Date: Monday 20 October 2014
Time: 6:30 pm
DSSF Board Meeting Minutes: Sal Tavormina / President , David Gaus / Vice President, Ron Hirsch /
Treasurer, Roger Sayre / Secretary, David Goldsmith / Ride Coordinator
1. Call to Order – Sal called the meeting to order at 7:03pm
2. Public Comments – No public comments received.
3. Approval of Minutes – Minutes from the Board meeting of 6/18/14 were approved without comment
4. President/Membership Coordinator’s Report
a. Sal noted that DSSF currently has 122 paid members for 2014.
b. Sal also updated the Yahoo Group and it now has 73 members.
c. 2015 membership renewals: Sal will send out a membership renewal notification in early December prior to the holiday party. A second membership renewal notice will be sent out in early January.
5. Treasurer’s Report
a. Financial report: Sal thanked Ron for his work. Current financial status is: $5,200 in total current assets
$200 in income from membership dues since May. Income from membership dues has dropped in the last few months as it typically does during the latter part of the year.
$750 in income was generated by the “Jock Sunday” event at the Lookout
b. Ron will find previous years budgets for the holiday party. It was around $1000. In the past the policy has been to charge attendees a nominal sum ($10) to help with expenses. Sal would like to see if it’s possible to not charge people this year.
6. Ride Coordinator’s Report
a. The ride calendar is looking good for the rest of the year. Rides have been well attended.
b. There have been 12-15 people lead rides this year as compared to 25 ride leaders last year.
c. David Goldsmith would like to coordinate a ride leader appreciation dinner for sometime in January. He suggested a Chinese restaurant with a per person cost of $15-$20. Sal will be out of town from November 20th to mid-January, so won’t be able to attend before late January.
7. Web/Blog Editor’s Report
a. Jerome was unable to attend the meeting so there wasn’t any report
8. Secretary
a. Schedule for 2015 board elections: An email will go out to all DSSF members on December 1st requesting nominations for board positions. Nominations need to be submitted by December 31st. A second email will go out on January 1st announcing the candidates for board positions and requesting that members vote for each position before January 31st. Election results will be announced February 1st.
b. Ideas for recruiting people to run for board positions. Current board members indicated a willingness to continue on in their current positions for another year if no new candidates step forward, but new blood is needed. In addition to the board, several other positions remain unfilled. Ron will talk with Will Hayworth about possibly taking on something like membership or ride coordinator. Sal will speak with Bill Knudson to see if he’d be willing to take on a position. Jeff Pekrul also expressed interest in becoming more involved, perhaps as treasurer. Other people to approach about possibly becoming more involved might be Jacob Morgan, & Steven Sherrifs
c. David Goldsmith would like someone to replace him as ride coordinator.
9. Special Events for 2014
a. The events coordinator has been unfilled for the last year so there’s no one to plan special events. Brendan Patrick has indicated he might be willing to take on this job at some point in the future, but he’s unable to do so at present.
b. The DSSF holiday party is scheduled for December 13th after the monthly Jersey Ride. Jeff Pekrul has offered the use of his home for the party. Someone else will need to arrange for the food and clean up. Sal will contact Joseph Collins to ask if he’d be the point person in organizing the party. Chris Contos could be able to help if Joseph is unable to organize the event. David Gaus will email Sal contact information for the caterer that was used previously. In previous years DSSF also paid for the clean-up after the party. In order to make arrangements we need to get an idea of the number of attendees. Sal will send out invitations through Yahoo groups asking for an RSVP. Previous years have had 25-30 attendees.
c. There was discussion of whether DSSF should have a booth at the Pride Festival in June 2015. The general consensus amongst the board members was that having a booth at Pride was a lot of work and cost (roughly $600) for not much benefit. Participation by DSSF members has been declining over the last few years, and it hasn’t been particularly effective in attracting new members. If any DSSF members feel strongly that DSSF should continue to have a presence at the Pride Festival they’re encouraged to contact a board member to discuss. David Goldsmith suggested that an alternate possibility would be for DSSF to sponsor an on-screen ad at the Frameline film festival as a way of doing outreach during pride week instead of having a booth at Pride. The cost would be around $1,500 and includes “on-screen recognition” and two gold-level passes to the festival that could be sold or raffled, making the actual cost somewhere in the neighborhood of $1,000. The general consensus was that the potential benefits weren’t worth the time and expense.
d. Big Sur Ride: David Gaus spoke with Julie Brown and they selected the weekend of Sept 26-27 for a ride down the coast to Big Sur. These dates conflict with the DBD. Due to small group of riders in this year’s DBD there’s some uncertainty whether the DBD will be continued next year. David will discuss it with Chris Thomas. Organized rides must stay under 50 participants, otherwise permits are required. DSSF will need to pick up $140 cost for liability insurance. David Gaus will organize a series of training rides in the spring
e. A ride leader appreciation dinner will be scheduled for January 31st 2015
f. Weekend trips: Due to the vacancy in the event coordinator position, DSSF has gone for 2-3 years without a weekend trip. A weekend trip to Lake Tahoe used to be an annual event many years ago. Tony Moy has tried on several occasions to revive this trip but has had difficulty finding accommodations able to house a large group. Tony says that the large home rented for previous DSSF weekend trips has been unavailable for several years, but is available again. Tony also sent out an email via Yahoo Groups suggesting a weekend trip to Solvang.
10. Other Business
a. David Gaus distributed a “Safety & Group Etiquette” pamphlet that Sport’s Basement uses for the group rides they sponsor. Sal will review and edit, and have Jerome post to the DSSF website.
b. DSSF Apparel coordinator, Bob McDiarmid, previously reported that Primal Custom Cyclewear – DSSF’s vendor for the team kit – is running a special on custom kits – reducing the minimum number of orders required to ten pieces. (meaning one jersey and one bib = two pieces). He posted a poll on our FB group page earlier this year to determine interest. Sal will follow up with Bob McDarmid about whether there’s enough interest to put in a jersery order. DSSF hasn’t had tee-shirts many years, so we might want to consider coming up with a tee-shirt design and include that with the order.
c. David Goldsmith mentioned that he’d been talking with a DSSF member who’s on the board of another organization that’s been using “Wild Apricot” software to do many of the things DSSF needs done. They’re apparently quite happy with the software and suggest that DSSF might want to consider it for our needs. The thought is that it would integrate into one software platform many of the functions that DSSF currently has on different software platforms. There was a consensus that this would be worth further research.
11. Next Meeting
a. Sal will schedule a meeting for sometime in February after he returns from vacation in mid-January
The Chain Letter 