The December Secretary’s Report (from the website) was read and accepted.   The Treasurer’s Report was read and accepted and sh owed a current balance of $11,501 before an $8000+ check was cut to VAST for TMA’s.  The balance includes recent payments for bridge and trail repairs.

Old Business

• All of the bridges washed out or damaged by Hurricane Irene have been replaced. These include, the two bridges at Eye’s, The Fontaine’s Bridge. Rink’sSawmillBridge, The bridge to Osgood’s Field, Ruthie’sBitchBridge, a new bridge North of the 4 corners and a small bridge on the trail between these two.  Additionally several bridges have been replaced on Rt 35 between Eye’s andPutneyMountain.
• The $1,500 bridge and repair appropriation the members approved earlier has been pretty much used up.
• A temporary work around has been cut to avoid a serious washout heading to the 4 corners from Parker’s
• Verbal Permission has been granted by Jeff Ezequelle to use the Power line South of Putney Mountain Rd heading towards Dummerston.  Donald or April will get an address so that we can send him a Landowner’s Permission Form.
• A heroic job by our dedicated volunteers (with a little help from the weather) to get the trail system back in rideable shape and make some much needed improvements.

 New Business

• The club voted to make a $ 250 donation to Larry Gould & Sons for picking up additional Poles inVernonVT, Concrete Blocks and setting them in place behind the Fontaine’s (Alternate 35).
• The Club agreed that we should attempt a Construction Grant-in-Aid Application toVASTto recoup our Out of Pocket expenses of approximately $1,000-1,100 for the two RT 35 Bridges.
• The Club agreed to set up a Snowmobile Club account at WW Building Supply.  The initial list of approved persons includes, Mike Fontaine, Don Gokey, Tom Brooks and Daryl Graves.  All future major purchases will need approval by one of the above to get the discount.  Minor Trail Maintenance items will still be reimbursed by submitting an invoice slip.
• Rink’s Camp, The landowner has requested that no bonfires be built w/o the landowner’s specific permission.  Small cooking fires in the fireplace are OK.  Also if you pack it in, pack it out (Pack it out even if you didn’t bring it in).  We’re on a slippery slope of losing use of this popular stop, so we need to show the land owner that we can be good stewards of the land.  The Club will investigate adding some signage and/or a trash barrel (with landowner’s approval)
• The VELCO gates are being opened
• The Poker Run is still a go for February 4^th (no Rain Date).  The course will be run in Reverse with the same stops as last year.  In the event of a continuing lack of snow it could become just a field event (Draw Card’s, Food, 50/50 Raffle). The event will be promoted on the local media outlet’s
• The 35^th Anniversary Fred Robinson Steak Cookout is on track for Saturday February 25^th.  A minimum of 100 steaks will be ordered (An additional 20 if the weather looks especially promising).  The cost will be $12.  As always, help is needed to set up on Friday as well as Saturday Morning.  Contact Ruth Warren (413-566-3350) if you can help out or if you would like to make a dessert.  A special commemorative T-Shirt will be available for purchase.
• The next club meeting is scheduled for 7:30 PM, Saturday March 10^th at John and Pat Eye’s House,409 Grassy Brook Rd inBrookline.

The meeting was adjourned @ 8:40 PM

Bob Samuelson, VP

OLD BUSINESS:
1)     Two people were nominated as co-Presidents and were voted in.   They are Daryl Graves and Fred Warren.
2)     Bob reported that the Velco telephone poles are ready for pick-up.   There are at least six and he thinks they are 40 feet long with a 16-20” diameter.  Jim Rogers will go get them as soon as he can.
3)     John and Pat Eyes volunteered to have the March 10^th meeting at their house, 409 Grassy Brook Rd., Brookline – 7:30 p.m.

NEW BUSINESS:
1)     The bridge at Howard Osgood’s field was fixed by Jim Rogers recently
2)    Fred and Daryl have been working on clearing trails around Rinks Camp and Parkers Landing, up toCraneMt.  There is still work to be done on Ruthie’sBitchBridgeas well as other areas.
3)    Janet went over some special requests she’d received from the returned landowner permission forms.   All issues will be worked out with no problems.
4)   It was reported that the Route 35 trail from Holt’s Tree Farm toPeakedMt.will be open this year.  The Townshend club is rerouting the steep section in that area.
5)    Donald as received the grooming contract and has signed it and sent it back.   April had it with her for Daryl and Fred.
6)    Reminder – Early bird TMA’s due by Dec. 15^th and the trails officially open on the 17^th.
7)   April reported that Ruthie and family have come up with a new design for t-shirts to be sold at the steak cookout in February.  This year marks the 35^th year since the Fred Robinson Scholarship Fund was started.

