Jay Wilkes opened the meeting at Summits Wayside Tavern with a toast to the new Rope Mill project final approval to start work.

- First work party is scheduled for Feb. 20^th.

- Charlie has come up with a new blade dubbed the “Frankenblade” for the Dingo that should speed up construction. The plan is also to use a Tamper machine to tap down the trail.

- We will need all the help we can get and plan to contact our 18 new crew leaders to ask for their help.

- Canyons Burgers wants to get involved with possibly supplying food for work parties. They have also committed to making a donation to SORBA each time someone visits their restaurants and presents their SORBA membership card. 

Blankets Creek trails remain closed due to the freeze thaw and wet conditions.

- The Dragon’s Tail reroute still needs work. The new South Loop extension has been flagged and recently the county received complaints from neighbors about the close proximity of the trail to their property. The county has been out to the site and has determined that the trail does not exceed our boundaries. 

- New gravel has been placed at the entrance to Blankets by the county and they are in the process of getting bids to clear the clogged storm drain. We will make an announcement when they plan to do the work since the entrance will be closed while they are working on it.

- Mosquito Bite left side has remained closed since the flood and we are now planning to build a 48’ boardwalk 3’ wide with some rollers and banks to address the issues there. 

Work on the trail marker project is continuing. We have gotten feedback from the FD and have implemented some of their request. We have decided to use fiberglass stakes for the markers. 

Bike Patrol classes will be held sometime in the spring/summer if needed. All of our patrollers from last year have CPR certifications that are good until 7/2011. 

March 19-21^st is the SORBA/IMBA spring Festival and board meeting at the Nantahala Outdoor Center. Please visit SORBA.org for registration details. 

The IMBA World Summit will be held in Augusta May 5-8. We have reserved campsites so let us know if you plan to attend. 

The meeting was adjourned by Jay Wilkes.

Jay Wilkes opened the meeting at Pure Taqueria in Woodstock by commenting on the continued work with the City of Woodstock on the Olde Rope Mill Park-Taylor Randahl Memorial Trails project.  Work on these trails should begin this spring after the USACOE approvals have been received.  We will be acquiring a new diesel Dingo through a lease/purchase arrangement for this project.  We will have access to a demo this week for a “test drive”.  

We continue to move forward with the South Loop extension with the invaluable help of SOFA (SORBA Freeride Alliance).

Our need for volunteers will be strong throughout 2010 as we build new trails at Olde Rope Mill Park and Blankets Creek. 

Reinhart College continues to be very interested in improving their trail system to become a venue for high school mountain bike racing.  Charlie Shultz has done some preliminary work to reroute the existing trails to meet IMBA trailbuilding standards, creating a better flowing 5.5 miles of singletrack trail. 

There is a meeting open to all interested parties this Wednesday, 1/13/10, concerning the development of mountain bike clubs in the State's high schools. Stefanie Bunkley, will be there to address this program and how IMBA-SORBA and its chapters can help to build junior participation in mountain biking. Tom Saurett, Walt Bready, and Stephen Mullins with IMBA-SORBA will attend this meeting at Forsyth County Parks & Rec at 4075 Spot Road in Cumming, GA. 

Once again, the IMBA World Summit will be held in Augusta, GA on May 5-8, 2010.  Almost the entire IMBA staff will be coming to this event.  As has been discussed previously, this summit will showcase mountain biking in the Southeast U.S., the IMBA-SORBA partnership model and the FATS trails and other trails in the Augusta area.  As details about accommodations and camping options becomes available, we will post this information on www.sorbawoodstock.org. 

On that note, www.sorbawoodstock.com recently became available and we have purchased that URL.  Anyone entering that URL will be automatically routed to our .org site. 

The trail counter information has been posted on our web site.  The effects of trail closures in recent months are reflected in these counts. 

We closed the Blankets Creek trails effective today because of the freeze/thaw process that causes considerable damage to the trails.  Everyone is encouraged to check our chapter web site or call the trail condition hotline number (770) 621-5015 before making the drive to the trails.  We need to focus our volunteer hours on building new trails in 2010, not repairing existing trails damaged by riding on them when they are closed.  This closure could last for a couple of weeks or more.  

