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.