2005 Board Meeting Minutes

October 11, 2005

Board Members in attendance: Carol Beckman, Mary Burger, Matt Carpenter, Steve Jennings, Ed Lynch, Ramsay Rayner, Karl Stang.
Meeting convened 6:35
The minutes were approved.
Financial statement from Ramsay: as of October 11, 2005
On File

The membership meeting will be set up at 5:00. Eating will begin at 6:00. The meal will be a pasta bar with a server to help. Steve will contact Brett Gracely to give the talk this year. Trophies were decided on.

The Board Retreat will be November 19. One point of discussion will be the Project Support Committee.

The Forest Service is undergoing some organizational changes as a result categorical exclusions won’t be allowed so FOTP may have to do environmental impact statements or get it done. FOTP will explore the avenues available to finance EAs.

Severy Creek may be open after construction of stream crossings.

The Board voted to investigate the support of the Pike Centennial Celebration. Steve will follow up.

Carol reported on putting in the Frosty’s Park-Jones Park-Bear Creek signs. Three signs have been replaced in Horsethief Park.

Karl volunteered to take over the treasurer position from Ramsay

Carol Becker was elected to the Board.

The Board decided to send out pins to the people who haven’t participated lately.

VOC will not assist with the Devil’s Playground trail work. Mary proposed a week-long project with support on site.

Tool cleanup is on Saturday.

The meeting adjourned 7:11

September 13, 2005

Board Members in attendance: Mary Burger, Matt Carpenter, Ed Lynch, Ramsay Rayner, Karl Stang. Sign Rep: Carol Beckman.

Meeting convened at 6:40 at 330 N. Institute

The minutes for July were approved.
The minutes for August were approved.

Financials: Ramsay:
He had no transactions since the last meeting, but received several items at this meeting.

Signage: Carol:
The signing group had made two more runs since the previous report, one replacing three road-side signs, at Bear Creek, High Drive, and Mount Esther, and another replacing three signs around the Raspberry Mountain access point. The sign group has been trying to schedule a run through Jones Park, from Frosty’s down to Bear Creek, since the end of June and hasn’t managed it yet, although they have had a couple of dates scheduled, which then did not work out from one thing or another.
Matt reported that Ute Pass trail at Rattlesnake Gulch needs a sign. The sign group had actually made a run this summer replacing signs on Ute Pass trail, so it seems like a good candidate for concrete and U-channel.

Projects: Mary:
On Ring the Peak, the Putney Gulch connection is built over the ridge and down. One more work day for it remains this season, Sat, Sept 17. 12 to 15 volunteers are signed up.
Mary expects to have about one mile of the link completed by the end of that day, with the remainder for next year.
On Bear Creek, one more Thursday maintenance day remains. The crews have been leaving the tools out and moving them up. The remaining day will complete maintenance on the Bear Creek trail, installing a couple more steps and clearing the corridor.
So the next question is what to do next. Some possibilities are Saint Mary’s or Seven Bridges, or, to remain on the Ring, between Captain Jacks and Jones Park. Some disadvantages of the last option are that it would require a walk in of an hour and a half each time and it is a motorized trail. Mary threw out possibilities for people to consider and discuss later.
On Devil’s Playground, Mary proposed the project to Volunteers for Outdoor Colorado. They will decide in September (Sept 25) whether it is an appropriate project. Mary is confident that it is. Then in October VOC will decide whether it fits into their schedule. The project needs VOC’s logistic support and isn’t something that FOTP can handle on its own.

Issues to discuss:
Solar energy for the summit house:
CS Utilities asked if FOTP would endorse the use of solar energy for the new summit house. Mary sent the e-mail notice around about that earlier.
Some of the board’s comments:
It depends on how it is implemented, for example, putting it flat on the roof so it is out of view.
It seems to be an attempt by Utilities to fulfill the voter-approved requirement to use renewable energy sources, although it would contribute only a tiny percentage of its requirement.
However it is implemented should be non-intrusive.
It is a good idea in principle.
The board needs more information before deciding on an endorsement.
The use of solar energy at the summit house would increase public awareness of the viability of solar energy.
The board could invite a Utilities representative to attend a board meeting to explain the project and answer questions.

