September 22, 2012

 
Snowmobile North Dakota
Board of Directors Meeting
September 22, 2012

A Board of Directors meeting was held on September 22, 2012 at 10 a.m. in Bismarck at the Century Center.

Board Members Present:  President-Marty Malachowski, Vice President-Laura Forbes, Secretary-Sheri Hoffmann, Directors-Byron Norsby, Mark Shipley, Tonia Dosch, Dean Forbes and Dale Deibert.

Excused Directors:  Perry Brintnell, Greg Strommen, Dan Tveito, Brian Sauer, Brad Rodin, and Troy Klevgard.

Others present:  Program Manager-Keri Wanner, Program Assistant-Tari Norby, Trail Inspector-Todd Thronson, Marketing Specialist-Chelsey Thronson, NDPRD-Arik Spencer and NDPRD-Erik Dietrich.

I.Call to Order – President Marty Malachowski

II. Approve Agenda

III. Approve Minutes

A.Dale made motion to approve May 5, 2012 minutes, Byron second, motion carried.

IV. Financial Reports

A.The state snowmobile trail fund revenue report was handed out to the Board members since it wasn’t available at the time the financials were emailed out.

B.Byron made motion to approve August 2012 financials, Sheri second, motion carried.

V. Reports

A. Program Manager

1. Grant Programs:

  1.  Grant & Aid:  Receipts were all received and paid.
  2. Scholarship:  School information was received and paid.
  3. KNDC Poster Contest:  All paid.

2. Postcards:  Did generate some phone calls and emails but no one renewed.  Guessing wrong time of year.

3. Marketing statistics

  1.  Facebook:  Total of 565 likes on 9/21/12, one new like every day this week.
  2. Issuu:  Over 45,513 unique pageviews and 3,730 readers for all documents.

4. Website Updates

  1.  Homepage:  Adding a What’s New section.
  2. Search Engine:  Adding a search engine to the website so people can search for forms, etc.

5. Space Aliens fundraisers:  Minot Space Aliens donated $52.66 to the Pink Ribbon Riders.  They are still checking on the amount for the ND Flood Relief.  Since they cannot find the paperwork, they may just donate a % of their sales that night.

6. Hay Days:  Over 1,200 visitors.  Great show this year.

7. Pink Ribbon Riders

  1.  Donations:  50 items collected for the event.
  2. Sponsorships:  $6,150 has been secured.
  3. Working on more donations and sponsorships, lunch location and sponsor (the Ridge Runners), and trail leaders.

8. Conference Code:  The conference code has changed.  Watch the agenda for the new code.

9. Grants:  Spent a portion of the summer researching grant opportunities.

  1.  Intuit Love a Local Business:  Didn’t win
  2. Google for non-profits:  Approved for use, waiting for approval on programs.
  3. Tech Soup:  Approved to use.

10. Materials Emailed but not printed:  If a board member wants a copy, please let Keri know.

  1.  2009-2011 Trail Program Audit
  2. Drag Blueprints
  3. January 28, 2012 minutes

B.  Trail Inspector

  1.  Planning on more videos this year on Youtube, etc

C. Administrative Assistant

1. Was working with Choko on bags but they want $2,000 to set up printing plate.  Now checking with other companies such as Castle.

2. Found a new template for newsletter, worked with Chelsey to update color scheme and will work on new picture for the heading.

3. Met with Silicon Plains to update membership module.

D. Marketing Specialist

1. Completed postcard mailing, no renewals.

2. Has achieved 65% of the 30% (total of $32,535) ad increase for this season.

3. Developed new trail guide and trail map and business cards.

E. NDPRD

1. Trail conference well attended and SND well represented there by Keri and Marty.  SND sponsored lunch via Keri contacting some of our vendors and getting sponsorship dollars.  SND was able to find partners that paid for the lunch sponsorship, so this was no cost to SND.

2. Our Governor had the option to opt out of RTP, however SND and others lobbied for ND to stay in.  This may become an annual event.  Funding will decrease for the program.

3. Working on ATV videos/PSA’s with RTP money.  Looking at doing the same with snowmobiles this winter.

4. SCORP-19% of North Dakotans interested or very interested in snowmobiling.  This is a little less than ATV’s.  Over 50% will travel over 50miles to ride.

5. Legislation:  looking at width and weight restriction in snowmobile definition.  OHV with a track kit is not a snowmobile.  The interim committee has approved definitions, will have to be approved by full house and senate.

VI. Committee Reports

A. Equipment Committee

1. 2010 Grant completed.  2 new Tuckers were received, completing the 2010 RTP grant.  The new machines were delivered to Horace and Rugby, the 2002 in Rugby was moved to Cando.  The 2011 grant will purchase a drag, groomer and trail signs.  The trail signs will be ordered next week for delivery in October.  The new drag and Tucker will be delivered around November 15th.  The Tucker will be delivered to Cavalier.  Perry will attend the training and recertify groomer operators.

2. 2012 Grant:  Committee will start in early 2013 on the equipment grant received in 2012.  Keri and Arik have met with the North Country Trail to learn how they handled the land lease grant.  Keri and Arik will meet to discuss how to implement this with the trail associations.

