October 5th River Meeting

At Chicken’s house

 

In attendance:  Chicken, Sr., Jr., Vinny, Natasha, Ryan, Bill, Chris

 

Trip Reports:   Sequoia (Barts’ present and gave report)

                        Expedition trip

                        BLM rafted down with equipment and helped pull weeds with the kids at

                        the big BLM beach

                        Flip at Satan’s Cesspool

                        3 swimmers at Bouncing Rock

 

                        KYP  Nice trip, put in late

                        One swimmer at Hospital Bar

                        5 boats total, 28 participants

 

                        Benicia Court  Put-in at Nugget at 11

                        4 boats, Bill ran shuttle

                        Boat with staff “wrapped” at Meat Grinder

                        1 intentional swim, Oar boat and kayakers rescued swimmer

                        Partially deflated boat to get off

                        Whole ordeal took about 15 minutes

                         Different group wrapped on same rock afterwards

                        The rescue plan was very coordinated and organized           

                        Thwart bag zipper broke in wrap

                        Everything was fine the rest of the day until one swimmer at Trouble

                        Maker

                        Another swimmer jumped in after swimmer at Trouble Maker

                        Big safety talk before the day began helped (most) everyone stay calm

 

                        Lo Mein group  2 swimmers at Bouncing Rock

                        Other than that, easy trip

 

                        Mission Graduates  Well led group, organized

                        11 kids + Sierra Club + Medic on trip

                        Start of post season calmness

                        Last trip of the season

                        Cleaned out Lotus shed (Thanks!!!)

 

Barts brought a little suitcase full of wetsuit booties (6 pair)  Kudos!!!

 

Chicken has the main stove for repair

Does the comm kit need a whole new set?

We need to organize a clean up party at the Oakland shed

Oakland shed now has a gate.  Chicken looked into it.   See Chicken’s email about how to get in

 

Delton is ready for another NRS order (see Delton’s email for details)

Need to discuss need for new helmets at Steering Meeting

 

Institutional permit update:  We’ve had 3 meetings since the August RMAC meeting.   We’ve had an ICO meeting with six present.   An institutionals meeting with 8 present (5 ICO).   And the RMAC meeting.

 

RMAC meeting’s purpose is to seek input on what’s reasonable for a permit for institutional groups and how we can work with permits and commercial groups.   They are trying to regulate boaters, give reasons for our environmental impact.   On Saturdays, in the gorge, we may exceed threshold.   They explain that money isn’t plentiful.

Lots of conflicting interest from institutionals vs. commercials.

 

Ultimately, Board of Supervisors make decision.   We’re more than likely to have more meetings in the near future.

 

RMAC notes

User days are a big issue

Ryan presented a report on fees

Institutional rate is $2 per day per person

Our plan A is to pay half for anyone 18 and up

ICO pays additional fees?

Clarify, per person fees apply to participants, not to guides

Regulations will come if number increase, fees will rise and affect everybody

Bill called all River Management committees to ask how fundraisers on S. Fork will affect other rivers.   Trinity River is the only river to not give any input.   Every other river gave thumbs up.

There’s concern how RMAC permits will affect other rivers

 

Fundraiser made $2500.   5 full boats on Saturday on the S. Fork and 3 full boats on the Sunday on the M. Fork.

 

Committee updates:   Bake Sale needs more volunteers.   Natasha’s fine with organizing but needs to cut back on baking and manning the table.   We need more volunteers to help.

Chris will take over quarterly insurance reports from Mel

Training still needs a coordinator and schedule.   Bill and Margery are working on it.   But they still need help.   Any volunteers?

 

There is still an opening for Co-Chair.

Steering Meeting set for November 2.

 

Adjourn