Major Excursions Meeting Minutes
July 22, 2007
Attendees: Jan Taylor, Roger Scholl (AMC Staff), Ralph Blumenthal, Erika Bloom,
Betsy Goeke, Stacia Zukroff, Pam Madigan, Darcy Turner (AMC Staff), Art Paradice,
Merri Fox, Bob Bentley and Sue Lach (Author).
Guests: John Lisker Chapter Chair – Boston Chapter; ME Leader
Agenda

Introductions

Approval of Minutes from Spring Gathering (4/21/07)

Action Item Review from Spring Gathering (4/21/07)

Update on 2007 and 2008 Trips

Marketing Update

Policy on trips with fewer participants

MEC Program Expense Fee and Capping

Clarification on leader expenses to/from Airport

Approval of Trips
 Co-Sponsoring international trail projects
The meeting was called to order by Stacia Zukroff at 1:24pm.

Introductions
Andrea Deaton will be moving to Jackson Hole, WY on 8/6/07 where she will be working for the Grand Teton’s Foundation. She will remain an AMC member and lead trips but has resigned from MEC Committee.

Approval of Minutes from Spring Gathering
Betsy sent corrections to the minutes. Updates will be made and the revised minutes will be resent to the committee.
Betsy motioned to approve /Erika seconded - Unanimous.

Action Item Review from Spring Gathering
The following outlines the updates to the Action Items from the 4/21/07 meeting:
Action Items :

Trip numbers will be updated in the Fall Minutes to be consistent with the actual trips
- Stacia did not know if this was assigned to anyone. Ralph and Bob need to have correct numbers in their files. Darcy and Ralph will validate the numbers on file.

Darcy to distribute the survey results based on a survey initiated by the board regarding outdoor recreation activities
– this was added to the minutes. Roger will locate the survey results and distribute them.
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
Solicit Leaders for bank account information - Records on leader bank accounts are poor and Darcy will address this as a project when she returns from maternity leave.
Erika asked if the AMC Controller needs to sign all accounts. Darcy stated that the signature process needs to be reviewed and updated. All signature cards will be reviewed along with an inventory of who has accounts and at which banks.

Create a procedure for using the Citizens account to assist leaders - Darcy stated that
Citizens Bank has set up a process to address AMC needs and they are close to having a good system. Darcy is recommending that the Citizens process be reviewed by James Tad, AMC Controller.

Follow-up with the review of Prospectus’ prior to the marketing of the trip – Ongoing task - No one has been assigned at this point but we may want to have core group established to focus on reviewing prospectuses.

ME Database in progress and targeted for June/July Beta test. Stacia will provide updates on the progress.
– In Progress - Preliminary test database was received this week. They are working on having the database accessible to the committee as read only access. Darcy will review and determine if the true testing can be completed.

Stacia will follow up with interest on ME Liaison role.
– Outstanding

Ralph will work with Darcy to clarify wording in trip acceptance letter to leaders so that all critical information in included – The letter is intended to give leaders a sense of what to do for their final financial accounting. It is a nice checklist for leaders to use and should be very helpful for newer leaders.

Darcy will send out and email to the leader list on the plans for when she is out -
Completed

Roger and Darcy will work to have the crisis communication network all figured out before she leaves – No crisis occurred

Reimbursement policy for first aid courses needs to be updated . – Stacia updated the website. This will also be updated in next newsletter.
 Update on 2007 and 2008 Trips
Currently, the number of trips for the year is under plan.
Morocco – There have been 25 inquires but no commitments. There is a travel advisory and Morocco is on high alert. It looks like it will cancel.
Kilimanjaro – The second trip may cancel. A decision will be made in mid August.
2008 – 21 trips are currently scheduled. Stacia sent out individual emails to leaders to think about future trips. 15 leaders confirmed additional trips and there have been others that have shown interest. The mixture of trips is great with a good spread between US and International. The cost ranges are also good. Stacia stated that we are in pretty good shape if we can shift December trips into 2008 however it does not look like we will make 42 running trips for ‘08.
Also, out of the 2006 ME Training class all but 6 have co-leads scheduled.
 Darcy’s Maternity Leave
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Darcy is back part time. Everything should be routed to Darcy now and she will determine what will be handed off to Roger. Continue to cc: Roger, and once Darcy is back full time then everything will move to just Darcy.

