Minutes

Committee members present: Tom Ortmeyer, Rose Rivezzi, Armond Spencer, Gene Kaczka, Pat Mueller
Others present: John Barron

Opened meeting at 7:05 PM. The Minutes were approved as corrected. The Agenda was approved.

Officer Reports

Conservation: Gene Kaczka announced that the signs are up on the Stone Valley Trail. He also announced that the US Supreme Court turned down the EPA's request for a review of two recent clean air victories and that ADK has been involved in the preparation of the briefs in both cases.

Membership: Geri Ames reported that we have 5 new members, 259 households, 455 members, 381 of which are voting members. New members are recognized in the newsletter.

Outings: Armond Spencer will soon be calling for fall trips. Armond and other ADK members labored to clean up the mess to reroute a portion of the Red Sandstone Trail. A stairway was built by a homeowner that probably won't be allowed.

Publicity: John Barron reported that we have been asked to supply an entry for the summer vacation guide. Paddling and cycling trips will be mentioned and Armond will be cited as the contact person. He will emphasize that information is available online.

Education: Rose Rivezzi announced no takers for the trail work. Three were set to go and had to back out. She said she went through all the usual routes to get the word out but there were no takers. She emailed Wes and told him that we could not fill the slots and he said that a lot of chapters are having the same trouble. The range is high school ages 14 - 18.

Chair: Tom Ortmeyer announced that Betsy Tisdale (Treasurer) said that we have $900 in the account right now and that postal rates are going up. She is out of town for the month of May.

Tom said that Mark Simon is talking to Ron Johnson about work that needs to be done on the Stone Valley Trail to "encourage ATVs to stay out." He will proceed with the ATV trespass project. It does involve hiring a backhoe with the RRAC funds. RRAC has funded $400 for new brochures. The Town of Colton may still proceed to open roads for ATVs. If there is a public forum, it is crucial that people show up and speak out against ATVs. ATVs supporters typically fill the room. Tom asked Mark to let the membership know when there is a meeting scheduled.

SLCounty ATV club has been pushing for more roads and encouraging other communities to do so. This is very controversial. There will likely be another hearing in Parishville. Pierpont may also come up for review. The committee feels enforcement needs to be improved. The state won't pay to control or patrol for ATVs. Enforcement will require lobbying.

The deadline for the next newsletter is June 1st.

Old business

Gene went over the suggestions he proposed at the March Executive Committee Meeting.
Proposal 1: Organize the format of the budget document into major categories and subcategories. Gene moved to pass seconded by Rose, all approved.
Proposal 2: Henceforth, each budget year should have three columns: budget yr., actual yr., difference.
Proposal 3: Use the full budget format, the coming year plus three prior years including all accounts that had been active during that time period, for planning purposes and use a current year statement which only includes active categories, subcategories and accounts plus the three columns in proposal two to deal with the current year's operations. Proposals two and three were combined.
Proposal 4: concerned membership figures. The motion was that proposal 4, for budgeting purposes, use the prior year's fourth quarter membership dues as an estimate and eventually an actual membership dues figure. The final membership dues statement would have the actual income for the year. For planning purposes an estimate will be used because we won't as yet have all the figures.

Motion to accept proposal 2 and 3 and a modified proposal 4 was approved (Rose/motion, Gene seconds, all approved). Gene passed around examples of what the new format would look like. It was suggested that it would be useful to track the membership numbers throughout the year to determine how we compare to previous years.

New business

Fall (November) Potluck: Tom announced that the Presbyterian Church fee has gone up to $75.00. Tom asked if we were comfortable paying that or should we discuss alternate locations. Gene suggested we move the location to different towns each year. Armond said he will find out about the Canton Presbyterian Church. The Methodist Church in Massena has a meeting hall we could use. It was decided we would hold the potluck in Potsdam this year and consider other locations for next year. Neal Woodworth has agreed to be the speaker.

Tom asked for suggestions for a location for the New Years day activities. A few locations mentioned were Partridge Run, Catamount lodge, the Episcopal Church in Colton. We would have to find out whether we could have a potluck at the Church in Colton.

Nominating Committee: Rose suggested we put a note in the newsletter for people who might be interested in being on the nominating committee or for holding positions. Also, we need to look at the bylaws to determine which positions will need to be filled. Carolyn suggested Geri Ames and Armond Spencer as possible nominating committee candidates.

Next meeting September 6.

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