The meeting began around 6:30 PM. I (Todd Murray, erstwhile recording secretary) arrived late due to a delayed flight from Billings, Montana. Before I arrived, the board decided to accept Janet's proposal to start the skate buddy system that she proposed.
We discussed the picnic and member appreciation day skates. It would be nice to get a number of vendor tents in the lot to draw attention. EZ-Ups, music, and blinking lights would attract a crowd. We haven't received a response from Adam of Adam's Inline regarding his participation.
We reviewed events for the calendar. The July 4 Friday Fitness Skate is cancelled because of conflicts with fireworks and other events, and because many people may be out of town. The Adopt-A-Trail event planned for May 11 is on Mother's Day, so we decided to move the event back to May 18. There may be a race on July 5 in Aurora, but this isn't confirmed. It would follow the same route as the half marathon in Hoyt Lakes. The NCRF skate in Thunder Bay is not confirmed yet, and neither is Roll for the Roses in Roseville.
The web site needs to be corrected to say "Monday Recreational Skate", not "Monday Fun Skate".
We discussed sponsorship plans. The Twin City Bike Club gets a lot of free stuff from vendors, and they really talk it up. It gets a lot of interest from members. We thought of the idea of having Rollerbob talk to Rollerblade for some kind of promotional items. We also discussed the possibility of having a summer-long raffle where each member would get one entry for every skate event attended. We also discussed getting percentage discounts at various skate dealers and businesses, and thought about the idea that we don't just have to ask inline skate shops for sponsorship.
We discussed Noelle Robichon's proposal for sponsorship. (Note: How much of this discussion do I need to include here?) She is asking MISC to provide a lot of sponsorship benefits beyond what our existing sponsors get, such as promotion at skate events and in club e-mails. We would be willing to announce Noelle, and our other sponsors, in the MILES e-mail. We would also like Noelle to provide a reciprocal link on her web site back to our web site. Randy will draft a counter-proposal and send it to her.
After that, we discussed the proposal from freeskatelesson.com. As a club, we don't get anything out of promoting this plan. There are various concerns about Allan Wright (owner of Zephyr Inline Skate Tours and a sponsor of freeskatelesson.com) that he will build his database with this and that he will hand-pick the instructors. Nevertheless, he offers high-quality trips, and almost everyone who's been on one raves about them. We decided that I should put a link on the Web site, with a script that tracks hits.
We discussed the newsletter and the amount of time it took for the last newsletter to be produced. In the end, we decided not to make any changes to who is producing the newsletter.
The next meeting is Monday, April 14. REI in Bloomington has offered us the use of their meeting room.