July 26, 2003

Mid County Fire Station, 148 North Hwy. 5, Camdenton, Mo

The meeting was called to order at 3:10 pm by Rick Hines. Members were asked to sign the attendance sheet.

Various members, board members and guest were present.

The January 12, 2003 members meeting minutes were read in summary and unanimously approved as read. Rick Hines announced that the June 28, 2003 Board Meeting Minutes were available to members and the public, they can be found posted on the CCC web site.

Rick Hines summarized the July 26, 2003 board meeting as dealing with missing survey stations.  Complete information was not made available to the board by the survey chairman at the time of the meeting. Available information was not adequate to complete the discussion or make a decision on how to resolve the issue at the time.

TREASURES REPORT

Treasurer Rosalie Griffin supplied the treasures report. The current checking balance is $3,592.68. Cash available is $155.00 and there is a total balance of $3,747.68.

The treasurers’ long-term goal is to establish by 2004 specific categories for income and expenses in the QuickBooks computer program. These categories would be used in place of the current general, matching and specific use fund categories currently being used. Rosalie would like to create a list of re-occurring charges with contact names, numbers and addresses. She also stated she would ask board approval for an upgrade to the current computer program to make it more effective, and discuss possible budgets for various sections of the organization in the future.

Donations received were from Andy Isbell for materials, Dan Isbell for materials and Phillip Hanson for $500 a matching gift donation from IBM.

OLD BUSINESS

Member Ron Lather asked what the current status was on the sauna. Mike Hartley spoke to this issue on behalf of Richard Cindric. The Sauna Committee is looking into several options, but currently coming up with many dead ends.

ENTRANCE HARDWARE/SAFETY GUIDELINES

Brian Borton along with other members poured the 20 foot diameter entrance pad, and hatches built by Richard Thompson were installed in April 2003. The hatches were crafted to prevent accidental lock in, by way of an emergency release pin.

Brian drafted safety guidelines for the new entrance and final changes are to be addressed by the board. Rick Hines stated additional hardware is needed for the ladder and will discussed by the board, it may also impact the final changes to the safety guidelines.

SURVEY

Brian Borton was elected as the new Survey Chairman at the June 28, 2003 Board Meeting and was not in attendance to report.

ACCESS

Eddie Simmons, Access Chairman, attended and submitted a revised access policy to be reviewed by the board. Areas 4 A-D and section I have been drafted and are to be reviewed for changes by the board.

Eddie summarized the report supplied to the board on cave trips including number of trips, number of visitor and request for trips.

Sign in and sign out sheets are to be modified and installed in the box by the next Access Committee meeting.

Mike Hartley will have a stack of new release forms available in the box at the entrance.

A policy needs to be developed on how often they will be picked up and what is to be done with them.

Eddie asked that Matt Goska be appointed to the committee to receive incoming AC documents, maintain, record and report on them. Mat accepted the appointment.

ACCESS/TRIP LEADERS

Member Bill Gee is now a trip leader.

Half of the current trip leaders have not met their once a year trip requirement. Trip leaders affected will be notified shortly to meet these requirements or loose their status on January 1, 2004.

ACCESS/MOTION AND LIGHT DETECTORS

Eddie Simmons is checking in to possible motion or light detector cameras for near the natural entrance.

Terry Defraties volunteered to track down what is currently being used in New Mexico.

Earl Hancock advised Speleonic Magazine of the NSS is a possible resource.

ACCESS/KEY SAFE

Eddie Simmons stated at the AC meeting on April 5^th 2003 the committee discussed a need for a policy to govern cave keys. The committee is looking for a combination safe for the entrance hatch keys, preferably one with a changeable combination lock suitable for the back door silo or the schoolhouse. Randy Bruegger asks, “What affect will this have on the Survey Access?”.  He was invited to voice his views and concerns at the next AC meeting to discuss the issue.

MEMBERSHIP

The board granted an introductory membership to Sam Clippenger. He has developed a database that will:

Track who is a member

Track who is not a member

Who has a current release of liability on file

What the member number is for cave access on the sign in/out sheet

Sam is to working on making the information available in real time for trip leaders, so they may verify membership numbers and liability forms electronically prior to the posted trips. All release forms and membership information should be forwarded at this time to Sam Clippenger. Randy Bruegger request that Sam be listed on the CCC web site.

As of July 26,2003 to be a member you must have paid your dues and a membership number must be on file for you. Members are not official until a member number as been assigned, this number and a current liability form must be on file and are required information on the sign in/out sheet at the cave entrance. Trip leaders are responsible for seeing that all trip participants meet these requirements.

