MASNA August, 2005 BOD Meeting Minutes

(This meeting was held electronically on August 3rd, 2005 9: PM EST)

 

Attendance:

 

BOD Present:

 

Cheri Phillips (President)

Robert Lemcke (Treasurer)

Joe Scavo (Public Relations)

Marc Levenson (Editor)

Drew Weiner (Vice President)

Chuck Scannell (Webmaster)

 

BOD Absent:

 

Amy Larsan (Membership & Secretary)

John Brandt (Industry/Legislation/Ocean Conservation Rep.)

 

Members Other Than BOD Present:

 

Kelly Jedlicki (LMAS President)

Steve Howard (WAMAS President)

 

OFFICER REPORTS:

 

NOTE: All officer reports were distributed via email to the BOD in advance of this meeting.  They have been formatted and are inserted into these minutes.

 

President’s Report:

 

WAMAS MACNA XVII Help:

 

• Finished up the MACNA XVII postcard mailing. Total mailed = 1600+. Additionally handed out at stack of them to the attendees at the Bay Area Reefers frag swap and at the SEABay meeting that featured Eric Borneman in attendance. The leftover postcards were shipped to ORCA for a mini conference they were having in Orlando. I negotiated with VistaPrint to get the same 25% discount on printing an additional 2500 postcards, ordered them and had them mailed directly to Steve Howard for distribution by Dr. Mac and others.

 

• Acted as the “middleman” between WAMAS and seahorse.org to arrange for them to have a booth at MACNA displaying live seahorses at various stages of growth as they did at IMAC

 

• Participated in a conference call discussing some issues that came up as the Program Guide was finalized. Helped get information from MARSH to use to create an advertisement for MACNA XVIII in some otherwise unused space in the Program Guide

 

MASNA Photo Contest:

• Helped secure additional sponsors for the photo contest – ClamsDirect, Reef Central, Arizona Coral Company and Seawater Express. Arranged for the banner advertising the photo contest that Joe came up with to be added to Reef Central’s rotating banner. Started a new thread on Reef Central with the new contest deadline and prize information and arranged for the thread to be set as an all forum announcement until 8/7/05.

 

• Received a report from a professional photographer that the rules we’d listed for the photo contest w/ regard to resolution required didn’t make sense. Worked w/ Greg Rothschild (Reef Central’s Photography forum expert) to understand the terminology and minimum requirements, then checked with our calendar printer regarding what was acceptable to them. Worked with Joe and Bob to come up with a better-worded rule.

 

• Responded to thread questions and numerous eMAILs and PMs regarding the photo contest.

 

MASNA Award:

 

• Worked with Amy to tally the nomination results. I will be contacting the winner and arranging for an award plaque to be created.

 

MASNA Club Website Awards:

 

• Updated the judging form that Chuck created last year to include all 44 clubs and sent out to the MASNA board. Judging period 8/1/-8/15.

 

MASNA Store:

 

• Was contacted by Karen Weiss regarding an order she shipped and it was refused by the recipient. I’ve been trying to contact the gentleman who has thus far not returned my phone call nor answered my eMAIL.

 

• Two more online orders were received 8/1/05 for a total of $85.70! I will start processing these orders.

 

Elections:

 

• Have started to work w/ Chuck to get the various election pages/forms updated on the website. I submitted my own nomination for a 2nd term as President.

 

 Misc:

 

• Wrote the President’s Pen for the next newsletter

 

• Discussed w/ Marc the particulars of the raffle prize he will be donating and reviewed his write up of it.

 

• Corresponded w/ Gary Powell at MAAST who was trying to track down Matt Palmtag (in our speaker database). Did some research to try to locate him. He’s left the university where he was doing his graduate studies. No success thus far.

 

 

Vice President’s Report:

 

I have been in touch with Beth Jewell at the National Marine Educators Association, in addition to some other teachers to find out what their current marine curriculum is and how they use it in the classroom.  I'm also interested in seeing if they have any curriculum that is operationalized for use on the web. 

 

I've also recently contacted Marine Conservation Biology Institute who are very active in education and recently released a textbook on Marine Conservation Biology.  They seem interested in the hobby and I will pursue that more to see if it's a fit for the education page.

