November 2018 Board Minutes
San Diego Mountain Biking Association Board Meeting
Wednesday, November 14, 2018 7:00 - 9:00 PM,
Mission Trails Visitor Center
For information contact:
Kevin Loomis President
Introductions/Roll Call
Ben Stone - staff
Susie Murphy - staff
Kevin Loomis - Board
Jason Showalter - Board
Jose Galaz - Board
Renee Halsch - Board
Tim Ingersoll - Board
Matt Bartelt -Board
Skii Fleeton - Board (called in)
Don Sutton - Board (called in)
Tony Dickey-Rubio
Kyle Gunderman
Meredith McConvill
Absent: Joshua Bonnici (board)
Al Allison (Board Treasurer)
Public Comment on Non-Agenda Items (2 mins. limit per individual; must fill out comment card prior to call to order) Opportunity for members of the public to speak to the Board on any subject matter not on tonight’s agenda- no public comments
Call to Order 7:05 p.m.
Introductions
Guest: Meredith McConvill, Top Rope Media - marketing strategy for outdoor brands; Writing content; email campaigns, blog posts, etc.
Discussion: our marketing strategy needs more dedicated focus- one area is for Trek trial membership campaign - one goal is to increase membership dramatically; create consistent branding and engaging content messaging directed at specific audiences. Lack of a plan is hurting us; inefficiency with strategy of marketing; how to have FB interest link up to our website. Ben: we do have a rhyme and reason to our marketing, but our concern is return on investment and acquisition cost. We have a profile of large donors but no plan for turning smaller donors into larger donors. We have good engagement but what is our focus? Large donor, or acquisition...our bigger problem is having a project to raise money for, not raising money.
Susie’s wish list: a plan, a content plan/calendar, a branding kit, consistent message messaging.
Meredith: put in place a branding kit to give out to others - logo, mission, goals, etc.
Kevin: We want to keep everything on Memberleap if possible. We don’t want to get into having multiple programs where we lose data over the years.
Ben: we didn’t have clear metrics for the desired outcome. Look closely at our margins to determine if hiring someone is worth it. Structure is very important also, the bones of what we want to to come up with. There are many chapters smaller than us where we can pool our resources to come up with a plan for all chapters for the basic structure.
Run a brand new account for ads (Meredith suggestion). She asked what we do for end of the year giving campaign. Susie and Ben both do many things that are out of the scope of their positions.
Kevin: What are next steps? What do you, Meredith suggest? We’ve been so focused on what is in front of us. Need to focus on where we’re going.
Tim: A la carte menu from meredith would be helpful.
Meredith to put together pricing, number of hours projected to put a plan in place for us for next board meeting.
Consent Agenda
1. Approval Board Meeting Minutes Oct 17, 2018
Kevin motions to approve, Jay seconds; unanimously approved.
2. Approval October 2018 Financials
Kevin makes a motion to approve Oct Minutes and October 2018 financials. No questions, Jay seconds, unanimously approved.
(Kevin read aloud, Al’s treasury report).
Old Business
Item 1.
Requests for Continuance on any current Agenda items
Discussion Agenda
Item 1. Increase in Trail Coordinator Hours/Funding
Budget Review 2019 handed out Budget Overview
Jan 1st - proposed that Trails Coordinator position transition to full time. Each ten hour increase cost approx. 10k.
Workers comp policy is the big ticket item - 8k if Trail Coordinator position is full time. We’ll pay the higher rate for 3 years, then it can be decreased. At 3 years we can reassess where we are with Trails Coordinator Position in terms of developing a trail building program, etc.
Many opportunities are presenting themselves Trails Coordinator position, but at 20 hours bandwidth is very limited.
Comments:
Jose: the decision to go full time seems too quick.
Ben commented, he’s had the advantage of spending a great deal of time on the budget. Kevin had pushback initially also. Budget is fully funded for this.
This increase in staff position hours will be on the December agenda.
Kyle: Do you have Projections of revenue increase per hour of increased work?
Ben is tapping restricted grant funding for hours worked over 20 now. We hadn’t been doing this but need to. We need to prove the concept that SDMBA can build trail. WE are working with developers so that when they get to the building, they will come to us first when they want a trail built.
Tony (intern) he doesn’t feel the community is aware of the work SDMBA puts into the community in the form of trails etc. We need to work on increasing awareness and getting this message out.
