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Board of Trustees Meeting Minutes: September 19, 2020

MEETING MINUTES HISTORIC ARCHIVE

Type

Year

 

Board of Trustees Meeting Agenda

Mad River Glen Cooperative

Date: Saturday, September 19, 2020 8:00 am

Location: Online

Attendees: Matt Milan, Barclay Rappeport, Brad Noble, Ron Shems, Meg Schulz, Carol Pierce, Andy Weis, Andrew Carey, Leigh Michl, Matt Lillard, Matt Minno

 

  1. Shareholder Comments

8:03 AM        Call to order, shareholder comments: Matt Minno, new shareholder, introduced himself.

 

  1. Consent Agenda Items

Approve minutes for June 2020 Board Meeting: The minutes are approved by Consent Agenda.

 

III.                Reports and Discussion

Management report (Matt Lillard): Admin is mostly back in the office, masked and distanced. Communications have resulted in many new shareholders, (over 50!) and renewed interest in shares. To handle the incoming traffic, an in-house ticket seller has been added to process these transactions. Guidance from the state keeps changing, and the COVID plan will be developed with this in mind. The Base Box project is moving along well, painting almost complete. F&B is working through scenarios with COVID plans. There will be food service on the deck for foliage weekends. Lift 1 has been cleared and ready to go. Lift 2 will be load tested in October. Mountain Ops has been able to work well with the construction crew to keep things moving along. Mowing operations have begun with larger crew than past season. Talk of snowmaking has begun! Ski school/Freeski are actively taking reservations. Patrol is gearing up to move into the new building and is working with local health officials to develop protocols for the coming season. The Naturalist program is starting to look to new opportunities, including uphill tours. The Nieuhues fundraiser has been fantastic.

Finance committee report (Brad Noble): attached. Items of note – we have not had to touch LOC. Cash position is strong. Pass sales have been very strong. Share sales are up. Retail has had a spectacular summer.

 

Plans for G&G Townhall Meeting  (Matt Lillard): Hopes are to run Town Hall outside with streaming available as well. Timing would have to be early in the day to accommodate temperatures. There is no homeowner meeting, so we could push it to 3pm. Poor weather would result in all on-line meeting. There is a chance, due to unforeseen circumstances, Matt L may not be able to attend. There will be tours for the Base Box with advance sign up.

 

Proposal to create a Strategic Planning committee (Matthew Milan, Meg Schultz ): Mission statement is available. Discussion as to the length of time the horizon should be on a strategic plan. Matthew Milan will present a committee for approval at the October board meeting.

Meg Schulz moved to form the SPC. Leigh Michl second. Unanimous approval.

Discussion: Updates to the Forest management plan (Matt Lillard, Andy Weis) – the FMP has been discussed with Lars Bruns/Jay Appelton/Matt Lillard. Next steps involve a walk with a forester through the property. Matt will work with Andy on the current documents.

Discussion: Uphill Policy Assessment for 2021 season (Barclay Rappeport, Matt Lillard) – The uphill market is going to be much more crowded this year. Enforcement of the no dogs policy will continue this year. Uphill traffic is allowed during operations. Discussion of monetizing uphill traffic ensued as well as the suggestion of collecting data on usage this season.

Facilities Report: Patrol building is a week ahead of schedule. The Base Box is on schedule for completion by November 6th. The elevator will be installed in two weeks. Kitchen equipment installation will start this week. Flooring will start next week in patrol. We have about $140k left in contingency. The goal is to come in under budget still and the outlook is good so far. John Stetson, Peter Hourihan, Linc Prescott have all been frequent site visitors as members of the facilities committee. Matt Milan suggested looking into the committee status to create clear expectations moving forward.

 

  1. Action Item

Review of proposed changes to Co-op bylaws (Section 1.4 Nondiscrimintation) (Ron Shems) – attached. Ron consulted with Eli Godwin as well as the Dean of VT Law School to produce the proposed changes. Additionally comparisons have been done with other similar organizations.

 

Section 1.4 – Nondiscrimination. The Cooperative welcomes all and shall not arbitrarily or unreasonably discriminate on the basis of actual or perceived: race, color, national origin, ethnicity, religion, sexgender, sexual orientation, gender identityidentification, gender expression, age, handicap disability, marital status, veteran status, or other arbitrary basissocial or cultural factors.  The Cooperative shall not condone or tolerate such discrimination, explicit or implicit,  and shall actively discourage such discrimination.

 

Ron moved that the board recommend to the shareholders to amend the bylaw. Leigh second. Unanimous approval.

Early share tender proposal (Matt Lillard): Matt requested approval for an early tender of two shares for a shareholder in a situation of need. Requests for share tender are normally taken to September 30 and then shares are tendered in December. Leigh moved to approve the early tender of two shares Brad second. Unanimous approval.

 

  1. Open Items & New Business

Review open items & new business

  • Open item: Set up a Board Calendar (Barclay Rappeport) – in process in G Suite
  • 2021 Board Development (Ron Shems, Barclay Rappeport) There are three positions open. Two in-state: Leigh Michl & Ron Shems terms are up. Matt Milan, out of state is also up.
  • Update on James Niehues Trail Map Fundraising Initiative (Brad Noble) The Kickstarter campaign is close to $100k and has been very successful. Roughly half of the funds raised will go to SMF. Remainder of funds will go to painting and production, shipping, etc. Additionally there will be 30 limited editions donated to SMF for further fund raising efforts. Folks who missed out on limited editions on Kickstarter and are interested in the signed XL format Niehues prints can contact Jim Elkind, SMF Treasurer: Jim Elkind <[email protected]>. Details here: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/orsc/a-ski-legend-paints-mad-river-glen-a-new-trail-map?ref=2in2kv

Matt Milan moved to adjourn at 10am, Ron Shems 2nd. Meeting was adjourned.

Manager’s Report 9.19.2020

September 2020 Finance Committee Report