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Published: March 07 2011

Last Updated: March 07 2011

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SLAGA Board Meeting Minutes

Meeting date: March 2, 2011

Present: John and Laurie Elfrank, Jim Greene, Mike Henthorn, Rich Sheffold, Yvonne Von Der Ahe, Tom Wolpert

The board expressed its sympathy to Yvonne Von Der Ahe on the loss of her brother. The board approved a donation in his memory to his favorite charity.  SLAGA will reimburse John Elfrank for the donation.

John Elfrank reported that there had been a fraudulent charge on his SLAGA card. The card has been cancelled, a new card will be issued, and the SLAGA account will be credited for the charge.

The board accepted the treasurer’s report. Other than the fraudulent charge, there were no unusual items on the report.

John Elfrank reported that he has booked the pavilion at Cliff Cave County Park for the fall picnic, which he and Laurie will host. The picnic date has been changed to Sunday, September 11, 2011 because the pavilion was unavailable on any suitable Saturday. John has already updated the SLAGA calendar. SLAGA will pay a reasonable fee for the use of the pavilion.

Dennis from St. Louis County Parks is sending the necessary forms to book the Grant Shelter for the January, 2012 potluck.

Rich Sheffold reported that he has checked with the Missouri reviewers. They will permit the inclusion of the Missouri Botanical Garden’s QR codes on the cache pages associated with the Tree-mendous series of caches.

Tom Wolpert reported that he reviewed the approximate locations of the six trees for which Sheila Voss has provided coordinates. There are most likely proximity problems with at least 3 of the 6.  The consensus was that simple, two-stage multi-caches are the best way to handle this issue.  Post-meeting: Tom Wolpert relayed that information to Sheila Voss and encouraged her to get us the remaining coordinates as quickly as possible so as to make it more likely that we will be able to meet her April 1 launch date.  No response so far.

John Elfrank reported that no one attended the premium member training class (GSAK Q&A with Steve Bromley) on February 16, 2011. Nevertheless, we will leave the St. Charles edition of this class on the calendar for Monday, March 14, 2011.

John Elfrank reported that the Cliff Cave library facilities are not as nice as those at the Tesson Ferry branch, but that they are satisfactory.

After discussion, the board decided to try something different for the class scheduled for Wednesday, April 20, 2011. This will be a panel discussion/Q&A on general geocaching topics. It will be open to all geocachers, whether or not they are members/premium members of SLAGA. SLAGA will host a meet and greet event in conjunction with this class.  Jim Greene will handle the event page.

After discussion, the board decided to defer library reservations for fall classes pending the outcome of the panel discussion/Q&A. We hope that this will generate suggestions for additional topics.

Jim Green reported that it is still too early to check on attendees for the upcoming Complete GPS class.

Rich Sheffold reported finding some better prices for folding tables.  John Elfrank will check the Dollar Store to see if the sale is still on.

Mike Henthorn reported that he and John Elfrank still have not had time to work on the trailer jack.

At John Elfrank’s suggestion, the board approved the purchase of 250 promotional pens/carbiners imprinted with the SLAGA web site URL.

Laurie Elfrank reported that arrangements for the SLAGA spring picnic are still not definite.  We will include a call for hosts and a location in the next newsletter.

There was discussion of random web site errors encountered by members while attempting to renew their paid SLAGA memberships. We really don’t have enough details to do much about it.

We have a request from Melanie Palmer, the Director of Adult Development for the Girl Scouts of Eastern Missouri, to assist in the creation of a geocaching training course for adult volunteers. Tom Wolpert has been in touch with Melanie and will handle the discussion. The board approved giving the Girls Scouts a copy of the Geocaching 101 PowerPoint deck. Post-meeting: Tom Wolpert is scheduled to meet with Melanie Palmer on Tuesday, March 8, 2011.

Tom Wolpert reported that St. Louis County Parks has not made any suggestions regarding CITO locations for spring, 2011.  The consensus was that we should contact John Vogel at the Missouri Department of Conservation for suggestions regarding a CITO at Busch Wildlife.

We have a request from Phillip Whitehead at St. Mary’s Middle School in Alton to put on a program during the school day.  Since we don’t have the resources to handle this type of request, Tom Wolpert will respond with general guidelines for this type of event, an invitation to the upcoming Geocaching 101 class, and an offer to ask for volunteers in the newsletter if they can provide us with specific dates.  Post-meeting: Tom Wolpert sent e-mail and has received no response.

Meeting adjourned.

