Houston Canoe Club

General Membership Meeting

January 14, 2026

Call to Order: The meeting was called to order at 7:04 pm by Commodore, Natalie Wiest and Zoom access was granted to members who chose to meet virtually.

Officers in attendance were Natalie Wiest, Commodore; Christy Long, Vice Commodore and Website Master; Tracy Caldwell Becker, Purser (delayed arrival); Tyrone White, Boatswain; Harmon Everett, Newsletter Editor (via Zoom); Bruce Bodson, Fleet Captain; Mike Grove, Recorder; and Tom Douglas, Conservation Chairman 

No Officers were Absent.

Commodore’s Report: Natalie welcomed everyone to the first general membership meeting of 2026. She thanked Christy Long for preparing the agenda for the meeting, and she reported on one particular highlight of the January 7, 2026, Board meeting. Natalie reported the Board’s decision that the Club will purchase for $150 a 5-year Secure Socket Layers (SSL) certificate for the Club’s website. The SSL certificate, among other things, provides a standard security technology that encrypts the connection between a user's browser and the website's server, ensuring data like login details, credit card numbers, and personal info remains private and can't be intercepted by hackers. Natalie noted that people should now be able to access the website from wherever they are, and they will not be blocked or have other access barriers because the website is not secure.

Natalie next asked the Club’s other officers to give their reports.

Recorder’s Report: Mike Grove reported that there was no December 2025 general membership meeting and therefore no December meeting minutes to approve, and that there had been no opportunity to approve the November general membership meeting minutes. A motion and second were made to approve the November meeting minutes, and upon vote the motion carried.

Boatswain’s Report: Tyrone White reported that during December 2025, 2 new members were added, 12 members renewed, and as of the end of December there were 125 active members. There are also 1070 Facebook followers. Tyrone introduced a visitor, Oscar Hanz [sp?]. Oscar accepted Tyrone’s invitation to introduce himself to the Club, and Oscar said that he started kayaking at about 5 years old and has been kayaking for over 50 years. He was then welcomed by applause from all and encouraged to join HCC. Tyrone then introduced plans to make a big push this year to organize some staffed membership outreach activities to attract new members to HCC. Tyrone then noticed and introduced a new club member, Rich Fair, and invited Rich to introduce himself. Rich accepted and said that he is originally from Minnesota and grew up canoeing the Northern Border Boundary Waters where he paddled, volunteered, and guided there. He said that he also canoed 30 years ago at the Armand Bayou Nature Center. He was then welcomed to the Club with applause.

Purser’s Report: Tracy Caldwell Becker had not yet arrived at the meeting when Natalie first called for the Purser’s report, so Natalie gave a brief preliminary report that the Club finished 2025 about $45.00 ahead of where we started that year.   (Editor's note: The rest of the financial report has been redacted for security reasons.)

Newsletter Editor’s Report:  Harmon Everett, attending by Zoom, reported that the January Newsletter got out “by the skin of [his] teeth,” but that it included several notable articles and other items. He particularly noted a report on alligators, in which he talked about people’s fear of alligators, but discussed what is actually a low probability of human fatalities or serious injuries resulting from encounters with alligators in Texas, Louisiana, and Florida. He noted that in Texas there have been only 2 reported deaths from alligator encounters since 1861. Likewise, documented alligator-related deaths in Louisiana have been extremely rare. And in Florida, where there seem to be the most reported alligator-related deaths, they typically result from elderly folks walking pets near Florida water-bodies, resulting in the pets being attacked by alligators, and the elderly folks having fatal accidents as they tried to rescue their pets from the alligators. Harmon’s point being that when canoeing in Texas, if you respect the alligators and don’t intentionally do something to provoke them, then odds are that you have nothing to worry about. The complete article titled “Safety Minute – Alligators!” appears in the January 2026 issue of the WaterLine newsletter.

Safety Minute:  Although not routinely part of the Newsletter Editor’s Report, Natalie and Harmon noted that his discussion of perceived dangers from alligators and the ability to lower those dangers simply by respecting the alligators and not intentionally doing anything to provoke them would be the “Safety Minute” for this month’s general membership meeting.

Conservation Chairman Report: Tom Douglas gave a 15 minute power point presentation of his Conservation Report, which covered about 12 different conservation-oriented activities occurring over approximately the next 3 months, including the Harris County Flood Control District Update on Infrastructure Maintenance; the Green Films Festival; a Chocolate Bay Public Comment Meeting; the Clean Waters Initiative Workshop; a meeting to Help Make a Plan to Protect Greens Bayou; a public meeting to discuss water quality issues in the Luce/Tarkington Bayou Watershed; a public meeting to discuss water quality in Bessies’s Creek; the 2026 State of the Bay Symposium; the San Marcos River Rendezvous Clean Up; the Trash Bash at Armand Bayou; the Watershed Rock Opera available to be seen online; and an as-yet-to-be-scheduled clean-up during May, which will be part of the Statewide Trash-Free Gulf Campaign sponsored by the Gulf Trust and locally by the Greens Bayou Coalition. More details about most of these events can be found on the HCC Conservation Forum on the Club’s website.

Fleet Captain Report: Bruce Bodson gave about a 15 minute report regarding all of the trip activities that have already occurred this year, including input from Christy and Natalie about the specifics of trips that each of them led and from Constantine Platon, who commented via Zoom about a trip that he and Kent Walters led. He also reported on some upcoming events, including the 15 mile Buffalo Bayou Regatta that will run on March 21^st.

Vice Commodore’s Report: Christy Long reported on club members’ trip mileage during November-December 2025 and during the first weeks of January 2026. Christy noted that during 2025 the club had a total of 51 trips with 63 participants. She also reported that club members that paddled 100 miles and more during 2025 would be receiving reward “goodies” for their accomplishments. She said that she has not yet decided what the awards will be, but that she is asking Brent Hwang to help with the selection because he “gives out good gifts!”.

Texas Winter 100K:  Natalie next introduced Bruce Bodson, our Fleet Captain, to present the principal program for this membership meeting, which is information regarding the Texas Winter 100K. Bruce gave about a 45 minute report which began by Bruce describing the Texas Winter 100K as “a really entertaining little race” and the “coolest race in Texas.” He said that there have been a few years when “it really, definitely deserved that name,” such as when it was “25 degrees at the start, ice on the boats and the paddles and the people.”  He reported that the race has been held every year but one since 2011, and that this year’s race occurs on Saturday, January 24^th. Bruce described what the annual mandatory race safety meeting was like. He said that the purpose of the race, as originally stated, “was to kind of give everybody an off-season competitive event, to encourage everybody to train 12 months a year and not slack off.” The distance of the race is approximately 62 miles from Lady Bird Lake or Town Lake, down to Master Fisherman’s Park. The Adventure Class and the Competition Class each usually have about 20-30 boats, and the SUP Race, which runs a shorter 14.6 miles, has about 6-10 boards. Bruce reported that he will be sweeping the last 15 miles of the race. The details that Bruce provided about the race in his report were impressive, and he gave anyone who wanted to participate in the Texas Winter 100K a great appreciation of what to expect.

Conclusion and Adjournment: At the conclusion of Bruce’s presentation, everyone first showed their appreciation with applause, and then Christy presented to Bruce a copy of Natalie’s book, Canoeing and Kayaking Houston Waterways, autographed by the author!

There being no further business, Natalie adjourned the meeting at approximately 8:50 pm.

Recorder,

Mike Grove