NPIC-AFS

EXCOM Teleconference Meeting Minutes

July 10, 2008

Attending:  Eric Knudsen, Jim Shannon, Larry Dominguez, Rachel Keeler, Julie Henning, Lisa Harlan

Approved Minutes:  June 5th and June 18th, 2008 meeting minutes were approved.

Officer Reports

Officers

President – Eric completed and distributed minutes from previous two telecons.

Eric talked to Bryan regarding helping with the website on a paid basis.  Details of amount of time involved and pay have not been discussed yet.

Eric received notice of approval for a booth at the Ottawa AFS Conference at no additional charge to the Chapter.  He will attend the meeting representing the Chapter and is seeking support for travel expenses, probably in the amount of $1200-1300 (does not have final figure yet). Julie was supportive of this request.  Jim asked whether it is tradition to send the Chapter President to the Annual Meeting.  Eric said that it is done on occasion when there is a purpose to the attendance.  Jim was supportive of Eric’s request, as was Rachel.  As he will be promoting the 2011 Conference in addition to representing the Chapter, he suggested that the support could possibly come from both the Chapter and the 2011 Committee.  General discussion ensued regarding how to split costs between the Chapter and the 2011 Committee. The suggestion was made that it should first be determined whether a member of the 2011 Committee will be attending the Ottawa meeting and whether they will be seeking support as well. Eric will be talking to the 2011 Committee.  Eric will be attending the Governing Board Committee meeting in Ottawa and will be able to support a vote on a proposal to increase the percent contributed by the parent society to the chapter hosting the annual meeting.  No decision was reached on support of travel at this time.

Past President – No report.

President-Elect – No report.

Vice President – Jim reported the results of the ballot.  Vice President was won by Mark Pederson by one vote.  Jim will conduct a re-count and issue an email to the EXCOM with results.  The new Newsletter Editor is Geraldine VanderHaegen and the Chapter Name change was approved overwhelmingly.

The Chapter name change will be submitted to the Governing Board and will be official upon their approval at the August parent Society meeting in Ottawa.

Secretary/Treasurer – Julie now has an Assistant Secretary/Treasurer, Lisa Harlan, who will be taking minutes and assisting Julie as needed.  Thanks Lisa!

Committees

Outreach – Eric reported that he received no response to the listserve email regarding the request to fill the webmaster position.  The next option is to pay someone.  General discussion ensued regarding costs, time involved, and need to define tasks (setup as opposed to maintenance) and related costs.  Eric will talk to Bryan and get further information on rates for non-profits and minimum billing time.  Rachel will talk to her friend and also gather this information.  Eric said the EXCOM does 50-75% of the website content.   The webmaster would train EXCOM members how to upload content to the website.

Rachel will look at software for making newsletters.  Jim suggested that Google has many free applications, which may suit our needs.  He said the current listserve is working well right now for sending emails.  Rachel suggested presenting the newsletter as an email containing hyperlinks to the website and everyone agreed.

The next newsletter will come out by Aug 15th.  Rachel will use listserve to solicit submissions in the next couple of weeks. Larry suggested including guidelines for submission of images.

Larry raised a question as to whether community news could go into the newsletter.  Rachel said care needs to be taken not to be advocating someone else’s position, and to be properly crediting articles.  Larry affirmed that the editor needs to be screening submissions for relevance to chapter missions.

Student Coordination – No report.

By Laws and Procedural Manual – No report.

Marine Fisheries – No report.

2009 AGM Planning – Jim will re-send the 2009 AGM flyer in a pdf format.  He is requesting feedback prior to finalizing it.  Once finalized, it will be posted on the website.  Jim will provide Little Creek Casino with an estimate of group size so that a dollar amount can be determined.

Larry asked about the status of the Puget Sound/Georgia Strait Conference.  Eric will contact Joe Ryan for an update.

Larry will display an existing 2009 AGM poster at WDFW.

2011 Planning – Eric brought up the request for $10,000 loan to 2011 Committee, voted on by email ballot.  Everyone agreed that it was fully supported and approved via email affirmations by the Ex Comm.  The letter is attached, as part of the record.

The By-Laws do not recognize email as an official ballot, which Eric suggested could be added into the By-Laws once Larry takes over Presidency.

Old Business – None

New Business – None

Next Teleconference -  Thursday, July 24th at 0730, followed by Aug 7th and 21st .