Animas River Surfers

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Board Meeting – May 20th, 2025

Animas River Surfers

Meeting Minutes

5/20/2025

Call to Order

Amanda Kiessel called a meeting for Animas River Surfers at 5:00 p.m. on 5/20/2025 at 2275 W 3rd Ave.

Roll Call

Amanda Kiessel, Kory Samson, Darren Cioppa, David Lamson, Jonathan Jourdane, Paul Galido, Alex Galido, Stephanie Fleming, Dom

Open Issues and Discussion Points

  1. Discussion about Farmington’s newly constructed wave on the Animas River
  2. Upcoming events
    1. Animas River Days
      1. Sign up for times at booth
      2. Talking points as follows:
  • -Animas River Surfers is an all-volunteer, Durango-based, registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. (Donations are tax deductible. See below for more details)
  • -We exist to support river surfing on the Animas River: this includes advocacy work to 1. engage community to enjoy our river via river surfing in a safe and responsible way, 2. encourage the next generation of river surfers by hosting beginner information sessions/meet ups, and 3. working to explore the feasibility of a surf-specific river wave that functions at low flows and is safer and more approachable for beginners in Durango.
  • -Our primary fundraising goal is focused on funding a feasibility study from a river engineering firm (likely REP, who made the Salida wave, Pueblo wave, and others outside CO)
  • -Design features of desirable modern surf waves are: wide, smooth/glassy surface better for surfing instead of foam pile which is better for kayaking, user-friendly entry and exit to be more approachable for beginners and those at the younger/older age spectrum,
  • -We host beginner informational meet-ups, with or without gear in exchange for a donation of any amount: May 27th and June 3rd, 4-6 pm at Santa Rita Whitewater park.
  • -We will be doing a river clean up at the end of the summer/early fall
  • -We will again be hosting the finish line beer tent at the Valkyrie Relay (Multi Sport Team Relay Race) September 13, 2025

 

  1. What are our next steps as an organization?
  2. How can we show the city council that there is an interest in river surfing?
  3. Raffle ideas
    1. Surf board raffle $799 value
    2. Leash raffle and other ideas for Valkyrie event
  4. Grants ideas
  5. Assign board member roles/titles

 

New Business and Call to Action

  1. Ordered fresh batch of stickers for River Days. Spoke with Warren at Farmington city and they don’t really need us at Riverfest this weekend because it’s less river focused (more just a river adjacent event) and not even a city event in point of fact. I’ve also reached out to JP McDonough of Friends of the Buena Vista River Park to see how they’re doing. I’ve also got a call into McLaughlin to touch base with them as movers and shakers in the river design world. I’ll make a list of talking points/elevator pitch to have ready for our Animas River Days volunteers.
  2. Dom and Stephanie are going to work on next steps to engage with our new City Counselors directly and individually first, and then once a rapport and friendly introduction has been made in coming months, they’ll work on getting us a more formal introduction scheduled at a city council meeting if that makes sense.
  3. Paul is going to try to apply for the REI grant (https://www.reifund.org/grantees/recommend)
  4. Kory is putting together a flyer for the board raffle with a QR code
  5. Kory will get the “shop” up and running so we can sell ARS swag
  6. Darren and Davd are going to schedule a couple/few more “Beginner River Surfer Meet-Ups” so that we can advertise these at Animas River Days (and I’ll include that info in the bullet pointed elevator pitch I’ll have ready for the River Days volunteers)
  7. Jonathan is going to make sure we are doing the surf meet ups in such a way that we are not in any kind of legal liability zone since we don’t have any licensure or insurance for providing instruction/guidance, etc.
  8. Stephanie and Jonathan are going to help figure out how we need to structure/run this legit, incredibly organized nonprofit so we are showing that we are deserving of meaningful donations. (I.e. we need regularly scheduled public board meetings, eventual board elections, vote on “motions” etc.)
  9. Apropos of that, here is where we decided the OG board should begin for now:

 

  • President-Amanda Kiessel
  • VP-Paul Galido
  • Secretary/treasurer-Stephanie
  • Marketing/web development-Kory Samson
  • Education-David Lamson
  • Social Media-Darren Cioppa
  • Legal-Jonathan Jourdane
  • Youth Engagement Coordinator-Alex Galido

 

Adjournment

Amanda Kiessel adjourned the meeting at 6:15 p.m.

Minutes submitted by: Stephanie Fleming

Minutes approved by: Amanda Kiessel