GATOR Trail Riders

GATR News & Information 2008

February 9, 2008:: BOD Meeting Minutes

On Saturday 2/9/8008 a meeting of the GATR Board of Directors took place at Eagle's Landing Restaurant in Lilburn. It was attended by Darryl Clark, Steve Williams, Dave Greenwell, Charles Nahas, Fred Ballard, and Steve Konigsberg.
The following things were discussed:

Dave Greenwell gave the financial report: GATR currently has $3013.89 in it's account. In addition, there is $145 in petty cash.

Charles, as Trail Director, will develop a work party schedule for Yellow River and Tribble Mill trail maintenance. He will publish this schedule to the membership and supply it to Eric Horne and Kim Shealy. Kim is the new "Volunteer Resources and Heritage Program Coordinator". Boy that's a mouthful. In any case she is the new Parks official who will be our main contact person.
Depending on participation, we hope to complete the trail work at Yellow River with 2 more work parties. They will be next Friday 2/15 and Saturday 2/16.

The BOD decided to activate the GATR specific forum on the SORBA web site. This is a new feature on the SORBA site. It will be used for general communications between members. It will therefore take the place of Google Groups e-mail for this purpose. Google Groups will remain active but will be used only for specific announcements to the membership not for communication between members. Some members have considered this a nuisance.

The night ride issues at Yellow River have still not been resolved. Darryl announced that Kim Shiely has initiated a process for night rides to satisfy county requirements. This will involve a small fee for each ride and signing up for the event before hand. When the rules are finalized the BOD will pass it on.

The General GATR meetings schedule for 2008 was voted on. These meetings will take place at Apalachee Cycle in Dacula, Cycle Works in Duluth, Tribble Mill Park, Yellow River Park and Mellow Mushroom in Lawrenceville. Steve Williams will publish the specific dates and they will be posted on the GATR calendar.

2008 goals for GATR were discussed.
1. Complete the Yellow River and Tribble Mill trail work and signage before the fall when we expect trail construction at Habins - Alcovy Park to begin.

2. Get more involved in the Trips for Kids program.

3. Increase membership and diversity of membership (women, kids and ethnic).

4. Conduct 2 successful events: Yellow River Festival, Quarterly Trips for Kids.

5. Increase GATR funds available for events, advocacy and trail work.

6. Possibly explore new potential trails in the Norcross green space area.

7. Continue the "press releases" efforts to GCPR personnel and add county councilmen to the effort as well.

Fred Ballard is spearheading a GATR organized trip to Fruita, CO. Fruita has some of the best mountain biking trails in the country. The trip will be June 4th to the 8th. At present we have 8 rooms reserved with a potential for 4 more. Six people are signed up to go at this time. This will be a memorable trip. If you have are interested or have questions contact Fred at fredb@link2sales.com.

January 21, 2008:: Chapter Meeting Minutes

Date: Monday January 21st
Location: Apalachee Cycle

The January meeting of the GATR Chapter was held the 3rd Monday as opposed to the 2nd Monday due to officer conflicts with the date.

Darryl Clark opened as Chapter President by going over the new Board of Directors and positions. Those are as follows:
President - Darryl Clark
Vice President - Steve Williams
Secretary - Bob Seitz
Treasurer - Dave Greenwell
At-Large and Land Manager Liaison - Stephen Konigsberg
At-Large and Trails Director - Charles Nahas
At-Large and Publicity and Events Coordinate - Fred Ballard

Eric Spencer provided a trail report from the recent work at Tribble Mill. It was a combined group from GATR and the local Equestrian organization with each having 9 volunteers present.

Stephen Konigsberg provided a Yellow River update. We have somewhere around .5 mile of bypass to build around a poorly constructed section of the Astor trail. Additionally, there are a couple of sections that need to be cut to separate some currently shared bike-horse trails. The current big need is signage which is being worked out with the county. Stephen had contacted a sign maker and got samples and shared them with the county as potential signs for use.

An announcement of the upcoming Fruita Colorado trip was made. Fred Ballard is organizing the trip to take place June 4th-8th with a side trip to Moab Utah. Information will be distributed via email in the upcoming week. The trip is open to anyone who wants to attend. Some pricing info is currently available and more details will be forthcoming.

February 2nd there is a Trip for Kids being planned by the Atlanta Boys and Girls club in conjunction with the Atlanta SORBA Chapter. They are planning on bringing approximately 20 kids to Yellow River for a half day of riding. They have asked us to provide 5 or 6 volunteers who can lead rides as they are not as familiar with the trails at Yellow River.

Eric Spencer also made a presentation on the Biking for Bi-Polars event. In the past he has organized this event but feels in his new position with NAMI it's a conflict of interest to be involved at the level he has in the past. He is asking the Chapter to consider stepping into that role and organizing the event. His proposal is to involve several SORBA chapters around the state to have events at their local trail all on the same day. Riders would get sponsors and a portion of the funds would be retained by the chapter. The proposed timeframe would be in April or May trying to avoid other similar events that occur around the same time such as Relay for Life.

Apalachee Cycle also reminded everyone that this Saturday, April 26th they will be holding a Demo Day. This event will take place at Fort Yargo in conjunction with the Trek Demo team. There will be road and mtn bikes available from both Trek and Gary Fisher. They will also be providing drinks and food.

With no further business and items to discuss we adjourned.

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