Marine Aquarium Societies of North America

MASNA February, 2006 BOD Meeting Minutes

(This meeting was held electronically on February 8th, 2005 9: PM EST)

Attendance:

BOD Present:

Steve Bentz (Vice President)

Charles Scannell (Industry/Webmaster)

Amy Larsan (membership & Secretary)

Cathy Garey (Public Relations)

Lisa O’Connor (Internet Promotions)

BOD Absent:

Cheri Phillips (President)

Robert Lemcke (Treasurer)

Members Other Than BOD Present:

Kelly Jedlicki (LMAS President)

Matt Tindall (Tindall Aquaculture)

James (Greater Minnesota Reef Society)

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:

Newsletter - I updated the original President's Corner I'd created in October, then created the following: a good sized MASNA XVII in Pictures article pictorally (small amount of text) giving folks a taste of what they missed if they didn't get to the conference, a small MASNA raffle article and several advertisements (Ocean Inspirations, Reef Central, MASNA Calendar, Biology of Caribbean Coral Reefs, Newsletter Editor). I added a folder of the little articles gathered from Steve, Amy and Anthony Calfo for the new MASNA Members in the News section. I also included a few .jpg files of things that have been in past newsletters (advertising rates, MASNA Purpose and that sort of thing) and have uploaded all of this to MASNA's FTP site this morning. Chuck has agreed to lay all this stuff out in MS Publisher. I've had one inquiry about the Newletter position and am working my way through answering her questions.
Postcards for MARSH - I was contacted late in the day on 1/30 by MARSH w/ the graphics for the postcards they would like to send out. I'd told them about a special 50% offer by VistaPrint that expired on 1/31. I raced to get the images uploaded and contacted the VistaPrint folks to get pricing on 2500 postcards. The images turned out to be the wrong size (oversized postcard instead of standard sized) and it turns out that 1000 was the largest quantity allowed for that offer. The best they could do for me was 25% off for 2500. MARSH chose not to go for the offer. They will get the postcards printed another way and ship them to me so that I can do the mailing for them in the same way I did it for WAMAS this past year.
MACNA XIX Bid: After unsuccessfully attempting to edit the .doc file created from the .pdf of our MACNA contract (something went wacko in the translation back to .doc), I gave up and retyped the whole thing from scratch in a new .doc file. I put in all the edits agreed to by the Board at the last meeting and subsequently agreed to in the MASNA Board Forum, then converted it to .pdf and gave it to Chuck to post. An eMAIL notice announcing the Bid for MACNA XIX went out on 2/2 to all MASNA member clubs and all non-member clubs in MASNA's club database. There were quite a few bouncebacks, which will need sorting through as soon as time allows.

2) Vice President’s Report:

Membership:

Still In discussions with Scott at HelloLights for Corporate Sponsorship.
Have an email and phone call in to Kevin to discuss a Live Aquaria discount with Drs. Foster & Smith.
Still in discussions with Dave Barr at Vivid Aquariums for Corporate Sponsorship.
Still in discussions with Harvey Fell at Sera USA for Corporate Sponsorship (competitor of Salifert in Europe).
Began discussions with Greg Morgan at ReefGeeks about Corporate Sponsorship.
In discussions with numerous other Sponsors at this time.

MACNA Follow-up and Presentations:

Will run an “SPS Fragging” seminar at Pets Plus in February/March for multiple area clubs.
Had a discussion with the Director Emeritus of the Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi for the Hart Research Institute for Gulf of Mexico Studies about the possibility of speaking at MACNA XVIII. Once a topic is identified, I will work with MARSH on this.

Miscellaneous:

Modified Newsletter notice sent to Corporate Sponsors for Amy to contact our regular members.

Distributed 40 Calendars to Pets Plus USA on consignment at $7.99/each. We only sold 4 and I will forward monies to Bob Lemcke shortly.
Still in revision of Scholarship webpage and will forward to Cheri and Chuck next week.
The revision to our Mission Statement will be posted to the Board by the end of this week.
Provided a Newsletter “blurb” on the fire that destroyed The Hidden Reef last December.
Will take on the responsibility of writing a column for each Marine Scene moving forward on hobbyist reef tanks and/or new technology innovations.

3) Treasurer’s Report:

None Submitted

4) Director of Membership Report:

2002-

2003

2003-

2004

2004-

2005

2005-

2006

Diff

From

2004-

2005

Comment

Individual Members

115

128

+13

New:

Daniel Davis

Edward Williams (?)

Greg Garrett

John Colquhoun

Rob Mougey

Wyny Brodey

Sarah Knauss

Renewals:

None

Club

Members

-9

New:

* Indiana Marine Aquarium Society

* Toledo Reef Aquarium Club

Renewal:

* Marine Aquarist's Association of South Texas

* Hudson Valley Reef Keepers

Corporate Members

New:

Bio-Reef Inc.

