It has been a while since our last meeting and a lot of activity has taken place in our community. 
The following outline describes topics of interest for the meeting on Wed, Jan 24th.
Hope you can attend and contribute to the event
6:00 social, bring finger foods if you wish, liquids will be supplied; 6:30-7:30, 303 Prospect St, Bennington

Followup Notes and volunteer activities will be posted here...

Present at the meeting: Reed, Ken, Tim, Barb, Robin, Ann, Billy
At this writing the following has been accomplished:

• First pass 'guiding statement' has been published on web
• Testimonies of 7 members now on the About Us. To be added to any and all members
• Meetup events have been published for next outreach: Relaxed Hikes
• 4 new signs for "Zaphod's Run" have been weather preserved and returned to Jim Sullivan

Persons and organizations to contact and connect with: need point persons who would like to make initial contact and followup with possible cross linking of websites, training of section, etc.
​Is this YOU who are reading this?

• • Bennington Museum Trails - WHO?
  • Plant ID in the city - Master Gardeners organizations - WHO?
  • Library - how and what can collaboration help us outreach - WHO?
  • Grafton Lakes - WHO?
  • Scouting - WHO?
  • Synchronize calendar on section website to Meetup Events - Billy
  • VINS - Vermont Institute of Natural Science -a valuable schools contact - WHO?
  • Adirondack Mountain Club - WHO?
  • Rural Lands Organization - WHO?
  • Vermont Land Trust - WHO?
  • Kiosk at AT/Lt on route  - WHO?
  • Digital website (Weebly) and Meetup training for other members of our local section - Ann
  • Posting of Events on Front Porch Forum for more outreach for events - WHO?
  • Outreach to Realtors - benefit to them having GMC as segway to outdoor activities - WHO?
  • Connect with Manchester and Brattleboro Section - WHO?
    
• Decide on Social Organizations - join or not join on our website
• Reprint Bennington GMC business cards - w/QR codes to our site and mothership
• Redo our trifold brochure and make it a firm Card to fit in brochure boxes in chamber of commerce, etc
• Meet with Search and Rescue to see how our knowledge of outdoors may be of benefit
• Not forgetting our outreach to younger persons - Imagine Kids (of all ages)...Walking ridges and discovering trails, making memories and finding meaning, connecting to their world. New River State Park, North Carolina Interpretive Center
• Meditative Forest Encounter - Anyone wish to spec out such an event? Certainly would attract various 'non-hikers'
• Add Link to Prospect Nordic Skiing live cam feed to our site
• Put on web more Stories about adventures in Nature - idea of reprinting from Stepping Stones
• Already presented more 'relaxed hiking' activities on Meetup
• Podcasts of members backgrounds and experiences
• Equipment for Sale - mini craigslist for our members - Billy
• Business Card Reprint with QR codes for Section and mothership - Billy
• Ancillary outdoor groups: SVHC, Rail to Trail, Showbusters
• Create rack mount card for chamber of commerce and motels instead of trifold brochure
• Education classes: back country first aid, compass, knot tying,

Ann and Billy were invited by Jonah Spivak to give a presentation to the Rotary Club several weeks ago. (As it turned out Jonah was not able to attend due to immediate needs in the family in Arizona.)
(Rotary Club Website)
The meeting was held  in the back of the Elks lodge in the white and  lavender trimmed 'carriage' house. (PS This house was used for horses many years ago and was part of the large estate at that time.)
We were greeted by Marsh who helped us set up our computer and equipment on a table for the presentation. We also brought some of our GMC tools that we use to clean and clear trails. The big Katanaboy saw was impressive for those who had never seen a saw like this.
The club treated us to a sandwich that was prepared by a local shop, the club had a small business meeting along with a raffle or two for various things. 
We were graciously introduced and proceeded with our Keynote presentation.
Ann presented the first part presenting an overview of GMC organization, our section's participation, showing picts of our activities and various events.
Billy presented the second part discussing our recent decision to outreach to other outdoor organizations, the necessity of creating an "outdoor calendar' for our community, the dilemma of our aging membership, and need for our club to provide more events for all ages and physical skills.
We provided a release form ahead of time for the presentation. Who knows what they will do with this?
The following was received in an email after the presentation and was graciously received by us

"Thanks for the wonderful program today at Rotary.
Colorful, full of fascinating information and vital steps to shape a strong future for GMC.
Thank you so much for offering great leadership and inviting people into our outdoors, and community, and responsible participation!"

