After due notice, a meeting of the Board of Trustees of the Mad River Glen Cooperative was convened at 5:00 pm on Saturday, March 2, 2013 on the third floor of the Basebox at Mad River Glen Ski Area (“MRG”) in Fayston, Vermont.
Trustee
Attendance
Trustee
Attendance
Elkind (Chair)
Present
Godwin
Present
Stetson (Vice-Chair)
Present
Holtan
Present
Anderson (Secretary)
Present
Jondro
Present
Liu (Treasurer)
Present
Lesure
Present
Bruns
Present
Also present were President Wimble and 15 shareholders.
5:05 PM Call to Order
Chair Elkind called the meeting to order. He welcomed all attending and asked for shareholder comments
Bob Rodgers commented on the accuracy and timeliness of the events calendar and snow reports. He stated he’d brought up this issue before and hasn’t seen any improvement. In particular what has been groomed and more importantly not groomed is an issue. The board will defer to Jamey to address the problem.
5:10 PM Review & Approve Minutes of February 2, 2013 – Action
Motion
Made by
2nd by
Aye
Nay
Abstain
To approve the minutes of February 2, 2013.
Trustee Stetson
Trustee Lesure
9
0
0
5:15PM Management Report and preview of summer spend (Jamey)
Snows have returned and things are looking up for a good March. March has not been kind to us the past few years so we have high hopes this season.
Verizon tower is now on line. There is a second tower installed near the bottom of RT 17 and should get the valley covered well.
One of Mad Rivers own is grabbing worldwide attention. Lars Chickering Ayers son of John Ayers won the Kirkwood Freeride World Tour at Kirkwood Ski Area CA. Congratulations Lars!
There has been much talk about snowmaking with our 2nd lean winter in a row. Mad River currently makes all the snow it can because of a limited water supply. Mad River would need to acquire more land for water supply and storage. A very large capital investment as well as an ongoing increase in annual operating expense.
Share Sales:
We sold 4 shares against a budget of 4 for February. We have sold 25 shares YTD.
Financials:
Preliminary February numbers have us coming in behind budget in NOI. Preliminary YTD we are running behind budget NOI. We should be ok cash wise to get through the summer.
5:25 PM Update on Snow Making
Jamey gave a detailed presentation on the feasibility of snowmaking at MRG. He spent twenty minutes giving the presentation and taking questions from the assembled. In Jamey’s opinion expanding snowmaking would not be a wise business decision for Mad River Glen. The complete report will be posted on the forum as well the Co-op web page.
5:50 PM Annual Shareholder Meeting Preparation
Chair Elkind reviewed the agenda for the upcoming annual meeting including the ballot question regarding the minor correction to the bylaws regarding trustee terms and qualifications.
Board Development – Elections readiness (Betsy)
Trustee Jondro reported the three candidates, Roy Liu, John Stetson and Eric Palola are all shareholders in good standing. There have been no other shareholders declaring a write in campaign.
5:58 PM Finance Committee Update (Roy)
Treasurer Liu shared the finance committee minutes from February 28th 2013 as follows.
Attending: Roy Liu, Jim Elkind, Jamey Wimble, Gary Lange, Bruce Button, John Stetson.
Schedule and Agenda Review:
1. Review of preliminary forecast for Summer CapEx. Comments from Jamey include:
·Lift 2 hut project may be volunteer-built (TBD).
·Pub lighting is still being scoped, but total cost is $500-800.
·Snow-making “soft start” switch repair is mandatory.
·there is a duplicate line-item in Tier 2 spend for ski binding tester for the repair shop. Jamey indicated that this was an error and will be deleted.
2. Jamey presented his cost/benefit analysis to extend/expand snow-making capacity.
It was agreed that the financial worksheets would be made available to all shareholders and posted in a manner that shareholders will be aware and have access to the work product. The summary conclusion from Jamey’s study is that the mountain does not currently have water capacity to expand snow-making and that any project to do so would be prohibitively expensive and likely also require a lengthy permitting process.
6:05PM Facilities Committee Update (John)
Vice Chair Stetson shared the following report.
The MRG Facilities Committee (FacCom) met by teleconference on 2/26/13 to review the comments received to date. The following is a summary of what we have heard regarding BAMP:
Patrol Building:
1. Keep ski school program in Base Box.
2. Increase size of gear rooms for both ski school and patrol.
3. Provide lunch/break room & bathroom for ski school.
4. Provide space for ski school director’s office.
5. Confirm size of family locker room & lockers.
6. Provide view of mountain for patrol.
7. Delete patrol break room.
8. Delete one patient space in patrol area.
9. Delete one bathroom in patrol area.
10. Address loss of parking.
11. Consider variance to delete elevator by eliminating public use of second floor.
12. Reduce height of building – use “attic” space, delete exterior stair tower.
13. Consistent exterior with existing facilities, not to look like Sugarbush.
Base Box:
1. Expand space for ski school kids’ program.
2. Keep ski school kids’ program proximate to the ski school desk.
Retail:
1. Do not increase area in retail.
2. Modify the entrance to make more inviting and welcoming.
3. Do nothing to envelop.
Rental/Repair:
1. Expand space into lockers.
2. Do not expand exterior walls, particularly into boardwalk.
3. Provide new airlocks/vestibules.
4. Improve envelope where possible from interior only.
FacCom will use internal and volunteer resources to estimate the cost impact of the comments received to date. No further refinement of the schematic design will occur until there is consensus and a desire to move on to the next phase of design. FacCom will work with Management to begin evaluation of snowmaking opportunities.
6:10 PM Fundraising Committee Update (Annika)
Trustee Holtan reported meeting with the fundraising consultant to prepare a shareholder list for the planning study interviews. She noted that no solicitation will take place during these interviews. She also stated this process will take time and that we don’t want to rush a project of this magnitude.
6:15 PM Communication and Education (Betsy, George)
Trustee’s Jondro and Lesure will continue to work on the communication aspects of the Legacy plan. They will work with the fundraising committee as well seek to involve staff from the mountain to get input.
6:17 PM Action Item Review (Jon)
Action Item
Responsible Party
When
STATUS
Develop communications and fundraising timelines regarding BAMP/ Legacy project.
