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Executive Committee Minutes

February 11, 2010

A teleconference meeting of the Florida Trail Riders Executive meeting was called to order at 7:00 PM on February 11, 2010. The President determined that a quorum was present. Roll call was as follows:

Old Business:

None

New Business:

George Tolson reported that Keith Finnerty (CFTR) has contacted him to report that the Richloam area used for the CFTR enduro is under water. The Florida Division of Forestry has agreed to allow CFTR to reschedule the event to May 23, 2010 which is the traditional weekend for the event. George Tolson made a motion to approve this date change for the event. The motion was seconded and passed unanimously.

Carol Preston discussed decisions that needed to be made regarding this year’s banquet at the Hilton. Will we give up the use of the exhibition hall if the hotel can rent it to another group and reduce our cost for the banquet? If we do this, can we move the vendor displays into the hallway outside the banquet room? Will the Fire department raise safety concerns, and will there be a loss of vendor revenue? These issues will be resolved by the banquet committee.

Further discussion identified the need for the EC and the banquet committee to work with the hotel to negotiate reductions in all areas of costs. One area identified as a major challenge is the minimum guaranteed number (225) of guest rooms that need to be rented by FTR attendees. FTR will incur a penalty charge from the hotel if we do not rent 90% (203 rooms-nights) of the guaranteed block. If we cannot get the hotel to reduce this number we need to do everything possible to encourage members to rent a room for the banquet.

Allen Pearce made a motion to offer a 20% discount on banquet tickets, up to a minimum of 4 tickets per room, if the FTR member reserved a room for a 2-night stay (on the banquet weekend) and ordered the tickets by June 1, 2010. Motion was seconded and passed unanimously.

Discussion then shifted to general finance issues.

Due to the declining economic recession FTR’s membership and head tax revenue has decreased significantly while costs have remained the same. Our budget is approximately $50,000 out of balance. The EC discussed potential corrective actions to address this imbalance. Every line item was reviewed to identify revenue enhancements or cost reductions, regardless of the size of each item. It was recognized that the $50,000 target figure could not be reached without significant changes in the major revenue/cost line items. On the revenue side the major line items are membership dues, head taxes and magazine advertising. On the expense side the major line items are compensation for the Executive Director, banquet costs and magazine costs.

A large savings (perhaps as much as $18,000) could be achieved if we reduce the number of editions of the printed FTR magazine to 6 issues.

Joe Steidl made a motion to temporarily suspend the number of printed magazines to 6 issues a year. Motion was seconded and passed unanimously. This decision will be reviewed annually. The EC also will investigate the option of using an online abbreviated version of the magazine for time-sensitive announcements (such as committee minutes) that would need to be published during the months when there was not a printed version of the magazine.

The EC agreed that this was not the time to be increasing membership dues. Since changes to dues or head taxes must be approved by the Board of Directors. Allen Pearce suggested that he propose to the BoD a package that combined a reduction in annual membership dues ($30 adult/$15 juvenile) with a $1 increase in the $1 administrative head tax that applies to all FTR series and a $6 increase in the $3 electronic scoring head tax that applies only to the hare scrambles series. This would reduce membership revenue by $35,700 but increase head tax revenue by $52,250. This would result in a net gain of $16,550. The EC agreed to have Allen propose the package to the BoD to see if the BoD would support it.

The EC decided not to renew the $100,000 life insurance policy on Dan George. This will result in a $980 annual savings.

The EC will continue to identify expense items that can be reduced to bring our budget into balance. Items to be reviewed are expenses related to sign up / scoring operations and office overhead items. These items will be discussed in detail with BoD members during next weekend’s BoD meeting.

Joe Steidl suggested that we promote an FTR benefit hare scrambles as a means of increasing revenue by at least $10,000. Carol Preston suggested that this be early in the competition season, preferable one of the first 3 races. Joe Steidl will take this recommendation to the hare scrambles committee and it will be presented to the BoD for approval during the general sanction meeting.

Jack Terrell made a motion to adjourn. The motion was seconded, and passed unanimously at 9:22 PM.

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