3. NDSU engineering department worked with Greg to make blueprints of drag.  Can now be used for more accurate bids to build/repair drags.

B. Budget Committee:  no report

C. Legislation, Bylaws, Enforcement & Safety Committee:  Waiting for strategic plan results to determine possible increase in registration and trail fees.

D. Promotion, Membership, Convention, Awards & Nominations Committee

1. Beaver Valley Snow Goers collect a membership fee when hosting their annual banquet.  This fee doesn’t include membership to SND.  They would like to encourage them to become members so want to pay for a one year membership for these individuals.  Due to this, they asked for consideration of a discounted membership fee.  Byron made a motion to not offer discounts for memberships, Tonia second, motion carried.  The club can offer a discount on their membership if they wish.  There was discussion on a subscription rate for the Sno-Dak news vs becoming an SND member.  Sheri made a motion for the committee to research subscription rates for the Sno-Dak News, Dale second, motion carried.

2.The membership rewards program continue and will remain the same.

3.Membership Retention, recruitment program:  SND would like to establish a program to encourage renewing and recruiting members.  It was decided to hold a drawing at the end of the season for three prizes.  Keri will check into communicators and a Go Pro helmet camera.  A True Adventure Gear Bag SND already received on trade for a Product Review in the Sno-dak News will be used for the third prize.  Anyone that becomes a member of SND will receive one entry into the drawing.  If a member recruits a new member, they will receive any additional entry into the drawing.

4.Pack It In/Pack It Out had only three entries last year.  There was concern the program  was launched to late in the season and didn’t get enough promotion/advertising.  Will try for one more year and encourage this during the snowmobile safety classes.  If low participation is received next year the program will be eliminated.  Chelsey will create a new flyer for the poster contest.

5.Nominations tabled until conference call on October 15th.

E. Employee Review Committee

1. Employee Manual has not been updated since 2007.

2.The holiday/leave policy (who gets paid holidays, vacation, etc.) is being reviewed.

3.Titles:  The committee asked for approval on changed the titles for the Trail Maintenance Inspector to Trail Inspector and to Administrative Assistant  instead of Program Manager Assistant.  Byron made motion to approve the title changes, Dean second, motion carried.

F. Accident Safety Committee:  no report

VII. Old Business

A. 2013 Convention:  no bids at this time, tabled till December.  If there are no bids at the December 1st annual meeting, the Board of Directors will assume responsibility for the event.

B.Trail Signing Update:  In 2013 the final ISC updates will be released.  Keri recommended making no changes until then.  Use the snow poles again to get a better test than last year.

C. Promotional items:  The following items are completed and have been placed in the new promotional bags.  Tari handed out a bag to all of the Board members.  These bags will be distributed at snow shows.  It’s encouraged clubs request them for events and businesses on the trail.  Please give the office a two week notice to prepare the bags when placing an order.

1.Trail Guides

2.Trail Maps:  discussed having Todd do a demonstration on how to use QR codes at the convention.

D. North Central Trail Association (Cando) Probation

1.Tonia made motion to take them off probation, Mark second, motion carried.  They have a new trail coordinator who has been communicating with the office.

VIII. New Business

A. 2013-2017 Strategic Plan Update

1.A total of 377 responses are needed for the strategic plan.  Roughly 50 surveys still need to be completed.  7000 surveys were mailed.  October 18 is the deadline to complete this project.  May have Tom from Fox Red present to the board at the January meeting.

B. 2009-2011 Trail Program Audit

1.Audit is complete, however it was late so was paid out of this season’s budget.  Eide Bailly, LLC did take $750 off the total bill, but trail program budget needed to be changed to cover the expense.  Byron made motion to do so, Dale second, motion carried.

C. Fundraising

1.Raffle Tickets:  Sheri made motion SND sells 1000 tickets at $20 each,  SND keeps $10, 0000, $10,000 given away at the 2013 State Ride ($4,000 on Feb. 15th, $4,000 on February 16th, and $2,000 on February 17th.)  Prizes prorated if all tickets do not sell.  SND’s $10,000 split:  $7,000 SND, $1,000 host convention, $1,000 to the club that sells the most, $500 scholarship, and $500 grant and aid.  Cost of doing raffle comes out of SND’s share.  Laura second, motion carried.

2.Gaming Research:  Keri has been conducting research on gaming.  She requested to work with a committee on researching gaming more to see if it will fit in SND’s program.  The committee formed to research further includes  Byron, Tonia, Laura, Sheri, Keri and one from region 3,4,or 5.  Byron made motion to form committee, Dale second, motion carried.

D. Director Manual (dropbox):  The minutes folder in DropBox has been changed and titled SND Director Manual.  The new folder includes contact information, minutes, budgets, bylaws, committee information and the strategic plan.

E. Club officer form due December 15:  The club officer form now has a deadline of December 15th.  Clubs were not sending this information in but stating their contact information was wrong in the Sno-Dak News.  This should help eliminate that problem.

F.If a meeting is needed before the convention, it will be held on November 3rd.

IX.Adjournment

On October 10, 2012   /   Minutes   /   Leave a comment
Leave a Reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.