Rapids Riders Meeting
Meeting Minutes
March 11, 2009

Present: Jeremiah A., Missy A., Natalie, Alex P., Melissa G.M., Dave S., Jeff B., Alan F., Oggie, Chad K.

Canoe U

• Chad reports Norway Point reservation and Sandstone park reservations are taken care of.
• Chad notes new Norway Point reservation rules that require a 53-week advance reservation. Alan will reserve for CU-2010.
• Art was working on finalizing Instructors. Not present for update.  Art needs to confirm instructors and arrange an Instructor’s
• Meeting (at Chad’s house?).
• Melissa to post about the t-shirt design contest.
  • $50 gift certificate for winner.
  • Winner should be picked by April 18th, and order given to Alex P after Art confirms registration numbers.
  • 2 color system voted on: one for students, one for staff.
  • Mesh-wife-beater design voted down.
  • Yellow=yuck.
• Alex P. updated flyer for Canoe U to hand out/post at relevant businesses.
• Alex volunteered to put in boats at Midwest Mountaineering Expo.
• Chad volunteered to email it to Peter/Noreen for MM posting.
• Need volunteers to place fliers in stores or work places.
• Alan to bring CU fliers to  Far North Symposium.
• Jeremiah will order Port-a-potties for 2nd CU weekend at Robinson.
• Natalie will ask Dave Friend to modify registration to include language about fitness levels of CU students. See “New Business” section for more details.
• Chad reports food is taken care of. Bob Dodd=tentative yes for the 2nd weekend dinner. Chad has a last year student (Janelle?) volunteer to help him 1st weekend. 

Treasury Report by Allan

• Insurance paid for: Jeff reports waiting for paperwork to finalize.
• Chad should be put on checking account: still a good idea. Now taking bets on whether/when this will actually occur.
• Tent not bought yet.
• Pool sessions looking good this year. May break even by the time they are over.
• Mike J. is still owed money from xmas party 3 years ago.
  

Federal nonprofit status

• No update as the involved members were not present.

• Natalie proposes changes to the CanoeU course descriptions and registration forms, which involve adding language pertaining to the expected level of physical condition.  She helpfully had a handout with proposed messages. All agree this is a great idea. Natalie agrees to email Dave Friend to have it included.
• Natalie also proposes making the pool session for CanoeU mandatory, so that instructors can assess the students at that time. This idea is also approved by all.
• Dave S. brought up the July 25-26 Canoe Instructor Update course for all levels. There are 5 places in the course, 2 of which are spoken for already.  He would like to get some money from Rapids Riders to encourage others to enroll. Chad suggests that participants pay their own way unless they commit to teach in CanoeU, in which case the fee will be reimbursed.  Suggested that Dave talk to Randy Carlson about using the Outpost for camping.

Other Business

• Alex P. is disease free. Feel free to share pop with him.
• Floppy disk of master list of member emails produced by Jeff B. After enjoying mocking the relic, it was decided to have the list emailed to Art C. instead.
• Discussed adding a board members page to the rapidsriders.org with a list of email addresses.
• Jeff B. needs money to get the insurance renewed. Will have to follow up with Alan.
• Art C. brought up having a Rochester writer attend Canoe U in order to get some free publicity for the club. Issue was unresolved, need more info.

Items for our February meeting
Canoe U Updates: Art=finalizing instructors; Melissa=t-shirt design post; Natalie=Registration changes (physical condition expectations); Jeremiah=Port-a-Potty reservations

Next Meeting: Aprl 8, 2009
All should come! It's fun! Free Pizza Last meeting until November!