Summary of First Meeting

This meeting was held at the springs at between 1:00 and 3:00 p.m on Saturday May 18, 2002. The participants were Wizard, DCR and myself. There were a few other familiar faces that stopped by and shared their opinions at one point or another but we did not obtain their permission to disclose their names. However there involvement appeared to indicate that there was an intrest in this group beyond the participants of this forum.

The following is a summary of what was discussed and the concensus that we reached. In many cases we limited ourselves to exchanging ideas that could be shared with other members on the forum.

1) Group Philosophy: We generally felt that there was a need for a group of volunteers a little more organized than what currently exists, however in view of all our current time and distance constraints we felt that none of us could commit to anything very formal or time consuming. The idea would be to have an informal or loosly nit group that could participate in more coordinated work to keep the springs as they are on a volunteer basis. There would be a variety of ways for volunteers to paricipate but that would all contribute to a common goal and allow us to have a more significant presence with goverment agencies. We also felt that it was important that the group should not take the fun out of going to the springs for the volunteers.

2) Activities: Some suggestions were made regarding ways that volunteers could help, many of which we are already doing. Some of these included trash collection by volunters on a regular basis or coordinating three or four trash collection days a year, that could include USFS participation or not. Other suggestions included breaking up or burying fire pits, having a first aid kit on hand, watering the trees, clening the existing pools, etc. We also discussed that the best way to help the springs was informing other visitors regarding the expected behavior, such as carrying out your own trash, no glass, camping, explicit sexual behavior, etc. For this purpose we felt that a clear brochure that would endorse the USFS rules and explain our local custom rules of ettiquette would be helpful. It would be useful to both help communicate this information as well as an easy way to approach a person to explain it to them. This brochure could eventually be incorported into a sign at the springs or handed out with the map at BR if MC agreed to do so.

3) Name: We discussed a possible name for the group for quite a while. Although we initially like Preservancy or Conservancy we felt that these words were too formal for the group we wanted to form. We also through around the idea of using 6th pool in the name, however felt that we should keep Deep Creek at least to identify the location. We felt friends did give the conotation we wanted but did not want the history associated with Friends of Deep Creek. Instead of friends a few other suggestions that came up where "Volunteers", "Stewards", "Intrest Group", "Adhoc Comittee", "Caretakers", etc. So some likely names would be "Deep Creek 6th. Pool Volunteers", Deep Creek Hot Springs Stewards", "Deep Creek Advocacy Group", etc. No decision was made and we decided to return the issue to the forum for further discussion.

4) Mission Statement: We did not come up with a final mission statement but we did through around some ideas of what it should address. These included coordinate with USFS, show presence, keep things the way they are, preserve the hot springs for our children and grandchildren, low impact on the environment and keep all personal agendas out of it. It was decided that I would work on the wording of a possible mission statement based on these ideas and put it out for discussion on the forum. I plan on doing so later this week.

5) Goverment Agency Participation: We discussed that while we would like to be taken seriously by the goverment agencies, we did not want to become and extension of them. We did not want to be put in a position were we feel obliged to endorse their policies. However we do want to work with them to keep the springs open and available to all and reduce the impact of their increased usage on the environment. We felt that the best way to achieve this was to have a liason to work with USFS, and our feeling was that Wizard was already doing this and should continue to do so. This was the only official that we felt was pertinent to decide on at this time.

6) Mailing List: We also discussed the advantage of accumulation a mailing list/email list of all group members, in order to be able to share information and maybe have a quarterly newsletter. This would have a better representation with the goverment agencies as well as quick route to notify intrested parties if these hot springs, God forbid, where ever threatened with closure.

7) Tanya: We also discussed the possible participation of Tanya in the group. Our consensus was that as long as she kept all personal agenda items out of the discussion, and was willing to work on the issues for the good of springs she is welcome to join if she wishes.

8) Other subjects: These are a few other issues we touched on briefly. We should not leave visible trash bags for another vounteer to carry out. Other visitors take it as the "official" trash dump and leave their trash beside it instead of carrying it out. We probably will come up with a concealed location that we can use for the purpose of helping each other carry it out. The Deep Creek Etiquette would be addressed on our brochure and would include conserving the clothing optional custom as well as a family friendly environment. Overnight Camping and illegal fires would be addressed by endorsing the USFS policy on our brochure. The increased usage is hard to control but we would try and reduce its impact on the environment by educating new users with the brochure. The lack of sanitary facilities is not an issue that we feel the need to try and change as this will increase the impact on the environment instead of reducing it. Instead we will try and educate people on the brochure. It was also mentioned that eventually we might choose to have a separate website that would more clearly represent the message the group is trying to communicate.

9) Next Meeting: Finally we discussed the date of our next meeting and decided to put it way out in the future to give people plenty of notice. Their for we scheduled it for Saturday July 14 at 1:00 p.m. In the meantime we will try and narrow down some of these issues via the forum. I will try and propose about one subject a week for discussion, starting with the mission statement and then the name. It is important that all those that post their opinions are clearly identified. We don't want several people posting under different names. I know it is hard for us all to get together, however I thought that it would be helpful if we can associate a name with a face for these discussion. In order to increase the opportunity of this happening I would suggest that anyone knowing they plan on visiting the springs, make a post regarding the date and time they will be going so that other of us that may be available may try and go down at the same time if possible.

Wizard and DCR, please feel free to add anything you feel I missed or did not get down correctly. Please note that Naked Man showed up on Sunday and appologized for having missed the meeting due to unexpected commitments. Please feel free to give general feedback but keep the deep discussion for the item by item threads. LOL