Steering Committee Meeting Notes, February 8, 2012

Location: Margery's House, El Cerrito

Attendance: Margery, Bill, Chris, Natasha, Ryan, Mel, Juan (phone)

Notes by Ryan Clark

Retreat Recap

• ICO Dream follow-up meeting scheduled for February 21.

• Margery: Many (not all) of the 2011 goals achieved.

  • Great class of new G-guides!

Season without Chicken

• Need a new lead for Instructor Training

  • Bill is seeking a replacement Instructor Training

    • Bill has called Delton, Damien, and Anja. Waiting for return calls. 

  • Also need a TL for March 10-11 Tune-up/Instructor Training combination.

  • We need more trainers. The BTs are thin on Trainers.

• Need someone to lead Beyond Basics training.

  • Margery will lead one BB trip: May 5-6.

  • The other BB trip needs a TL. will likely cancel. Maybe that's okay; we don't want to burn out before the season starts.

• We still have to address his Participant groups.

Selection & Recruiting

How many new applicants can we take?

• We already have two returning Basic Trainees (Corey and Jesus)

• We already have three Advanced Basic Trainees (Dave, Zach, Kristie).

• Trainer and Trip Leader resources are thin.

• Bill believes that we can handle 8 total (non-Advanced) Basic Trainees.

  • It will be challenging.

  • That means 6 new recruits MAX. (There are 9 applicants)

Scholarship Model

Are encouraging the wrong kind of trip?

• Current scholarship model is $500 per trip, regardless of length or size.

  • Does this encourage small, one-day trips?

• Scholarship goal is simplicity.Often scholarship is not used.

• Many Trip Leaders do encourage two-day trips. 

  • Group chaperone logistics are often a bigger obstacle than trip costs. 

  • Often the choice is a one-day trip or no trip at all.

• Use of scholarship funds is increasing.

  • As awareness increases, change policy to encourage multi-day trips?

• More precise numbers would be useful. 

• Let's discuss again in the near future.

SOPs Meeting

• Temporarily on hold.

  • Lots of other important meetings going on.

    • Don't want to distract with other stuff going on in ICO

    • Don't want burnout

    • Want good turnout.

• A reminder about SOPs-Discuss would be helpful.

• Discuss ICO Dreams are regular monthly meetings?

  • Positive, open-ended way of getting people involved and energized.

  • Much more engaging that SOPs discussions.

Off-River Jobs

• Lots of off-river jobs to fill.

• Jon would like to step back from both Finance and Fundraising Coordinator. Replacements welcome!

• Lots of volunteers in transition (injuring, relocation, etc)

  • Will be an on-going challenge this year.

Next Meetings

• Steering Committee Meetings 

  • March: None

  • April 18 2012

• Regular Monthly Meeting

  • April 4, 2012 at Margery's House

  • May 2, 2012