The meeting was called to order at 9:06 am by Chairman Art Tokle, who welcomed the members and guests and thanked them for making the trip to Lebanon.

Moved (Baker, Barker) to accept the minutes of the fall meeting held Saturday, October 9, 2004. Passed.

Financial Balance Sheet: April is Doug Hoffman's busy season but he took time to produce a report which was distributed. Marianne commented on it for the Committee, and then also went through a distributed sheet with a record of the JO team trip account. She will check whether our total cash flow requires us to submit a tax form.
Moved (Norris, Stone) to accept the two-part financial report. Passed. (Copies available on request.)

OLD BUSINESS:
Tim Norris completed a Travel Code of Conduct and it was used during the recent season. Athletes and parents are both required to read and sign this document before the athlete travels with an Eastern team or training camp group.

Report on 2005 Competition Season -- Larry Stone reported that the planets were aligned for Eastern jumping in 2005, with Eastern jumpers enjoying success at several levels, displaying both strength and depth. Willy Graves, built on a good base from last year with a breakout season. He won both Nordic Combined and Special Jumping competitions in the East and elsewhere (Lake Placid Masters, four golds at Nor-Ams, top US result in Brattleboro, Empire State Games, three golds in Ishpeming; then a trip to World Juniors in Rovaniemi, FIN). Nick Fairall put in good results and joined Willy in Rovaniemi. Depth was demonstrated by the gold in the team event at Nor-Ams and by Evan Bliss and Chris Lamb coming very close to making the Jr. World Team, and even more depth, with Peter Freire and Nick Alexander skiing well.
At the next level, Cooper Dodds, Andrew Bliss, Alex Madden and Colin Delaney improve and move into finish positions close to the older Eastern skiers. Larry also mentioned that an exciting group of girls has formed who will push each other to improve: Ariel Picton, Danielle Lussi, Nini Lussi and Tara Geraghty-Moats. At this year's Nationals, in an unofficial, paper event for divisional teams, the Eastern group placed second, ahead of the perennially strong IMD.
"It was a very gratifying year" said Coach Stone, who hopes that his athletes can get more exposure to high level competition, especially with the Olympics coming soon.

Junior Olympics 2005 -- team leader Tom Dodds reported that the East sent a great group of kids who found a beautiful new 68 meter hill, but trying conditions due to very warm weather. Good results were turned in by Andrew Bliss, Alex Madden, Cooper Dodds and Tara Geraghty-Moats.
It appears that the question will again be raised whether we should let Canadian Juniors take home medals from our JO events. Several members spoke strongly against this idea.

A comment by Tom Dodds about the meeting at JO carried this Committee to an extended discussion of what we can offer as and incentive to Eastern jumpers who are beyond JO age (Jr. 2) but are not ready to benefit from the Large-Hill Nor-Am jumping. This discussion migrated to consider how we might attract some of the 50 or more New Hampshire High School jumpers who don't jump at all after the mid-February High School Championships.
Ideas included:

• An organized New Hampshire Elite Team with it own organization, coach and other benefits.
• Welcoming over-age jumpers in a guest class or as fore-jumpers at JO 2006.

Andy Howe (GNA) reported on Gunstock's preparations for the 2006 Junior Olympics, and responded to questions. Construction of the new 55 meter jump (on the site of the old 48) is well along. A huge amount of fill has been added to the landing, the inrun is lowered and graded, all materials are present for the new tower but construction was interrupted by winter. Two events are scheduled early in the 2006 season for testing of the hill and the organization. Because of the large effort reqired, the big hill will not be prepared for casual use of the JO participants.
Planning is on pace and adequate volunteers should be available for off-the-hill work. No major changes are anticipated from the arrangements described by Geoff Howe at the fall meeting. The Committee will be in contact with GNA regarding final plans for the competition events and schedule.

