Summer MEC meeting
July 9, 2006 – Pam Madigan’s house, Medfield, MA
The meeting was called to order at 2:30pm..
Attending:
Trish Niece, Art Paradice (guest), Bob Bentley, Merri Fox, Jan Taylor, Pam Madigan ,
Walley Williams, Erica Bloom, Stacia Zukroff and Roger Scholl (interim staff AMC).
1st Item of Business – Approval of Minutes from Spring Gathering
Stacia opened meeting with discussion approval of the minutes from Spring Gathering.
Copies were not brought. She noted that information in the minutes was accurate, but
much of the detailed discussion that occurred at that meeting were not fully captured.
Walley moved that we have action items clearly indicated in minutes, recapped at the
bottom or bolded. These will be forwarded to members as reminders to carry out
responsibilities. In addition, Stacia pointed out that at the end of every meeting the
Secretary should read back the action items from that meeting and assignees so everyone
is clear on what they have agreed to do. Motion was Approved unanimously.
2nd Item of Business– New Committee Membership
Stacia feels we need more committee members so we can have 6-8 people at each
meeting to vote. Also she’d like to see more action happen between meetings such as
mentoring, presentations at annual or other meetings, and training. In the past year in
January we were supposed to have replacements for the treasurer and secretary positions.
Stacia indicated that Ralph Blumenthal is ready, willing and able to take on the treasurer
position when he and Bob Bentley feel comfortable; Bob Bentley confirmed that Ralph is
capable and has demonstrated interest. Ralph and Bob will be working on communicating
the details; so far they plan to get together at Fall meeting. Bob has a spreadsheet
checking procedure which he will go over with Ralph. Ralph said he would commit to at
least 2 meetings a year and he will try to plan trips around the major meetings in the
future.
Walley moved that we accept Ralph as a member of the committee as of now, and move
him into the treasurer position when Bob Bentley feels he has appropriate knowledge on
treasurer procedures. Motion was approved unanimously.
Stacia brought up the subject of requiring prior committee experience for an officer.
Betsy Goeke stated in a letter to Stacia that she felt it important that a MEC officer have
experience on the committee prior to serving in an officer position. Bob Bentley
expressed that the institutional memory is important to preserve on the committee.
Walley expressed that it is important to have enough people in the MEC meeting that
understand backgrounds of various trips in order to give good solid review. Others
including Trish agreed that experience was essential but it is also critical to bring in new
blood and new ideas.
Secretary – In the future Stacia felt it might be helpful for the secretary to also take on
more responsibility that is presently handled by the AMC Travel Coordinator (formerly
Heidi Reilly) to relieve some of the routine administrative burden that used to reside in
the volunteer committee. This would possibly include helping tally MEC trip participant
survey responses and maintaining the most updated committee roster. Sue Lach is a
possibility for secretary. Sue is an IT person with solid skills to take over the secretary
position.
Walley proposed that we make Sue Lach a member of the MEC committee now and have
her work with Betsy to review details of the position and plan for assuming the job as of
Fall Gathering. Motion was approved unanimously
Two people have expressed interest in joining the MEC committee. In Jan 07 Andrea
Deaton will be giving up her position as Chair for Delaware Valley. She leads 2-3 trips a
year. Stacia has led a trip with her. It will be helpful to have a Del Valley person to round
out the committee. Andrea will be available as of Annual meeting. Motion was made by
Walley and Approved to make her a member as of the Annual meeting.
Art Paradice – Spoke for himself as he attended the meting. He believes it’s important to
be an active participant in the AMC. Art is a member of the National Ski Patrol . Skiing
in winter and biking in summer are his major interests. He is also a member of the
National Bike Patrol. He has a biology/science background. Stacia said she felt Art would
be helpful with the risk management part of reviewing bike and skiing trips for Major
Excursions.
Erika moved to make Art a MEC committee member – Approved effective immediately.
3rd Item of Business – Review of Proposals
Walley – Proposed having checklists for various trip types to help newer leaders know
what things to think about when putting together certain types of trips – bike, ski,
backpacking, international trips, etc. Each committee member with an expertise could be
assigned to help create the checklists for their trip specialty type. Stacia felt this is a good
idea and asked this be made an action item in the minutes.
