Minutes of Highpointers Board of Directors Meeting – October 9, 2010

Minutes of Highpointers Club Board of Directors Meeting
Saturday, October 9th, 2010 (prepared by Secretary Mark Comstock)

Minutes of the Highpointers Club

Saturday, October 9th, 2010

Call to order: A regular meeting of the Board of Directors of the Highpointers Club was held in Sheffield, Alabama on October 9th, 2010. The meeting convened at 2:06 PM, with President Jim Sutton presiding and Mark Comstock secretary.

Directors in attendance: Jim Sutton, Nikki Hemphill, Don Holmes, Mark Comstock, Kamell Abdenour, Stony Burke, Jerry Lee Cobleigh, Bill Deitzer, Tom Karchesy, Will Mokszycki, Craig Noland, Roger Rowlett, Gary Szelc and Steve Urbanski. Ex-officio members in attendance: John Mitchler, Gary White. Directors not in attendance: Alan Ritter; Ex-officio Billy Urbanski. Members in attendance: Jack Parsell, Beckie Covill, Kathy Mitchler, Wendy Comstock, Penn Watson, Rosemary Deitzer, Eric Liechtenstein.

Approval of Minutes: Minutes of last meeting to be submitted by Stony Burke for approval at a later time. Officer’s reports: 1) Treasurer’s report:(Don Holmes) The budget paperwork was passed out to all of us ahead of the meeting. We agreed that we will NOT show the budget in the Newsletter.

2) President, Jim Sutton (see following items)

Unfinished business: 1) Klub Kards: Lots of discussion here. We discussed the possibility of members creating special credit membership cards. The cards could be used for special discounts like other cards (REI, sports stores, etc) Craig asked for a total buy-in on this if we are to go forward. Other options would be a simpler, more information-orientated kind of card. The financial outlay was in question by most of the board. A motion by Don Holmes to print cards in current format if this can be done within the $1,000.00 contingency fund allotted in the budget. Seconded b y Nikki Hemphill. Motion carried.

2) Annual approval of honorary members: The list should include Big Bob Babo Brown to the Iuka, MS group and Father Stephen Boes to group # 5. Motion by Don Holmes to split honorary members into a separate listing in the directory made. Seconded by Mark Comstock. Motion carried.

3) Follow up on club/convention host agreement and possible bylaws changes; no further discussion at this time.

4) Status of primer to new board members on: “Historical Topics and Discussions by Board Members on Various Issues” (Sutton, Mitchler): add Stony Burke and Don Holmes and table for next year.

5) Status of “Partners on the Website”: (Roger Rowlett) Roger states that all looks good as of this time.

6) Report of Status and Feedback on HPC Hotline: (Craig Noland) Craig states that we get about 20 to 30 updates per month. Craig encouraged multiple e-mail messages from families. Kudos to Craig Noland for his excellent work on the HPC Hotline!

7) Dues refunds: (Jim Sutton) No refunds! It will not be put in the Bylaws. We agreed that John Mitchler will put a note in the Membership application in the Newsletter stating that dues are not refundable.

8 ) Motion to reduce size of Board: Motion to rescind by Stony Burke. Seconded by Don Holmes. Motion carried to rescind motion.

9) Insurance Liability: (Jim Sutton and John Mitchler) Report and discussion on policies. There is a general liability on the property in Missouri and these costs are $1,065.75 a year. There is also a “Bad Behavior Directors and Officers Liability Policy” that is $938.00 dollars a year. There is also a rider for $100.00 that has NOT been paid for and will not be paid until we know what it is actually for. There is a small plot of land (the Memorial Grove for Jack Longacre) that we pay $5.00 a year for taxes, and the Club maintains this plot of land. It was stated that we find this is not useful and the 9.4 acres are hard to maintain.

10) No other old business.

Committee reports:

1) Conventions: (Nikki Hemphill) Kathy Mitchler and Rosemary Dietzer became members of the Convention Overseeing Committee because of their expertise in convention and part planning. Kathy and Rosemary happen to be on the “crew” also and we are now at 105 members of the “crew”. Nikki would like to have the club recognizing “Crew” members officially as “Crew” members. Steve Urbanski proposed to create a questionnaire that asks members what they actually WANTED in a Convention. He had talked about letting the Board see it and then sending it out to members based on the Board’s approval. No timetable was specified.

2) Newsletter: (John Mitchler) (Handout) There is an improved delivery time now of 13 days for the newsletter, as compared to one month as in the past. John will take requests from members for the newsletter but he will print what he wants after that. Expenses for the newsletter are higher than the $12.00 that they used to be. It is closer to $14.00 now so we have only $6.00 remaining from the regular membership fees.< /o>

3) Liaison: (Stony Burke) Plans are to repave the road to Nebraska’s Highpoint, which is good news. Plans are also in place to repave the road to the Summit of Mt. Arvon in Michigan and to add another bench there. Three to four organizations want to improve the signage for the South Carolina Highpoint. The Indiana highpoint sign has been vandalized. We would like to have volunteers help clean up the area and put in a granite plaque at Indiana. The property at Indiana is for sale, and there is talk of possible state ownership through purchase of the land. Gwen and the group in Florida are doing a great job there. There is talk that they may also add an interpretive trail ther e in the future!