 

Treasurer’s Report:

 

Treasurer's report for the month ending July 31, 2005

 

• Had our Webmaster create a new group email address for our new PayPal account that gets distributed to President and Treasurer

 

• Opened and validated a new PayPal account: PayPal@masna.org

 

• Had several communications with Director of Membership and President about dealing with new memberships including those who are paying dues for both the remainder of this year and all of next year

 

• Worked with the Director of Public Relations about the photo contest including:

 

Securing several sponsors communicating contest information to our judges invoicing several sponsors and discussed obtaining, recording and depositing monies received from calendar sponsors and contestants/new members in August

 

• Worked with the Director of Public Relations on the 2006 calendar and format

 

• Have an open request to our Webmaster to:

 

1)      Add PayPal as an alternative to providing credit card information during the "Join" process and

 

2)      Add a 4-digit VPN# field to the existing membership application forms including both the on-line and pdf file versions

 

• Summary of July and Fiscal Year-To-Date 2004-2005 financials (to follow latter today):

                                                   Fiscal YTD
                                   July_         9/1 - 7/31
                    Income    
                    Expenses
                    Net Inc  
 

FYI, planned activities for August include:

Reimbursing payment made by Webmaster ~$70 to WestHost (MASNA Web site host)

 

Invoicing WAMAS for July 31 MACNA Conference (Invoice #3 of 4)

 

Invoicing one MASNA sponsor in August for 2005-2006 dues

 

Invoicing two calendar sponsors

 

Continuing to assist Director of Public Relations on completing the contest and calendar assignments

 

Depositing monies received from calendar sponsors and contestants

 

[* - Secretary note: due to the size and formatting of the Draft Balance Sheet and Draft Income Statement, they are left as an addendum to the monthly minutes]

 

 

Director of Membership Report:

 

Current Membership:   7-04-05 to 7-31-05

 

	2002-2003	2003-2004	2004-2005	Diff From 2003-2004	Comment
Individual Members	88	64	107	+43	New: Anthony Seeley, Brian P Langhans, Doni M. Posey, Glenn Farmer, James Kargol, Jay Hemdal, Jennifer Marshall, Jeoffrey Watson, Jim Roberts, Joshua Williams, Ken Erickson, Marc van Nuenen, Matt Garbarino, Michelle Norcross, Mitchell Brown, Nicole Castle, , Richard Weeks, Ryan McPhillips, Shaun Elliott, William W. Montalvo, Glinda Cox, Merv Rubiano     Renewal for coming fiscal year: Paula Obuchon, William W. Montalvo, Ryan M McPhillips, Michelle Norcross, Marc van Nuenen, Glenn Farmer, Anthony Seeley
Club Members	20	27	44	+17	New: Palm Beach Marine Aquarium Society, Marine Aquarium Society of Ventura County
Corporate Members	10	10	19	_+9	New: Clams Direct

 

 

• I sent in the welcomes for the two new clubs and regular individual members. As well a welcomed the individual calendar entries. I thanked the renewals and new corporate sponsor.

 

• I worked with Bob and Cheri to clear up the few members who joined as part of the calendar entry and put in the wrong membership amount.

 

• I gave club logos to Chuck for the website.

 

• I answered numerous emails and a few messages from Reef Central about calendar entry requirements (image size, subject, general rules).

 

• Waiting for a reply from Lonnie Walcott’s so I can update the information for Cincinnati Reefkeepers Society.

 

• I was able to clear up the confusion over Jeoffrey Watson’s membership.

 

• I contacted Shaun Eliott about his membership application information. He will resubmit his membership information.

 

• I was able to correct a bounced back email from Steven Shannon. I also left a message with two other memberships about email address that are no longer working. I am waiting for a reply right now.

 

5) Secretary’s Report:

 

No emailed votes

 

• I invited Barry Neigut to be on the National Speaker Database. He accepted and I entered his information on to the database.

 

• I visited some websites to look for candidates for the website award.

 

• I tracked and double checked with Cheri to be sure of  the winner of the MASNA award.

 

• I sent in the MASNA meeting notice to all members, as well as put up notices on Reef Central and Reefs.org

 

• I finished the July Meeting Minutes. They are attached to this email for every ones review.

