Board Minutes: August 12, 2024
January 13, 2025Board Minutes: October 14, 2024
January 13, 2025Agenda
- Call to Order at 7:05pm
- Roll Call: Matt Stares (MS), Mike Carnevale (MC), Amy Townsend (AT), Emiko Bigler (EB), David Reynolds (DR), Julia Ratchford (JR), Jody Conant (JC) via call in, Karen Ruedinger (KR), Liz Gohel (LG), Doug Wurl.
- Standing Reports:
- President’s and Head Coach Report (MS):
- Approval of last month’s minutes: all in favor
- MS: will thank boathouse donors personally.
- President, Vice-president and Treasurer will have access to donors in drive, information will be given to other board members related to their position; current drive Boathouse folder will be scanned to remove personal financial donor information and any information related to families requesting financial assistance, remaining content will be restored for full Board access as quickly as is reasonably possible
- We need to catalog number of brick donors and price bricks in the next month: MC volunteered to take on brick project
- EB: we can send a thank you to every donated person (even if duplicate)
- HOCR: girls 8 has been accepted, boys 8 6th on waitlist
- Boats:
- $7K for girls team and $7K for boys team has been approved through Boosters
- Can we support moving ahead with purchase of 2 used boats for $54,085? DR to review numbers and share thoughts with the board
- Girls boat to be purchased first with funds received, would ideally like to have by HOCR (1 month turn around)
- Would like to vote this week on purchase via email once DR reviews current financials
- MC suggests DR to review fundraising limits for boys 8 along with financials
- KR: what is the financial viability of our program moving forward with the minimal support of boosters compared to the cost of our fleet? A: Fundraising and corporate sponsorships in particular, will become increasingly important to develop along with fostering an alumni giving plan longer term
- JC: is there money set aside for lifts for launches? MS: yes approved last meeting
- JC discussed with Coach Petruzzi about another motor for the launches- MS will keep 3 launches in the water during practice. Used/old launches will be donated
- Compiled list of current fleets age and order of importance to replace
- Oldest boys 8 to be donated
- Boat trailer: Jeff Olson to trailer to Cuyahoga, needs drivers for Culver and Kensington.
- Current bylaws will not change per discussion; conversation about shared files and confidentiality led to an acknowledgement that we would benefit from developing an operational procedures manual to ensure continuity of practice across boards; Karen agreed to take a lead on this project
- Vice President’s Report (MC):
- Will let donors and alumni know our big event is to raise $54K
- AT: suggests more visual advertising (vinyl banner on yacht club fence)
- Treasurer’s Report (DR):
- August Financials
- Payment activity for the Fall season picked up during the month. We have a few families that have not yet paid. Emiko is sending a reminder with the newsletter this week, and DR will follow-up as necessary if we continue to have outstanding payments.
- Largest expense for the month was for the purchase of unis. We’ve received “reimbursement” for these from about half of the team members. As of month end, we have $3,353 outstanding from the purchase (i.e., purchase less reimbursements received). Expect this gap to close as more of the kids get their unis (plus a few payments have already come in during September which are not reflected on the attached).
- We moved forward with purchasing the dollies for the launches as previously approved by the board. Total cost was $1,180.
- No other notable activity.
- Discussed standardizing submitting receipts; it would be helpful for receipts submitted to be scanned in pdf
- Chase bank account statements provided
- Reconciliation for the Operating account (no activity in Capital account or Boathouse account, so no reconciliation).
- Check received for $7K from boosters (2023 allocation)
- Coaches comp for prior year activity still not received from school
- The board has had a few discussions on what an appropriate “operating reserve” is for the team (in reviewing old minutes, DR believes this has been an ongoing point of discussion). DR reviewed the Foundation’s annual budget presentation, and noticed they set their reserve as a % of annual operating expenses (their target is 20%). If we used the same percentage, our “operating reserve would be about $24k. DR would like for us to consider setting a percentage target, but would appreciate the group’s input on what the right percentage is. If we do this, DR believes we can move away from including a “contingency” line item in our budget, and it will also provide clarity between the Operating and Capital budgeting/activity.