The meeting adjourned at 8:45 p.m.

Respectfully submitted,
Janet English,    Secretary

The Secretary’s report was read and accepted.   The Treasurer’s report was read and accepted and showed an ending balance of $4,966.86.   Of that, approximately $3,800 is in the Trails Fund and $1,100 in the General Fund.    April will go online and check about the Form 990 for the IRS to see if it needs to be updated.

Election of Officers:

It was decided that the election for President will be postponed until the December meeting.   The following were re-elected:    Bob Samuelson, Vice-President;   April Wellman, Treasurer;   Janet English, Secretary.

Meetings and Events:

Meeting:  December 3^rd at Bob Samuelson’s house
Meeting:  January 21^st at April Wellman’s house
Meeting:  March 10^th – location to be determined at next meeting
Poker Run:   February 4, 2012
Fred Robinson Scholarship Fund Steak Cookout:  February 25, 2012

Safety Course:

Jim and Chris Rogers as well as Nelson King from the Grafton Outing Club will be hosting a snowmobile safety course at the Newbrook Fire and Rescue onSaturday, December 17, 2011from9 a.m.until3 p.m.   There is no charge for this course and they can accept 20 students.   Our club approved spending up to $100 for the luncheon for the student.  Janet will put this on the website and in the newsletter.

Trails Fund:

A motion was made, seconded and voted on to authorize up to $1500 to be spent on repairs on our bridges and trails, either in materials needed or labor.

VAST Meeting:

Bob reported that the TMA price is up $15 this year.  VAST has earmarked $500,000 for Storm Irene damage south of Route 89 as well as $260,000 for the north part of the state for flood damage.  The message from VAST is:  “VT will be open for snowmobiling this year.”  Someone is suing VAST for $5,000,000 for lack of signage and an injury or death which occurred last year.   VAST is already spending $140,000 for their insurance policy.   There will be a reciprocal snowmobiling weekend in VT, NH andMainethis year – this will be on the last weekend of January.   The VT TMA will be good in all three states at no additional cost to the snowmobiler.

Volunteer TMA’s:

VAST gives our club 9 volunteer TMA’s each year which cost $25.  We automatically give the previous year’s officers one each as well as the membership volunteers, so that leaves 3 for the drawing from our list of eligible volunteers.  This year the winners were:   Jim Rogers, Chris, Rogers and Fred Warren.   If any of these people do not wish to use this volunteer TMA, they are to notify one of the officers before our next meeting so that a runner-up can make use of this TMA.   The runners up are Mike Fontaine and John Morrison.

The meeting was adjourned at8:50.

Respectfully submitted,

Janet English, Secretary.

The Secretary’s report was read and accepted;   the Treasurer’s report was read and accepted.   It showed an ending balance of $7,761.86.   After proceeds from the Poker Run and Fred Robinson Scholarship Fund Steak Cookout were deducted, the balance is approximately $5600.00   Of that, the Trail Fund has a balance of $3862.00 and the General Fund $1737.00.

The Poker Run’s profit was $638.95 which we rounded up to $700.00 and that amount will be donated to the Newbrook Fire and Rescue.   The steak cookout profit was $1522.85, which was rounded up to $1600.00.   Of that amount, $1000.00 will go to the student who receives this scholarship, and $600.00 will go into the scholarship fund itself. 

It was suggested that we give gas cards to those that groomed the trails this year.   We decided to purchase $400.00 worth of Mobile gas cards, six for $50 which would be given to those who groomed a great deal and four $25 cards for those who groomed occasionally.    If there are any cards leftover, they can be used next year.  April will see about purchasing these cards. 

Donald brought up that there are several bridges in town that are in need of attention, including the bridge behind Nelson’s house and three in the Parker Landing area.  These will be looked at this spring and work parties will be scheduled in May rather than wait until fall.  Some smaller bridges possibly could be replaced with culverts.    We will need many volunteers to get this work done.   Email notification of work party dates will go out as soon as one is scheduled.  

