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The 2005-2007 GCC Board of Directors
The GCC board is made up of Chairman, Co-Chairman, Treasurer,
Secretary and three Directors at Large. All elected officers
must be Coalition members and shall serve a term of 2 years, starting
in October 2005.
Chairman - Chris Moratz
The GCC Chair
- be the chief officer of the Board;
- preside at all meetings of the Board and call special and emergency
meetings;
- perform such other duties as customarily pertain to the office
of Chair, and shall have general and active supervision over the
property, business, and affairs of the Board and its officers;
- sign, execute, and acknowledge, in the Coalition's name, contracts,
deeds, mortgages, bonds, and/or other instruments authorized by the Board,
except as otherwise provided in these Bylaws, and/or by law;
- appoint standing committees and their members with the approval
of the Board, appoint special committees and their members, appoint
all committee chairs;
- serve on all committees as a member ex officio, without right to
vote;
- delegate such of these duties as is reasonable; and
- perform such other duties as may be required from time to
time by the Board or these Bylaws.
- A Director must be an active Director for at least one year
in order to be eligible for the Chair position, except for the
initial election of officers after the adoption of these Bylaws.
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Chris Moratz, has been involved with the GCC since its inception,
and was recently designated Regional Coordinator for the Gunks and Catskills.
William Christopher "Chris" Moratz born in Pasadena, California in 1961
grew up with many moves and changes all around the US and Europe.
Chris started rock climbing in 1980, discovering the Shawangunks from his home
base of Ithaca, NY at the time. After a traditional "old school" apprenticeship
of a few years, he was a regular at the cliffs. Over the years Chris kept a fairly low
profile and climbed with only a few regular partners, with his Gunks climbing
career interrupted first in 1986 when a foreign assignment took him to live
in Germany for an extended period of over two years - fortunately right "next door"
to the Frankenjura - then returning in 1989 when his life took another turn
with marriage and life in Western NY followed by the Boston area. After a
divorce in 1994, he decided to settle permanently in his beloved Shawangunks,
after all, this sense of place has never been equaled for Chris in any
other region in which he has lived. In 1995, his long standing dream came true
when he purchased a house on Sandhill Road in the Town of Shawangunk with
a beautiful view of Skytop. His corporate engineering job again took him
away to Germany from 2001 to 2002 but since then he has enjoyed the
local mountains more than ever.
In addition to rock climbing, Chris also boulders frequently at a moderate
level. His favorite cliff is Millbrook, which admittedly both terrifies and
fascinates like no other climbing area. "It reminds me of a remote
mountain fastness or citadel, shrouded in mystery, with unique, unparalled
imposing beauty and wildness, a place where the climbing gods dwell."
Since this is one of the greatest climbing areas anywhere and a great
community, Chris feels lucky to serve and "give back" to a
place that has given him so much.
When not climbing rock, ice or bouldering, Chris is an avid
road cyclist in the summer and a cross country skier (member of
the ski patrol at Minnewaska State Park) in the winter. First and
foremost an artist and creative person, he also maintains a small art pottery
studio out of his house on Sandhill Road. His profession in mechanical
engineering has turned into a 15 year career with the same company and
a staff-level position.
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Co-Chair - Ajax Greene
The GCC Co-Chair
- Have such powers and perform such duties as may be assigned
by the Board or the Chair.
- In the absence or disability of the Chair, the Co-Chair shall
perform the duties, and exercise the powers, of the Chair.
- sign, execute, and acknowledge, in the Coalition's name,
contracts, deeds, mortgages, bonds, and/or other instruments
authorized by the Board, except as otherwise provided in these
Bylaws, and/or by law;
- A Director must be an active Director for at least one year in
order to be eligible for the Co-Chair position, except for the
initial election of officers after the adoption of these Bylaws.