- August Financials
- Recording Secretary’s Report (JR):
- Trailer update
- Trailer cleaned and organized for upcoming regatta season
- Food budget: per DR $375 per regatta
- Culver: MS to contact Culver about availability for us to serve kids food, traditionally we do not bring trailer as it is a scrimmage
- Communication Report (EB):
Social Media
- Got the accounts linked to the communications@egrcrew.com account so it should be easier to turn over in the future
- Sam and EB are working on posting more consistently
- Parents to upload pictures to a shared drive?
- We need to add a photo release to parents
Website
- Coaches Page updated. Everyone now has bios and photos
- Updated Karen’s email
- Spirit Wear button added to home page
- Uniform and other gear link page added and linked from Registration page
- Added “What to bring to practice” to FAQ
- Working on adding history to the homepage
Newsletters
- Have been sending them out every Monday. Plan to send one out on Thursday nights as well before regattas with lineups and all those last minute details.
- Have been working on a live google doc for the parents that can be updated with trailer location, tent location, weather, lineup changes, etc Let me know things you think I should add https://docs.google.com/document/d/1SSLBXPaUP2SPB8Yo9D3rsUvHdRuWWwaJ6bWbYtaVqPs/edit
- Sent a newsletter to the Novice Families about what to expect for their first regatta. https://mailchi.mp/24c6d6d3e3da/crew-its-your-first-regatta
Other
- EB did a 30 day trial so she could get access to all the past stuff posted on Slack because Slack deletes things after 90 days. Free trial expires in a couple days. Created a media folder on the board drive and downloaded all past photos from Slack and organized by event. EB would like to add a folder to the drive (or somewhere) that is available to all parents for them to upload photos. EB envisions creating a folder prior to each event and then parents can just upload their photos into that folder.
- Volunteer Report (JC):
- Uni’s have not arrived yet, reached out to customer service
- Have reached out to CT office and their communication poor
- Novice shirts will be here by next week
- Events (KR):
- Completed:
- Wrote up one-pagers for the potluck, banquets, and team dinner events
- Emailed families who indicated an interest in supporting events to determine how best to have them contribute
- Worked with the captains to finalize team dinner dates and a plan for fall season – dates are: Sept 19, Sept 26, Oct 10, Oct 24; food at 7pm
- Identified three people who will take the lead coordinating team dinners – Amie Jo Kreitzer, Gretchen Murphy, Robbie Reynolds; provided them with a list of over 21 families who offered to help with team dinners
- Identified a lead volunteer for the fall banquet – Elisha Murphy, and provided her with names of six other parents willing to help; assigned a $300 budget for fall leaving remaining $1200 for spring banquet since we have more to do with that event given gifts for senior rowers and departing board members
- Team dinners: wish list: 2 folding tables that can stay on upper level and reusable tableclothes. MS not sure if there is room to store, possibly in bathroom. MS: there is a wheeled table down stairs, Coach Kris also figuring out spacing
- Fundraising (LG):
September 7 donut sale:
- $740 in donut sales.
- Sent email for feedback from those who helped, see what worked and didn’t work
- Overall very happy with how it went
Fundraising committee:
- First meeting will be Sept 23 at 7pm, Community room 107
- Start planning Learn to ERG clinic
- Start planning ERG-a-thon
- Thoughts on date? Keep it the same as Irish Jig or look at different dates? 2025 date not released, but likely 3/15
Team Boosters:
- LG will attend the monthly meeting tomorrow night
- The 50/50 and stadium clean up dates/assignments haven’t been released yet
- Travel (AT)
- Completed:
- Cleveland hotel rooms assigned and confirmation #s emailed
- Secured Bertucci’s restaurant in Waltham for possible team dinner
- Revised travel budget spreadsheet to reflect coach changes View here
- Rosters photos and layout completed – waiting on a retake of one athlete
- Senior banner photos taken this weekend & quote requested from Print Metro
- To Do List:
- Budget remainder $214.33 – Friday night Heron Henley for Head coach?
- Discuss Boston plan – confirm coach, parent meeting, numbers, itinerary, etc.
- Finalize rosters – print, email, Slack
- Layout senior banners – approvals & send to print by 9/12
- Send out Brighton confirmation #s
- Next Board Meeting: October 14th, 7pm Community Center
- Meeting adjournment at 9:10pm