MASNA: August 2004 BOD Meeting Minutes
This meeting was held electronically on 8/11/04 9:12 PM EST

BOD Present:
Charles Scannell (President/Internet Relations)
Lee Morey (Vice President)

Cheri Phillips (Dir. Membership/Secretary)

Larry Burt (Treasurer)

John Brandt (MAC/USCRTF Representative)

Members Present:

Kelly Jedlicki (LMAS President)

Kevin Kohen (Drs Foster & Smith)

 

BOD Absent:

Rob Tess (Newsletter Editor – see below)

Joe Scavo (Webmaster)

 

NOTE: all Officer reports were distributed via eMAIL to the BOD in advance of this meeting. They are inserted into these minutes.

 

 

1)       President’s Report:

As far as the treasury, Chuck reviewed what Larry did and believes the current balance is $1,839.58, which includes a $135.00 deposit of memberships and he believes also contains the charge for the MASNA award trophy of  $96.75. He said there is another $175.00 that has not cleared yet which he processed since Cheri sent our renewals. {Treasury report has been edited to reflect this information}.

 

Chuck has 100 newsletters printed that he is attempting to fold. The cost was $357.00, which was only about $40 more than BRS charged us. Given previous newsletter expenses of almost $400.00 this was good. Chuck had to call a lot of places to get this price. Cheri is sending Chuck some updated lists of address changes so we can mail these out.

 

Chuck has updated the website some and we now have any nominated candidates linked from the elections page, http://www.masna.org/elections2004/candidates.php.

 

Chuck has been going through things, getting ready and prepared for the upcoming MACNA.

 

 

2)       VP Report:

Lee finished up revisions to the MASNA brochure and forwarded it to the BOD for our review/comment.

 

3)       Treasury Report:

Last Month’s Balance:       $2,025.33

Monies Received Since:    

                $135.00                   Membership(s)

               

MASNA Store:                     $  00.00

 

                Total Income:       $135.00

 

Expenses:

                                                $30.00                     EMS Charges

                                                $  5.00                     AMEX Charges

                                                $61.85                     Westhost Incorporated

                                                $96.75                     Allen’s Awards & Trophies

                                                $10.00                     Bank Monthly Service Fee

                                       (–)$203.60

Ending Balance to

                    Date:                     $1,956.73

 

 

                Pending:                                $175.00                   Membership(s)

                                                               

 

4)       Membership Report:

1. Current Membership:

 

	2002-2003	2003-2004	Change Since 07/04	Diff From 2002-2003	2004-2005
Individual Members	88	64	+1	-24	5
Club Members	20	27	0	+7	1
Corporate Members	10	11	+1	+1	0

 

2. Welcomed the new members; processed renewals
3. Renewal eMAILs (separately created for Individual, Club and Corporate to highlight different accomplishments this year) where sent out on 8/8/04. The Drs. Foster & Smith and West Coast Tropical Marine ads were included as attachments since people don’t yet have the newsletter.
4. Cheri contacted Marc Daniels (West Coast Tropical Marine) and found that he’d sold the business, it was reopened and the new owner (Ted Deck) will honor the 10% off for individual members and 15% off for members of MASNA clubs. He will use accept the codes agreed upon with Marc.
5. Cheri participated in numerous discussions with both Joe Scavo and Ron Wishna regarding:

§         MASNA Booth – we have been given one in the same area as MAC, Reef Central and Reefs.org. This is next to where the raffle items will be and is a high traffic spot. Cheri filled out and faxed in the Exhibitor Location Information form and the MACNA XVI Exhibit Space Contract.

§         MASNA Ad in MACNA Brochure – not possible as the brochure already went to print. However, BRS has agreed to us creating 400 one-page flyers that they will stuff into attendee welcome packets. Joe agreed to give us a price on BRS printing them (will avoid shipping costs that way). Cheri is working on designing something that is an ad plus a tear off membership portion.

§         MASNA Members Only Raffle (single item) – agreed to by BRS. Their preference is that we do the drawing during MASNA’s floor time portion of the banquet. Cheri agrees that this is the best time. All eyes are focused on us then instead of being just a tiny part of the big raffle drawings on Sunday. She has gotten permission to offer a one-week rent-free stay in a 2BR/2BA villa just off the beach in Treasure Cay, Bahamas as the raffle prize. The villa belongs to Dick and Lee Phillips. MASNA’s cost would be up to $300 to compensate for electric, other utility and housekeeping costs. No transportation included (unless MASNA wants to pay for it) and date availability for the winner is to be worked out with the owners. The prize value is $1000. The BOD will need to vote on this. If agreed upon, Cheri will create a poster to use for the raffle in the MASNA booth and send members information about the raffle.

 

 

5)       Secretary Report:

• MASNA National Speaker’s Database:

	Accepted	Awaiting Response	No Contact Info	Declined
1	Eric Borneman	Dr. Sallie Boggs	Rob Brinda	Randy Holmes-Farley
2	John Brandt	Charles Delbeek	Todd Gardner	Scott Michael
3	Dr. Andrew Bruckner	Tullio Dell Aquila	Paul Humann	Mary Middlebrook
4	Joe Burger	Dr. Daphne Fautin	Emma Kelley
5	Anthony Calfo	Tom Frakes	Charles Laidley	Sy Leng (discarded eMAIL w/o reading
6	Mitch Carl	LeRoy & Sally Headly	Morgan Lidster
7	Dr. Bruce Carlson	Frank Hoff
8	Adam Cesnales	Jason Kim	Matt Pommtag
9	David Cripe	Johnathan Lowrie	Andy Rhine
10	Bob Fenner	Frank Marini	David Saxby
11	Richard Harker	Gisele Muller-Parker	Marge Schick
12	Gerry Heslinga	Dr. Esther Peters	Joyce Wilkerson
13	Paul Holthus	Dr. Richard Pyle
14	Crissy Huffard	Vince Rado
15	Larry Jackson	Steve Robinson
16	Sanjay Joshi	Gregory Schiemer
17	Tom Lang	Mark Schreffler
18	Martin Moe	Walt Smith
19	Fernando Nostratpour	Sylvia Spalding
20	Mike Paletta	Bob Stark
21	Steven Pro	Richard Stratton
22	Randy Reed	Larry & Denise Tackett
23	Dana Riddle	Jeff Turner
24	Dr. Ron Shimek
25	Julian Sprung
26	Dr. Rob Toonen
27	Steve Tyree

