but need to be aware that it was a rare event and because there is potential that kids may be intimidate

Trips needing "G" guides

• We reviewed the July calendar and saw that the following trips need "G" guides, Cameron House (July 11/12), Hanna's Boy's (July 26/27), Star House (August 1/2(