Board of Directors Meeting of March 10, 2020

Board Members present Ryan, Nick, Heather, Linda.
Other Members: Dave
Absent: Carrie (sick).

Meeting was called to order by Ryan at 6pm.

Item 1: Treasurer’s report

As noted previously, the checking account has been set up and we are accepting memberships via check (Made payable to Webster Water Ski Collective) and via our website (PayPal).

Linda read through the treasurer’s report and we roughly have $1700 in the checking account at this time after Ryan deposited current membership dues from PayPal into the account.

Ryan then walked Linda and the board through the PayPal process and through the backend record keeping that exists on the website and through PayPal.

We are also expecting a few more donations to come in as well that will help us get the season started.

In addition, Nick suggested that we look into a Vinmo account to be able to collect donations through that app as well as via PayPal.

Item 2: 501c3 Status

Linda is finishing up the 501C3 paperwork and has (or is very close to) filing for it. There were fees totaling roughly $345 that we needed to submit with the paperwork and the board voted unanimously to pay these fees to move the process forward. Member Tim Bell will serve as our CPA/Power of Attorney for the filings.

We do expect to hear about the 501c3 process relatively quickly, but it may be delayed due to the COVID-19 issues that are plaguing everyone.

Item 3: Safety Coordination and Drivers Certification training

Ryan has reached out to Pat Burns, who teaches the safety coordinators class, and he is more than happy to do a training session for us. He asked Ryan to touch base later in the month as Pat was waiting on a certification of his own before he could teach again. We are hoping to set up a training session in April that would happen on a weekend night.

We are holding off on scheduling drivers training until the weather gets better and people have a chance to get their boats ready and on the water.

Ryan will begin to reach out to drivers about their availability and scheduling. If anyone wishes to drive or is available, please reach out to him (you do not need to be certified at this time). Ryan will also be reaching out directly to people that drove last season for us.

Item 4: Events for 2020

The board set up a basic schedule of two nights per week of skiing from 6pm-dusk, and one weekend day running 7-10am. Tentative days will be Tuesdays and Thursday nights and Sunday mornings from Point Breeze.

The board also voted to limit memberships to around 40 members max to start the season, as this year will be a bit of an experiment to see what we can support. If we find that things are going well, additional memberships will be made available.

A additional weekend day at Glen Echo ( Ryan’s home ) was discussed and approved by the board, however we need to get some approvals from the Glen Echo Improvement Association (GEIA) in order to make sure that the residents don’t have a major problem with us skiing there (it’s a private lake). With that said, Ryan has had many people interested in skiing and learning to ski at Glen Echo and we hope to form a partnership with the residents to bring skiing back to Glen Echo in an organized manner. The Glen Echo Lake Association will have a meeting in May to discuss this in more detail, and I hope to have an update at that time. I am optimistic in its outcome.

The board did also discuss a Learn-to-Ski day and we agreed to schedule two events for this season, one in Webster and then a possible one on Glen Echo (pending approval from the GEIA).

We also discussed and approved a “for fun” tournament to be held at the end of the season. All age levels and ski levels are welcome to participate, it will just be for fun and bragging rights! Date is TBD. A “show” has also been discussed, but at this time – we do not know if we have the resources to do one.

The Thompson Girl Scouts have also reached out to us and were hoping to do a learn-to-ski and water safety day this summer. Ryan will look into planning this and asking the Coast Guard Auxiliary to help us with the safety portion.

Item 5: Marketing and Fundraising

The board talked about possible marketing for the 2020 season, and at this time – we agreed to take a slow and steady approach, focusing first on getting memberships paid for or deposited on before May 1 and then seeing if we need to recruit new members or not. We all agreed we don’t want to get too big too fast – but at the same time – we do want to promote the sport and reach out to our community.

In addition, the board also agreed to look into doing t-shirts, sweat-shirts, mugs, cups, flags and stickers as promotional items that will be made available for purchase through our website. Carrie was nominated to look into the upfront fees associated with this and get back to us ( see what happens when you miss a meeting!). We all believe that this would be a great fundraising idea since we have the website that would allow us to add these products rather easily.

A sponsorship drive was also discussed, but the board decided to reevaluate this issue once the 501c3 status is known. We did discuss options on how the sponsors would be represented if they did donate to the club, including banners and on clothing.

Other ideas for fundraising including food sales, tag sales, etc. were discussed but were voted down at this time as being too much work for the potential benefit.

Item 6: Plan for Dock and Boat cleanup.

Once the 501C3 paperwork fees are paid, the next expense will be to formalize the purchase of the pontoon boat. The goal is to finalize the purchase and begin work on the site cleanup and conversion of the pontoon to a barge in early May.

The board also discussed other equipment needs and wants and we will be starting a “wish list” soon. We do ask all members to try to seek donations for equipment and to also pass along word if they find ‘good deals’ on gently used equipment so we can start to build our ‘collective supply’. We may be able to quickly “find funds” via donations if we find good enough deals.

Ryan has also secured some potential deals for ropes through showskirope.com and also some bulk discounts on equipment via Eagle/Masterline if we ever wanted to peruse them.

The meeting was adjourned at roughly 8pm.

NEW NEWS (Post meeting)

As everyone is aware the COVID-19 (Coronavirus) has wreaked havoc with everything. USA Water Ski just today (March 19th) issued a statement cancelling all sanctioned events and practices through May 17. In addition, the World Show Ski Championship and Barefoot championships (that are held every two years) were cancelled last week after most teams had arrived in Australia for the event.

It is unknown at this time if local state and regional tournaments that typically run in June and July will go on as planned. Members that do generally compete in these tournaments should just keep paying attention to USA Water Ski and to their local tournament organizers.

As for us, this just postpones the “Extended” season that we were planning on doing. While I am hoping to get my boat in soon and to begin skiing myself in April – we just can’t officially do anything ‘as a club’ at until May 17th.

If you know me, I will pull anyone – so if anyone does want a ski – I am happy to give you a pull, we just won’t be “insured” nor will we do any “official” planning for it.

I will also be postponing out planned April general meeting until May – and at that time I hope the dust settles and we at least have more information to go on as far as what we can and can’t do as a group.

As a final note, I want everyone to be safe and stay healthy. If you need anything, please don’t hesitate to ask ( I am low on TP, but do have bags and bags of leaves that people can use and an earth friendly alternative!).

Respectfully submitted
Ryan