Renewals:

None

I sent all of the welcomes and renewal thank you emails.

I added Toledo Reef Aquarium Club to the National Club Database

I emailed with a few individual members about how to start their own reef club

I answered a few PM’s on Reef Central about MASNA and about MACNA

I emailed with Anthony Calfo, Steven Pro and Eric Borneman about the MD announcement for the Newsletter.

I assembled a list of all the MASNA club members upcoming events for the newsletter. I contacted several individual members about any news or events they would like mentioned but was unable to get anything in return.

I wrote a small piece about Tindall Aquaculture for the newsletter. Steve and Cheri refined it for me

I snail mailed Edward Williams about his MASNA application/payment

5) Secretary’s Report:

Email Votes:

None

________________________________________________________________________

Board Votes:

Motion made by C. Scandell, that we remove all non governmental agencies from our host agreement that currently receive a free booth. Second by C. Phillips. Motion passed 5 aye, 0 nay.

http://www.masna.org/forum/showflat.php?Cat=0&Number=268&page=0&fpart=1&vc=1

Motion made by S. Bentz to refund The Hidden Reef it's MASNA corporate membership money due to the fire that destroyed their building. Motion passed 6 aye, 0 nay

http://www.masna.org/forum/showflat.php?Cat=0&Board=masna&Number=257&page=0&vc=1&fpart=1

________________________________________________________________________

I mailed our membership about the February meeting

I posted on Reef Central, and reefs.org about the February meeting

I finished the January 2006 meeting minutes; it will be mailed separately after this report is submitted.

I email Chuck the November, December and October meeting minutes (with corrections) to be posted on the MASNA website

7) Webmaster’s/Industry Report:

Not much exciting happening this month. General updates to the MASNA
site as well as all minutes have been posted. With the absence of any
feedback on my Palau report last month. I posted it as is on the site

8) Internet Promotion Officer’s Report:

I am working on the compilation of the events that are related to our industry during the same timeframe as MACNA. I hope to have this available by next Friday for review.

I have agreed to work with Bob on the photo calendar contest.

9) Public Relations Report:

None Submitted

MEETING CALLED TO ORDER 9:00 PM EST:

10) New Business:

Motion made by C. Scannell to accent both the January meeting minutes. Second by A. Larsan. Motion passed, 5 aye, 0 nay at 9:08 PM EST.

11) New Business:

Cathy Garey gave a Public Relations update since she was unable to provide the BOD with a monthly report.

Cathy met with WAMAS President to obtain a database from MACNA 17. She will need to upgrade laptop memory to be able to run program (or at least upgrade version on line). When that is done she will be able to put together a summery for the MASNA BOD.

12) New Business:

A calendar sales update was given. There are still many that need to be sold, and sold quickly. All of the BOD agree that the sale price of $5.99 is fair, but there is still no movement even with the low cost.

Cathy Garey suggested that she try to have a local Borders & Barnes & Nobel take some for sale. Amy Larsan also suggested that she get in contact with a few more vendors to see if they would take any as well.

There has been no movement or interest on the eBay listing.

Motion made by S. Bentz to move forward and let Amy and Cathy try to sell these calendars as best as possible as noted above. Second by A. Larsan. Motion passed 5 aye, 0 nay at 9:27 PM EST

13) New Business:

Motion made by S. Bentz to postpone further discussion on this and item 5 (S. Bentz’s signature on the MASNA bank account) until the next BOD meeting or have Bob post a thread on the website. Second by C. Scannell. Motion passed 5 aye, 0 nay at 9:32 PM EST

14) New Business:

Newsletter update and need for a new editor was discussed.

All BOD know if no one thus far who would want to take the position. A. Larsan is talking to a few friends about it but with little luck so far. C. Phillips might have an interested person and is talking to them at this time. All of the BOD agree to keep an eye/ear out for someone who might be right for the job

Motion made by S. Bentz to release on the first week of April, July and October for 2006 for the Marine Scene Newsletter. Second by C. Scannell. Motion passed 5 aye, 0 nay at 9:44 PM EST

A. Larsan and S. Bentz promise to help C. Phillips for the time being with any articles or information needed for future newsletter. With the help of other BOD members for layout. Steven Pro has also offered articles and K. Jedlicki is willing to help if she has the time/chance.

15) New Business:

The topic of how to increasing MASNA's value to it’s members was covered.

Larsan made two suggestions. She will help build the National Speaker Database up with new additions over the next few months. She will be attended MOC that month and hopes to see new speakers for the database. She will also try to work with Anthony Calfo about putting together articles geared towards club members for the MASNA website.

The need to work more closes with clubs to make their events smoother and help with any legal assistance would also be something to add value to our membership.

Motion to adjourn meeting to general discussion made by S. Bentz. Second by C. Garey. Passed 5 ayes, 0 nays; at 10:08 PM EST

MASNA'spurpose is to:

MASNA's
purpose is to: