From: "ashohn" Date: Thu, 16 Apr 2009 19:16:54 -0000 Subject: [wvusg] Meeting Minutes Meeting minutes for April 15, 2009 Meeting called to order at 8:03 Old Business - Financial Report: No change. $557.42 in the bank and $15.16 in petty cash Terra Incognito: Abby is awaiting one more trip report from Kyle Mcmillan and one from Gayle Suppa. A cover photo has not been chosen yet, so if you have any ideas please e-mail Abby Hohn. New Business - Kyle Mcmillan brought up the moratorium in an effort to find a position for the Grotto to take before the semester ends. His point was basically that it's hard to be a caving club during a caving moratorium, so the Grotto might need to branch out into other activities and find new ways to interest beginners and keep membership up. Here are some ideas that were offered up during the discussion: *John Tudek suggested focusing on caving in a certain local, limiting the Grottos activity to a handful of caves, so as not to spread WNS to a larger area. *Abby Hohn suggested a focus on surface work, like helping locate caves in Tucker Co for the bulletin. We could also focus on vertical practice and other caving related activities that don't involve going underground. *John Harman brought of the importance of going over contamination procedures and strictly enforcing them on any Grotto trips. *Rachel suggested focusing more on project caving during meetings to get more Grotto members interested in such activities. *Tom Lilly said he didn't want to see the Grotto turn into an outdoor club (which is something I think we all agreed on) but he suggested doing more camping, backpacking, and other such activities. *Kyle Mcmillan offered to lead rocking climbing trips. *John Tudek made a suggestion about investing in cheap, expendable cave suits, which people won't mind using bleach on. *Some other ideas include laundromat parties (for decontamination) and strong focus on presentations during meetings to keep people interested. *The question of what to do for beginners' weekend if we can't take beginners caving also arose. Gary Schindel will be stopping by next week to present a slideshow of pictures from Texas. John Tudek mentioned Piper's Cave. Apparently, there is about 4000' of easy, standing passage to be surveyed. It is the perfect cave for teaching people how to survey. There are also a few digs and the promise of possible virgin passage, which could double the length of the cave. There were no trip reports for obvious reasons. The meeting was adjourned at 8:34