MARYLAND VOLKSSPORT ASSOCIATION
Minutes of Meeting
3 April 2004
Glenelg, Maryland

OFFICERS PRESENT: President, Ron Looper; Secretary, Dennis Lynch; Treasurer, Ken Wilson

CLUB DELEGATES PRESENT: Piedmont Pacers, Jack Healey; Sue Kenyon, Baltimore; Sandi Cahill, WDCAVC; Diane Messer, Annapolis; Sandra Lynch, World Wide Volksports and Diamond State; Lynne Haffner, Freestate; John Dye, Columbia; Judy Lipski, Appalachian; Deb Peak, CBCW

GUESTS: Joan Lampert, Altlantic Region Director, Steve Arnett, Nelson Cahill, Marlene Cahill, Bob Schmick

COMMITTEE CHAIRS: Jim Fons, John Corolus, Ron Bowers, Rich Long, Bill Guion

OFFICER'S REPORTS

• A quorum was present [this was also the best attended meeting for some time].
• There were no objections to the minutes from the November meeting and the minutes were accepted as published.
• Treasurer's report: Ken Wilson circulated financial statements for Nov., and Dec. 2003 and Jan., Feb. and March 2004. These were approved as reported, as were the 2003 Financial Statement and the Proposed Budget for 2004. Ken received a certificate from the Convention 2005 Committee for the previous donation made by MVA.
• A motion was made and accepted to add line items to the Proposed Budget for 2004 to cover the Rediscover Maryland program.
• MVA is an IRC 501(c)(4) "Social Organization" under the tax umbrella of AVA, which is a 501(c)(3) "Educational Charitable, etc. Organization". Every club needs to be under this umbrella. If your club is incorporated, you must file MD state property returns.
• A motion was made to waive the MVA fees for the conference Volkswalk in Westminster that was put on by the Piedmont Pacers. After an extended discussion, it was decided that waiving the fee in this instance would set a bad precedent, and the motion was rejected.

REGIONAL DIRECTOR

• Joan Lampert thanked everyone for their support of last weekend's Atlantic Region Conference in Gettysburg, PA. She attended a "long EC Meeting", on which a report can be perused in the AVA Checkpoint. She encouraged every one to find "someone in your organization to honor for an award". Two of the Maryland clubs did not nominate anyone; all the nominees received awards at Gettysburg.
• Joan requested each club to provide her with the number of members (not names) in the club, as the AVA is pushing for associate members.
• GNC Centers (vitamin stores) will be partnering with AVA and will offer their stores for start points. Such a request must go first to AVA, which will contact the store. Some of GNC's stores are franchised and will not be participating in this effort. Joan has a list of participating stores.
• Joan's term as Regional Director ends with the 2005 convention. If anyone is interested in the job, they are invited to contact Ron Bowers who will be the chair for the Nominating Committee.

COMMITTEES

• Future of the Sport: Ron Bowers quoted participation figures from 2001 and 2002. Each of these years had better participation than 2003. When two clubs hold one-day walks on the same day, participation is cut for each club. One of the clubs is putting on 5 walks in 2 months; Ron said, "you are killing your volunteers". Ron passed out an article by Jerry Cottrell titled "101 Actions to Better your club, increasing fun and increasing membership".
• Sancions POC: Jim Fons reported that Ron Drum gave a presentation about electronic sanctioning for YRE's online. Copies were passed out. This starts on 1 July and what is there on 1 Sept. goes into the Starting Point. Don't wait until the last minute, do it by 15 Aug. Send Jim an email when you send in a sanction request, and he will go to work on it right away. After 1 Sept. this system will be closed down until 1 March 2005, and you will not be able to enter a Year-round.
• Trailmaster: John Dye discussed the program to check out all the YRE's in Maryland. Comments will be passed to Joan. All comments should be accepted in the spirit of constructive criticism - let's work together to make the events better.

OLD BUSINESS

• John Corolus showed his T-shirt display board for the Rediscover Maryland program.. He has three more boards available for clubs to take to their scheduled walks.

NEW BUSINESS

• Bob Schmick was presented with an award from the Atlantic Region Conference.
• The county name must appear on all brochures. Ron Looper said that many brochures are not adhering to AVA and MVA rules. They must be approved by the MVA President, who will now be looking at them very carefully. Consult the AVA checklist for brochures - this is not a difficult thing to do.
• AVA must receive club officer updates by 1 March 2005. The forms must go through the sanctioning channel. Even if there is only one change, the form must be redone.
• Per the Checkpoint: The cutoff date is 1 Nov. for submissions for AVA awards.

Comments

• Club reports were given.
• Sandy Lynch said that the location of the walk box for the start of the Savage YRE had been moved to Antique Center One, which is in the lower level of the building which looks like a barn.
• Diamond state has a new Seasonal Walk starting 29 May at Newark, DE.
• President Looper would like to hold the next MVA meeting in mid-June, but it may have to be 17 July, due to the difficulty of finding a walk with a suitable place to hold a meeting.
• A thank you to CVC for hosting this meeting.

05/09/04