4) Website: (Roger Rowlett) (Handout) E-mail change for board went fine. The MERC was moved to a “Shopping Cart” at no cost. There are currently 400 followers on Facebook! The cost of the website is $14.95 per month

5) Membership: (Craig Noland) Membership numbers are around 3,000! E-bulletins are working well. There are 16 new “Crew” members as a result of these E-bulletins. Craig distributed statistical records of clicks per e-Bulletin and bounces. The membership numbers have held steady and this is good to see with a decline in most other areas.

6) Merc: (Jean Trousdale) (Handout) Jean gave a copy of the financial records for the Merc for the last 9 years to Jim Sutton and John Mitchler. Copies of the Merc Operations were passed out to all members of the Board of Directors. This was all very well organized.

7) Bylaws: (Don Holmes). (Handout) Honorary Members should be eligible for the Vin Hoeman and Fran k Ashley Awards. Motion by Don Holmes to amend Sections 8.1 and 8.2, second by Gary Szelc; motion carried. Motion on Section 3.1 to have one contact person/chair for each convention. Motion by Don Holmes, second by Mark Comstock; motion carried.

8 ) Foundation: (Will Mokszycki) The Foundation report will come to the Treasurer (Don Holmes) after its completion. It was asked that we set up more time between the Board of Director’s Meeting and the Foundation Meeting, perhaps setting them up on two different days, one of Friday and one on Saturday. Stony will consider making this change for the “Convention” in Ohio in 2011.

9) Budget: (John Mitchler and Don Holmes) The proposed budget includes a set-aside of funds to cover those who prepaid for multiple years for the newsletter. Kudos given to Don for a great job and a lot of hard work stepping in as Treasurer and preparing the budget for the club. Creating a clear budget helps to define the expenses and this is now the case. A check for membership dues is sent to Don Holmes approximately once a month; it goes from Craig Noland to Don Holmes.

10) Longacre Memorial (Tim Webb) Tim was not present so this is tabled until later.

11) Marketing: (Bill Deitzer) (Handout) This was accomplished with considerable help from Bill’s wife Rosemary and Craig Noland! The marketing group helped summarize the benefits of club membership. Presentations list and proposals for individual CD’s for each of the 32 people on the list to share their own highpointing adventures. This could be downloaded to a desktop computer and added to a CD.

12) Records: (John Mitchler) (Handout) Official list of state highpoints was distributed for review/approval. List of completers was distributed, and John explained that it was getting harder to track the numerous people finishing the 48. John explained the types of records stored in Golden and Roger suggested that photocopies of legal documents be held by the treasurer.

New Business:

1) Consideration of adoption of annual operating budget: (Holmes, Mitchler, Mokszycki, Sutton) Plan for a formal budget to be approved by the Board (current budget just submitted is a basis for this). Looks good at this time and plans are for it to be done by the end of the year by Don Holmes with a subcommittee of Holmes, Mitchler, Mokszycki and Sutton. This group will be disbanded after the budget has been prepared, reviewed and adopted.

2) Consideration of bylaws changes in association with budget adoption (Holmes) NONE

3) Consideration of release form for HPC assets (Sutton) Handout by Jim Sutton. Asset release form to cover concerns for Physical/Intellectual Property. A simple signed form is good according to Steve Urbanski, (the lawyer in our Board of Directors). Jean Trousdale submitted her completed form with her Merc budget report.

4) Consideration of conference call and possible bylaws changes: (Rowlett) Promoting the idea of one or two conference calls between board meetings. The cost for this might be $120.00 or so. Don Holmes says that we should do better with E-mail replies. Rosemary Deitzer says that there are free conference call plans. Roger asked if these meeting calls should be public and announced. Perhaps e-mails ahead of time should be sent to board members to deal with action items and then these could be discussed by phone. The plan at this time is to look into setting this up for January of 2011.

5) Consideration of designation of immediate past president as ex-officio Board member (non-voting) (Holmes) There was a Bylaws change approved by the Board at the 2010 Convention that included the “Immediate Past-President” as an ex-officio non-voting member of the Board. It was included in the change that identified a SINGLE Chairperson for each Convention. DONE

6) Non-Board members as Committee chairs: (Mitchler) “Non Board Members as committee chairs” to be brought up at tonight’s banquet. This is to encourage more regular members to chair committees instead of Chairs being dominated by Directors.

7) Newsletter set at Mountaineers in Seattle? (Mitchler) Move to send a set of newsletters to Tom Karchesy to take to the Mountaineers. Motion by Don Holmes, second by Will Mokszycki; motion carried.

8 ) Items from the Floor (Open) A) Photos for the calendar to be sent to Jerry Lee Cobleigh, who then will send to Jean.

B) Pin for 49 finishers: Jerry Lee Cobleigh made a motion to authorize a 49 HP finisher pin, second by Mark Comstock. After a lively discussion, the motion was defeated by an 8 to 4 count.

C) A proposal by highpoint member Eric Lichtenstein, who attended the meeting, to have more regional meetings and other activities for the club other than once a year. Liability issues were brought up as the main concern. There are only 3 items covered at this time for our liability insurance. Craig suggested that we post various regional activities in the quarterly newsletter Apex to Zenith. There was no formal motion made.

Group Photograph: It was agreed to take the group photograph at the banquet later in the evening.

Adjournment: The meeting was adjourned at 5:04 PM

Mark D. Comstock, Secretary

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