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President's Letter At the moment, things are quiet for the club. We have no special projects underway. We are still pursuing a site for an RMC base camp, but nothing has jelled as yet. The trail crews have left. Only the camps keep busy now. Please see reports elsewhere in this newsletter to learn all that was accomplished during the summer. In the few months I have been president, and while there were no major issues, I have spent most of my energies tightening up the administration of the club’s activities and routinizing reporting from each of the committees. A major step forward in this effort was actually accomplished before I became president – a manual for use by the board (and available for anyone to peruse) of the various activities and responsibilities of board members as well as past board policy decisions. This excellent document had been proposed by Doug Mayer many years ago and finally implemented by Judy Hudson this last summer. It will go a long way in bringing new board members up to speed in the complexities of club activities and in helping us all remember our past decisions so we are not revisiting already settled issues quite so often. I have also followed the mandate given by a majority at our last annual meeting to address the issue of the frequent over-flow of parking at the Appalachia trail head on Route 2. I have met with George Pozzuto and Don Muise of the Forest Service. Hopefully by the time of my next letter to you, I will have further information on the subject. Needless to say, it is a very complicated issue and not easy to solve. We have two short-term committees at work on building existing club activities. One is focussed on the possibility of expanding our web site and is chaired by our webmaster and board member, Jeff Smith, assisted by new board members Jamie Maddock and Al Sochard. Among other ideas, they are looking into the pros and cons, as well as the costs, of making our web site secure so we could accept credit card payments for membership dues and for merchandise. The second committee has been asked to brainstorm varying our traditional hikes to appeal to and serve different groups, such as children, slower hikers, very fast hikers, and so forth. This committee will also consider ways to increase volunteer work on the trails, from increasing attendance at the present work parties to instituting a system of trail adopters. The committee is chaired by Matt Schomburg, who has been running the work trips this past year, and John Eusden, who has been Trips Co-chair with Jack Stewart. Our new board members, Jamie Maddock and Al Sochard, are helping them.
Returning board members, who will have another three-year term, are John Eusden, who will continue as Trips Co-chair with Jack Stewart; Michele Cormier, who will continue as club Treasurer; and Jeff Smith, who will continue as Camps Co-chair with Bill Arnold and Matt Schomburg. I am happy to say all members of the board are very active and each has at least one assigned role. We are also using many non-board members to fill essential roles in the running of the club. We are determined to avoid burn-out of any one person so the club can remain a volunteer-led organization. Any member who wishes to take part in our projects, please let me know. We would welcome your participation. Michele Cormier has produced an income statement for the end of the third quarter and a brief explanation of some of the elements in it which you can read elsewhere in this newsletter. Even though we did not hire a fall trail crew this year, we are still experiencing a short-fall in our net income. The board will examine our revenue and expenses in our January meeting, at which time we will set our budget for 2004. Since not all our revenues are in for 2003, it is premature to take any steps now. However, if any of you have not yet sent in your annual dues or wish to make an additional contribution for the year, please do so. We would greatly appreciate it! Regards to you all,
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Please
see the introduction of new board members Al Sochard, Jamie Maddock,
and Marie Beringer elsewhere in this Newsletter. We are so glad
to have them on board!