08. May 2018 · Comments Off on BCHA/BCHI National Director Report, from Marybeth Conger · Categories: BCHI /BCHA

Marybeth and Cherokee Lighter

BCHA/BCHI National Director Report, from Marybeth Conger

Thank you for giving me the opportunity to represent BCHI at the BCHA annual board meeting. Next year the meeting will be in North Carolina.

The annual BCHA board meeting was April 23-25 in Spokane, Washington which is where Bill and I came from. Meeting highlights include a memorial for lost members, acceptance of all agendas, letters, and minutes, Wisconsin was voted as our newest state, there were 11 committee reports, and a budget was approved. I was very impressed to hear that BCHA combined volunteer hours were very close to 13 million and the budget included funds for education.

Erica Fern is a full time employee who handles administration to include data. She presented a brochure and a traveling booth for use at public out reach. Also heard about Your Membership (YM) and how BCHW piloted to have this computer platform handle their membership data. There is some cost if a state chooses to do that.

Ken Carmichael, BCHW then presented a membership expansion program that was impressive. States then divided into 4 regions to discuss issues that were then presented to the committees. Bottom line, feedback was given on how the committees can help us and what the priority of their actions should be. The committees then meet and decided action plans and next steps. It was Interesting to see that all board members are on at least one committee. After all, we need to be part of the solution, right?

There was a guest speaker from Trail master; a Retired Forest Service employee shared his knowledge, and lastly a presentation on the most effective way to contact politicians.

We then passed several governing policy changes, which was informative. Then there were nominations and BCHA leadership is as follows: Freddy Dunn, Chairman, Darrell Wallace, Vice Chair, Sherry Copeland, Treasurer, Non director Executive Committee (EC) member, Mike McGlenn, and two Board members to the EC, Mark Himmell and Ginny Grulke. There was some wording issue in the governing policy that said the past chair would be on the EC for one year. The board voted to have the past chair on the EC for 2018 and that a committee reviews this wording for presentation at the next annual meeting.

Bill even agreed to be the auctioneer at the live auction. He did a great job getting people to spend more than they planned, just ask Mike McGlenn next time you see him.