Blog

February 24, 2026 at 6 pm

Board Members in attendance:

Bold indicated people in attendance

REGULAR BUSINESS

• March for movie? Tim will consider
• Rikert has taken over Fat Bike Rodeo; they are promoting, we are co-promoting; trying to do Wednesday night rides; 
• Wednesday night rides: promote on Instagram; bring headlamps 5:30pm in parking lot at Rikert; bring your fat bike 
• Board and board officers; George is ready to step down as president. Asher is board member Emeritus, but is happy to support as needed; can’t dig in deeper with board, does he count as official board member; 
• Tim says that having specific specialities and support of groups and committees; Andrew would be committee lead of Middlebury; Would Ben want to stay Vergennes? Asher can stay with Moosalamoo committees.
• What is our extent of efforts? Do we just focus on:
  • Movie Night
  • Trail Maintenance
  • Season opening event
  • Do we do grant writing, fundraising
    • When asking for money, it has to be a concise ask: what would the money go to? Beginner trail building, machinery.
  • VMBA check in and officer list; Sarah will need to be an officer to get VMBA lists
  • Quarterly VMBA meetings
  • We update them on adding new trail data
    • George has been on the VMBA trail grants committee; 
• President role defined; annual duties include:
  • communicating with VMBA
  • planning an annual schedule of events (member events, trail work days)
  • manages and coordinates with subcommittees to tackle priorities
  • giving ACBC coordinator priorities to focus on
  • sets fundraising goals and membership goals
• Admin Coordinator role defined; annual duties include:
  • File 990 form each spring
  • Manage Web site
  • Send out newsletters via MailChimp
  • Manage Instagram account
  • Promote events through social media and other avenues
  • Take meeting notes; prepare agenda and schedule board meetings
  • Fulfill a position on the board for VMBA access to membership reports
• Tim is appointed next president; motioned by Eric; seconded by Andrew
• Rob is appointed as Membership Coordinator; motioned by Andrew; seconded by Eric
• Board members leaving: Alex and Alan
• George would like to be the College Liaison; 
• Board role heads:
  • President; Tim Steele
  • Vice President: X
  • Treasurer: Carl Robinson
  • Secretary/Admin Coordinator: Sarah Schumacher
  • Subcommittee Heads: Trail bosses of Vergennes/Ben Hatch or John Stroup/Kidde?, Bristol/Tim Steele, Lincoln/Eric Diel, Middlebury/Andrew Hirsch; 
  • College Liaison: George Lawrence
  • Membership Coordinator: Rob Wheland
  • Club Development: VMBA Trail Grants and Fundraising
• Events to continue:
  • Trail days
  • Group rides
  • Movie Night
  • Season Opener
    • Tim suggests season opener is a movie night
    • Do Membership recruitment at the event
• Town of Middlebury survey and town plan
  • What can we do to develop entry-level trails
  • Eric Berg qants to create formal user group input with the town forests
  • A formal statement to the town from ACBC representing Middlebury riders about need for involvement in town forests
  • Can we formally request the results of that town survey
  • Rob recommends a collaborative statement with MALT to attack the issue
  • Battell Trust would allow ACBC to do water mitigation; but did not fund it;
• Newsletter content to include:
  • Notes for newsletter
  • Multiple networks and how extensive
  • Silver Moose opener
  • Single Track article to share in newsletter on Moosalamoo; online
  • Fat Bike fest 
  • Movie Night last fall
  • Club rides
  • Trail days (hours and days)
  • How many miles of trails do we maintain 
  • Introduce Sarah
  • Membership numbers share
  • Track Volunteer hours
  • 5 town Riders support
    • Merideth has stats; ask Tim to reach out
• Board Spotlight: who are the board; add to the site
  • Four pump tracks: Moosalamoo; Middlebury; Bristol; New Leaf
• Membership Event
  • Pub event kickoff? VMBA rep; Works as an annual meeting for nonprofit legal requirements (?)
    • Last week of April for Kickoff event
  • Movie Night do it later? Mountains of the Moon
    • Reaching out to Marquis; Ben Wells info@marquis;