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DAIRYLAND WALKERS MONTHLY MEETING DOYLES' HOLIDAY PARTY DECEMBER 2, 2001 Officers Present:  Tom Doyle (President); Bonnie Hamer (Vice President); Karen Reger (Secretary); Bob Sparks (Treasurer); Russ Crane (Assistant Treasurer)   The photo contest winners were displayed: First Place - Crazy Horse by Jim Czaplicki.  He won a $100 certificate for a pair of shoes at Morgan Shoes.  Second Place - Lighthouse – Jo & Bob Sparks.  They won a club polo shirt.  (They weren't sure which one of them actually took the picture.)    This is the 6th annual Dairyland Walkers get-together.  The first one was in December of 1995.  Over the years, people have lost weight, have gotten to travel, and generally had fun.    The Program Committee (Jo Sparks, Barb Borde, and Gwen Kraemer) has tentative plans and dates for meetings:   February – Introduction to tai chi, which will be held in the Associated Bank on Madison's north side.  April – The speaker will be a man who completed the entire Appalachian Trail, which will be held at the main library in downtown Madison.  June – Membership reports on walks.  If someone does the President's Day walk down south, perhaps they can talk about that.  They will try to get Scott Kempen to talk about some of his walks on the East Coast.  August – Bob Crawford, who has written several books on walking in southern Wisconsin, may present a program at the new Monona Library.  This may help prime us for future walks.  December – Holiday party, at Doyles or wherever.   In the coming year, the Board plans to be more active in promoting walking, the camaraderie of it.    At this point, Bonnie Hamer presented Tom Doyle with a plaque reading as follows:  In Appreciation to Thomas M. Doyle, Founder and President of Madison Area Volkssport Association from July 24, 1995 to December 31, 2001.  Russ Crane then presented Tom and June with a certificate giving them life membership in the Dairyland Walkers club.    Tom thanked everyone, with special thanks to Bob and Jo Sparks and Bonnie Hamer for all their work over the years.    He also mentioned that Karen had inquired about special event walks that the Cedarburg and La Crosse clubs may have done in the past – are there maps and directions for these?    Tom then presented Jean Scalzo with a bag inscribed "Volkssporting Is My Bag."  She and Steve were involved from the beginning with the Germantown club, which eventually became the Cedarburg club.  Another bag was then given to Karen Reger, who volunteered to be secretary after Judy Meidl was no longer able to fulfill the responsibilities of the office.    Bruce Dewey informed the people present that a group of walkers was going to do the Middleton walk on the following Tuesday at 8:30 a.m. and everyone was welcome to come.    Russ Crane pointed out that the frequent walker coupons were now printed and ready to be sold.  They are ten on a sheet for $15.00.  They may be used only with our club's year-round and seasonal events, and are to be used in lieu of the $2.00 fee for IVV credit.  They are effective January 1, 2002 through the end of the year.  June also had gift certificates for sale.    We had a total of 52 walkers for the Cedarburg walk yesterday, with nine coming from northern Wisconsin and the UP.    Our club was chartered in July of 1995, and Joan Sanders was instrumental in starting the first year-round in Madison in that same year.    Steve Scalzo told about walks that the Milwaukee area club had had in the past, including having one during Germanfest, at Lapham Peak State Park, Holy Hill, Whitnall Park, and Oconomowoc.    Tom said that our newsletter is one of our strong suits; it keeps people informed as to what is going on in our club.    The Osseo club was the first volkssporting club in Wisconsin.  It was begun by a group of students who were taking German and who had gone to Germany on a trip.  They still have an annual walk every fall.    Camp McCoy has an annual AVA walk in April, put on by the camp's recreational services department.    Many AVA walks are Chamber of Commerce walks, meant to bring you in to spend money.  An example is the Oregon, Illinois club.  The walk box is located in a recreation center, and it's just their job to handle the box, they don't reciprocate in any way with other clubs.    Ed Reid mentioned that maybe there should be different levels of clubs.    Hopefully, Bonnie Johnson, our new Regional Director, will be able to come to one of our walks.  The Syttende Mai walk is a go and Tom will invite her to participate in that.    Don Suloff is going to try and have an event a month for 2002.  Deb Rice mentioned that Fort McCoy is now closed for security reasons, so Don will call and inquire about their annual Earth Day celebration walk in April.    Other AVA clubs have swims.  Could we perhaps rent a pool at a hotel and hold a club swim?  Bruce mentioned that the pool at the UW Health Center is available for rent, but it would have to be between their semesters.  Lori Kinnard mentioned that there were swims at the convention where you just walked across the pool.  More research will have to be done on this.    On January 27, the club will have another snowshoe event, held at the same place as this year.  There will be a walk at East Towne Mall on February 23.    June Doyle and Bruce Dewey are working on the Mackinac bridge trip.  We would have to leave early on Saturday, stay two nights in a motel, do the walk on Labor Day, and leave right after the walk.  That leaves Sunday open to do at least one other walk, the walk around Mackinac Island being recommended.  We would have to pay the ferry fee ourselves to get to the island.  The trip fee would be for the motel and the bus – everything else would be on your own.    May 11 is the tentative date for the bus trip to La Crosse to do the seasonal walk and take a boat ride.  The brewery there is still in operation as the employees bought it.  It is now known as the City Brewery, but the familiar six pack of beer has been painted over.    Mention was made of the fact that Cedarburg knows how to attract a lot of people by having various festivals throughout the year, and the Washington Inn is happy to be a starting point for our seasonal walk and also for any special event walks we may have.  This is unlike our experience with Mt. Horeb, where the city was afraid we'd compete with their festival and pull people away from it.  We had 99 people for the last walk there, and one was from Mt. Horeb.  We have to make people realize that our walks bring people into an area.  Bruce said that he was made to feel welcome when he proposed having a walk in connection with the Middleton Good Neighborhood Festival in August.  Karen will send a letter to the Washington Inn, thanking them for their hospitality.    Lori Kinnard mentioned that she had done the Springfield, Illinois state fair walk, plus the Lincoln walk, both of which she enjoyed.    Submitted by Karen Reger.