Trails Coordinator Hourly Comparison(Kevin, Matt and Al)
Item 2. Board Responsibilities and Board Recruitment (Kevin)
Key: We need to focus on building the organization strategically. What are we doing to make us a better organization? Focus on the where and how vs the “do”. Delegate the volunteering.
3 Primary things:
Board members expected to attend 9 out of 12 Annually.
Committees: suggested to meet on average 4 X year.
All board members need to lead or co-lead a committee
See google doc: Job Description and Expectations
Item 3. Rancho Guejito Event update (Susie/Ben)
Ben: we met with ranch staff on 11/12/2018. Longer Video is coming along from SportRX. See projected budget based on 300 attendees at $110 per.
Matt: What if rain? Ben: If it rains - the soil is so dry that it would have to be significant rain to affect this. Susie - we have a rain back up date of 3/2/19.
Item 4. Action Item: 2018 Photo Contest Budget $800
Kevin motions to approve budget. Jay seconds. Unanimously approved.
Item 5. Action Item: 2018 Annual Report Proposal Top Rope Media $650.00
Kevin motions to approve. Jose seconds. Unan. approved.
Item 6. 2018-19 Trailwork Volunteer Projects and Plans (Don)
Don called in: inventoried various trail areas and contacted all liaisons with varied success; with liaison input Don compiled a list of needed trail work. Highlights: main focus is to concentrate on which volunteer days are needed -
Elfin Forest Recreational Reserve/Del Dios Highlands: Nick Buck - “Once is enough trail” that goes into the preserve area: it’s a steep nasty fireroad. Fire district personnel are wanting to get it improved. It’s a County parcel. Ben needs to be involved in this. Other stakeholders want this. Could relieve congestion in EFRR. First step is to get the county involved. Don and Ben will take this offline.
La Costa Preserve: Rick Minnick is on board to work with the Center for Natural Lands Management on their property; get our presence there; show we are there and still riding and that there are many of us riding it.
Mission Trails Regional Park: Chris Hatch - needs a couple of days of volunteers on E Ticket. Has water on site to help with trailwork, so no need to wait until rain.
Black Mountain: Matt Bartelt more than several weekends of work on Black Widow.
Next steps? Don and Ben get together to coordinate scheduling.
Tim Butrum at Sycamore/Goodan Ranch - Ben and Tim met. Tim working with staff and volunteer on installation of REI tool station.
Item 7. Action item: Ride the Rancho Budget Approval
Kevin motions to approve budget of 13k budget. Renee seconds. Unanimously approved.
Item 8. Valley Center Pump Track:
Ben comments on project in Valley Center known as Crow’s Nest. The board discusses that support for continuing this project needs to come from local Valley Center organizations that have an interest in this. It was built poorly and needs to be almost completely redone - may cost as much as 50k. At least 30K to make the pump track portion usable.
Matt: This is a rebuild, not a salvage
Kevin: how will the community view this? We have potential risk all around this and have already invested much time and lost money on this project that was poorly managed by a third party.
Jose: from a PR standpoint, he doesn’t see how this can be a win for us.
We need to make a decision to proceed or not. Kevin likes the idea of finishing it, but it doesn’t really benefit SDMBA. While this is not an action item, the feeling of the Board is that this situation is risky and expensive and would involve a lot of effort for not a lot of benefit for SDMBA given the fraught history of the project.
Updates - (Non Discussion Items)
Item 1. Board retreat 2019?
Mt. Laguna - Red Tail Roost is available.
Maybe the end of January? - Susie to send out Doodle Poll to board
Items for next meeting Agenda
Action item: Trails Coordinator position hour increase
Action Item: Marketing Plan Proposal from Top Rope Media
Board member communications
Item 1. Upcoming events -
11/15 I Love to Ride My Bicycle Exhibition -SDSU Downtown Gallery
11/23 #optoutside Family Ride PQ
12/1 SDMBA/BWR/Canyon ride/event to announce partnership
12/6 SDMBA Photo Contest
12/8 Bike Magazine 25th Anniversary Party 10 Barrels Brewing, downtown SD
Adjournment 8:47 p.m.
Next Meeting: December 19, 2018 (Kevin’s house)
Meeting Minutes Recorded by: Renee Halsch