New York / New Jersey Trail Conference
Volunteer Committee
Thursday, August 20, 2009
1:00 PM
Agenda
1. Review Minutes of July 16
What ARE we going to do next?
Who will take minutes?
2. Organization Structure - Ed Goodell
3. Five trail problems we need to address as a committee - Estelle and Bob
4. Strategy and Job descriptions needed to recruit H.R. people and
others to the committee - Mary Ann
5. Youth Policy Review
6. Status of Recognitions
7. Satisfaction Survey for volunteers
MINUTES – VOLUNTEER COMMIITTEE
NYNJ TRAIL CONFERENCE
Date: August 20, 2009
Attendees: Estelle Anderson, Chris Connolly, Catherine Gemmell, Bob Jonas, Mary Anne Massey, Dan Van Engle
Minutes: Mary Anne Massey
Awards:
Chris Connolly presented possible nominees to be submitted at the September meeting for board approval. We agreed to the following:
John Gunsler for the Torrey Award in recognition of his overall contributions to the Trail Conference and specifically for spearheading a $1.5 million campaign to finance land purchases.
Jim Haggett for the Hoeferlin Award as the AT chair for in Duchess and Putnam for 25 years.
John Mack for the Hoeferlin Award for his work as SW Hudson Trails Chair.
We decided to wait on considering Ron Luna and Glen Oleksak for awards. While they both make considerable contributions, their relatively short length of service is an issue. They should be considered for future awards assuming continued excellent performance.
Jill Arbuckle for the Ken Lloyd Award (to award the work of club members on trails).
Jim and Carolin Canfield should be considered for the Ken Lloyd Award next year.
To make Walt Daniels an Honorary Life Member for his exceptional devotion to the Trail Conference demonstrated in innumerable ways.
We also agreed to propose to the board a new award for exceptional, sustained, reliable service to the Trail Conference for a minimum of 20 years. This is intended to award people who are consistently reliable in their service to the TC. Examples of possible nominees are Bob Messerschmidt and Richard Zinn.
There were no nominees for youth or partners.
T-Shirts:
Catherine informed us of $4600 to be spent by the end of September on T-shirts. We agreed on color and design which Catherine will order.
Trail Problems:
Bob and Estelle presented 5 types of problems that are evident in trail work. They are:
1. Lack of communication because of considerable turnover in chairs and supervisors. Volunteer retention is critical and the chair plays an important role in retention. This is not a structural problem but one of lack of consistent performance by those in supervisory positions and/or lack of people in those positions due to turnover.
2. Vacancies caused by lack of retention and problems recruiting dedicated volunteers. It is critical that we follow up with names of potential new volunteers and that we track people who have expressed interest.
3. Poor accountability at all levels, both supervisory and maintainer. This is seen most particularly in missed deadlines for reports. It is important that some mechanism or job be created to track reports.
4. Poor communication with trail partners including state parks and arboretums.
5. Lack of enforcement by agencies which results in serious problems such as those caused by ATV’S.
We did not agree on any particular action plan, but noted that accountability at all levels needs to be addressed and that this whole area of issues needs further discussion at future meetings.
Position Description Writers
Mary Anne reviewed a proposed position description which was accepted. Catherine will post the description.
Next meeting: October15