The first meeting of the 2023 was held on Tuesday. Key discussion involved ongoing work at Shaver and upcoming annual voting.

-All remaining work for the new Shaver design has been laid out and we are ready to keep working once the weather and ground conditions allow. Opportunities for fundraising have been identified and we will be looking to fill remaining hole sponsorships and raise funds for additional course projects.

-Annual voting will take place via email from 01/24 until midnight the evening of 01/27. Nominations are open for all positions and may be submitted to board@crmdg.com.

See attached pdf for the meeting minutes and visit our Facebook page for current updates: https://www.facebook.com/groups/crmdgc

The inaugural club meeting of 2022 was held last Wednesday– main points of discussion were current state of courses and upcoming plans for spring projects.

-We’re excited to continue working at Shaver and there will be plenty of volunteer opportunities as we prep the park for the new design!

-The basket replacement initiative for Fay Clark Park in Hiawatha is underway!

See attached pdf for the meeting minutes and hop over to our Facebook page for the latest project updates: https://www.facebook.com/groups/crmdgc

The club had a meeting on March 1 to explore opportunities to redesign Shaver Park’s disc golf course.

The club voted to pursue hiring John Houck Design. The board is also evaluating other options as a backup.

Jones Park is still closed as it’s still in the cleanup process.

The club’s finances are sitting around $5000.

Yesterday was supposed to be our quarterly club meeting… but with the Covid-19 messing up so many things, we decided to just give an update and ask for feedback.

Social Distancing

The Cedar Rapids, Marion, and Hiawatha municipalities recently pulled the baskets to help enforce the governor’s orders to stay at home. It was an easy decision from their perspective as they have received many calls about groups of people playing on the courses and very rarely abiding by the 6-foot distancing rules set in place by the state.

We would like to encourage everyone to be aware of the social distancing rules and set good examples for other disc golfers to play only with a couple of friends or (even better) solo rounds for the next several weeks. Promoting mini events and bringing groups of players together in the same area is going to attract unwanted attention. The city is monitoring the traffic at the courses and we would appreciate everyone’s cooperation to prevent the baskets from getting pulled again in the future.

NEW BOARD MEMBER AT LARGE

We would like to welcome Richard Roberts as the first Board Member at Large (BML). As a BML, Richard will work closely the board, assisting whenever possible. By being a BML, he will have the ability to become a full board member at the end of the year if voted in by club members.

Shaver Park Improvements

We’ve been able to make a few upgrades to the course at Shaver park recently and we have several more projects that could use some attention. Matt Hale (Course Director) has a list full of needs for all of the parks that we would love to get completed. If you’re interested in helping on some solo/small projects that Matt has on his list, please let us know. There’s plenty of work that can be done that will improve everyone’s experience.

We’re also working on getting a few more basket positions put in place so we can get signs ordered and installed. We believe that nothing is ever “final”. Just because a pin position is set and a sign is in place doesn’t mean that things can’t be changed. We’ll continue to listen to feedback and suggestions and try to make the course better as time time passes. We’re looking at additional ideas and plans for what we can do with the course over the next several years. So if you see something you like or something you think could be better, please let us know… getting feedback (praises and criticisms) makes a big difference.

Shawnee Park

The club board is ramping up design ideas and preparing to get things ready to run some mini events at Shawnee Park once the Covid-19 restrictions are loosened. We’re excited about the chance to get another course in the area.

Well, the season hasn’t quite gone the way any of us would have liked. So many events are canceled and for most people, our way of life has (hopefully temporarily) changed beyond imagination.

We recently released a schedule of events; we have lots of work days planned, a couple of club-run tournaments, and a weekly league.

At this time, we’re suspending club activities until further notice. We hope that we’ll be able to resume by the end of April.

PARK UPDATES

SHAVER PARK

We’re still working on adding pin positions at Shaver Park. Thanks to Nate Andrews who has donated his time and materials that will help enhance the course to a measure it hasn’t seen in a long while.

