Rocky Mountain Flycasters
Leadership Meeting Minutes
March 11, 2020

Present: Mickey McGuire*, Ruthie Ketola*, Dave Piske, Paul Wehr, Dennis Cook, Ryan Hogan*, Brian Hoag, Mark Miller, Ron Dickson*, Frank Bub* (minutes). Phil Wright.
(* board members - quorum present).

Meeting opened 6:03 PM

  1. FY20 Budget review (Ryan)

    1. Board members have reviewed the budget

    2. Discussion of web & email costs.

      1. Squarespace - host for RMFTU web

      2. Email - RMF-TU.org keep with GoDaddy

      3. Rocky Mountain Flycasters (rockymtnflycasters.org) - keep domain

    3. -$17,525 annual budget but $40K reserve in the bank and there are 2020 fund raising possibilities

    4. Discussion: Minor budget changes less than $200 per committee per year do not require board pre-approval with consent of president, treasurer and relevant committee chair. Changes are to be reported at the next board meeting. FLB move/ RK second/Motion passed.

    5. Rendezvous funding assigned to the Board.

    6. Budget moved to approve. RD move / FB second. Approved by the board.

    7. Leadership - report past 18 months (OCT 18-MAR 20) volunteer hours to committee chairs. They will forward to Ryan by April 30. Don’t need to be exact - order of magnitude.

  2. President’s comments

    1. Thanks to everyone for keeping things going while I was gone. I am still sorting through my notes and will prepare something for the April Newsletter.

    2. Our comments were submitted to the Corps of Engineers for the Halligan proposed dam project. David Nickum at CTU coordinated our response.

    3. I also received a note from David saying they are looking at the possibility of postponing Rendezvous.

    4. Had a nice time at the Gala. Ron Dickson, Ryan Hogan, Colin Glover, Ron Kee, Fred Ebert, Courtney Gutman and her husband Mike and I attended. Mark Miller forwarded a St. Pete's auction item of a fishing trip in our area. It sold for $440!

    5. Jeannie reports that the F3T raffle raised $387

    6. The sign at the pier is not yet installed. BTWC has an estimate for that and other work at the pier. Hoping to get the sign up by March 22.

    7. Does anyone know where the pop up is?

  3. Board Business

    1. Consent agenda

      1. DC moved to approve RK second. Approved.

      2. Missing some committee reports.
        Does not need to be long - just an update.

      3. Rick - asked to draw down membership activities - looking for new membership chair

    2. Financial development committee - Brian

      1. Committee reviewing sale items

      2. Christmas party/Expo - discussion of investment vs. return

      3. Investigating tools for donations - e.g., youth program.
        Question - how does one leave a legacy?

      4. Putting together 2-page statement on what RMF is doing to inform possible donors

        1. Small and large donation needs

        2. Where are needs/what are achievable?

        3. New initiatives

        4. Present opportunities to donate $$ or volunteer time

      5. MM - think of projects we can put our name on.

      6. How to set up beneficiaries

      7. Ken Williams offered consulting services; FD committee is considering this offer.

      8. Next board meeting - Brian will present a “key statement” for what RMF does - what we are doing and why we need support.

  4. New Business

    1. Showed the “Poudre Headwaters Project” Video - Phil & Ron

      1. Now we need to take next step and include more info on websites
        Phil and Ron developing text / documents as part of project

      2. Will present opportunities at volunteer workshop

      3. There will be a panel on greenback at the CTU Rendezvous

    2. Reel Recovery - Mark Miller - For men fighting cancer.

      1. There are 20 camps around the US, 2 in CO in July/Sep. They sent a list of flies they need.

      2. We have been asked to tie 50-100 dozen flies for the group. They would fish with them.

      3. DC - possibility of discount from Orvis for materials.

      4. Q - can we derive value from our effort? Perhaps a TU magazine article.

    3. Youth Camp

      1. Mark - Dave H would like to make a nice video of camp

      2. Need volunteers to take pictures & videos.

    4. Approval of Bylaws by membership

      1. Next week's meeting - will send out a message on a relatively short business meeting for approval.

      2. Once approved - what happens?

        1. Need motion from floor that current board members retain positions until elections in NOV.

        2. Announce - will do this unless there is an objection.

      3. Frank will cover the PowerPoint show for the meeting next week.

  5. Old Business

    1. Merchandise - discussion tabled

    2. Financial Development committee - see above

    3. Expo update - Colin

      1. Not much earned

      2. Auctioneer not particularly liked

      3. Report received from Colin added after meeting:

        • Overall I thought turnout was great, there was a palpable enthusiasm in the room which I always love!

        • This year we had a full team effort collecting items for the silent and live auction which really helped spread the workload. A big thanks to Jeannie, Ruthie, and Mickey for enlisting lots of new donors this year.

        • Ron brought me the idea of adding one-on-one fly tying instructionas a live auction item which was a first but I think could really turn into one of our signature auction items for years to come. For 2021 I'd like to make sure whoever handles the auction coordinates closely with Lee and the fly tiers to expand this auction item category and generate some excitement about it in marketing and the live auction.

        • I was glad to have a professional live auctioneer, Bill Seaworth, this year as last year past president Coy Wylie was our auctioneer. But I'd like to find another auctioneer for next year. Mr. Seaworth was introduced to me after the original auctioneer I had lined up was forced to cancel with less than a week before the expo. So we had little time to coordinate and I think that with a little more planning it would have gone much smoother. I wasn't comfortable with how he ran the paddle raiser portion and you may have seen on my face. It was a bit cringe worthy to have donations amounts going down and not up in value without folks offering bids and he also did a poor job of explaining what we were raising funds for.

        • I’ve added in all of the “paid in full” bid sheets to the expo donation spreadsheet but seem to be missing a few items. If anyone has these please send my way.

        • Ryan, do you have a total amount of funds raised? Did we exceed last year?

        • Ryan and I have discussed adding additional funds to the food budget for the expo as in years past we never paid the full amount due to generous donations of chapter members. While these donations were greatly appreciated they can’t always be counted on so we will want to budget accordingly.

    4. Volunteer Fair committee update - Ron Dickson

      1. Planning committee has met

      2. CB Potts room reserved

      3. Flyer drafted

      4. Sign Up Genius (SUG)

      5. Flyer on website - link to SUG.

    6. F3T discussion - FEB 21 - Lincoln Center - Ruthie

    7. Poudre River Forum - RD / Ron

      1. Good visibility

      2. Networking - 2-300 people

      3. Morning presentations - technical / informative

      4. Suggest continue

    8. CPRW Update (submitted after meeting by Colin)

      • We should have the CPRW upper Poudre assessment any day now. I'll be sure to share with the chapter ASAP.

      • The Board is working on new fundraising plan and will be putting on large fundraiser in the fall. More info to come.

      • Currently in the middle of completing ditch diversion retrofit on Middle South Platte. Great learning experience for the Coalition for future projects in our watershed. CPRW took on this project at the request of DOLA.

  6. Meetings/Events

    1. March 21 - Scheels - Frank (Has been cancelled)

    2. March 22 - CTU NE regional gathering (Has been cancelled)

      1. 1 PM at Big Thompson Pier

      2. Then to 5030 Bar

      3. Plan to fish

    3. c. April 22 - RMF volunteer fair (Has been postponed)

    4. d. April 24-26 - CTU Rendezvous - may CNX (Has been postponed)

    5. e. May 19 - Poudre Pub Talk (Has been cancelled)

    6. f. May 30 - Poudre RIver Festival (Has been postponed)

    7. g. Sept 12 - Rist Canyon Mountain Festival

Adjourned 8:02 PM Red lettered words added after the meeting.

Submitted by Frank Bub, Secretary
Approved 2020-04-08

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