Villages Hiking Club Board Minutes
Thursday April 21, 2022, Forum Room, Cribari
President, Bob Bogdanoff, called the meeting to order at 9:34am. 100% of the 2022 Board Members attended: VP Social – Bernice Capitano, VP Membership & Website – Jim Beyer, Treasurer – Gordon Carbonetti, Secretary – Cheryl Allmen and VP Hiking & Trails – Gary Lohr.
Reports
Secretary – Cheryl indicated both March 2022 Board and General meeting minutes have been emailed to the Board members, submitted to Jim for inclusion on the club’s website, and will be displayed at the April 25th General meeting at the back table for member’s review. Gordon motioned and Gary seconded for acceptance of the March General and Board Meeting minutes. Motion passed.
Treasurer – Gordon shared the current Hills Funds ending balance of $2,215.89 and the General Funds balance of $5,860.19 which included addition of $35 of 5 new members. He also indicated Sunshine Committee member, Terri Vivoli, had forwarded a get well card to Peter Song who is recuperating from a hiking injury. Jim moved to accept the treasurer’s current reports and Cheryl seconded. Motion passed.
VP Membership & Website – Jim announced that last month 4 new members (David and Babette Bryce, John Zhang, and Mimi Rong) joined the club and one person was removed resulting in a current membership of 309 members. Website continues to be improved and undated.
VP Social – Bernice reminded the Board that planning for the Club’s Variety Night scheduled for May 12th is moving along well. She met with Wendy Ledamun who informed her of similar past activities and gave her names of previous performers and clubs to contact such as the Ukulele Club, hula dancers, singing groups, etc. Five acts have signed up so far and she is hoping to have a total of 10 soon encouraging Board members to announce the possibility to clubs and others they know who have talents to share. The evening will also feature a Potluck in addition to the talent series.
Bernice indicated she will not be available for our July picnic and indicated Wendy agreed to manage it during her absence.
VP Hiking and Trails—Gary shared that the Rambler and Rambler -Lite hikes have been scheduled and attended well now that COVID regulations have been reduced but we have had very few long hikes. Need for more hiking leaders also surfaced.
The Board discussed these issues and came up with a few ideas to consider that could 1. Increase availability of long hikes, 2. Create different hikes on other days such as Fridays which was indicated on our recent survey results, and 3. Increase a higher number of hike leaders. Thoughts included given higher gas prices, plan long hikes closer to the Villages (within 10 miles) to reduce mileage costs; reach out to other organizations that have guides in different hiking areas; schedule a Hike Leader Pre-hike on Friday during the Chico trip; announce a hike leader orientation to members thinking about leading a hike; meet with new club members to orient them to the club offerings; encourage some members considering leading a hike to partner with and accompany a guide to increase familiarity with leading; and, coordinate hikes to additional sites such as Alum Rock, Big Basin, ocean areas, Grant Ranch, etc.
President – Bob indicated
- Spring Trip to Chico has 35 attendees participating and has helped some requesting carpooling details. He’s notified restaurant reserved for the May 5th dinner of the numbers registered for the Chico event and indicated a 5:30pm shuttle will transport members to the restaurant. He is also planning on meeting with Dan Kato to check out the details on the various Chico hikes and also holding a Wednesday meeting later on the 4th to further communicate hiking options with the attendees, and also send out a reminder email to the participants of the details on the trip.
As to future club outings planning, Cheryl mentioned possibly reviewing some of the past outings, determine what types of locations are popular, request suggestions of locations from the membership and possibly plan both spring and fall outings nearer to the April and October months since some members indicated they already had conflicts with other May events and COVID regulations had delayed many Villages activities.
- King Grading Update. While hiking, Bob ran into and talked with some of the King Grading workers related to planned grading activity. They indicated the garden path area is dependent upon City of San Jose approval, there is a future brush maintenance planned and grading will most likely occur in the next month.
Old Business/New Business. None discussed.
Next Meetings
General Meeting: Monday, April 25, 2022, 7:30pm-9:30pm, Vineyard Center, Program: Road Trip, Jim Koski.
Future General Meetings and speakers/topics were announced by Bob: May-no meeting. 6/27/22-Circumanbulating the Annapurna Mountain, Frans Spickoff. July-no meeting. 8/29/22-The Villages History-Annette Mach. 9/26/22-First Aid-Matt Kelly with Lionheart Safety. 10/31/22 Iwo Jim-Al Girolami. 11/28/22 Topic to be decided- Wate Bakker. December-no meeting.
Board Meeting: No May Board Meeting and next monthly meeting Thursday, June 23, 2022, 9:30a-10:30p, Forum in Cribari.
Meeting Adjourned at 10:38am.
Respectfully Submitted,
Cheryl Allmen
Cheryl Allmen, Secretary