HIAWATHA FAY CLARK PARK

We are working with the city of Hiawatha to get a use agreement similar to the one we have with the city of Cedar Rapids. The city has asked that we help install new tee signs at the park and, with it, we have the opportunity to add a few extra pin positions throughout the course. We’re hoping to get things figured out this spring so we can get signs ordered this summer. Once pins are placed, the city have also given us permission to add mulch rings around all of the pin positions.

JONES PARK

We are working with the Cedar Rapids Parks department to get the green light to make some adjustments to the course to use some of the land north of the pond. We’re excited about the opportunity to expand the course and make some improvements that will help add more variety to the course.

CLUB NUMBERS

As of 3/24, we have 23 members and $3920 in funds. You can become a member by registering online at https://crmdg.com/membership/

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We look forward to continuing with our planned schedule. We’ll update everyone again in April once new information is available.

Upcoming Meeting

Our next club meeting will be on Tuesday, March 10 at the public library. 
(UPDATE: We had to move the date from March 6 because of a conflict at the Library).

Have you seen the updates?

We updated our by-laws recently. If you haven’t taken the opportunity to read through those please do.  

Get your 2020 Membership

Club Memberships are ready to be renewed for 2020. Signing up for the club is easy. Information can be found on the club website (www.crmdg.com) and you can also sign up for the club at the Titan Disc Golf shop located at 710 J Ave NE.  

PDGA Membership Club Discount

The CRMDG Club is a PDGA Affiliate club.  Our club members can use a code when paying for your PDGA membership to get a $5 discount. After you’ve finalized your membership, feel free to contact any board member to get the code.

Members at Large

If you are interested in nominating someone or yourself to be a Board Member at Large; please email the board at board@crmdg.com. Club members will be voting on those nominees at the next meeting. Information on what it means to be a Board Member at Large can be found in the bylaws on the club website or the club Facebook page.  

Course Teams

You can also email the board if you are interested in joining one of the ‘Course Teams’. Course Teams will be working with the Course Director (Matt Hale) to make improvements to the local courses.

Club T-Shirts

The Board has discussed ordering Club T-Shirts at some point this summer. Members would be given the opportunity to order a T-Shirt if they are interested. We are asking for volunteers to design the 2020 CRMDGC T-Shirt. Please contact the board if you are interested in designing the shirt design.

Marion Parks Update

Members of the Board were able to sit down with Marion Parks Dept on February 5th. We met with the Deputy Director of the Parks Department. We were encouraged by the conversation we had with the Deputy Parks Director and one of the parks Maintenance Supervisors. We expect to have a use agreement in place soon. The use agreement would allow us to make improvements, etc to the course/grounds similar to the agreement we have with the Cedar Rapids parks department. Marion Parks appeared to be very excited about the opportunity to partner with the Club. We discussed a variety of ways that the Club can partner with the city to improve the park and maintain the aesthetics/safety of the course.  We are planning to meet with the Marion Parks board of directors in the near future.

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There are exciting things happening in the Cedar Rapids Metro Area disc golf scene. Tell your friends about the club and get signed up. See you at the next meeting.  

New Club Structure

We are excited to announce that the board has settled on new by-laws that will help govern our club. Those by-laws can be found on our website at https://crmdg.com/about/. Everyone is encouraged to read through them to gain a better understanding of club member expectations and opportunities.

Each of the five board members have accepted roles and responsibilities to help better align with the bylaws and to provide more specific support to the future endeavors of the club. That information can be found on our website as well right above the bylaws.

One of the new aspects of the bylaws is the Members at Large role. This role allows individuals who would like to become board members in the future a way to grow into responsibilities in leadership along with the current board with the possibility of moving into a board position in the future.

The bylaws also describe some details about the new Course Director role and the subsequent Course Custodian and Course Team roles. We’ll be reaching out to members for volunteers in the short future to fill those roles and provide more specifics on expectations on how we see those roles taking shape in the bigger picture.

2020 Membership

Club dues have been set at $20. We are accepting membership dues at this time. As always, we are open to donations from individuals, businesses, etc.

Marion Parks Department

We are also excited to announce that discussions have started with the Marion parks department about ways the club can contribute to the Legion disc golf course and the Marion disc golf community.

Information regarding our next meeting will be coming soon.

If you have any questions, concerns, or thoughts don’t hesitate to reach out to a board member!