We discussed Mike Merriman's request. This is a workshop conducted by Zephyr Adventures in conjunction with Camp Rollerblade. Mike requested that we promote the event via the club members email list. There's a concern that since this is a for-profit event, we're not sure if we should directly get involved in promoting it via the members email. On the other hand, this has the same function as an Eddy Matzger or Barry Publow clinic, in that it's useful to club members who want to improve their skating.. In that line of thought, we could list any of the inline skating instructional clinics, such as Noelle Robichon, Camp Rollerblade, and Eddy Matzger. We will have an article in the spring newsletter about learning to skate and include Camp Rollerblade and the others.
Bill will email Mike Merriman with a reply, and we will put Camp Rollerblade on the club calendar.
This is a proposal drafted by Eric Forseth. The basic structure is to provide a little friendly competition and to promote inline skate races. Bill isn't sure if many members will do this, but it's something we've wanted to do for a while. If we list this under the club umbrella, as opposed to just being an Eric Forseth project, it would make it look more legitimate and promote the club. This will take some effort to promote. Entrants in the series don't have to be club members, but we hope that it will build interest in our club among the faster, race-oriented skaters. Eric would do the work for this project.
We looked over Eric's proposal. Basically, there is a series of several races around the state, plus a few just outside (such as Big Granite, Badger State, and possibly Winnipeg). Skaters will be scored according to their finish time among all Grand Prix finishers in each race. The scores will be done by age group and by gender. Prizes have not been determined yet, but we're considering donations, such as trophies or something similar.
We agreed to promote the Grand Prix idea. We will put a section on our Web site to host a list of racers, the list of races, and their standing in each. Todd will talk to Eric about how to get this done.
Our main planning takes place in the first few months of the calendar year. During the summer, we don't need to meet so often, since there's less to discuss. We agreed to the following schedule: January, February, March, April, July, and October. July is to discuss any plans for the St. Paul Inline Marathon, and October is to discuss the fall party. Between board meetings, we can get together for coffee or discuss it at a skating event.
We also talked about the camping trip that Kim has volunteered to organize. We'll pick a date and make sure it works with Kim. She has a cabin along the Paul Bunyan Trail. Karl was also discussing a tour, possibly in conjunction with the camping trip, but nothing concrete is planned yet.
We will discuss the budget at February's meeting. We will also elect officers at February's meeting. Bill will email people and say that we're interested in getting opinions, but that we won't obligate people to participate. Basically, we just want people to show up and give feedback.
We will be scheduling next year's Monday skates at the February meeting. The trails that we will be considering are:
We also discussed the possibility of trail exploration skates for new trails or other trails we're not familiar with. Also, we discussed putting another survey on the Web site to get people's opinion of trails.
The idea of the tour is to start around the back of the marathon, skate for fun, and aim for a 2 - 2 1/2 hour time, instead of treating it as a competitive race. The tour participants would stay together and finish in one group. Part of this idea is because we haven't been training new skaters. We're not sure if the wave starts would defeat this idea, though -- would it be a problem if someone doesn't start in their own wave? Also, we're wondering if NSIM would promote this.
Gerry talked with Liz at St. Croix Screen Printing. Adam, Rollerdome, and the St. Paul Inline Marathon will advertise on our shirts again for a sponsorship price of 50 cents per shirt. We plan to print 100 shirts, at a projected cost of $615.50 (before the $150 advertising revenue comes in).
As far as colors are concerned, we decided on a dark green color, after talking with some members. We decided to ask St. Croix Screen Printing about potential colors. If we can order shirts before softball season starts, we can get the order done more easily. We also discussed the numbers of each size to get printed.
We will plan to send out the next newsletter around March 15. We would like to do a lot of coverage on trails, especially some of the new ones. This would get some excitement going. We should also do a writeup of the Great EsSkate, as well as mentioning the Boston and Philadelphia weekend tours. We would also mention the North Shore Inline Marathon tour, the Grand Prix, and plans for a summer picnic and a progressive dinner.
Bill realized he hasn't updated the hotline recently. Kim offered to take it, but then her e-mail crashed.
We briefly discussed doing the Adopt-a-Trail program again. We will discuss it in detail next month.
We will probably have another wheel rotation event at the Rollerdome, probably on a Monday night.
As far as the Monday night skates are concerned, we should see if Janet will do lemonade again.
We talked about the Discuss e-mail list. We aren't sure if the list is old, or if all the names are still valid. I need to e-mail the list information to the board, and also make it private so people can't see other e-mail addresses.
We should reimburse Bill for buying a new printer cartridge. He's been printing all the club newsletters on an HP LaserJet that he bought, which has saved the club significantly in printing costs.