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Ajax Greene has been climbing for 37 years and
specifically actively climbing in the Gunks
since 1970. With about 100 FA & FFA's in over a
dozen states and several countries Ajax did his
time living in the dirt with the play volume on
11. Ajax has been active in access issues since
almost the beginning, including supporting several
of the early Access Fund rendezvous' and being the
organizer of the 1994 Access Fund Rendezvous in North
Conway, NH the most successful fund raising event for
the Access Fund up until that time. Although Ajax has
participated in all forms of climbing (hiking, biking,
skiing etc) and appreciates them all, today he is
struggling not to rack up vendetta's on trad routes
he used to solo for a warm up. Beside climbing Ajax
is a leader nationally in the socially conscious
business movement. He brings both an executive mind
set and advocate's passion to the GCC.
Ajax views the GCC as a platform for progressive
climber world domination. Long live the radical center!
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Treasurer - Dana Perry, CPA
The GCC Treasurer
- have charge and custody of all funds of the Board;
- shall maintain, or cause to be maintained, an accurate
accounting system;
- shall perform or cause to be performed all other duties
as are customary and incident to the office which may be assigned
by the Chair or the Board.
- present, or cause to be presented, financial reports to
the Board in such manner as the Board may determine; and
- Upon the Board's decision, the Treasurer shall arrange
for an audit of the Corporation's books.
- In the absence or disability of the Chair and the
Co-Chair, the Treasurer shall perform the duties and exercise the
powers of the Chair.
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I am a long time traditional rock climber that started climbing in the late 70's at Sky Top.
I've since climbed in Yosemite, Red Rocks, Acadia, New Hampshire and the Daks.
I am a CPA and MBA from Columbia Business School with some not for profit experience.
My purpose for joining is to facilitate the mission of the GCC. I am a strong
traditionalist but feel that the best way that I can help further the cause is by
helping out with the administrative aspects of the GCC. To that end I have been
helping keep the books for the past year or so and recently was named acting Treasurer.
Thank you for your support.
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Secretary - Jannette Wing Pazer
The GCC Secretary
- give, or cause to be given, notice of all meetings;
- take, or arrange for the recording of, minutes of each meeting;
- record, or cause to be recorded, all votes of the Board;
- keep, or cause to be kept, all books, papers, writing,
and other records of the Board;
- have custody of any seal or official stamp; and
- shall perform or cause to be performed all other duties
as are customary and incident to the office which may be assigned by
the Chair or the Board.
- In the absence or disability of the Chair and the
Co-Chair, the Secretary shall perform the duties
and exercise the powers of the Chair.
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I have been rock climbing at the Gunks since 1981, first learning how to
climb from my college outing club, and later from partners who served as
mentors to me. I have also climbed in various other areas in America and Mexico.
I am currently the program manager for a computer operating system company
in New Jersey,
planning and coordinating the engineering for major software projects, and running
many meetings, taking minutes, and publicizing project status on internal websites.
I have a degree in computer science and I am the webmaster
for the Gunks Climbers' Coalition, the Working Mothers' Network of Millburn and
Short Hills, and my own website, cliffmama.com. I also administer online mailing
lists for 3 groups. In my past I have been secretary and newsletter editor of the
Syracuse University Outing Club and for 2 caving clubs, the Northern New Jersey
Grotto, and the Shawangunk-Catskill Area Grotto. I am also a life member of the
Mohonk Preserve and contribute to numerous environmental organizations.
As secretary of the Gunks Climbers' Coalition, I will continue what I have been
doing since the organization's inception: helping in any way I can to
communicate our mission, and using the computer to help disseminate information.
This includes maintaining our website, creating photo
galleries from our events, sending out email news flashes to our membership and
a wider audience of interested climbers, participating in gunks.com discussions and
posting announcements there, developing pictures and reviews of our activities for
our photo album used at GCC events, contributing material to our newsletter,
archiving letters and memorabilia from our activities, taking minutes at our
meetings, and participating in GCC planning and decisions. For the future,
I would like to better disseminate information from the GCC
board to the GCC members and the climbing community at large.
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Director-at-Large - Christopher Spatz
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First climbed in the Shawangunks in 1975. Primarily traditional experience
climbing in New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Maine,
New Hampshire, West Virginia, Tennessee, Montana, Washington, California,
and Alberta. Shawangunks resident since 2000.
Worked with John Anderson of Access NJ to save Princeton's Cradle Rock
from development threat in the early '90s.
Acted as the preliminary liaison for the GCC with Minnewaska State Park,
the Open Space Institute, the NY DEC, and the Town of Rosendale.
