St. Louis Area Geocaching Association

MEETING MINUTES 2021

17 May 2021/ 6:30 PM / via Zoom (internet meeting platform) and in person at SmithPro Painting

ATTENDEES

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

Meeting called to order at 6:51 pm.

Motion called to approve April 2021 minutes by Robert, seconded by Nan.

Motion called to approve April 2021 treasurer's reports by Michael, seconded by Robert.

• Milestones have been broken out on the spreadsheet

Retrospective: Classes/Training/Events

• Spring Picnic was held on Saturday, April 17, 2021 at 9 Mile Garden in Affton.
  • There was positive feedback from members.
  • There were approximately 50-60 people that attended.
  • Was a very low maintenance event.
  • Only expense was for the three gift cards
    • Gift card total was $75
• GC 101 class is scheduled for June 12th, 2021
  • Steve Bromley and Bill Lange will not be able to attend
    • Michael will take care of teaching the class. 
    • Can send out email for volunteers.
  • Steve brought the swag for the class and passed it on to Michael.
  • Will need to get the GPSr units from Bill.
    • New batteries have been purchased and were passed off to Michael
• Laura MacLeod reached out to us about 2022 GC 101 dates.
  • We normally host this class three times per year
  • Steve will reach out to Laura with two possibilities each for the months of March, June, and October.
    • Laura will let us know which dates will work best.

      Events

• Need to start planning for the Summer Picnic
  • Email for a volunteer host was sent out.
    • No one has responded to be the host at this point.
    • Nan will get a venue set up, but does not want to be the primary host.
      • Will look at July 17th in the Kirkwood area.
  • This is a “bring your own food” event
  • We will have the 50/50, raffle, and sell inventory. 

      Ongoing Business

• 20th Anniversary geocoins
  • We currently have 54 coins left for sale
    • Started with 125.
  • John Elfrank is still selling some of the coins for us at events for $15 each.
    • Have not had a chance to get the money for the coins he’s sold.
    • He has either 12 or 13 out of the 25 given at this time.
  • Nan has 3 for pickup and Michael has 19.
• Procedures/Systems
  • We now have a new Google account to use for shared files.
  • Need to find a way to link family groups with memberships.
    • This appears to be a manual process at this time.
• SLAGA finances
  • Executive meeting was held on April 26, 2021
    • We will be raising the prices of membership, effective with the SLAGA membership meeting in fall 2021.
      • Yearly individual $15, Yearly family $20, Lifetime individual $150, Lifetime family $200.
  • We will be switching branches of our bank to one within St. Louis, rather than the branch in Granite City, IL.
    • Nan will work on seeing what is needed to get this completed.
  • Kathy DeWitt has so far been unable to find her copies of the SLAGA financials from her tenure as President. She will continue to look.
• SLAGA store products
  • David DeWitt did let us know that we could do some additional things with the SLAGA store if we purchase an add-on for it.
    • Need to find out what the cost of add-on would be
  • John Elfrank has a large amount of donated items that are for SLAGA.
    • We will try to sell as many of these items as possible through the store front or at the picnics.
• Paypal
  • Received email about needing the incorporation papers.
    • Steve will go in and look at what is needed.
• MOGA 
  • There will be a financial meeting for financial reconciliation with Steve, Nan, Kathy DeWitt, John Elfrank and possibly Michael.
    • We will be scheduling soon.
• Officer Elections
  • Vice President and Secretary are the offices that are up for election
  • Email has been sent out looking for nomination
    • Melissa will send out additional emails for this
  • We have received nominations for both positions.
    • The board does not deal with nominations directly.
  • Nominations close at the end of July.
• Physical storage space
  • Michael will look into costs of storage spaces to see if there are any feasible options.
• Community building
  • Need to brainstorm ideas to increase memberships
  • Maybe we should do a new member package utilizing the excess fleur de lis and Geocoinfest 2016 pathtags, as well as the reviewer tags.

New Business

• Future SLAGA events
  • Fall picnic issues
    • Do we want to try to host a potluck? 
      • Current health guidelines and regulations might prohibit that.
    • Would we rather sell box lunches online? 
      • Those who choose not to purchase can bring in their own meals from other restaurants.
    • Could we do something in between where SLAGA provides the meat and people bring their own side dishes?
      • Some of the same issues as potluck re: current guidelines at that time.
  • Winter potluck
    • At this time, John Elfrank is planning on being able to do this event in January.
      • Uncertain how the food handling will be done at this point.
• Pathtag credits and mold
  • Nan received an email that our mold will be expiring soon as well as having $197 worth of credits that need to be used.
    • How do we get into this account?
      • Steve believes that this was something that Tony Colter took care of.
        • Nan will reach out to Tony about this.
    • What do we want to do with the credit and the mold?
      • We feel we should use this instead of letting both expire.
      • We could reach out to Sarah Chisolm about designing a new pathtag.
      • Nan has worked with two designers in that past that charge $25 plus 2 tags.
      • Steve asked if we could get a QR code placed onto a pathtag.
        • Nan will ask her contacts if this is possible
        • The QR code would go to the SLAGA website.

Meeting adjourned at 8:05 pm

NEXT MONTH’S INFORMATION

June 21, 2021 at 6:30 pm at SmithPro Painting, 2655 Metro Blvd., Maryland Heights, MO 63043 

map, 5/27/2021 @ 1613