MASNA June, 2005 BOD Meeting Minutes

(This meeting was held electronically on June 1st, 2005 9: PM EST)

Attendance:

BOD Present:

Cheri Phillips (President)

Amy Larsan (Membership)

Robert Lemcke (Treasurer)

Joe Scavo (Public Relations)

John Brandt (Industry/Legislation/Ocean Conservation Rep.

Chuck Scannell (Webmaster)

Marc Levenson (Editor)

BOD Absent:

Drew Weiner (Vice President)

Members Other Than BOD Present:

Craig Kuhn  (WAMAS Member Relations)

Kelly Jedlicki (LMAS President)

Dave Steffan (Three Rivers Aquatics)

Fahz (Greater Minnesota reef society)

Mike Hughes (The Coral Reef)

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:

• Gave a 78-slide MASNA/MACNA/Reef Conservation presentation to the CTARS club (Connecticut) at an all-day mini-conference held at Wesleyan College on 5/14/05. The presentation seemed to have been well received. Many people took MASNA brochures and I think a good deal of enthusiasm was generated for attending the next MACNA.

• Made arrangements to fly to Washington, D.C. this Friday evening for a weekend of MACNA planning at the hotel where the next MACNA will be held. Chuck will be joining me there. Bob has been sent a copy of the itinerary so that he can send the board approved flight reimbursement to me. The total was $391.61 for the flight. WAMAS is handling the hotel room and my transportation to and from Dulles airport.

• Have been in contact with MASNA sponsor Reef Show regarding his family attending MACNA and the organization possibly having a booth in the vendor area. Rock (the owner) asked the very good question as to why there has been no vendor marketing of MACNA to MASNA’s sponsors. I’ll bring this up at the planning meeting this weekend.

• An order for two sets of items (SeaChem Additives and Marc Weiss Additives) in the MASNA store has just come in, so I’m in the process of dealing w/ that order and will be updating the store accordingly. I have made previous contact with Karen Weiss at the Weiss Company, but this will be a new contact w/ SeaChem. If anyone knows whom I should be talking to, please let me know.

• Sent an advertisement for MACNA out to all of the MASNA membership letting them know the deadline for lower priced registration was coming up

• Forwarded all MASNA Award ballots that I’ve received thus far to Amy so that she can keep the official tally. I need to send out another note about this – only 11 votes received so far!

• Am working on a request forwarded to me from Nancy Swart for both MASNA information and a list of recommended advanced book titles in the areas of: natural history, anatomy, pathology, physiology, veterinary medicine/infectious disease and water chemistry/filtration as they relate to marine invertebrates/aquariums. If anyone has any thoughts books to recommend, please contact me. The request comes from a doctor looking to put together a library.

• Have participated in several eMAIL conversations regarding MACNA XVIII w/ Kim Price

2)      Vice President’s Report:

• Submitted next version of the Ed. Page work plan. Detailed below.

MASNA Educational Outreach Plan

Mission – The mission of the MASNA Education Page is to act as a central source of information about innovations and research within the hobby, industry and scientific community.

Goal – for the MASNA website to become a quality source of information on marine education.  This will be achieved through:

1. locating and procuring informational content about research that has crossover interest to the marine aquarium
2. developing relationships with academic institutions so that they may promote marine educational programs on the MASNA website
3. developing relationships with other parties (clubs, NGOs, etc.) who have marine educational content to share (i.e. reefkeeping techniques, DIY aquarium building, etc.)

         I.      Initial Development –

a.      Work with MASNA BoD to refine goals for ed page and develop action plan

b.      Work with MASNA BoD to compile list of contacts

c.      Assess available resources (i.e. for web design, etc.)

d.      Develop one-page program summary for outreach purposes and for handover to

next MASNA VP

       II.      Background Research –

a.      Investigate organizations that currently conduct research of interest to the marine aquarium hobby

b.      Research academic institutions offering marine ed programs

c.      Research clubs that provide reefkeeping ed content

      III.      Make Contact –

a.      Based on research, begin making contact

b.      Keep MASNA BoD appraised of progress and potential collaboration opportunities

c.      Send out program summaries where appropriate

    IV.      Procure Content –

a.      Follow up on interest and ask for content

b.      Provide content to web developer to begin web design of ed page (i.e. linking to MASNA ed page, etc.)

c.      Web designer submits design spec to MASNA BoD for review

d.      Send back edits to web designer

e.      Create MASNA ed web page

      V.      Launch -

a.      Perform test on website to confirm integrity

b.      Create announcement for MASNA membership (either in newsletter or one-off)

c.      Launch and begin tracking traffic

    VI.      Hand-off -

After election of new officers, provide all contact info to new person handling ed page and let contacts know of the transition.