Officials Report -- Dan Warner mentioned that more rules changes are on the way, but he did not take the time to list any.
He welcomed Ken Barker and Jack Phelps who have recently completed their training and are now certified judges. Jon Farnham is also far along in the training process. Warner pointed out that we still need more new Nordic Officials, both Judges and Technical Delegates. Jon Farnham asked for clinics for beginning or prospective officials, and Warner responded that we do have such events every fall.
Don West also pointed out that we can use one or more younger volunteers interested in doing ski jump design work.

Competition Schedule for 2005-2006 -- Dan Warner did advance work to prepare a draft schedule which he distributed by e-mail well before the meeting. More changes were made, and he distributed copies of the most recent draft and then went through the schedule, week by week. A few changes were proposed, and some determinations remain up in the air because we lacked necessary information. Here is the draft that came out of the meeting, with comments below. This schedule will be presented at the spring meetings of USSA, where it may be modified, and we must understand that the schedule is always subject to change, but changes will not be made to these minutes.
[Changes will be posted on the expanded listing of the schedule, which separates big hills from small.]

Eastern Ski Jumping (proposed) 2005-2006 Schedule

July 1,3,4   Lake Placid        Men/Women SuperTour
Oct 8-9      Lake Placid        COCJ SuperTour
 
Dec 30-31    Lake Placid        SuperTour
Jan. 7     
Jan 8        Andover
Jan 14-15    Gunstock           Team/Indiv. events K-50
Jan 21       Lebanon
Jan 22       Hanover (with XC)
Jan 28-29    Gunstock           K-50
Feb 4        Lake Placid        Art Tokle Memorial Jump
Feb 11       Salisbury          Evensen Mem & Nordic Kids Fest.
Feb 12       Salisbury          Eastern Championships
Feb 12       Newport
Feb 18-19    Brattleboro        Pepsi/Harris
Feb 25       Lake Placid        Empire State Games
Feb 26       Newport
Feb 28-Mar 5 Gunstock           J.O.'S
Mar 11       Lake Placid        Golden Arrow/Lions

At 12:00, the group took a break for lunch and conversation - the meeting resumed at 12:45.

At this time, Fred Baker distributed to meeting participants the coveted LOC blue plastic beer glasses, and gave Dan Warner a T-shirt in recognition of all that he does for Eastern ski jumping.

Development Report -- First Joe Freire described his plans for a fund raising event, a trail run, on which he has been working. He asked for permission to represent his event as a fundraiser for Eastern Ski Jumping & Nordic Combined Foundation, Inc., and to use our name in his communications with possible sponsors.
Moved (Baker, Dodds) to give Joe Freire permission to use the name Eastern Ski Jumping & Nordic Combined Foundation, Inc. in his presentations. Passed.
Alexei suggested that sponsors might be more cooperative if the funds raised are to be spent in certain, specified ways rather than to be added to the general fund.

Marianne Fairall continued the report, distributing copies of her report and then she made brief comments. Sales of bells, pins and T-shirts continue to be good. The annual mail appeal attracted 37 donations and a good amount has been recieved as memorials to Art Tokle, Sr. Marianne encourages people to consider the Leave a Legacy program.
Fred Baker suggested taking next year's JO at Gunstock to potential sponsors. Andy Howe (GNA) agreed to continue a dialog on this.

CLUB REPORTS:

Andover Outing Club -- Tim Norris reported that AOC has 16 active little kids in the program. He hopes to improve the judges stand and PA system this summer.

Harris Hill -- Pat Howell reported that they had a great meet, in spite of having to postpone it from January to February. She announced that the Harris Hill group, which is legally separate from the Brattleboro Outing Club, leases the jumping hill from BOC and has recently achieved 501(C)(3) status. In spite of their separation from BOC, the Harris Hill group continues to support Dana Zelenakis in his efforts with the BOC junior jumping program.

Ford Sayre (Hanover) -- Tom Dodds reported that they struggled with poor weather early in the season. The number of young jumpers has continued to drop over a three year span, and they hope to run a "Learn to Ski" program early in the coming season. A project to provide drainage at the bottom of the Oak Hill 35 meter hill should leave the jump 2-3 meters larger. They are talking with a new buyer of the Whaleback Ski Area about construction a new jump of about 65 meter size.

