ICO Meeting for Institutional Permitting Discussion, September 2011

ICO Meeting for Institutional Permitting Discussion

Wednesday, September 21, 2011

Ryan's House

Present: Ryan C, Bill W, Chris T

Phone: Shad, Margery, Chicken, Jon

Agenda

• Brief recap of the issue

• Primary Concerns

  • Usage Restrictions

  • Usage Fees

  • Usage Reporting (frequency)

  • Advertising

• Goals & Strategy

  • Prepare for Institutional Meeting on September 26th in Sacramento

  • Prepare actual language for proposals to RMAC.

  • We should note that as part of the Sierra Club, we support sensible management and protection of the River.

Usage Restrictions

• We need the ability to to have two launches per day

  • Large expedition trips

  • Multi-trip weekends

• We don't mind running late trips on the Gorge (Fowler's after 3pm) generally, but we don't want to commit to it. 

• Standard launch restriction (7boats, 56 people) is good, preferable.

• Yearly allocation is better than a daily allocation. Allows more flexibility.

• Discussion sheet has one suggestion making all Institutional Permits the same at 1200 user days per year. That would great.

• ICO's 5-year average use is 571. Maximum usage is 770.

  • Our allowed usage should be in this range. 

Usage Fees

Based on passed annual usage, even a small usage fee would add up to "real money."

Prefer a fee schedule that exempts or reduces costs for youth under age 18 as proposed in the RMAC discussion document.

Usage Reporting Frequency

We prefer quarterly reporting. It aligns with quarterly reporting to the Sierra Club.

We should emphasize that monthly reporting may be error prone.

Advertising

We want to be able to use non-paid communications means to promote ICO: social networking, ICO website, potentially even craigslist.

We do not need paid advertisements, such as banner ads.

Restriction should be on "paid speech" to the general public. It should exclude organization websites and free services.

Coming up next

Institutional Group Meeting on September 26th at Sacramento City College.

Bill W will call other River Management Agencies to get their take on the upcoming changes.