Location: Grapes - Leon Center

Meeting called to order at 19:18 CDT.

Committee members present: Steven (ertyu), Peter (Peter & Gloria), Tim (TurdleEggs), Dani (dani_carriere), Jacques (OHMIC) and Sean (Dragonfreys).

Committee members not present: Nick (bevro), Tobey (3T's&aG), Ray (slippery_1), Sandra (junglehair), Paula (MHz)

Members present: Brian (grnbrg)

Approval of Last Meeting Minutes

Steven moved to accept the minutes. Tim seconded. All agreed.

Membership Report According to website Logins

Steven reported that there are currently 367 registered members. (330 are Manitoba residents and 170 have been active in the last 6 months)

Treasurer's Report

Peter reported expenses of $299.45 for crests and income of $293.16 for training sessions in Portage and Arbourg, $205 from crest sales, $26 from permits and $40 from TB tag sales since last report. Current balance is $1135.97. Upcoming expenses of $63.80 for the event in BHP for the reservation of the Group Use Area, ~$35 for Hiding Seminar Supplies and ~$150 for Nick's expenses for the Portage and Arbourg training sessions.

GPS Central Invoice

Transfer responsibility to Sandra to contact them. Current term ends ~Sept 30. Steven will send the current stats to Sandra.

Cafe Press Order

The committee agreed that the order should proceed with some slight revisions. In the future the MBGA should look into getting T-shirts produced locally for a lower cost.

Chevrons

Brian reported a ballpark cost for the chevrons of $500, a significant contribution is the $35 setup cost for each different design and the relatively low volumes of each design also increases costs. The committee thought that we should go ahead and get a quote on chevrons for milestone levels 100, 500 and 1000 at quantities of 250, 100 and 50 respectively. The thought was that we would give away the chevrons to members. Because of the significant cost we will wait for the quote and make a decision at a later time.

Gear Page

Kudos were handed out for a good job done getting the page up. It was mentioned that we held off putting up a full store front to avoid having the extra workload it might generate. It can be revisited in the future if we have more items or desire to sell.

CBC Interview

Jacques completed the interview. They would like to get some more footage of finding caches in an outdoor setting such as Oak Hammock Marsh. The interview will air sometime in March, Jacques will let us know the exact details. Jacques also completed an interview with TVA which will air in fall across Canada.

RMNP MBGA Cache Placement

Tim suggested a few areas for possible placement. Sean agreed to place the cache on the MBGA's behalf and it will be listed under the MBGA's geocaching.com account. Sean will expense the MBGA for any costs incurred. Tentatively the Parks Canada geocaching policy launch date is in July.

Saskatchewan/Manitoba Event

All agreed it was an excellent event and congratulations to the organizers for a job well done. The committee agreed to split costs with SK up to $50 as previously agreed. Ray reported the event was a complete overwhelming, stellar, stupendous success. He counted somewhere around 45 participants who were camping or just out for the day. Lots and lots of swag and prizes given out. There is talk of another event next year.

Scott Wiles Event

A request was put in for more information on the event and what Scott is trying to do. The MBGA didn't want to support an event with a commercial purpose. It was suggested that Scott come out and participate in MBGA events and get to know people that way.

GeoVenture 2007

Nothing new to report.

Cache Splash Wrap up Event

Nothing new to report.

Cache the Marsh II

Scheduled for May 3, 2008.

Planning Subcommittee

Nothing much going on, Tim has sent an email to the subcommittee members.

Information Requests

Sean asked about handing off requests for information to the committee members. It was suggested it get posted to the committee email list and handled on a case by case basis.

Brandon Picnic

Another very good event. Had the effect of connecting the Brandon area cachers with others in the province. There was an attendee from California.

Newsletter

Jacques has setup a newsletter on constant contact, will forward the information and preview to the committee. Looking for some more upcoming events to populate it with.

Media Contact List

Brian will make sure the media contact list is on the FTP site and Jacques will update from there.

Leisure Guide

Jacques reported that he submitted info on a course held in french and english in time for the deadline. The guide was enthusiastic about our course and would like to repeat it again in the next guide. They set a price of $16.xx per person.

Selkirk Journal Training

Jacques looked into this, but couldn't find anything out. No-one could quite remember what this was and Jacques was going to investigate.

Donation Requests

Dani is still working on writing up letters and contacting vendors.

Cache Exchange

Brian has come up with an idea to have a Cache Exchange where physical caches would be exchanged with a cacher in another association. The caches would be hidden locally by each cacher, but published by the remote cacher. Preliminary approval has been given by the reviewers and Brian will continue to implement the idea.

Bulk Ammo Can Purchase

Brian looked into purchasing them but didn't have any luck. Sean will contact the surplus site in Westbourne to see about pricing. It was also suggested we could contact local cachers who are involved in the military to see if we could get them directly from military surplus.

Featured Cache

It was decided that Scooby's Lunch and Ye Olde Hawke are to be added to the featured cache list.

I Came - I Saw - I Left - I'm Back Event

Event at Gilles Park was another complete success. The weather wasn't totally cooperative with rain and cold, but the company was great, the event fun and there was good participation.

Northern Representative

The northern cachers have indicated that they support Ray to continue representing them on the MBGA committee.

The Pas Museum

Ray has investigated and they don't appear to be interested in meeting at this time.

Committee Email List

Tim reminded everyone to start a new email for each new topic as Google will collapse a conversation into a single thread making it hard to read and find information. This means composing a new email for a new topic and not replying to other messages.

Next meeting?

A date will be picked near the end of August for a September meeting.

Meeting adjourned at 20:40 CDT.

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