The reroute of a section of the Dragon’s Tail will be completed after some final Dingo work has been completed.  The Dingo demo will be used for this work.  This reroute was inspired by the Ridgeline Trail at Dupont in NC. 

The purchase of the approximately 5 acres of land adjacent to the Blankets Creek parking lot will be finalized shortly.  CRPA is targeting Fall of 2010 to build amenities, to include permanent bathrooms.  We are exploring building a BMX track and dirt jumps in this area.  There is an existing building on this property that will be used as a tool shed and work shop and can be used for chapter meetings when the weather prevents outdoor meetings at the trailhead.  A part of the purchase agreement for this land will allow the current property owner to reside in her home as long as she is able.  When she eventually leaves the property CRPA will have control of the entire parcel. 

The trail marking system should be in place by Spring 2010. 

The meeting was adjourned by Jay Wilkes.

Jay Wilkes opened the meeting with the election of officers for 2010 commenting that we now have a trail director for each of our primary trail systems (Blankets Creek and Olde Rope Mill). The nominations, as presented at the November meeting, are: 

President - Jay Wilkes

Vice President - Scott Stewart

Secretary - Ellis Alexander

Treasurer - Chris Griffin

Trail Advocacy Director - John Hicks

Trail Director-Rope Mill - Charlie Shultz

Trail Director-Blankets Creek - Dave Hamilton

Marketing/Communications Director - Bill Blount

Bike Patrol Director - Jeff Murchison

The vote was unanimous for this slate of officers who will serve beginning 1/1/10. 

Someone recently attempted to break into our $1 donation box at the trailhead.  It has been repaired and reinforced. 

Some of the key issues discussed at the SORBA board meeting in November are:

-         The new IMBA/SORBA insurance policy that covers our chapter has two key changes—(1) teeter totters are no longer allowed and (2) land managers can be listed as additional insured on the policy.

-         A new revenue sharing percentage is now in place that will greatly benefit local chapters/clubs and encourage membership growth.  We previously received $3 for every $30 membership.  That has been increased to $12 for each $30 membership.

-         The IMBA World Summit will be held in Augusta, GA, May 5-7. This will be a major showcase of SORBA and the FATS trail system.  Woodstock Chapter members were encouraged to consider attending all or some of the summit.  More details will be available soon. 

Trail counter data is available for September-November.  Blankets Creek was closed for half of September and October.  The counters tell us how much poaching we have when the trails are closed.  Fortunately, the number of poachers was relatively small during September and October.  In November we had approximately 8,000 riders (counted at the trailhead).  The highest number of riders continue to be on the Dwelling Loop, then the Van Michael Trail and then South Loop. 

Our trail marking system is close to be installed.  We are working with the county to finalize the purchase order for the markers. 

The master plan submitted for the Olde Rope Mill Park trails did not include trails on the north side of the Little River (those trails were not originally planned).  The USACOE has asked that we resubmit the master plan with the north side trails.  The City of Woodstock is asking the USACOE to allow us to proceed with construction of the south side trails and allow us to submit again for the north side.  We had hoped to begin construction in November but it now looks like the first quarter of 2010. 

At Blankets Creek, we have made the singletrack on Mosquito Flats smoother and more attractive to beginner riders, especially kids.  We have also marked a re-route around the heavily eroded turns near the top of Dragon’s Tail.  A work party will be held on 12/19/09 to begin cutting this re-route and installing the wooden boardwalk on the connector between the bridge over Blankets Creek and the Dwelling trailhead. 

The Reinhart College Board of Trustees is very interested in making their trails a venue for high school races.  They see their trail system as a potential draw for students and want to showcase their school and trails to high school racers. They realize that a lot of their trails need to be re-routed to create more flow and have asked us to help them accomplish this.  Jay commented that Stefanie Bunkley has done a great job developing the Cherokee Mountain Bike Club and has groomed some very successful high school racers.  High school mountain bike racing is on the rise across the country and Reinhart College wants to be a part of that growth. 