Janet reported that our website had 1555 “hits” during the riding season, from Dec. 15, 2010 through the present time.  A bill hasn’t been sent yet for the cost of the website and she’ll ask Geoff about that. 

Bernie brought out that perhaps some hazardous areas on our trails (if any) could be re-routed and Donald said VAST perhaps has funds to help with the cost of doing this.   The area of Route 35 across the street from Eye’s house needs attention and possibly re-routing. 

The VAST map still shows the trails in our town to be corridor trails.   A new map won’t come up into the fall of 2012, but we will try and get this corrected before the publication of that map. 

It was suggested that we send a donation in the memory of John Eye’s brother.   Janet will find out where they would want that donation to go. 

The meeting adjourned at 8:45.

Respectfully submitted,

Janet English,

Secretary

 New Business:

 1)   We voted on changing the by-laws to read:  “The club’s fiscal year will be  from  July 1 to June 30.”    Also,   “Club meetings will be held  on the first Saturday of the months of October, November, December and March with Executive Board meetings as needed.”

 2)   Donald report that he and Mike have made a new trail behind Nelson’s house which should be much better.

 3)    Bernie reported that the trail behind his house down to Ellen Ware Rd. has some wet areas with water actually running down the existing trail.   He marked with double tape where he thinks the trail could go to avoid these areas.

 4)    We have decided to have a Poker Run this year on February 5, 2011 at Osgood’s Field at 10 a.m.   The run will have a total of 5 stations and will cost $10 per hand.  Extra cards can be purchased the end of the run.   Last sled out will be at noon with the run wrapping up around 2 p.m.   We will have food available for purchase as well as a mileage pool.   A prize will be given for the best  poker hand.   Trailer parking space will be available.  If no snow, an alternate ride will take place.    Janet will see that this information is put in the VAST News as well as on the club website.

 5)     It was reported that the Murdock Drive to Crane Mt. trail is clear.

 6)     A sign order will be sent in soon by Bob.

 7)     Bob will be assisting Janet with the website and now as the same access as she.   They will be getting together soon to go over how to access the website and post  and edit comments made by visitors to the site.

 The meeting was adjourned at 8:10.

 Respectfully submitted,

 Janet English, Secretary

BROOKLINE SNOWMOBILE CLUB MEETING
November 6, 2010 -

The meeting was called to order at 7:40. There were 13 members present.

The Secretary’s reports was read and accepted. The Treasurer’s report was read and accepted and showed an ending balance of $4495.53.

OLD BUSINESS
1)    April reported that the non-profit status form 990 is all set.

2)    Janet reported that the new website is up and running. She asked how the club wants to be billed and it was decided to do it every six months and her son, Geoff, will be sending a bill soon.. The fee will be about $35 a year for the domain name and approximately $15-$20 a month for the website. She also reported that the website has had 127 visits in the last 30 days, with 1,406 page views. These visits represent 123 from the USA, and 1 each from Canada, Russian, Australia and India. 73 visits came from CT, 13 from VT, 14 from MA, and 5 from NY. 38% of the visits originated from the VAST website.

NEW BUSINESS
1)    The motion was made to keep the same line-up of officers and that was seconded and passed. President: Donald Gokey; Vice-President: Bob Samuelson; Treasurer: April Wellman; Secretary: Janet English. Janet asked that someone take over putting articles and pictures in the VAST News from now on. She will continue to post dates of events, meetings, etc. on the VAST website.

2)    Memorial donations of $50 will be made in memory of Lee Severence, Courtney Nau, Gene Garby, Richard Wescott and Walt Sobolowski. April will look up on the obituaries where these should go.

3)    A question arose about what we do with the leftover funds in our treasury and it was explained that this is used for the website, the mailings each fall, signing for the trails, and materials to replace and repair bridges.

4)    Jim and Chris Rogers will be giving another snowmobile safety course this year on Dec. 18th from 3:30 until 3:00 at the Newbrook Fire and Rescue. There will be no Grafton course this year, so they expect ours will fill up quickly. They are taking only 24 participants, who must be 12 years old by April 15, 2011 & born after July 1, 1983, in order to get a safety certificate upon completion of the course. Call 802-365-7951 to register. Lunch will be served and funded by our club up to $150.00. Jim and Chris also said they’d appreciate some help running this course on Dec. 18th and any volunteers can call them at the same number. It would be a good thing if more people would get certified to teach this course in the future. Janet will put this in the newsletter, website, and send out an email about it.

