MASNA April 12^th , 2007 BOD Meeting Minutes

 

(This meeting was held electronically on April 12th, 2007 9: PM EST)

 

Attendance:

 

BOD Present:

 

Cheri Phillips (President)

Steve Bentz (Secretary)

Eric Hall (Webmaster)

Robert Lemcke (Treasurer)

Scott Cline (Internet Promotions)

Del Brasheres (Newsletter Editor)

John Henrion (Membership)

Becky McAlister (At Large)

 

BOD Absent:

 

Cathy Garey (Public Relations)

 

 

Members Other Than BOD Present:

 

Steven Pro (PMASI President)

Kelly Jedlicki (LMAS President)

Margi Shindell (ARC Saltwater U Committee Member)

Kevin Jessup (VP Atlanta Reef Club)

Linda Close (CTARS, HVRK, CDMAS Clubs)

Corey Troyan (Toledo Reef Aquarium Club)

 

 

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:

 

April 2007 President’s Report:

 

MASNA Board:

• Received the resignation of Chuck Scannell from the ILOC position (Industry, Legislation and Conservation) on 4/10/07. Chuck resigned due to health issues.
• Received the resignation of Kim Lowe from the MASNA Vice President position also on 4/10/07. Death in the family, school and job issues were sited.
• Worked with Eric to return eMAIL and website access rights for both former board members to that of Individual member status.

 

MACNA XX:

• Received a bid to host MACNA XX from Atlanta Reef Club and attached it to a Board forum thread.

 

MASNA Membership:

• Corresponded with Michael Gerdes regarding his future interest in a MASNA Board position. In the discussion we talked about the Capital District Marine Aquarist’s Society and he’s now influenced them to join MASNA. Since I travel to the Capital District area (Schenectady/Albany/Troy, NY) a few times a year, we also discussed the potential of having me speak to the club.

·         Was contacted by Phil Wachcki of The Coral Reefer Inc. (sells live corals and saltwater fish). He was interested in giving MASNA members a 10% discount if we let his business advertise on our website or is possibly willing to pay for a monthly listing. I gave him all the benefits of becoming a MASNA Corporate sponsor.

 

 

MASNA Store:

·         I brought copies of the MACNA XVII DVDs and BCCR CDs to the March SEABay meeting and sold one set of MACNA XVII DVDs.

 

Misc:

·         Created an ad for the Drs. Foster and Smith 2007 Coral Conference and Frag Swap using Del’s photo of the 2006 event and Steve’s write-up (with Bob’s word-smithing). Have been working with Drs Foster and Smith (through Steve) on my own plans to attend the event.

·         Received a request from Rick Beauregard of the DFWMAS club regarding looking for a lawyer to review the By-Laws changes the club has drafted. They are looking for a lawyer that has some experience in this area but doesn’t charge a fortune. I contacted Nancy Swart Johnson (former MASNA President) to get the contact info for the lawyer MASNA used several years ago. His name is Brian Koenig. I will be trying to get in contact with him.

• In response to a couple of questions that have come in from clubs with various 501(c)3 form filling out/filing information, I started contacting clubs I thought would have some useful information. I’m in the process of compiling some information from WAMAS (which is still going through the process), BAR (tried and was denied that status) and others. There is now a Board forum thread to organize any information any of us comes up with in preparation for creating additional help we can post in our Members area of the website.

 

 

2) Vice President’s Report:

 

• No report filed by Kim Lowe due to her resignation.

 

3) Treasurer’s Report:

 

1. Financials:
1. Income Statement       March

Gross Income:             $ 385.52

Total Expenses:                70.37

Net Income:                $  315.15

 

2. Cash as of 03/31/07:  Adjusted Operating Funds      $16,044.30
                                      Adjusted Scholarship Fund          5,399.72
1. IRS Letter
1. Mailed response via certified mail to IRS concerning their February letter that that for fiscal year 2003 ending August 31^st, 2003 that MASNA was not required to file a return since our Gross Income was under $25,000.
2. MASNA’s 2007 Marine and Reef Calendar
1. Collaborated with Steve Bentz regarding Central Aquatics
2. Mailed a complimentary calendar to a new member that had overpaid his dues.
3. MACNA XIX
1. Nothing to report
4. On-Line Voting
1. Participated in all on-line voting/polls
5. 501( c )3 Filing
1. Nothing to report
6. Open Items
1. Survey to send to our clubs to obtain various facts about them (e.g,. club size, merchant processor, etc.)

