Attendees:
[x] Bob Ellis, President
[x] Doug Berling, Vice-President
[x] Sverre Froyen, Treasurer
[x] B. Brooke Mann, Secretary
[x] Brian Coleman, Mapping Director
[x] Sherry Litasi, Outreach Director
[x] Kathleen Brennan
[x] Michael Rounds
[x] Graham Baird
[x] Cindy Shellito
[x] Michael Rounds
[x] Dan McGregor
[x] Jody Handerson
[x] Dmitriy Zamoshchin
1. RMOC President Bob Ellis welcomed everyone to the annual meeting. 2. Bob gave out awards for 2011 Season Rankings and for the 2011 Volunteer of the Year - Leif Anderson. 3. President's Report from Bob Ellis: - We had a good year overall; many thanks to all the volunteers throughout the year. - We have our first permanent orienteering course (at Bear Creek Lake Park), courtesy of Eagle Scout Clay Cozart. * BRIAN COLEMAN will send Brooke the source file for our map repository. * BROOKE MANN will add a more prominent link to the permanent course on the RMOC web site. - The Colorado Scholastic Orienteering League (CSOL) was very successful. Leif would like to expand it to include local colleges and universities. - Bob Turbyfill's recent training session at the US Air Force Academy went well. Bob volunteered as a teaching assistant and as the overall RMOC coordinator; other key volunteers included: * Doug Berling -- map updates and OCAD drafting. * Carolyn Atwood -- control hanging. * Neal Barlow -- control hanging. 4. Vice-President's Report from Doug Berling: - We didn't have any issues with permits this year. - The US Forest Service site inspections at our Blue Mountain and Rainbow Falls meets turned out OK. - The timber cutting that has affected some of our maps and permits for the past ~five years is finished for now at Manitou; 5. Treasurer's Report from Sverre Froyen: - Our bank was taken over by the FDIC, but it has new owners now and our funds aren't affected. - Our balance typically goes down between November and May. - Sverre distributed detailed reports for individual meets and overall income and expenses; contact Sverre if you'd like a copy. 6. Secretary's Report from Brooke Mann: - In 2011, we used a new system of pre-printed start cards and electronically imported pre-registration data for the e-punch software. This streamlined the registration process at our local meets. * Michael Rounds proposed that we assign rental e-punch sticks to the same person for the whole season. We would then need to segregate the pre-assigned sticks in a different box. Possible issues: at some meets with large attendance, we need to recycle rental sticks, and having some of them set aside as pre-assigned would leave fewer available to use. We didn't make any final decisions about this. * Michael Rounds suggested that we use registration payment envelopes for active members who pre-register, similar to the process CAOC uses. We agreed this might work, but did not make any final decisions about it. - Brooke provided summaries of membership totals and meet attendance. * We have more members this year (233) than we did at this time last year (192). * We had 1,188 starts in 2011 (compared to 1,308 in 2010 -- but we hosted a multi-day A-meet in 2010). The CSOL meets boosted our attendance numbers in 2011. * Based on attendance numbers, our top five meets in 2011 were Fox Run Regional Park (April), Bear Creek Lake Park, Chatfield State Park, Observatory, and Fox Run Regional Park (September). 7. Elections: - Bob Ellis was reelected to another two-year term as President. - Sverre Froyen was reelected to another two-year term as Treasurer. 8. CSOL Discussion: - Overall, we lose money on the reduced $10 CSOL registration fee. But the consensus is that it's worth it to promote orienteering and provide a youth sports activity. Ideas to defray CSOL-related costs: * use cheaper awards? * obtain a grant (OUSA? something oriented towards youth sports?)? BROOKE MANN will send a summary of 2011 CSOL starts to Kathleen Brennan. KATHLEEN BRENNAN will research grant options. - To expand the CSOL program, we should promote it to more schools and to students outside of JROTC programs. - With increased attendance, will we need TWO Orange courses to make the start window manageable? Adding another course would require more time from the Course Setter. We didn't make any final decisions about this. 9. General Discussion: - Dan McGregor would like us to start offering a Brown course at our local meets since he personally would like something more technical than Orange but shorter than Green. Adding another course would add more of a burden to the Course Setter. Also, Bob Ellis pointed out that Orange and Green are supposed to be of roughly equal lengths, anyway (50-55 minutes). [OUSA Course Setting Guidelines] We decided to NOT make Brown courses a requirement for Course Setters at local meets, although individual Course Setters are always free to set Brown courses at local meets if they want to. 10. Mapping Discussion: - Camp Alexander / Sledgehammer is our number-one priority right now. Steve Willman is doing the field checking. We need to confirm boundaries and ownership. - The Peaceful Valley map needs somewhat substantial updates (new shooting range and associated roads & berms, etc.) - Brian Coleman reported that we have good digital data available for Saylor Park and Chatfield State Park. Should we expand these maps? - Bob Ellis will research ownership for Caribou Flats (Nederland). - Brian Coleman suggested that the Philmont Ranch in Cimarron, NM, would be great for a ROGAINE, perhaps in partnership with NMO. Philmont Ranch is 214 square miles, owned and operated by Boy Scouts of America. - Sverre reminded us that we need to get permit buy-in before we invest time and money into mapping a particular area. - Sherry Litasi proposed that we map Rocky Mountain Arsenal, but preliminary research indicates that the US Fish & Wildlife Service's usage rules at RMA are very restrictive. 11. 2012 Schedule Discussion: - Bob plans to schedule the 2012 REI workshops earlier in the year, so attendees can attend one of our Spring meets. - We'd like to take advantage of Doug Berling's map updates at the US Air Force Academy, and possibly hold a meet there in 2012. However, the map is in a secure portion of the campus, so it may be difficult to obtain permission for a meet. - MICHAEL ROUNDS offered to follow-up with YMCA of the Rockies (Estes Park), to see if we can hold a meet there. - We'll be hosting two A-meet days in Laramie, in conjunction with LROC / Mikell Platt's Laramie Daze meet. Dates are August 29 - September 3, 2012. The A-meet days (Saturday & Sunday) will be the 2012 Western States Championships (sanctioning has already been granted). Overall budget is TBD.