Highlights of Aug. 7 Board Meeting
The CCA Board met virtually Aug. 7. The full minutes have been posted on the CCA website (Members Only > Documents > Meeting Minutes). Here are some highlights, from minutes taken by Secretary Jen Sass:
Present: David (Cotton) Cottingham (Chair), Susan Sherrod, Diane Hobbs, Kathleen Sengstock, Jen Sass (Secretary), Ginny DeSeau, Marilyn Jones, Barb Brown, Rolando Arrieta, Lynn Miller, Gary Steinberg, Tom Hackman, Hildy Ferraiolo, Ed Gertler, Gary Quam, Alf Cooley
Chair's Update - Cotton
We have had some classes where we paid professional instructors to lead the classes. [See Instruction report below.] The feedback was very favorable. There was some discussion about whether we should continue this next season, and if so, how to build criteria to select the instructor organization(s).
Charlie Duffy has offered to teach a Wilderness First Aid class for CCA. Cotton will continue chatting with Charlie.
Thanks to Ron Ray, we had a very good pool rolling season this past winter, and even made a few hundred dollars. Now that Ron has moved south, Tom Hackman has agreed to take on this work for the upcoming winter.
We have had some issues with ClubExpress, our web platform provider, with some junk emails, etc. Thanks to Susan for sorting it all out. Marilyn has been charged an extra $2 for fees from Club Express; they are not supposed to be charging us. Marilyn will contact Club Express directly. If others have issues with Club Express, please let Susan and Cotton know.
Safety Committee - Rolando
Rolo is coordinating with Ed to host an evening with David Solana to talk with him about his YouTube channel Paddle, Dive, Bike, Climb and how he uses storytelling to promote safety. The invitation is being offered to all our local area clubs. Thanks to Susan for helping send out email blasts. [This program was held Aug. 14.]
The river safety course scheduled for July with Mike Aronoff didn't get enough registrants. The class ended up being canceled, at Mike's suggestion. Potomac Paddlesports has offered a discounted Swift Water Rescue course to CCA members. Rolo will continue to work with all the local schools to consider how CCA can help our members benefit from their offerings.
The Board agreed that Rolo should pursue a swiftwater rescue course that we can offer to CCA members, likely in the early spring.
Rolo and Susan will look into the price of whistles with or without our logo, as giveaways for members and CCA trips and events.
Outreach – Cotton for Risa
Soul Trak Outdoors year 2 class was very successful. Rolo is hosting a picnic in his backyard over the September Labor Day weekend.
Risa and Ginny will go to the Potomac Festival represent CCA. [This took place Aug. 10.]
Social media and websites - Lynn
Rolo is doing an excellent job of posting stories and the Cruiser newsletter on the club Facebook page.
Lynn will reach out to Anna Normand, who is very active on social media, to help increase communication.
Jen noted that our club Facebook page is generally permitting people that ask to join if they meet three basic criteria: they are not a robot; they have a general interest in paddlesports of some sort; and they reside in the general Potomac watershed.
At this time, we will not post trips or email blasts on social media.
Membership - Ginny
We have had 20 new members since June 1, great news for growing our club. A few members have contacted Membership to let us know that they will not renew. In each case, the reason is related to moving or health issues; each member was glad to have been a part of CCA.
Treasurer – Marilyn
The CCA operating account has a balance of $3,015.55. An upcoming payment of $350 to ACA for pool rolling insurance payments will reduce the bank balance. No other large expenses are anticipated in the next month. To date, income has been $19,562.99 and expenses $16,595.71, for net profit of $2,897.09.
Our Business Investment Account has a balance of $11,585.50.
Cotton asked that committee chairs prepare budgets for the 2025 fiscal year, which begins Oct 1, and submit them to Marilyn so she can prepare an operating budget.
Instruction – Gary S.
CCA provided members with four all-day clinics, all led by ACA-certified instructors, with one at Little Falls and three on the Lower Yough:
- Introduction to the Lower Yough included a prep clinic at Little Falls with Rolo and Gary, and then a day on the Lower Yough led by Jordan Taylor, assisted by Risa and Rolo. Eight participants paid $75 each to participate.
