Minutes of General Membership Meeting – July 16, 2011 at Hunstville (Ohio) Event Center

Below are the minutes of the Highpointers Club General Memberhip on July 16, 2011. They were approved by the Board of Directors on June 9, 2012.

The General Membership Meeting of the Highpointers Club was held July 16, 2011 at the Huntsville Event Center in Huntsville, Ohio, during the 2011 Highpointers Convention at Campbell Hill.

The only action was the approval of Maine as the site of the 2013 convention. It was nominated by Steve Urbanski and Mick Dunn. There were no other nominations and it was approved unanimously. Mick Dunn will be the ConventionChairman.

Below is the write up of convention events that Steve Urbanski prepared and which appeared in the 3rd Quarter 2011 Apex to Zenith.

217 high pointers descended upon the Ohio Hi Point Career Center for the 25th Annual Highpointers Convention. It started with registration at the summit of Campbell Hill. Stony Burk (NH) and Convention host Bill Urbanski (PA) set up fixed lines on the “treacherous North face,” as registrants were met by Crew members and received goodie bags with Ohio Buckeye candies and convention T-shirts.

Most of the Convention events were held on the grounds of the Career Center, where our gracious Career Center host Don Jaumzemis greeted and welcomed high pointers from all parts of the country. The Career Center was the sight of the annual pancake breakfast and the starting point for the group hike across the parking lot to the 1549 foot summit. Highpointers enjoyed the traditional “watermelon on the summit” served with a smile by Gordy, Mark, and Wendy Comstock (MI).

The Career Center also played host for the Jean Trousdale (OK) and the Highpointers Merc, as well as Stony Burk’s (NH) excellent Denali Base Camp display. Stony’s display included maniquens dressed for a Denali climb, four season tents, hundreds or pieces of mountaineering equipment, and fake snow.

One of the more popular events was the return of high pointing seminars on knot tying, map and compass, and glacier travel. Matt and Mike Muniz (CO), the current speed record completers presented a short documentary film on their record conquest of 50 US highpoints.

Over a hundred highpointers toured the Ohio Caverns as part of the Friday Night Social held at an outdoor pavilion on the cavern grounds. After enjoying bratwurst and refreshments at the caverns, high pointers met at the A & E campground for a bonfire and liars klub meeting. The full moon provided a delightful ambience for high pointers who remained well into the evening telling stories of highpoint conquests of the past and planning future conquests. Hailey Oelke (PA) took fellow high pointers on golf cart rides around the spacious campground, before joining Steve and Bill Urbanski (PA), Gordy Comstock (MI), Sjakk Van Shie (Netherlands), and Patrick Gensel (PA) for a night of camping on the summit.

The annual banquet and meeting was emceed by emcee extraordinaire Don Holmes (CO). A surprised and nearly speechless Jean Trousdale (OK) received the club’s most prestigious award (The Jack Longacre.) Jean joins Jakk, Don Holmes (CO), Paul Zumwalt (IL), John Mitchler (CO), and Craig Noland (TN) as the only winners of this coveted award. Charlie Feris (OR) and Gary White (AL) won the Vin Hoeman award.

John Mitchler (CO) and Charlie Feris (OR) touted next year’s Oregon convention, while Bill Urbanski (PA) auctioned off a OR12 convention package to benefit the Highpointers’ Foundation.

Steve Urbanski (PA) and Mick Dunn (NH) nominated, and the club unanimously chose Maine as the host state for the club’s 2013 convention.