MASNA February 2007 BOD Meeting Minutes
This meeting was
held electronically on February 08, 2007
BOD Present:
John Henrion III (Membership)
Bob Lemcke (Treasurer)
Eric Hall (Webmaster)
Chuck Scannell (Industry
Representative)
Del Brashares (Editor)
Becky McAlister (Director At
Large)
BOD Absent:
Cheri Phillips (President)
Kim Lowe (Vice President)
Cathy Garey (Public Relations)
Secretary (Position Vacant)
Internet Promotion (Position Vacant)
Guests:
Linda C. (CDMAS)
Kelly Jedlicki (LMAS)
Patrick Stoning (Reef Aquarium Guide)
NOTE: Officer reports were distributed via
eMAIL to the BOD in advance of this meeting. They are inserted into these
minutes.
1) President
Report:
MASNA Board:
·
Discussed
the open Membership Director board position w/ John Henrion III. When he
decided he would like to be appointed to the position, I posted a Board thread
w/ his profile information and a poll for his appointment. The motion passed to
appoint him to the position for the remainder of the MASNA fiscal year.
·
Set
up a trial WebEx account so that I could use it in training John. On 2/4/07 we
spent about two hours with him viewing my workstation screens via WebEx to
learn his duties as Membership Director and so he could help w/ Club and
Speaker database additions and updates.
·
Received
the written resignation of Marie Dempsey for the Internet Promotions position
on 2/1/07
MACNA Scholarship Fund:
·
Received
another inquiry regarding the specifics of applying for a MASNA Scholarship.
This request came from a high school senior (member of PMASI club) applying to
college to work in the Marine Biology field. I let Kim know about the inquiry
and responded back to her w/ the current status of our organizing things for
the scholarship fund
Misc:
·
Participated
in eMAILed discussions with Steven Pro regarding the conversation that took
place with Patrick Stoning, the owner of Reef Aquarium Guide after Steven left
the chat room.
·
Responded
to an eMAIL inquiry about MACNA bid process for the Kansas City Convention and
Visitors Association
·
Responded
to comments/questions from Adam Cesnales about the MASNA Award page on our
website, when nominations start and what the process is. I need to work w/ Eric
to update that website page.
·
Responded
to request for help from the President of the Toledo Reef Club – Scott Cline.
He had several questions regarding speakers and club records. Since he’ll be in
a nearby town the week of 2/5/07, I am meeting him on 2/7 to discuss his
questions. I plan on posting a thread in the board forum to get additional ideas
on the club records questions. They are a young club soon to be filing for
tax-exempt status and they want to make sure they keep all the right records.
·
Provided
Del and Becky a list of all the MACNA’s that have been held w/ year, city and
hosting club. The only missing information is for 1996.
·
Responded
to an inquiry by Jim Rogers of Seachem for attendance and vendor count
information from the last 3 MACNAs.
2) Vice
President Report:
·
I finally talked with the scholarship coordinator at my school, and
since I am doing the research for MARSH, I am doing it for MASNA at the same
time. I created a post in the MASNA Board forum that lists the items she
suggested we use on the application, as well as items we should think about for
the selection criteria. There are a few areas that may be best applied to MARSH
rather than MASNA, but we can eliminate as needed. I am looking for Board
comments in order to move forward.
·
I contacted Steve Bentz to discuss what he'd started last year
regarding the scholarship.
3) Treasurer
Report:
1.
Financials:
a.
Income Statement January Fiscal
YTD
Gross Income: 491.78 12,764.12
Total Expenses: 101.85
6,435.63
Net Income: 389.93 $6,328.49
b.
Cash as of
01/31/07: Operating Funds $13,205.88
Scholarship Fund 5,292.32
2.
MASNA’s 2007
Marine and Reef Calendar
a.
Attended a Frag
Swap in Nashville, TN and sold two calendars.
b.
Delivered a
calendar to a photo contest winner
c.
Received a
request for 25 “pre-ordered” calendars from a club whose pre-order email was
not received until January, but was honored.
3.
MACNA XIX
a.
Invoiced PMASI
for installment 1 per the MACNA Host Agreement
4.
PAYPAL
a.
After faxing
additional requested documentation by PayPal and then calling them, PayPal
removed all of the restrictions on the account.
5.
501( c )3 Filing
a.
Received draft
of related IRS completed 501( c )3 forms from Steven Bentz.
b.
Spoke to Steven
Bentz who volunteered to continue working on these forms.
6.
Open Items
a.
