November 12, 2025 Board Meeting (Minutes Updated 3/3/26)

Minutes

(updated March 3, 2026 to reflect omission of 2026 Board Election and Approval of By-law changes)

Wednesday, November 12, 2025

Club Room Creekside, 4:00 PM

Mary Smith, President opened the meeting at 4:00 PM

Roll Call: Bobbie Berkman

Officers Present

President: Mary Smith

Vice President: (vacant)

Secretary: Bobbie Berkman

Treasurer: Al Peters

Past President: Anne Squire

Group Representatives Present

Amblers: Lena Birch

Ramblers: Harriet Schwartz, Nancy Verner

Trekkers: Rich Kinsey, Adrienne Roth

Scramblers: Slava Tetelbaum

Review

• Board approved September minutes. Rich reported some confusion with finding the minutes published on the website, which Anne promised to rectify.

• Mary thanked Board Members for their work over the past year and reminded returning Board members that next year’s Board Meetings will be in the Fairway Room and that the first Board Meeting will be held on February 11th.  Harriet will lead a New Board Member orientation on January 14, 2026 at 4:00 PM in

  the Fairway Room. She and Mary will prepare information to be included in binders. It was suggested to add $200 to next year’s budget for hosting this meeting.

Reports

• Treasurer: Al Peters reported on a preliminary budget for next year. We will probably end the year with a surplus of $12,000. Charity donations will be included in next year’s budget. The board approved the financial report.

• Club Membership: Joanie Boyle reported that we have 405 paid members. A breakdown of the membership is as follows:

Amblers: (39%)

Ramblers:(40%)

Trekkers: (13%)

Scramblers:(12%)

Social:(3%)

Monday AM Walkers: (7%)

New members YTD is 99.

Over half new members are Amblers.

Amblers: 41

Ramblers: 30

Trekkers: 10

Scramblers: 3

Monday : 1

Social: 3

Renewals for membership will start after registration for the Holiday Party and can be done online.

• New Members: Lori Miller-Klein reported that the orientation for 30 members and prospective members was hosted by Lori, Harriet, and Mary on September 11. The presentation included a demo of the website, hiking equipment, safety, and history of the hiking group.

• Trails Steward: Mary reported that Jim Pearson is working on vulnerable spots.

• Hike Leader Training: Harriet says potential hike leaders should be consulting with hike mentors. She can offer advice on potential hiking trails. It is difficult to recruit hiking leaders and she is open to suggestions. Adrienne suggested new ways to offer hikes throughout the year based on her experience with the Orinda hiking club. Lena said Amblers are full of energy and eager to hike. Harriet reminded that there is a necessity for safety and the use of radios on a hike.

• Events: Kathy reported on the following:
• • Annual Meeting and Potluck on October 28 hosted by Mary with Kathy and Jackie Stuart went well. Kathy noted that it would have been better to use 12 foot banquet tables to hold all the food and to have access to a larger meeting room. Lena noted that access to special food such as gluten-free, and whole-food, plant based items be offered at the beginning of the meal. Thank you to Kathy and her crew for a very successful event!

Upcoming events:

.• Publicity: Ellen Gilman has done a lovely job providing photos and articles for submissions to the newspaper and Rossmoor TV. Jackie Stuart is working on the bulletin board at our meeting area.

The Board decided that submitting photos to the Rossmoor TV station as probably not necessary since they take a lot of Ellen's time.

Safaris:

• Joshua Tree provided by Road Scholar in November and ably coordinated by Harriet. 16 people attended.

Harriet noted that Road Scholar contacted her about possible future trips. Northern Arizona University also runs trips that may be of interest to the club and Harriet will follow up.

• Tucson March22—27: Sue Margolis and Charlene Reservations are closed and there is now a wait list. 

• Technology: Anne noted that Joanie does the Membership registrations and renewal as Registrar and Molly handles posting events on the website, event ticket purchases and providing registration info the hosts.

Anne has been working on a database that captures data on who has been actually hiking. It consists of an audit of the signup sheets compared to the TeamUp Calendar sign up listing. We can correlate names on the signup sheets with what groups people go out with, who are leading the hikes, etc. This will give a data-rich picture of how the group is working. She found that actually 219 members out of 401 hiked with the Club so far this year.

• Presentations: Adrienne worked along with sustainable Rossmoor to host a presentation given by Ted Clement Executive Director of Save Mt. Diablo for about 60 people. It consisted of a very inspiring talk and film. One of Save Mt. Diablo’s offering Adrianne proposed was a morning reclamation project followed by a hike. This would be a day-long outing for club members.

Old Business:

• Additions to Bulletin board area. Thanks to Bruce Thom for putting up the additional bulletin board so we can post more info.

New Business:

Report on the Results of the October 2025 Annual Meeting (documentation for Poppy Bank and changes to the By-laws).

Officers Unanimously Elected for 2026

• Mary Smith, President
• Lori Wong, Vice-President
• Bobbie Berkman, Secretary
• Al Peters, Treasurer

Changes to the By-laws approved by the membership:

Summary of Bylaws Updates

Article I - Name:

• Organizational Operations info added.

Article II - Purpose: No change

Article III - Membership:

• "...rules of the club..." is changed to "Policies, Guidelines, Procedures and Protocols".

• Reference to ID card requirement removed,

• Cancellation of Club membership is changed to termination and return of portion of unused dues is deleted.

• Approval by the Board required for reinstatement of previously terminated members is added.

Article IV - Dues: No changes

Article V - Board of Directors:

• Board of Directors has been relabeled Board Organization.

• Members-at-Large have been renamed Group Representatives (Group Reps) to reflect current role.

• Individual responsibilities descriptions have been shortened. Complete lists of responsibilities of each role are searchable on the website under Duties.

Article VI - Members-at-Large 

• Relabeled to Group Representatives (Group Reps)

Article VII - Terms of Office

• Requirement that the Vice-President become the President in their second year on the Board is removed. It is up to the Vice President if they wish to run for President.

• Reference to "..first year ...these bylaws are in effect..," removed since it is no longer relevant.

• Restriction on Directors serving more than two terms in immediate succession is removed.

Article VIII - Supporting Positions: 

• Re-labled to Board Support Positions.

• Updated to reflect current Support titles. 

Article IX - Conducting Business: No changes.

Article X - Meetings:

•  Meetings will begin in February and meet every three months (February, May, August, November). Board initiation will be held in January.

Article XI - Nominating Committee:

• Reference to Member-at-Large updated to Group Rep(s).

Article XII - Amendment of Bylaws: No change.

Meeting close

• Next Board meeting on February 11, 2026 at 4:00 PM in the Fairway Room.
• Also note that specified Board meetings will be held in the Fairway Room on the second Wednesday at 4:00 PM in February, May, August and November in 2026.

• Kathy suggested that a small group of people go through the storage areas to sort and cleanup the closets’ contents in Hillside. She would like to secure a second bigger closet if one becomes available. She and her husband are now storing the Club's black table cloths in their garage to make room for storing the Club's sound system.

Respectively Submitted By Bobbie Berkman

[Posted on the website and emailed out to the membership by Anne Squire. Any content and/or technical issues should be reported to trailsclubrossmoor@gmail.com]