Regrets:  Philip Cutfield  Helen Ries  Catherine Keir

Flatwater Co-ordinator

Eugene Coyle stepped forward to be the flatwater coordinator, The Executive unanimously voted to endorse him as the interim flatwater Coordinator.

Registration of Members - How is it Going? (Dan M./George)

Dan provided a break down of the membership numbers for this year.

!         225 registered members

!         115 men

!         110 Women

!         Most people registered at the open house

!         98 new members

Those members who have not registered by April 30, 2010 will have their names removed from the website.

Overall the registration at the open house was quite successful. About 166 people registered at the open house.

Significant progress was made in making the process paperless. This resulted in the data being more accurate as data entry did not have to be done using hand written documents.

There were a number of challenges during the registration process:

!         Having the registration outside the main hall;

!         Having only one terminal for payments and data entry;

!         Debit cards were not accepted

!         The Y staff did not have experience in this type of role

!         There was inconsistent information communicated by YCCC members.

 Some recommended improvements are:

!         Online registration and payment (George is looking into the possibility of doing so)

!         Notify all members at the beginning of March that memberships are expiring and encouraging them top sign up ahead of time.

!         Notify members from the previous year of the open house.

!         Advance the start time of the open house by 30 minutes.

!         Review the registration process with all staff and club members.

!         Ensuring that all volunteers communicate the same message.

!         Move the registration area to a place where the line ups do not block people from getting to the room.

!         Improve signage

!         Make more paper copies of the handbook available.

!         Look into a way of streamlining registration of returning members (eg. Two lines - one for returning members and one for new members)

Implementing On-line Electronic Registration (George/ Dan M.)

The Ottawa River Runners use Zone 4 for online payments of memberships.

Zone 4 can process payments by Visa or cheque.

Zone 4 can take care of the data collection related to registrations.

Zone 4 will forward the payments in one or more bulk cheques. They can provide details on who paid how much.

Zone 4 charges service charges and 3% for Visa payments.

Zone 4 has methods that would allow applicants for membership to print waivers and mail them in.

This in one option for on line membership enrollments. There are other options. All of them would require either the member, the Y, or the club to pay the service fees.

 Dan and George will look into the possibility of internet based registrations. This will include consulting the Y to determine if the YCCC will be allowed to use such a system.

Open House - How Did it Go? (All)

The administration relating to training went reasonably well.

The WW training is completely booked if not over booked.

Everybody who applied for training got at least one of their courses. Some people who applied for multiple courses did not get all of them

The FW beginner course in May is completely full. The other FW courses are empty.

Peter would like to go out to registrants later this week and confirm their participation.

The other FW courses are short on participants.

If courses do not have enough participants 4-6 weeks ahead of time they may be cancelled.

An update on the training, including availability and cancellations will be published in Canoe Bytes.

A note will be placed on the website indicating that if courses have insufficient registration they will be cancelled.

It is expected that a few people will sign up for training at the shed night on April 30^th.

Many FW paddlers have not yet thought about paddling and signing up for courses.

Dan sent 130 email messages to members indicating that they there membership will expire on April 30^th unless they re-enrol.

Keeping registration open for too long causes problems for instructors. Instructors want to know 4-5 weeks before a course if there will be sufficient registration.

The minimum registration depends on what the course is and who will be teaching it.

Film Festival - How Did it Go? (Lynette)

The two objectives were to contribute the paddling community at large and to publicize the YCCC. The organizers feel that these objectives were met.

Lynette has a sense that it went well.

There was a $300 investment which was felt to be a good investment in publicity.

There was a fair amount interest in the club members in the lobby.

A fair number of YCCC pamphlets were taken by attendees.

The partnership with Svend reduced the work and financial risk.

There is a sense that the YCCC is becoming better known to younger paddlers.

The Waterwalker film festival had very similar films to the Reel Film Festival but the costs were less.

One of the films was of poor quality.

It is recommended that the YCCC participate in the festival again next year.

Promotional items

Helen Roper will take responsibility for the promotional items.

Some items have been given away without being accounted for.

All payments that have been received, will be turned into the club.

At this point it is not possible to determine exactly how much has been given away and how much has been sold.

The promotional items will be inventoried. In the future more attention will be paid to tracking the what items are sold and given away.

An attempt will be made to determine what has been given away. It will not be possible to get a precise accounting of how the items were dispersed.

Update on the Website (George)

George has assembled a team of people to work on the website.

There is a time glitch with the website. People posting items should include the times in the body of the message.

Should a more prominent link to Paddle Canada be provided on the website? Yes. It will be included in the training session of the site.

A lot of website functionality has been delegated to executive members.

A method of storing documents through the website will be developed. This will allow the club to store all of its documents in one central location.

George has been approached about listing the club on other websites and Wikipedia. The executive felt that the communications or website co-ordinator should be consulted prior publicizing the club on other websites.

George is looking into getting an application that will allow the posting of .pdf documents on the website.

Requests for refunds of membership fees

Peter asked for a decision on what to do about refund requests for membership fees from new members who joined in the expectation of taking the WW Beginner course but who will be waitlisted and likely will not find a spot.

About 6 people joined the club expecting to get training and spaces were not available on the courses they wanted.

The executive voted to refund the club portion of their membership fees. They will have to approach the Y to see if the Y will return the Y affiliation portion of the membership fees.

Membership Fees

Is the club willing to consider prorating membership fees based on when people join the club. No.

Nomination of "Honourary Lifetime Members"

There are two members of the club who have life memberships. Ted Blake and Jack Berhardt are honorary life members of the club.

Nominations for life time members are presented at business meetings. If the majority of the members endorse the nomination, the person would be granted the membership.

Incident report from Petite Nation trip, Sunday April 18.

Brief summary: A solo paddler injured his shoulder after capsizing on the middle canyon of the Petite Nation.  It was assumed to be a shoulder separation or dislocation, incurred during an attempted roll. The paddler was successfully evacuated for treatment at the Buckingham Hospital. Four or five people have advanced wilderness first aid training. They did a good job of managing the situation and evacuating the injured person.

Dan will investigate the matter further to determine if there are any lessons to be learned.

The person who was injured has not yet renewed his membership and completed the waiver form, however his name is still on the membership list on the website. According to the club the membership expires on April 30^th.

"Risk Management and Outdoor Emergency Preparedness" Presentation on April 9 -

Joint session with Alpine Club where they provided the speakers and we provided the room.  The two speakers were excellent.  Five members of the executive heard the talks. It would be worth briefly discussing these presentations with the rest of the executive.  Thanks to Yannick (also a member of the Alpine Club) for organizing this talk!

Risk management deals with prevention of problems

Crisis management deals with incidents when they happen.

The presenters outlined situations where their members had had serious accidents and how they were dealt with. In one incident 1/3 of the people of the trip left without rendering assistance.

Those who have had good first aid training are less likely to panic.

This will be discussed further in September.

Google Documents:

This application can be used to post form. Peter will investigate using this application for course registration. It could simplify his job of co-ordinating events.

Trailhead ??

Don Haines will show up early and set up the YCCC display.

He would like a couple of FW and WW members to help out.

Last year’s event was quite successful.

Membership applications will be available at the session.

MEC Club Night April 12th:

There was very little turnout by club members. It does not appear to have been a good use of club volunteer time.

Trip Leading Seminar April 13:

Only two potential trip leaders showed up.

This type of seminar would be a very good idea to be included as part of the winter seminar series and put on in conjunction with other clubs.

Social Events

The social committee is planning on Y-Fest again this year.

The social committee is planning on holding a regatta this year.