MINUTES
VTA COORDINATING COUNCIL MEETING
Saturday, October 26, 2013
Meeting held at Bruce Bay Cottages Lighthouse, Bruce Mines.
Attendance: Susan Graham, Carole Blaquiere, Steve Dominy, Emily Windle, Mike Landmark, Bob and Lil Sinclair, Larry Gringorten, Jack Dunning, Kirsten Spence, Patricia Wynter, Gayle Phillips.
Called to order at: 10:15 am.
Minutes from September 8 on-line meeting circulated - seconded by: Carole Blaquiere (accepted)
OLD BUSINESS: 2011.10.03 Risk Management Plan: (Carole Blaquiere/Susan Graham) Draft from Matt Amon has been received from Kelsey and circulated for comments. Emily Windle, Kirsten Spence and Patricia Wynter need copies. Comments are to be sent back to Carole Blaquiere who will collect them for further discussion and re-issuing. (ongoing)
2012.04.07 VTA 40th Anniversary: (Steve Dominy) Successful anniversary celebrations have been held by the Coureurs de Bois and Saulteaux Clubs, several of the Challenge Hikes have taken place. Steve brought special blazes and pencils today for distribution. The photo contest is ongoing through website—have only had 2 photos submitted so far. It was agreed that photos need to be submitted separately to photo contest rather than those submitted for the guidebook use as well. ‘All trails’ challenge and ‘40-kilometre challenge’ are ongoing but haven’t had many submissions however, weather hasn’t been great. Gave up on the waterproof notebook idea as no sponsor came forward and it was expensive to pursue on our own. Anniversary expenses are currently under budget. The second geocache is now placed and the coordinates will go to Jack to put up on the website. (ongoing)
2013.04.03 Logging Activity (Bob Sinclair): The 2-kilometre (as the crow flies) gap in the Goulais section: Lil and Bob Sinclair walked an ancient logging road and are fairly confident that there will be a nice meandering logging road once logging is complete, likely about 5+ kilometres long. It consists of road allowance through private property and then the rest is Crown land. (closed)
2013.06.02 Trans Canada Trail (Susan Graham): TCT is looking for us to commit to building/maintaining the route of the VTA trail between the Soo and Sudbury as the TCT “spine” of the route, or de-register which allows the TCT to support the proposed cycling route as the “spine” instead. Don McGorman, Susan Graham and Gayle Phillips met with Melissa Pomeroy last Thursday evening to talk about the TCT affiliation and Susan gave a report. After much discussion the following motion was made: MOTION by Susan (seconded by Gayle Phillips): Susan to inform Melissa that the VTA supports the cycling trail route as the ‘spine’ of the TCT across Northern Ontario and the VTA trail route as a secondary affiliated route for primarily hiking use only. (carried) (closed)
2013.09.01 2013 AGM (Susan Graham): Lunch will follow the CC meeting at 12pm, with the AGM afterwards. Weather permitting, we will have a hike to the Rock Lake Lookout. Rooms have been booked for those interested in staying overnight in order to do the hike Sunday to Shaw Dam. (closed) 2013.09.04 Digital Maps – MOTION by Carole Blaquiere (seconded by Bob Sinclair): That VTA sign a formal agreement with Backroad maps to provide our up-to-date digital maps and give them our logo to use in advertising our arrangement. (carried) (closed)
NEW BUSINESS: 2013.10.01 New Legislation for not-for-profit organizations (Susan Graham): Susan attended an information session in September sponsored by the Chamber of Commerce. Proposed provincial legislation is supposed to be coming into effect next year and then we have 3 years to make our by-laws conform to the new legislation. Any not-for-profit that receives more than $10,000 is affected, mostly through their financial statements, auditing and reporting. Right now we don’t have to do anything. (closed)
2013.10.02 New destination for our 1-877 # or discontinue? (Susan Graham): Paying about $12/month for phone. MOTION by Mike Landmark (seconded by Bob Sinclair ) to continue the 1-877 phone line for one year and pay the extra costs necessary to equip with an answering system that turns it into text and sends it automatically to a VTA email. (carried) (Jack Dunning volunteered to look into how exactly to do this transferring.) (closed)
2013.10.03 Social Media (Carole Blaquiere) Carole took a course that covered: what is Social Media, Linked In, Facebook and Twitter. Carole suggests that Twitter might be the next step into Social Media for the VTA. MOTION by Carole (seconded by Steve Dominy) to spend up to $150 (U.S. dollars) over the next 6 months to develop a Facebook ad for the VTA Facebook page and analyze the results of this new publicity initiative. We will discuss results at an upcoming meeting before deciding to carry it on indefinitely. (carried) (ongoing)
2013.10.03 Hike Ontario Summit (Carole Blaquiere) submitted (closed)
COUNCIL REPORTS:
- Treasurer (Lil Sinclair) submitted
- Membership Secretary (Mike Landmark) submitted
- Insurance Coordinator (Larry Gingorten) submitted
- Publicity Director (Kelsey Johansen) submitted
- Hike Ontario Rep. (Carole Blaquiere) submitted
- Database Manager (Bob Sinclair) Nothing to report
COMMITTEE REPORTS:
Guidebook (Steve Dominy) Supply is basically exhausted. Thunder Bay has 6 left. We are now aiming for new guidebook printing by March 2014. The current roadblock is the re-route between Blind River and Elliot Lake. Susan reports that Andy Penikett has half the new Coureurs de Bois reroute flagged and GPSed and expects it to be done shortly. We still need description.
