MASNA July 12th, 2006 BOD Meeting Minutes

 

(This meeting was held electronically on July 12th, 2005 9: PM EST)

 

Attendance:

 

BOD Present:

 

Cheri Phillips (President)

Robert Lemcke (Treasurer)

Amy Larsan (Membership & Secretary)

Charles Scannell (Industry/Webmaster)

 

BOD Absent:

 

Lisa O’Connor (Internet Promotions)

Steve Bentz (Vice President)

Cathy Garey (Public Relations)

 

 

Members Other Than BOD Present:

 

Kelly Jedlicki (LMAS President)

Jim (Greater MN Reef Soc)

 

 

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.

 

 

1) President’s Report:

 

MACNA XIII:

·        Have participated in a brainstorming sessions with Anthony Calfo, Eric Borneman, Steven Pro (PMASI President), Kelly Jedlicki (LMAS President) and Kim Lowe (MARSH VP) regarding drawing up guidelines for the care of live animals at MACNA conferences. The intention is initially (for this year) just to specify how MACNA host clubs will handle the corals, etc. that they bring in to minimize losses and ill health. Potentially this will expand to guidelines for the vendors as well. We may also come up w/ a handout on transporting and acclimation to be given to folks that receive animals from workshops that are host club sponsored and perhaps vendors will be willing to give them out as well. Once something has been drafted, it will come to the MASNA BOD for approval, since the idea is for this to be “MASNA” guidelines/requirements for this MACNA and going forward. The thought is that MASNA should get behind efforts to reduce losses of frags and other marine creatures at our conferences through better practices.

·        Received a phone call from the MARSH Treasurer, Brad Brookner to discuss a particular stipulation of the insurance clause in their MACNA hotel contract. Apparently, they are required to have Workman’s Comprehensive insurance among three types required. He discussed this w/ an insurance agent and was told they could not provide this insurance for volunteer workers. The agent suggested that since MASNA owns the conference, perhaps we already have this insurance or have actual employees that could be insured. I assured Brad that neither was true. He also said that the agent thought that technically all vendors should have the same insurance, since their booth workers would not be covered otherwise. To my knowledge this is not required by the hotel contract. He plans to check w/ previous hosts to see what, if anything they have done regarding such insurance for host club volunteers. To my knowledge, this requirement has never come up in a previous hotel contract.

 

MASNA Award:

·        The nomination period for the MASNA Award ended on 7/16. Amy and I will tally the results. I’ll then order the plaque from the same business as last year (since they now have our design in their system and they did a beautiful job) and inform the winner so that he can plan for MACNA attendance if at all possible.

 

Newsletter:

·        Have started gathering articles/information for the Summer newsletter. The goal will be to have everything ready to give to Chuck for layout by the end of the month. I worked with BAR (Bay Area Reefers) to write up what they are doing w/ Steinhart Aquarium in its efforts to propagate a new 200,000+ gallon reef tank (at 25’ tall thought to be the tallest in the world) when the aquarium re-opens in 2008.

 

MASNA 2006 Photo Contest & 2007 Calendars

·        Eric Borneman has agreed to be our judge for the Coral category.

·        eMAILed notice of the Photo Contest to all MASNA members w/ different text in the message dependant on the type of member. I asked club delegates to see that the announcement went out to all club members (though I suspect only a few did that.) Also eMAILed all non-member clubs that are in MASNA’s club database. One club objected to our “spamming” them, so I removed the eMAIL contact from the club database. We need a flag in the club database to indicate those who do not like to receive MASNA advertising.

·        I created a photo contest announcement in HTML format for posting on website forums, then worked w/ Ryan Baker (representing John Link, owner of Reef Central) to get it posted as a sticky post in the following forums: Photography, Reef Discussion, New to the Hobby, SPS Keepers, LPS Keepers and Soft Coral Keepers. Subsequently, I got permission to post in: Reef Fishes, Fish Only and Aggressive Fishes, Seahorses & Pipefish, Tridacnid Clams and Corallimorpharians. Additionally, Reef Central added our photo contest banner to their rotating banner group free of charge until the contest deadline has passed.

