WA-BC – AFS Chapter
EXCOM Teleconference Meeting Minutes
November 22, 2011
Roll call: Mark Celedonia, Mark Pedersen, Lisa Harlan, Brian Missildine, Orlay Johnson, Emily Pizzichemi, John Morgan
Absent: Chris Clark
Minutes: Approved minutes for Sept 27th, Oct 11th, and Nov 8th, 2011.
Votes by Email: None
Officer Reports -
President – Mark Celedonia: Mark signed us up for Star Conferencing. Met with a web designer. Gave a talk at UW as part of the career series, with about 30 students attending. Orlay also was there. Mentioned networking opportunities with AFS membership.
President Elect – John Morgan: Has a call this afternoon with Ecological Restoration Society. Will be sending out second call for symposium. Aiming to have registration online by Christmas.
Vice President – Brian Missildine: Attended WDAFS conf call last week: approved 2012 budget; they are also working on a website re-design; several policy issues: Pebble mine, Bristol Bay resolution, Snake River resolution – these will be forwarded to Parent Society. Brian has not received any requests for symposia for 2012 yet.
Past President – Mark Pedersen: Mark has been coordinating with others to plan the Chapter BBQ on Jan 21. He and Orlay did the set up and take down for the Pacific Marine Expo. He felt the main goal was achieved by familiarizing the commercial fishing community with AFS. He talked to Iris Kemp a little about student sub-units. He has not heard anything back from students at Simon Fraser and UBC.
Treasurer – Emily Pizzichemi: Got savings acct updated, updated online passwords.
Secretary – Lisa Harlan: Keeping up with minutes. Will post them on the website.
Communications Officers– Orlay Johnson / Stephanie Caballero: Orlay and Stephanie need everyone’s reports by November 23rd for the newsletter. Any additional stories or items of interest would be much appreciated. He agrees that the talk at UW went very well. He also attended a grad student symposium at UW last week; at which Iris Kemp took second place! We might want to sponsor this in the future. He helped set up for the Pacific Marine Expo, and did feel it was good for the chapter to attend. Kathleen Neely has offered to do a re-design of our baseball caps. Orlay presented on Saturday to Highland ??? on the salmon life cycle. He is aiming to get out the newsletter by Dec 9th.
Student Sub-Unit Representative – Chris Clark: Chris sent out a few emails through the student member list. One concern that came to mind is how many students in the student-sub units are actually AFS members. He is trying to contact the various student chapters to get individual chapter email lists. This way communication will go out to all interested student parties as opposed to student members only.
Chris will be out of the country for the month of December, and will not be near a phone or computer for most of that month. He will most likely miss the next teleconference as well.
Committee Reports
2012 AGM UVic Planning Committee – See John’s report above.
Website Redesign – Mark C met with a designer last week and got a bid. This person sets up websites using Joomla which seems to be much more intuitive than WordPress and might make it easier for us to maintain the website ourselves.
Unfinished Business:
Teleconferencing options – (Mark C) – Mark has signed us up for Star Conferencing service.
Pacific Marine Expo – Staffed by Mark P, Emily, and Orlay plus two other folks: Kathleen Neely from NOAA, and Bob Vadas from WDFW. See Mark P’s and Orlay’s reports.
FY2012 Budget – Emily checked and there are no restrictions on how much money a non-profit can carry over year to year and still maintain non-profit status.
Chapter Credit Card – It was moved and seconded that Emily will look into getting a debit card and bring back a recommendation to Excom.
New Business:
2013 AGM Location – Vancouver, Tulalip, Lake Chelan are the locations being considered. Mark P visited Lake Chelan last week and talked to Campbell’s Lodge and they would love to have us there. They have space for a Trade show and at least 4 break out rooms. Usually the roads are clear in April, and it will be less expensive if we go before May. Lisa will find out more about the Vancouver Convention Center and send the info to Brian.
Student Sub-units – Discussion regarding whether rules exist for small groups at colleges and universities that don’t have enough to form their own sub-unit but would like to be affiliated with a sub-unit. Mark P says we need to develop and define rules since not much guidance is laid out by the Parent Society. We should structure it to where any student in our chapter area can communicate with Chris and be involved in that way as well. Mark P will work on getting more definition of the student sub-unit structure.
Announcements: None
Action Items for next meeting:
Excom – Review the AGM site and forward comments to John who will compile and send to Bryan.
Excom - Officer reports to Orlay by Nov 23rd for the newsletter.
Emily – will look into getting a debit card and bring back a recommendation to Excom.
Lisa – will find out more about the Vancouver Convention Center and send the info to Brian.
Mark P – will work on getting more definition of the student sub-unit structure.
Next Teleconference: December 13, 2011, 9:00am – 10:00.