MAD RIVER
GLEN COOPERATIVE
BOARD
OF TRUSTEES
MINUTES
OF MEETING
March 5, 2005
Attachments
a.
Management Report
b.
Financial Report
After due notice, a meeting of the board of
trustees of the Mad River Glen Cooperative was convened at 5:05 PM
on March 5, 2005
on the 3rd floor of the Basebox at Mad River Glen Ski Area in Fayston,
Vermont.
Trustees
Alan Moats, Rick Moulton, Mary Schramke, Jay Appleton, Paul Finnerty, Bill
Reynolds, Jed Kalkstein, and Deb Steines were present. Leigh Michl was absent. Also present was President Jamey Wimble and
several shareholders.
CALL TO ORDER:
Chair Alan Moats called the meeting to order
at 5:05 PM.
APPROVAL OF FEBRUARY
MINUTES
There were no comments from the shareholders
present.
MANAGEMENT REPORT
The Financial Report is attached for reference. March is looking good, and the weather
forecast is for snow through the next 10 days.
The finance committee recommends $119,000 for Tier 1
according to the capital plan with caution because of the possible expenditure
for grips on lift 3. The grips are over
the 20 year limit and will need replacement, could cost $30-50,000; this is for
50 grips. Jamey is looking for other
alternatives. Order should be placed by
the end of March for next season.
Point of Sale (POS) system- the current system is not
working properly and the vendor is not supporting the system. Last year staff tried a software upgrade that
only made matters worse; other ski areas are having the same problems with the
software. The existing software does not
allow us to track shareholder purchases or point of sale purchase. The new system would allow us to use swipe
cards and track purchases and lift tickets.
Upon a motion made by Jed Kalkstein and seconded by Mary
Schramke, it was unanimously
VOTED: To
approve the recommendation of the finance committee for capital expenditures of
$119,000, taking care to account for lift 3 grips as a priority.
Committee for Single Financing
– this is actually financing for whatever option is finally determined. This is in the early stages to put together a
committee. The board needs to authorize
the committee, Jed agrees to Chair the committee with Leigh Michl taking a role
in the planning. The scope of the committee
would be open to discussion but Jed’s recommendation is that it be primarily
financial. Jed will prepare a scope of work and it’s mission statement for
implementation with the new board in April.
The timetable of the committees work will be based on the direction
received from the shareholders at the annual meeting.
Q&A- The
report submitted on the Single by the contracted Engineer is available in the
office for shareholder review.
Bob Rogers commented that he hoped the
finance committee would review ticket prices relative to the Single Chair
expenditure; he requested that shareholders be told the 10-year impact. Jed commented on the reliability of a new
chair impacting expenses positively; he did not feel it would have a
significant impact since we have been putting aside $75,000 annually. Discussion continued on the impact of debt on
the P&L over the next several years with several shareholders
commenting. Jed commented that we would
look at other ways to raise funds such as selling existing chairs, and other
fund raising efforts that would not create dept.
Alan noted that if a shareholder does not
agree with the question put to the shareholders on the ballot they can vote
‘no’ and will hopefully comment so the board will have direction.
On the capacity issue, Jamey put the
following out on the list on March 2: the chair is designed to run at 600 feet
per minute or 500 people per hour; it will be impossible to run at this rate,
in reality it will run at 420 PPH, with a rope speed of 500 FPM. We cannot run a fixed grip single faster than
that for safety reasons. It will run at
the same speed the current chair is run today.
It was noted that a double running at 800 PPH
would be the same cost as a single running at 500 PPH. The double chair that cost $1.6 million was
for 1000 PPM.
Chris Haviland made the suggestion to look at
an alternative chair with a potential for increased capacity in the future
similar to what was done with the Sunnyside Double which runs at 800 PPH but is
rated for 1200 PPH. Alan Moats noted
that this would require a brand new lift with new towers and return station and
require a 2/3 majority to implement.
Rocky Bleier suggested the board look at
extending the Birdland chair to the base area for novice and other skiers that
would opt for skiing Birdland; it would take skiers off the other lifts and resolve
some of the current issues.
A shareholder suggested we take into
consideration the potential to add additional terrain.
Liz Goodwin thanked Jamey for responding to
the capacity questions on the list serve.
She also complimented the latest issue of the Echo for its presentation
and content.
Alan Moats commented that the board has been
very pleased with how effective the list serve has been and encourages
shareholders to continue using this avenue for conversation. He reminded everyone that all the options are
still wide open and the ballot will determine which direction we go in.
Shawn Kalkstein commented that some people do
not mind waiting in the lift lines and is part of the fun of skiing MR and
questioned the reasoning behind putting in a lift with increased capacity even
if it is not utilized.
Miscellaneous:
Mary thanked Alan for his years of service on
the board since this is his last regular board meeting.
There are currently 700 out of 1700
shareholders on the list serve.
COMMITTEE
REPORTS
Election Committee – Deb Steines
reported that the last 30 minutes of the tapes were could not be transcribed,
due to a broken tape. Paul and Mary will
review the transcript to determine the best way to have the candidates give
their closing statements.
Facilities
Committee – No report.
Board Development
– No meetings,
no reports.
20th Committee – No report
Executive
Committee – The Executive Committee did not meet and there were no
Executive Committee actions since the prior trustee meeting.
Shareholder Relations – No meeting, no
report.
The board met in Executive Session to discuss
personnel matters at 6:52
PM.
ADJOURNMENT
Following the Executive Session, there being
no further business to come before the board, the meeting adjourned at 7:35 PM.
Respectfully submitted, Deb Steines
A true record.
ATTEST:
__________________________________________
Deb
Steines, Vice-Chair