RESTORATION AND CONSERVATION

Mike Hartley opened his remarks by stating that all members were welcomed and encouraged to join the section. He summarized and supplied a conservation and restoration report.

Restoration and conservation is working on marking trails to protect fragile areas and common areas with reflective markers. They have already marked the Upper Thunder River up to the Round Room and have completed two thirds of the way to the water barrier.

A new form titled  Sight and Inventory has been made for the back door entrance report box. Mike asks the cooperation of all trip leaders in filling out the form with any observations that would relate to the restoration section.  The forms would be retrieved at each of his restoration trip visits.

The request from the board to do a site inspection has yet to be completed due to manpower issues.

He states that a projects task list and guidelines policy has just been developed. Project leaders will now be assigned specific task for each trip.

BIOLOGY

Bill Gee reported on behalf of Lawrence Ireland. A copy of the report was supplied to the board.

Five trips have been conducted mostly in Thunder River. Four species of terrestrial invertebrates have been found. .

Cavefish, isopods and caves snails are abundant.

Dr. David Ashley hopes to visit the cave soon and help set up a study design, member Eugene Vale has volunteered to develop an outline of priorities. And Dr. Bill Elliott has offered to catalogue collected specimens.

Biology sections lacks manpower and equipment. Lawrence request that equipment be purchased soon. He notes that remote sensors and data loggers would be invaluable for long-term study.

Biology would like to focus on and place its highest priority on biota in the high impact areas.

RESCUE

Greg Miller reported.

It has taken six months to figure out the responsible agencies for rescue and how to compile procedures and training. The rescue pre-plan is now available for the board.  Greg recommends and encourages the CCC to notify and cooperate with these agencies at the slightest problem.  He also encourages the CCC to make communication the next priority.  He made several substantial donations of rescue materials to start the rescue cache.  Greg resigned his position at the completion of his report.

BYLAWS

Jeff Page reported that bylaw issues could not be completed due to time constraints. The issue of clarifying vague and ambiguous language still needs to be completed by the committee or they will ask the board to handle it.

HISTORY

Jeff Page reported that he is working with Bill Frantz on CCC history. We are now in possession of the Mountain Room Register from around 1975 to 1980 it will be able to be down loaded on the web. History would like to develop an interactive history section to the web page regarding Carroll Cave History including a form where visitors can turn in information and stories from the past.

WEB PAGE

Marty Griffin reports that the website servers as an online history of the CCC for reference purposes and submissions are encouraged and welcome.

GEOLOGY

Morris Hall was absent and in Texas but submitted a report via Rick Hines.

Morris will be presenting information on professional graph and overlays etc. concerning sink holes and water chemistry at the NSS Convention.  Rick Hines gave a brief computer exhibit to the members and guest on what the graphs look like.

Geology student Carolyn Davis a University student from Rolla contacted us and is interested in doing remote cave sensing.  Using various techniques, laying out a grid above ground looking for seismic reflection, and other techniques to verify cave location.  Morris will help guide her.

PHOTO COMMITTEE

Board voted and approved the development of a Photo committee. Members were encourage to consider joining the committee.

SMOKING, ALCOHOL AND HUMAN WASTE

Matt Goska researched the issue.  Jeff Page reported that a proposal has been drawn up and would be supplied to the various committees to be voted on.

CCC PUBLIC INFORMATION

There was an article written on Carroll Cave in the Springfield newspaper, based on a phone interview with Rick Hines that had several errors in it.  Also a article written by Rick Hines for CaveDiggers.Com published in their first issue is now available on their website Caves.Com

CAVE RADIO

Randy Bruegger reported that the family of the late Mike Roos has place in our hands Mikes' voice cave radios to be used by the Missouri caving community. A small monument noting the donation will be placed at the cave site in his name Randy will research the types of monuments and cost and report to the board. Randy will ask the board for a small budget to replace a few missing pieces and maintain it in working order.

MORNING THANK YOU TRIPS

Bill Gee planned and organized the morning thank you trips for the one year celebration.  Nineteen people signed releases and visited the cave today.  These visitors included Trip Leaders, land owners and significant contributors to the CCC.

501( c)3 ORGANIZATION

In December our status as the Carroll Cave Conservancy expires, and we would normally re-file with in 90 days, however we have incorporated and now must apply newly as Carroll Cave Conservancy, Inc.  Rick Hines will take care of filing the new application.

ADJOURN

The meeting was adjourned at 5:15 PM and all were invited to the Schoolhouse for dinner and the fireworks celebration.

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