Minutes of 2009 Chapter Meetings

The meeting was called to order by Skip Neill, Chair. There were 26 members attending. We thanked Tom Hammond for our hot dog lunch he provided for us following our participation in the Coastal Cleanup both on land and by kayak to retrieve the items in the water surrounding E.G. Simmons Park.

Skip Neill unveiled a large plaque with a newspaper article regarding a recent hike. This will be on display for the public to view when we have a booth at various locations promoting the Florida Trail Association.

A T-shirt from the American Hiking Society was presented to Mitch Almon for leading a like on Trails Day.

The minutes from our last meeting were approved as printed on our web site.

No treasurer's report was available.

Old Business: A motion was made, seconded and carried to take orders for our Suncoast Chapter T-shirts until December and then place an order for the required 12 for delivery at Stone Soup in January so that those having ordered a while back would have to wait no longer for us to receive 12 custom orders.

The committee will meet and report back to us at the November meeting regarding continuing to maintain our tractor or to use grass cutters to mow. Since the tractor is used for other activities such as bridge building, replacing the tractor with grass cutters will not be an easy decision.

Chain saw training has been set up at Chincegut Nature Center October 3 and 4. The First Aid/CPR class will be October 2 at this same location.

Generic Florida Trail signs have been completed and are available to Trail Masters.

New Business: Our next meeting will be November 21, probably at Bill Jackson's. John will report back 9/21/09 to make sure this location is available to us. Details will follow.

Our Christmas Party will be December 12 at Withlacoochee River Park hosted by Lori Sahler and Lois Vega.

Our annual Stone Soup will be January 16, 2010, at Hillsborough River State Park. We will again ask Larry Jackson to cook our soup for us.

Our March meeting will be March 20, 2010, at Little Manatee River State Park.

The annual state convention of the Florida Trail Association will be March 26-28, 2010, at the Future Farmers of America complex on the other side of Winter Haven. Camping will be available down by the lake. There are also a motel and cottages on site.

Our May meeting will be May 15, 2010, at Hillsborough River State Park.

Tom Hammond, Activities Leader, suggested that those planning hikes or kayak paddles list their activity on "Meet Up" with a RSVP so that only a manageable amount of people can attend.

Sheryl Canton, Membership Chair, has been contacting all the new people each month. It was also suggested that she contact those failing to renew their memberships. To make it easier, it was suggested that we have a person in each county to do this. Ralph Hancock said there has been a "serious push" at the state level to increase membership as well as retain our current members. Mike Eurich, Development Director for the state, emphasized that we need a strong Membership Committee.

Rick Seltman, our newsletter editor, requested more input from individuals for the newsletter.

Mitch Almon announced that this will be his last month as Trails Coordinator to devote more time to working on the connectors. He will turn in the equipment report stating where all our trail maintenance equipment is located.

Trail Reports: Potts is wet.
Citrus is in great shape.
Richloam C Loop is hikeable. Other parts are under water. A two-mile extension is being added.
Little Manatee was mowed during the summer, but parts of it are now under water.
Green Swamp West is wet.
Hillsborough River State Park is partially hikeable, but parts are very muddy.
Reports on our other trails were unavailable.

A motion was made to adjourn.

Elaine Williams, Secretary

Past meeting minutes motioned for acceptance. (Not read)

Treasurer's report Beginning bal. $2,335.35 Ending bal. $2,293.31 @ a loss.
The Clam Bake in April raised $312.00. Other expenses offset for a loss due to Equipment maintenance and upkeep supplies. Footnotes newsletter costs are dropping due to many opting to have the letter sent via e-mail and/ or the website.
For full report see treasurer's report. Report accepted.

There was a motion to accept that if any member has an e-mail address, their FN newsletter will be e-mailed thereby cutting even more mailings. Motion accepted. Target is just 200 mailings, the minimum for bulk mail prices.

OLD BUSINESS:
Clam Bake was a success. # of turn-out unknown. Discussion for the next one to have an estimated expense sheet report before starting. Also mentioned to make it part of a Chapter meeting.

