Meeting Minutes     December 4, 2003 Meeting called to order at 7:33 p.m. by Richard Yeargan. Members Attending: Ron Mike & Sally Pete Gary & Carol Don Mark & Emily Mike & Tami Richard & Gigi Dave Larry & Carol Del Gareth & Carol Guests: Don Riddle President’s Report: Done work on the house to get ready for xmas party. Flooring is in now and windows in garage. Tarp on the roof. No breezeway. Dry warm place for the party. This year was good. Gained ~ 6 member families. Bringing club to community worked. 4 times in the newspaper and once in in-Gear for work on WFF last year. Several good write ups and on cable tv for destruction derby and moke river clean-up. Had largest club run ever on Labor Day. Ione Homecoming we won a trophy for best vehicle display. Vice President’s Report: Absent. Treasurer’s Report: $448.42, $259.35 from yard sale, check to Ron for PO box for $35.00 Final balance $671.77. United4WD bill due in February. Member dues will be coming up soon. Bill for $27.47 for copying of the flyers. MSP to reimburse Mike. Secretary’s Report: Read summary from last meeting. Delegate’s Report: Will be going to convention. Del wrote monthly column re: do personalities run your club. Land Use & Conservation: Off Road Expo in Pomona was amazing. All the vendors were there. Real hands on show. Del worked several booths. 1st weekend in October. NAMRAC Meeting-2x yr to discuss common problems to all motorized recreation. Everyone gets long there also. One of their meetings is held with the CEMA Show in Vegas. This is a huge show. Never seen so many boom box arrangements in his (Del’s) life. BRC Fall Board Meeting worked on strategic plan. Bill Dart chosen as exec director. Bill was with AMA out of Truckee. He moved to Pocatello. Rubicon Town Hall meeting well attended. People asked him about MLRC. $300+K to spend on the trail next year. BRC newsletter available from Del. Del has his training manual for his leadership seminar there. That is catching on. Del spend time in Bishop. He proposes a club run because there are great roads. Good family adventure. Not extreme runs, but beautiful scenery. Great area and lots of old ghost towns. CA4WD Convention 2/14 in Reno. Membership Report: Ron says Richard reported well on new count for the year. Some have passed. Time to think about novice training day this year for community involvement. Perhaps summer adopt-a-trail. Started with 13 families. Dropped to 5, but have been on the rise and are as big as have ever been in the past. Nice thing is that we all get along. No clicks or fractions. It’s working. Richard is proud to be our leader. Gareth said he felt the club diversity was good-ages from kids on up. Correspondence: None from Richard. Ron reported CA4WD north district minute meetings. Next meeting in January in Oroville. No new in-gear. BRC sent flyer asking for additional donations for different causes and questionairre. Quest Technologies talk about they are BRC member. Sound meter offer to club at a savings, only $1400 due to laws re decible limitations. Del did mention that people are being pulled over and cited for excessive noise. Request from from Quest enclosed. WFF from Mike & Pat Bashore-chairpeople? Do we want to donate anything to the raffle. Do we want to help with any other activities or make any other donations. Letter from Joe Melloy-Ron has know for 15 yrs-partial complaint letter to fellow 4-wheelers. On convention committee and how numbers have gone down since 85 by 50% because people don’t think it is worthwhile to go. New younger generation not getting involved and he is asking for ideas to pass on to Board to try to get people back on board with CA4WD. Old Business: T-Shirts and windshield banners still for sale, see Mike or Tami Hats-see Ron WFF- We are doing Saturday night dinner. 