Hi to all our friends at Mountain Valley Trails,
We hope you this finds you well and are looking forward to the summer. We are presenting the following summary of this past year’s season:
Club Management: Martha Dale and Jeff Lennox continued as co-chairs. Ruth Ann continued as treasurer and interim secretary for the monthly meetings. Jeff also continued with website maintenance and setting up the trips and notifications via the website. We continued with our trip organizing committee consisting of Marge Fish (snowshoe focus), Larry Gubb (moonlight focus), Paul Grady (everything focus), and Andrew Harper (everything focus). The goal of the team was to schedule trips well in advance, weather be damned, and modify as needed. Marge was also an advisor on health and safety issues. Thanks again team!
Once again, please note the “interim secretary” title for Ruth Ann. Our prior appeals for someone to take over that duty have not produced any volunteers yet for 2 years. It’s not an onerous responsibility, but also not fair to Ruth Ann, as treasurer has many responsibilities. It takes attending most of the monthly meeting and preparing a page to page and a half meeting summary. PLEASE offer a hand.
COVID Impacts on the club: COVID continued to impact on our very popular monthly meetings. We started the year (October 9) with a kick-off meeting at Pingree Park. It was a bit chilly that evening, so that affected attendance. We were able to have two in-person potluck meetings at the Londonderry Rescue Squad building. These were the popular Yankee-swap meeting in December and the March meeting. Between those meetings (peak season), we saw the Omicron surges, thus were unable to have indoor gatherings. Hopefully that can change for next season, as we recognize that the face-to-face contact and discussions are valued by our members.
Treasurer’s Report: For our fiscal year starting in September 1, 2021, and through April 2022:
Income from Dues: $1,755.00
Expenses:
Donations:
West River Sports $600.00
Rental of Londonderry Rescue Squad $100.00
Club Express administration Fees $227.00
Club Express Credit Card Fees $49.81
Total Expenses to Date $1,026.81
At the March meeting the membership voted to donate $150 to the Community Fund for Londonderry’s “Rink Fund”. Members will keep track of the use of this donation. Since we are at the end of the skate season for this winter, the donation will be made at the start of next season.
The current checking account balance is $1,782.69. Our monthly website fees are based on the number of active members. The most recent administration fee was $32.40. For the remainder of the year these fees should amount to approximately $162, so we are in good shape heading to the next season.
Membership: We ended the year with 39 couple memberships (down from 44 last year) and 24 single memberships (down from 28 last year), thus representing a total of 102 people, down from 116 last year. Since last April, we had 1 new couple join and 4 new single memberships. Welcome!
This Season’s Trips: We ended up with a total of 19 scheduled outingsfor members, of which 7 had to be canceled due to weather or snow conditions. The Wednesday trips continued to be successful, albeit with relatively small but steady attendance.
Martha Dale hosted a new outdoor evening gathering in December. Everything was in alignment for a wonderful winter solstice event around a bonfire on December 17th, except Mother Nature didn’t get the message. With winds howling around sunset and the bonfire ready to be lit, our town fire warden did the right thing and said “no way can you have a bonfire tonight!”. So, what do the MVTA members do? They show up and make their own winter solstice event with delicious food, glug and merriment. What a nice way to connect with friends and welcome in the winter season.
We wrapped up the season with the Viking evening event on March 18, as it was clear the weather patterns were not going to cooperate. March 18th was a huge success. We partnered with the West River Athletic Association members for the event, and there were more under-10-year-olds than over 50-year-olds! Dana McNair kept the kiddos entertained with a scavenger hunt into the woods, everyone enjoyed the weenies over the fire, and the other menu selections brought for the evening left us wishing we’d traipsed through the woods. Let’s do this joint winter enthusiasts’ event again next year!
We had several photographers document the trips this year. Here is the link to see the albums, including prior seasons: Photo Albums
Weather and Trip Attendance: Needless to say, the season was not a banner one for snow. Snowfall was below average, often when we got snow it was followed by wet weather or thaws, thus a short window for being out on the nice snow. January was bitterly cold. Affected by the weather, participation on our trips was disappointingly low, even on the trips with great snow and weather. During the prior year, participation on our non-snow alternative trips was strong, certainly enhanced by members enjoying getting out from COVID isolation regardless of conditions. Not so much this past season. Sadly, our last trip on skis was in late February. March trips were cancelled, until the gathering at Viking on the 18th. That was the final event for the season as the snow melted away. Again.
Not having monthly in-person meetings that flow into an outing by the host definitely reduce overall participation. While our calendar ended up with several fun easy to low intermediate mid-week trips, the weekend trips had a higher percentage needing advanced skills, which is not the nucleus of our membership. I (Jeff) think we need to work on that for next season. But in general, we encourage everyone take advantage of the good snow when we have it, if possible. And group hikes are fun too when the snow isn’t good for skiing!
Trail Work: In the fall Andrew led trips on all of the trails our club maintains, and we also helped out on some Catamount Trail sections. Participation was a bit reduced this season. Please consider helping next year. It is satisfying work and lots of fun!
Next Season’s Schedule:
We will be evaluating options for our in-person monthly meetings for next season. This will include looking at the possibility of in-home meetings, as well as potential offsite locations.
- October 2 (Focus on fall trail-maintenance needs)
- November 6
- December 4 or 11 (Holiday Yankee Swap meeting)
- January 8
- February 5 (Traditional DeMovick event)
- March 5
- April 2
If you have any interest in becoming a trip leader, please contact Ruth Ann or Andrew. We would encourage you to shadow an existing leader and learn trip leadership skills.
Have a good summer and stay healthy. See you in the fall at the October meeting. Renewal notices will go out in September.
Martha, Jeff and Ruth Ann