Discussion about the tractor and trailer; travel and running it. We need replacement personnel for Ted Youngblood. He will continue to store and maintain the tractor. A committee of Mitch Almon, Bob Bowles, Tom Hogan, Tom Hammond and Ralph Hitchcock will organize and affect a plan for this.

NEW BUSINESS:
The Chapter is in need of a Secretary replacement at the end of the year.
Mitch Almon has served as the Trails Co-ordinator for the last 4 years. At the next club meeting in September, a new candidate is needed to start in this position.

Lori Sahler and Sheryl Canton will plan the next Chapter meeting in Sept.

Skip needs 10 more Club t-shirt orders for the next lot. Many colors available @ $15.00 ea.

Planning for location of next Stone Soup gathering in January to take place. Possible Sertoma Youth Ranch in Pasco County again.

Committees: Activity Chair, Tom Hammond suggested e-mailing our activities to the local newspapers to be timelier where Lois was trying to get information published by contacting them personally.
Historian- Lori Sahler. No developments
Public Relations - Ruth Rogg. Not present
Memberships - Sheryl Canton. New member list is sent monthly in the mail. Ralph voiced concern that out-of-state addresses would not be credited to our chapter.
Newsletter-Rick Seltman. Not present
Volunteer hour reporting- Carol Seltman. April report turned in to main office with 501 total hrs.
Chapter Storekeeper-Skip Neill. Some T-Shirts in stock.

Trail Coordinator- Mitch Almon. Potts Preserve-new 2 mile section. Richloam, Croom all good and hikable. Upper Hillsboro- has a confusing spot with trail markers in north section.
Withlacoochee River - good. Hillsbourgh River State Park - in need of bridge replacement. Myakka- unknown. Little Manatee River State Park- just completed a new bridge #7. In the second week of November is slated for work on another bridge replacement project.

New members are recognized.
Meeting is adjourned.

CS

Suncoast Chapter, Florida Trail Association
Minutes of Meeting 3/21/09

The meeting was called to order by Chair, Ralph Hancock.

The minutes of the January meeting were approved with one addition: The condition of the Citrus hiking trail was omitted. It is in good condition.

Treasurer's report: Balance 1/17/09 $1,542
Income 1,358
Expenses 565
Balance on hand 3/21/09 2,335

Old Business:

State Convention, Florida Trail Association - Our chapter is tasked to man the Hikers' Station 3/27/09 from 2:00 to 6:00 p.m. From 2:00 to 4:00 - Cathy Muckler and the Skip Neill family. From 4:00 to 6:00 - Mitch Almon, Tom Hammond, Wilma and Art __________ and their daughter, Susan __________.

The memorial bench in memory of Ethel Palmer is being constructed and will be placed in Gainesville. The verbage for the plaque is being written by Eileen Weiland. Next year Ruth Rogg will organize a memorial celebration for Ethel around the time of her birthday, May 31.

Skip Neill distributed the Suncoast Chapter T-shirts to those who had ordered them. When 12 more are ordered, they will be printed.

The new officers were introduced: Chair Skip Neill
Vice-Chair Tom Hammond
Secretary Elaine Williams
Treasurer Barbara Moritz

The gavel was passed to incoming Chair, Skip Neill, and gifts of appreciation were presented to Ralph Hancock, outgoing Chair, by Skip Neill and Ted Youngblood.

There has been a problem activating the members of our chapter. Our officers, committee chairs and trail maintenance people should nurture their replacements by training and educating those who will take their places.

The Clam Bake will be held at Werner Boyce Salt Springs State Park April 4 at 6:00 p.m. Please see Joe Spooner or Ruth Rogg to purchase your tickets. Those planning to help should arrive at 3:30 p.m.

There has been a 335% increase in our website viewers and 196 of them were new people.