Discussed with
Cathy Garey the idea of having her do a survey to send to our clubs to obtain
various facts about them (e.g,. club size, merchant processor, etc.)
i.
To investigate changing
Merchant Processing company
4) Membership
Report (prepared by C. Phillips):
1.
Current
Membership:
|
|
2003-2004
|
2004-2005
|
2005-2006
|
2006-2007
|
Diff
From
2005-2006
|
Diff
From
01/07
Report
|
|
Individual
Members
|
64
|
115
|
176
|
100
|
-76
|
+6
|
|
Club
Members
|
27
|
44
|
44
|
34
|
-10
|
+3
|
|
Corporate
Members
|
10
|
19
|
28
|
13
|
-15
|
+1
|
2.
Welcomed the new
members; processed and thanked renewals.
3.
Responded to
request from Florida Marine Aquaculture to forward a request to MASNA members.
Encouraged them to become MASNA Corporate Sponsors – which they did. I then
forwarded their request for clownfish (buy/trade) to all MASNA Individual
members and Club delegates. FMA offered to donate gift certificates to MASNA
events. I passed this along to PMASI and also sent FMA a note discussing the
idea of them offering MASNA individual or club members discounts. I haven’t
received a response back yet. I also passed on a reply I received from
Manhattan Reefs to FMA’s request for help finding clownfish for breeding.
4.
Passed on to
Eric a request from Lubbock Reef Club to remove South Plains Reef and Marine
Society from our Club DB, since that is just the old name of Lubbock Reef Club.
5.
Discussed w/
Steve Bentz the possibility of his helping with Corporate renewals since some
of the corporate sponsors that haven’t yet renewed where sponsors that he
personally brought in last year. He volunteered to help. I will give him a
list.
6.
Continued to
work w/ Reef Central (Ryan Baker) to get renewal of their Corporate sponsorship
7.
Sent
individualized requests for renewal to Reed Mariculture, Seawater Express and
ClamsDirect.
5) Membership
Report (prepared by J. Henrion III):
·
I have been
getting emails, so I know that I am on the distribution lists.
·
I had a 2+ hour
WebX demo with Cheri this past weekend and we went through the MASNA website
and the duties I am responsible for. It will take a few weeks, but I think I
should be up to speed soon.
·
I have installed
the mIRC program on my machine, so I should be ready to go for the meeting.
6) Secretary
Report (prepared by C. Phillips):
§
Sent reminder to
Chuck for creation of December meeting minutes.
§
Started a board
forum motion to accept the January meeting minutes that Marie created. The
motion passed.
§
Sent
announcement of the 2/08/07 BOD meeting to all members and posted in both the
MASNA forum on Reef Central and the Announcement forum
§
Discussed the
open Secretary position with Steve Bentz.
7) Webmaster
Report:
·
Added January
2007 Meeting minutes to the MASNA website
·
Updated BOD
profiles on the MASNA website for Cheri, John, Becky, and myself
·
Added PayPal
back as a payment option for new members joining MASNA
·
Granted
access for Kim Lowe to the Forum and appropriate areas of the site
·
Granted
access to Steven Pro to the MACNA XIX Planning Forum
·
Granted
access for John Henrion III to the Forum and appropriate areas of the site
·
Updated
the key for the Java Chat program, so now it registered
·
Removed
forum and BOD access for Marie Dempsey
·
Added
Rockford Reefers Frag Fest Banner to our rotation to help promote the upcoming
event.
·
Changed
the email setting to allow larger files to be sent to and from MASNA BOD
·
Removed South
Plains Reef and Marine Society from our Club DB, since it is just the old name
of Lubbock Reef Club.
Open Items:
·
Currently
looking into a map that will show members location.
·
Currently
waiting on Uberfrags.net to send in Banners to be added to the MASNA site
·
Currently
waiting on images for websites for the year to update MASNA website with the
current winners
8) Industry
Report:
Not much to report this month other
that finishing the December Minutes.
9) Public
Relations:
I.
I haven’t done much except work on the survey, taking a lot longer than
I expected. A final report is submitted for the board’s review and approval.
II.Participate in Board Forum Discussion re:
A. Changing Dues from Sept-Aug to Anniversary
III.Participate in Board Forum Vote re:
A. Approval of January Meeting Minutes (with discussion)
Submitted minutes for October
Board Meeting
10)
Newsletter Editor Report:
* Worked with Becky and
Cheri on ideas for content for our second issue this fiscal year.
* Received list of
previous MACNA host sites (and most of the clubs) back to year one from Cheri.