To investigate changing Merchant Processing company

 

4) Director of Membership Report:

 

1. Current Membership:

 

	2003-2004	2004-2005	2005-2006	2006-2007	Diff From 2005-2006	Diff From 02/07 Report
Individual Members	64	115	176	109	-67	+3
Club Members	27	44	44	42	-2	+5
Corporate Members	10	19	28	17	-11	+1

 

2. Welcomed the new members; processed and thanked renewals.

                              Jeremy Meady – Individual

                  Richard Pfaehler – Individual

                  Michael Gerdes – Individual

                  Capital District Marine Aquarist Society – Club

                  Northwest Ohio Reef Association – Club

                  Ottawa Valley Aquirium Society – Club

                                         

3. Working with Eric to make try and make the Membership Page more user friendly.
4. Working through a few new/renewal memberships in early April.

 

 

5) Secretary’s Report:

 

Email Votes:

 

None

 

Board Thread Votes:

 

One vote took place to nominate Steve Bentz as Secretary beginning April 1, 2007.  The vote passed 6 votes Aye, 0 votes Nay.  (Amended from original report)

Secretary Report April 2007

 

• I sent out the meeting notice too all MASNA members

 

• I made threads in all message boards that have a MASNA forum, as well as the announcement forums (at least the ones I know about)

 

• I coordinated MASNA participation at the Drs. Foster & Smith Live/Aquaria Frag Swap at the end of June.  All BOD Members who want to attend will have their attendance fees and banquet fees waived in advance.  Provided Cheri and Bob Lemcke with a write up regarding the Frag Swap to post on the MASNA Home Page.

 

• Contacted Premium Aquatics and Central Aquatics to renew their Corporate Membership.  Bob Lemcke invoiced Premium Aquatics and I’m not sure about Central Aquatics.

 

• Talked with Matt Allen at Central Aquatics about an unpaid invoice from last years Calendar ads for three months.  He has submitted them to Accounts Payable for payment to Bob in the amount of $375.00.

 

• Provided verbiage changes to Cheri regarding the monthly BOD Meeting to our Main Page who contacted Eric and he made the changes for us.

 

• Posted a thread related to Banquet Food Selection for those BOD Members who are attending the Foster & Smith – LiveAquaria Frag Swap.

 

6) Industry Report:

 

·        No report filed by Chuck Scannell due to his resignation.

 

7) Internet Promotion Officer’s Report:

 

Internet Promotions Report:

 

National Club Database

• National Club Database - Continuing to work on cleaning up the National Club Database
• The current database is consisting of 151 Marine Clubs.  Some of these may or may not be still existing today. 
• I will be contacting and researching the 151 Marine Clubs currently listed in the MASNA National Club Database checking for accuracy.
• So far I have contacted 17 Clubs that are currently listed either by emailing, PMing on Reef Central, or posting in their club forums and only 1 Club has responded with updated information.
• Barry Cole from the Atlantic Region Reefers Group has contacted me to update their region, club description, and web address
• One club I have found to be inactive and will need to be removed from the list since their forum is gone from RC and they no longer have a website or any contact information, Aquatic Culture & Reefkeepers Organization of the Rio Grande Valley (ACRO-RGV)
• Two clubs emails were bounced back to me that had contacts listed and I'll have to approach a different way of trying to contact those clubs.
• New Clubs - I have complied a list thus far containing 83 Marine Clubs currently not listed in the MASNA National Club Database
• I have contacted 11 of the Marine Clubs currently not listed in the MASNA National Club Database by PM(s) through RC but have not received any responses.
• I have a small list complied of Clubs that are not in North America Do we want to include them in our national club database or limit it to only Clubs in North America or create a separate database for clubs that are on other continents?

 

Project DIBS

• Talked with Brian Plankis on the phone back on 3/16/07 about Project DIBS and involvement with MASNA.
• Posted Notes on our conversation on the forums.
• He's excited to have Project DIBS to be a part of Marine Scene Newsletter.
• Wants advanced notice of when Newsletter is published so MODs on his Boards can be prepared for the extra traffic.
• Project DIBS is filing for Non-Profit status.  Once this is complete he will become a member of MASNA.
• He was up for doing a banner swap between MASNA and Project DIBS.
• He was curious on finding ways to keep up with Gov. Legislative Initiatives that effect harvesting from the Ocean and wanted to know if there was a person in charge of that at MASNA.
• He is interested in looking for LFS that use captive breed livestock and approaching them to become the first few stores with Project DIBS.  If anyone knows of any in your area he would like to know.
• Said Kim Lowe contacted him for information for the newsletter already

Any Questions or Feedback please let me know and I'll get in touch with Brian.  I'll be contacting him soon.