Marketing Update
Mary’s intern work has been fabulous! She has been focusing on information gathering around demographics, eco tourism marketing materials and web presentation.
Marketing Material Update - Stacia handed out an update package with information that would be useful for the committee to review. The brochure is intended to be left at AMC destinations so people can be introduced to the ME program. These will also be available to hand out at gatherings and in the future at new member nights when we get the ME
Liaison Program in place. These will not be mailed out because the main purpose is to place them at destinations, and mailing them out will be expensive.
Major Excursion Adventure Travel will be used on marketing materials and is more reflective of what the program offers. The tagline will be “Discover Your Wanderlust”.
Everyone liked it. Stacia likes the Africa summit photo which will be used. There was a recommendation to add more US trips to the listing. There needs to be more reflection on the range of trips. Many thought that this was not coming through.
Web Site Update– Mary has researched many websites with the thought that if we had time and money we could make the MEC website look more professional. She has developed a mock-up which Stacia handed out. Ralph recommended more than 150 words per trip description be added to the website so that more detail can be provided.
Another suggestion was to have two paragraphs and a picture with a link to the prospectus. The Leader can provide the information and this would not be work for staff.
The goal is to compete more with other professional tour groups. Ralph noticed more 5day service trips with other companies. The website enhancements will be ongoing. This will require the work of the internal web site staff. Roger had a conference call with the team and they felt Mary’s work was excellent. There was discussion on keeping Mary on to maintain the site and the team said that there should be no training issues. It was agreed to keep Mary on until fall to complete website.
Newsletter – The purpose of this document is for distribution to past participants. It has gone out twice and will go out again in August. There are over 200 people on the list receiving it.
Brochure – It was determined that a goal for the remainder of Mary’s time will be to have this completed. We would like her to have a completed project for her portfolio.
Prospectus Help – Merri addressed the fact that some people may need help with wording and pictures. Can we keep this in mind for the future? It was pointed out that sample prospectuses have been available for use for the past 2 years. Merri however is recommending proofing assistance. Erika mentioned a draft prospectus be presented at the time the trip is submitted for review. . Stacia stated that we can encourage that but it would be tough. One of Heidi’s goals was to review all prospectuses prior to publication.
One main reason was for risk management.
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Action Items :

Stacia will put in the newsletter that prospectuses are due to her and Darcy one month before the trip is published in the Outdoors .
Action Items :

Review brochure and get comments to Stacia with cc: to Darcy.
 Policy on trips with fewer participants
This was discussed in April and Ralph was tasked with putting it in writing. Ralph distributed a copy of the draft policy. He stated that there was a need to keep it simple because it could become very complicated. #1 and #3 on the draft policy are no different than what we had before. The current practice does not go into detail. When Ralph looks at the budget with fewer participants he looks at what percentage was used and why. He is recommending we add a check box to the proposal form to explain why a smaller group is being taken. This would then be discussed by the group during the trip approval process. #2 focused on the circumstance of when the group must be smaller (i.e., mandated by the park service). This would be more stringent from a practical point of view. We should permit trips with smaller numbers to cover leaders costs under certain circumstances. 2a is the new part. 2b tried to capture all activities including trips from emails. Rock climbing and ice climbing are excluded from our insurance policy and this will be removed. Glacier trekking is approved if guided and appropriate information is available on insurance, liability and the safety record.
Ralph distributed an update to the sentence in #1 to add ‘participant trip’ fee.
Ralph motioned to approve/Betsy second - Unanimous.
Action Items :

Ralph will update the wording in Chapter 3 of the handbook.

MEC Program expense fee and capping
The good news is that we are doing well. Ralph distributed the 4/06 spreadsheet. The base year number based on 2005 projections for ’06, ‘07 and ’08 were listed. Ground travel expense and income projections have been made. ME program fees in ‘06 are at
10%. ‘07 split only newer trips at 23%. ‘08 projecting 123k with all trips at 23%.
The 2A handout was distributed by Ralph. Person days are more than 10 times the number of persons and the insurance is based on this. It is more appropriate to say we had 6000 person days of activity.
The year that Heidi left and Darcy transitioned in accounted for some cost savings since there were a few months without staff. Darcy is now 100% MEC and no revenues from the President’s Society are being added to the MEC budget except one trip this year.
Roger communicated the numbers to the AMC leadership and they were pleased. The numbers are good.
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The 2B handout outlined that for ’07, as of Friday, there were 12 trips that completed their trip report. This does not include the Turkey trip. All are at 10-12% mix. At this point we are doing well.
The 2C handout has a column added to take all trips for ‘07. It shows those that are completed at actual and then a projection is done for the remaining ‘07 trips which include Morocco. The bottom line projects to profit by 16K. This is way ahead of where we thought it was going to be. Most trips are coming in at 10-12% fee range.
Based on the calculations Ralph thinks that 23% is too high. He also confirmed that he is using projected expenses that do not include Darcy’s maternity leave.
Handout 3 included copies of scenarios which Ralph reviewed in detail. ‘06 and ‘07 are based on actuals with ‘08 based on a hybrid. The overall impact from the cap is an 8-
10% drop in overall revenue. There was a recommendation to place a cap on the ME fee
- 7500 cap. It is much simpler to calculate in the report and the projected budget. Ralph would feel comfortable dropping to 15%. He would also suggest making this retroactive.
This would reduce the numbers for ‘07 and people would get a refund. Jan’s is the first report that has been turned in so this would not be a tough task.
Because we don’t have all 2008 trips in we may not want to drop the fee but establish cap. Ralph stated that we will always be a year out and we do not need 23% and it will overshoot too much. Erika felt that if we are to change now it would be the time to do it the fair way based on the fact that there have not been any trips completed. Bob felt that
20% is good with no cap. The price is the price for everyone. The cap was not agreed too.
Use 20% to build reserve which would make the board more comfortable. The surplus operating fund was referenced and Roger stated that this is accounting language used by the AMC. It was noted that the committee needs to be realistic with the increase of costs as time goes on.
Bob moves change in ME Program Expense fee from 23% to 20% without a cap and retroactive to all trips previously approved at 23% All seconded - Unanimous
Action Items :

