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The annual NH AMC Paddling Group's meeting was called to order at 5:30 PM on 11/12/00 at the PSNH Fish Ways in Manchester NH.

The following 45 people were in attendance: Dennis Belliveau, Joseph Correia, Garry Crane, Rod Dore, Carol Anne Eldridge, Attila Frakas, Kerry Frazier, Debbie Frazier, Tom Gelinas, Nancy Gero, Bruce Healey, Leslie Hollweg, Jerry Homer, Mike Jacob, Dora Jacobs, John Jenkins, Ruth Kelsea, Susan Keroes, Faith Knapp, Claire Kurzban, Jeff Lamping, Jim Lewis, Maxine Little, Ross McIntyre, Peggy Miller, Laura Morgan, Dick Morin, Verniel Morin, David Moore, Skip Morris, Brian Nystron, Greg Pozershi, Bob Ross, David Roy, Dave Sanburn, Roioli Schweiker, Phil Sego, Margie Shepardson, Carl Shepardson, Stan Solomon, Julia Steed Mawsen, Patrick Taft, Tom Todd, Barry Whittemore, Mary Whittemore

Scheduling: Skip Morris presented an outline of the trips from last year and circulated a series of signup papers. The initial signup sheets were collected and compiled for use later in the meeting. Some discussion followed with respect to posting scheduled trips on the web. Skip volunteered to provide a link between the current electronic schedule master and the NH AMC Paddlers home page.

ICC Meeting Discussion of Leader Insurance: As a note from the previous Inter-chapter Canoe Committee (ICC) meeting, the AMC leader liability insurance is applicable to leaders who are AMC members and on schedule trips. Leaders are directed to not ask non AMC members to participate in leadership roles such as lead or sweep boat on any scheduled trips.

Secretaries report: Garry Crane. The minutes of the previous annual business meeting were printed in the February 2000 WrapAround. The minutes were accepted.

Treasurers report: Bruce Healey gave the report for Judy Gannon The report was accepted. As a result of the November Warp Around survey, Tom Todd has received additional donations.

Chair's Report: Tom Gelinas. The chair's report was published in the latest edition of WrapAround. Our group's accomplishments during the last year are:

• Successful WW School -> Thanks to all who participated

• Class 2+ school

• Rescue and Recovery school

• Trip leaders training workshop

• First Aid training

• Outreach programs with 4H and inner city youth

• PSNH trip

• Website

• WrapAround is now available on the internet

All members are challenged to get involved in leading trips and participating other activities.

The membership thanked Tom Gelinas for his efforts during his tenure as Co-Chair

Inter-chapter report - Skip and Faith

The report was given.

During the Inter-chapter Report, Tom Todd was asked to present the Volunteer Recognition letters that Tom Quarles had drawn up. The letter is to comply with the provisions of New Hampshire RSA 508:17, the volunteer immunity law. They simply are a mechanism, useful in court, for recognizing that the leader is a volunteer of NH AMC Paddling. Tom Todd handed out copies of the letter for people to use to request the chairs to sign. It was mentioned again that the AMC insurance only covers AMC members.

We do not have any new information on our need to have White Mountain National Forest (WMNF) access cards on our trips.

Equipment - Ruth Kelsea.

We need to replace our broken kayak paddle. Our XL15 was used heavily during the last year and is in rough shape. The XL13 has not been used much since the school. I would also like to acquire a nice tandem white water boat. Our trippers and Blue Hole are dated and getting tired.

During the new business section of the meeting, a budget of $300 was approved to buy / replace damaged equipment. Another up to $800 was allocated for the equipment chair to purchase a new or used solo or tandem boat.

Leadership - Faith Knapp.

Both the Trip Leader and First Aid workshops had nice turnouts. There is one more leadership workshop planned for the spring. Trip leader hints will also be published in the WrapAround. The results from the WrapAround card survey show that between 10 and 15 people are interested in the leadership workshop.

Ratings - Jerry Homer.

The ratings committee has met and Tom Todd will publish the new ratings in the roster. The ratings changes were read. Those designated as Leaders in Training (LIT) will also be identified on the roster.

Trip leaders must be AMC leaders to be covered by the AMC liability insurance.

A complete review of everyone’s ratings is past due. Those people who do not paddle at their rated level between now and the end of year 2002 will risk being dropped a rating level.

Rescue school - Paul Berry. Missing

Touring - Mike Jacobs.

The date of the Beal Island trip was to be put to a survey. A show of hands vote was taken and 10 people wanted the trip in July, 8 people in August and 2 people wanted the trip in September. If possible, the trip will be held in July.

