Start: 7:13pm
Finish: 9:25pm
Board members present: Garett Lumley, Mark Crowe, Darcy Lutz
Secretary: Kathryn Gardner
Other presenters: Joel McBurney, Mark Holt, Jessica Demars
Number of members at large present: 40
Order of Business
1. Acknowledge the contribution of Pat Wray (former president) and John Krebs (former Trail Stewardship Coordinator). They moved to Cranbrook this past summer. Their strength and enthusiasm for the NCC will be sorely missed.
- Introduced this past year's board and volunteer coordinators.
- Acknowledge all of the sponsors who are key to our success: Nelson Chamber of Commerse, Doug & Karen Kelly, Kootenay Lake Electric, Urban Systems, Nelson & District Credit Union, Sitkum Enterprises, Sacred Ride, Gericks, Freeride Entertainment, Vahalla Pure Outfitters, NRG, Dr. Kathryn Bibby, Poulin Insurance, Lakeside Physiotherapy, Fortis BC, Justin Dexter of BC Ministry of Forest, Land & Resources)
- Review of accomplishments this past year: Toonie events (5), Bike swap, Volunteer Maintenance Days (4), Growth of Art Gibbons Bike Park, Fat Tire Festival, Morning Mountain Polygon, growth of trails at Smallwood.
2. Memberships - steady increase in memberships over the past 3 years: 2010 - 260 members, 2011 - 322 members, 2012 - 430 members. Kids under 13 is the largest growing group making up 35% of the membership.
3. Bike Swap - Doug Farquarson and Bruce Hardy put on another successful event earning $2312.32 for the club. They are looking for apprentices who will work with them on the 2013 swap with the goal of taking over - as they've been doing it for many years and are ready to bow out.
4. Art Gibbon Bike Park - discussion ensued about the park, insurance and the future of the park. The city of Nelson has initiated discussions with NCC about the park and this will be an important topic between the city and the NCC this winter and next season. The City has installed washroom facilities.
5. Trail work - Joel McBurney and Mark Holt presenting: thanks to all of the volunteers who helped work on the trails. Huge winds and rainstorms kept trail crews busy. Makes a big difference for whole biking community. Mark met with Hugh Ackroyd in the spring re: Kokanee park trails, - they discussed signage, mapping, trail re-routes and how the NCC can work with the Park. Kokanee is the busiest bike area during the spring so a lot of energy was focused there. Sacred Ride hosted the first Toonie ride/enduro event of the season.
May - really wet. Did lots of work in Mountain Station.
June - Efforts focused on Mountain Station and Svaboda.Badger trail created. It is a great trail up or down. Thanks, to Mark Crowe for his efforts there.
Summer - received $5000 in grant money to maintain trails at Morning Mountain.
Fall - Giveout Polygon; became legit trails for NCC 2 years ago. Now we getting money to work on the area. Placenta, Illuminati, Nooner, Oil Can (rerouted off of some private land), Highballer, Lowballer is flagged for winter logging this year.
Atco logging company approached the NCC in August to give us a heads up about their plans. Powerslave will probably be logged this winter. This is the trail highlighted in the successful bike movie Life Cycles. This will have a big affect on the biking community and visitors that come here to ride. Could we draft a letter to Forestry? How do we compare the money brought in from logging vs. tourism/biking dollars. We don't have the stats to back up our argument. Suggestion to "google" biking in Nelson and see how many hits come up with Powerslave - to give some information. Can we get support from Retallack or other businesses? Need a committee to get together to talk to Atco. Any volunteers?
Mike Kinrade offered to write a letter and invites others to work with him, as he doesn't have experience with Forestry per se.
6. Fat Tire Festival - Jessica Demars - 2nd year as head of FTF
This year they changed things up to make the event more of a Festival atmosphere vs a competitive event. Focus on Fun. Teamed up with Marketfest for the Friday night event: Bike Parade, show n shine, trials demo, last wheelie standing.
Criterium race was not offered - too much work for the number of people entering and spectators.
Venue used the most was the Bike Park which works wonderfully. Much better than Morning Mountain until more facilities constructed at that site.
90 kids - (72 kids last year) events run by Sheila Street & Cam Kuch. Most kids yet. Expanded on Dirt Jump Jam. All ages.
All kids got a number plate which they got to keep. Also, T-Shirts, goodie bags,
Cross Country format changed up to be more inclusive.
Downhill became best match event. In Future years, the Downhill needs much more organization. 34 participants in downhill. 16 under age 18 but most of them under 12. Still missing the teenage crowd. 5 more people participated this year than last year in the downhill events.
FTF overspent the budget, but there were profits from previous years that carried through.
Ideally, will keep this format for the next few years and see if we can build it up.
A great way to build up the FTF is to connect with the Recreation Centre - run programs that can then carry over to the Festival.
