Board of Trustees Meeting Minutes April 3, 2011

Mad River Glen Cooperative

Board of Trustees Meeting

Minutes – Sunday, April 3, 2011

After due notice, a meeting of the Board of Trustees of the Mad River Glen Cooperative was convened at 8:30 a.m. on Sunday, April 3, 2011 on the third floor of the Basebox at Mad River Glen Ski Area (“MRG”) in Fayston, Vermont.

Also present were President Jamey Wimble and two SH’s.

8:35 Call to Order

Trustee Bruns (Chair) called the meeting to order at 8:35 a.m.

8:36 Shareholder Comments (SHC’s)

Penny Parson of Stark Mountain Foundation (SMF) announced that she was present for the summer spending discussion later in the meeting.

Rocky Bleier congratulated the Board on a successful year and strongly advocated releasing all suggestions from the suggestion box to SH’s as it could stimulate discussion and involvement (could be done on forum). He also congratulated the Election committee on running a very smooth election and having the fastest vote count ever; he strongly recommends that candidates who weren’t elected be contacted with a follow-up thank-you encouraging them to stay involved.

8:41 Approval of Minutes

8:38 am Election Results

The results of the 2011 Election for Board of Trustees candidates are:

In-State:

Bob Ackland: 97

Jon Anderson: 645

Betsy Jondro: 708

(3 write-ins)

Out-of-State:

Liz Godwin: 540

Bill Quinn: 178

Total votes: 737

Note: Geordie Hall termed out from the Board. Bill Reynolds and Jed Kalkstein termed out in 2010 and are no longer on the Board. The Board welcomes new member Jon Anderson.

Election of Officers

New Business

Trustee Bruns asked the Board to read Mike Diederich’s letter related to ticket price policy for individuals that serve or have served in the armed forces in preparation to respond discussto it this issue item at in the May Board meeting.

Other SH communications to the Board were reviewed and discussed [Liz, can you please add the names of those discussed including those from Betsy and I? This is important that this be in the minutes given we took the time to consider these and I’d like them reflected please].

Review and discuss summer work projects and FC Recommendation for Spending

There is a recommendation from the FC to recommend spending up to $104K from which President Wimble will manage the individual items.

SMF has a prospective donor who would like to contribute up to $25Kmake a contribution to help the cooperative refresh to redo the fireplace room in memory of her father.; SMF would likehas asked the Cooperative for a proposal to present to the prospective donor outlining the scope of work that would need to be done. [EG1]  President Wimble is working to create the proposal. The Board expressed its gratitude to SMF for working with the prospective donor and the Cooperative on this project.

Discussion ensued about the process for allocating funds to summer work. The question was posed as to whether summer expenses should be included in the annual operating budget approved by the board at the beginning of the year. Or if we should continue the current practice of establishing a budget for summer work at or near the end of each ski season. what should be summer expenses vs. operating expenses. The FC is tasked with reviewing the budget process with President Wimble; they will be sure to look at this issue. Wasn’t this Capital expense vs operating expense? GL[LB2] 

Trustee Liu wanted to be sure we were tying a proper budgeting process and a summer project process to the Strategic Plan.

Trustee Elkind pointed out that there are some really neat ideas from good people on staff that he heard during 360’s and sees a chance to use funds as an effective management tool. He asked if we could begin to reward these good ideas by funding some of them to bring them to fruition. Elkind indicated this could have the with the opportunity to spend some money to bring additional effect of showing improvement and becoming a more nimble organization. them to fruition and show SHs that we are indeed working to improve things.

President Wimble replied that he is communicating at the upcoming end-of-year meeting with department heads to let them know that we have some “wiggle room” financially and will be encouraging ideasthey can fund ideas using their budgets to the extent that they have sufficient funds to stay within budget.

Trustee Bruns is in favor of approving some amount of funding so that President Wimble can legitimately say that there are funds available for innovation. He proposed adding $7K to the approval amount so that there’s some room for this initiativeto fund select ideas and to demonstrate board support for creativity and innovation. Trustee Godwin asked for clarity on whether it’s specifically earmarked for that purpose or part of general amount; Trustee Bruns replied that it’s more informal but it will be understood that that’s its purpose.

Trustee Stetson noted that the FC is recommending approval of $104K but that includes $18K that may not have to be spent; he advocates revisiting this after April numbers come in.

Board Calendar

PLEASE ADD ACTION ITEMS HERE