·        Bob Fenner posted the photo contest announcement on WetWebMedia

·        Anthony Calfo posted the photo Contest Announcement in several places on the Marine Depot forums.

 

Misc:

• Received an eMAIL advertising a new set of scheduled marine conferences under the name “Oceano Marine Conferences.” I did some investigation and learned that, according to the gentleman I contacted, the owner of the conference is a national conference producer that has been producing continuing education conferences for the medical community throughout the country for many years. The owner is a reefkeeping hobbyist that has attended several marine conferences (don’t know which ones) that decided, “…there was a need to produce high quality marine conferences just like we’ve been doing for the medical profession.” They are based in Phoenix, AZ and are holding their first one there Oct. 21-22. They have another 6 regional conferences planned for 2007. Their website is http://www.sioceano.com/ - there isn’t much information available there at this time though. The sponsoring company is Symbionic Innovation, but I didn’t find much out there about them on the Internet either.
  
  
• I’ve corresponded w/ the PSAS President and VP to change their MASNA delegate so that the club has access once again to the Speaker’s DB and have answered some of their questions.

 

 

2) Vice President’s Report:

 

Organization:

 

·        Still waiting for the 2006 Corporation Filing completed before MASNA can apply for 501(c)(3) Status.

 

Membership:

 

• Gave out 150 2006 MASNA Calendars at the Foster & Smith Frag Swap as well as distributed MASNA Membership Brochures and MACNA XVIII postcards.

 

2007 Photo Calendar Contest:

 

• Contacted 23 Manufacturers and Vendors to help defray our cost in creation of the Calendars by purchasing banner ads at the bottom of each month.  Bob Lemcke and I will be attempting to close this up within the next 2 weeks.  I sent original emails out after the Frag Swap and have made contacts with a number of manufacturers and company marketing representatives since the original emails, making 15 phone calls on Monday, July 10, 2006.

 

MACNA Follow-up and Presentations:

 

• Attended a very successful Drs. Foster & Smith 2-day Coral Frag Swap event in Wisconsin from June.23^rd to the 25^th.  Plans are already in place for next year and can be found at their website with the major emphasis on education and the Scholarship Fund.

 

• Wrote a Marine Scene article with an update on The Hidden Reef.

 

• In the process of writing a Marine Scene article on the Drs. Foster & Smith 2-day Coral Frag Swap.

 

Scholarship Fund:

 

• Adopted two schools to track through 2006-07 and began the “wireframe” design for the construction of a second and third page of the Scholarship Fund for our website – will work with Chuck on the updates once the “wireframe” design is complete.

 

• Still in discussion with two major suppliers which may bring an additional $5,000 to $10,000 to the Scholarship before September, 2006.

 

• Posted a proposed set of roles to fill the Scholarship Fund Committee on April 9^th for the BOD to review.  Since it appears that the BOD agrees with the roles, I will move forward with putting this to a vote at our BOD meeting this week.

 

1.      MASNA Board Member VP/Director of Scholarships

2.      Industry Representative

3.      Academia within the field of our hobby

4.      Former MASNA Award recipient

5.      Representative from a Major Aquatic Facility (Baltimore, Houston, Hawaii, etc.)

 

• Since there was no activity from my last past on June 18^th, please either read this and we will vote on Wednesday, July 12^th or place your comments at the following post:

 

http://www.masna.org/forum/showflat.php?Cat=0&Number=404&an=0&page=0#404

 

 

3) Treasurer’s Report:

MACNA Host Agreement

• Deposited $1,615 check from MARSH in June representing installments 1 and 2 (out of 4) per MACNA Host Agreement.

MASNA, Inc.

• Researched what services Registered Agents can provide MASNA and selected Pacific Registered Agent after evaluating several companies.

 

• Received a signed by Pacific Registered Agent Ohio SOS Statutory Agent Update Form (521) and mailed it along with SOS Reinstatement Form (525) and $50 to the Ohio Secretary of State to reinstate MASNA, Inc. These forms should be processed by the SOS within one to two weeks once they have been received.

