9 Senate a few years ago and was automatically appointed to the Senate committee, including SenateTransportation. Between his time at the House and the Senate, he was Commissioner for a state agency; he has devoted his time to Vermont and most recently to the LVRT. As you know, this trail has already cost VAST $2 million, included in staff time and the amount of money this organization has put into this trail. This past year, Rich and I and a few other people and started talking about what we needed to do about the LVRT. I promised the members of VAST a couple of years ago when I got this job, that I wouldn’t let this trail [unintelligible in recording] on the back ofVAST members. It’s not fair, it doesn’t run through every county, but it’s an amazing trail and it is doing an amazing amount to the economy to the towns that it runs through currently. Because of Rich and his fighting for it this year, there is a law that was voted in that any monies that we raise, up to $400,000 this year, VTrans will match, and any monies we raise next year through fundraising, they will match up to $1 million. A year and a half ago I was able to get a$240,000 anonymous donation to help run the capital campaign. Out of the money we have hired a capital campaign manager who just started two weeks ago. He is actively getting up to speed and getting out to raise monies that VTrans will then match. Senator Richman fought hard for this legislation and in a tough time, and was able to see it through. I wanted to make sure that he was here to get this award; he is not done fighting for us. He realizes that this isn’t just another VAST trail; this is a connector trail. It connects about 500 miles of our other trails. LEGISLATOR OF THE YEAR – Senator Rich Westman • Senator Westman - I do live in a community that this trail goes through and in my county it is one of the sections that has been completed. There are few things in the legislature that you can do, that you can say to young people, someday you are going to recognize what this is. I hope I live long enough, 25 years from today, when people say “you people had a lot of forethought and this is a brilliant thing that you did 25 years ago. “ I want to be there and I want to be alive to see that we really did a great job. And this organization is making it happen; and people will look at you and say that you gave us something special and you should be proud of yourself for standing up and doing this. And the State should be right behind you supporting you every step of the way.There aren’t many things that you are going to be able to point to in the future and say,“we had a hand in that and this was worth doing, and this trail is. • Cindy Locke - We are in closed negotiations and conversations with VTrans and with the Secretary of Transportation, Chris Cole. He has been with VTrans for a few years now, was with the Transportation field for a while, he started in the Railroad Division and when Sue Minter decided to run for Governor, he became the Secretary for the Agency of Transportation. He is devoted to this trail, so much so, that we are talking right now about VTrans taking over a lot more of the construction and the heavy maintenance of this trail. This would backtrack this trail, it would bring it back; a fundraiser to raise $10 million instead of just $5 million. This is really good news and we are hoping to get the trail done sooner than later and we couldn’t have done it without everyone’s help. • I want to thank all of you that understand this trail. I inherited it; when I interviewed for the job; which they never told me about it. I hope to give you better updates with VTrans and their commitment to helping VAST. • Ken Gammell – I have been working on this for the whole 18 years and I’m glad that all of these people have come on board to help get this done, because my whole life is to get this trail done. I think it is going to be the greatest economic engine driver in the State of Vermont. I want to see this trail finished. It connects so many trails together; it cuts Caledonia right in half. If we didn’t have this trail we literally couldn’t go north and south.You don’t just ride it from one end to another, you hop on and off. So many things have popped up because of it. I have been on the trail and have benefited from it. I want to thank Senator Westman and everyone else in Montpelier for helping us get this done. PROPOSED VAST GENERAL FUND, TRAILS AND SCHOLARSHIP BUDGETS • Tom Baltrus reviewed the financials. This year we have the ability to compare last year’s budget with the new budget. • In FY 2017 we need income of $3,506,276 and we will spend $385,075, which, if our projections are correct, we will have a net of $121,000. • Deficit of $674.00, but based on what happened with the fall of regular season sales. We had a pretty decent sale of Early Birds, but when we didn’t get any snow, the regular season TMAs collapsed. Based on our expense projections. For the next few months, until we enter into the next fiscal year, we will have a deficit of $163,872. Our 2017 budget is based on a sale of 21,753 TMAs. Our 2016 budget was based on 22,841. • 2016 actuals, we only sold 16,800, so we were off budget by 5,961 TMAs. So that is what can happen in a bad snow year. • We expect TMA sales and all the other revenue sources will generate for the General Fund $996,482, as opposed to a budget of $873,197. We have expectations for more interest on savings, money from LVRT, so there is an increase in revenue for the General Fund. • Patty Companik – On Line TMAs,[unintelligible in recording] what is that from? • Tom Baltrus – that is money that we will collect on line for clubs; it’s a wash – The $30.00 • Patty Companik – the last item on that page, the $5.00 [unintelligible in recording] 49TH VAST Annual Meeting Minutes Cont.