After due notice, a meeting of the Board of Trustees of the Mad River Glen Cooperative was convened at 9:00am on Sunday April 3, 2016 on the third floor of the Base Box at the Mad River Glen Ski Area (MRG) in Fayston, Vermont.
9:00 AM Call to order
In attendance: Board – John Stetson, Eric Palola, Meg Hourihan, Ron Shems, John Tobin,
John Eberlein, Jon Anderson
Absent: Annika Holtan, Russ Bowen
Also present were President Jamey Wimble, Trustee Elect Matt Kenney and approximately 5 shareholders.
9:01 AM Welcome & shareholder comments – Welcome new Trustees
Chair Stetson welcomed the assembled including newly elected Trustee Matt Kenney.
The results of the election of Saturday 4, 2016 to the Board of Trustees as follows.
Meg Hourihan (in state) 429 votes
Eric Palola (in state) 426 votes
Matt Kenney (out of state) 434 votes
Chair Stetson asked for shareholder comments.
Shareholder Michael Hawker (?) complemented the Board on the prior evening’s annual meeting and stated he admired their restraint. He suggested that speakers at meetings should identify themselves when making statements or asking questions at meetings. He then opined that the Co-op is a business and must remain a viable business if we are to survive. He brought up the possibility of raising the APR which hasn’t been done since the inception of the Co-op.
The Board then continued debating the various aspects of raising the APR and what affect it would have on cash flow. They decided to continue examining options.
9:11 AM Review & approve minutes of March 12, 2016 (Action).
Motion to approve minutes by Trustee Eberlein, 2nd by Trustee Palola. All in favor.
9:12 AM Management report (Jamey)
Operations:
We closed the mountain Sunday March 13th with just the practice slope open. Kids programs seemed to close on a positive note. Great job done by all the ski school. They managed to run the programs every weekend except one.
After meeting with VTRANS we came up with a parking solution. However, our really busy days may be an issue. We have formed a committee that will continue to monitor the situation and hopefully find some solutions.
We sent out a communication piece as soon as we closed explaining our position on Passes, Mad Cards, and just how tough the winter was on everyone. We had a tremendously positive response to it. Approximately 70 positive responses with just 2 negative.
Share Sales:
We sold 2 shares in March against a budget of 4. We have sold 14 shares YTD.
Financials:
We are projecting a loss for FYE 9-30-16. We anticipate accessing our line of credit. The plan is to draw from the line next week to pay the snow cat off and have money in our account. We will probably have to draw again in June/ July timeframe. We had our line of credit note reviewed by Richard Gervase from the finance committee and he feels comfortable with us not drawing down the full line as has been talked about. He feels the relationship we have with the bank is strong enough that it will be there if we need it.
President Wimble also reviewed the Pass deal he had made with Sugarbush. Though not widely used it will probably continue next year. Trustee elect Kenney mentioned the Ski Clubs are hurting and is hopeful for a better winter next year.
9:22 AM Finance Committee report (John T)
Review Day Ticket Sales Models
Trustee Tobin stated the next Finance Committee meeting will be held on April 14th.
The Board and assembled spent the next hour reviewing the Day ticket sales models. President Wimble has historically based the day ticket projections on a weather model which has been steadily declining. The discussion covered a 110 day budget and questioned if that should be shortened, creating a budget to prevent another fiscal loss in 2016-17 and considering ways to be nimble when opening and closing due to weather events. The possibility of an event that results in two consecutive poor years and how to deal with it was also discussed. Shareholder Andrew Snow mentioned that the fact that the weather is trending down means the ski industry may have to make some drastic changes while trying to maximize our skiing opportunities.
Trustee Eberlein also presented the Board with a Day ticket forecast to use based on historical Day ticket sales. Those sales are also trending down. It was decided that President Wimble would create a budget based on $1,000,000 in day ticket sales.
10:30 AM Fund Raising Committee report
Chair Stetson stated the quiet phase of the Fund Raising campaign continues to progress well. He also mentioned that another large gift, slated towards the endowment fund had just come in and that Trustee Holtan predicts the public phase will commence during the 2016-17 season.
10:35 AM Review Board Calendar for 2017
The Board reviewed the calendar and decided having an April Board meeting after the annual meeting was appropriate.
10:39 AM Board Officer Nominating Committee (Action) (John S)
After a brief discussion regarding the Board Officer nominating procedure Chair Stetson made a motion.
Motion: Establish a Board committee, comprised of all present and 2016-2017 Board members, to develop a slate of officers for the coming year. The committee will be chaired by the outgoing president, present its recommendations at the June meeting, and will sunset after its presentation. Motion by Stetson, 2nd by Eberlein, all in favor.
The Board also discussed the need for a chairman to lead the new committee to address the various parking issues. Trustee Shems volunteered to Chair that committee.
10:45 AM Review and approve personnel policy revisions (Action) (Meg)
Trustee Hourihan reviewed the various personnel policies including Absence Notification, Board of Trustees and MRG organization charts, Equipment Use, Sick Leave and Vacation policy. Approval is pending a few minor edits.
10:51 PM Action item review (Jon)
Financial trends – Jamey will look into the trends between departments. Jamey -Ongoing
Write a mission statement and populate a parking committee chaired by Trustee Shems – New
Create a budget based on $1,000,000 in day ticket sales. Jamey – New
Create a list of planned mountain improvements for this summer. Jamey – New
11:00 AM Executive Session
1:15 PM Adjournment
Motion to adjourn Anderson, 2nd Eberlein, all in favor
