The meeting was called to order by President Diana Lynn Rau at 7:45 p.m. In attendance: Mike Lohmann (V.P.), Kathy Jamison, Dan Jamison, Lisa Bornfriend (Promotion&Media) , Charlie Rau, Terri Rylander (Media & Grants), Al Rothenbach (Membership), Daniela Gasselova (Treasurer), Christine Lee (Secretary), Stephen Lee, Diana Lynn Rau (President).
APPROVAL OF MINUTES: Minutes from the April 21, 2020 were e-mailed to everyone. They were approved.
TREASURER'S REPORT: Daniela Gasselova was presented by Diana Lynn Rau as a nominee for treasurer. She was approved as such by the board and welcomed to Grand Nordic Ski Club. Diana reported that we showed a loss last year primarily from our free lesson program. Daniela said that she wanted to know more about our season's programs before she could do any budget projections for next year. She believes, though, that we will have more people cross-country skiing this season; alpine skiing figures might be going down because of Covid-19 precautions taken by the alpine ski resorts so skiers might be trying x-c instead. She also believes that our SWAP income will probably be lower as well as the income from the free lesson program. Snow Mountain Ranch is trying to keep group lessons smaller and Grand Lake has told us that they want group lessons limited to 5 or fewer participants. SMR will also want online signups.
OFFICERS: The new board is now complete and confirmed.
President: Diana Lynn Rau
Vice-President: Mike Lohman
Secretary: Christine Lee
Treasurer: Daniela Gasselova
Membership: Al Rothenbach
Media&Grants: Terri Rylander
Promotion&Media: Lisa Bornfriend
At Large: Kathy Jamison – Kids program
At Large: Dan Jamison – School teams
SWAP: Diana asked if we should even have a ski SWAP this year. There was quite a discussion on this subject with many pros & cons. Snow Mountain Ranch had given us permission to hold our SWAP at the YMCA outdoors on the parking lot at the Nordic Center and that was a pro. However with the Covid-19 virus on the rise many members were leery of even having people participating and coming close. After much discussion a MOTION was made to NOT HOLD THE SWAP THIS YEAR. The motion PASSED. It was also decided that we put in an ad in the Sky-Hi News about Grand Nordic not having a SWAP this year. In it we could also ask people to visit our Facebook page and to patronize our sponsors. Also ask for donations or memberships. There was a suggestion that people who had gear to sell could use our Facebook page for selling their items. Go to the Grand Nordic Facebook page and opposite the lettering Grand Nordic@grandnordic.org is a blue tab that says – VISIT GROUP.
Diana will also write up our decision to not hold the SWAP this year in her Nordic Column.
FREE LESSONS: Another long discussion was held regarding the free lessons. Do we hold them or not? The consensus was YES but with quite a few changes. Devil's Thumb will not be holding events this season which means no TOMMELLFEST so no free lessons at DT. SMR is willing to have us give our lessons but with pre-registration and only a certain number for each lesson (10 at the maximum?). Grand Lake has said that they will only allow 5 participants per lesson and only two lessons a day. Diana will check with Don on whether or not this would apply to our free lessons since we need at least four sessions (beginner classic, intermediate classic, beginner skate, intermediate skate), and this would be needed for both morning and afternoon sessions. Furthermore, Grand Lake has no way of doing pre-registrations for lessons so Grand Nordic would have to set up some way of doing this. One suggestion was that we could do lessons on both Saturday and Sunday and space people out that way. Possible if we have enough instructors who would be willing to do this.
Mike L. brought up the problem of the club losing money by giving free lessons (to all) along with free passes and rentals to members. We have been losing money because the ski areas have raised both their rates for passes and for rentals. Although we only pay for ½ of these costs with so many members doing more than one lesson the cost of membership does not cover our cost for passes and/or rentals. After much discussion everyone agreed that we could no longer pay for trail fees or rentals. A larger issue was that lessons were free to everyone, members and non-members alike.
After some discussion Al R. made the MOTION (seconded by Mike L.) that: Grand Nordic will offer free lessons for members only. The motion passed.
But a question was raised asking what else would members get for their membership. One idea was that although we don't want to pay for passes and rentals perhaps we could amend this policy to allow one free pass with an individual membership and two free passes for those with a family membership when these members registered for our lessons. (A one-time only deal). Something to think about. Details about this idea and places, dates and times for lessons will be a topic for further discussion via e-mail.
Diana and Mike will try to get discounts from SMR & DT along with other retailers.
The meeting was adjourned at 9:30 p.m.
Presented by: Christine Lee, Secretary