 

8) Webmaster Officer’s Report:

 

·         Reset all password and am working on changing the website programming to reflect the new password

·         Changed our BOD Meeting Section on our Main Page to be current

·         Updated Scholarship Fund Page with the correct email addresses

·         Removed BOD members that have left from the site and email

·         Sent a report to Cheri about the current website and what I feel should happen to it

 

 

Open Items:

• Currently looking into what it would take to change the website

 

9) Newsletter Editors Report:

 

Not a terrible bit of activity over the past 4 weeks or so. . . .  Activity will pick up as our next issue is due to be released.

• Put out a feeler to Alissa Barron (National Outreach Coordinator for NOAA's Coral Reef Conservation Program) reference an article for The Marine Scene.
• Steven Bentz will provide two articles for the upcoming edition.
• Steven and I will expand on his Web submission for the Drs Foster and Smith Coral Frag Conference for the upcoming edition.
• Steven is working with Drs Foster and Smith for an ad to be placed in the upcoming edition.
• Normal coordination with Becky on the upcoming edition.
• Working on other input such as an announcement for the selection of the host for MACNA XX.
   
  As usual, please present those good ideas / articles / pictures to Becky and me for inclusion.

 

10) Public Relations Report:

 

I have reviewed and commented on all the discussions re: scholarship and MACNA XX bid from Atlanta.  As far as I am aware there is no other club bidding, although I am in agreement that they are very capable of hosting MACNA and should be given the bid for 2008.
 
I have no other "report" from PR.

 

11) Director at Large Report:

 

I haven't had a chance to do my update or last month's minutes.  I will get the minutes out as soon as I can.

 

I'm afraid I over-committed to the photography contest.  I don't have enough time yo spearhead the program.  I am available to work with file uploads and promotion of the contest, but I do not have the time to research vendors and get this off the ground from scratch.  I think if I had been involved in last year's contest this would have been doable for me.  I was hoping there would be more information available from last year.  Bob's timeline was helpful, but I have been too pressed for time to circle back and get things rolling.”

 

 

MEETING CALLED TO ORDER 9:00 PM EDT:

 

12) MACNA XIX:

 

• Steven Pro reported that there were 375 people registered and 77 vendors as of today.

 

• He added that there was only one additional speaker to confirm.  Once confirmed, he will post the schedule.

 

• Cheri asked Steven if he required any help from MASNA Board Members to work out any issues and share “lessons learned” from past MACNA Conferences. Steven felt that the only area in need at this point was in dealing with club liability issues and he would contact Cheri if he needed any assistance from MASNA with that or if anything else should arise.

 

• Steven had no additional or concerns regarding MACNA XIX.

 

13) MACNA XX Bid:

 

• Cheri moved on to the next item of business - the MACNA XX Conference Bid for 2008 from the Atlanta Reef Club (ARC).   ARC Officers participating in the BOD Meeting were given the opportunity to answer any questions from the MASNA Board of Directors.  No questions were raised by Board Members since the BOD thread posting of ARCs bid and answers provided by Bob Lemcke were enough to leave the Board with a satisfied level of due diligence.

 

• Cheri motioned to accept the Atlanta Reef Club’s bid to host the 2008 MACNA XX.  Steve Bentz seconded the motion which was passed unanimously and the BOD congratulated ARC on a well-thought out and crafted proposal.   

 

• C. Phillips asked who the President of the ARC is so she can contact him regarding the signature of the hosting agreement.  Kevin Jessup from ARC provided Tony Sciarini (tscarini@gmail.com) and Cheri will follow up with him on the signature of the agreement.  Cheri also explained the do’s and don’t regarding MACNA rules regarding vendor and registration contact prior to MACNA XIX that would jeopardize existing relationships already in place.  All correspondence will be handled through Kevin and Margi Shindell moving forward since they will be serving as Co-Chairs for the conference.

 

• Bob Lemcke requested a transcript of the meeting and Steve Bentz will provide that to him.

 

 

14) MASNA Board of Directors Changes:

 

• The resignation of Kim Lowe as Vice President and Chuck Scannell as ILOC Representative on April 11^th leaves two open slots for the Board through the 2006/07 MASNA Fiscal Year.  Cheri thanked both Kim and Chuck for their work and especially to Chuck for his six years of commitment to the MASNA BOD while serving in many roles on the Board.  Cheri will provide a write up on their contributions in the next Marine Scene Newsletter.

 

• Cheri opened the floor for any volunteers to finish out the year as Vice President.  Steve Bentz volunteered to serve as both Vice President and Secretary until the end of MASNA’s Fiscal Year and new elections.  Bob Lemcke noted that Steve had served as Vice President in 2005/06 and was re-elected in 2006/07 but had to resign due to health reasons.  Steve assured the Board that he is now back in excellent condition and fit to serve in both roles.  Cheri motioned to appoint Steve as Vice President (along with retaining the Secretary duties).  Bob Lemcke seconded the motion which passed unanimously.

 

• Cheri then opened the discussion regarding the ILOC position and there was much discussion as to what purpose the position serves and whether we can leverage other resources online to provide the same level of information that attending the meetings would provide without the expense related to sending a representative to the Pacific/Atlantic conferences in alternating years.  Cheri felt the position needs to stay as it provides MASNA clubs and members with a level of assurance that the hobbyist viewpoint is still reflecting at those meetings and that we are still able to network with organization like the USCRTF even though we do not influence legislation.  Since there was no online interest in the position, the Board agreed to take the discussion offline and Cheri will post it as a thread on the Board of Directors forum.

 

 

15) 2008 MASNA Photo Calendar Contest:

 

• The next Board of Directors topic concerned the 2008 MASNA Photo Calendar Contest and Cheri provided the Board with the information that Becky McAlister does not have the time to spend on the coordination and oversight of creating, printing and distributing them.  Much discussion ensued regarding the planning and whether the investment is worthwhile – it was agreed that we should continue the Calendar but a champion was needed to lead the effort.  Cheri, Bob and Steve could not commit since they all had too much on their plates with current duties.

 

• Scott Cline (Internet Promotions) stepped up and agreed to take on the role with the mentoring from Bob Lemcke and assistance from other members of the Board.  Cheri asked Scott if this would hinder his work on the Club Database and he felt that he could get both done, as long as he had help on the Calendar.  Steve Bentz will work to get the Corporate Sponsors in place as early as possible.

 

16) 2007 Photo Calendars:

 

• Cheri then brought up the topic of the remaining 2007 Calendars.  The Board agreed that it was too late to try to sell them and it would be best to give them away with MASNA Brochures inside, similar to what was done last year at a Conference held in Connecticut in April, 2006.  The Board decided to give the Calendars away at the Drs. Foster & Smith Frag Swap in June.  Steve Bentz will handle the shipping through contacts at Drs. Foster & Smith.  Cheri and Bob will stuff the remaining Calendars with brochures.

 

17) Drs. Foster & Smith / Live Aquaria Frag Swap:

 

• As an aside to the prior discussion, the Board discussed meeting at the Drs. Foster & Smith Frag Swap at the end of June.  Steve Bentz is coordinating hotel rooms and getting attendee and banquet fees waived and will start a thread on the BOD forum regarding meal selection and hotel accommodations.

 

• Cheri would like to hold a mid-year BOD meeting there to discuss the Scholarship Fund since some funds from the Frag Swap Auction will be donated to the MASNA’s Scholarship Fund.  Steve added that we have a meeting room available to us and that we can plan to meet with clubs attending the Frag Swap as well.

 

• Cheri also brought up the topic of whether MASNA could help offset some of the Board Member expenses to get a quorum of BOD members to attend.  Everyone agree that this made perfect sense and a poll was taken on who would be attending.  The list as of the BOD meeting was Cheri, Steve, Scott, Del and possibly Bob.  Steve agreed to begin the Board thread on this item and will work with Kevin Kohen at Drs. Foster & Smith to work out all logistics.

 

18) Redesign of MASNA Website:

 

• Cheri began discussion of the last topic for the evening on the redesign of MASNA’s website.  Eric has been working on a prototype that would change the look and feel of the website and make it easier to navigate and more robust.  Scott and Eric are working on combining the 3 databases that exist in the current site to one database on a SQL Server 2005 platform.  Eric has had experience in converting MYSQL over to the new database platform and feels that it should be a smooth transition.  Plans will continue and Cheri has agreed to be the formal tester since she has the most experience using the old website and will look for any holes/problems as the new site gets built.

 

• Cheri motioned to move forward with the redesign of the MASNA website.  Scott seconded with the motion passing with 7 ayes and 0 nays.  Cheri will begin a board thread on this topic as well.

 

The motion to adjourn the meeting to general discussion made by C. Philips; second by S. Bentz. Passed 6 ayes, 0 nays; at 11:19 PM EDT