 

• After further discussions with the Ohio SOS office, no other forms or fees will need to be filed once the above two (521 and 525) have been filed.

 

• Paid Pacific Registered Agent prorated annual fee for their services good through January 5, 2007.

Financial Summary for the month of June, 2006:

• Total Income    $1,750.13
  Total Expenses        27.83
  Net Profit         $1,722.30

 

• Operating Fund balance as of 06/30/06 is $7,808.15

 

• Scholarship Fund balance as of 06/30/06 is $4,781.15.

Advertising 2006 Photo Contest

• Spoke to Cathy Garey who agreed to contact all 43 MASNA clubs about the contest before ~July 10.

 

• Edited the 2005 HTML announcement for Cheri who emailed it to all MASNA clubs and members.

 

• Received from Joe Scavo a banner ad for this year’s photo contest and forwarded it to Cheri for placement on several reef Web sites, including Reef Central and others.

 

• Cheri was able to have Reef Central place the Photo Contest announcement as a “sticky” in several topical forums including Photography and General Discussion.

 

• Chuck updated our Home page with the Photo Contest announcement and placed the most recent version of the Contest Rules on our Web site as well as updated the pro-rated membership fees to join.

 

• Posted 31 MASNA Photo Contest announcements, one in each MASNA club’s forum on Reef Central and each one was tailored specifically for them, but Reef Central considered them to be spam and removed them. In the future, we must communicate with Reef Central management about our intentions and continue to maintain an excellent working relationship with them.

 

• Emailed and invited all of the 2006 Calendar winners to consider participating in this year’s contest and emailed Eric Borneman about his acquaintances participating.

Photo Submissions

 

• Lisa agreed to be responsible for and organize all of the contestant submissions and getting their entries into the gallery and keeping their identity secret.

 

• Chuck setup calendar@masna.org to be routed to Cheri, Lisa and me

Judges

 

• Cheri obtained all four of our judges

 

• Provided Lisa with general info about our photo gallery

 

• Chuck created a new set of four galleries for this year’s contest entries and gave us access

 

• The 3 returning judges should have access to their respective gallery and Eric is getting setup by Cheri and Chuck

Calendar Sponsors

• Steve and I are in contact with our first choice of 12 OEMs about being calendar sponsors and have identified additional OEMs, if needed.

 

• Established ad space pricing for the bottom margin of the calendar at:

                                                               i.      $125 for the entire bottom edge (~7/8” x 9” wide)

                                                             ii.      $75 for half the bottom edge (~7/8” x 4” wide)

 

• I will invoice them once we have their commitment

2007 Calendar Printer

• Still investigating several printers and their pricing with last year’s printer still in the lead.

 

• Plan on keeping the 8.5 x 11 format for the 2007 calendar.

 

• Still planning on having the calendar shrink-wrapped with a cardboard stiffener inserted into the center. These two options may add 45¢ or more per calendar.

 

• Began investigating Print-On-Demand options. While the cost to us is more than double than what we paid per calendar last year, the benefit is that we do not carry any inventory. However, this may require an ISBN# or a unique bar code.

 

• Emailed Joe Scavo about his research from last year on obtaining a unique bar code.

2007 Calendar Pre-Sales

• Discussed with Steve having him contact all of our MASNA clubs beginning ~July 14 to give them until ~August 4 to place their preorders with us. Discussions included the need to set a club price which has not yet been determined.

 

• Had preliminary discussions with Steve about having Champion market any post-MACNA calendar inventory as well as selling them to LFSs.

2007 Calendar Advertising

·     Held preliminary discussion with AFM who is agreeable to feature our calendar in their December issue in their Reader Reward’s Contest to arrive in October to subscribers. AFM has 40,000 subscribers.

