September 2009 River Meeting Notes

Attendees: Jared, Kareim, Laura, Harold, Bill, Robb, Chicken, Natasha, Vinny, Margery, Ryan.

Host: Margery

Best Distraction: beautiful view of sunset.

Trip Reports

Ryan - aug 15-16. Girl scouts los pueblos. 40 people. No incidents.

Bernal dwellings. Mel was in contact but trip leader abruptly stopped returning calls. Mel did a short apprentice trip instead. 10 people.

Civic Center Secondary - Chicken- only 2 kids showed up. Assessed that not a good idea to mention the possibility of death to teenagers. Also a teen was slightly injured when her ik capsized. Summarized that no good idea to put kids in ik's.

Cancellations discussion.

Ideas- cut off dates for group check ins; commitment 2-4 weeks prior; face to face mtg's; add to app the importance of dropping out early to make room for other groups: detailed checklist for group leaders like TL checklist; assessment; consequences?; group deposit: evaluation of trip reports to find out why trips cancelled; utilizing Sierra Club as a resource.

Stressed that groups that dropped just fell out at last minute.

Retreat Issue-Cancellations

September Fundraiser

On sierra club calendar and craigslist.

No one from ico has delivered a single person. Stressed that if each person got one friend on the trip it would significantly raise the numbers so please get the word out.

Need volunteers for Sat to help with campsite logistcs.  Will get free trip down middle fork. Margery added that the Middle Fork is a wonderful way to go down that river. More challenging than South Fork.

New Trip

Margery was ok'd to send in a trip application for last weekend in Sept. The group is a local Oakland non profit serving young people.

End of Season Business

Boats-need to get back to PRS by end of september.

Gear Party-need to get equipment back in the shed. People in Margery trip should bring all gear back.

Jared will contact chris and paul to get an equip party date.

Off Season Goals

By Laws - cleaning uP current docs and putting together. Not final until 2/3 vote. Ryan, Laura, Natasha and Bill volunteered.

Note: stressed much differentiate best practices from actual policy.

Financial Update

Have spent 63% of season budget.

Catalyst Grant

Grant for non profit orgs providing outdoor experience. Grant is for 25,000. Jon has worked really hard on this and will give a full report. Feedback is that we don't have a strong face. No flashy website or video journals, etc. Hard to corral info into writing and visual aids that give essence of ico. Discussion: our mission has gotten diffused. Need a common understanding of what we are trying to accomplish which would serve as a foundation to put face on ico. We are united in wat but scattered out. We are bad a compliance which includes photo releases. Don't have a set way of maintaining forms like waivers.

Suggestion: checkbox on report-has anyone not signed a waiver?  Suggested that maintaining waivers could be a job.

Retreat Goals:

Guide requirement; clean up website; new training coord and basic training set up; keeping guide medical records onsite; using database for guide records and printing up entire trip manifests.

Ideas for New Jobs

Job distribution  will happen at next meeting. Send ideas to Anthony and Jared.

Open Discussion

30th Birthday of ICO

First trip was 1979.

Suggestions: party, commemorative t shirt, dinner, fun.

REI- remember to talk us up to staff since that's how that decide who gets funded.

Volunteering. We need to be able to pull in volunteers who don't want to do river stuff: admin, grant writing.

Chairship Update

Anthony rolling off at end of year.

There are multiple people interested. Jared and Anthony are meeting with folks one on one to discuss realities and answer questions. If only one person remains in contention then can do up/down vote. Others it is suggested we do a private vote among active volunteers. Don't hesitate to contact jared and anthony if interested.

Bake Sale

Natasha is recruiting. Wants to do more than one location before thanksgiving and before xmas. Contact Natasha to volunteer.

Banners

Rob will print some. Jared will donate some.