FTF Needs: Fundraiser, Downhill organizer, Media Coordinator (website, Facebook, local media),
7. Morning Mountain Polygon - Mark Crowe
There are 200 hectares in the Polygon. In 2010 - the NCC received Section 57 authorization - to build and maintain trails.Lots of planning has been going on since then, but no new trails. During the winter of 2012, the NCC hosted a brainstorming session for members to put forth ideas. The best ideas were included into a site plan. - now we need to get funding to implement the plan. Whether it be private funding or grants.
So far Spent $5000 has been spent on the site plan and architectural landscape plan. Plus another $5000 donated for trail remediation at the site.
Next step is to get funding and implement phase one of the plan - key points. Signage, kiosk. There is money left over from old Blewett Ski Hill that is slated for recreation in the Blewett area. RDCK has this money and we want to tap into it.
Need: members interested in this area to step forward and help get plan implemented.
Question was asked: can "anybody" build trails in the polygon? If you are interested in creating new trails, please talk to theNCC board prior to building, to ensure that the plan and suggested trails complement each other. Plus there may be funding and other project initiatives that could team up to create the trails.
8. Mtn Station Update. 6 kids from Self-Design High School did a day of trail maintenance with Mark Holt. Can we tap into kids from LVR?
Mountain Station is private land. We are very fortunate to have permission to ride in that region and strive to maintain good relations with the landowners. The NCC works with landowners by providing a) insurance, b) signage c) planning trails. Joel has established relationship with Brent Petrick and has an on-going liaison to continue maintaining trails. Future plans of area are market driven. The family operates the property as a private woodlot and will harvest again when market is up. The policy is NO "NEW" TRAILS in this area.
Note: The owners are constantly approached by developers. We never know when the whole property could be sold and redeveloped. The community may want to think about a trust or covenant or something than can protect the area for residents in the future.
9. Smallwood Trails
$200.84 donated to collection box.
312 hikers and 302 bikers signed in at the Smallwood Trail since the kiosk was erected. These signatures are extremely important for statistics and our fundraising and preservation efforts. Encourage everyone to sign in at kiosk. Suggestion:Mandate for the Board to build sign-in kiosks during the winter - ready to implement in the spring.
Note, logging occurred on Crowsnest trail this fall. The logging company was very sensitive to preserving the trails as much as possible and even rebuilt portion of trail that they damaged. This was accomplished by James LeFranc
10. Toonie/Enduro Rides - 5 were hosted this year. These events brought in 63 new members or 23% of our membership.
Suggestion: Some businesses may be interested in sponsoring the event - they pay and use their name but they don't want to put on the event. So if the NCC has a coordinator that can work with these businesses to put on the events.
11. Financial report -
Income from all sources $20862.63
Total expenditures $19997.75
Current Bank balance: $18654.81
Expenditures slated for 2013 season (this bank balance will not last long): trail building and maintenance, insurance, bank fees, website development for new NCC website, continuation of Fat Tire website, maintain NCC on-line membership registration, new mapbook project, Art Gibbon Bike Park - tool sheet, develop stunts, trails, and Morning Mountain Polygon.
This money will go pretty fast. We need grants!!
12. Map book. Discussion of on-line map apps vs. a hardcopy mapbook. If we don't take control of the app, someone else will do it. Suggestion: the board should address the on-line map suggestion. Likely, we will offer both the hardcopy book (our principle fundraiser) and an app on a smaller scale. Blair Altman has been hired to design the mapbook. GPS work completed by Pat Williams of Dirt Tours, Blair Altman, and Mark Holt.
13. Suggested Ideas
- Have stickers made this year, and give it to new members - instead of membership cards
- Get High School or Trafalgar welding programs to do a project and build us more donation boxes
14. Vote for 2013 Board of Directors.
Land Use Liaison - Mark Crowe - nominated by Maya Grosch, seconded by Garett Lumley - passed
Communications Coordinator - Darcey Lutz. Nominated by Mark Thibeault, seconded by Joel McBurney, - passed
Trail Stewardship Coordinator - Chris George - Nominated by Garett Lumley, seconded by Vero Lalumiere - passed
Treasurer - Garett Lumley - nominated by Darcy Lutz, seconded by Katie Mitchell - passed
President - ________________
Rick Schneider was nominated by Mike Kinrade in absentia. We will talk to Rick. Is he interested?
It was suggested that Garett Lumley take of the president position as he has been acting-president since Pat Wray left. However, then we need someone to take on the treasurer position.
15. Coordinators and Volunteer Positions
Bike Park Coordinator - ________
Smallwood Director - __________
Road Riding Liaison - ________
Morning Mtn Polygon - ________
Webmaster - Al Danks
Membership Coordinator - Marg Craig
Fat Tire Coordinator - Jessica Demars
Fundraising/Proposal Writing - Jenneka Plug
Secretary - Kathryn Gardner
Sign in Kiosk Coordinators - Ross McNamara to spearhead discussion with Spearhead to build. Maya Grosch volunteered to take charge of compiling data.
Facebook Coordinator - Travis Hauck
Toonie Ride/Event Coordinator - the bike shops will continue to coordinate the toonie events
Finish - 9:25pm
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