WA-BC – AFS Chapter

EXCOM Teleconference Meeting Minutes – FINAL

August 3, 2010

Attending: Jim Shannon, Mark Pedersen, Mark Celedonia, Erin Lowry, Larry Dominguez, Orlay Johnson, Lisa Harlan (Asst to Secretary/Treasurer – taking minutes).

Minutes:  The motion was made, seconded and passed to approve the minutes for July 20, 2010.

Officer Reports

President – Jim Shannon: The people going to Pittsburgh are Jim, Mark P, Mark C, Larry, Lisa and Geraldine.  The chapter will cover Jim and help cover Mark P’s expenses, everyone else is being covered by their employers.  The motion was made, seconded and passed to sponsor the 2010 AFS National meeting in Pittsburgh for $500.  Jim sent out the final report for review, which he will send to WDAFS this afternoon.

Past President – Larry Dominguez: The 2011 Committee has a booth, which equates to the Chapter having a booth as the sponsoring chapter.  He is filling in positions with volunteers, finalizing socials, the video is almost finished (posted on YouTube), and the monthly call-ins are going well.

President Elect – Mark Pedersen:  Kelly Rensing and Amanda Arriera are the winners of the BCHydro Scholarships, which they will be receiving this week.

Vice President – Mark Celedonia: 60% of renewing members are checking the chapter box.  At this point it is not automatic to charge $5 for members of our chapter.  The membership drive resulted in 22 sign-ups, so it might be good to follow up with another drive at some point.  Mark is working on 2011 planning.

Secretary/Treasurer – Erin Lowry: Money is still coming in from the 2010 AGM and, combined with some additional memberships, has resulted in an additional couple thousand dollars.  The 2010 AGM is in the black.

Newsletter Editor – Geraldine Vander Haegen: No report.

Assistant Newsletter Editor – Orlay Johnson: Orlay looked into possible sites in Washington for the 2012 conference.  He will send out a list to everyone.

Topics

Old Business:

2012 AGM Location - Both the Northwest and BC chapters of the Society for Ecological Restoration (SER) are interested in co-convening in 2012 regardless of which country the conference is in as long as it is near the Canadian-U.S. border.  The Washington Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit is also interested in participating in 2012 AGM if the meeting is located in Washington. They are also interested in participating in 2011.

Retreat Date – The location for the retreat will be Seattle at the NWFSC, on September 25, 2010.  Anyone coming from out of country needs to contact Orlay to get approval to be in the NWFSC building.

New Business: We briefly discussed ways to highlight and encourage AFS professional certification.  One idea was to encourage EXCOM members to secure certification.  Another was to educate and encourage members to pursue certification.

We talked about strategies for building on and expanding Chapter activities, implementing the strategic plan, and compiling an impressive enough list of activities and achievements to be competitive for 2010 Chapter of the Year.  Areas identified as works-in-progress and needing attention were the Chapter Rules and Procedures and filling out and energizing committees.  The strategic plan and the related Chapter of the Year application can serve as roadmaps for broadening Chapter activities.

Action Items for next meeting:

Action: Mark C will look into details of whether chapter membership can be made automatic when joining or renewing Parent Society membership.

Action: Jim will submit the Annual Report to WDAFS by midnight tonight.

Action Items carried forward from July 20 minutes:

Action: Orlay will contact Geraldine to set up a time for training on the newsletter and website tasks.

Action Items carried forward from July 6 minutes:

Action: Next teleconference we will discuss the budget projecting out for the next 18 months.

Action: Yvonne will assemble a list of possible Canadian locations for the 2012 AGM.

Action: Lisa will talk to Bryan to find out if the documents can either be stored on the chapter’s website or if the document storage service can be linked to our website.

Action: Jim will see if Bryan Bougher can do a website training at the retreat.

Next Teleconference: Tuesday, August 17, 2010 at 8:00am.