We had a great full membership meeting this last Saturday, August 23rd. The meeting begain with a seminar led by Truckee Fire's Bob Belden. Bob discussed the importance of properly clearning trees and brush from around structures, and how simple measures like removing deck cushions and covering woodpiles can protect houses from spot fires. Spot fires happen from hot ash and burning debris from nearby fires and are one of the greatest threats to structures.

After the seminar, we held our full membership meeting. The full presentation is available online. President Pat Malberg went over the DSAA activities for the previous year and called on our membership to volunteer their time as members of our communication, trails & parks and other committees or via one-time activities like stuffing letters or at the spring cleanup. We are also looking for volunteers interested in helping maintain this website and the internal membership and fund raising databases. Please email the DSAA if you are interested in volunteering for any DSAA activities!

Treasurer Alisha Lee covered our budget from the previous year and laid out our planned budget for 2009. Fundraising committee chair, Tamara Lieberman reviewed our successful July 5th party and covered our fundraising goals for 2009. Secretary Sara Taillon covered our explosive membership growth statistics for this last year.

We concluded with elections for the DSAA board. John Kerrene, Carrie Hoyt, Ron Kolbe and Daniel Wexler were all re-elected to serve another two year term. We also welcome new board member Rebecca Meyerholz, helping John represent the PlaVada region. Rebecca has a background working on local planning issues. We're very excited to have her on board!

We bid farewell to board member Simone Janssen who completed her two year term on the DSAA board. Simone was a big help to the DSAA during her term providing insightful comments and volunteering her time to help with many of our activities. Thanks Simone!

For more information, see the Meeting Minutes for the General Membership Meeting and also the
minutes from the short DSAA Board Meeting that followed.

The DSAA Board met on July 14, 2008 for its monthly Board Meeting. We formed a new Trails Committee to support efforts to improve and build public trails on Donner Summit. We also discussed the very successful First Annual DSAA Community Picnic. We ended the meeting with a review of the past year. Please find the attached minutes for details.

We hope to see everyone at the DSAA General Membership Meeting and Fire Prevention Seminar, to be held on Saturday, August 23, 2008 at 10am at Clair Tappaan Lodge.