Action Item – This idea could be coordinated/created by the MEC specialists along
with the involvement of the new AMC Staff Trip Coordinator.
Walley – Brought up it might be more effective to have individual assigned readers to
review trip proposals with one of the readers to be at the MEC meeting to discuss the trip.
One of the readers should be responsible for contacting and reviewing the trip with the
proposed leader prior to proposal being submitted. Peak trip proposal times are Spring
and Fall.
Stacia pointed out that scrutiny of proposals – particularly risk management section and
budgets - will be increasingly important. The Club is looking for MEC to add 5 trips a
year on an ongoing basis. She proposed assigning 4-5 trips to a group of readers who
would compare notes amongst themselves, and then one of them would work with the
leader to resolve any issues or questions. Who will assign the trip readers has to be
determined.
Late submissions will no longer be considered to allow readers sufficient time to review
proposals. Action Item – Stacia will need to communicate this to the leadership as
soon as possible.
Action Item – Stacia will figure out how to assign readers to review trip proposals
based on their expertise.
4th Item of Business – Travel Programs Coordinator update
Update by Roger. Job Description posted on line. Last task force meeting – Five resumes
that were submitted floated to the top. No further President Society trips are
contemplated after the final trip to Ecuador. This will be a full time position; it was
pointed out that the insurance company wanted someone full time. Trip evaluations and
leader lists that were formerly tasks Heidi did, could be done by MEC volunteers. Roger
is being very careful about matching job with application expectations. All of the
applicants are available to come to Boston to be interviewed by AMC and a MEC
committee representative. Interviewing is to be started as of the week of July 17 th.
Resumes passed around committee members to determine who to call back for
interviews.
Action Item - Roger will email the 5 committee members (and Jan and Bob) who are
able to interview the 3 candidates resumes for AMC travel coordinator July 17th 6,
7, 8pm.
5th Item of Business – Task Force Recommendations
MEC was supposed to be self supporting by 2005. It has been subsidized by the
President’s Club and AMC for the past few years. The Executive Committee asked MEC
to review the growth of the program, risk management, and the level of staffing needed.
The conclusion was that the staff position should be full time for proper risk management
oversight of the program. The second issue MEC needs to address is how do we make the
program self-supporting. Stacia commented she believes this program is important, but
it serves a small community of membership overall. The previous discussions of the task
force centered around how can we fund the position in a way that is fair to participants,
fair to leaders, and managed professionally. Lots of epiphanies are a result of this
discussion. The fair way that the task force would like to consider is as follows:
Stacia – Said it was figured that we’d need to raise the overhead to 22.5% by 2008 to
support a full time staff person and the increased insurance costs. We also want to create
a reserve that we can dip into if there are less trips proposed or there is an international
incident that causes trips to cancel. Objective is to have a full time staff person on by end
of 2006 or early 2007. Using historical data provided by Bob Bentley - we are bringing in
50K a year in overhead but we are also refunding over 60K per year. The task force’s
recommendations are that starting in 2007 we will no longer refund participants money
left over in trip budgets. We will need to review contingency policy and encourage new
leaders to have a 10% budget contingency. Going forward, the recommendation is to
break out airfare and to NOT have contingency on airfare, but rather a range to cover
increases in cost. It is proposed that all trips that have not been publicized be redone to
not contain airfare in the advertised trip cost, but have it broken out separately. At the
meeting, Roger passed out folders with details on the task meetings with Jan and Walley.
According to Roger, we need to review how to sustain our business. Instead of giving
trip refunds to participants, it is proposed that future refunds instead go to support the ME
program – that is, to make up for overhead costs of the program – (insurance costs, travel
coordinator, advertising, etc.).
Bob Bentley objected and proposed that we do a 22.5% overhead across the board for all
trips versus keeping the surplus trip funds presently given back to participants as refunds.
It would unfairly penalize participants and not be fair to many.
