American Canyoneers BOD Meeting, 8/14/12

**JennyMae** · 08-15-2012, 01:28 PM

American Canyoneers BOD Meeting, 8/14/12
(Minutes were taken by Jenny West)

The newly elected BOD of the American Canyoneers had their second meeting yesterday evening. This is an extended view of the minutes taken from that meeting. The new AC BOD would love to hear from any of you with suggestions, ideas and areas that you would like to be involved. This is a time of transition for the group as the iBOD's work is nearly complete and the seven new volunteers of the BOD is motivated to take it to the next level. We need you and your support to help steer us.

http://www.americancanyoneers.org

In attendance were Wolfgang Schuster, Rich Rudow, Jenny West, Mike Putiak and Steve Ramras. Jenny West took the minutes for Troy Ayres who was unavailable. Sonny Lawrence was not able to attend either as he was out playing in the canyons (of Italy?).

From Wolf's agenda, the following topics were discussed and a summary of the results is shown.

-Wolf was voted in as acting Chairman of the Board.
-Thanks due to the hard work of the previous iBod, the review and formal approval was made for all policy documents and letters.

ACCESS:
-Rich identified some of the key "hot spots" for current access challenges. It was agreed to develop a plan to identify and call upon key area specialists for solution strategies to support access goals.
-The process of compiling rules and regulations from land managers will begin. The goal is to have the AC website become a one-stop source for this information.
-Ideas of potential alignment with other "like-minded" organizations was discussed and will be further explored.

CONSERVATION & EDUCATION:
-Ram (aka Steve Ramras) presented a plan to identify potential community service projects as well as land managers pet projects where the AC members might offer assistance.

SAFETY:
-Troy (via an e-mail) identified a safety committee consisting of Steve Kugath, Clint Poole, Malia Mcllvenna, Taylor Morgan and Troy Ayres.
-A detailed 7-point plan for implementing safety goals for the AC was presented.
-A progress update on Steve Kugath's important accident survey was given. Steve collected 70 usable reports. He estimates that by the end of September he will have the report compilation complete.

MEMBERSHIP & COMMUNICATION:
-A list of priorities was agreed upon and plan implemented for: 1) AC website update, 2) Membership drive, 3) Implementation of AC goals via membership assessment and involvement.
-Strategies for promoting membership were discussed.
-The need to solicit ideas/interests from members and potential members was identified and action is beginning on this.

Next meeting scheduled for 2-3 weeks out.

Comments are discussion is most welcome. See the AC forum @
http://www.americancanyoneers.org/forum/

Jenny West