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NMMBA Board of Directors Meeting

Date & location: Wednesday, June 14th, 2023 Acme Twp Hall

Board present: Tim Reicha II, Kim White, Tom White, Kate White, Mike Walters, Heath Day, Chad Schut, Brian Pugh, Brooke Ruble and Steve Mentzer

Board absent: Tim Jenema, Chad Jordan and Michele Andrews

Mission statement —--> It is our mission to Envision, Build and Protect the mountain bike experience while respecting all forest users and uses.

Tim opened the meeting at 6:33 p.m.

May minutes were approved by email.

Tim introduced Brooke Ruble, the new Glacial Hills representative to the NMMBA board.

There were no public comments.

Financials:

Kim informed the board that the winter grooming account with new signees has been opened. And the appropriate funds have been moved over.

Kim also noted that a few new donations have been received for the Dan Morley fund. These will be utilized for the VST TREE project.

TCTF sponsorship opportunities are also coming in as well.

Some discussion as to specific line items.

Chapter reports:

• Bike Leelanau-From an email provided by Chad Jordan

  • Herman Park Pumptrack- The modular pumptrack has been ordered through American Ramp Company and was originally scheduled to be delivered next week.  The parks and rec board asked to postpone the delivery due to parking, pickleball court and soccer field construction.  The track was rescheduled for a more suitable date that reflects the substantial completion date of the multiple projects on July 15.  Shortly after this we will have a weekend workbee to place road gravel and assemble the modules.

  • Heritage Trail Connector to Palmer Woods-  Chad met with TART, National Park Service, Friends of Sleeping Bear Heritage Trail (FSBHT), and the Leelanau Conservancy to discuss the project of connecting Palmer Woods to the Heritage Trail through the Consumers Power utility corridor.  This connection will provide a safety link for multi-use traffic parallel to Wheeler Rd.  FSBHT will bring this project to their board of directors for approval. FSBHT already has a maintenance relationship with the NPS and will parent our volunteers to complete the hand work necessary to complete this link.  We are awaiting an archaeological review and may be able to proceed with construction as early as September.

  • Provemont Pond- Molly has been busy keeping the trails open and maintained that have been constructed already.  She did a walk through with a representative of the donor group for this project.  The next step is to design and implement a wayfinding plan and kiosk design. These design items are hoped to be crafted over the few months with a desired installation in late summer or early fall

Cadillac Pathway:

No report

Glacial Hills:

Brooke provided the update for GH.

• Trail system in excellent shape, despite dry weather

• YTD, there have been 8 organized work days with total volunteer hours of 316

• Trail Counters have been installed 

• Trailer wrap to be installed within next 2 weeks - very successful fundraiser to help pay for wrap (artwork sale)

• Project to bring well water to Vandermark trailhead under way 

• Board evaluating parking expansion options - may be a ’24 project

• The Bellaire Chamber of Commerce has selected the Friends of Glacial Hills as the “Volunteer of the Year”!

TCTN:

Brian, Mike and Tom provided the update for TCTN.

• Next DNR/NMMBA meeting Thursday June 29th:

• Continue to review TCTN Trail Development Proposal

• Review draft of DNR/NMMBA MOU

• VST TREE Phase 2:

• New restroom delivery scheduled for the last week of July or 1st week of August as an installation date.

• Developing engineered drawing for Changing Room (Fall 2023 install)

• GLS/Ellis provided quote for new DNR designed information Kiosk

• Need to schedule date to install Trailhead Archway

• VST TREE Pavilion donation email sent to all LBS’s, no response yet

• What date for Fiesta, need to initiate DNR Permit.

• July 27th was suggested for the Fiesta date.

• Scorched earth reroute open and old trail through private property closed

• Two reroutes completed within the Muncie Lake Pathway system.  Still to be completed is the closure of the old trail.  Brian B from TART to review before closure (scheduled for 6/14)

• The largest of three 2023 Iceman reroutes has been designed and marked for DNR inspection and possible approval. Alternate routes may be affected by logging.

• Both short and long TCTN courses have been designed and mapped.

 

Old business:

TCTF

Discussion about a block of campsites for volunteers that wish to stay at Timber Ridge(TR) onsite Friday night. For Saturday duties.

Tim to get with TR for what is available.

Updated total dollars received for TCTF sponsorships. Figure is now at $9400.00.

 

Grants:

It was noted that we had been awarded $5000 from Cherry Capital Cycling Club(CCCC) to go towards phase II of the VST TREE project.

Huge thank you will be extended to CCCC for moving us closer to our goal.

 

Tim and Brian had met with Julie Hay, managing partner of HKM and Associates in regards to grant writing and other fundraising strategies.

Other services touched on include a fund development strategy. HKM would review past fundraising efforts and tailor new goals for NMMBA.

A funding pathways research. This plan would include organizing funding opportunities. Drawing from 7-15 sources.

Grant writing services were also discussed.

Board development training course. 

This would be a half day training course for board members.

More specific aspects of these programs and associated costs were discussed. More to follow.

 

Other ideas on raising funds included posting the Mane Content videos to our website and also making them available to the local bike shops(LBS).

Also mentioned were the LBS rounding up their sales and any extra dollars would be awarded to NMMBA.

 

 

Acme Bike Park:

Memorandum of Understanding(MOU) has been signed and we can now move forward with submitting grant applications towards our expected total goal of $90,000.

 

Grant application with Grand Traverse Regional Community Foundation(GTRCF).

Proposal was reviewed and Kate will submit the application before the July 14th deadline.

 

Drive fundraising 2023:

With the ideas for fundraising through the LBS, it was also brought up that the grooming program could generate some dollars that could be used towards our project goals.

 

NMMBA memberships/website:

Half year review of membership adjustments.

• Auto renewal options

• Multi year options

• Recurring donation option

• Project donation add on options.

VST TREE will be added as a project donation.

 

 

Shop rides:

Chad updated the board on LBS rides.

Einstein has committed to June 20th.

McLain’s has their scheduled Monday night rides from the VST.

 

City Bike Shop is looking at multiple distances on their rides.

They are looking at some July dates.

Wild Card Cycle Works have a regular Wednesday night ride from the VST.

With August, September and October open, it was suggested that Brick Wheels, Einstein Cadillac and Paddles and Pedals could be contacted about taking some of these dates.

 

New Business:

Tim proposed the idea of a monthly newsletter written by the board.

The board members would be asked to contribute a section each month.

• These topics could include:
• Course updates
• Grooming updates
• Event sections
• Tech tips
• President’s message
• Among others.

More to follow.

 

Open Forum:

General discussion on the Commons MOU.

 

 

With that the meeting was adjourned at 8:30 p.m.

 

Submitted by 

Steve Mentzer, secretary