Villages Hiking Club General Meeting Minutes
July 27, 2020, 4pm, via Zoom
The presentation, “Hiking in the Bay Area,” delivered by Kelly English and her colleague, Adam (both formerly with Backroads), preceded the general meeting and featured recommendations for preparation for hiking, food/clothing tips, items to include in the car while hiking and highlights of some interesting local hikes. At the conclusion of their presentation, President Al Girolami began our first Zoom general meeting explaining the purpose of it was to bring the membership up-to-date on the progress the Board has made resulting from their last three board meetings. All General Hiking Club meetings have been cancelled by the Villages since the start of the COVID-19 shelter-in-place protocols were put in place preventing greater-than-ten in-person meetings.
Board Members Present : Al Girolami, VP Trails Faye Swanson, VP Social Michelle Breslin, VP members & Webmaster Jim Beyer, Secretary Cheryl Allmen and Sandy Petrin. Members present, 29.President’s Report: Al summarized the following key action items submitted to the Villages Board for consideration at their upcoming August meeting: 1. Improve the safety of the Garden Steps-Al along with Faye Swanson and Dan Kato met with representatives from King Grading and secured an estimate of approximately $3,000 to complete the project which was included in the original $25,000 previously allocated for trail projects by the Village’s Board. 2. Add a mail box (which has been already donated) and sign in at the lower entrance to the Upper Garden to increase visibility to this trail and to encourage parking at the lower level. And, 3. Add 3’ x 5’ signs similar to those visible at ski resorts to identify “You are here” on the trail. He concluded with encouraging members to join the August Villages Board meeting via Zoom to further emphasize the Club’s support of these priorities.
Hiking Trails- Faye Swanson. Faye indicated the following two Villages’ “unsanctioned hikes” are options available to members: 1. Russ Glines, who is very knowledgeable and often spots interesting wildlife along the trail routes, hikes our mountain trails every Saturday and Wednesday. He invites individuals to join him, adhering to the 6’ distancing and masking requirements. Interested members are to meet at 8:30am at Foothill. 2. Twice a month unsanctioned Wednesday off –campus hikes are announced to our membership via email.
The next unsanctioned hike is scheduled for July 29, 2020 and involves driving independently per COVID-19 guidelines and meeting at Santa Teresa Park at 9am. Lastly, she announced that eventually she hopes to schedule Saturday and Wednesday hikes again on a regular basis once the COVID-19 restrictions have been lifted.
Membership, Jim Beyer. Our Club membership remains at 292 members. The Club welcomes our newest members: Bob Bogdanoff, Karen Hillis and Bob McPeek. Three members have dropped due to their passing or relocating. Al encouraged members to carry a downloaded copy of our Club Membership Application with them to give to non-members who might be interested in joining.
Treasurer’s Report, Sandy Petrin . Our beginning balance was $6,535.06. $50 Memorial checks were sent on behalf of former members, Terry Malloy and Lee Wade, to their organization of choice and a $35.00 check was delivered to reimburse Peter Holmes for duplication expenditures for the mailbox logs.
Final balance: $6,413.84. Hills Land account balance remains at $2,301.82.
Secretary, Cheryl Allmen. Cheryl shared that Terry Vivoli, who oversees our Sunshine efforts, has been actively sending home-crafted cards to members who would benefit from some cheer. Cheryl moved that the reading of the minutes of the last in-person general meeting of February 24, 2020 be waived and available for review upon request from the Secretary’s records. Michelle Breslin seconded. Motion passed.
Social, Michelle Breslin. Al thanked Michelle for arranging for today’s talk and sharing the creative hiking cocktail recipes. Michelle announced 33 members attended the speaker’s presentation and 29remained for the general meeting The general meeting ended at 5pm with a passed motion made by Rich Bainbridge and seconded by John Petrin for concluding the meeting.
Respectfully submitted,
Cheryl Allmen
Cheryl Allmen, Secretary
Attachments: Financial Report. Hill Lands Fund Report.