The May 19th 2007 meeting of the FTA/Suncoast Chapter began at 1300 with Ralph Hancock,Chairperson facilitating.A roster of attendes is as follows:

The minutes of the March meeting were not available for approval.

FTA/Suncoast Chapter chair person Ralph Hancock introduced Bob ----- FTroop Trail Construction leader whom will be working with staff on future bridge work projects/construction.

Old Business

Equipment-A request has been made for locatiion of the display boards with need to obtain for future use.

Fund raising Phyllis ------- brought to attention the opportunity to meet with personnel at Walmart for donations which are available with procedure followed,and has volunteered to speak with the approiate personnel .Ralph Hancock,chairperson encouraged all present to support the Path to Independence Campaign.

New business

Volunteer patches are now available for 1000 2500 and 5000 hours of service.Forms must be filled out and sent to Gainsville office to recognize mambers who qualify.

Volunteers hours to be documented and turned in to approiate person.Cost share with Federal Govt/Forestry Service =money for FTA

National Trail Day June 2 Suncoast chapter will be providing the refreshments,assignments given to those whom volunteered to participate.

Membership recruitment with retention is priorty with future committe to assist .Eileen --- brought to attention membership packet comes from Gainsville.

Treasury position available-Treasure not available has been ill

Balance 1900 presently

Adjourned 1348

- Lisa Alspaugh for Lori Sahler, Secretary

The business meeting of the Suncoast Chapter was called to order at 1:03pm by Chapter Chair Mitch Almon at Withlacoochee River Park in Dade City. He then turned the meeting over to Ralph Hancock who will be the new Chair. Ralph presented Mitch with "Mitch's Magic Garment" as a thank you for doing such a great job as Chair for the last two years. Ralph went on to explain his vision for the next two years; he wants his legacy to be that everyone has fun.

The chapter display is still missing as of this writing. Everyone was asked to please look in your closets and garages to see if someone has it & doesn't realize it.

Joe Spooner mentioned a bird hike night which will be the last weekend in April and will cost $5. It will be 3 miles at Werner Boyce sponsored by the Audubon Society.

Treasury Report: Pending; Ethel Palmer presented the details.

The Florida Department of Forestry connecter of Richloam to Croom and from Citrus to the Rails to Trails was moved, seconded and accepted.

Committee Reports:

Membership: There were two new members present. Karen Graham Beard and Melissa Neill. Last night Sharon Haynes from SpringHill attended.

Eileen Weyand mentioned that the most recent annual conference had the largest turnout ever with 409 people. There were 139 first timers. Suncoast had 50 members there.

Dick Bingham, Charles and Virginia Edwards received a Lifetime Achievement Award.

Eileen Weyand has served two 2 year terms as the outgoing FTA President.

Joe Spooner and Sherry Braddy were thanked for hosting the meeting.

The meeting was adjourned.

- Lori Sahler, Secretary

The meeting of the Suncoast Chapter, Florida Trail Association, was called to order by Mitch Almon, Chair. There were 43 members present.

Since the minutes were not included in the Footnotes, Mitch read the highlights to the members and Elaine Williams offered a copy to anyone who wished to have one. They were approved as noted.

Treasurer's Report Fiscal Year 2006 - 2007, Second Quarter:

It was noted that we had not received our rebates which will add to this balance. There is also $311.96 in Reserve Funds for trail maintenance.

Membership: No report available.

Old business: None to discuss.

New business:

A very special thanks to Carl Strohmenger for all his dedicated service over the past years. He will really be missed.

Appreciation was mentioned for all the members who were deceased since our last meeting.

Reporters from the new Floridian Magazine will be at Withlacoochee River Park to Publicize maintenance work on the Florida Trail February 10, 2007.

Bonnie Bratby-Carey, our Public Relations representative, will be updating the web site. Please give her any ideas you have for publicity for our chapter.

Carol Seltman will be reporting our trail hours as well as our administrative hours to the state organization each month. The importance of reporting these hours was again emphasized. It was suggested that Bobby Brooks put these hours on our web site.

Thanks to Brigitte Hearn and Bobby Brooks for modernizing our web site and keeping it up to date.

Any information to be included in the next Footnotes should be given to Barbara Moritz before February 10.

John Bangos, Activities Leader, announced our upcoming hikes which he also e-mails on a regular basis to those having e-mail. If you are not receiving these e-mails and would like to, e-mail John Bangos.

Joe Spooner announced our Clam Bake 2/17/07 at 6:00 p.m. at Werner Boyce Salt Springs State Park. He is selling tickets now. They are $10 for adults and $4 for children. Clam chowder will again be included. Following dinner, we will go on a night hike.

Charles Edwards distributed badges for both trail and administrative hours worked.

It was moved, seconded and carried to elect the following chapter officers:

Chair: Ralph Hancock
Vice Chair: Lisa Alspaugh
Secretary: Lori Sahler
Treasurer: Ethel Palmer

Our next meeting will be moved back a week because of the State Convention. It will be 3/24/07 at Jay B. Starkey Park.

A motion was made to adjourn.

- Elaine Williams, Secretary