Acquisition by Cherokee County of the approximately five acres of land adjacent to the parking lot at Blankets Creek will hopefully be completed by the end of 2009.  This property will be a huge addition to Blankets Creek, allowing expansion of the parking lot and eventually permanent bathrooms, pavilion and other amenities. 

The meeting was adjourned by Jay Wilkes.

Scott Stewart called the meeting to order. He then announced the Chapter BOD nominations for officers for the 2010 term. Scott noted that all were carryovers with the exception of Trail Director. He explained that we were splitting the trail director position so there will now be an additional position created. 

The nominations are: 

President - Jay Wilkes

Vice President - Scott Stewart

Secretary - Ellis Alexander

Treasurer - Chris Griffin

Trail Advocacy Director - John Hicks

Trail Director-Rope Mill - Charlie Shultz

Trail Director-Blankets Creek - Dave Hamilton

Marketing/Communications Director - Bill Blount

Bike Patrol Director - Jeff Murchison 

Scott explained that any five members who would like to make a nomination can do so at this time or in writing anytime before the closing of nominations at the end of the month. He then asked if anyone had a nomination. No one replied. 

Scott then moved on to other business:

-Rope Mill is still in the approval process. Work will not begin until at least mid January.

-We have a work party scheduled for Nov. 21. We expect to be working on the rebuilding of the boardwalk and de-rooting Mosquito Flats.

-The lower half of Mosquito Bites is still closed and will remain so until it has dried out. John Hicks noted that we should put up some signage to indicate that the upper half is bidirectional until the lower half is reopened. Bill Blount agreed to create and erect signs as soon as time permits.

-Bill Blount noted that the emergency signage project is on track for completion summer 2010 and we are currently waiting for the leaves to fall so we can go out and flag the locations for the signs and determine emergency routes. An early December date was discussed. 

Scott adjourned the meeting.

Jay Wilkes opened the meeting commenting on the very good turnout of volunteers to help clean up Blankets Creek Mountain Bike Trails after the floods.  The trails were finally opened over this past weekend, but were closed again today due to more rain.  We learned from this flood that a lake level of 850 feet puts the bridge over Blankets Creek underwater.  The boardwalk just past the bridge is still a mess.  We will need to turnpike that area in the future to elevate the trail. 

The trail counters survived the heavy rains, despite a few leaks.  We now have them in more durable sealed containers.  During the month of August we had 10,000 visitors to our trails based upon the reader at the trailhead. 

Several Woodstock Chapter members attended the Helen Fat Tire Festival and said it was a great event.  Attendance was affected because of the rainy weather, but those who did attend had fun.  Jay indicated that Helen is interested in adding more mountain bike trails to help attract more year round visitors. 

SORBA financial administration is now being managed by IMBA.  Another positive development in our relationship with IMBA is the change in member dollar sharing.  Each chapter used to get $3 for each member.  That has been increased to $12, providing a significant incentive for all chapters to increase membership. 

The project at Olde Rope Mill Park is waiting for approval by the USACOE.  We are still hopeful that we can begin work during November.  We learned at the Helen Fat Tire Festival that the IMBA Trail Care Crew will be spending time with us at Olde Rope Mill Park when we get started. 

We are still on course for a chapter ride at the Jackrabbit Mountain Bike Trails in Hayesville, NC on Saturday, November 6, 2009.  We are hoping to be joined by the RAMBO and Gainesville SORBA chapters. 

We will not have a Dirty Duathlon race at Blankets Creek in 2010.  Lisa Randall, who did an outstanding job of directing the first two races, is a new mother and will not be able to commit the time for this event.  We hope to be able to return to this event in future years. 

As we all know, the IMBA World Summit will be held in Augusta, GA on May 5-8, 2010.  Jay shared that Augusta and the USACOE are working together to build more trails between now and the summit.  Holding this bi-annual event in Augusta is a huge feather in SORBA’s cap and a great opportunity to showcase some excellent trails in the southeast U.S. 

SOFA has offered to help us build the advanced South Loop extension and other free ride features.  Michael Stans attended our meeting tonight and spoke about the effort to encourage each chapter to designate a Free Ride Director.  This model is being applied very successfully with RAMBO.  SOFA is no longer a stand alone chapter.  They are working through existing chapters and providing expertise when requested.