3)  Treasurer’s Report:

(None submitted)

4) Director of Membership Report:

Current Membership:   5-11-05 through 6-30-05

zero

• No new members added this month. =( 

• I answered some club and individual member questions. As well as answering a few questions on Reef Central about MASNA membership.

• I am working on emailing individual members to see if they have any local club affiliation.

• I made two corrections to the National Club Database.

5) Secretary’s Report:

Email votes:

Motion by C. Phillips to reimburse air travel costs in the neighborhood of $400 for Cheri to fly to Washington D.C. on 6/3 for a MACNA Planning meeting. Reimburse Chuck for car travel costs if he decides to drive in for the meeting. Second by A Larsan. Motion passed 6 aye, 0 nay

• I sent out the MASNA meeting notice to all members.
• I posted a meeting notice on Reef Central (MASNA forum & Announcement) and Reefs.org. Both will be BUMPed on Wed. afternoon.
• I finished the May meeting minutes.

6) Editor’s Report:

The only news I have to report is that the newsletter is done and has
been emailed to Chuck and Cheri.  As soon as it is installed, it can be
shared with everyone.

-  The photo contest is included.
-  The gallery has been gently highlighted.

For the next issue, I'm going to need ads from our sponsors, as I've
used up the ones that were supplied to me earlier this year.

I'm going to write an article about the preparation involved in creating
a one-day conference.

If MASNA is going to have a calendar printed in time for MACNA, I can
include that in the next issue of the newsletter.

I went to all the member clubs' websites for any upcoming events.  Two
or three sites did not work at all, and a few of the ones that did don't
allow access to their Calendar of Events unless you are a member on
their message board.  That seems pointless, as how will new people know
what is going on, or decide if they'd like to attend a meeting.  Clubs
should provide this information to the public, to gain membership.

7) Webmaster’s Report:

• Just general updating of web content.
  
  
•  I added in John's USCRTF report and any other links to articles he sent.
  
  
• Currently working on adding the photo contest on the homepage and will be using Marc's picture when I add in the newsletter

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

• I have been invited to present a lecture at MACNA XVII for their "Conservation Track". The topic will be on the role of the hobbyist in a sustainable marine ornamental industry.

• Conservation news articles: "Reef Check Finds Indonesian Coral Reefs Damaged By Earthquake"

http://www.reefcheck.org/PDFs/Indoquake.pdf

"Tsunami-ravaged reefs best left to recover unaided"  http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn7374

• I propose that an entry be created in MASNA's "Industry and Conservation" webpage for Reef Protection International - http://www.reefprotect.org

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

• Currently compiling a list of calendar sponsors.

MEETING CALLED TO ORDER 9:00 PM EST:

10) New business:

• Motion made by C. Phillips to accept the May meeting minutes. Second by M. Levenson. Motion passed 6 aye, 0 nay at 9:07 PM EST

11) New business:

• B Lemcke gave treasure update because of missing report this month. He noted that he received the WAMAS check for $1500 which covers the 2 billing periods out of 4. He will also send out the financials out for the past two months in a few days.

12) New business:

• J. Brandt proposes that a Reef Protection International (RPI) section be added to the Industry/Conservation page.

• C. Scannell will need links and information to populate the page. J. Brandt and possibly D. Weiner will work to gather the needed information for Chuck to create the new Reef Protection International page.

• In addition any information for MAC and AMDA should be updated, and old archived should be removed if not relevant.  

13) New business:

• Photo contest update given my J. Scavo. Photo contest panel of judges include: Daniel Knop, Scott Michaels, Larry Jackson, and Anthony Calfo. All four are confirmed.

• The next newsletter will announce the Photo Contest. It was agreed that the next step would be to send an announcement to all MASNA members and encouraging the clubs to forward to all their members. The same announcement on Reef Central as well as a possible sticky thread in the Photography forum of RC. TRT as well as ROD will have an announcement posted as well.

• 13. Winners will be contacted by e-mail within five (5) business days from the completion date of judging stating that they have won the contest.

• The calendars will done in time for this year's MACNA

14) New business:

• MACNA update from Craig Kuhn. Confirmed that C. Phillips and C. Scannell will be there for the MACNA meeting this coming weekend.

• Getting good feedback on keynote speaker.

• A possible discount for MASNA BOD members is still in the works, but might stay under $139. Nothing confirmed as of yet.

• Hoping to get schedule done by this coming weekend. Still trying to work out the placement of some speakers. It will help to be at hotel and look at room sizes and pencil in what speaker fits what room.

Motion to adjourn meeting to general discussion made by C. Phillips, seconded by J. Scavo.  Passed 7 ayes, 0 nays; at 10:28 PM EST