Cascade Grotto Meeting
Hybrid meeting (Phinney Neighborhood Association and Google Meet)
Wednesday October 2nd, 2024

General Meeting

Announcements

• WVG trout lake this weekend (10/4-10/6)
• Marbles indigenous peoples / Columbus day (10/10-10/14)
• Papoose likely won’t happen – contact Brian Gindling as resource monitor if you want to go
• Halloween the first weekend of November in trout lake (11/1-11/3)
• Oregon Grotto Hell’s Canyon (11/7-11/11)
• Holiday party in December – we need a location! do you have a house?
  • Host gets to pick the date
• Vertical practice some time (@mountaineers wall?)

Trip Reports

• Angelica: Vegas work trip means caving in lava tubes and Utah!
• Western Regional
  • Tommy, Bill, Nancy: Dogwood & Helium – Mushrooms, walking, crawling, hiking. Lounged in the Moss!
  • Avril (& Bram): Scott’s – tree molds are cool! erosional & lava tube is also cool
  • Bram: Wolff’s & Vertical with California cavers
• Sarah: Poet’s Crest! Andrew Erickson, Lillia, Caleb, Mark Garnick, Rob Lewis (birthday), Kenny Bennett, Bram, Maurice (rip boots – have more emergency duct tape!), We dug open the eponymous dig and it was a bathtub with 32.4′
• Hannah: Timpanogos Cave in Utah!

Pre-Business Meeting

• Presentation next month 11/6:
  • Scapegoat? Lunar Caves?
• Presentation schedule for next year:
  • If you’re interested in sharing reach out! medium up to presenter (ppt, etc)
  • Shannon in January (WNS and decon)
    • Large die off of Hanford bats but no WNS positive bats?
    • Talus caves says WNS bat closure – “don’t cave in WA” is misinformation
  • Hannah interested – February
  • Avril: cave biology in March
• Meeting schedule next year: tbd
• No December meeting!
  • Nominations and election logistics in November. People will vote in December
  • 5 exec committee but also other opportunities: website, newsroom (ask Jaq!), content creation, etc.

Business Meeting

Treasurer’s Report

• Bank account waiting on the previous treasurer and DocuSign
• Dues and stuff will get sorted once we have the bank account back. Don’t worry about it yet
• Settle up from WR to happen soon

Old Business

• WR was a great success thanks to everyone (especially Eric! (and Maurice!))

New Business

• Halloween Trout Lake trip logistics planning
• Holiday Party Planning
  • Need a host!
  • Saturday ideal
  • Holiday party planning committee proposed by Sarah, seconded by Shannon
    • Shannon leading, she will schedule a meeting at her leisure
    • In person (and/or Discord/google meet)
    • If you’re interested message Shannon
  • White Elephant!
  • Nominations for yearly awards (except for exec committee members)
  • Potluck
• Meeting schedule next year
  • Poll for 2025
    • 1st Wed of the month, 7pm was popular last year
    • options in a poll, Nth day of the week and time
  • Date/time
    • Everyone that’s here on Wednesday 7pm likes it
    • Maurice: Tukwila Friday nights?
  • Locations
    • PNA (current location)
      • (wifi bad but Avril is good).
      • Good room rental price – better than otherss, won’t need to renegotiate
      • parking good
    • Other options: Tukwila, rotating (Bellingham, Tacoma, Olympia, etc.) – biannual / quarterly?
• We need more pub nights locally! Olympia, Bellingham?
• Monthly Grotto Caving trips
  • 2024 was a success! Keeps people active & builds rapport
  • Meet in January to figure out trips and leaders
  • We will keep it up for 2025!
• Hannah: propose cave rescue training in WA (OCR): 60 days notice needed
  • some NCRC instructors are interested in flying here
  • spring (May for cougar)
  • location options:
    • Cougar? – more accessible than cave ridge
    • Amboy grange?
    • trout lake fairgrounds?
    • Eric: GPNF permit issues for charging money for events after WR – cave ridge? etc. (Start permit now / ask GPNF if they would consider a permit then switch to Cave Ridge if not)
    • Cave ridge is much less accessible (but has been run there in the past)
  • lots of interest!
  • Vertical optional
  • Person cap? depends on # of instructors & facility size. at least 25-30 people.
    • Open up to local SAR?
  • Follow up meeting with people that are interested (Sarah, Hannah, exec committee, anyone interested)
    • Will need a permitting lead!
• Merch!
  • T shirts vs long sleeve shirts? Hats (baseball or beanie)! Patches? Stickers / magnets?
  • Will poll for merch options
  • New Logo – Sarah designed (People seem happy, design contest if people are interested?)
    • Explore option without Chevron?
  • Amy has shirt design? (front/back)
• Canva: Jaq propose motion looking into getting a paid Canva account so we can collaborate on the newsletter more effectively! Good for brand identity.
  • Jaq to research pricing and other options, present next meeting
  • Suggest working with Western Region or other grottos to make it cheaper?
• Eric: cleaning up old policies with no end dates, propose to void:
  • void all allocations from 2022 and before in notes. Sarah seconds
    • Not operating policy and constitution
  • Sarah against add operating directive that all notes have to be renewed yearly. Don’t want to accidentally delete the scholarship
  • Vote at November meeting.
    • EC to make a more concrete proposal by then
• Eric: expand EC by 2 members, regional representatives
  • North/East of Seattle
  • South/West of Seattle
  • Duties: same as normal members of EC plus once a year host a regional meetup in their area, collect concerns and build community in their regions
  • Eric is announcing it as an amendment to constitution, voting at November meeting. Shannon seconds
  • Sarah: hesitations are cyclic grotto activity, shrinking grotto could lead to inflated inactive board
    • Quorum is 1/2 the EC – possible concern? 3 to 4 members required
    • maybe do them as positions that aren’t EC?
  • ask people who would be in the roles if they want to be EC or flexible?
  • individuals can hold multiple EC roles so could help
• Before November: treasurer to determine who is a voting member!