 

Cheri made some good progress, but she continues to be amazed how hard it is to get responses from some people. If  she can find phone numbers/addresses for some of these folks, she’ll have to try that. Perhaps some of the eMAILed invitations were filtered out by today’s SPAM filters. If you personally know of any of the folks on the “Awaiting Response” list, please encourage them to fill out the simple form Cheri sent them and send it to her!

 

• July BOD meeting minutes were compiled and sent to the BOD.
• Sent announcement of the 7/14/04 BOD meeting to all members and posted in both the MASNA forum on Reef Central and the Announcement forum

 

 

6)       Editor Report:

MASNA’s Editor resigned his position on 7/29/04

 

7)       Webmaster Report:

None

 

8)       MAC/USCRTF Report:

None

 

 

Call to order 9:12 PM EST

 

 

9)       A motion was made and passed to approve the July meeting minutes

10)    Cheri brought up her proposal to have the MASNA raffle prize at MACNA be the one week stay in Treasure Cay, Bahamas donated by Mr. & Mrs. Richard Phillips. The price to MASNA (for housekeeping and utilities) would be $250-$300. She asked for agreement on the proposal and that MASNA BOD and immediate family (spouses and children) should be ineligible. Raffle tickets to be one free for each MASNA member, with members (only) able to buy additional tickets for $5 each. A motion to this effect was proposed and passed. It was agreed that each club delegate could get one free raffle ticket for the club and one for each MASNA corporate member.

11)    Chuck requested clarification on how many MASNA brochures to print and there was discussion on whether the one-page flyer Cheri was creating to be stuffed in attendee packets should be black/white or color. Cheri argued strongly in favor of color flyers and she agreed to get the MASNA purpose, application for membership, raffle info and meeting info all on that one page.  400 color flyers and 500 color brochures was agreed upon. Cheri agreed to find out when BRS needed the flyers by.

NOTE: subsequent to the meeting BRS told us that we would need to stuff our own flyers into the attendee packets, so they will travel with Chuck

12)    Cheri requested that the Booth sign-up sheet that she’d started get filled out by Chuck and forwarded on to John, then to WAMAS folks. Lee and Larry will not be able to attend MACNA.

13)    Chuck reminded Lee and Cheri about the website award judging. A deadline was set of Wednesday 8/18 at Noon.

14)    Cheri asked if there was interest in having a MASNA vinyl banner to hang in the booth. She gave a price of $32 + shipping for a 2’ x 6’ banner. It would be white w/ a choice of one color and up to 3 lines of 12 different font text – no logo. It would be purchased through www.halfpricebanners.com. Cheri has had previous experience with this vendor. “MARINE AQUARIUM SOCIETIES OF NORTH AMERIC” on one line, “MASNA” on another.  Chuck requested a “fancy” font w/ blue lettering. Cheri suggested that black lettering could be seen at the greatest distance. A motion was proposed and passed to get the banner. Cheri agreed to get the necessary S-hooks for hanging the banner.

NOTE: subsequent to the meeting when Cheri ordered the banner, the dark blue lettering looked very readable and the banner was ordered in the blue lettering

15)    We discussed what was left to do in order to be ready for the annual meeting. Chuck still needs to call the hotel and get coffee/pastries set up. He didn’t yet have a price on this – it was $120-130 last year. Chuck also needed to print up a meeting agenda. Cheri agreed to send out an eMAIL to the whole membership about the meeting the following weekend.

16)    Chuck asked if renewal eMAILs had gone out. Cheri reported that a custom renewal letter was created and sent for each type of member (individual, club, corporate.

17)    Cheri brought up absentee voting. Chuck felt there was no need for it since there were no open motions. Cheri thought there should be candidate absentee voting ability. Chuck agreed and said that it was generally handled with an eMAIL to President/Secretary up to one week prior to the conference. He also confirmed that honorary and complimentary members can vote since they are lifetime members. If someone wants to run for a position but can’t get to the meeting, they need to send a letter of intent to President/Secretary indicating that if nominated, they accept; if elected, they will perform the duties.

18)    Cheri put forth a motion to add one-hour early access on 1^st day of conference to vendor area for MASNA members into the contract for MACNA. The motion was passed. Lee reported that he hadn’t yet started work on the host contract.

19)    John discussed the upcoming USCRTF meeting in Miami, FL on 9/14-15/04. John estimated $600 in costs at the most. There was also some discussion on the new House Bill. John told us that he’s scheduled to speak with Marshall Meyers. He feels he’ll know a lot more after that, but knows that any policy outlined prior to the bill coming out of committee is far from complete at this point. John said he’d write a quick intro to the bill and send that along w/ a hyperlink to the BOD for approval prior to posting on MASNA’s website.

 

Motion to adjourn by Chuck, seconded by Cheri. The motion passed at 10:38pm EST.