St. Louis Area Geocaching Association

MEETING MINUTES 2021

12 April 2021/ 6:30 PM / via Zoom (internet meeting platform) and in person at SmithPro

ATTENDEES

Steve Bromley, Michael Smith, Robert Klemme, Nan Dabler, Melissa Pierce, Jan Salvaggio,  Bill Lange

Meeting called to order at 6:43 pm.

Motion called to approve March 2021 minutes by Robert, seconded by Michael.

Motion called to approve March 2021 treasurer's reports by Michael, seconded by Melissa.

• We are all enjoying the standardization of the financial report.

Retrospective: Classes/Training/Events

• GC 101 class was held on March 27, 2021 at the Corporate Pavillion at Queeny Park. 
  • We had 14 people total attend
    • 3 are now new geocachers 
  • Laura gave us a listing of the attendees including their email addresses.
    • Unsure if we would be able to obtain this for each class.
    • Do we want to do a short survey?
      • After using Survey Monkey or survey the adults during the transition point of the class? 
      • Have a set of standardized questions to ask.
    • Pass out the SLAGA business cards
      • QR code takes straight to the website
        • Add a link to the FaceBook group.
  • There were some issues in facilitating this particular GC 101 class with organizing the volunteers and equipment.
    • We generally agree that the long time period since our last GC 101 class combined with an unfamiliar location was partly to blame on these specific issues.
  • Need to get a new presenter trained as Bill Lange would like to step away from this role. 
    • Bill’s presentation is available for review on Slack
  • May need to think about reformatting the class to be a better fit for the age groups we have attending.
    • Many of the younger attendees were restless by about 20 minutes in to the informational section.
    • Should we host multiple classes with different focuses based on ages?
      • Could cause more work
    • Should we do two classes, such as a GC 201, where we go over the more detailed aspects of geocaching and leave the GC 101 as a general overview.
      • Could cover phone caching in more depth as well.
      • These are great ways to market SLAGA and increase membership.
    • Need to evaluate the general ages and groups coming to these classes.
      • Are they mostly scouts? Are we meeting the technical part of their badge requirements?
      • If mostly younger, could we skip certain areas of the presentation in order to keep their attention? 
      • Should we offer an adults only class? Do we have enough interest in that?
  • Need to purchase new rechargeable batteries for the GPSr units.
    • Steve will purchase 24 total 
  • Next GC 101 is scheduled for June 12, 2021.
    • Unsure where we will be holding this class at this point.
    • Michael will be doing the lecture.
• Spring Picnic will be held on Saturday, April 17, 2021 from 10:45 am until 3:00 pm at 9 Mile Garden in Affton.
  • Steve will pick up the gift cards for the events 
    • Three for $25 each
  • Awards and group photo will be done around 1:00 pm.
    • What should be done with the items that aren’t picked up?
      • More so the large items, such as the chairs, than the smaller items.
        • Currently we have one chair that has not been picked up and three coins from 2011.
      • We will also be giving out awards during the summer picnic, date and location to be determined.
    • Planning to do a FaceBook live of the awards.
  • Will announce the opening of officer nominations as well.
    • Melissa will send out an email about this as well.

      Events

• Need to start planning for the Summer Picnic
  • Host, location, and date are still to be determined.
  • Will be like other past summer picnics with a “bring your own food and drink” set up.
    • Maybe we should do a prepaid box lunch?
      • Could we use the SLAGA store front to deal with the payments?
      • KC picnic did a hybrid catered or bring your own food event.
  • Venue should be the only expense for this event.
  • Melissa will send out an email for volunteers.

