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The GCC Board of Directors
The GCC board is made up of 2 Co-Chairpersons, Treasurer,
Secretary and multiple Directors at Large.
The election took place on December 8, 2011, and Directors will serve a 2 year term.
Co-Chair - Pete Cody
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I have been climbing in the Gunks for 30 years. I currently guide part-time
for High Xposure and teach piano and composition privately and at Dutchess
County Community College. I am currently most interested in access issues.
I believe that the climbing community is a resource that the land managers
can use. I think the Gunks Climbers Coalition can be a way of tapping into
that resource and organizing it.
I am also interested in exploring the GCC's role as representatives of the
climbing community.
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Co-Chair - Tim Keenan
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Living in the area since 2005, Tim Keenan got his start as a climber nearly a
decade ago in West Virginia. While attending school there, he was a founding
member of the Coopers Rock Regional Climbers Coalition which helped to solidify
the stance of the climbing community there as a resource for education and
conservation. Since moving to New York, Tim has found his place at the Gunks,
helping to develop many new bouldering areas, while ticking off classics both
on boulders and on a rope. He has become involved with the GCC in a meaningful
way and is excited about what the future brings for the organization.
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Treasurer - Fred Polvere
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Fred Polvere has been hiking since 1957 and climbing since 1972. He has climbed extensively
throughout the United States, Canada and Switzerland.
Active in outdoor organizations for over 40 years, Fred is a Charter Member of the GCC.
He has maintained trails for the NY-NJ Trail Conference and was the supervisor of the Appalachian
Trail in Harriman/Bear Mountain State Park. He was active in getting Peterskill in Minnewaska
State Park opened to climbing - scouting trails and routes and taking baseline photos.
Fred started climbing with the Appalachian Mountain Club and still has Mohonk Preserve
buttons numbered 72 and 73 which he inherited from his climbing mentor - Chuck Loucks.
For the AMC, Fred led instructional programs teaching aid-climbing, cliff rescue techniques
and leader safety. On an Adirondack trip he led up the Trap Dike and slide on Mt Colden,
Fred and two other climbers hauled eight bottles of wine to the summit, while his wife,
Natalie, carried cheese and crackers much to the astonishment and enjoyment of the other climbers.
When not outdoors, Fred can be found listening to classical music and opera and reading
and writing about politics.
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Secretary - Jannette Wing Pazer
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I first learned how to climb from my college outing club at the Gunks in 1981.
In 2010 I moved full time to Gardiner, so I can be even more involved in the
Gunks climbing community and make good use of my life membership to the
Mohonk Preserve. I have two teenage daughters who also climb.
My degree is in computer science and my career was doing UNIX operating
systems development and program management. I am starting a new career in
social network marketing and search engine optimization. I am the webmaster
for the Gunks Climbers' Coalition and my own website, cliffmama.com.
I also administer online mailing lists for 4 groups, including the GCC.
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. Back in 2003, I created a Gunks family
climbing group which now has over 70 climbing families in it.
As Secretary, my tasks include taking minutes at our meetings, archiving letters
and memorabilia from our activities, and participating in GCC planning,
events and decisions.
While the official role as Secretary does not include the webmaster and mailing
list administration roles, as the GCC "Geek", I enjoy being able to contribute
by taking on any computer-related jobs for the organization.
This includes maintaining our gunksclimbers.org website, Facebook page, twitter feed,
and mailing list, sending out email news flashes and posting and
participating in climbing website discussion groups on behalf of the GCC.
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Director-at-Large - Nyle Baker
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Growing up in the Adirondacks, I spent my most of my time hiking and enjoying the outdoors.
Six years ago I began ice climbing and eventually transitioned into bouldering and trad climbing
when I moved to New Paltz. I have been living here for almost three years now and have come to
realize the wealth of potential that the Gunks has to offer for climbers and outdoor enthusiasts.
I have become involved with the GCC to help secure and preserve access for all climbers,
now and in the future.
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Director-at-Large - Doug Ferguson
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Doug is the owner and head guide for Mountain Skills Climbing Guides.
