Round Trade Lake Improvement Association, Inc.

Meeting Minute

August 16, 2014

The meeting was called to order at 9:00 am by President Jason Klous, followed be the Pledge of Allegiance. Roll call of the officers was taken: Jason Klous, President, Rick Thill, Vice President, and Jack Lamont board member from Long Trade Lake were present. Laurie Dezenzo, Secretary/Treasurer and Reid McFarlane board member from Trade Lake and Bob Paleen board member from Round Lake were absent. The meeting minutes from the June 21, 2014 meeting were not read.  A motion was made by Ramona LaMont and seconded by Bill Piotrowski to accept the minutes as posted online. Motion carried. The Treasurers report was given based on the January 1 2014 through August 16, 2014 time frame. The report showed a net income for the period of $7672.04 and Total Assets of $25,681.13.  The checking account was $20,719.79 and savings $4961.34.  This was due to a reimbursement of the grant. A motion was made by Jack LaMont and seconded by Kathy Mayerhofer to accept the treasurer’s report as presented. Motion carried.

New Business

• Sue Wettergren a long time active member of the Lake Association from Trade Lake, passed away from a battle with cancer.  Sue and her husband Tom were volunteers for the bean feed and set up of the Trade Lake picnic.  Tom use to do the Secci readings.  A moment of silence took place.
• Fundraisers and Membership Perks Ideas:
  • Card Tournament
  • Selling of Ad space in the newsletter (i.e. classified ads, something simple) discussed by Jack.  Rick Thill suggested posting ads on the website.  Rick Thill mentioned the list of members paid & unpaid on each lake.  There are 122 paid members this year.  There are approximately 350 lake shore owners at this time.  A question was asked where we get the addresses and Rick Thill explained they come from the county which has only mailing addresses no email addresses.
  • Bill Piotrowski asked about raffling of items.  Rick Thill mentioned it was done at the bean feed and at a time in the past at the 4^th of July picnic.  Jack Lamont mentioned raffling off an ATV and sending tickets to members to sell.
  • Kathy Mayerhofer asked about a membership drive at the beginning of the season.  Rick Thill stated that we do our initial request for dues in the March/April mailing to all lake shore owners.  May newsletter we send out an invoice as well.  Kathy Mayerhofer mentioned going door to door.  Rick mention that would be up to the lake chairperson to designate a group of people to go to different sections of the lake.  It is best word of mouth.  Each person talking to their neighbor.  Rick suggested it start in January/February.  Kathy Mayerhofer asked when the last meeting was for the year and if we could organize a card tournament in February and if we need an approval.  Rick Thill stated that just the board would need to approve.  Jason stated we will keep it under discussion.

        Question was asked whether the owner of the resort on Round Lake was a member because he and some others volunteered at the EWM removal.  Jason and Rick mentioned we could look at the list.

• EWM Physical Removal Day:
  • Overview of Day – met at 10am and Dave Blumer gave a brief training.  Round lake volunteers stayed on their lake and Long and Trade lake volunteers went to Trade Lake.  They spent about 2 hours on the lakes.  Lots of EWM was pulled from Round and they got a trailer full.  Trade Lake got about a ½ of a 55 gallon drum.
    • Number of Volunteers – 48 x4hrs @ $12 was about $2300 towards our portion of the grant
    • Boats & kayaks – 11 x 3 hrs @ $25 was about $825 towards our portion of the grant
    • Outlet on Round Lake & Channel on Big Trade Lake.  A lot of work completed in a short period of time. 
    • This will be used next year as well.  This will be part of our yearly plan because some areas you cannot treat in the strong current areas.
• Special Thanks To the volunteers which were all the representatives from all the lakes.  Special thanks to Jack LaMont and Bob Paleen for gathering the volunteers.  They did a lot of work leading up to that day.  Thanks to Rick to organize the picnic after words.  And Dave Blumer for the training/workshop.

• Purple Loosestrife Beetles Release
  • Thanks to Leon Moe for raising beetles.  Late June, early July Jason Klous and Dave Blumer went and looked at all 3 lakes and release them on Round Lake.  Released the beetles in the channel.  It was mentioned that there were some large plants were the lake meets highway 48.  They physically dug out but the other plant will need to be cut down and treated.  Rick Thill mentioned it could be treated with Roundup.  Channel left of the landing is where the beetles were released.  Beetles will travel and eat where ever they can find it.  Kathy Mayerhofer asked if beetles were going to be raised next year.  Jason Klous state it would be good to get a few more people.  Jason Klous also mentioned it was pretty easy.  You just get a plastic pool and Dave Blumer will supply the plants and beetles from the county and you throw a net over it.

• Nominating Committee
  • Long Trade Lake Board Member
  • Trade Lake Board Member
  • Vice-President
  • Need nominating committee to reach out to individuals that are interested in filling the positions.  The committee is made up of 3-4 members.  Rick Thill volunteered.  Jack stated that we should do something different than what has been taking place and have nominating committee on each lake.  They would be a standing committee for two year.  Rather than the 30 days.  Jason Klous stated the bylaws say the nominating committee would stand for a year.  Jason Klous also mentioned the bylaws can be changed to have them state there would be a nominating committee on his lake but it is his concerned if they could even get committees on each lake and have that as a viable option.  Rick Thill has been trying to find someone.  It would be ideal to get one representative from each lake on the nominating committee.  Jack Lamont stated he can easily get a committee together on Long Trade.  Jason Klous stated it makes a huge difference on the lake when there is an active lake boardmember like Jack Lamont & Bob Paleen.  There is a nominating committee of one, Rick Thill, and Jack will work on getting a committee together on Long Trade.
  • Next Meeting
    • September 20^th
    • Elections will take place.  Part of process for the positions up
    • Dave Blumer will present year end summary
    • Focus for next year

Rick suggested we do the elections prior to Dave Blumer’s presentation.

Question was asked regarding if email was the most effective way to communicate with people.  Jack LaMont & Bob Paleen use it a lot.  Jason Klous mentioned neighbor to neighbor is most effective.  There is a little momentum and we need to keep that going.

Merle Draper made a motion to adjourn.  Amy Klous 2^nd.  Motion carried.

Respectfully submitted

Laurie M Dezenzo

Secretary/Treasurer