MASNA BOD Meeting Minutes

April 2002 BOD Meeting Minutes
This meeting was held online on April 10, 2002

Call to Order: 9:22 PM EDT

BOD in attendance:
Nancy Swart (President)
Jennifer Myerscough (Secretary)
John Brandt (MAC/USCRTF Representative)
David Adkins (BOD at Large)
Mary Middlebrook (Editor/Speaker Liason)
Carl Huntley (Treasurer)

 Absent:
Cathy Garey (Public Relations/Membership)
Tom Walsh (Vice President)
Eric West (At Large)

Guests:

Kelly Jedlicki (Vice-President of Louisville Marine Aquarium Society)

1)       Approval of March Minutes: Moved by Jenn, Seconded by Nancy to approve the March 2002 Minutes as published.  Carried.

2)       Officers' Reports
President/Webmaster (Nancy Swart): Not much to report due to flu and vacation except for working on host agreement (see New Business).

Vice President/Scholarship & Fundraising (Tom Walsh): Report read by Nancy Swart from email from Tom Walsh, "Not much to report. Everything on hold regarding fundraising until Marriott issue is settled."

Secretary (Jenn Myerscough): Meeting Minutes are currently up to date.  Received correspondence from Macgillivary Freeman Films regarding invitation to the screening of "Coral Reef Adventure".  Jenn will forward this to Nancy for possible publication.

Treasurer (Carl Huntley): No report was available.  Motion by Carl, Seconded by Jenn to discontinue accepting AMEX and Discover to save costs.  Motion carried.  Nancy to update website to amend which credit cards we accept.

USCRTF/MAC Rep (John Brandt): Contacted Barbara Best from the USCRTF asking about what's new. John will email everyone her reply, along with a copy of the new Coral Reef Action Strategy. Basically though Capital Hill is not discussing the aquarium industry issues. John doesn't have any news from MAC, and has not received any BOD mailings lately. 

Discussion followed: Comments from Mary Middlebrook: I haven't dealt with them (MAC) since the LA wholesalers’ meeting. Lots of things are under serious discussion with MAC industry is not really thrilled with them right now. I'm STILL waiting on articles from John Dawe and the Utah club, so we have time.

Nancy: in the MAC newsletter, regarding Core Standards, it says they're adjustable depending on feedback after implementation. Does this mean the 1% mortality rate ruling might not be written in stone?

Mary: it's definitely not written in stone, although they really want to keep it. However, industry is demanding they actually do baseline studies before giving us a target. It was a month or so ago, industry basically stated our concerns (1% mortality, unsuitable species list, diver training) and told MAC they're going to have to be a little more reasonable.  Committees were formed to nail down the problems and come up with solutions. MAC is going to have to undergo some drastic changes or my company will not be supporting them

Public Relations/Membership (Cathy Garey): Cathy was not in attendance, no report was available.

Editor/Speaker Liaison (Mary Middlebrook) Regarding Fiji Crisis: Fiji crisis part one has to do with legislation. CITES has revoked it's requested ban of CITES animals out of Fiji. They have given Fiji until the end of the year to get the legislation into place, with the caveat that Fiji reduces exports by 1/2. Fiji crisis part 2 has to do with airlines: the airlines have downsized all of their planes. No one can get anything out on a direct flight and very little on connections. The airlines announced yesterday that the freight rate is going up DRASTICALLY for aquarium products. If anyone can even get anything out, the price is going UP.  Wholesale live rock prices have already gone up $.30 a lb, with probably another $.20-$.30 coming soon. I haven't received any livestock in almost a month. And, with Solomon's having airline issues and Indonesia having CITES issues, it's really putting a pinch on us.

The newsletter is almost complete, pending articles from John Dawe and the Utah Club.  There will be an article on the Fiji Crisis discussed above.

3)       New Business: Mary has been appointed Industry Liaison
Proposed Hosting Agreement: Draft text was forwarded to BOD via email.  Discussion followed, and the agreement and possible modifications were discussed.

4)       Old Business
Marriott Hotel Bill: Nothing new to report, negotiations are still in progress.

5)     Open Discussion 

Discussion was initiated regarding preparing a budget for the next fiscal year.  Carl and Nancy to confer to commence work on that.

 Regarding MACNA XIV, registrations are coming in slowly, plans are progressing nicely.