Appalachian Cave Conservancy
Annual Meeting
Attendees: John and Mary
Wilson, Tanya McLaughlin, Wes Combs, Roger Hartley, Brian Hannen, Christine
Smith, Bill James, Don Feathers, Linda Edgar, Gary Fielden, Jason and Emily
Lachniet, Robbie Spiegel.
The meeting convened at
about
Committee Reports
Cave
Management General
Daniel
Boone Caverns Progress Report: Bill and Don plan on a trip in April or May.
Bill will set the date. There is a plan to get a bulldozer to the site to
improve access.
The Brickey caves: Bill will
contact the Brickeys with a sample conservancy/ landowner agreement. The caves
involved are Winding Stair, Brickey Pit (locally known as Dungeon Cave),
Scott County Blowing Hole,
Wes plans to identify and
contact the owner of a significant cave at the lower end of Reedy Creek.
Finance
Report
Tanya reported a year’s end
treasury balance of $1,256.50 and said that it’s time to renew membership: $10
for individual and $15 for family.
Membership
Report
John stated that Terri had
supplied a membership roster in Excel format. He distributed a printout of the
list. There was a discussion over whether membership renewal should be on a
calendar year basis or scheduled to fall due a year after a member’s last
renewal. John explained the benefits and drawbacks of each approach. The issue
was set aside for later consideration.
Fundraising
Report
John has appealed to three
NSS grottos for membership and survey participation. They are the Appalachian,
New River, and Blue Ridge Grottos. None has responded.
Old /
Unfinished Business – none was raised.
New Business
On fund raising and
contacting grottos: Robbie offered to contact the Appalachian Grotto again. All
agreed that Dave and Mary Sue Socky of Blue Ridge Grotto would be ideal members
and that John should try again to contact them.
Don suggested that the
John offered additional keys
to facilitate the survey. Bill and Don will get a key and build steps into the
cave.
John raised the issue of
placing another ad in the NSS Members Manual. Tanya said that only one non-local
membership had been gained apart from the convention recruitment last summer
and stated that the ad was a poor investment. Tanya moved that we not renew.
The motion passed.
John proposed to buy
association management software. The cheapest package he could find was $75.
Robbie offered to look for free open source software.
John proposed these meeting
dates for the next year:
Membership
Meeting
The meeting was called at
Robbie moved that all four
directors whose term was ending be reelected for the term ending in 2010. These
directors are Joel, Don, Mary, and Gary. Motion passed.
There was one vacancy for
the term ending in 2009, one for 2008, and three for 2007.
Emily was nominated and
elected to serve to 2009. Christine was nominated and elected to serve to 2008.
The directors agreed to
contact Greg Marshall as a possible candidate for the 2007 term, with Don the
primary contact. John will contact Dave Socky and
Election of
Officers
John Wilson was reelected as
President.
Tony McGee and Don Feathers
were nominated as Vice-President. Incumbent Tony won by four to three.
Treasurer Tanya McLaughlin was
reelected. Secretary Robbie Spiegel was reelected.
The membership meeting
adjourned at
The meeting convened at
Entrance area modifications:
Bill discussed building steps into the cave. Gary and Bill discussed the
proposed modification to the gate to make it hinge from the bottom.
Conservation marking and the
Toothpaste Crawl Project: John discussed the status of the marking project and
decided there would be no marking today. He reiterated the importance of the
Toothpaste Crawl modification in keeping the formations clean, but decided to
postpone major work on it that until more people were available.
The planned cave management
activities were:
Bill and Robbie and Linda
would work on the steps.
The cave management meeting
convened at about