General Membership Minutes

July 22, 2023
MINUTES OF THE GENERAL MEMBERSHIP MEETING
HIGHPOINTERS CLUB
FINAL

A meeting of the general membership of the Highpointers Club (HPC) was held in Helen, GA, on July 22, 2023, at the hour of 6:55pm (EDT) Bill Urbanski, Director and Master of Ceremonies hosting.

Douglas Bernero, Secretary, kept the record of the meeting. Approximately 130 Highpointers Club members and guests attended.

Meeting opened at 6:55pm EDT. Bill Urbanski gave some opening remarks and gave a Board of Directors election update introducing Shannon as new Club President and other newly elected directors and appointed officers.

Director Alan Ritter offered remarks about the lack of leadership for the upcoming South Dakota convention. He also thanked club members for his time as Club President and his promise to continue to be a dedicated director and contributing member of the club.

Newly elected Club President Shannon Brumund addressed the banquet and offered thanks for her election and her enthusiasm for leading the club going forward. She also asked the attendees to think about stepping up as a lead organizer for the South Dakota convention.

Highpointers Foundation President Dave Covill told the crowd about several recent projects on distant state highpoints and new improvements just completed on the nearby Georgia highpoint, Brasstown Bald.

Past President Tim Webb presented founder Jack Longacre’s Summa Cum Laude award to Jack’s relative Lori.

Old Business:

South Dakota Convention Planning—With no current convention leader, Alan Ritter has researched multiple sites for South Dakota Black Hills area convention events at Sylvan Lake, and in the cities of Custer and Rapid City. He again expressed the need for volunteers to help organize the convention for 2024.

Access Issues for State Highpoints—Currently, there seems to be no problematic access issues for state highpoints but Illinois visits are still limited to designated weekends by the owners.

New Business:

Selection of 2025 Convention Site—Per the bylaws, convention sites are rotated by 4 regions every 4 years. 2025 site must be in the West Region limited to sites near the highpoints of AK, AZ, CA, CO, HI, ID, MT, NV, NM, OR, UT, WA, or WY. The floor was opened to nominations for convention locations among these states.

A motion was made to nominate Idaho as the 2025 convention location by Norman Yerby. Seconded by Alex DeLaTorre.

A motion was made to nominate California as the 2025 convention location by Denis Dean. Denis mentioned that facilities were already arranged in Bishop, California for the canceled 2020 and 2021 conventions planned to honor the Nevada highpoint. Motion seconded by Hilary Smith.

Hearing no other nominations, a motion to close nominations was made by Rush Williamson. The two nominated states were presented for a preference vote by members in attendance. The vote totals were as follows:

IDAHO – 34 votes

CALIFORNIA – 81 votes.

California was elected as convention site for 2025. Denis Dean is currently leader of the convention organization as the original nominator for the California location.

Following more comments about the absence of a leader for the South Dakota convention, Mark Styczynski volunteered to be SD convention leader for 2024. Mark is a longtime club member and 50 state highpoint completer.

Following the convention vote, some door prizes were drawn with entry tickets and awarded.

ADJOURNMENT

It was moved, seconded and carried to adjourn the meeting. Meeting adjourned by MC Bill Urbanski at 8:07pm.

Respectfully submitted,

Douglas Bernero, Secretary