At the Green Mountain Club’s Annual Meeting on Saturday, June 15, four general seats will open on the board of directors. Directors are elected to three-year terms, with a limit of six consecutive years of board service.
The GMC Nominating Committee presents the following candidates for approval. Read about this year’s candidates, and vote using the form below.
Ram Moennsad, Second Term
Ram Moennsad is running for his second term as a general director on GMC’s Board. has been a GMC member since 2011 and is currently president of the GMC Worcester Section, where he is a frequent visitor to the section’s Cedar Meadow Pond Camp. He also serves as Chair of the section’s Camps Committee.
Ram is a chemist by training, and has worked in manufacturing, automotive, water testing, and safety in both New Hampshire and Massachusetts. Now retired, he enjoys spending his time hiking, snowshoeing, bike riding, and gardening.
Melissa Reichert, First Term
Melissa Reichert has spent 30 years working in land use and natural resource planning. For eighteen of those years, she worked for the US Forest Service Green Mountain and Finger Lakes National Forests as the Forest Planner, and then the Recreation Program Manager. As the Forest Planner, she led the team that developed the 2006 Green Mountain National Forest Land and Resource Management Plan. She worked closely with the Green Mountain Club and the Appalachian Trail Conservancy to develop the Management Area direction for the Long Trail and Appalachian Trail. As the Recreation Program Manager, she continued to work with GMC and ATC on management and funding issues. As a licensed Landscape Architect, she also conducted scenic analysis for projects that could impact the trail environment.
Since retiring in 2019, Melissa has been an active GMC member. She serves on the Land Conservation committee, is secretary of the Killington section, and is a volunteer corridor monitor. She has spent many years advocating for the importance of trails in Vermont.
Melissa holds a Bachelor’s in Psychology from the University of Vermont and a Master’s in Landscape Architecture from the University of Massachusetts.
Melissa lives in Shrewsbury, which hosts a beautiful section of the Long Trail, and serves on the Shrewsbury Planning Commission. She loves hiking, cross-country skiing, kayaking, and gardening.
Ryan Robbins, First Term
Ryan’s first hiking memory is tripping and landing face-first on the Monroe Trail when he was around 12 years old. Today, about 20 years later, he has thru-hiked the Long Trail once and section hiked it twice more, along with a section of the Appalachian Trail from New Hampshire to New York. He and his wife Katie have a goal to hike 1,000 miles this year, a stretch goal given they just welcomed their first child in February, but within reach for these hiking-obsessed Vermonters.
Ryan is an accountant and data analyst by training (UVM ‘15 and Castleton MBA ‘23) and serves as fractional (part-time) Chief Financial Officer of several small organizations. His experience in multiple organizations serves him well in implementing best practices and creative solutions to budget and finance decisions. Ryan joined the GMC’s Budget & Finance committee last summer to begin contributing his financial knowledge to the club. He looks forward to the opportunity to apply his knowledge and experience to the Green Mountain Club at large, an organization whose mission and goals Ryan is passionate about and dedicated to. Ryan previously served on the board of Burlington Church of Christ for six years.
Ryan lives in Bolton with his wife Katie and new baby. The Long Trail crosses next to their land, a major factor in deciding to purchase it.
Jeff Wehrwein, Second Term
Jeff Wehrwein grew up skiing at Bromley and day-hiking with his family in the White Mountains. His love of Vermont blossomed at Middlebury College, and his first GMC event was trail maintenance with the Bread Loaf section on Middlebury Gap. Jeff officially joined the club in 2010 and became a regular on hikes, snowshoes, and trail work outings with the Burlington section. In September 2010 he defied his fear of the dark and hiked the Long Trail end-to-end, staying dry for over 7 hours cumulatively.
Some years later, Jeff left Vermont to see the world and climb new mountains. While living in California he backpacked the John Muir Trail, the Tahoe-Yosemite section of the PCT, and the High Sierra Trail, none of which have quite the character of the Long Trail. More recently Jeff moved to Boulder, Colorado where he accidentally became an ultrarunner and diversifies his time in the woods with cross-country skiing.
Jeff visits Vermont regularly to spend time with his parents in Middlebury, hike his favorite Green Mountains, and discover new ski trails when the weather allows. He is grateful to have the opportunity to serve the Green Mountain Club in a second term as general director.
Voting is now closed. We hope to see you at Annual Meeting!