Board Minutes: January 13, 2025

Jan 13, 2025 7:00 PM

Agenda

• Call to Order at 7:05pm
• Roll Call: Matt Stares (MS), Amy Townsend (AT), Emiko Bigler (EB), Julia Ratchford (JR), Jody Conant (JC), Karen Ruedinger (KR),  Liz Gohel (LG), Doug Wurl (DW), Mike Carnevale (MC),  

• Standing Reports:
  • *Vote taken to review November minutes to be reviewed and approved during February board meeting, approved

• President’s and Head Coach Report (MS):
  • Dates for spring races are established
  • March 4th parent meeting for spring season- week before try-outs
  • Captains are meeting with MS next week re: recruiting
  • Training schedule established for spring. Instead of Tuesday weight training it will be team building in the boat house. 
  • Will communicate with Chris Zylstra to add parent meeting information in the athletic newsletter
  • Travel: Information added into the travel folder for AT on board drive. 
  • Worked on dollars in/dollars out over break to make sure we are hitting the numbers we need with fees
  • Plan is to work over the next week with DR with spring fees
  • 62 kids returning in the spring. 773 per kid which is 3% more than last year.
  • Prom and graduation: Prom will coincide with Midwest again. Propose the kids discussing with coaches by the end of try out week if they want to go to prom. Goal this season is to avoid jumping boat to boat so seats can be figured out accordingly. 
  • MS will be very clear in parent meetings that they need to make decisions early (based on no injuries, etc.)
  • Proposed “Crom” and “Craduation” for kids as an alternative
  • Celebration proposed to honor 25th Year of EGR crew. 
  • Erg-a-Thon discussed: see under Fundraising Report
  • We have updated our insurance with USRow, there is directors insurance liability coverage.
    • Learn to Row: part of this membership gives us liability coverage if a waiver is signed. This will give 4 days of coverage, plus if they do more than beginner it is $10/year.

• Equipment:
  • Boat review: MS worked with Vespoli for a 20 year replacement schedule. At 7 years,  boats are at 50% value to replace. Replacement chart provided. Aggressive replacement proposed for the next 3 years then drops to half as we recoup value on current boats. 
  • 5-7% discount if you buy multiple boats per year. Hoping to get to endowment and can look at the boat fleet replacement schedule.
  • Erg-a-thon goal this year is to fundraise and replace a 20 year old double (Blitz).
  • Next year’s goal replace 2 4’s and a single
  • Oar replacement: 16 sets of oars alternating between sweep and sculling one per year 
  • Ideally in March we will fundraise to place equipment orders by the Fall, and have in time to race Spring. 
  • EB: Do these numbers include 50% back? MS: After 3 years. Up until year 4 we do not get anything back from selling equipment.
  • MS: We also need to consider the boats that serve the most kids during training and races: cox’d 4’s are older boats and should be a priority to replace. 

•  Vice President’s Report (MC):
• See Fundraising section 

• Treasurer’s Report (DR):
  • Report communicated via email: Quiet month overall. One Amazon expense for $19.43 on 12/10/24 to be tracked down. Have requested reimbursement from the Booster for the $14K towards the new boats and hopefully it will come soon. 
  • Reconciliation report and financials provided

• Recording Secretary’s Report (JR): 
  • No Updates. December meeting minutes to be reviewed and approved in February. 

• Communication Report (EB):
  • Continuing with communication for winter training
  • Communicate to EB if board members would like to add to newsletter

• Volunteers Report (JC):
  • JC provided spreadsheet detailing volunteer needs inorder of importance. 
  • Over the season we need approximately 30 people to fill 182 hours of ‘Essential’ volunteer hours: dock install, boat trailer transport, equipment transport, gas, and Regatta volunteers (Huron Sprints, Midwest, and States). Food tent: we need a total of 61 volunteers per regatta for a total of 71 hours. This computes total foot tent/regatta volunteer hours over the season to be 396 hours. 
  • JR: proposed assigning families to volunteer spots (similar to our EGR lacrosse team which is also club). The board is favorable to this. Organization of responsibilities per family will be rolled out at the next board meeting in time to present at the parent meeting March 4th. 

• Events (KR):
  • No event work in the past month.

• Fundraising (LG):
  • Learn to ERG and the corporate sponsors are now live on the website
  • Learn to ERG set for 1/25/25, 9am session and 10:15 session if demand is there. 
  • Waiting for website sign up capabilities to be updated by MC.
  • Erg-a-Thon date set for 3/29/25. MS and coaches to discuss format of events (goals, etc.) and kick off event. 
  • Website is set up for teams to be divided into 2 groups. Elizabeth Stolle and Elizabeth Iorio have volunteered to head up this event.
  • MC: This new website is very visible to competitions, leader board, etc. The goal is to give enough lead time to get kids more involved.
  • We have had 2 parents fill out the google form for corporate sponsorships (Brigid Avery and EB). We could use more Board members to participate. Ready to roll this out ASAP.
  • MS will meet with captains to establish a roll out date to begin fundraising. LG suggests at least 2 months of fundraising- so begin 2/19. 
  • AT: Should we have a minimum fundraising goal per kid? MS: Goal is to raise 18K plus a motor, so 21.5K
  • MS will communicate the above information with SD. 

• Travel (AT):
  • AT drafted Spring lodging budget. MS edited it and we are finalizing for board approval. 

Meeting adjournment at  9:02 pm

Next Board Meeting: , February 10th,  Community Center Room 107