President's Message

Spring is here and it is time to start thinking about some summer adventures. To begin with I want to remind everyone that our primary goal for the April club meeting is to develop a list of activities for the summer. Hopefully you will be giving it some thought and be ready to offer up some great ideas.
To say the least, the winter season was pretty uneventful for having good conditions at 4th of July. Let’s all hope that the potential for a better snow year in ‘24/’25 becomes more promising next Fall. But there were a few activities that were successful over the past few months. I want to thank everyone who participated in them. Especially, I want to thank the folks that stepped up and organized and led activities. Hopefully you will consider organizing a summer time opportunity that will get folks together to hike, bike, camp or party.
At the club meeting we will also need to take a few moments to address two upcoming items. The first is the election, or approval, of a new president and/or changes in board member roles. To begin with, Scott Gossard has offered to take on the role of President starting next Fall. If approved by the membership, I will step down from that role and stick around to help Scott transition.
Randy Brewer has indicated he would like to step down from the roles of VP/treasurer and WEB manager. Since I signed the Forest Service Special Use Permit and liability insurance policy for 4th of July and the club, it seemed appropriate that I should stay on the board a little longer. Also, like Randy, I am already authorized to deposit or withdraw funds from the treasury bank account. So I offered to take over the treasurer role. So with Randy’s help I will be transitioning into that role next Fall.
But we are still hoping a member would be willing to join the board and eventually take over being the WEB manager. Until then, Randy has agreed to continue taking care of the WEB site for now. But in order to establish some redundancy for the future, Scott and I will start trying to become more familiar with the WEB tasks Randy takes care of. If anyone is interested, I would encourage you to come to the board meetings next year to see how things function. You might find you would like to become more involved.
The second item involves an opportunity to promote the club and, maybe, encourage recruitment of some new members. Mark Staumbaugh with the Kootenai County Mountain Rescue Team has invited the club to set up a recruiting/PR table at their fund-raising event on May 22nd. He will be at next Tuesday’s club meeting and will give everyone more details about the event. The board discussed the offer, and we all agreed that it would be well worth our effort to take advantage of the opportunity. If anyone is interested in joining us, Scott and I will be representing the club at the event. Let us know if you want to tag along.
Finally, for the April meeting will meet again for pizza and beer, or soda pop. After searching around it turns out that the Pizza Factory is still our best option for the final meeting of the season. I have
reserved the group room (i.e. the same one we’ve met in in the past) from 6:30 – 8:00 PM on April 2nd. I would encourage everyone to order before you arrive so we can get our pizzas and drinks early.
Hopefully, most everyone can make it to the meeting. So see you there!