Attendees: Tim Carter (V.P.), Diana Lynn Rau (President), Mike Lohman, Stephen Lee, Christine Lee (Secretary), Kelly Howard
First order of business was an announcement from Diana that we are looking for a new treasurer.
A discussion was held about the high school and middle school x-c skier programs. Dave Zink revitalized the Middle School program which last year had over 50 participants. He is now working on the High School program. There is a problem with this in that there are only specific times that are legal for the students to practice. They really need more practice time for skiing. Mention was made that some coaches in other activities get around the regulations by calling practices pre-season comp. In order to compete at a national level participants have to join a club or organization like ours. The RMD (Rocky Mountain Division), helps kids to move to a higher level in X-C sking. Our club should continue to keep communication levels open with Dave Zink since he has a big base of students, some of whom would be able to move to this higher level of skiing.
A suggestion was made that we have a school corner on the website where we advertise or ask for parent helpers. Also we need to set rates for kids and parents to join Grand Nordic X-C. Maybe kids for $5.00 and special rates for families. In this website corner we would advertise discounted early season x-c passes as well as free day passes with membership. There will be an elementary school program meeting the first week the students are in school and the end of October for the middle school students. This would be a perfect time for Grand Nordic to bring over our pamphlets and talk to parents about joining Grand Nordic.
OTHER INFO: Grand Lake will have races for Seniors this season.
Igor (Devil's Thumb) has sent a date, Saturday Dec 12, for their Ski Fest. We can help with the free lessons, etc. on that day. Diana mentioned that we are still working on setting up a work day at SMR and DTR.
Mike brought up the Dual-Pass issue at SMR and DTR. He will talk to Mark Birdseye at SMR and Igor at DTR about having Grand Nordic issue this pass. Also talk to SMR, DTR and Grand Lake about having free one-day passes to each area to Grand Nordic members as one reason to become a member of our organization. Another idea was to issue free day passes to parents who help with special events or the kids program. Plus perhaps getting a discount from participating local businesses if one is a Grand Nordic member. This could be advertised on our website and in our 2009/2010 pamphlet. We need to beef up our membership (currently about 100) and Mike will go over these ideas with Igor and Mark.
SKI SWAP: Will be held at Snow Mountain Ranch sometime at the end of October. There will be no food except for dessert and drinks. This would be a great time to get people to join our club by emphasizing that they could get discounted early season passes at SMR and DTR with Nordic Club membership and/or some free day passes to each area. Kelly suggested that once a season each area give a free day pass to skiers who donate a can of food to a Grand County food organization.
HIGH SCHOOL/MIDDLE SCHOOL X-C PROGRAM: Mike Lohman made a motion that we again contribute $1000.00 to Dave Zink's High School/Middle School X-C program for the 2009-2010 season. It was seconded and passed unanimously.
The meeting adjourned at 9:30 p.m.
Submitted by: Christine Lee, Secretary 8/20/09
(Per further talks the date of the SKI SWAP has been set for Friday, October 23, 2009)