 

 

 

4) Director of Membership Report 

	2002- 2003	2003- 2004	2004- 2005	2005- 2006	Diff From 2004- 2005	Comment
Individual Members	88	64	115	157	+42	New:   Mike Bean Rossana Capi James Hurst Cameron Smith Carla Ballew George Cutler Corey Kruitbosch David Reed   Renewals:
Club Members	20	27	44	44	0	New:   * Wichita Falls Reef Society * Reef Aquarium Society of Charlotte (RASOC) * Omaha Marine Society   Renewal:
Corporate Members	10	10	19	27	+8	New:   Coral Dynamics, Inc.   Renewals:

 

• I sent out all the welcomes

 

• I sent the new banners for clubs and our new sponsor to Chuck to post on the website

 

• I answered questions asked on me on a few message boards about MASNA and how to join.

 

• I emailed with Ben Ros of Marine Depot about them becoming a corporate member and donating to the scholarship fund.

 

• I bumped the photo contest threads on RC. Thanks to Anthony Calfo who posted about the contest on Marine Depot which I was unable to do right away.

 

 

5) Secretary’s Report:

 

Board Forum Votes:

 

Should MASNA hold a raffle at MACNA XVIII?

 

http://www.masna.org/forum/showflat.php?Cat=0&Number=402&an=0&page=0#402

 

_____________________________________________________________

 

• I sent the meeting notice to all members. I also posted on RC and RDO about the upcoming meeting

 

• I finished the June meeting minutes and sent them out to the BOD

 

 

6) Webmaster’s/Industry Report:

 

• General monthly updates to the website and several updates requested to various parts based on bod member’s feedback and needs to update their specific compartmented areas.

 

• Some minor work needed also to get ready for this years calendar contest with the gallery

 

 

7) Internet Promotion Officer’s Report:

 

• I have setup the system for uploading pictures for the photo/calendar contest. 

 

•  I am receiving all emails and will start to upload them on a nightly basis so the gallery is always up to date.

 

 

8) Public Relations Report:

 

None provided

 

 

MEETING CALLED TO ORDER 9:00 PM EST:

 

 

9) New Business:

 

• The MASNA award votes have been tallied and there is a clear winner. The award will be made at the same place that produced them last year. The pricing will be less this year as the company has the design on record.

 

10) New Business:

 

• C. Phillips informed the BOD that on 8/01 it will be time to judge MASNA club members for the website awards.

 

• Volonteers to judge are C. Phillips, A. Larsan, C. Scannell, and S. Bentz. Judges were reminded that the website must display the MASNA logo as well as the MACNA logo/banner.

 

• Judging ends at the ends 08/31

 

 

11) New Business:

 

• Motion made by C. Phillips to accept the June Meeting Minutes. Second by A. Larsan. Motion passed 4 aye, 0 nay at 9:14 PM EST.

 

 

12) New Business:

 

• The topic of next years BOD nominations was brought to C. Phillips attention. She informed the BOD that on 08/01 nominations can be accepted for the up coming year. She encouraged the BOD to make their decisions as soon as possible. This information is needed so that the positions that will be open can are known and new indiviuals can be found. 

 

 

13) New Business:

 

• B. Lemcke informed the BOD that there is anonymity of the contestants when presented to the judges. The judge’s will only see the photo number not the photographer’s name.

 

• L. O’connor devised a system assigning a number for each contestant to their photographs. B. Lemcke will find out the system that L. O’connor made so that there are backups if ever the need arises. This is so that all photographs are uploaded to the gallery in a timely fashion.   

 

• B. Lemcke and the whole BOD are encouraged by the rash of new members and hope to see more photo entries soon.

 

• The calendar printer will be asked if a 40" by 30" image at 72dpi will print up OK at 11" x 8.5"

 

• The whole BOD was encouraged to seek out individuals that are known for their photography and inform them about the contest. As well as asking local club members and bumping threads on the message boards.

 

14) New Business:

 

• No MARSH reps were present but the BOD was filled in by C. Phillips and K. Jedlicki on how they are doing.

 

• Over 100 booth spaces have been sold

 

• There have been some issues with their hotel insurance in regards to workers comp. MARSH is working on that now and C. Phillips will review the contract to learn more and inform the BOD as needed.

 

 

Motion to adjourn meeting to general discussion made by C. Phillips. Second by C. Scannell. Passed 4 ayes, 0 nays at 10:23 PM EST