SLAGA Board Meeting

April 6, 2017

6:00 PM, Chemical Interchange Building

Attendees – Kathy DeWitt, Tony Colter, Bill Lange, Laura MacLeod, Patricia Hutchison, Dave DeWitt, John Elfrank

                The meeting was called to order at 6:25 pm.

                Motion to approve the February minutes was made by Tony, seconded by Bill.  Minutes were unanimously approved.

                Treasurer’s reports for January, February and March were presented.  Motion to approve the treasurer’s reports was made by Tony, seconded by Bill.  Treasurer’s reports were unanimously approved.

Old Business

• Newsletter went out April 6, 2017 at noon.
• E-mail blast is on hold for a few days and will go out around April 12.

• Event Recap:

                      ¨       CITO – Lena Dowers (brantole) hosted the CITO at Fort Belle Fontaine.  Water and snacks were provided by the host and per the board’s decision, Lena will be reimbursed for this expense.  She was pleased with the turnout and from the geocachers’ sign-in sheet, she used a number generator to select a winner for the CITO coin provided by SLAGA.  The winner was BaldEagle45 and the coin will be mailed to him by Kathy DeWitt.

• Upcoming Events:

                    ¨       CITO – Lena Dowers (brantole) - 4/8 (GC71EZ3).  SLAGA will reimburse her for the water and snacks (some of which were left over from the previous week’s CITO) and mail out a CITO coin to the winner of her drawing for the 4/8 CITO.

                    ¨       Spring Picnic – 5/6/17 – Nan Dabler (nan-d1955) will host.  Planning is going well.  Patricia texted Nan to remind her to request that Team_State make the meat purchase for the event.  (GC71G79)

                    ¨       Summer Picnic – 7/15/17 –Michael Rogers (ArtieD) is hosting at Rock Bridge just outside of Columbia, Missouri.  The facilities have been secured and paid for.  Attendees will provide their own food.  There is nothing new to add at this time.

                    ¨       Eclipse – August 21, 2017 – Jefferson Barracks Park.  Laura will be hosting a St. Louis County Parks event here for the eclipse.  There is no geocaching event set up as yet, however, Laura may consider posting a flash mob to coincide with the park’s event.  She is considering strongly recommending posting a selfie with the eclipse to log the event.

                    ¨       Fall Picnic – The Confluence at Hartford, Illinois, September 16, 2017.  Team_State will host, per David DeWitt.  The location has been reserved, fee-free.  There are no barbecue grills there; Food will need to be brought in, possibly fried chicken.  No new information.

                    ¨       Grave Hop – Tabled, but John Elfrank said he would pick up the event if an alternative host is not found.

                    ¨       Halloweenie Roast – Larson Park is already paid for; we just need a date and a host.  Terri Nealon (TerriBikes+) has offered to host.  Kathy DeWitt said she will contact Larson Park to verify the event date with them, which at last meeting was marked as 10/21/17.

                    ¨       Holiday Party – Tabled.

• Classes

                    ¨       Recap:  AHG – Bill reported that the class experience went well, though there was room for improvement, most notably that “there can’t be too much communication” between SLAGA and those hosting the event at which we’re teaching.  The AHG coordinator made a trackable for their troop, but didn’t seem to have activated it by the time of the board meeting.  It was also indicated that another AHG troop might be interested in receiving the same training as we had done on March 25, and may be in touch, as well as the offer that we could use the same grounds to hold that event, if necessary.  He also said that prior to future events, any new volunteers should watch a YouTube video on how to use the SLAGA-owned GPS units.

                    ¨       Canoe – As there has been no update from Pete Shaw regarding this issue, it is being removed from future agendas until such time as interest is generated.

                    ¨       GSAK – Work in progress; class materials are available on the SLAGA website.

                    ¨       Cache Publication & Placement –May 13, 2017, 9:00 am-2:00 pm.  Tony Colter is hosting the event and teaching the class at the South Grand location of the St. Louis City Public Library.  No additional information at this time.

                    ¨       Queeny Park – Classes are being set up for 4/30/17, 1-3:30pm and 7/29/17, 9am-12pm.  Bill is in charge of the training.  Because neither of the classes made it into the Sping/Summer County Park Catalog, it is likely that they will be lightly attended.  Laura agreed to set up a cutoff date for signups two days prior to the class.  Class size is restricted to classroom capacity which, for two rooms, would be up to 100 participants.  Future class scheduling is tabled until the first class is held, to get a feel for how it will go.  Bill recommended providing a map of the caches to be used for the class, which could include published caches, but was cautioned against using any caches that are marked premium member only to ensure they are not compromised.  Per unanimous board vote, volunteers will be provided lunch after the training session. 

• SLAGA Geocoin

                    ¨       Geocoin – Tabled.

                    ¨       Pathtags – Susie Nelson requested progress on the Pathtag.  Tony will work on it.

• PayPal – SLAGA has been denied nonprofit status.  Options are to create a new PayPal account or leave it alone as is, with no new SSN.  Laura volunteered to have her SSN on the account, but the board is holding off making a change at this time.

• Milestone Awards

                   ¨       There are a few submissions for milestones for the Spring Picnic.  Kathy will collect the information and submit an order for the coins this week.

New Business

• John Elfrank brought two new pieces of business before the board.

                   ¨       His Festus property is being sold.  The SLAGA trailer currently resides there, but will need to find a new ‘home’.  As it has a permanent Missouri plate, there is no need to file for a change of address for future renewal notifications.

                   ¨       Robert Winter Park – John wants to approach the St. Louis County Parks to suggest SLAGA ‘adopt a park’, in this case, Robert Winter Park, which has been neglected and is more or less a dump.  His proposal would include having SLAGA members perform a massive, ongoing CITO, which may reinforce the goodwill relations between SLAGA and the St. Louis County Parks Department.  Laura recommended he write his suggestion letter to Tom Ott, who is a ranking official with the parks department.  Laura made a motion to proceed with John’s initiative to write a letter to the parks department and Patricia seconded.  Motion passed unanimously.

• Next meeting will be 6:00 pm, May 11, 2017 at Chemical Interchange.

• Adjournment

                     ¨       Patricia motioned for the meeting to be adjourned and it was seconded by Laura.  Motion passed unanimously.  The meeting adjourned at 7:55 pm.