11 families and we are camping in the same area as last year. Richard has the whole campground reserved so no need to reserve sites. Should have enough workers. SUV run for most. Del has ideas about what he can do (schmoozing). Greeting got good feedback from last year. This year Del is thinking about raising money and serenade people who are in line and have a tip can to donate to CA4WD. Even if it is change, it is more proceeds and better recognition. Everyone thought that was a good idea. New Business: Nominations for Officers. Election next month. Richard would like to be President. Trina would like to be nominated for Vice President. Pete nominate Richard, second by Sally. Mike nominated Don for secretary. Second by Del. Don declined nomination for secretary. Don nominated Sally, seconded by Tami. Mike nominated by Mark for Treasurer, second by Richard. Ron nominated for membership chair, seconded by Gareth. Land use/delegate Del for lifetime. Mark nominated Dave as Vice President, seconded by Ron. Emily nominated Mike Mole for Vice President, seconded by Sally. Ron was nominated to be membership chairman again. Richard recommended webmaster be an officer. Mark said this would require a by-law change. Mike S. was applauded for his work as webmaster. Toy Run-this Saturday, but we have parts. Tami passed around goodie bag for the Make the Grade program. Will do one day on snow patrol/iron mtn rd. Past Runs: Topaz 11/14-Mike reported 16 rigs. We went Thursday and pre-run. Gate was open. Went to Bodie on Saturday. Gate was closed. We hit snow near Bodie, went through Del Monte Canyon. It began to snow harder. We decided not to do Aurora and headed out. Hit pavement 2:00 p.m. and then found the sheep. Made it back to Lodge. Good food. Sunday some went home. Went to Ludwig Mine site with about 8 rigs. Lunch in Yerington and then on home. Richard reported we made the marquee and had 17 rooms. Next year we will register as a group. Next year we might do it earlier for fall colors and try to hit Masonic also. Del passed around a picture of Bodie during a snow storm and a story about a miner and the light left on at the Standard Mine. Richard thanked Mike for all his time and planning. 11/27-30 Thanksgiving in California City, just north of Mojave. Ron reported the change was due to weather at Winemucca. Wes & Barbara, Ron & Melissa, Tim & Caprice. Went to Razor Rd. exit. They were told the road was bad. Unhooked and drove truck in. Ron buried his trailer in sand & gravel in 4wd and 2nd gear. They should have known better. 6 miles into the camping area. Once you start, you are committed. Thanks to Melissa for suggesting to pack a shovel. Dropped pressure to 20psi to get out. 4wd in 4th gear to get out. Went in and back out when decided to camp elsewhere. Wes was stuck on the way out. Knew others would get stuck. Went to Dumont Dunes. Tons of vehicles. 12,000 feet elevation. Hills are 400 feet high. Huges bowls. Great time. Ron passed around pictures. Good time with the kids. Were invited to go on a ride out Sperry Wash and hang a left, and go way out. Riding 5 miles on the pavement. Didn’t go because didn’t want to go on the wilderness. Went to the little dunes. Wes left and didn’t come back. They found him an hour later. Found a cool mine. Walked trails, rock house, lots of mining stuff and monuments about history. Had a good time. Only problem was number of people. 25,000 people there by the end of the weekend. Sheriff’s sub station, BLM people. There were a few idiots riding through other’s camps. Tim’s new trailer broke on the way home. Wes broke his hitch on the way home. Gary went to Clear Creek for Thanksgiving. Said it was a nice area, lots of people also. Most trails are only big enough for bikes Future Runs: Xmas Party December 6 at Richard & Gigi’s. 14 signed up so far. Expect 20-30 people. Maybe bring some chairs. Gareth said he had tables and chairs. Should be good now. BYOB. 6 tri-tips and 8 chickens bought from Swingle’s. Bought drinks, sodas. Gigi will submit bill to Mark. Get there noonish. Afternoon for dinner before it gets dark. Dec 27-Jan 4 Doran Beach-make a reservation 37-47 in Gull Campground. There are no more spaces available. Mike needs to get a sign up page on the web. January 15 WFF-talked about earlier. Sign ups are now closed. Emigrant Rd.-no date yet. Topaz snow run-will talk about it next meeting. Hollister Hills-3rd weekend in March. Molina Ghost Run is also same weekend, so might want to do that instead. Not much further south than Hollister. If we do Hollister, we might get the group campsite. Discuss at the next meeting. Del’s Death Valley Run-no date yet. Late March. Disneyland-Richard & Gigi late March, before spring break. Don would like to do another run to Shaver Lake area. Next meeting January 8th. Will set some runs at the next meeting. Adjourn: 9:08 p.m.