Highlights of Dec. 18 Board Meeting
The CCA Board met virtually Dec. 18. The full minutes have been posted on the CCA website (Members Only > Documents > Meeting Minutes). Here are some highlights, from minutes taken by Jen Sass:
Attending: David (Cotton) Cottingham (Chair), Jen Sass (Secretary), Marilyn Jones, Rolando Arrieta, Gary Steinberg, Hildy Ferraiolo, Ed Gertler, Gary Quam, Alf Cooley, Risa Shimoda, Kathleen Sengstock, Barb Brown, Diane Hobbs, Lynn Miller.
Chair's Report – Cotton
Steering Committee: Rolo, Anna Normand, Tom Hackman are term-limited off the committee. Big thanks to Tom, Anna, and Rolo for their tremendous contributions.
Hurricane Helene Relief: see separate article in this Cruiser.
Holiday Party: A great success, big thanks to all the people who made it happen. The gear swap portion was not well advertised, so maybe next year we will do more to promote the swap.
Website: Laura Kurup volunteered as assistant webmaster; she will be a huge benefit to the website work.
Social media outreach: Grace Hassler is willing to pitch in. Lynn and Rolo volunteered to reach out to Grace to help get our social media outreach more active and effective.
Nominating Committee – Hildy
Voting for new Board members took place at the Dec. 6 holiday party. All the current Board members were elected for another one-year term.
Instruction – Gary S.
See separate article in this Cruiser.
Safety – Rolo
Courses clearinghouse: The Safety Committee recommended that the club remain neutral and not endorse or promote any paddling schools that have already independently scheduled River Safety or Swift Water Rescue courses. Interested paddlers should go directly to company websites to sign up. As was done last year, deals for CCA members are being negotiated. CCA will continue to serve as a clearinghouse, listing all ACA L3 River Safety and ACA L4 Swiftwater Rescue courses available in the DMV by way of email blasts, newsletter articles, and social media spaces.
Training rebate: While a river safety course is not required to coordinate a CCA trip, the Safety Committee proposed that CCA renew its $75 rebate to all members who take the Wilderness First Aid (2-day) or a Swift Water Rescue (2-day) course of their preference and complete leading two river trips in 2025. The Board agreed to continue this practice through 2025.
Regarding CCA safety activities and commercial training opportunities, see separate article in this Cruiser.
70th Downriver Race and CCA birthday – Risa
The date of the race this year will be Saturday, May 10. Please mark your calendars and plan on racing, volunteering, or both. Risa will look for ways to communicate that 2025 is our 70th year of the race.
Advertising – Diane Hobbs
Advertising work needs to be started. A new coordinator is needed, or at minimum, support is urgently needed, so please volunteer or encourage others to volunteer. This job would best be transitioned into a committee with two or three members. Communications and office skills are most helpful at this point. Advertisers need to be contacted through February and commitments nailed down. After that, there needs to be coordination with the race, race sponsors, newsletter, and roster.
Trips – Gary Q.
We had 34 people who led trips this year, with Mark Brenneman and Wayne McDaniel leading the most trips at 21 and 13, respectively. This year there have been 118 club trips with 1,175 participants and 226 individual paddlers. This is a bit more than last year, when there was a total of 116 CCA trips with 1039 participants.
Conservation – Kathleen
Friends of the Rivers of Virginia is urging the Virginia state legislature to require the state to set up a tire stewardship program. The program would set up a process and locations for people to deliver used tires, where they could be dropped off for free and slated for recycling. The funding would be provided by tire producers and sellers in the state. Such a system is up and running in Connecticut. Kathleen has drafted a letter to legislators on behalf of the CCA to support the bill; Alf and Kathleen will sign it. The Board approved.
Next Meeting: IN PERSON at Barb Brown's home, Sunday, Feb. 9.