5)    Volunteer TMA’s – The motion was made and voted in to give volunteer TMA’s to all the club officers and the two membership volunteers. The remaining names were put in a hat and the three drawn were: Chris Rogers, Daryl Graves, and Toby Pagach.

6) It was decided that Christian Bush would take over the job of Trailmaster from Dale Clark. Christian’s area will be up near Townshend Acres, Mike Fontaine’s is the Putney Mt. area, and Daryl’s will be Brookline itself. Trailmasters are to make sure the trails are groomed properly during riding season.

7)    Donald reported that we got a grooming contract from VAST for 5.8 weeks.

8)    It was decided that we would like to amend the by-law to state that our fiscal
year will be from July 1 through June 30. We would also like to change the by-
laws to read that meetings will be the first Saturday of the months of October,
November, December and March and the Executive Board will meet as
necessary. This will be voted on at the next meeting. We need ten members present in order to vote this in.

9)    Bob reported that he has been in touch with Velco and has obtained four keys
to the gates that Velco put up on the power lines. We can open these gates after December 15 or at the first snow and close them at the end of the season. ATV’s are not permitted on the power lines and we will get some signs to that effect. Donald took one key and the rest will be given out at a later date.

10)    We discussed replacing the Radar Run with a new fundraiser and a poker run
might be what we do. We will decide more at the next meeting and are open to suggestions.

11)    The March 6th meeting will be held at Bob Samuelson’s house. The Fred Robinson Scholarship Fund Steak Cookout will be held on Saturday, Feb. 26th, with a rain date being the following day.

12)    VAST gives one free Volunteer TMA per county per year and Donald will put
names in for next year’s drawing.

The meeting adjourned at 9:25.

Respectfully submitted,

Janet English,
Secretary

The meeting was held at Sue Clark’s house and was called to order at 8 p.m.   There were 8 members present.

The Secretary’s Report was read and accepted;   the Treasurer’s Report was read and accepted and showed an ending balance of $7,069.15.    The Radar Run showed a profit of $330.06 and the Fred Robinson Steak Cookout showed a profit of $1007.02.  There is still a check to be written to pay for signs.

OLD BUSINESS:    None

NEW BUSINESS:

1)   Donald reported that he received notification that any “not for profit” organization needs to file a 990EZ tax form with the IRS even though the organization makes less than $25,000.00  This has to be filed by May 15th.  Donald will get in touch with Daisy Anderberg who we think has the form we need.   If not, he’ll be in touch with Bryant Watson at VAST.

2)   We voted to round up the profit from the Radar Run to $400 which will be donated to the Newbrook Fire and Rescue.

3)   We voted to round up the profit from the steak cookout to $1200.00 – $900.00 to go to the student and $300.00 to go into the scholarship fund.   April will get an update from Frank Rucker on that fund.

4)   We voted to send memorial donations of $50.00 each in memory of Don Elliott and Isabel Wescott.  Don’s will go to the Newbrook Fire and Rescue and we’ll find out where to send Isabel’s.

5) Janet brought up that our website software will be changing soon.   Her son, Geoff, has provided software and support for the past 3 ½ years free of charge as well as paying the yearly costs for our domain name.  He is now giving up his own software but is installing WordPress on his server and will now be charging a monthly rate as well as the yearly charge for our name.   The monthly rate will be about $15.00 and the yearly charge for domain name is somewhere around $35.00 a year.   Our new website would be more sophisticated, easier to manage, have a “cleaner” look , have the capability of having a counter as well as allowing multiple “bloggers” to give trail reports.   After some discussion we voted to continue with the www.gundogsonline.com sponsored website for one year.

6)   Bernie suggested that some of our mailings be done via email in order to save us money and that will be looked in when it gets closer to the time of membership mailings in the fall.

7)   Donald questioned whether we need to have monthly meetings as attendance is usually so low and said that the trail coordinators can still get together and discuss issues on their own without a meeting.  We decided we’d like to do Oct., Dec., and March meetings but the by-laws will have to be changed in order to do that.  This meeting constitutes bringing this suggestion up and next meeting will be the vote on changing the by-laws to state that meetings should be held only on those months.  The officers will decide on the date and place of the October meeting and it will be posted on the website as well as go out in an email in the fall.   We will need ten members in attendance to vote this in.

The meeting was adjourned at 9 p.m.

Respectfully submitted,

Janet English, Secretary