DRAFT MINUTES
March 4, 2020 Annual Meeting
5:30 PM / Colorado Discover Ability offices
In attendance:
Board Members
Eve Tallman (secretary and minutes taker), Marc Kenney, Randall Chapman, Matt
Lisenby, Paul Stoner.
Also in
attendance: Rich Connors, Ashton Johnston, Bradley Edwards, Jim Black, Fritz
Nuffer, Kent Pease, Brian Montag, Jaime Odin.
Prior to
calling the meeting to order, attendees toured the facility with Michele Rehl,
CDA’s office manager.
The meeting began
with introductions. Eve announced that Jesse Zacher, President, was unable to
attend due to family illness.
Matt moved to
approve the minutes of the February, 2019 meeting. Randall seconded the motion
and the minutes were approved unanimously. Eve stated she would post the
finalized minutes shortly.
Garrett
Mitchell, Treasurer, was absent so there was no Treasurer’s Report. Eve
estimated there are about $10,000 in the bank account and described the success
of the new joint membership option with the Access Fund which was first
suggested by Kim Lisenby and which nets WCCC approximately $200 per quarter.
The upcoming expenses of insurance and the Department of Local Affairs
tax-exempt fee were mentioned, which total $875 for the year.
Progress on the
Sunday Wall footbridge was discussed and it was agreed that a joint effort with
a NOLS volunteer crew in collaboration with Jesse would be planned for whenever
the next NOLS crew is in town, perhaps the autumn.
Randall set the
date for the next Dynamite Shacks cleanup for Saturday, May 16 and noted it was
not Mothers’ Day weekend.
WCCC
communications were discussed. An improved website was requested and various
points of local contact were brought up. Ashton suggested Gear Junction and
Rich suggested there could be a WCCC newsletter opt-in at the climbing gym
during climber registration there. Brad Edwards established a WCCC Instagram
account while discussion ensued. Randall described options for upgrading the
web presence of WCCC with a move away from blogspot to a new custom domain. A
communications committee of Ashton, Fritz and Randall was established.
Escalante
access was discussed at length. Kent described some history of climbing in the
canyon, including a recap of interactions with the ranch manager over the
years. Ashton reported she had studied private property boundaries as
delineated on GIS. The main concern expressed was increased recreational users
and the low priority of climbing in the BLM’s resource management plan.
Speeding vehicles was a problem for the ranch owner. Brad is an administrator
on Mountain Project and he agreed to post a message about slowing down and
reducing impacts on Mountain Project. Signage at the Cabin Wall was agreed to
be needed. The communications committee agreed to draft signage language and
Eve offered to reach out to Jesse, who has had communications with the rancher
in the past, to see if signage would be acceptable to the rancher. In summary,
it was estimated that 40 people per day in high season visited the three walls
and that social trails, camping impacts and driving off-road were major
concerns.
Access at the
Sun Towers in Unaweep was discussed. Eve noted she had been working with the
Access Fund and the land owner with no clear path forward at this time. No
trespassing signs were reported but may have been missing.
A clean-up of
the Rock Garden area in Unaweep was mentioned as a successful collaboration
with the BLM.
The Monument
has a new superintendent. The new head law-enforcement ranger is a climber and
it was reported that Jose knows him well. Bat closures on the lower Monument
slabs was brought up. As discussed last year, a climber display in the visitor
center would be good. Eve offered to reach out to monument personnel to work on
this and Ashton volunteered to help.
Fritz offered
to head up an effort to draft signage for Escalante.
The meeting was
adjourned.
