Villages Hiking Club General Meeting Minutes
Thursday, January 31, 2022. 7:30pm, Foothill
- Call to Order/Announcements Bob Bogdanoff, newly-elected Club President, called the first 2022 Villages Hiking General Meeting to order at 7:32pm. He acknowledged and thanked the 2021 Board Members for their dedicated service to the Club during the previous year. Next, he introduced the newly-elected 2022 Board Members: Himself, President – Bob Bogdanoff. Vice President (VP) Social – Bernice Capitano. VP Membership & Website – Jim Beyer. Treasurer – Gordon Carbonetti. And, Secretary – Cheryl Allmen. He also acknowledged the VP of Hiking & Trails – Gary Lohr who was absent and plans to join us at our next general meetings. Membership attendance was 24 individuals.
- Reports
a. Secretary – 2022 Secretary, Cheryl Allmen, indicated that a copy of the January 27, 2022 Hiking Club Board Meeting Minutes was available on the back table for review. Previous 2021 Secretary, Gordon Carbonetti, also announced that copies of the November 2021 general meeting minutes were also available for review on the back table. Additionally, a motion for acceptance of the November 2021 General Hiking Club Meeting Minutes, (last meeting of 2021) was made, seconded and passed by the members.
b. Treasurer – Gordon Carbonetti shared slides of the 4 financial reports and further explained each of the November and December, 2021 reports using the whiteboard and shared that copies were also on the back table for further review. Current balances are $3,277.22 of the November 2021 Hiking Club report; $1,715.89; 3,431.59 of the December 2021 Financial Reports; and $2,80l.82, Hill Lands Project Fund for both November and December 2021 reports. . It was moved and seconded to accept all 4 reports. Motion was passed by the members. Lastly, he shared a list of the Club’s donations to 12 (park, outdoors and hiking related) organizations.
c. VP Membership & Website – Jim Beyer shared that as a function of the annual billing process, 10 members dropped and reimbursements were made to those requesting to be dropped. One new member, Hilary Nethers, was announced for a total membership of 301 members. He also announced that he has updated the club’s application form and has new copies available in Cribari folder display and on the Hiking Club website.
Related to the club’s website, Jim also shared that to date, he has already worked over 60 hours so far using WordPress to develop a potential replacement for our website making it more robust and showcased numerous examples to illustrate the enhancements including membership, minutes, photo albums from previous years, etc. He indicated that several other Villages clubs are using WordPress for their website and share the cost. The Board agreed to allocate $120/per this first year to support this WordPress website cost.
d. VP Hiking & Trails – Substituting for Gary Lohr, Bob shared the upcoming February hiking schedule describing the different types of hiking available including the numerous Villlages hills hiking trails, rambler, lite rambler, and longer hikes. Bonnie Preston indicated the rambler lite hikes have had 8-15 hikers and Cheryl Allmen shared that this week’s Monday am golf course hikers totaled 11 individuals appreciating the hike through the golf course various sections in the cool, foggy weather. Susan Brown announced she’ll be leading the February 16th rambler hike going toward New Seasons with the opportunity to purchase coffee, other beverages and enjoy early am treats before returning to the Villages.
e. VP Social – Bernice Capitano announced that although because of Covid regulations, the January soup social was canceled, we could look forward to our next club social, Game Night & Snacks, scheduled for March 10, 2022 which will feature non-alcoholic beverages and snacks set up by the Social group. Members are asked to bring their favorite games to share. Planned publicity will include two weeks advertising in The Villager newspaper plus announcements on our website. She asked for volunteers to set up supplies for coffee and tea for meetings and also help with upcoming socials throughout the year. Susan Brown thanked Sandy & John Petrin and Gisela Pearson for supplying the evening’s cookies for our break.
f. President – Bob Bogdanoff indicated that there are many ways to find your niche via the Villages Hiking Club activities and hikes such as enjoying the newly installed table and bench added to our Villages mountain trail, checking out the new grading along the Meadow trail, and enjoying the many walkable paths especially on the north side of our trails, and looking forward to our overnight Spring 2022 Hiking Trip to Chico being planned.
He announced we had purchased our own projector ($200) to enhance our presentations/meetings and has submitted recent articles to our weekly The Villager newspaper highlighting the addition of hiking table and bench additions to our trails. Bob also announced speakers planned for upcoming general club meetings: February-Panel on Road Scholars Hikes/Trips; March-Russ Glines – Animals in The Villages Hill Lands; April- Jim Koski (professional photographer) – 6 Month RV Road Trip Across SW America.
Lastly he indicated that the Board will be meeting to review the submittals to our recent survey and highlighted a few details including comments from members including volunteering topics for presentations, appreciating the recent presentation on Mushrooms, enjoying the fall offsite hikes at Pismo Beach area, suggesting presentations on rescue dogs, hikes scheduled on additional days such as Tuesday and Thursdays, and hiking to view beautiful wildflowers our County. He indicated the Board will review the content from the survey results and report more of a summary of the recommendations that will enhance the Club’s offerings in the future.
The business portion of the meeting was adjourned by our President around 8:15pm and refreshments were enjoyed by the members during the break.
- Presentation. A wonderful and very informative presentation by Michelle Breslin followed on the Grazing Proposal for our Villages Hills Area during which she highlighted fire prevention possibilities, past history of the area including the elk and antelope populating the local hills, animals such as cattle and goat grazing potential for our hills, soil and moisture options, possible neighboring ranch owner partnerships/agreements and maintaining the safety of our residences and the best condition, safety and enjoyment of our 547 acres of Villages property.
- Closure. The meeting concluded at approximately 9:15pm.
Respectfully submitted,
Cheryl Allmen
Cheryl Allmen, Secretary