Action Item – Pam Madigan will look into MEC leaders getting MC cards with cash
back program to process their trip expenses. Pam will report findings to Roger and
Stacia.
Walley – proposes not budgeting in a separate contingency, but to budget in contingency
and overhead as a combined percentage. The contingency is not to be spent down, but
there to help with legitimate unexpected costs (such as inflation, cost increases, etc.).
Roger – Stated that he would rather raise the overhead once (exceed the budget by a
certain percentage) rather than repeatedly raise the overhead in the future.
Walley – Proposed that we change the name “Club Overhead”. Bob and Roger agreed
that the word overhead is not a well-liked word and could cause misconceptions of what
the money is used for.
Stacia – We need to scrutinize budgets. She brought discussion back to combining
overhead/contingency. Discussion continued on 22.5% or possibly a change to 20%
overhead. All agreed that this would be much fairer across the board to all participants
and would cover Bob Bentley’s concern that some trips do NOT give refunds, so they
would not be contributing their share along with the trips that do.
Erika – Moves that we change the name from overhead and contingency to MEC
Program Expenses and change to 23% of actual land cost. She then withdrew it.
Bob – made a motion to change name from overhead to MEC Program Expenses and
change to 23%. This motion passed.
Roger – Suggests that we have a 4-8% swing in building in a contingency depending on
whether it’s a new leader or experienced.
After some discussion, Erika revised her motion to propose changing the contingency to
4-8% of budgeted land cost TBD jointly by the leaders and AMC MEC committee for
each individual trip. The contingency recommended will depend on leader experience
and trip destination. The motion was approved unanimously.
Bob’s motion to change MEC program expenses was discussed in terms of when it
should start applying and what trips if any should be “grandfathered.” The motion was
restated as “Any new trips must include MEC program expenses at 23%.” The motion
was passed unanimously.
Money left over in excess of the 23% will still be refunded to participants.
Stacia reminded everyone about the ME training in Litchfield November 17-19. The
price this year will increase to $75. She asked for the names of those who would be
available to help. The “Yes” respondents were Merri, Trish, Erika, Jan, Roger, Sue
(Stacia indicated she could attend) and Bob. Pam Madigan can attend if needed as well.
Trips approved June 15, 2006
In order to meet publication dates the following trips were approved by email prior to the summer meeting of the Committee.
Mike Barry with Phil Mecagni as coleader proposed a cross-country ski trip in
Norway for March 23 to April 1. This will be a hut to hut tour in a national park. It will
stay in a hotel in Oslo then travel by train to the park. The arrangements for meals will
vary. It is planned for 4 to 14 participants with a cost of $1430 plus airfare and some
meals. It was approved as #0720.
Betsy Goeke and T.Walley Williams resubmitted their trip to Honduras for
January 20 to 29. Additional details had been provided to satisfy questions from the
Committee. It will stay in hotels and provide for meals. It is planned for 14 to 18 people
with a cost of $1945. This was approved as #0721.
Herb Kingsbury with Roy Loiselle proposed a hiking trip to Palm Springs for
April 1 to 7. It is for 12 to 15 participants with a cost of $960 plus airfare. It will stay in
2 or 3 bedroom condominiums. Participants will prepare their own breakfasts and
lunches; dinners are planned at nearby restaurants. They will hike in national parks and
forests with local naturalists. Transportation will be by rented cars. Because these are
new leaders, the Committee helped to streamline the planning and the trip was approved
as #0722.
Dave Langley with Carl Rosenthal as coleader proposed a hiking trip in Death
Valley and Nevada for April 14 to 22. It is for 10 to 16 participants with a cost of $1595.
It will stay in motels, have group meals and use rental cars. There may be hiking on
snow for which permission for necessary equipment was requested and granted . This
was approved as #0723.
Jan Taylor with Jeanie Kangas as coleader proposed a hiking trip in Tibet and
China for September 8 to 26. It is for 14 to 16 participants with a cost of $3150 plus
airfare. It will stay in four star hotels with the exception of one trek, consist of day trips,
use public transportation and have a national guide. It was approved as #0724.
Unless otherwise requested these trips will appear in the September “Outdoors”.