Board Meeting Notes

President Sheila Alfsen called the meeting to order at this year’s annual picnic site at Guy Talbot State Park. Other board members in attendance constituting quorum were Janet Rasmussen, Dawn Juliano, Paul Edison-Lahm, Bev Vogt, and Marty Muncie. Also in attendance were GSOC members Dave Olcott, Bart Bartels, Carol Hasenberg, Doug Rasmussen and Peregrine Edison-Lahm. The minutes of the June 21, 2014 board meeting were approved.

Treasurer’s Report

Treasurer’s report was approved. New membership and renewal payments are now being taken online through Stripe and online dues have been raised by $1.00 to cover the transaction costs.

EVENTS

Sheila reports that GSOC participation in the Volunteers of America “Kids at Home in the Wild” program went very well and she hopes to participate again next year. Bo Nonn, Ellen Nonn, and PSU student Jiaming Yang did a great job taking small children on a field trip to the Sandy River.

Friday Night Lectures

Janet has commitments for Friday night lecture from the following speakers: Selicity Icefire on mapping radon levels in Portland (September), Adam Booth on landslides in Norwegian fiords (October), Martin Streck (November), and Scott Burns on the Mt. Lassen volcano (January). GSOC will be setting up a donation box for the suggested $3 donation at lectures.

Snack Committee: In coming months Friday night lecture snacks will be provided by the following members: September – Bev & Bart, October – Sheila, November – Carol. Marty will recruit future snack committee members.

Field Trips

Responding to a concern that weekdays are difficult for some members, we discussed clustering field trip dates around a weekend and the possibility of day trips.

President’s field trip: Sheila has pre-run the field trip and will send out an informational letter to registrants soon. About fifteen people are registered so far. People will need to bring mattresses or foam pads for our stay at the Silver Falls Ranch House. Sheila has also arranged for GSOC discounts at both the Madras Econolodge and the Inn at Cross Keys Station for the second half of the trip. Paul will link a printable field trip form on the website.

80th Birthday Activities

Annual Banquet: Sheila has enlisted plate tectonics expert Tanya Atwater to speak at the 2015 annual banquet. Since Prof. Atwater’s talk will be popular, registration should be opened early to GSOC and other organizations — and we will also need a big banquet hall, so Dawn will investigate Ernesto’s and other venues. The date for the banquet was set for Sunday, March 8th, 2015.

Other 80th Birthday Activities may include:

• Posting “80 years ago today” items on the website

• Janet’s Steens Area 2015 President’s field trip

• Paul’s Portland Building Stone field trip

• Interviewing members about GSOC history.

Sheila will make an announcement at our next Friday meeting soliciting contributions about GSOC history and Bev will also contact Rosemary.

Holiday Party: Dawn has reserved the Benson House for December 12th, 2014; both Carol and Dawn will be on the holiday committee. However, an 80th birthday cake and celebration will be reserved until the 2015 Holiday Party.

OLD AND NEW BUSINESS

Newsletter Archive

All GSOC newsletters back to 1935 have been scanned to PDF format and Paul has linked them on the website. Scanning of the last two boxes from 1935 to 1989 included higher resolution scans of photos and maps and so was more expensive then than the first box of 1990 to 2007. All PDFs are backed up in multiple locations and Paul will put the CDs in the GSOC library.

New Member Outreach

Paul raised the issue of outreach to new members now that members can sign up online. Sheila will greet and welcome new members at meetings.

Next board meeting 10:00 a.m., October 11th at Rosemary’s 

Notes compiled from board meeting minutes submitted by GSOC Secretary Paul Edison-Lahm