WA-BC – AFS Chapter
EXCOM Teleconference Meeting Minutes – Final
January 25, 2011
Role call: Mark Pedersen, Mark Celedonia, Orlay Johnson, Nicole Casper,
Absent: Jim Shannon, Lisa Harlan, Yvonne Muirhead, Erin Lowry
Minutes: Quorum was not present, minutes for January 13th were not approved.
Officer Reports
President – Mark Pedersen: Erin and Mark P attended the UW subunit Trivia Night on Jan 20th; about 50 people attended. They passed out T-shirts to the winning trivia team. FYI – Erin has all the hats and T-shirts stored at UW fish area. Mark P met with Caroline Storer, UW Unit Pres yesterday – they are focusing on mentoring and recruiting new members, and will have a mentor social sometime in mid-February. A suggestion was made to focus on professional development, they want our help to get speakers and mentors, and would like to showcase graduate student work in newsletters. We will solicit volunteer participation in 2011 meeting. Mark P is preparing the mid-year report for WDiv; working with Eric Knudsen on 2011 fundraising; assisted with sending out the invitation to President Al Gore. Mark P continues to work on the Chapter Rules and Procedures, and website update. Priorities this month are to activate the Chapter Committees.
President Elect – Mark Celedonia: Mark C will coordinate with Mark Lariviere to schedule a room for our annual business meeting. Mark C will need an approximation of attendance for a business luncheon on Tues or Wed; there will be other meetings occurring during lunch which may conflict. WDiv business meeting will be breakfast-time probably Tuesday or Wednesday; we will probably not need an EXCOM meeting but will need a business meeting with members, should aim to do a luncheon to accommodate locals commuting to the meeting. Got in touch with Awards Chair for WDiv and the COTY award application is due by April 15th. App is on website. Working on 2011 Master Scheduler duties.
Student Sub-Unit Representative – Nicole Casper: WWU subunit had their first meeting with 11 people attending; 24 students have indicated interest including graduates and undergraduates; see minutes. Chose Nooksack Salmon Enhancement Association project, lots of ideas for a Trivia Night – have a speaker, ideas for different venues, emcee, procured prize of trout flies and fly box. Filing forms to be official club on campus which will bring in some initial funding. They will meet weekly. She needs advice on forming an official sub unit with the Parent Society; this will apparently involve writing by-laws – Nicole would like help with this. We will check into whether each sub-unit needs its own by-laws or if one set will cover all sub-units in the Chapter. Chapter will donate a Student Membership with AFS as a prize for Trivia Night. Mark P has been in touch with WSU Vancouver fisheries professors regarding forming a student sub-unit there and participating in the 2011 Seattle conference.
Vice President – Yvonne Muirhead: Sent in report. Still needs feedback on draft contract for 2012 AGM co-convening with Society for Ecological Restoration.
Past President – Jim Shannon: Working on Spawning Run, western native fish database, national resolutions, and looking for candidates for Vice-President.
Treasurer – Erin Lowry: Income/Expense status: he received the chapter membership check from National.
Secretary – Lisa Harlan: No report
Communications Officer– Orlay Johnson: Has talked with others regarding the chapter website. Orlay talked to Shawn Hastie who recently orchestrated getting a new website for National Marine Educators association – we’ll invite him to speak at next conf call. We should have some discussion of how much we can pay for creating a new website. Needs items for the next newsletter. Orlay has talked to Cleve and Craig Busack regarding ways in which the WABC chapter can be visible throughout the 2011 conference.
Discussion of having a chapter booth next to registration or in Trade Show – we should get a free booth and could high-light benefits of membership in local chapter, maybe sell Chapter gear. WDiv has asked all chapters to contribute money to the meeting – should we also contribute? This will be addressed at a future meeting.
Old Business:
Action: Mark P/Erin will assist Nicole in finding out if the student chapters can use the chapter or Parent Society’s tax ID for their bank account. WWU will create an account for this student club, Erin will send $200 to this.
Action: Excom – provide feedback re the draft MOU for co-convening with SER for 2012 to Yvonne.
Action: Archives – Mark P. is working on this with Lisa. Working on getting boxes from Keith Underwood. Geraldine sent electronic archives.
Action: Excom – Provide comments to Mark P on the 5-yr Strategic Plan.
Action: Excom – Provide comments to Mark P on the Excom Procedures. Use Google Docs: Click to open:
Action: Orlay will research options for website developers.
New Business:
2011 Seattle – Schedule a time/place for our 2011 Chapter business meeting: Lunch? (Lunch provided c reg); 5 pm social. Put emphasis on recruiting students at the National Meeting.
International liability insurance: We are probably not affected by this in 2011 but likely will be in 2012.
Assistant communications officer: This position is not currently in our By-Laws. Could be an adhoc position or we could change the by-laws. Orlay-will add to Chapter Rules and Procedures with duties. He will announce the position after writing up the duties.
Website Updating: Update at will, or tell Brian B to do it.
Action Items for next meeting:
Action – Erin to send $200 to WWU as soon as they have an account set up.
Action – Get clarification on organizing student subunits.
Action – Need to get busy on COTY award, if we are going to submit.
Action – WDiv needs Award Nominees. Need a volunteer to help with this.
Next Teleconference: February 8, 2011, 9:00am – 10:15pm, via WebEx.