Villages Hiking Club Board Meeting Minutes
Thursday, January 24, 2025
Call to Order: President Bob Bogdanoff called the board meeting to order at 9:30am in Cribari
with the following Board Members present: VPs Social – Bibi Bruce, representing Linda; VP
Membership –Marisue Cody; VP Website – Jim Beyer; VP Hiking &Trails – Gordon Carbonetti;
Treasurer – Bert Tang (on Zoom): Absent were Secretary -Cheryl Allmen and, VPs Social Linda
Arbaugh.
Reports
Treasurer-Bert, via zoom, reported that the November 30, 2024 Hill Lands balance was lowered
for several weeks by transferring its funds to the General funds to cover the Santa Barbara trip
costs until payments from attendees were deposited into the General fund. Eventually the
borrowed funds were sufficiently returned to the Hill Lands fund so the December 31, 2024
balance returned to $2,279.72. Regarding the General fund, the balance was $1,428.19 on
November 30, 2024. In December he shared the expenses included $100 checks donated to the
usual 12 organizations the Club supports along with expenses for the December 2024 Holiday
gathering with an ending balance of $3,393.76 on December 31, 2024.. Gordon motioned to
approve the fiscal reports, seconded by Marisue. Motion approved.
Related to financial goals, Bert recommended reviewing the list of organizations for 2025
donations, working with Bob to prepare a spreadsheet of all the 2024 expenses to support
planning the 2025 budgets, and to consider evaluating the possibility of honorariums for non-
Village speakers presenting at our general meetings.
President – Bob advised that he and Cheryl attended the recent New Resident Orientation
which yielded 3 new members and a list of possible individuals who might decide to sign up
with the club later. He also appreciated the Board members comments on the 2025 survey
draft and indicated it would be emailed out soon and would announce it at next week’s general
meeting, He mentioned the Variety Night and Summer BBQ are on hold and most likely room
reservations will be cancelled. Lastly he explained that the Board meeting starting time has
been moved to 9:15am to allow meeting adjournment earlier and lessen other leader’s
scheduling conflicts.
VPs Social – Bibi, representing Linda, explained that the Soup and White Elephant social has
been moved to Friday instead of Thursday as there had been some conflicts and microwave
wasn’t functioning. Twenty-five have RSVP’d so far and she would be contacting others to add
more members creating soups. Bibi indicated she’d put up signup sheets in the back of the
room at next week’s general meeting. She requested the addition of RSVPs to be included on
the emails sent out to the membership promoting the social activities. Lastly, she explained the
importance of sending photos of our Club’s socials for inclusion on our Club website and also in
the Villager newspaper to attract more interest in our Club’s activities.
VP Membership –Marisue announced there are 350 members and 4 new members have been added:
Darlene Mears, Ann Hyland, Pat Hyland, Mark Thomas. Eleven individuals have withdrawn. All badges
have been created. Lucy will handle welcoming and giving out the name tags since she is caregiving a
relative and unable to be at the January general meeting. Bob indicated it would be great if we could
have a computer or I pad available at the meetings to sign up any guests wishing to become members.
VP Website – Jim Beyer shared the website is running well and there haven’t been any issues to solve.
He added minutes provided by Cheryl and photos of hill side, golf course walks and other hikes sent to
him from others. Jim indicated he found the history from 1970’s and 80s of the Club in the cage and has
added it to the website as well. Since Jim has expertise on the History of the Hiking Club, he would be
willing to be a possible speaker if a last-minute sub is needed at a general meeting in the future. Bob
mentioned it would be beneficial if we could add a directory of all the past hikes to our website as
possibilities or an incentive for new leaders to review as possibilities for the future.
VP Hiking &; Trails – Gordon reported he had added new folders of trail sheets in the mailboxes
at the entrances to the Hill Land’s trails and been supporting both Guy and Sy to locate and
announce Rambler hikes outside the Villages. His goals for 2025 are to ensure the development
of both the spring and fall adventures and is researching options and looking forward to
suggestions from the 2025 survey. It was also shared that Jim Ware has volunteered to plan
the March Trail Maintenance Day and has begun working with the Maintenance Department
and their service workers to arrange all the details.
Secretary – Gordon (on behalf of Cheryl) announced he is recording today’s board meeting and will
forward it to Cheryl for completion of the minutes. Minutes from the November 20224 meetings had
been emailed to the Board and later reviewed by Bob and Gordon. No updates or changes were
offered. Marisue motioned to approve the November 2024 minutes, Gordon seconded. Motion
approved.
Old Business none
Next Meetings: General Meeting: Monday January 27, 7pm Craig Haupt—Hiking Corsica’s GR20;
Monday, February 24 , 7pm Gordon Carbonetti – African Safari; March 31 – Jerry Gililland – Yosemite;
April 28 – Frank Langben & Nancy Mori – Birds in The Villages; May – No meeting; June 30 – Mitzi
Macon – Antarctica Board Meeting; .February 20, 9:15am Montgomery.
Meeting was adjourned at 11:12am.
Respectfully submitted,
Cheryl Allmen
Cheryl Allmen, Secretary