His love for the mountains and outdoors was seeded while growing up in Michigan,
skiing competitively in high school. After clocking in 5 years at Kendall College of Art
and Design in Grand Rapids, Michigan, Doug discovered rock climbing while living in
Boulder, Colorado. This lead him to the New River Gorge in West Virginia were he
started guiding and climbing full time. Since moving to New Paltz, Doug guides rock
during the warmer months and ice during the winter. His climbing and mountaineering
educational background consists of AMGA Rock Instructor Course graduate,
AMGA Ice Instructor Course, AMGA Single Pitch Instructor, AMGA Top Rope Site Manager,
AMGA Climbing Wall Instructor Provider, in the AMGA SPI Provider training,
Wilderness First Responder training, Leave No Trace Master Trainer,
National Ski Patrol Level 1& 2 Avalanche Safety, New York State Licensed Rock,
Ice, Hiking, Camping Guide, and also a Hudson Valley Mountain Rescue Volunteer.
Doug has climbed extensively throughout the United States since he has started climbing
in 1997. His focus was mainly on the southeast in the mountains of
North Carolina, West Virginia, and Tennessee. Since moving to New England his new
passion is climbing all the amazing spots in the Adirondack's, Gunks, White and
Green Mountains. He has climbed well over 1,300 different climbing routes and has
climbed or hiked close to 100 peaks around the U.S.
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Director-at-Large - Mark Folsom
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Mark has lived and climbed in the Gunks for 12 years. A member of the GCC for 8 years,
Mark has done volunteer work for Minnewaska State Park, The Mohonk Preserve and serves
on several local environmental committees. An AMGA Rock Instructor Course graduate,
AMGA Single Pitch Instructor, licensed New York State Rock Guide, Wilderness First Aid/ CPR,
Hudson Valley Mountain Rescue member, Cave Rescue Certified and a Leave No Trace Trainer.
Mark is always looking for ways to explore, understand, and share with others our natural world.
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Director-at-Large - France Menk
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My climbing career started in nursery school with chairs, and graduated to
garage roofs and fences as I grew tall enough. After my hire as an
Outward Bound instructor in expedition travel at the Minnesota Voyager
school, I changed to rock as a climbing medium. I was the first woman
to complete a mountain search & rescue course with Norwich University in
Vermont. Outside of New Paltz, New England, Minnesota and Western Ontario,
I have climbed in Switzerland, the UK, Australia and Spain. For
hobnobbing ;-), I've climbed with our own Dick Williams, Tony Sartin,
Peter Darmi and Julie Seyfert in the Gunks, with Dougal Haston in Switzerland,
and have scrambled on the bottom slopes of Everest and Annapurna.
I engage in buildering from time to time (that's not a typo). I moved to
New Paltz in 1994 to be nearer the Gunks and still be able to travel easily
to New York City, where I do much of my work.
Relevant career history background for PR outreach director for the GCC:
TV commercial storyboard design; editorial & corporate identity design; fashion,
editorial and political illustration; political cartooning; photojournalism,
photo editing for the web as well as print and fine art photography and
multimedia design. I maintain two websites: france-menk.com and
photoeventing.com, as well as some blogs (linked from website).
My contribution to the GCC started at its inception 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 am our liaison contact with
other climbing organizations, and provide our press release content as well as
person to person communication. Now that we have co-membership with the
Access Fund, I will be consulting with them on any print material we are
involved with jointly.
Embedded in my personal passion for our sport, is my belief in proactive
educational outreach by every climber. By engaging in dialogue with climbers and
non-climbers alike, we can promote understanding of how our particular activity,
with its requirement for open, untrammelled space, protects the ecosystem for all.
My door is always open.
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Director-at-Large - Andy Salo
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Been living and climbing in the area for over a decade now.
Though I love to travel I always find myself pulled back to the
bouldering and trad here at the Gunks. My hope is that the GCC
can continue to grow, promote and preserve climbing access
throughout the Shawangunks.
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