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Written by twolpert

Published: February 17 2011

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SLAGA Board Meeting Minutes

 Meeting date: February 9, 2011

Present: John and Laurie Elfrank, Jim Greene, Mike Henthorn, Rich Sheffold, Yvonne Von Der Ahe, Tom Wolpert

Guest: Sheila Voss (Missouri Botanical Garden education department)

Sheila Voss gave a brief presentation about the Botanical Garden’s upcoming Great St. Louis Tree Hunt program, which will run from April 1 through November, 2011. This is a scavenger hunt which involves locating 20 to 30 designated “Treemendous” trees located throughout the greater St. Louis metropolitan area. The Garden wants to encourage both low-tech and high-tech means to locate and visit the trees in question. As part of the high-tech approach, the Garden would like someone to place caches at as many locations as possible. After lengthy discussion, the Board concluded that the best approach would be to recruit volunteers to place a “Treemendous” series of caches where feasible.

Next steps: Sheila Voss will provide the coordinates of the trees as they become available. SLAGA will check locations with an eye toward cache placement and recruit volunteers as needed.

The board voted to reimburse John Elfrank for the cost of the special award coins presented at the potluck. John passed the receipts to Yvonne Von Der Ahe for reimbursement. Yvonne reimbursed Rich Sheffold for expenses related to the potluck.

The board accepted the treasurer’s report.

Mike Henthorn reported that he contacted Brittany Ruess (Lifestyle editor for the Webster University paper The Journal) twice in response to her request for assistance with a class article. She failed to return his e-mails. No further action.

Mike Griffin volunteered to handle the request from Eric Mircsov for a geocaching presentation and/or activity at the Fall Fun Rally on Saturday, September 24, 2011 at Beaumont Reservation. This is a BSA Venture crew activity and is not open to the public.  Post meeting: SLAGA calendar has been updated with a placeholder.

John Elfrank reviewed action items from the January minutes.  Results were as follows.

·         Jim Greene reported that he had filed the paperwork with County Parks to finalize the (revised) dates for the Complete GPS and Geocaching 101 courses.

·         John Elfrank reported that he did investigate the availability and cost of tables and chairs.  Both were prohibitively expensive.

·         John Elfrank reported that he and Mike Henthorn had not had the opportunity to discuss the tongue jack for the trailer. 

·         John Elfrank reported that he did confirm the February and March premium member training classes with Steve Bromley, who will do his GSAK Q&A for both sessions.

·         John Elfrank reported that he did check on marketing materials with the SLAGA logo. The consensus was that we should go with stubby pens. John will price and report back. Post-meeting information: John forwarded quotes for a combined carabiner/stubby pen to the board.

Rich Sheffold reported that he updated the posters in St. Louis County Parks facilities with the revised class dates.

Rich Sheffold reported that he had not received confirmation of a discounted rate for the Grant Pavilion for the potluck in 2012. Rich will check on this through official channels at County Parks. The board also discussed possible alternative locations should the Grant Shelter prove to be too expensive.  The date for the next potluck will be Saturday, January 28, 2012.  Post meeting: SLAGA calendar has been updated with a placeholder.

Mike Henthorn confirmed the continued availability of space at his office for the St. Charles edition of premium member training classes.

Additional dates for training classes are as follows. Tom Wolpert will book library space for the additional St. Louis County dates and update the SLAGA calendar accordingly.  Post-meeting: Future classes tabled because there were no attendees at the February GSAK session. No reservations or calendar entries made.

·         Monday, March 14, St. Charles. Second edition of Steve Bromley’s GSAK Q&A.

·         Monday May 16, St. Charles.

·         Wednesday, September 14, St. Louis County.

·         Monday, October 17, St. Charles.

·         Wednesday, November 16, St. Louis County

The board reviewed the contents of the upcoming newsletter.

John and Laurie Elfrank volunteered to host the SLAGA fall picnic at Cliff Cave County Park on Saturday, September 10, 2011. Date and location are tentative. Post meeting: SLAGA calendar has been updated with a placeholder.

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SLAGA Board Meeting Minutes

Meeting date:  January 5, 2011

Present: John and Laurie Elfrank, Jim Greene, Mike Henthorn, Rich Sheffold, Yvonne Von Der Ahe, Tom Wolpert

Jim Greene will handle the County Parks paperwork related to the Geocaching 101 and Complete GPS classes as he has done in the past.

The treasurer’s report for December was read and accepted.  It was noted that SLAGA subsidized the food at the Christmas party, which resulted in a very small deficit related to that event.

The board discussed SLAGA equipment needs.  As a result of the discussion:

·         John Elfrank will purchase three lightweight, eight-foot tables and three or four standard height folding chairs.  To be stored in the trailer and used at SLAGA and public events.

·         John Elfrank will attempt to replace the storage bag for the vertical SLAGA sign.  The existing bag has deteriorated beyond repair.

·         John Elfrank and Mike Henthorn will investigate replacing the tongue jack on the SLAGA trailer with another which has a wheel.

The board discussed the possibility to issuing a geocoin as a premium member perk, along with a pathtag and/or hat pin for non-premium members.  There was a consensus that this was a worthwhile idea, but it was tabled for the moment.

