MASNA: July 2004 BOD Meeting Minutes
This meeting was held electronically on July 14, 2004 9:02 PM EST

BOD Present:
Charles Scannell (President/Internet Relations)
Lee Morey (Vice President)

Cheri Phillips (Dir. Membership/Secretary)

Larry Burt (Treasurer)

John Brandt (MAC/USCRTF Representative)

Members Present:

Kelly Jedlicki (LMAS Vice President)

Robert Lemcke (Atlanta Reef Club Treasurer)

Joe Wall  (ETRC & MTRC)

 

BOD Absent:

Rob Tess (Newsletter Editor)

Joe Scavo (Webmaster)

 

NOTE: all Officer reports were distributed via eMAIL to the BOD in advance of this meeting. They are inserted into these minutes.

 

 

1)       President’s Report:

Chuck attended the WAMAS one-day conference.

 

2)       VP Report:

Lee made a few contacts on behalf of MASNA.

 

3)       Treasury Report:

Last Month’s Balance:       $2,525.56

Monies Received Since:    

                $    0.00                   # Corporate membership(s)

                $    0.00                   # Club membership(s)

                $    0.00                   # Individual membership(s)

                $    0.00

MASNA Store:                     $  00.00

 

                Total Income:       $    0.00

 

Expenses:

                                                $31.20                     EMS Charges

                                            $312.50                       BRS MASNA Winter Newsletter Printing

                                                $10.00                     AMEX Charges

                                                $13.65                     USPS

                                            $127.88                       EZ4U Phone Call Charges (MS Publisher SW)

                                                $  5.00                     Bank Monthly Service Fee

                                       (–)$500.23

Ending Balance to

                    Date:                     $2,025.33

 

 

4)       Membership Report:

1. Current Membership:

 

	2002-2003	2003-2004	Change Since 06/04	Difference From 2002-2003
Individual Members	88	63	+4	-25
Club Members	20	27	0	+7
Corporate Members	10	10	0	0

 

2. Welcomed the new members
3. Cheri is still waiting for the Newsletter to get out to start both a membership drive and to send out membership renewal notices! Timing is becoming critical. People need to see the coupons so we can point to the start of real monetary benefits to membership. When funds are tight, something tangible is extremely important for membership retention and to encourage new members.

 

5)       Secretary Report:

• MASNA National Speaker’s Database:

	Accepted	Awaiting Response	Declined
1	Eric Borneman	Dr. Sallie Boggs	Scott Michael
2	John Brandt	Dr. Andrew Bruckner	Mary Middlebrook
3	Anthony Calfo	Joe Burger
4	Dr. Bruce Carlson	Adam Cesnales
5	Bob Fenner	David Cripe
6	Richard Harker	Charles Delbeek
7	Crissy Huffard	Dr. Daphne Fautin
8	Larry Jackson	Tom Frakes
9	Martin Moe	Gerry Heslinga
10	Fernando Nostratpour	Randy Holmes-Farley
11	Mike Paletta	Paul Holthus
12	Randy Reed	Sanjay Joshi
13	Dana Riddle	Jason Kim
14	Dr. Ron Shimek	Tom Lang
15	Dr. Rob Toonen	Sy Leng
16	Steve Tyree	Johnathan Lowrie
17		Dr. Esther Peters
18		Steve Robinson
19		Gregory Schiemer
20		Walt Smith
21		Julian Sprung
22		Bob Stark
23		Richard Stratton
24		Jeff Turner
25		Joe Yaiullo

 

With being gone on vacation 6/17-7/5, Cheri made less progress than she’d hoped, but 16 speakers is a good start. Getting responses from invitees has been painfully slow. She still has more names submitted w/o contact information that she’s trying to track down. Cheri asked that if any BOD members personally know of any of the folks on the “Awaiting Response” list, please encourage them to fill out the simple form I sent them and send it to me! If you have contact info for any of the following, please let me know:

Frank Hoff, Richard Pyle, Joyce Wilkerson, David Saxby, Vince Rado, Tullio Dell Aquila, Rob Brinda, Mitch Carl, Todd Gardner, Paul Humann, Charles Laidley, Mogan Lidster, Gisele Muller-Parker, Marc Weiss, Emma Kelley, Matt Pommtag, Andy Rhine, Marge Schick

 

• June BOD meeting minutes were compiled and sent to the BOD.
• Sent announcement of the 7/14/04 BOD meeting to all members and posted in both the MASNA forum on Reef Central and the Announcement forum

 

 

6)       Editor Report:

Rob reported that the spring issue of Marine Scene had not yet gone out and that the BRS printer wasn’t going to work out due to technical difficulties. Rob’s new job has him traveling a lot and without any free time, so he asked if anyone could help with the printing/mailing of the newsletter. He doesn’t have time to get them printed, folded, labeled and stamped. He offered to burn the file to CD or to FTP it to whoever could help.

 

Rob requested that Chuck send him the article for the summer edition ASAP. He said he’d get that issue done so it could be ready for later in the month of July.

 

7)       Webmaster Report:

Regular www.masna.org updates have been made as requested.

