Attached and pasted in are the minutes from 10/22/02 Shareholders Relations Committee as reviewed and approved. Andrew, please post to the List serve and site Thanks
Shareholder Relations Committee
Meeting Minutes
October 22, 2002
A meeting of the committee was held in the Basebox at Mad River.
The meeting was called to order at approximately. 6:10 PM. Attending were committee members Rich Aiken, Rocky Bleier, Fritz and Vivian Bronshofsky, Bill Heinzerling, Irma Heeter, and Rick Moulton. Also attending were shareholder Greg Carr and staff member Andrew Snow. Mr. Bleier acted as the chair until Mr. Moulton arrived a few minutes later. Committee member Wendy Bridgewater arrived later in the meeting.
Approval of Prior Minutes
The committee unanimously approved the minutes from the October 1st meeting as submitted by Leigh Michl. It was requested that Mr. Michl amend the minutes to reflect additional facts added after the meeting to be included as footnotes as they were not introduced at the meeting. It was also noted that Lu Putnam is not the committee secretary, therefore Mr. Michl was the sole keeper of the minutes for the Oct. 1st meeting. It was further noted that Mr. Michl compiled a most through account of the meeting for which the committee was very grateful.
Shareholder Comments
The committee next discussed an email letter received from Mr. Michl. In regards to the committee’s mission statement, Mr. Michl suggested that the committee think more broadly than just communications, i.e. the Echo or Chute newsletters. He went on to name a number of “community building projects â€, activities and actions. In the email, Mr. Michl expressed the opinion that the Board wanted to approve a “package†rather than individual initiatives.
Mr. Michl’s suggestions prompted much discussion. . It was noted that the committee had spent a considerable amount of time and some negotiation to come up the current mission statement. Just as with the strategic plan, the multiple circle concepts will be used if needed. The committee feels that the as amended board suggested mission statement will work, and can be “tweaked†in the future if necessary.
Several committee members expressed frustration at an apparent lack of historical context from the Board. Several members mentioned that most of Mr. Michl’s suggestions and initiatives had been discussed and recommended to the Board by the committee in the past. Board inaction or lukewarm responses to the committee’s past proposals have discouraged members. It was noted that both Management and the makeup of the Board have changed over the years. It was agreed that there was a marked improvement from previous years. There was a consensus that more cooperation is needed between the committee, the Board and Management.
Mr. Bleier noted that the committee has made progress during the last couple of years, albeit slower than most members would like. The presence of Mr. Snow was noted as a positive sign that Management was serious about working with the Committee unlike the past when both Management the Board did not appear to be as concerned about fostering community or communications. The fact that the president of the coop, Mr. Michl was actively following and participating in the committee was acknowledged as a very positive sign.
Review of the “Special Edition†of the December Echo
The committee next discussed content for the upcoming Shareholder newsletter. There was some confusion as to the content and the length of the up coming issue. Mr. Snow said he was under the impression that the upcoming issue would be limited to one page with a write-up of the new election procedures and a review of the Strategic Plan and Green and Gold presentation. Mr. Moulton and several committee members questioned whether any restrictions had been placed on the “special issueâ€. It was decided to move on assuming that the special issue would have at least as many pages as were need to air information and letters that needed to be shared with fellow shareholders before February. In the spirit of compromise it was acknowledged that it would not be unlimited in length. Mr. Moulton suggested that three pages both sides would be reasonable. It was suggested that reviewing Board minutes would reveal the Boards intent regarding the special issue.
Upcoming articles were discussed. Mr. Moulton reported on the list of articles that he is expecting to include in the upcoming edition. As of our meeting he said they were: Letters from Lu 1. A praise and recap of Green and Gold this year 2. A call to shareholders to sell a share Deb on the technical s changes to the election process Leigh Presidents Message/ Strategic Plan process Irma writing her perspective as one who participated in the town meeting Vivian is writing a letter Rocky writing to encourage possible candidates Rick’s report from SRC Bill about the idea of a directory and a fun story
The committee set a meeting for November 5th to review articles submitted for the†“ special editionâ€. At the behest of Mr. Bronshofsky, all members agreed upon that letters to the editor that were clearly identified as such would not be subject to rewriting. Any editorial clarifications should be added at the end of the letter in Italics and sign editor in accordance with normal journalistic practice. Articles will need to be reviewed to assure they are passing on accurate information
Review of Green and Gold Weekend
It was the consensus of the committee that the G&G weekend was a tremendous success. The committee commended Management and staff and the Board as well, in contributing towards what many feel was the best G&G ever.
The committee was encouraged by the attendance at the “Town Meeting†Strategic Plan Presentation and shareholder discussion. Attendance was considered to good, especially in light of an odd time and a beautiful day. It was agreed that owner comments and questions would be incorporated into the upcoming article on the Strategic Plan.
Several owners at the meeting had questioned the creation of a historic district for Mad River. It was noted that in a front page article that preceded the G&G weekend, the (Waitsfield) Valley Reporter, had not reported on the subject accurately. Mr. Bleier brought attention to the fact that the Board had yet to vote on what was reported as a done deal. In the ensuing 3 issues of the weekly paper, there had been no corrections or letters to the editor pointing out the mistakes in the article. Mr. Snow took note of the situation.
The next meeting of the committee will be on November 5th at 6PM.