OMC Meeting 4/2010

Outings Management Committee Meeting,
Monday, April 5, 2010
Angeles Chapter Office
Minutes

Present

Kent Schwitkis, OMC Chair*
Tina Bowman*
Phil Wheeler*
Jane Simpson* (by phone)
Melody Anderson*
Sylvia Darie*
Mary Morales*
Donna Specht*
David Meltzer*
John Hinz
Mark Hertz
Felix Martinez
Angela Colicchio

(* indicates voting members)

Call to Order (7:30)
Approval of Agenda
New Business / Action Items (no. 7 on the Agenda, taken out of order)
1. Griffith Park Section - Invited GPS representatives were asked to address OMC concerns re GPS's plan to have a 3-person "team" serve as Outings Chair. Felix Martinez (GPS Chair) and Angela Colicchio (GPS Outings Chair) addressed unique challenges of GPS conditioning hikes. They believe OC job is too big for one person. Decided that Angela will remain OC and other two people will be Vice Chairs. (Felix Martinez and Angela Colicchio then left the meeting.)
Approval of Minutes

The February 1, 2010 OMC Meeting minutes were approved with corrections.
Notices
1. Leadership Academy is May 22, 2010 at Eaton Canyon
2. Chapter Awards Banquet is May 2, 2010 - currently about 2/3 full, encourage groups/sections/committees to attend; items needed for silent auction
3. Little Hikers/Junior Explorers Committee reactivated - new website (www.LittleHikers.org); quick-turnaround approval for Outings Chair Silvia Darie; leaders needed for outings
Committee Reports
1. Treasurer and International Trips Liaison - Donna Specht No money has been spent yet. No problems with international trips.
2. WTC - Jane Simpson See written report.
3. LTC - Tina Bowman. Next LTP seminar is 4/10/10. Next LTC meeting is 4/8/10.
4. Safety Committee - Phil Wheeler 2009 Safety Report circulated on 3/6/10. Next Safety Committee meeting is 4/14/10. One new quick-turnaround approval (S. Darie for Little Hikers). New national policy for "thons" (hike-a-thons, etc.), available on Clubhouse.
5. LOSC - Marc Hertz There is an Outings Chair resource library which includes "best practices" etc. Joe Wankum is reinventing Arkansas outings program. Los Padres Chapter has completed second year of its WBC course. Steve Schuster to teach Standard First Aid with wilderness slant to Los Padres prospective outings leaders the morning of 4/17/10; Marc Hertz to teach them OLT 101 that afternoon.
6. Conservation - John Hinz No report.
7. Ombudsman - Bill Jackson No report.
8. Bus Transportation - Joel Goldberg No report.
9. First Aid Coordinator - Steve Goldstein No report.
10. Land Manager Coordinator - Patrick Vaughn No report.
11. ICO - Melody Anderson See written report.
12. Carbon Footprint - Sherry Ross No report.
13. Diversity TF - Melody Anderson See written report.
Old Business
1. Affiliations with SCMA and Red Cross - Schwitkis - no changes.
2. Goverance Policy - Accepted by Chapter ExComm on 3/28/10. Provides that NomComm members cannot be candidates.
3. Tejon Ranch - Kent Schwitkis has helped start Eagle Scout project. They will build picnic tables and remove debris. Approved by Tejon Ranch. Will be an overnight stay in remote area by approx. 30 people.
4. SCOOT - Sierra Club Online Outings Tool - This is the new name for AWESOME. Meeting on 4/8/10 at Bowman house prior to LTC meeting. M. Anderson and K. Schwitkis to discuss License Agreement proposed by Wolf Leverich.
5. Outings Assembly NomComm - New rules covered in discussion of Governance Policy. NomComm will be Mike Sappingfield, Phil Wheeler and Marc Hertz.
Meeting Adjournment. 8:45 p.m.

Next meeting

Next regular OMC meeting is June 7, 2010

WTC Report

WTC's first management committee meeting for the 2011 course is in 2 weeks. At this meeting, we seat the next area management teams (which will be announced on our listserve today - we have 2 new area chairs). At this meeting, we elect the Chair, and I am planning to go for my third year, as allowed by our P&P, or which many of you are oh so familiar.

WTC completed the 2010 course and had good enrollment in 3 of our 4 areas, but more dropouts during the course mainly due to financial matters. More on this later when our registrars weigh in. However, the course was successful and reports have been good during the course. Our April meeting will discuss any issues tat arose during the course.

WTC's main exciting issue right now concerns our Inyo Forest Permit for our snow camps in the Sierra. Briefly, the Forest has some new permitting procedures in place, and caused us some panic when they asked for proof of 501 C3 non-profit status along with financial statement from us. We had been reporting 0 revenue for oh so many years, which we realize is incorrect. At the same time, we are on track to get a 10-year permit and the good news is that the rangers like us because for the most part, we follow the rules. After interesting discussions with Phil, Kent and National, and most usefully, with similar course, WBC, San Diego (La Jolla), the upshot is that Inyo does consider us "commercial" just like a church group (!). We will have to pay more for our permit fee and produce revenue reports now and each year that states our snow camp costs, i.e. bus costs and snow equipment. We will be able to avoid WFR (wilderness first responder, a more intensive WFA course) requirement for group leaders because our permit specifically restricts us to front country use only. WFA and CPR continue to be mandatory requirements and we will work to make this clearer to our group leaders.

We also have some clean-up on our Safety Policy coming up during the summer. And, a whole bunch of work that we do just to keep our course humming along.

And, per the announcement that is coming on our listserv, Melody Anderson returns as Publicity Coordinator, a position she did occupy a few years ago.

ICO Report

There was an inquiry recently regarding ROAD (Recreational Access for the Disabled) which was an ICO subcommittee. Joe and Pepi Feinblatt, who were actively involved with ROAD, report as follows:

Several years ago -- so many that we cannot find the correspondence in our computer, the ROAD committee was dissolved after more than 12 years and 100 outings serving people with disabilities, because we were unable to attract adequate participation. At that time the ROAD treasury was given to ICO, and the Chapter was notified of our action. We had the ROAD Committee description removed from the Chapter Schedule.

Apparently, the Chapter webmaster was not informed. ROAD is still listed on the Sections & Groups page of the Chapter website. The dissolution of ROAD must have been more than 5 years ago, as it has not been in existence since I became active with ICO in 2005.

Diversity TF Report

At our meeting in March, the Diversity TF identified 3 groups that we will initially target for outreach -- families, young adults and the Latino/Hispanic community. Details will follow as we begin implementation of these outreach efforts.

The current members of the TF are me, Mike Sappingfield, Sharon Moore, Peter Gaspar, Dwain Roque and Peter Ruiz. We welcome participation by others who are interested.

At the request of ExComm Chair Hersh Kelley, the TF, which originally sprang from this committee (OMC), will now address diversity on a Chapter-wide basis, to include conservation, political and all other aspects of the Chapter, in addition to outings which has been our focus to date. Hersh will ask the ExComm to approve the formation of an Angeles Chapter Diversity Committee.

A diversity survey will again be distributed to attendees at the April 10 LTP seminar.

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This page updated 12/10/2010