 

8)       MAC/USCRTF Report:

Since our last meeting John has given a presentation at the WAMAS Symposium on "Issues of Sustainability, Reform and Regulation of the Marine Aquarium Hobby". Of course MASNA was featured in the lecture.

 

There is a brief review of the event here: http://www.wamas.org/history/symp/symp1.htm . The lecture series went well and had good attendance. There were members of several different aquarium societies present. John spoke to a member of an informal and budding club in Pennsylvania. He asked about MASNA's value to them. I gave a "sales pitch" to him about what benefits joining MASNA might bring to their club.

 

The WAMAS folks were all very excited and proud that they would be hosting MACNA in 2005. It will no doubt be a big and excellent conference.

 

As usual, John posted a good variety of ocean conservation news articles in the General Reefkeeping Forum at Reefs.org. Of particular interest is an article about the introduction of non-native species into American waters by way of the aquarium trade. "Releasing Nemo a Disaster for Native Fish", includes references to the US marine aquarium trade such as "Congress is also considering setting up screening for fish imported by the aquarium trade, by extending legislation aimed at preventing the introduction of invasive species via ballast water."   http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99996093

 

 

Call to order 9:02 PM EST

 

 

9)       A motion passed to accept the June meeting minutes.

10)    Chuck reported that based upon the reports submitted, he has volunteered to finish the newsletter since Rob is unable to do so. He will try to get to the printer on 7/15/04 and he’s hoping to get mailing labels from Rob. Cheri volunteered to get Chuck the addresses for the labels. Removing the West Coast Tropical Marine coupon was discussed, as the business has closed. Chuck thinks Rob has started on the summer newsletter.

11)    Cheri asked for additional explanation of the Treasurer’s report – in particular the phone charge. Clarification was given that it wasn’t really a phone charge – that was the MS Publisher software purchased for newsletter production. Chuck explained that even though 3 new members joined, they don’t show up in the report yet since the credit card charges haven’t been made. Chuck waits to process everything received in a month together to reduce credit card charges.

12)    Cheri checked w/ John on how the summarizing of the USCOP Report was coming. John reported that he’d outlined the summary but was still filling in more details.

13)    Cheri asked if MASNA has an ad in the MACNA brochure – stating it was probably our best opportunity for advertising all year.  Chuck reported that thus far all he’d verified was the MASNA meeting room for the general meeting. Traditionally MASNA gets a free ad, but Chuck confirmed that there was no such stipulation in the BRS contract. Cheri offered to approach BRS about it. A motion was made and passed to add a clause to the contract for a ½ page, color ad in the MACNA brochure for MASNA.

14)    Cheri suggested the idea of a MASNA member-only raffle at the conference – raffling off something really cool and signing up members on the spot. Chuck thought one of the MASNA corporate members would be happy to donate something. Cheri will also talk to BRS about this idea. Chuck offered to contact corporate sponsors. A motion was made and passed to put a clause in the contract to support MASNA having a raffle of an single item for MASNA members only at MACNA.

15)    There was some discussion of differences between this year and previous MACNA conferences. One thing is that vendors are not allowed to attend lectures unless they purchase registrations. They have sold out on vendor space anyway. Another significant change is that if your booth is unmanned at any point, a security guard will be placed in it and the booth will be charged for it. Chuck said he would not sign any agreement to that effect.

16)    Poll taken of which BOD members will be attending MACNA:

Attending: Chuck, Cheri, John

Not Attending: Lee

Undecided: Larry

17)    Cheri inquired about whether we want flyers or brochures for MASNA available at MACNA. Chuck indicated we need to print more. He agreed to check into that when he prints the newsletters. Cheri pointed out that the voted upon brochure changes hadn’t yet been made. Lee volunteered to do that as he has a full Adobe version. He will work w/ Cheri to be sure he gets the agreed upon wording correct.

18)    Lee asked about MASNA booth space at MACNA. A motion was made and passed that booth space for MASNA be stipulated in the contract. Chuck said a booth manning sign up sheet could be created and passed around by eMAIL to sign up for specific times.

19)    Cheri asked for information on how annual elections were held and whether everyone running had to be physically present at the meeting. Chuck explained that those people known to be running ahead of time are posted on the website, otherwise people are nominated and voted in at the annual meeting. Chuck didn’t feel online real-time voting would be secure. Chuck said they had to be present to formally accept the nomination (Chuck later clarified via phone that a letter of acceptance sent in ahead of time would also be allowed). Absentee voting is possible for those posted on the website only. Chuck stated that this never happens though, nor are any motions ever brought up before the general meeting. There is no deadline or stated period for people to announce their intention to run. Lee thought we should consider changing that and Chuck agreed that a better job could be done. He suggested eMAILing members 6 months ahead of time about election nomination. Current by-laws allow us to let people know about absentee voting more. Bob thought it would be great for nominees to attend BOD meetings prior to holding office to decrease the ramp up and orientation period for new officers.

20)    There was discussion on the possibility of changing the time/date of the annual meeting. Many favored that idea – to a Saturday time. Chuck thought the program had already been printed. He agreed to find out if changing the date/time was still possible.

21)    Cheri reported that she would send out renewals as soon as folks have the newsletter in their hands.

 

Motion to adjourn by Chuck, seconded by Rob. The motion passed at 11:00pm EST.