Planning the annual party:
The date, October 22, was set and put out, repeatedly.
Matt volunteered to design the invitations. He noted that last year the envelopes cost more than the invitations themselves, and suggested using a postcard format. The envelopes last year cost $150. The postage would also be cheaper. Another possibility mentioned was e-mail invitations, or sending both e-mail and the postcard. Matt was concerned about outdated e-mail addresses and bounced mail, but can handle it. The board decided on postcard invitations, but no firm decision on also sending out e-mail notices was made.
Mary had several items from the review of the annual meeting.
Mary has made a greater effort this year to take photos at the projects, and can put together a slide show from those.
The scrap book should be available earlier in the evening.
Bob suggested a comedy skit with tools. Since Bob suggested it, he can put together a script for the next meeting.
The agenda should be more organized. The best guess was that this related to the times.
The invitation should say “buffet dinner” since that is what it is, rather than “light dinner".
Picnic Basket will cater again this year. Matt plans to include that on the invitation.
The times will be: 5:30 social time, 6:00 dinner, with presentations and awards to follow. The wording “presentations and awards” seemed more appealing than “meeting” and a more accurate description.
For more diversified speakers, people suggested several possible speakers to invite:
someone from CS Utilities to discuss solar energy in the new summit house,
the Barr Camp caretakers,
Deb Accord or Dave Phillips from the Gazette,
the slide show that Mary gave for the Colorado Mountain Club.
Project photos are always appreciated because people like finding themselves and people they know in the photos.
The board’s counting on Steve to provide the digital projector.
People would like to see more awards given. Some possibilities:
Bob Bunch: rock wrangler
Spencer Johnson: agent orange
Hadj: civil engineering award
Cameron Hickert: bodacious youth
Ken: hard hat
Alicia and Bruce Doctor: weekday warriors
Bob Johnson: root award
The award design decided on was a piece of signpost with Ring the Peak decals (brown on one side, green on the other, naturally) in a hardwood base. Ed will cut damaged signposts and mount them in the wood bases. Carol will supply the damaged posts and decals.

Fall newsletter:
It’s time to decide on content, create it, and mail out the newsletter.
Possibilities:
report on the projects,
letter to Ron, appropriately edited to fit the format of a newsletter,
report on Mary receiving the Land Steward of the Year award from VOC, probably including a paragraph from the nomination by Matt. Incidental to that, Mary can invite ten to twelve people to the presentation in Denver, and took suggestions, which came faster than I can write. So Mary noted them down.
a note requesting e-mail addresses and updated e-mail addresses,
a list of all the volunteers on the projects.
A question of when to mail out the newsletter, before or after the dinner, arose. Sending it out after, the newsletter could include the awards from the dinner. November is still fall, or the newsletter could be designated “end of season".
Anyone wanting to submit an article for the newsletter should have it ready at the next meeting.

Matt reported on projects on Barr Trail. Two projects have occurred since his last report, and accomplished quite a bit. The second project had to move lower than planned, but the group took up 36 new rails. Then one volunteer finished the rails in three days and stained them all, matching the existing stain, in two more days. Usually this work takes much longer.
Matt is keeping the database up-to-date on projects but is a bit behind on thank yous. Everyone commended the good job he is doing with getting out notices and how well organized the information is. Matt has a database for Ramsay and Bob, with current members, then others sorted on last contact date, most recent first. Ramsay and Bob plan to mail out pins.
Matt commented on the bills for advertising. Mary observed that the crawl on the weather channel has netted no new volunteers. The ad in the Independent provided one new volunteer. They don’t appear to be worth the cost. Mary and Bob ask new volunteers where they heard about the project. The web seems to be the most common answer.

Action items:
Mary: contact Picnic Basket.
Mary: organize photos into slide show.
Matt: design invitations and send around to the board to review. To get them out sooner, he also offered to attach labels and mail them out before the next meeting. Mary offered to help.
Carol: get damaged signposts to Ed.
Ed: make the plaques for the awards.
Ramsay: contact Utilities about a speaker on solar energy at the summit house.
Bob: create a script for a comedy skit involving tools, under five minutes.
Steve: provide a digital projector for the dinner.

Meeting adjourned at 8:00 p.m.

Next meeting: 6:30, Tuesday, October 11, 330 N. Institute (Ramsay’s insurance office).

August 8, 2005

In attendance: Ramsay Rayner, Ed Lynch, Bob Johnson, Mary Burger

The board had not received the minutes from the previous meeting, Mary will forward them. Carol Beckman had taken the minutes, and Mary did not realize that she did not distribute to all.

Financial report was presented and accepted.

An ad has been placed in the Indy, and PSAs sent out to radio TV and print media.

Signage committee is having difficulty getting out, due to schedule conflicts.

Projects are proceeding. The work at the top of Devil’s Playground trail went very well. Steps and drains were the order of the day. Project proposal for VOC on Devil’s Playground is submitted.