There are only 119 people in our chapter who have no e-mail address, but only 89 people have signed up to receive the Foot Notes by e-mail. For business card size advertising in the Foot Notes, see Ralph Hancock. We have 450 chapter members who don't participate in meetings or hikes.

We had a good response at our display at J.B. Starkey Park March 14.

Lili Kaufmann has volunteered to help with Earth Day Sunday, April 19, at Lowrey Park. The usual fee to have a table may be waved for non-profit organizations.

The American Hiking Society is again sponsoring National Trail Days June 6. We are encouraged to participate.

The Chinsegut Nature Center has asked if we would like to participate in their event in April. Lois Vega will organize those participating in this event.

Mitch Almon requested the Activity Leaders to meet after the chapter meeting to organize future activities.

We have no Public Relations representative at this time. Anyone interested, please contact Skip Neill.

Membership: Cheryl Canton is contacting new members and encouraging their participation.

A hike will be scheduled in April on the new 2.4 mile trail at Potts Preserve. The salvage lumber from demolishing a barn will be used for a boardwalk building party in May.

Our next chapter meeting will be May 16 at Werner Boyce Salt Springs State Park. The minutes of today's meeting and the treasurer's report will be e-mailed out prior to this meeting.

A motion was made to adjourn. A "half-back" raffle followed the meeting.

Elaine Williams, Secretary

36 members attended. Visitors: Mike & Julianna, Bob Bowles, Donna Funk, Sherry Keller

Treasury Report-See Barbara

Old Business
Last meeting's minutes were approved.
Next Chapter meeting is 3/21/09.
State meeting is 3/28/09 in White Springs.

Last meeting we spoke about EFootnotes and that it is too expensive to continue to mail. We will make a provision that people may opt out if they don't want it. It will save a lot of money to put Footnotes on line. Those that do not have Internet access can still be mailed a copy.

New Business
The state is $200,000. in arrears. They cut the membership annual rebate in half for the next two quarters.

Ruth suggested the option of adding a little to the membership fee to cover the mailing of the Footnotes to those that want it. State will not permit this.

Barbara said we have a permit & we have to maintain 200 (mailings) to retain a Non Profit status. It will expire in one year. Joe Spooner will continue to have a copy of Footnotes mailed to him.

Bonnie reminded us that the Footnotes Editor needs to be computer literate. Tom Hammond will maintain the Footnotes.

Mitch said it will take time for us to convert over to the new system. Jan will include the mailing list. We may not have everyone's Email address. Jan & John will handle the exclusion list. Juanita has the labels. The Post Office will not accept our mail unless it states "Name or Current Resident". It was suggested that we start testing the Email version.

Gainesville is less & less able to offer us support. Chapters who don't have National Scenic Trails will pretty much get no support. Sun coast does have them.

Everyone is asked to try to get donations or ads.

Sheryl suggested 2009 grants-Mitch says State does not allow that unless the money goes to them.

The Nominating Committee recommended the following Officers for 2009:
Chairman: Skip Neil
Vice Chairman: Tom Hammond
Secretary: Elaine Williams
Treasurer: Barbara Moritz

Skip wants to continue working on Little Manatee

If anyone wants a First Aid Course they should let Tom know.

Feb. is Fl. Hiking Month.

We need someone to take over PR for Bonnie.

Sheryl will be the new Membership Chair.

Make sure proper paperwork protocol is followed for activity & hikes. See Tom Hammond.

Tom & Lori have a goal of wanting to lead hikes on all Sun coast Trails.

Billie mentioned getting a group together to go on a Elder Hostel trip. She obtained some proceeds that she will donate to FTA.

Linda-Last month they had a workday at Potts. She spoke of the Spirits Tree at Croom & how Ted wrecked it. Ted said he did not cut it down & he picked up the Peace Sign.

We still have T shirts for sale. Juanita modeled one.Sjip has 2 XLG at $15. each. He has to have 12 to place a new order. We can have any color & "Sun coast" on the back. We get $1. per shirt & the rest goes to the company that makes the shirts.

Badges for hours were passed out.