Villages Hiking Club Board Meeting
Thursday, April 20, 2023
Patio Room, Cribari
Call to Order: The Board Meeting was called to order at 9:29am by President Bob Bogdanoff with the
following Board members in attendance: VP Social – Bibi Bruce, VP Membership & Website – Jim Beyer, VP
Hiking & Trails – John Petrin and Treasurer – Gordon Carbonetti. Also in attendance was Wendy Ledamun in charge of Sonora Outing Reception. Those absent were Secretary – Cheryl Allmen, and Carmel Smith, who is assisting the VP Social.
REPORTS:
Secretary – Gordon (sitting in for Cheryl) was recording the meeting and will generate the meeting minutes.
He also advised that Cheryl distributed by email the Minutes of the March Board Meeting. Jim motioned to approve the minutes, seconded by John. Motion approved.
Treasurer – Gordon summarized the March 2023 financial reports he emailed out earlier: General Fund
account started with $5,645.21. With the addition of new member’s dues ($21), minus expenses of $595.27
covering web services, Game night/Trail Mx Day and Rancher Bistro dinners, the month-end balance was
$5,070.94. The Hill Lands account remained unchanged from the previous month and ended March with a balance of $2,715.89. Bob motioned to approve the reports, seconded by John. Motion passed. Gordon
also mentioned he had four other new members pay dues by check in March, but such revenue will be
reflected in the April financial report.
VP Membership & Website – Jim stated the current membership is 321, including eight new members since the last meeting: Lindis and Chris Corpus, Gabriele Ondine, Nancy Hooton, Marisue Cody, Valerie Simler, Katherine O’Toole, Shannon Marquardt. Jim also advised the website now allows for new members to sign up on-line, which will then permit adding annual dues to their next HOA payment. The final website upgrade is in its final stages with the incorporation of Mail Chimp, which will ease management of member names/contact details and the distribution of club information. Plus, our website will operate like other clubs which should make member usage, system updates and maintenance easier. Even though our consultant, David Cook, is very busy, he will continue to assist Jim to complete the upgrade process soon.
VP Hiking & Trails – In a recent hike in Henry Coe Park, John liked that we had several hiking abilities
participate with everyone forming sub-groups to hike Rambler, Long-Hiker, and ultra-long trails. John also announced Al Girolami completed the third of the Magnificent 7 “Pix In Park” hikes and to stay tuned for future hikes. Related to the Sonora Outing T-Th May 2-4, John said there were 43 people signed up plus one of his relatives who lives locally. He is adding a welcome hike on Tu May 2 nd in the Sonora area at the town of Columbia which has a self-guided walk through the best-preserved mining town in the Mother Lode. Plus, there is an option to go through Railtown Historic Park in Jamestown on the way home on Thursday May 4th.
Members are pre-hiking trails for Rambler and Long hikes planned on Wednesday May 3 rd. with more info to follow. Dinner is at 5p Wednesday at El Arroyo.
Wendy Ledamun is organizing the Sonora Outing BYOB Welcome Reception at the hotel on Tuesday, May 2 nd .
She plans to have hearty appetizers along with vegetarian chili. The HC will need to provide bottled water and paper goods from our cage.
VP Social – Bibi reported plans are being finalized for Variety Night on Thursday, May 11th, (International
Potluck, BYOB, 5:30pm-8:00). Lee Thompson has agreed to be the MC. She has commitments from Flamengo Dancers, Bosa Nova by the Rio Trio, Forever Young Dancers, Sy Gelman, Ukulele Group and Sunshine Dancers. Acts to be reviewed are Leo Ruth, Larry Broderick, Sam Brown group, and Richard Holmboe. Wendy cautioned Bibi to allot plenty of time for Act set-up, have performers contribute food too, to watch for people taking too much food and get help (from John Trudeau) with setting up the microphone. Bibi is looking for help with a printed flyer. Bob asked her to consider lead-time issues related to planning the Summer BBQ on July 8 th .
President – Bob went through some of the survey results as summarized below:
People prefer an unpaid pot-luck social where you can BYOB at no charge vs paying extra for an event. Suggestions for social activities support what we are doing. If any changes are to be made with social calendar events, they need to be a part of the 2024 calendar planning exercise. Some road-trip suggestions could be handled as a private activity (unlike a HC social event) with
interested members planning such activity.
Bob is hoping the updated website can be used by members to invite other interested members to
participate in any pop-up or ad-hoc hikes that arise at the last minute. We did that unofficially when it
snowed on the hills above the Villages, because a last-minute notice to all members was not feasible. The HC continues to seek hike leaders.
Off-site outing locations continue to be suggested, but driving distance limits needs to be considered.
There is some support to raise annual dues, which may provide an option to pay for HC speakers.
It was suggested to change the HC general membership meeting start time from 7:30p to 7:00p
starting in 2024 which the Board favors and will announce this to the membership at the June meeting.
There are too many hikes on Wed and the HC should consider using other days. Perhaps Rambler hikes
on Saturday might work.
OLD BUSINESS/NEW BUSINESS:
VMA Health Festival on April 29 th : The HC is dropping out of the VMA Health Festival due to only one member volunteered to help Jim Beyer at the HC table.
Back Country Weekend Hike on Saturday April 29 th : Bob has four people accompanying him on the back country hike on Saturday April 29 th in Henry Coe Park.
New Resident Orientation Meeting March 29 th – Gordon reported he, Sy Gelman, Jim Beyer and Carmel Smith attended representing the HC. Five or six people approached the table asking about the HC. Two people signed up then and attended the next Saturday Hill Hike. Gordon wondered if new residents could mingle with the participating clubs prior to the formal meeting. That meeting tends to go long, so new residents immediately leave at the end without talking to the clubs. Bob will make that suggestion to the Villages.
NEXT MEETINGS:
General Meeting: Monday, April 24, 2023, Ukraine Relief – Rose Egan & Mira Dytko
Board Meeting: Thursday, June 22, 2023, from 9:30am-10:30am in the Cribari Patio Room.
Meeting Adjourned at 11:30am.
Respectfully submitted,
Gordon Carbonetti for Cheryl Allmen, Secretary