Next meeting will be at 330 N. Institute, (corner of Institute and Boulder) topics for next meeting:
Do we want to endorse the use of solar energy at the new summit house?
Planning for annual party.

July 12, 2005

Board Members in attendance: Mary Burger, Bob Johnson, Ed Lynch, Ramsay Rayner, Karl.
Sign Rep: Carol Beckman

Meeting convened 6:35 at Garden of the Gods trading post

The minutes for June were approved.

Financial statement from Ramsay: as of July 12, 2005
On file

Mary reported that she filed the annual report with the state so FotP is legal for another year.
The Thursday work days are going well, with about twelve people working each time. On the previous day, June 30, the group staged tools up the trail rather than carrying them back down, and will probably continue to do so. Mary will be out of town for the July 28 date, but Bob Bunch has agreed to organize that day.
The work weekend on Barr Trail went well, except for Connie’s purse being stolen. Bob said that they are dealing with all the problems that that entails. Other than that, Saturday, the group worked on maintenance for Barr Trail and Sunday they worked on the Incline, removing fencing.
The next work weekend is Devil’s Playground to Crags, July 23-24. 19 people are registered. Mary has 3 crew leaders and is recruiting more. 8 people are signed up for camping. Camping hasn’t really happened yet this summer, but Mary thinks it might this time.
Mary is putting together a slide show from photos from Karl(?) and Carol for the Colorado Mountain Club on Thursday, July 21, at Centennial Hall (next to the Pikes Peak Center). Steve needs to be there to handle the projector. Karl also volunteered to help. Mary believes the meeting is 6:30, so they should arrive around 6:00.

Bob reported on PR.
The weather crawl is running, about twelve times a day, so about every two hours. It tends to show up around ten minutes to the hour. However, work days so far have not had anyone show up because of the crawl.
The article in the Gazette a month or so back produced about a dozen contacts.
Bob found that Friends of Red Rock Canyon had a glossy, color, trifold brochure, produced with money from CS Parks and Rec. He had samples, and is looking into something similar for Friends of the Peak.
Bob is considering recruiting project veterans to try to increase the number of people out on projects.
Several people commented on the great job that Matt is doing with the registration, timely e-mails, lists of registrants, …

Carol reported on signs. The sign folks made their first signing run of the year on June 29, and re-installed signs from High Drive up Palmer/Red Rocks to the beginning of the Intemann Trail. In that run, the only existing signs were one on High Drive which had moved but still pointed the right way and one just past the beginning of the Intemann Trail. The group installed 18 signs and ruined 2 (rocky ground, ruined point). Having used half the stock of signs in one day, the group ordered 40 more. The next run will be July 20 (weather, health, etc., permitting), going from Frosty’s Park downhill to Bear Creek trail head. A few signs (five to six) are missing on the Ute Pass trail. Past that, there are reports of a few signs missing here and there, but people who have walked or biked other portions of the trail report that the signs are still there.
Some discussion of keeping the signs in the ground once they are installed ensued. One tactic is American flag decals. Both the Forest Service contact and an employee at the company that makes the posts suggested that. So new signs, and some of the old ones that have survived, have flag decals. The new sign posts also have double anchors this year, one metal, one plastic (last year each post had one plastic anchor).

Mary reported that she has the project request form for VOC for Devil’s Playground for next year. She talked with a VOC rep. VOC is trying to help local groups so that they can handle larger projects. This might come in the form of money, staff, consulting, …

I didn’t notice when the meeting adjourned (so you can fire me).

Next meeting: 6:30, August 9, at ??

June 14, 2005

Board Members in attendance: Mary Burger, Steve Jennings, Ed Lynch, Ramsay Rayner. Guest: Carol Beckman

Meeting convened 6:35

The minutes were approved with the change of completive to contemplative.

Financial statement from Ramsay: as of June 14, 2005
On File.

Mary reported that RTP map was mounted on foam-core. The May 14-15 Red Rocks Project was done in good time. The Thursday RTP Bear Creek project is moving along. The Forest Service has signed a decision memo on the Devils Playground reroute. The VOC has been contacted because of the difficult logistics involved.

Matt reported that there were 26 new members and 12 renewals. Most of the renewals are from the renewal letters followed by the newsletter. The evaluation by a private engineer of the Barr Trail parking lot indicated that 7 parking spots could be added at a cost of 2-3 thousand dollars.

The board approved expenditures of up to $5000.00 for the Barr Trail parking lot expansion.