      Ongoing Business

• 20th Anniversary geocoins
  • Will bring coins to Spring Picnic in order to sell.
    • Nan and Steve both have cash boxes that they can bring
  • John Elfrank currently has 25 coins to sell at the events he plans on attending
    • Will sell them for $15 per coin.
    • John has one additional coin that he will be dropping off that has already been paid for.
  • Nan and Michael  also have coins on hand for those who would like to purchase and do pick ups.
• Award Coins and additional achievement awards
  • Steve now has the embroidered five chairs and one jacket.
  • Robert has generated a list of all awards needed. 
    • He has all the pins and engraved coins.
• CITO Coins
  • Currently have four coins available.
    • Robert to ensure we have the inventory and to purchase when needed.
  • Michael is hosting the next MODOT CITO event
    • Took one coin with him for that event.
    • We are obligated to clean the MODOT assigned area four times per year or we will lose our signage and spot. 
      • It’s not a generally dirty area and really only needs about a dozen people to clean it up. 
        • Can we send excess people elsewhere to help clean up?
          • Such as one of the local parks or continuing down the street further?
        • Candyce Copp Grisham is the SLAGA member who has been coordinating this with the state. We should contact her for guidance. 
• Procedures/Systems
  • Had set up Slack, thinking it would work for this purpose.That does not seem to be the case.
  • Due to money flow problems, we have decided to go with a Google account to save shared documents, photos, etc.
    • Steve will set up a new Google account for this purpose.
• SLAGA finances
  • We need to restructure our membership levels, cost of membership, and awards as well as award requirements in order to break even.
    • We are not trying to profit off of our membership costs.
    • Have some people that sign up for one year in order to get a specific award
      • Does not usually cover the cost of the award
      • How to track?
    • This would help with the financial issues we are having
  • Also need to look into what we are spending on things such as coins for CITOs, gift cards, venues, etc.
    • Example: we spend $150 per year on gift cards.
  • Will be holding an executive meeting to review all finances and vote on the changes needed to keep SLAGA going.
  • Use the store more to also help.
    • See additional information under New Business
• Paypal
  • Nan transferred $4,000 from Paypal into the main SLAGA bank account
• MOGA 
  • Money for the MOGA t-shirts is in the SLAGA account
    • Need to remember this for account reconciliation
  • John found his MOGA related receipts
    • Will turn in to Kathy for reimbursement.
  • There will be a financial meeting for reconciliation with Steve, Nan, Kathy DeWitt, and possibly Michael.

New Business

• SLAGA store products
  • SLAGA Apparel
    • We need some!
      • It’s been about 5 years since any SLAGA apparel  was made available for members.
    • We could also do a SLAGA specific CITO shirt in safety colors
      • Could be a nice option for those who regularly attend CITOs.
    • We could do pre-orders on the website store.
      • Michael to check with the same company that printed the MOGA shirts to find out about pricing.
  • Sell excess coins that we have through the store
  • Could even sell postage for award coins for those who don’t or can’t make it to an event to pick them up
  • Use the storefront for prepaid meals also.
    • Maybe use for the SLAGA meat provided picnics.
  • Sell smaller geocaching supplies in smaller quantities than you would normally find, such as lots of 5.
    • Could also bring to events to sell.
    • Things such as preforms, bison tubes, etc.
      • Steve will reach out to John about where he purchases preforms.
  • Will schedule an executive meeting on how to run the store with David DeWitt.
• Coin inventory
  • Robert has a large amount of coins in his possession.
    • Will be making a spreadsheet to document the coins and costs in order to sell them.
      • Will save the document in the new Google account.
  • Will sell at events and through the store.
• Physical storage space
  • Currently can not afford however we do need to be thinking about this as we have many items spread out in many different places
    • PA system is with Michael, all coins are with Robert, Steve has all the large awards, GC 101 class items and banner, picnic trailer is being stored with Larry.
  • Will need a climate controlled storage setting.
• Social Media use
  • We are underutilizing things such as Facebook
• Community building
  • Most members stay due to the community of people surrounding geocaching and SLAGA specifically
  • Mentorship program
    • Ask new members if they would like to have a more experience cacher reach out to them to help them out with aspects of the game.
  • Ambassadors
    • Could we have specific people search out the new people at events to help them feel more welcome, introduce them to other attendees.
  • Ways to highlight new members to the group.

Meeting adjourned at 9:01 pm by Nan, seconded by Robert

NEXT MONTH’S INFORMATION

May 17, 2021 at 6:30 pm.