Northern Rockies Blacksmith Association
Board Meeting, Choteau, September 21, 2013
Attendees: Frank Annighofer President
Nathan Kimpell Secretary
Joel Machler Treasurer/Librarian
Not present: Frank Donahue Vice-President
Approval of May18th Board Meeting Notes
The board approved the notes written by Lisa Machler.
Next report due at end of fiscal year (next conference).
92 Members at this time.
Missing books have been replaced. Extras of Mark Aspery’s books have been bought.
Only one member of the current board (Frank A) will run for another term. We will ask the Membership for Nominees.
A new safety policy (adapted from the California Blacksmithing Association) has been implemented by the Board to allow for liability insurance. Frank will inform at the General Meeting and ask Marilyn to publish the safety policy in the Newsletter before the next conference. Frank has received 2 quotes for liability insurance. Joel is still waiting on his insurance agent to give an event based insurance quote.
Frank informed the board that he has set up the first training event with Mark Aspery for May 10-14th next spring. The training will be in Roscoe, MT at Frank’s place. There are 6 volunteer instructors at the time of this meeting (9 by the time this is written). Mark had suggested 10 as a maximum. Joel remarks that the cost for this event should be covered by the participants and suggests to up the fee from $100 to $250. Frank cautioned that there needs to be a trade off for volunteers between fees to be paid and hours volunteered. We do not want to certify instructors that then just sell classes for money. No final decision has been taken on fees (range $100 - $250). Number of expected volunteered hours per year has been set to 40 (50 had been discussed earlier). Frank wants to organize a public auction at the spring meeting to raise additional funds for the program.
Future Conferences
Frank and Annette will host the spring 2014 conference (and the curriculum training the week before) in Roscoe, MT. We will have Mark and our ‘Instructors-in-Training’ teach out of the ABANA curriculum. We are also planning a public demo for local schools from the Billings area and a public auction on Saturday afternoon.
Fall 2014: Martin Hildreth is still trying to get a joint event organized with Yellowstone Park in Mammoth Hot Springs.
Northern Rockies Blacksmith Association. Joel Machler, Treasurer, 5121 Foster Lane, Belgrade, MT 59714 j.machler@hotmail.com
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