Our outreach continues...

Next meeting scheduled: Monday, June 5, Social from 5:30-6; meeting 6-7:30pm

Present at the meeting: Steve, Stuart, Diane, Al, Robin, Barb, Tim, Ann, Ken, Lorna, Reed and ??

• Agreed that we need 'graduated' events. Ones that can easily be accomplished by young and old, as well as predicable events each month that people can plan for. We could have the first week of a month be at an easy level (someone suggested "Turtle Hikers". Then the second week of a month could be "Next level' etc for each week up to the highest level of Effort. My comment (sounds great, do we have enough persons who would commit to fulfilling this schedule?) Need to work on details....
• In order for graduated events to happen, we need an easy to use "Effort Scale" for the user to see if they wish to go or are capable of going on the event. Consistency in the use of this Effort Scale (note that we have changed the scale title from Difficulty to Effort - more user friendly) Al, Ken, and Reed 
• RE: About US page on web site. Using words like Wonder, Connect, Reconnect, Enjoyment, Exploring, Discovery, Friends, Responsibly, Robin has submitted the following:  “Explore the wonder of the outdoors around Bennington, Vermont with friends who know the way… for free.”
• Need to link up to BATS with their permission, logo, and preferred 2 line description of their club
• Idea of 'Forest Mediation"' was presented. Not forest bathing, but something where people would hike to a quiet place, do some quiet meditation, share some snacks, socialize a bit. Include some forest education by the leader or a designated participant.
• Need to connect with the Vermont Land Trust
• Provide a Google Map link to the location of events. People can make a better decision to join the event
• Include Leave No Trace link for viewers to take a deeper dive into the meaning and purpose.
• Local resources for people to get outdoors and enjoy nature - Diane 
• Rewrite of an intro section to About Us. We had a couple of authors, that we know, do some editing on this section and when you read this you will know why they are writers. Read the first 2 paragraphs of this link.
• Connect with Lake Paran: (Billy) Have met Camille who is the Program Director. Have placed a link on our website to theirs and suggesting that they link from Lake Paran to BenningtonGMC site.
• Provide a link to Prospect Ski Resort Web Cam
• Thoughts from a Section Meeting: When another section does trail maintenance they place a sign indicating this activity at the beginning of the work. This invites a conversation with the work crew as the hikers go by.
• Will investigate the use of MailChimp for our club usage of email. Not sure if our needs are that great but it would be an idea to understand how other sections are using it
• FYI: If you are ever asked what software program we use for our Bennington Section website, the answer is that it is completely created and served through the tools provided on  WEEBLY.COM. We have heard that other sections use various services including WordPress
• Include a section on useful outdoor APPS on the website (trails, plant/bird/tree recognition, compass, stars, step counter, peak finder, navigation)
• Could schedule an "App Walk" to look at various apps along a short hike.
• Lorna offered corrections and suggestions to the "About Us" section 
• Diane offered corrections and suggestions to the "Hiker Support" page.
• Reed researched different outdoor rating scales from organizations - see below.

from AMC  
https://cdn.outdoors.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/16093641/difficultyratings_upload-scaled.jpg

This shows a jpg file of an enormous chart that is too small print to easily read.  You can click on the + sign to make it big enough.   This is an incredibly detailed system.

​I found it by clicking on an activity and then finding the link under difficulty in the trip description.  I had used a simpler system when I lead trips for the Delaware Valley chapter of the AMC about 5 years ago.  I couldn't find that on their website. I think all their activities now go through outdoors.org which is the website for their “mothership”.

From Central Bucks Bicycle Club
https://cbbicycleclub.clubexpress.com/content.aspx?page_id=22&club_id=665317&module_id=542407

Trifold Brochure 

• What do we want to say about ourselves?
• How big is our circle of  "ourselves"? Just GMC members? affiliated outdoor organizations? Schools? 
• ​Many activities that are written in the Website Design area also apply in the trifold brochure.

Answering the question to WHO are 'US' 
The following picts show a progressive increase in our view of 'US': beginning with GMC mothership, -> GMC Sections, -> Bennington Section, -> Bennington outdoor organizations, -> community organizations, -> southern Vermont/Northern Massachusetts/Eastern New York areas. Some of these graphics will be used at a meeting Tuesday, May 23, as part of an Appalachian Trailfest meeting. 3rd floor of fire station, 6 pm.  All are welcome!
Our 'US' is as big as we choose to devote our energy.