Board Minutes: February 10, 2025

Feb 10, 2025 7:00 PM

Agenda

• Call to Order at 7:05pm
• Roll Call: Amy Townsend (AT), Emiko Bigler (EB), Julia Ratchford (JR), Jody Conant (JC), Karen Ruedinger (KR) via call in,  Liz Gohel (LG), Mike Carnevale (MC)  

• Standing Reports:
  • President’s and Head Coach Report (MS) via email:
    • Golden Oar recipients: no specific guidelines needed as they are few and far between. Continuous communication with Tom Getz will be the most useful guide
    • Budget:
      • For travel, there are 3 coaches (one per squad) + MS per regatta – these squad positions will rotate as necessary as coaches are available. One coach receives a hotel room the night before distant regattas to set up the next morning, again this will rotate to share the burden. This is irrespective of whether a coach has a child in the program – they are coaches first, parents second. It has only been a relatively recent accommodation to pay mileage and accommodation to the wagon towing parent. 
    • Parent Meeting:
      • Thank you EB for organizing the auditorium. MC and MS working on the presentation deck. If board members would like to add anything, please contact MS. 
    • Middle School:
      • Will defer to MC and Coach Sam for proper guidance. MS maintains there needs to be targeted campaigns for both parents and students – suspect it will take a bit of both to get students through the door that might want to stay, so a joined up effort of appeal to both audiences seems to be a decent approach to me; parents talking to parents, kids talking to kids. Love the idea of a film. 
    • Registration:
      • MS to  added little more specificity to the Athlete/Parent Agreement with the other coaches, so will probably not have that before the weekend – but I think we could go live the following Monday 17th – i.e. announcing the season schedule this week, then opening registration next week

Vice President’s Report (MC):

• No updates

• Treasurer’s Report (DR):
  • Reports distributed, not a lot of activity in January. 
  • Proposed budget: Registration fees will increase by 2K due to less participants. Maintenance fees will decrease by 2K (From 8K to 6K).  $775 registration will remain
  • Full approval of fees via email will be distributed by DR
  • AT: different budget for mileage- if a coach has a child on the team do we still reimburse mileage? Per MS, yes will continue to reimburse.
  • Trailer drivers will be reimbursed for mileage if they submit 
  • AT to draft a policy to coaches re: mileage (hotel cancellations, expense forms, etc.)
  • KR: reviewed approved budget from July and we are more than double in mileage for spring budget. Not clear on why it is significantly higher. $1500 budget for spring regattas. Current spreadsheet is $3,728. DR used $3,728 for budget
  • JC: if coaches are going as parents vs coach- they are acting in the capacity of the coach
  • AT: MS will discuss hotel rotation on Friday nights with the coaches
  • EB: Laddie cup- historically we cannot bring boats and equipment Friday night. AT: Last year was it was left in the hotel parking lot?  AT to check with Jason Chapman
  • JC: worried about shortchanging 2K budget for repairs. DR: we have a 18K reserve level in account, can take down temporarily and recoup in future seasons. 
  • School has not sorted out past coaches payment- still 1.5 years no payment. Discussion to escalate with Chris Zylstra- 35K owed. 
  • EB: Do we have to go through school to pay coaches? DR: school pays workers comp and covers taxes, liability insurance.
  • Have not received 14K from boosters for boats yet.

• Recording Secretary’s Report (JR): 
  • No updates

• Communication Report (EB):
  • Promotional video: already complete and Grant will not amend at this point
  • EB: if we want to do our own video, EB can provide talent to help for free
  • Recruitment: we need to appeal to parents more than the kids outside of school. Some social medial channels middle schoolers will not see 
  • AT: MS has other ideas for recruitment for the next meeting 

• Volunteers Report (JC):
  • EB, KR, JC met to breakdown volunteers spreadsheet 
  • EB: spreadsheet made for volunteer breakdown 
  • JC: How are we going to hold people accountable? MC: this should be discussed at the spring parent meeting. DR: extreme is if you do not volunteer your kid does not row. Communicated previously by MS: stress we trust everyone to contribute, does not want to penalize kids based on parents volunteering 
  • JC: Some families cannot make a commitment for various reasons. Do we use a board member as back up?  
  • Registration will include ability to buddy with another family
  • Requirement is one person per family. Multiple people can sub in for other families 
  • Regatta volunteers: 10 people in the morning and 6 in the afternoon 
  • Families will get 2 regatta assignments(one morning and one afternoon shift). 
  • Parent agreement will be in the registration 
  • If parents switch this should be communicated to JR or KR: Suggests a check in Sheet at each regatta to keep track of volunteers 

• Events (KR):
  • Working with EB and JC to fine tune a proposal for parent volunteering for the spring season.
  • Confirmed that Elisha Murphy will take the lead with the spring banquet. Clarified volunteering needs for this event and shared with Emiko for volunteer plans.
  • Confirmed with Amie Jo Kreitzer that she will coordinate the team dinners for spring seasons. Shared with EB the volunteer needs for the volunteer plans.
  • Talked with Charlie about the need for captains to finalize the 4 dates they would like team dinners for the spring season. Asked for that feedback within 2 weeks.

• Fundraising (LG):
  • DR: Sears architects committing to Bronze level
  • AT: Some corporations will only sponsor if an employee is directly related to the team. LG will make a note on spreadsheet to include this response after contact
  • Ergathon- kickoff Feb 19th- handled by the coaches. Per MC: Matt to have Sam and Anne to work on format: 2 teams 12 hours, 8a to 8p. Likely 1 hour on, 1 hour off. Coaches will handle kids and how that day looks. 
  • The fundraising committee, led by Elizabeth Iorio and Elizabeth Stolle, will organize food, music, incentives, etc. Goal is to have most pledges to be done online before the date, but assuming some will be the day of also.
  • Questions to consider: How can we draw the community to the boathouse the day of the ergathon? EB: Move some erg’s outside to the bridge. LG: sell donuts and coffee again?  TV spot? Promote on social media. 
  • Sponsorship updates: would be great to put on spreadsheet or list they have been contacted. Have not received a lot of updates
  • Went to half of the boosters meeting- they made 21K on tree sales. They are going to look for a team liaison for the Christmas tree sale next year.
  • Additional donation from Custer inc. 
  • Fundraising committee to target larger corporations rather than family donations 

• Travel (AT):
  • Midwest weekend: only 1 coach Friday night, all coaches Saturday night 
  • Fees are verbally agreed upon, email agreement will be communicated with the coaches  

Meeting adjournment at  8:21 pm

Next Board Meeting: March 10th,  EGRHS Little Auditorium