The board approved paying Matt $50 a month for data base maintenance.

Carol reported on the Ring the Peak Trail. There has been a sign committee meeting to get organized. The board was asked about commitment to keeping signage on the RTP. The board is committed to maintaining the signage. Some of the signs that have been impacted are going to be mounted on U-channel posts set in concrete. The suggestion was made that placing American flag decals on the signs might limit damage.

The board will met at the Garden of the Gods Trading Post in July.

The meeting adjourned 7:11

May 10, 2005

Board Members in attendance: Mary Burger, Steve Jennings, Ramsay Rayner, Karl Stang. Guest: Carol Beckman

Meeting convened 6:45

No minutes were available.

Financial statement from Ramsay: as of April 12, 2005
On File

Mary reported that the May 14 and 15 work days will be in Red Rocks Park working on a completive trail. Deb Accord should be there. Matt is improving the data base. Three emails concerning the A-frame toilet were received. One was against the toilet the other two were for the toilet, but the support was based on convenience for the hikers rather than a perceived problem. Karl and Mary attended the Colorado Mountain Club potluck on May 7 and had a good response. Mary and Janice had a projects meeting.

Carol reported on the Ring the Peak Trail. Signs paid for by Wild Oats Market have been installed on the existing trail. Temporary end-of-trail signs have been installed. Twelve volunteers put in over 400 hours to install 240 signs between May and October of last year. Way points for the trail are downloadable from the web site. This year the emphasis will be on replacing signs. The board authorized the use of the rest of the Wild Oat’s money to purchase signs.

Bob reported on contacts with Home Owner Association on the west side of the Peak, the establishment of links to the service websites at USAFA and Colorado College, and the distribution of fliers to the Boy Scouts of America. Bob is working on a letter to benefactors with Ramsay. The 10-year pins are done and work is continuing on the Medicine Wheel logo for the RTP shirt. The board authorized the purchase of a crawl on the Weather Channel. There will be Independent ads and the brochures are on standby.

The board will met at Biedelman in June.

The meeting adjourned 7:40

April 12, 2005

Board Members in attendance: Mary Burger, Matt Carpenter, Steve Jennings, Ed Lynch, Ramsay Rayner, Karl Stang.

Meeting convened 6:40

Minutes approved.

Financial statement from Ramsay: as of April 12, 2005
On File

Mary reported on possible progress on securing additional parking for the Incline.

Bob sent a printed set of items to be reported to the board.
Bob has been busy making contacts with organizations including Boy Scouts of America in order to get more participation on work days. He has also been working on pins and logos for the celebratory items.

Mary is working with Shanti looking at trail construction in Red Rocks Park. The web page now has the work days. Deb Accord is working on an article for the Gazette to come out in the next few months.

Karl, Bob, and Mary will attend the Colorado Mountain Club potluck on May 7

Karl went the Old Town Environmental Fair and had a good response.

The meeting adjourned 7:40

March 8, 2005

Board Members in attendance: Mary Burger, Matt Carpenter, Steve Jennings, Bob Johnson, Ed Lynch, Ramsay Rayner, Karl Stang.

Meeting convened 6:35

Minutes approved.

Financial statement from Ramsay: as of March 5, 2005
On File

Steve reported that the A-frame toilet was in question. It seems that FOTP is trying to solve a non-problem. The cost continues to rise and the benefit decline. The Forest Service is not behind building the toilet. Matt has posted educational signage at the A-frame.

The board decided not to pursue the construction of the A-frame toilet.

Mary reports that the MOU is in the editorial process.
FOTP has been asked make a presentation about the RTP Trail at the Colorado Mountain Club May 7 and July 21.

Bob proposed possibly bringing in out of town scout to work on trails and the possibility of scotch, wine or beer tasting as a fund raiser.

Matt will update the web site soon.

Karl will go to the 4th annual Environmental Party at the Old Town Bike Shop on March 15.

Bob showed the board the plaques for Mountain Chalet and Wild Oats and will attempt to present them with a photo opportunity for the media.

The meeting adjourned 7:20

February 8, 2005

Board Members in attendance: Mary Burger, Matt Carpenter, Steve Jennings, Bob Johnson, Ed Lynch, Ramsay Rayner, Karl Stang.

Meeting convened 6:35

Minutes approved after changing the description of the marketing plan from a rough draft to a finished product.

Financial statement from Ramsay: as of February 8, 2004
On file

Matt reported that he is doing data base management
Dues reminders will be sent out this spring
Over $800 has been receive in honor of Guy

Mary reports that the MOU has been rewritten with the help of Steve.