Made preliminary contacts and site reviews for GCC clean-ups at Shevchenko
and the MUA Campground, and Adopt-a-Crag days at the Mac Wall and Peterskill.
Initiated discussions between the Town of Rosendale, the Gunks
bouldering community, the Mohonk Preserve, OSI, and the GCC on
the Waterworks Bouldering Project.
Provided early GCC publicity and website updates; continue
to provide contributions to Talus.
Sat on the GCC Steering Committee for the first year.
BA, English. Trenton State College. 1987.
MSW. New York University. 1994
Bartender/waiter; writer.
As Director-at-Large, I will
1. Continue to emphasize maintaining access in the Shawangunks through the practice
of minimum impact, leave-no-trace climbing.
2. Continue to promote communication between the GCC's Board of Directors,
its members, the climbing/bouldering communities, the Access Fund, and ridge landowners.
3. Through these means, respectively, work to pursue the primary objectives concluded
from the GCC's Climber Survey: protect existing climbing access; open new/closed
climbing areas, improve camping opportunites for climbers in the Shawangunks.
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Director-at-Large - France Menk
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A brief climbing history:
My climbing career started with chairs, garage roofs and fences while under 3' in ht.
After my hire as an Outward Bound instructor in expedition travel, at the Minnesota
school, I changed to rock as a climbing medium.
I was the first woman to complete a mountain search & rescue course with
Norwich Military Academy in Vermont.
Outside of New Paltz, New England, Minnesota and western Ontario,
I have climbed in Switzerland, Wales and England, Australia and Spain.
I moved to New Paltz 10 years ago to be nearer the Gunks and
commuted to New York City on a weekly basis.
Relevant career history to position as communications designer with the GCC
(now holding and wishing to expand as director-at-large):
My professional career has spanned TV commercial storyboard design; magazine
& corporate identity design; book jacket design; fashion, editorial and political
illustration; political cartooning; book illustration; photojournalism, photo editing
for the web as well as print, and fine art photography and multimedia design.
I maintain a website, www.photocon.com, for my commercial photography.
(It has specific education and career information on it.)
My contribution to the GCC started at conception, as a contributing member
of the team writing its mission statement. I designed our logo, the
logo for the newsletter and the logo for our news flashes. I now wish
to expand my role as newsletter content developer, designer and production
coordinator.
In addition to the newsletter overall design, I prepare its images for the
web version and create pdfs of varying degrees of resolution for its linkage
to our website and for print production. I also contribute photography and
poetry. (The newsletter work is in tandem with Jannette Pazer, our web
developer, and Dell Bleekman, our editor.) My design and production
work extends to any print material we need such as posters, stickers,
membership cards, brochures, maps, etc.
I find the design of information products for our outreach with the
entire community - in addition to participating in our policy meetings - to
be the most effective way for me to contribute to the coalition. I
expect to be much more proactive and look forward to working closely with
fellow members in this regard.
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Director-at-Large - Robert T. O'Brien
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Avid skier and surfer until discovering climbing in Fort Collins CO (1988) while
pursuing my BS in Natural Resource Recreation and Tourism at Colorado State University.
The overwhelming affection toward climbing saw me climb throughout Colorado and
Wyoming at a fever pace. After moving back to the east in 1995 I took up
residence on a friends farm adjoining the Appalachian Trail 50 miles south
of the Gunks. From this location I discovered the Gunks. and found a 30 - 120
foot cliff on the AT between Vernon NJ and Waywayanda State Park to play on
where I FA'd 30 new lines. Outside the US trips include two separate
cycling/climbing trips to Europe. After a time as a IT consultant in
New York City and a few winters in the ski business the Shawangunk Ridge
made it's final calling and I took up residence in New Paltz in early 2004.
Since arriving I have had the experience of being a Student Conservation
Association Environmental Educator at Minnewaska State Park Preserve and
now work for the park as a ranger. I am a licensed New York State
climbing and hiking guide as well Leave No Trace Master Educator and
High Angle Rescue team member.
The platform I stand on is one of reducing environmental and social impact
of climbing via the spreading out of climbing areas both within Minnewaska
and surrounding areas.
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