The meeting was called to order at 7:05 p.m. Officers in attendance were Brent Hwang, Commodore; Greg Fan, Vice Commodore; Tyrone White, Boatswain; Christy Long, Fleet Captain; Harmon Everett, Newsletter Editor; and Alice Nissen, Recorder. Tom Douglas, Conservation Chairman, was in attendance. Sixteen attendees in person and eight attendees via Zoom for a total attendance of 24.
Tyrone gave the boatswain report, stating that as of February 29, there were three new members (two of whom were re-joins) and nine renewing members, for a total membership of 147. Facebook has 990 members. He welcomed guests and new members. He reminded us about the upcoming Buffalo Regatta where he will have a booth for HCC.
Brent gave Bob Naeger’s purser report and stated that our current balance is $7252 (mostly from membership dues).
Harmon gave the safety report and stressed the importance of driving safely to and from paddling events. He also stated the new deadline date for article submission to the newsletter is the 25th of each month.
Tom gave the conservation report. Detailed information is in the conservation forum on our website.
Christy gave the fleet captain report and stated that there were three trips last month: Turtle Bayou (John and Cindy Bartos) for 6.6 miles; DeGray Lake (Kent Walters) for 3.1 miles; San Marcos River Rendezvous, section 2 for 3.1 miles and section 5 for 3.3 miles. On March 10, Joe Coker led a 5.5-mile trip on Turtle Bayou. Upcoming trips: Caddo River (Arkansas) on March 15; the Buffalo Regatta on March 23; Trash Bash on Armand Bayou on March 23; a camping/paddling trip on San Marcos on April 8 - 9 to view the total eclipse; Kent Walters’s trip on the Buffalo River (Arkansas) from April 17 to April 23; Joe Coker’s trip on April 27 on Champion Lake.
Joe Coker was introduced as tonight’s speaker. Joe is a well-known, well-respected, long-time member of HCC. He will talk about the Florida trip in January, led by Christy Long. Nine people went on the trip. Camping was at Paynes Prairie Preserve, south of Gainesville, which is a beautiful park with free-range buffalo and wild horses, with shady, private campsites amidst palmettos and tropical foliage. There are over 700 springs in Florida, 30 to 40 of which are Class 1. The spring waters are crystal clear, and paddlers are able to easily view the manatees. This area is ecologically diverse with eagles, whooping cranes, turtles, red bellied cooters, alligators, ibis, herons, egrets, wood storks, sandhill cranes, and monkeys. The trip included four days of paddling: day one and day four on Silver Springs, where they saw many birds, monkeys, and manatees; day two on Juniper Springs, which was a paddling challenge in a swift-running, narrow canal through lush jungle-like foliage but not much wildlife was seen; and day three on Rainbow Springs, where many birds were seen. Seeing the beautiful, gentle manatees was the highlight of the trip. Thank you, Joe, for your great presentation and excellent photography of this fabulous trip.
The meeting was adjourned at 8:45.