There was a discussion of the future of the A-frame toilet. There was significant doubt about the need or cost effectiveness of putting a toilet there.

Mary presented a tentative schedule for the year.

Newsletter assignments include Bob-tools and the 10 year anniversary.
Steve-volunteers to do educational stuff on work days.
Ramsay-hosts and hostesses for food.

Karl will contact Medicine Wheel about a RTP map
Look into crew training tutorials.
And presented a map of the Bull Park-Pancake Rocks area.

Bob had gotten a copy of a local media guide for the Colorado Springs-Pueblo area
Will design a 10 year anniversary pin and a fold folder design.

The meeting adjourned 8:00

January 2005

December 2004

November 20, 2004 - Board Retreat minutes

In attendance: Ed Lynch, Matt Carpenter, Ramsy Rayner, Mary Burger, and Karl Stang.
Arriving a few minutes late: Bob Johnson. Arriving at noon: Steve Jennings.

As the first order of business, Karl was elected to the board by unanimous acclaim. As a general note: Ed, Steve, and Ramsay are due for re-election next year. Mary and Matt are ‘up’ in ‘06. Bob, and Karl will now be ‘up’ in 07.

We reviewed the annual meeting. The following suggestions are for next year:
A slide show would be a good addition
The scrap book should have been available sooner. People enjoyed it, but did not have enough time to look at it.
Bob suggested a comedy skit with the tools.
We need a more organized agenda.
We should say on the invitation a buffet dinner rather than a light dinner.
We should try harder for more diversified speakers.
We should have more awards for project participants. Think up creative ideas.

The caterer was Picnic Basket. The food was generally good, but we needed more to drink, and more veggy stuff. The price was slightly less than we paid previous years.

A review of the “voting” shows: Yes No
We would like more educational programs 21 3
We should add a fund raising component 6 18
We should do more plantings 12 8
We should have monthly members meetings 7 13
People would volunteer more if we had shorter days 3 17
People would volunteer more if we had w/e 1 18
We should work more with COS parks 3 19
We should arrange carpooling 2 20
We do NOT need food on projects 2 19
On the write in question the thing most people would like to receive for volunteering is “thank you".

From this we decided to do more to educate our project participants. We will look for speakers or naturalist to address our projects at end of day, especially on w/e projects. We could ask some of our volunteers who are on a project to give the talks to reduce logistical nightmares.

We will offer a place for carpooling to occur. For liability reasons we will not arrange the car pools.

And, we will continue to offer food and other free bees on projects, and will attempt again to send out formal thank you letters to each project participant. We discussed the idea of an escalating premium being mailed to project participants, but tabled that discussion.

Mary brought up that she is really burning out on the administrative tasks associated with running all the projects, and keeping the data base. Ramsay said he if overburdened as well. We agreed to explore hiring an administrative person. Matt offered tentative on understanding all the tasks involved. We checked the by-laws and found we can hire a director to do specific tasks. Mary and Ramsay will write up potential job descriptions, and give them to Matt. If Matt decides not to take the job, Mary, Matt and Ramsay will find another alternative.

The financial report was given and accepted. We then discussed the budget. Next years budget is much the same as this past year, with the exception of marketing which was allowed a budget of $2,000. This past year we did not budget marketing. Bob presented a rough draft marketing plan. Karl agreed to help with distribution of flyers.

Matt brought up that he is beginning to feel that the FOTP budget is a burden on the Barr Trail income, and FOTP is not doing much on Barr Trail. We agreed to hold at least two work days next year on Barr Trail with Matt deciding what the priority work would be. As long as Matt finds work for us to do, we will continue to hold “official” FOTP workdays on Barr Trail. We used to do this every year.

Matt also brought up that he is beginning to look into an improvement plan for the Barr Trail parking lot. The board agreed to support that initiative.

Bob proposed we hold at least one board meeting out of doors at the Garden of the Gods Visitors Center next year. They have a patio which we could use for free.

We discussed, briefly, the toilet at A frame. Ed now has the drawings, and will work with the USFS to obtain materials and get the structure built. Steve will get a signed contract with a vendor to remove the effluent once it is dried.

After lunch, we discussed the Memorandum of Understanding we are currently working under with our agency partners. We are now 10 years old, and much of the original charter has been accomplished. We also have moved on to several new initiatives. Steve took notes on some of the suggestions and will write up a new MOU. Mary will attempt to get it approved.

The meeting adjourned at 2:45.