- The Lower Yough Canoe Clinic was led by Jordan, assisted by Steve-O McKone of Calleva and Ross Dence. Five participants paid $100 each.
- The Advanced Lower Yough clinic was led by Jordan, assisted by Rolo & Gary. Six participants paid $100 each.
The fees we charged participants enabled us to come out slightly in the black overall while paying Jordan his standard fee for non-profits. It also enabled us to recruit some new members, as each had to be a CCA member to participate.
Our feedback from participants has been very positive – see Rolo's article in the July-August Cruiser for some individual comments. We think there is a lot of demand for this kind of instruction, and hope to have a full program of clinics in 2025.
CCA continued our work with Soul Trak and Calleva to help diversify the whitewater community. This work has included winter pool sessions introducing people to kayaking, and then following up this summer with four Potomac River trips and several evening mini-clinics at the Feeder Canal. Soul Trak recruited 10 participants for this summer's program. Cotton, Rolo, and Risa did most of CCA's work with Soul Trak. Ashley McEwan and Calleva provided key resources, including personnel and all equipment. Gary was happy to join in for the last river trip during which our Soul Trak folks were excited to run Yellow Falls, with most of the group taking a second lap.
Major shout out to Cotton, Rolo, and Risa for all their splendid work organizing and conducting these programs and building relationships with our partners. And many thanks to our Webmaster Susan Sherrod who helped make this happen.
Next Steps - During the Board meeting, we decided to convene an ad hoc group to discuss options for CCA instruction programs in 2025. Folks present at the meeting who volunteered to participate include Lynn, Tom, Jen, Cotton, Rolo, and Gary S. We hope that Risa (who was unable to attend the meeting) will continue working on this. We will invite Anna Normand and Mark Wray (our lead for canoe instruction) to join in to add some canoeing perspective. We also noted that it will be important to be in contact with our trip leaders as discussions progress. One of our goals for instruction is to support CCA members paddling development and enable participation in more club trips. More skills + mutual support = more fun on the river together!
Trips – Gary and Ginny Q.
We have had an impressive total of 156 individuals participate in trips this year. The distribution is as follows (note that many people participate in many trips, so the total number of participants is more than the total number of individuals):
- Weekend, 14 trips, 108 participants
- Sunday, 13 trips, 176 participants
- Thursday, 28 trips, 226 participants
- Pickup, 2 trips, 4 participants
- Wednesday, 3 trips, 27 participants
- Family, 0 trips, 0 participants
- Other, 2 trips, 11 participants
TOTAL, 62 trips, 552 participants
Huge thanks to Ginny and Gary for coordinating such a successful program, truly the heart of the club.
Conservation - Kathleen and Dianne
The heat wave has led to cancellation of a summer cleanup, unfortunately.
Kathleen shared the list of groups that we donated to last year, and recommended that the Board consider the following list for this year's donations – proposed total for 2024 is $2000 (same as last year's total). These recommendations remain pending before the Board:
- Anacostia Watershed Society – $250 (same as last year)
- American Rivers – $250 (same as last year)
- American Whitewater – $250 (same as last year)
- Muddy Branch Alliance – $150 (we donated $200 last year in honor of Kay Fulcomer)
- West Virginia Rivers Coalition – $300
- Alice Ferguson Foundation – $250 (we donated $100 last year)
- Goose Creek Association – $250 (we donated $100 last year)
- Potomac Riverkeeper Network – $300 (we donated $200 last year)
Archives and History – Barb
Next year will be CCA's 70th anniversary of and the Downriver Race. Barb is working her way through Kay Fulcomer's archives, which she recently received.
Board Meetings
People generally preferred the online Board meetings, but we will plan an in-person meeting in early 2025 sometime on a Sunday afternoon for a social gathering and meeting; perhaps one in-person Board meeting/year. Barb has [again, generously] offered her house as a venue.
Next meeting – Wednesday, Oct. 9, online.