Gunstock Nordic Association -- Andy Howe had reported earlier on JO preparation. He reported that they visited the Gilford Elementary School and ran a ten week Learn to Ski program for 22 kids. During the 2005 season, all hills were closed except the 10 meter jump. They plan to finish construction on the 50 meter jump and perform the needed repairs to the 25 meter tower. They have developed 2.5 km of XC trails just below the jumps, which will be used at JO.

Lebanon Outing Club -- Jon Farnham reported that the Club is strong and has some active juniors. He is still looking for ways to make the 50 meter jump good enough for plastic. They have been jumping on Sundays and some of the skiers are trying to ski every week of the year. The string of consecutive months jumping is still alive and will reach 100 months next December. Mike Collin urged LOC to take this news out to the media which embrace items like that. People even wondered if LOC holds a record for consecutive months of jumping.

NYSEF -- Larry Stone reported that, like everybody else, Lake Placid needs more little kids starting. He hopes that the new hill cluster (15, 30, 60) may come before too long. He pointed out that NYESEF sucesses were not all due to Willy Graves and Evan Bliss, but that many skiers were active and successful, including names like Pat Hudson and Andrew McKewen who, in addition to his own jumping, helped to coach the little kids.

ORDA -- Dan Warner mentioned that, in an effort to get more usage out of the facility, ORDA is planning general use periods on several weekday afternoons and also a "Learn-to-Tuesday" session which will introduce the public to ski jumping, freestyle and luge.

Salisbury Winter Sports Assn. -- Ken Barker that they had six kids jumping well into March. They used tournament income to purchase a new snow gun, and are planning a fundraising concert for July 16. They are presently working toward putting their new (used) plastic on their 30 meter jump.

Vermont Academy -- Alexei Sotskov apologized for not running a junior meet in the 2005 season -- weather was the problem. He has six VA jumpers and two local girls training on the small VA hills, and hopes to hold a good Eastern competition in 2006.

The fall meeting of this Board will be held in Lake Placid in conjunction with the Flaming Leaves ski jumping October 8-9. The meeting is tentatively scheduled for Saturday evening, October 8, in the Olympic Training Center (room TBA).

Moved (Baker, Barker) to adjourn the meeting. Passed. The meeting was Adjourned at 1:58 pm.

Respectfully submitted, Don West (Secretary).

Note -- a couple of items overlooked during the meeting. These included the annual allowence for our Eastern representatives a the annual USSA meetings in Park City, and also a proposal to nominate Larry, Matt and NYSEF for annual USSA awards. Finally, we achieved motions, with seconds, by e-mail, and then held three votes:

• Moved (West, Fairall) that we pay each of our three representatives to the May 2005 meetings in Park City one hundred dollars ($100) to help defray their costs. The three are Larry Stone, Dan Warner and Art Tokle, Jr. Passed by majority (no negative votes).

• Art Tokle has circulated an email which contained ". . . I would recommend the New York Ski Educational Ski Foundation (NYSEF) as the "Nordic Club of the Year" since members of that organization had done so well with last seasons results, in particular Willy Graves. As far as "Coach of the Year", my recommendation is Larry Stone, but I will confirm my nomination at our Eastern meeting this weekend (4/23/05) in Lebanon, NH. If there is a possibility on nominating a coaching team so to speak, my recommendation is for the combined efforts of Larry Stone and his assistant, Matt Cook."
  This item was also neglected in the meeting, so three separate e-mail votes were held:
  • NYSEF for Nordic Club of the Year. Passed by majority (no negative votes).
  • Larry Stone for Coach of the Year. Passed by majority (no negative votes).
  • Larry and Matt for Staff recognition. Passed by majority (no negative votes).

• With her vote on the first question above, Pat Howell pointed out that Rex Bell would also attend the Park City meetings and while Rex is not a voting member of our Committee, he will represent Eastern Jumping as well as Harris Hill interests, so we had a third vote:
  To support Rex Bell with $100 toward his expenses in his trip to the USSA meetings in Park City. Passed by majority (no negative votes).