 

6) Editor’s Report:

 

(None submitted)

 

7) Webmaster’s Report:

 

WAMAS help:

 

• Went to That Fish Place on Saturday July 9th to distribute flyers for 8 hours!

 

Website work

 

• Monthly maintenance keeping up site to date

 

• Updated all election pages to current year and candidate stuff

 

• Changed around home site order and allowing a much larger area for MACNA 17 for these last couple critical months when people tend to purchase registrations

 

• Work with Amy with site logo for members updating info etc

 

• Created Paypal email address for treasurer

 

• Working with Joe and Bob to ensure Judges get the necessary access they need

 

• Helping Judge websites

 

• Moved MASNA Chat room with the issues that happened when I was away last month

 

8) Industry/Legislation/Ocean Conservation Representative’s Report:

 

(None submitted)

 

9) Public Relations/Internet Promotion Officer’s Report:

 

2006 MASNA CALENDAR

 

• We have cinched the last sponsors for the calendar.  We are beginning to invoice these sponsors for their donations. 

 

• A decent # of entries has been submitted at this time.  Some individuals have submitted 20 pictures or more!  We hope to have more by weeks end.

 

• Bob composed a letter and I submitted it to our esteemed panel of judges to inform them of the details regarding scoring and time-frames etc.

 

• Finally we are working on the final layout of the calendar.  We like the templates provided by the print shop, however we hope to modify the layout so as to be more appealing to our needs.  I am waiting to hear back from my contact in regards to this.

 

 

MEETING CALLED TO ORDER 9:00 PM EST:

 

10) New business: MACNA Update

 

• A block of 750 rooms was made at the conference hotel and as of now there are only about 50 rooms left available. WAMAS is currently working to acquire 1100 rooms, involving both the Hyatt and the Courtyard across the street. After that point rooms will be at market rate.

 

• Exhibit hall is still selling and there are about 10 spaces left.

 

• Currently having difficulty with reports from Act for a tally of total registrations to date. That information should be gathered shortly.

 

• Have obtained a merchant account for CC processing.

 

• Steve Howard inquired on the behalf of WAMAS/MACNA can benefit in any way from the MASNA raffle. With the little amount that MASNA has gained from past raffles most agreed that there would be little for WAMAS/MACNA to gain.

 

11) New business:

 

Motion made by C. Phillips to accept the July meeting minutes. Second by M Levenson. Motion passed 6 aye, 0 nay at 9:57 PM EST

 

12) New business:

 

• Newsletter update. Not much new to report, struggling with a lack of content. M. Levenson has the President Pen and is working on more to build from the tone that sets.

 

• Permission was given by Anthony Calfo to use one of his articles in the next newsletter issue.

 

• M. Levenson intends to use one of his own articles in this next news letter as well.

 

• All ads that were proved will be used as wells as advertisement for the upcoming MACNA in Washington DC. Along with that, advertisement/promotion and information about MASNA’s upcoming calendar will be posted. In addition there will be an announcement included about the MASNA prize (custom made acrylic sump) that will be raffled off at MACNA.

 

• The goal is to have the newsletter finished by the coming weekend.

 

 

13) New business:

 

• Calendar contest update. The new Reef Central advertisement banner is now in rotation. There is hope that it will bring in a wider range of entries. One member will be sending a CD of pictures all the way from Norway!

 

• A suggestion for next year’s calendar contest was given by J. Scavo. That MASNA should limit the amount of photo entries per contestant. Some members sent in an overwhelming amount this year.

 

• It was agreed this year that one person may be able to win a number of calendar months. It was suggest that thing might need to clearly define next year how many months can be won by a one person. MASNA does not want a calendar filled with one contestants work.

 

• It was mentioned that the # of calendars to have printed would be around 250, and price of $10 for members, $12 for non-members

 

Motion made by C. Phillips to give each judge and each winner a free calendar. Second by J. Scavo. Motion passed 6 aye, 0 nay at 10:27 PM EST

 

14) New business:

 

C. Phillips reminded the current BOD of MASNA to go to the MASNA website and put in their nomination if they intend to run for a position on the BOD for the coming year.

 

 

Motion to adjourn meeting to general discussion made by C. Phillips, seconded by C. Scannell. Motioon passed 6 aye, 0 nay at 11:01 PM EST