March Meeting Minutes

 35 people were in attendance.    Court Zabel was presiding.                                                                                                                                                                              
Introduction

Recap of the Previous Minutes

PATC Parent Club:
    Members, we can Nominate individuals for PATC parent club awards, so be sure to consider it if anyone has impressed you.
    The parent club is also in discussions about selling their guidebooks online (We should begin considering this as well).  If you have any input or interest in this topic let the EXCOM know.

  
Be-Fit McLean went well, we had lots of volunteers.  Thanks to Christina for notifying the club of the opportunity.

We have several outreach opportunities in the works.
    1: Climbing happy hour (We looking for volunteers to help coordinate)
    2: Hosting the Reel Rock festival
        Reel Rock requests it be held in October
        At the moment, we're looking for venues and other participants.  If you have suggestions, let the excom know.
    The Seneca Rescue ropes we contributed to have arrived
        The excom is looking into opportunities to organize a rescue class with them.

We also have several access updates:
    We're starting the Crag stewardship program, our primary focus is
        a) Getting people to to keep an eye on specific crags.
        b) Maintaining relationships with owner/facilitators
        To help out, please reaide you hand, contact the excom, and volunteer to keep an eye on a specific area, or ask where we need people to look.
    Looking into smaller adopt-a-crags for less used areas.
    Lost crags:
        Looking for people to begin looking into access for area's that have fallen out of use.
    The Climbing Management plan is imminent.
        Ranger: Joseph Burns
        Covers: Great falls, Carderock, the Parkway
        For Carderock there are changes happening to commercial use permits.  Shouldn't affect us, but watch for updates on this subject.
            During this time, try to be extra courteous to our fellow climbers.  Please don't hang ropes unused ropes, and be especially careful on the weekends
    Rockfest:
        Midalantic climbers is organizing
        The event is half cleanup, half festivities.
        It is taking place on 4/15-4/17
        We will be cleaning Shenandoah, Overlooks, Old Rag, and Old Stony Man
        There will be Leave no trace workshops, yoga, food
        Fun times!

History of the club:
    The historical team keeps plugging away. They have been Scanning old upropes and doing some audio interviews.  Joe is working on updating the "Chain of Chairs" section.
    Contact Jeannette for information or to help
    There is a new history section on the webpage in the works.  It will contain a History of great falls, Carderock, the upropes, and the Audio interviews.

Publications:
    Annette and Vincent are coordinating the Uprope publication. They're looking for people to summarize and format trip reports.  The traditional Uprope Format contains a One page description of large trips, the Chairman's corner, and a list of all different trip reports.
  
Training Events:
    A couple upcoming training events (Workshops):
        Top rope Anchor workshop 3/12
            Response has been very popular
            Put on by Marty and Bob
        Leader skills day - 4/3
            Thanks to Marty and Jeanette
        Looking for volunteers for new climbers day. 4/2
            Spread the word, bring your friends
        New Leader day - 5/7
        New Follower day - Later in the summer
        Sport climbing workshop.
            Give people practice on sport anchors.
    If you have any ideas or needs, let Ben Koser know.
        One idea suggested was Clean Aid climbing.
  
Womens Events:
    Spring trad event in Seneca - 4/15-4/17?
        In coordination with the Pittsburg explorers club
    Summer events in planning
    The fall event will be Chicks with picks
      
Upcoming Climbing Events:
    Long Mountain trip on April 9-10
        Located at the WV/VA border, there are lots of first ascent opportunities around there.
    North Carolina Trip
        Going to "Table Rock"
        There is free camping if you bring your own water
        Event suggested as a possible a Memorial Day opportunity?
    Rockfest
    Mt. Hood
        Looking at the Week before or week after Memorial Day
        At the moment we need more leaders to volunteer; we have several followers who would like to attend.
        We are looking to take the south side route, further details to follow

Catskill guide books have been donated to the club.
  
Motions to be posted to listserve:
    Requesting a monetary contribution to the first of the women-focused events that we have planned for 2011.  PATC is collaborating with the Explorers Club of Pittsburgh and the Gendarme to do a season opening weekend at Seneca focused on dusting off winter mothballs for female trad climbers. This will be the weekend of April 16 – 17 (all details are on the PATC calendar)

    The primary outlay in terms of costs are:
    -       A group campsite at Seneca shadows for 2 nights  ($120)
    -       Potentially having Jessa Goebel out with us, a female climber who, as Diane from the Gendarme says, puts together wicked training regimens. Her cost for the weekend is likely to be $250

    We are avoiding anything at this event that could inflate cost including paid clinics although these will be available to individuals at their own cost because we’ll have people available to offer them. All participants will be requested to pay $25 for the weekend, which will go some way to covering costs, the EPC will be contributing to this effort as a club as well. The request to PATC is for a $100 contribution.

Save the DATE

We've got an exciting 2011 rock season beginning to shape up! 

March 7: PATC-MS at Sportrock Sterling. Rock the Gym Red!  (day passes available for non-SR members)

March 9: Club Meeting

March 12: Top-Rope Anchors Review

March 16: Carderock Wednesdays start after Daylight Savings

April 2: New Climber Day 

April 3: Leader Skills Day 

April 5: Climbing Community Happy Hour (location to be determined) 

April 9-10: Camping and Exploratory Climbing at Long Mountain

April 16-17: Women's Seneca Summit

April 16-17: Shenandoah Rockfest

June 4: Family and Friends Day

If you have something planned, share it with us on the club calendar and facebook page! If you can help out with any of the above events, let us know! We'd love to see you all out there.

Keep an eye out on the club calender for further details as plans firm up. Some of these dates may be tentative and will change (we'll keep you updated!) There will also be more events that will be posted soon! 

Club Calendar

If you would like to post an event, article, trip report, or beta to our website, it's easy! Directions on how to do so can be found here: 

Posting an event or beta

And since you have member climbing days on your mind right now, don't forget to renew your 2011 membership if you haven't done so already. It's fast and easy to do on our website: 

Join or Renew

See you on the rocks!

Christina Cox

Treasurer, PATC-MS