The Touring Schedule will be listed on the NH AMC Paddlers web site.

Trip Reports - Jeff Lamping.

Thirty two trip reports were received during the last year. 90% of the class 2 trips turned in reports. Very few of the touring trips submitted reports. From our reports, 500 canoe days were logged.

Jeff brought a notebook containing all the years reports.

For next year, leaders need to record river levels and problems / issues with trips.

Webmaster - Phil Sego.

Our home page has received over 4,000 visits during the last year. Web based scheduling of bootleg trips has worked well. Our address is nhamcpaddlers.org. Our new security has been successful. Our goals for the next year are:

• Add a fax bridge for those without email

• Send email WrapAround to all those with email

• Add live on/line trip schedule to the web page

Whitewater school - Bruce Healey.

Dates for next year are April 6-8. Bruce is retiring after 9 years with the school and Rod Dore will be taking over Bruce’s role.

WrapAround -Tom Todd

Our costs were $900 for a super version, $282 for the Nov 10 page edition and $58 for an index card.

In the future, a truncated version will be sent via US mail and the full version with color pictures will be available for download on the web with a notice by email.

The new rosters were distributed. We currently have 138 of our 334 members on the email list and 2/3 of our members do have email capability.

We received 44 mailed in cards and 48 email cards. Currently, between 5% and 10% of our mailings are returned as undeliverable due to address changes.

The WrapAround is expensive and it takes over 6 hours to fold and assemble the 313 mailings.

A discussion was held on process to cull inactive members from our roster and/or mailing lists. It was proposed that those who do not participate in any NH AMC Paddling activities in a 2 year period be dropped from our membership / mailing list. The “In Flood” handbook (Pg. 14) lists paddling at their rating level at least once during a 2 year period to maintain a rating. For many of our trips, the leaders do not submit trip forms and the club has no record of peoples attendance. Faith volunteered to work with a committee to update “In Flood”. Stan Solomon volunteered to take over the membership list.

Report accepted and approved.

Scheduling - Skip and Mike handled questions. Each to handle scheduling the next years trips during their respective portions of the meeting.

Old Business - Cook Book.

The Cook Book profits are to support the WrapAround. Thanks to all who contributed. We need over 100 new recipes to prepare the cook book. If we have sufficient response during the next month, we will continue. Otherwise, we will print the existing recipes in the WrapAround.

Old Business - Damaged Equipment Policy.

Currently we handle each issue at a time. Roioli took an action to mail the equipment chair a copy of our policy. The policy also needs to be published in the WrapAround after the equipment committee has reviewed it

New Business - Election of new officers. The ballot listed below was presented:

• Co-Chair: Dennis Belliveau

• Co-Chair: Jeff Lamping

• Treasurer: Judy Gannon

• Secretary: Garry Crane

• Equipment: Ruth Kelsea

• WW School: Rod Dore

• Leadership: Faith Knapp

• Rescue School: Paul Berry

• WW Scheduling: Skip Morris / Julia Steed-Mawson

• Trip Reports: Laura Morgan

• Ratings: Jerry Homer

• WrapAround Editor: Tom Todd

• Membership: Tom Todd / Stan Solomon (Vote for one)

• Web Master: Phil Sego

• Conservation: Tom Quarles

• Touring Chair: Mike Jacobs

• Touring Scheduling: Roioli Schweiker

• Sea Kayaking Chair: Jim Lewis

• All uncontested positions were approved.

Stan and Tom were asked to leave the room a hand vote for the membership position was taken. Tom won the Membership election with 19 votes versus Stan's 14 votes.

The precedent of not allowing a person to hold more than 2 offices was discussed. It was thought not a problem because Tom has been doing the membership position for several years.

New Business - Roster / Membership list. Add “AMC Membership” column to roster. The Paddling Co-Chairs will verify membership with the Joy Street list.

New Business - Subscriptions. A motion was made for NH AMC Paddling to subscribe to American White Water Assoc. (AWA) and American Canoe Association (ACA). Each was put to an individual vote and neither subscription was accepted.

New Business - Outreach. Julia handed out certificates of appreciation to Ruth, Denis, Bruce, Mike and Tom Gelinas for their support of the 4H Corporate Extension program..

New Business - Equipment budget. The minutes from this section of the meeting are included below the Equipment Chair’s report..

New Business - Update of “In Flood”

It was suggested that the NH AMC Paddlers Chair to formalize a plan to update “In Flood”. The Chair agreed to present the plan at our next meeting.

Adjournment - The meeting adjourned at 8:15 PM.

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