John Elfrank reviewed the content for the upcoming edition of the newsletter.  Noteworthy items include the following.

·         Article on the New Year’s Day meet and greet and group hunt. The board expressed its appreciation to Myotis (Jim Bensman) for his new earth cache, Where’s the Confluence?, which was the hit of the outing.

·         January 10^th is the deadline for submitting milestone information for awards at the winter potluck.

·         Dues for longtime premium members are due on January 31.  Newer members renew on the anniversary of their membership.

The premium member training class for January was cancelled for lack of interest.  The next class, in February, will be presented by Steve Bromley.  The subject will be GSAK.  John Elfrank to confirm this with Steve.  The St. Louis County edition of both spring classes will be held at the Cliff Cave Branch of the St. Louis Public Library.  This is a change from past practice.  Date, time and location details are already on the calendar.

It was noted that SLAGA logo on the Calendar is outdated.  Mike Griffin will likely need to address this since none of the rest of us knows how.

Jim Greene will handle the loan paperwork and delivery of the GPS units to the Missouri History Museum in Forest Park for their upcoming activity.

Bart Cross (bartindesperes) has requested assistance with a Cub Pack outing related to geocaching.  Consistent with SLAGA practice, we will offer planning assistance and the loan of GPS units, but no direct participation. Bart subsequently indicated that he had enough information to proceed.  He has registered as a member and will presumably request the loan of the GPS units when his dates are set.

MOAPHERD has requested SLAGA participation at their annual convention in November, 2011.  We will receive more information after their executive committee meeting in February.  SLAGA has a strong interest in participating since this represents an opportunity to educate adults about geocaching.  Tom Wolpert is handling communication with Shelly Gannaway from MOAPHERD.

The board discussed supplies and SLAGA participation in the winter potluck.  The following items were decided.

·         John and Laurie Elfrank  will update the online supplies inventory to match their most recent physical inventory (after the fall picnic).  They will coordinate supply purchases for the potluck with Rich and Charlotte Sheffold.

·         Jim Greene will handle the production of cachers’ bingo sheets for the potluck.

·         John Elfrank and Rich Sheffold will purchase really nice, useful-to-all prizes for the potluck.

·         Laurie Elfrank will recruit an assistant for the travel bug table at the potluck.

John Elfrank will look into the purchase of marketing materials, most likely pens, with SLAGA contact information.  To be given to those who express a serious interest in SLAGA at public events.

The board congratulated Mike Henthorn on his excellent interview in the current edition of St. Louis Magazine.  The board also expressed amusement at the accompanying sidebar (not Mike’s fault) and wishes to caution members about the dangers of wet logs during the winter months.

Meeting adjourned.

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Published: December 03 2010

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SLAGA Board Meeting Minutes

Meeting date:  December 1, 2010.

Present: John and Laurie Elfrank, Mike Henthorn, Sarah Chisholm, Jim Greene, Yvonne Von Der Ahe, Tom Wolpert

John Elfrank and Yvonne Von Der Ahe updated the membership rolls for all cash payments received in November. In the future, Yvonne will handle this.

The treasurer’s report for November was accepted.  There were no unusual income or expense items.

John Elfrank presented a request from a non-member to promote a breast cancer awareness fund raiser on the SLAGA web site. The fund raiser involves the sale of geocoins and pins as well as some other activities. No one had any objections. The request was referred to Sarah Chisholm for comment and possible action.

John Elfrank reported that no one attended the November premium member class on how to hold a geocaching event. As a result, the January class in St. Charles on the same topic will not be held.  The SLAGA calendar has been updated to reflect the change.

There was a general discussion as to whether or not to continue premium member classes in view of the lack of interest.  It was also suggested that we might open the classes to all members, rather than just premium members.  After some discussion, the consensus was that we will again offer the spring classes to premium members only.  John Elfrank will gather statistics on suggested topics and attendance.  The decision as to whether or not to continue will be left up to the next board.

Tom Wolpert will handle booking St. Louis County Library space for the February and April class dates.  Preferred dates are Wednesdays in the middle of the month (February 16, 2011 and April 20, 2011).  Alternate dates are the Wednesdays immediately before and after those dates. 

Post-meeting information:  The Tesson Ferry branch is booked solid.  We reserved meeting room #2 at the Cliff Cave branch for 6-9 pm on Wednesday, February 16, 2011 and Wednesday, April 20, 2011.  Tom Wolpert will handle paying for these reservations and placing them on the SLAGA calendar.  Topics for the classes TBD.

Laurie Elfrank will include another plea for class topic suggestions in the next newsletter.

John Elfrank reviewed upcoming local events and SLAGA participation.

