Chris, Ajax, Dana, Jannette...

It seems odd that you don't post up news of your upcoming meeting anywhere other than the GCC Facebook site or your list serve. As well, you are still holding meetings at board member's houses.

These two items make the GCC seem as insular as ever. One would think that after the recent revelation that you had an election back in 2007 without any kind of public announcement, where you re-elected yourselves, that you would open up a bit. In doing so, if nothing else, you will at least have something more than a paper thin veneer of credibility.

My question is, do you really want people, climbers, to get involved, and help with access issues? If not, just say that so everyone can stop wondering. If you do want people to get involved and help, open up the process. Remarks from some of you in the past have indicated you think no one wants to help because everyone is apathetic. It's not apathy that is keeping people from becoming involved, but rather antipathy borne of the insular way in which you operate the GCC.

Hold meetings in more public venues: MP visitor center, R&S, Gardiner Town Library. Announce them wdely: gunks.com, gcc website, rockclimbing.com, and anywhere else climbers frequent. If you open up the process, climbers will come.

For anyone interested in attending Sunday's meeting it's at Chris Moratz's house either at 6am (according to Facebook) or 6pm (according to the GCC "news flash").

Although it's obvious I disagree with Kent on several issues, I think he's spot on here. I don't have as much an issue with where the meeting is held, but if indeed it was announced in only two three* places on-line, (and relatively obscure ones in the overall realm of climbing oriented web sites) then that is a serious shortcoming. Besides the sites Kent mentioned, some near-by regional ones should be included as well; eg: many MA climbers that frequent the Gunks also read neclimbs.com.

Old school non-digital methods shouldn't be ignored either. Is there a posting on the kiosks, the R&S bulletin board, etc.?

[*: I just checked - there is a front page link for the Steering Committee meeting on the GCC site.]

Fair enough.

With respect to the locations, we just held a slide show at the Preserve where several of the Board members were present and had one of the highest attendances of any event with nearly 65 people thanks to Nicky Dyal! (I think we raked in something like $425 as a result of the slide show and related raffle.) So while the venue issue needs to be addressed, I don't think that our actions have been entirely insular given that our most recent event for the GCC included one of our highest attended events at the Preserve.

We sometimes have the board meetings at the Preserve before slide shows and such, but have also had one of the highest board meeting attendances at Chris's house for a barbecue last year. I don't believe anyone else besides the Board members has indicated an interest in attending this meeting with the possible exception of a couple of semi frequent non board members. We also don't want to wear out our welcome at any one place.

Before Kent's free publicity for more GCC participation, we haven't had enough interest to warrant getting a bigger space. Not all meetings require us to use the bigger venues.

Given family and work commitments we do not have time to use non-digital methods for all Board meetings. We do utilize those methods for the slide shows and other activities which we sponsor to which we often add Board meetings if we have a quorum. For the Board meetings which don't coincide with an event we post them on facebook, which if you friend us on facebook, you will receive an e-mail invitation to the event. We also send an email to the people on our email list which is rather extensive and includes anyone who wants to be on the mailing list. If you would like to receive future mailings from the GCC, you can go to our website at www.gunksclimbers.org and ask to get on our mailing list. Or you can ping me here and I will forward it to the webmama.

If there is interest beyond Kent in attending future Board meetings other venues can easily be arranged with enough future notice. I don't mean to say that Kent's opinion isn't valid, only that it would help to know if there are enough people interested to warrant getting a bigger place. Does that make sense?

Anyway, thanks to Kent for reminding everyone about the meeting - if any one is interested in attending (it's Sunday at 6 pm), if you ping me here I can get you the address or you can reply on Facebook.

Have a good weekend!

How many people attended the meeting Sunday?

Hi Kent,

Thanks for asking.

We had 5 BOD members and two non board members in attendance, one of which was a new attendee who came to help represent landowners' opinions. From memory our agenda was as follows:

- Nicky Dyal slideshow - we raised $452 with 63 attendees. Ajax gave a speech which detailed our current projects and received a lot of positive feedback about our current progress.

- Fall fundraiser - we are planning a fund raiser in the fall, details to be announced later this summer. This will be a lot of work and we will have a separate meeting to discuss this event.

- Minnewaska - we are expected to hear or see a draft of the Master Plan soon

- Landowner relations - a long time Gunkie showed up to represent the landowners interest and help the GCC mend relations with the landowner community. We had a long and positive discussion on the topic. It was agreed that we would issue a statement which further clarified our position that we believe in the ethics proposed by the Access Fund focused on the Shawangunk Ridge. In short, above all we need to behave responsibly and respect landowners rights. Look for a release in a few days after we get a chance to review and edit. It was great to have some new blood and I give the credit to Kent for helping publicize the meeting.

- Next meeting - to be confirmed but sometime around July 25 - we are going to do it at a public space, but I'll wait until it is confirmed before announcing it here.

Take care,

Thanks Dana.

Kent - your email is over the limit. can you pm me your private email address?

That is very good to hear. This weekend I saw for the first time the No Tresspassing signs in the nears... "how did things ever get this f'en up?" not in a million years would I have thought something like this happen.

Done.