Newsletter (Cheryl Landmark) Next deadline is December 1, 2014 and Cheryl has stepped down as Editor, but Fiona Ortiz has agreed to be Newsletter Editor, and Paula Dunning will assist. Dawn Elmore will continue with layout of the newsletter.
Web Site (Jack Dunning) Jack reports about our web site that a little over 900 people visited the site - 677 different people over the past 6 months; 89% are Canadian most from outside the SSM area; about 25% of traffic is from mobile devices (Jack asked do we need mobile app?); our most heavily used page is the SSM page and its outings; third most used link is the on-line store; the least used page is the news pages (Jack is going to look into possibly adding a Facebook “feed” to provide more timely updates as well as other ideas – with the help of Gayle Phillips – to update the “news” on the home page a little more easily and regularly. Kirsten asked for Jack to link the Norwester VT Club Facebook page to the site. Gayle asked for a spot to be created to collect newsletter articles and photos that is easily accessible to the Newsletter Committee members (3 to 4 people).
Audit Committee (Susan Graham, Gail Jones) submitted
CLUB/SECTION REPORTS:
- Nor’Wester (Steve Johnston/Kirsten Spence) Report by Kirsten at AGM
- Isles (Doug Stefurak) submitted
- Marathon (Chris Whaley) No report
- Saulteaux (Gayle Phillips) submitted
- Penewobikong (Joanne Marck) submitted by Andy Penikett
- Coureurs de Bois (Emily Windle) submitted
MINUTES
VTA ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING
Bruce Bay Cottages Lighthouse, Bruce Mines
Meeting called to order at 1:20 pm
Welcome and Introductions (A total of 31 people in attendance including CC, members and guests)
Report from the President (Susan Graham) Susan gave a recap of 40th Anniversary events that have taken place already and others that are underway and invited people to join in. The Risk Management Plan written by Matt Amon has been received and will be amended as the CC feels necessary. The CC is using “Go to Meeting” for on-line meetings so members do not have to travel. The CC had discussed the relationship with the Trans Canada Trail, and voted to recommend the TCT support a cycling route between Sault Ste. Marie and Sudbury as the “spine” of the trail, with the Voyageur Trail (or sections of it) as secondary uses, primarily for hiking. Susan is stepping down from the CC in order to enjoy retirement activities with her husband, Cliff.
Club Reports: Saulteaux – read by Jan Zurawinski, Coureurs de Bois – read by Emily Windle, Nor’Wester – Kirsten Spence, verbal report (new club with 7 members, no trail of their own – helping on others, tied in with Lakehead University, conducting workshops, hikes once a month, 140 followers on Facebook, Kinghorn Trail project still trying to proceed), Casque Isle – report from Doug Stefurak read by Susan Graham, Penewobikong – report from Andy Penikett read by Susan Graham.
Vote on Proposed Amendments to the Constitution of the Voyageur Trail Association: ARTICLE 3.3 “That elections to the VTA Coordinating Council and Club Executives and appointments of Club Representatives to the VTA Coordinating Council be held during the period September 1st to December 31st, and that the terms of office officially begin on January 1st of the following year, with the following exceptions: members elected/appointed to newly-created or vacant positions at any other time, or a position switches to another person at any other time, in which case, the term of office shall begin immediately and notification forwarded to the VTA insurance coordinator.” (carried)
ARTICLE 3.11 “The Coordinating Council will have the books of the Association audited yearly. The auditors will submit a final report to be given at the next Annual Meeting.” (carried)
Elections:
President – Carole Blaquiere
Vice Presidents (West – Kirsten Spence, Central – Carole Blaquiere [acting], East – Patricia Wynter) Recording Secretary - Open
Newsletter Editor – Fiona Ortiz, assisted by Paula Dunning (Dawn Elmore doing layout)
Good of the Association: Steve Dominy gave an update of 40th Anniversary events: give-aways, the 40km hike challenge, collectively hiking the entire trail, Carole’s 200km series of hikes from Elliot Lake to the Soo, the photo contest, geocaches. He mentioned, too, the guidebook being planned for reprinting this winter, and the SPOT devices that had been purchased for clubs to use. Carole thanked Susan for her work as VTA President.
Presentation of Steve Taylor Award: This year’s winner was Steve Dominy.
Draws for free memberships: Winners were Gerry Jean, Steve Dominy and Steve Bailey.
Adjournment: 2:30 pm, followed by a walk on the property and Copper Bay Road.
