St. Louis Area Geocaching Association

MEETING MINUTES 2020

16 November 2020/ 6:30 PM / via Zoom (internet meeting platform)

ATTENDEES

Steve Bromley, Michael Smith, Robert Klemme, Nan Dabler, Melissa Pierce, Jan Salvaggio,  David DeWitt, John Elfrank

Meeting called to order at 6:36 pm.

We would like to welcome our new officers Robert Klemme, Vice President, and Nan Dabler, Treasurerer. We are glad to have you with us.

Motion called to approve October 2020 minutes by Nan, seconded by Jan.

Motion called to approve October 2020 treasurer's report by Melissa, seconded by Robert.

Plan to close the MOGA account around the end of the year, if everything is complete.

Retrospective

• Zoom get together was held October 28,2020 with about 15 attendees
  • All established members, no new cachers were there.
  • Suggestions were made to make accessing the Zoom meeting easier and faster.
  • Suggestion was made to have a reminder email
  • Next Zoom social is scheduled for Friday, November 20, 2020 at 7 pm.
    • Link is available on the Facebook SLAGA event page
    • Link was sent via WebChimp to the group as a whole. 
    • A reminder email with a link will be going out one hour prior to the event.
  • Would like to use this as a way to engage new cachers; suggestions on how to do that
    • Giveaway for a geocoin
    • Have established cachers reach out to new cachers and welcome them to the game, let them know about the SLAGA group.
    • Training sessions via Zoom
• Fall Picnic Halloween Celebration Event GC8HKB0 was held on October 31, 2020 and hosted by Patricia.
  • There were more than 70 people in attendance
  • Everything went well
    • Masks and social distancing were not an issue.
  • Many thanks to Patricia for hosting a great event!

      Events

• No events scheduled at this time
• Currently hoping to be able to host the Cabin Fever event at the end of January 
  • Will have to wait to see where things are at at that time
  • Will not be a potluck as getting a Health Department ok probably will not be possible.

      Ongoing Business

• 20th Anniversary geocoins are in
  • 14 or 15 are spoken for at this time out of the 100 ordered.
  • There were 17 different coins made by two groups and 15 individuals 
    • The 15 individuals chose to do a large swap in order to have a full set of all the coin versions. The two groups did not participate in this.
      • The individuals would like to obtain the SLAGA version
    • We will give them a chance to purchase after SLAGA membership and prior to general public sales.
      • The individuals involved in this could sign up as members to get an earlier opportunity to buy, if they choose.
    • Melissa will send out an email conveying all the information once it is finalized.
• Award Coins and additional achievement awards
  • Robert has the approximate 140 award coins.
  • Steve has the chairs and jacket
    • Needs to get with David to have the embroidery on it completed.
• SLAGA officer transition
  • Welcome to Robert and Nan!
  • David would like to get a biography and picture from both Nan and Robert for the SLAGA website.
    • If pictures are not sent, David will find one to use.
  • Nan does not have the Treasurers items at this point
    • Hoping to be able to add her to the bank account soon
      • Planned for November 27, 2020 at US Bank depending on possible restrictions.
    • Need key to the UPS mail box
  • David will be doing some training classes for all officers on how to update and caption website pictures and how to place articles.
• Zoom training classes
  • GSAK Q&A via Jason Collier (C3GPS)
    • Willing to do 2 question, 30 minute sessions if we have interest.
  • Candyce Copp Grisham reached out saying she had someone willing to teach on the Cachetur App
• MOGA sale
  • Jesse is going to buy the offered ammo cans
  • Kathy DeWitt will pay out MOGA bills
    • Steve returned the check book to her
  • After all items are sold, John will inventory all remaining items.
    • Can decide on final disposition of items at that time.
  • There is a new bullhorn that we will offer to Jesse
  • Will be keeping preforms
    • SLAGA would like to purchase several
  • T-shirt sale money needs to be transferred to the MOGA account.
    • Michael still has some shirts that need to be picked up or shipped
      • Discussed using flat rate USPS boxes 
      • Either PayPal or send a check for the shipping costs.
        • David will send Michael the PayPal account information

New Business

• Boone’s Lick Road is being archived
  • Caches have already been picked up
  • Reviewer could unarchive them and have them adopted if a new owner could be located quickly.
    • May not be possible if left too long.
    • Melissa to reach out to Unitzoid in Columbia, MO to see if interested in taking over
  • We have approximately 30 coins left
    • May sell them if the challenge is not reinstated.

• GC 101 has two dates for 2021 at this time
  • March 27, 2021 and June 12, 2021
  • Steve will reach out to Laura MacLeod about setting up another date in September, for either the 11th or 18th.
• Discussion to ask Bill Lange to be an advisor for educational endeavors
  • Technically this responsibility for education falls to Michael as a Vice President of SLAGA.
  • As per SLAGA bylaws, Steve would like to offer Bill an appointment as an advisor to the officers in matters related to geocaching education.
    • Steve feels Bill has done a fantastic job during his tenure as Vice President and the year after leaving the position at getting educational materials set up for our GC 101 classes and ensuring they meet the requirements for organizations such as Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts.
    • He also feels that Bill has good suggestions and ideas when it comes to these matters and would like to retain his expertise by offering him an advisory position with SLAGA.
      • Officers will give their formal decisions prior to the March 2021 GC 101 class, giving time for any questions or concerns they might have.
• Possible pick up event for coins and MOGA shirts
  • Thinking we could do a pick up event for the coins
    • Michael offered use of his business area
    • Have it in multiple locations and on different days and times
      • Maybe have officers host a pick up in their areas
    • Coins are pre-packaged in plastic sleeves
    • Steve has purchased bubble mailer to mail coins as well
• Cachemas will be held this year. Robert is coordinating it.
  • Cachemas as a whole will not be an officially sponsored SLAGA event
    • SLAGA will sponsor the ornaments for each day however
      • Motion for approval to sponsor the ornaments, total cost not to exceed $100, was called by Michael, seconded by Nan. All approved.
  • Covid-19 concerns at this time
    • Please follow any national, state and local health and safety regulations in regards to the pandemic.
    • Encourage those that are participating in finding the caches or as part of the “harassment committee” to wear masks and social distance as much as possible.
    • Encourage those in high risk groups to wait until the first to find has been declared. 
  • Can use the Facebook SLAGA page to talk about or promote cachemas in the same way as any other cache owner would.
• Blue Anchor
  • Cache owner is unable to maintain it at this point.
  • Would like to adopt it out
    • May need help in getting all associated caches adopted out.
• Upgrade to SLAGA store 
  • We need a better set up in order to hold sales in the way we usually do.
    • In person, the membership levels determine cost and amount of coins you can purchase.
      • Current store does not have that ability.
  • David researched programs that will work with Joomla and found two capable of what we need.
    • Both are of similar price but one David feels one would be the better fit.
    • Cost for either one is around $55-60.
  • Motion to purchase David’s preferred webstore upgrade was called by Steve and seconded by Michael, all agree.
• Clean up of SLAGA email list
  • We currently have 848 people on the list. 
  • We have 128 paid memberships.
  • David will start removing those email addresses that have been listed as “undeliverable” for at least 2 months
    • Part of SLAGA membership is having an email address.

Meeting adjourned at 8:43 pm by Melissa seconded by Michael

NEXT MONTH’S INFORMATION

None scheduled for December 2020. Enjoy the holidays all!