• Christmas party on December 18, 2010.  SLAGA will provide 5 ready to place regular-sized caches as prizes for the photo scavenger hunt. Caches to include regular-sized geocaching.com containers, log books, pencils and swag. Jim Greene will handle this.  Mike Henthorn e-mailed Mike Griffin regarding the inclusion of a food drive in addition to the planned Toys for Tots drive.  Mike Griffin to clear this with the restaurant and update the cache page.  Laurie Elfrank to include mention of the food drive in the next newsletter.
• Meet and greet and group hunt on January 1, 2011.  Cache page is up.  No special SLAGA participation required other than the promised live entertainment.
• Annual slurpin’ soup and watchin’ eagles event on January 8, 2011.  Chod is sponsoring as usual.  Cache page is up.  No special SLAGA participation required.
• Winter potluck on January 29, 2011.  MOGA will donate some materials for the silent auction.  SLAGA provides everything else except the food.

Sarah Chisholm asked about placing non-SLAGA events, particularly mega-events, on the calendar.  After discussion, there was no objection to placing brief mentions on the calendar so as to give everybody a place to look for conflicts when scheduling local events.  Detailed calendar entries will only be made for events within a 250 mile radius.

John Elfrank gave Tom Wolpert an introduction to SLAGA calendar maintenance.

Meeting adjourned.

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Published: November 09 2010

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SLAGA Board Meeting Minutes

Meeting date:  November 3, 2010.

Present: John and Laurie Elfrank, Mike Henthorn, Sarah Chisolm, Jim Greene, Rich Sheffold, Yvonne Von Der Ahe, Tom Wolpert

Mike Henthorn reviewed the minutes from the meeting on October 6, 2010. No open items remain.

Sarah Chisolm reported that the SLAGA pathtag backs are complete and available for purchase.  The Board expressed its appreciation for Sarah’s work on the design and excellent results.

Mike Henthorn reported that he updated the GC 101 PowerPoint presentation on Google Docs and sent it to Terra Jones as requested.

John Elfrank reported that no one showed up for BruceS’ St. Charles training class on Waymarking.  It will not be rescheduled.  Mike Henthorn has conveyed our apologies to BruceS.

John Elfrank solicited suggestions for future training class topics, as well as discussion on the subject of training classes in general.  Discussion points included the following.
* Solicit suggestions from members at large via the newsletter.  Laurie Elfrank to include this in the next newsletter.
* Post a similar request on the SLAGA forums.  Not assigned.  Tom Wolpert will handle if no one else does.
* New members are the most likely to benefit from/have an interest in classes.  Is it possible to target new members in the last 3-6 months for an e-mail blast?  Tom Wolpert sent an e-mail to Steve Bromley to see what’s possible.
* Should the robo-mail welcome letter sent to new members be updated to include more information on premium member benefits, particularly training classes?
* Should classes be open to all members, not just to premium members?
* Should we consider eliminating St. Charles classes in view of declining attendance?

John Efrank noted that the reservation deadline for County Library facilities was November 1.  There is no training class in December. February and April dates will need to be selected and reserved if South County classes are to continue.  No decision.

Sarah Chisolm volunteered to teach “Pimp My Cache Page” again if there is interest.  Regardless, she will update her notes and Jim Greene will post them on a public access area on the SLAGA web site.

Mike Henthorn received an e-mail from Mike Griffin.  Brawny Bear and JC_Geo will host the Christmas party on Saturday, December 18, 2010 at Incredible Pizza Company in St. Peters.  Time not yet determined.  Event page not yet submitted.

Mike Henthorn reported that he responded to the interview request from Noah Readhead at SIUE. Noah has been in contact with Mike.  The interview will take place sometime this week.

Dates for 2011 Geocaching 101 classes are Saturday, April 23 and Saturday, October 8.  Dates for 2011 Complete GPS classes are Saturday, March 19 and Saturday, September 17.  After discussion, the consensus was that classes should be held at Queeny Park because of its central location.  Rich Sheffold will confirm the dates and location with County Parks.

John Elfrank reported that the SLAGA website currently has 349 registered members, of whom 173 are premium members.  Future e-mail blasts will use this information as planned.

There are 35 SLAGA path tags on hand.  An additional order was discussed.  Sarah Chisolm volunteered to look at a design.  No decision was made on the reorder.

An event is planned for January 1, 2011.  Laurie Elfrank will ask for suggestions for the group caching outing in the next newsletter.

John Elfrank reported that we cannot apply for a repeated display at the Tesson Ferry library until October, 2011.  Decision deferred to the new board.  In the past, we have also had a display at Oak Bend branch.  Anyone who wants to organize a display at any library is welcome to do so.

Yvonne Von Der Ahe presented the treasurer’s report, including details for income and expenses for the fall picnic.  The fall picnic did not lose money.

Meeting adjourned.