TCTC Annual Meeting Minutes
April 28, 2022 34 people were present, 3-6 more that joined virtually.
Deb Liang called the meeting to order with a wild loon call.
Introduction of officers:
- Helmut Porcher - President
- Mark Seaburg - Vice President
- Matt Tillotson -Scribe, Memberships
- Deb Liang - Treasurer, Logistics
- Lyle Quimby - webmaster, not technically on the board, but critical role.
We then went around the room for introductions... 34 people total were in attendance, with three to six that joined via Zoom.
Re-election of officers was brought up. Keeping in mind that Helmut was coerced into president last year, and agreed to the position because he really wants to spread the love of tandems and wants to make sure the club continues. We noted that Lyle is moving to Arizona, but is willing to stay on as webmaster for a while. The floor was open for volunteers or board nominations. There were no board volunteers or nominations. Helen Mattsen made a motion to re-elect the slate of officers. Rob Welsh seconded the motion.
The vote to re-elect the current board was unanimous.
Financial Report:
The club spent approx $130 more than we took in last year. With current club expenditures of Website, Insurance, LAB membership, we need approx 32 paying teams to break even.
Helmut ran for office on a platform against raising team dues. Last year we started with $1,890.18, and the year ended with $1,760.06.
Club expenses for 2022 are expected to be as follows: Website $221.74, LAB renewal $75.00, Insurance (estimate) $500.00.
New Club Jerseys:
Helmut then introduced the new jerseys; with the comment he could retire after that because the official duties of president end with new jerseys. His retirement was not accepted.
Order forms were available, $72 each jersey. We had jerseys in the back to test fit, and at the close of the meeting we had 14 jerseys on order. Helmut will wait until May 5th to place the initial order, so those who want to mail in their orders just have to make sure Helmut gets the information before that date.
A second order will be placed by May 30 if there is enough demand after this initial order (the jersey vendor’s minimum custom order is five jerseys). Delivery will be June 15 and July 15 respectively.
Club Promotion:
Helmut then introduced his idea for club pro-motion, including a stack of brochures for bike shops in two sizes. Anybody in the club willing to place some of the brochures in bike shops near them were encouraged to grab some, and email the club membership address so we know what bike shops have been covered.
We will try to make sure we get a brochure/card in every bike shop within the metro area over the next 6 weeks. It was also noted that there is now probably only one bike shop in the metro area that has more than one tandem in stock, that is the shop owned by club member Steve Veenstra, Twin Cities Tandems.
Helen Mattsen suggested that Steve's bike shop be allowed to give away a free club membership with every tandem sold. We will discuss that with the board at a later date, but it was received well.
John Mattsen suggested we contact WCCO about doing a human-interest story about tandeming. That would require a group ride with lots of us in attendance. We can possibly pursue this as the season progresses.
It was also suggested we do one or two weekly rides on a consistent basis. An example of this would be a ride every Wednesday night. This was tried in the past and had no participation, but if anyone is willing to try it again, maybe post pandemic it will be more successful.
Nancy Walsh asked if a daytime, weekday ride could be scheduled, as quite a few members are retired.
If anyone is interested in hosting rides during the day, that is a totally open option, simply let us know. There was also some interest noted in multi day camping rides, where we ride out to a campground, camp overnight, and then return to the start the next day. Keep your eyes open for club posting about this!
Club Ride Promotion:
It was suggested we open cc all members club emails, so they can directly email each other. This does introduce some privacy issues and spam potential. One other suggestion was to email out the club roster, to further enable club members to get together on their own. These ideas would help with ride spontaneity. This spurred a rather lively discussion on how to make club rides more approachable.
Ideas on balancing the needs of ride hosts knowing how many people to expect, how to keep things safe, and also allow both people to join rides at the last minute, and allow rides to be added at a moment’s notice.
It was also proposed that we send out reminder emails a week before any club ride.
One question concerned the clubs most utilized source of disseminating ride information. Is it Facebook, the club website, the email distribution list?
Historically it has been, in descending order of utilization: Website update, Email list, Facebook.
One benefit of Facebook is the way that can reach people who are not club members, and in that way potentially growing our membership.
It should be noted that our club insurance will allow one-time guests to join in on rides, but if they want to join in on rides in the future, they would have to join the club so we have all their contact info and signatures on file. It was noted that requiring people to sign up for a ride in advance of the ride can be a significant deterrent for some people. It was suggested that the more open and accessible a ride is the more popular it will be. But this openness needs to be in balance with ride host’s organizational needs.
The biggest reasons ride hosts want a known list of whom to expect at a ride is so they can notify potential riders of last-minute cancellations, plan for how many people might be there, and to track who is currently on the road in case of any ride related emergency.
While the conversation on this topic was lively and long, no real decisions were made at the time.
Currently our Facebook page is setup so anyone hosting a ride can post to the page. Moderators can remove content that does not pertain to the club if that is needed.
Examples of popular rides incudes: Chili ride in late October, Root Beer Ride, Frozen Custard Ride, Pancakes and Porkies Airport ride.
Helmut then noted that our meeting space was closing soon and we wanted the membership to have time to try on jerseys so he closed the official portion of the meeting at 7:10. People started looking at jersey sizes, renewals and general socializing. The night ended up with 14 jerseys being order and everyone was kicked out at 7:45, concluding the 2022 TCTC Annual meeting.