Stacia will notify all leaders of the change.

Clarification on leader expenses to/from airport
It was questioned that if this is not included for the participants it is not included for leaders. Staci is asking for clarification. It was stated that 1/3 of the leaders include this expense and 2/3 do not. Bob felt that it was more like ¾ include and ¼ not. The question was do we allow this or not. We need to be consistent and Ralph needs direction. The group agreed that if the costs were reasonable and included on the estimated budget that they could be included.

Approval of Trips
The following trips were reviewed and action taken:
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Coast to Coast Walk in England – Lake District – Approved (0816) – 5/21/08-
5/31/08 John Lisker (L) and Sam Jamke (CL). Smaller group was based on lodging capacity and recommendations from booking service. John asking for 8 vs 10 participants plus 2 leaders. Jan feels that there is more the leaders can do to accommodate the higher number.
Bob motioned to approve with 10 participants with 15 rule apply/ Jan second –
Unanimous
Hiking & Sightseeing in the Dolomites - Approved (0817) – 6/14-29/08 Carl Rosenthal
(L) and Betsy Fowler (CL). Using outfitter for part of the trip when in the mountains.
This is considered a tour escort and they do not guide. Carry gear. $900 airfare was concern.
Erika motioned to approve/Merri second - Unanimous.
Backcountry Hut-Hut Hiking in Bavaria – Approved (0818) – 6/26-7/6/08 Phil
Mecagni (L) and Peter Fraunholtz(CL). Ralph reviewed the budget with Peter. Airfare is outside of the fee.
Ralph motioned to approve at $1450/Jan second - Unanimous.
Peru – The Inca Trail and Cordillera Blanca- Approved (0819) – 7/12-27/08 Carl
Rosenthal (L) and Dave Langley (CL) – Repeat of 2006 trip. Risk assessment was poor.
Price seems appropriate. Merri’s feedback was that participants did know that it was shoulder weather season and didn’t realize it was a ‘backpack’.
Jan motioned to approve/Erika second - Unanimous
Day Hiking in the Swiss Alps – Contingently Approved (0820) 7/26/08-8/10/08 Paul
Davis (L) and Keith Moore (CL) – This is a similar itinerary to Merri’s 2007 trip. Merri reviewed budget and pointed out some options to save a few hundred dollars. Erika wanted confirmation that the one free leader is passed on to the participants.
Jan motioned to approve/Erika second - Unanimous.
Action Item -

Review budget figures in Excel Spreadsheet and clarify free leader cost. – Ralph will confirm with Paul.
California’s Sierra Mountains – Contingently Approved (0821) 8/9-23/08 Dave
Langley (L) Ed Hawkins (CL) – Permit issue needs to be followed up on per Erika.
There are limited permits for Mt. Whitney.
Erika motioned to approve/Jan second – Unanimous
Action Item -

Confirm permit requirements - Stacia
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
Co-Sponsoring International Trail Projects
Roger received an email for Alex DeLucia at the AMC regarding trail projects. Alex received requests from areas, for example St John, for trips to do trail work in the area that they are going. These are primarily service trips. Darcy feels that this is a good opportunity to do something with an environmental focus and another avenue for ME to explore.
Action Item –

Darcy will ask Alex to do a presentation at fall gathering on the topic so that more information is provided to the committee.
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