15 Proposed Motions and By-law amendments for 2007

Pursuant to Article VII: Amendment of the BY-Laws and in preparation for Article V: Meetings, Section 7, I am posting the following points to the membership to examine at your leisure.

I propose that, at some time during the remaining 2007 calendar year, we re-examine the following points and those related to the Club's By-laws, with plenty of notice to the membership.

Potomac Mountain Club BYLAWS
1. Officially recognize JANUARY, as the renewal month for current members, instead of 4.5 month period described in the current by-laws; this coincides with the calendar year for the officers which also begins in January; 2007 is proof that this can be done effectively.
2. Clarify reinstatement period for non-payment which is now 60 days. I think we should have a current member renewal period (EVERY JANUARY) and a penalty for MISSING the renewal period. The amount of work to keep track of every form of payment or who paid when is daunting. If members maintain their records that helps. (article 1 section 2 TERMINATION) I propose we re-examine this section entirely.
3. Write into the By-laws, if a new member joins during the last quarter of the year, (ROCKTOBER), this membership is current through to the following year.
4. Eliminate the out of area membership fee, which is archaic, and reword the section on DUES (Article 1 section 3)
5. By-laws talk about the LISTSERVER as for members only. Re-visit this point.(article 6 section 5) Change eliminate or modify. (Article 1 section 4)
6. Officially add the newsletter editor, LISTSERVE coordinator and/or webmaster, to the EXCOM .
7. Establish a minimum number of EXCOM members necessary to CONVENE an EXCOM MEETING, with the minutes provided to members who can not attend.
8. Amendments Article IV: 1b: consider revising this to include respondents to LISTSERVE and/or DATABASE EMAIL (includes every club member) notices instead of by U.S.P.S. mail.
9. Officially recognize the PMC database. Describe it's function to include security, membership data management, newsletter management, club directory management, club gear management, club video management.
10. CREATE an EXCOM YEARLY Calendar with a schedule of duties that the EXCOM (executive committee) must perform on a regularly scheduled basis. Items on this calendar could include such things as ordering the PIZZA for the monthly meeting, or bringing 1 bag of ice, scheduling EXCOM meetings, planning for the new election of club officers, membership renewal, budget meetings, preparing for the annual meeting, etc.... (Article 3 section 3).
11. Add to the description to the Club Secretary description that assigns a proxy secretary (attending officers) to take the minutes to record and maintain the reports of business conducted at EVERY regular, special, annual and EXCOM meetings. The minutes of these meetings are important for the membership to keep informed as to what business occurs at these meetings, most importantly the annual meeting . These minutes will be sent to the Membership via LISTSERVE, posted to the "meeting page" on the PMC website and finally, to reside on the Current events and Notices section for the benefit of the membership and visitors surfing the website.
12. Add to the description of the Treasurer: major club purchases should be made by the Treasurer, in order to disburse monies in which treasury, grant or gifts are utilized and accounted. This will ensure that Dividends and Credit purchases will always be returned to the club, over a pre-determined amount, to cover gas and expenses to make local purchases. The treasurer can assign a "buyer", to makes purchases with the above provisions understood beforehand.
13. Reinstate the August Monthly meeting, if only on a tentative basis. I see no real reason to NOT have this meeting. If the principals won't be there, then we don't have a meeting. It is still a good time and everyone was here LAST year.
14. Create a percentage yearly budget based on the January membership drive so we can plan for growth and activities.
15. During the 2005 administration, we enacted a policy that EXCOM members be exempt from club dues because of the service they provide by stepping forward to serve the Club. This exemption is a very modest incentive. Further, it was determined that besides the chairman, who is required to be a PATC member, the EXCOM would be granted a PATC membership, if they chose , that could not be transferred or converted , and must be used on a "use it or loose it" basis when offered, early in the calendar year. I would like to re-examine this and make it official, or not.

April Monthly Meeting

April Monthly Meeting Minutes
4.11.2007
41 Attendees

The April Meeting was punctuated by an unprecedented crowd who braved the inclement weather to see the much touted slide show presentation of the annual club expedition to Baxter State Park’s Mount Katahdin. The Seven new club members seemed to relax and immerse themselves in a familiar atmosphere of rock, ice and mountain alpinists. The human blur was the club’s Vincent Penoso who was busy selling T-shirts, checking out ROCKBUSTER videos, checking in new members, setting up the refreshments, taking in money for this and that ( in the absence of the treasurer DAVE GREEN) and the PIZZA delivery; but does he ever climb???

• The night began with an update from Duncan T. , the access coordinator, with news from the Friends of Great Falls (F.O.G.F.), who has met once this year. At this meeting, officers were named for this local climbing coalition. The meeting’s main concern was the upcoming release of the General Management Plan for the Great Falls National Park due out in this month, which the NPS has failed to make any comment on the content of this release. The F.O.G. F. contacted a number of users of the GFNP resource in order to attend a scheduled meeting with the NPS on the upcoming GMP and the impacts to Rock Climbing and other activities.
• Nelson Rocks Preserve (NRP): This crag has not been sold to our knowledge. Duncan has been hard at work and has contacted climbing sources in North Carolina who recently purchased crags and preserved climbing access. The suggestion from down yonder was this: to form or get a climbers coalition to convince the State of West Virginia to buy this seemingly worthless piece of property (NRP), approaching local businesses, conservancy groups, land trusts. The owner, Stu Hammett, initially contacted the State and they were not interested in S.W.P.O.P., they aren’t climber’s I’d imagine. Diane Kearns, the proprietors of the Gendarme are interested in becoming involved in grassroots movement to purchase N.R.P..
• Little Stonyman Cliffs: Rock Outcrop Management Plan (R.O.M.P.) The initial concern, by the N.P.S., were the ropes running across the Appalachian trail to create belay anchors on existing trees and bollards and the steps needed to relieve this problem. The Potomac Mountain Club (PMC) began a project last fall to study this issue. To date, a third of the crag has been mapped and photographed for the purposes of submitting a report with recommendations for fixed anchors in areas of concern.
• The annual Little Stoneyman Climbing trip will be scheduled as soon as we have a clear weekend window of better weather. I proposed to have this a weekend camping trip , with an overnight stay Saturday, so we can climb the chalk out of this place and at the same time continue to map and document this crag for the ongoing project with SNP as well as another proposed project. (ahemmmm!) Vincent Penoso will be das trip leader for this trip.
• The Annual NEWBY DAY for climbers will be spearheaded by Joe Martinet and Annette. There has been a tremendous response flooding the chair with newby day inquiries.
• We welcome Norman Watts who seeks climbing partners for different projects. The club welcomes new members to our climbing gang and hope they come out regularly. We encourage our new members to monitor the club’s calendar and listserve for updates on what to do with all their free time! CLIMB ON!!!!!!!
• Dave Raboy reaffirms his commitment to limit the business meeting to 30 minutes. BLAH-BLAH-BLAH. Dave had 2 points he wanted to address
o Dues structure
 Dues increase by $10 or $15 , with a portion going to the parent organization. Dave invites LISTSERVE dialogue on this proposal for pros and cons.
 Reasons for fee increase: needed revenue; expedition budget is $1000, which currently at $15 is way more than half of our budget (WHAT BUDGET?).
 We need to publish more publications and push the revision and the stop gap reprint of the Carderock Guide.
 We want to mover towards a Alpinist directed Climbing Club.
• Bob Graver made the point, referring to I believe was Article V, where members propose ideas and motions to recognize or address ideas in the future , first begin by being recognized at meetings.