* Discussed article
possibilities with Steve Bentz and received one submission from him.
* Discussed with
Cheri the possibilities of doing some history articles on MASNA and MACNA. She
provided me with names such as John Brandt (Chicagoland Marine Aquarium
Society), John Dawe, Anthony Calfo, Bob Fenner, and Eric Borneman.
* Drafted a small article
for the coming issue (a quick overview of 4 major events this calendar year).
* Attended the Middle
Tennesee Reef Club frag swap at Goodlettsville, Tennessee (just north of
Nashville) with members of SEASL to include Becky McAlister and new BoD member
John Henrion. Introduced Becky to Bob Lemcke, who had a table.
Upcoming items of interest
* Hope to get survey
encapsulation from MACNA 2006.
* Hope to get update on
problems with bod@masna.org ISP -- spam is less but still prevalent, especially
after any time of official BoD correspondence.
* Trying to get in touch
with Ronald Howard, CEO Red Sea, reference article on how they make their
synthetic salt mix.
* Will solicit article
from Alissa Barron (National Outreach Coordinator, NOAA Coral Reef
Conservation).
* Will work with Steve Bentz to get any special
information about the upcoming Doctors Foster and Smith 3rd annual coral frag
conference that might not be available of the web site.
11) Director At Large Report:
Newsletter:
1. Contacted
clubs and sponsors re: newsletter material
2. Worked
with Del on content
Other Business:
1. Attended
the Nashville frag swap w/ Del & several SEASL members & met Bob Lemcke
at the swap.
Open Items:
1. None
1.
Open
Items:
1. It seems the BOD agrees with the idea to offer sponsors
their choice of a single ½ page ad or two ¼ page ads with their early
renewals. Do we need to put this to a vote?
GENERAL MEETING BEGAN at 9:07pm EST
1) Leftover
MASNA Calendars, 2008 Calendars
- Bob asked for suggestions on what to do with the leftover
MASNA calendars (70-100). Becky suggested contacting member clubs to see
if they’d like to purchase them as a fundraiser. Bob suggested $4.00 or
$5.00 including shipping (~$2 to ship). Chuck thought $6 if shipping
included so that we didn’t lose money. A motion was made to sell them to
clubs at $4 including shipping and everyone else at $5 including shipping.
The motion passed with 5 Aye votes.
- Chuck inquired how many 2007 calendars were ordered –
Bob’s reply was 725. Chuck stated that each year we order too many and
don’t cut it down. Bob indicated that if we are going to do 2008
calendars, he needs a volunteer to take the lead, as he will only be
assisting this time. Becky asked what this entails and said she was
interested in helping. Bob agreed to discuss what is involved offline with
Becky.
- Del mentioned that he knew an LFS in the St. Louis area
that will buy a group of calendars next year and either try to sell them
at $10 or give them as promotional items. He thought others would be
willing to do that. They paid $5/each this year. That owner wants 100 for
2008.
2) December
Minutes
- Agreed to continue discussion of the December minutes in
the Board Forum.
3) MACNA
XIX
- No one was present from PMASI. Kelly indicated that all
reports she’s heard were positive. Bob informed the group that he’d
received PMASI’s first installment payment per the host agreement, on
schedule.
4) MACNA
XX Bids
- Bids are due 3/31 or preferably earlier. Cheri sent out
her eMAIL to all the clubs on 1/15. No bids have yet been received, but
Bob knows of one club that is working on theirs. The newsletter had the
standard plug.
5) Next
Newsletter
- Becky asked if anyone has anything to contribute, to
please get it to her or Del by the weekend. She has information on
Saltwater U. Del has a logo and has asked Kevin in Atlanta for more
personal info. A Saltwater U ad will go into the newsletter.
- Becky and Del have some tidbits from clubs but nothing
from sponsors, although some have indicated they wanted to do ads. They
will have Cathy’s writeup for the MACNA survey, but feel they are short on
content.
- Del inquired about something from MTRC about their frag
swap and he indicated he’s got some pictures and basic info. Becky said
she hasn’t received their writeup yet.
- They feel they can still publish on February 15th.
6) Drs.
Foster & Smith Coral Auction and Frag Swap
- Steve is still working with Drs. Foster & Smith and
Bob will be talking to Steve about it this week to see how things are
progressing. Patrick suggested talking to Matt Stelter (stelter@drsfostersmith.com)
since he’s in charge of all the advertising.
7) 501(c)3
Application
- Steve is still working on submitting a further draft of
our 501(c)3 application.
Meeting adjourned at 10:04pm EST
