Last Meeting Minutes
HOUSTON CANOE CLUB GENERAL MEETING
February 12th, 2013
Bayland Park Community Center
Temporary Recorder: John Rich
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Harmon Everett |
Commodore Harmon Everett opened the meeting at 7:05, and introduced the Board of Officers.
Harmon made an announcement for the two open positions on the Board: Vice Commodore, and Recorder. If you are interested in filling one of these positions, contact Harmon.
The meeting minutes from January were approved.
Honey Leveen and Natalie Wiest gave a briefing on the plans and preparations for the 50th Anniversary celebration. The event will be held Saturday, October 11th - mark your calenders! The venue is the Bay Area Community Center in Clear Lake Park, in Seabrook, on Mud Lake, just downstream from Armand Bayou. The facility will hold over 400 people, with a full commercial kitchen, bayou access and plenty of parking. Custom apparel is available with the Houston Canoe Club 50th Anniversary logo on them. There are a wide range of selections and styles (T-shirts, hoodies, etc.), colors, logo size. and logo placement location. You can even provide your own shirt upon which to have the logo applied. The only requirement is that it must be 100% cotton for proper application. A budget for the celebration will be presented later, and will require a vote of the membership to approve since it will be an expenditure of over $500. The 50th Anniversary Committee plans on inviting current and former club members, the media, other paddling clubs, and politicians to the big event.
Purser Bob Naeger gave a financial report. And the big news is, the club's IRS tax exempt organization approval finally arrived in the mail, after several years of trials and tribulations. You can also see his detailed club annual financial report elsewhere in this issue.
Bosun Kenny Pape introduced new members, including Jerry from Wisconsin, who heard about HCC from a local canoe outfitter.
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Dave Kitson |
Fleet Captain Dave Kitson stepped to the podium and invited members to talk about recents trips. These included:
- Armand Bayou, by Will Blumentritt.
- San Bernard River, by Joe Coker
- Texas Winter 100k, 62 miles in one day, by Christy Long and Will Blumentritt
- San Marcos River, with the polers, by Bob Naeger
- Trinity River with HASK, 26 miles, by Will Blumentritt
- Elkhorn Slough, Carmel, California, by Tom Douglas
Next up, was scheduled future trips:
- Boquillos Canyon, Big Bend National Park, Texas: water level in the Rio Grande River is low, and if they can't paddle, they'll hike.
- San Marcos River Annual Cleanup, March 1st, by Robert Langley.
- Buffalo Bayou, racing practice run, by Terri Herdlicka.
Dave next moved on to the annual Trip Leader awards, recognizing everyone who led one or more trips for the membership last year. The prize: Custom HCC logo coozies.
And finally, Dave concluded his segment with awards to all club members who paddled over 100 miles last year. Their prize was a nice custom T-shirt with the HCC logo.
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| Trip Leaders |
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100-Milers |
For complete details on Trip Leader and 100-Mile Paddler awards, see last month's story.
Newsletter Editor John Rich introduced two new monthly feature articles. The first is the "Member Profile", in which a different club member is profiled each month, giving biographical info and paddling experience, as a way of getting to know each other. The second feature is the "Nature Nook", which talks about some aspect of nature each month, flora or fauna, as a way of expanding our knowledge of what we experience while paddling.
Tom Douglas announced the plans for a new nature preserve near Lake Anahuac called the Turtle Bayou Protection Project, which will include a canoe launch.
The feature presentation was by Susan Heath of the Gulf Coast Bird Observatory, who spent an hour with a wonderful talk and slide show, educating us on shore birds of the Texas Gulf Coast, especially the ground-nesting American Oyster Catcher, whose population size is small and diminishing. At the end of her presentation, Harmon presented Susan with a copy of Natalie's paddling guidebook.
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| Gulf Coast Bird Observatory |
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Susan Heath and Harmon |
The meeting was adjourned at 5 minutes to 9:00, just in time to put the chairs away before the custodian locks up.
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Temporary Recorder,
John Rich |