January 2004 BOD Meeting Minutes
This meeting was held electronically on January 14, 2004 9:12 PM EST

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

Cheri Phillips (Dir. Membership/Secretary)

Rob Tess (Newsletter Editor)

Joe Scavo (Webmaster)

Larry Burt (Treasurer)

John Brandt (MAC/USCRTF Representative)

Members Present:

Kelly Jedlicki (LMAS Vice President)

 

BOD Absent:

none

 

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:

·         Larry has the checkbook and software.

 

·         Chuck has conversed with Kevin Kohen a couple times and he is very interested in helping out. Chuck is awaiting another email from him as they have been going over the specifics that could be of benefit to both organizations.

 

·         Chuck has been on the phone with the IRS investigating the 501(C)3 status. We are a 501(c)4 status which means donations are not tax exempt and this status is usually for social clubs which is basically what we best fit into by the IRS definition. Chuck has the 501(c)3 form which is what we need. This status is usually held by educational and religious organizations. This is what we desire. This form can be turned in at any time, however one of the main reasons why we never got this status before was there was a belief that MASNA is not educational in nature. We will need to try and put something in place to try and get this status.

 

2)       VP Report:

Nothing to report.

 

3)       Treasury Report (prepared by Chuck):

Last Month’s Balance:       $3961.46

Monies Received Since:    

                $150.00                   2 Corporate membership

                $  75.00                   2 Club memberships

                $  35.00                   1 Individual membership

                $  10.00                   Donation

                $270.00

MASNA Store:                     $  84.95

 

                Total Income:       $354.95

 

Expenses:

                                                $86.18                     Chk# 1104 Reimbursement to Cheri

                                                $36.87                     EMS Charges

                                                $10.00                     Bank Monthly Service Fee

                                                (–)$133.05

Ending Balance to

                    Date:                     $4183.36

 

 

4)       Membership Report:

1.        Individual please renew eMAILs were sent to all former (past two years) individual, club and corporate members that have not renewed for the 2003-2004 year. Cheri had 19 eMAILs bounce. The next step will be trying alternate contact methods for these folks.

2.        We have a handful of former members for whom we have absolutely no contact information, so Cheri asked Joe to make eMAIL address and mailing address required fields on our membership form. People are used to that and if they can get to the Web to fill out the form, they likely have an eMAIL address.

3.        Current Membership:

 

	2002-2003	2003-2004	Change Since 11/03	Difference
Individual Members	88	44	9	-44
Club Members	20	16	4	-4
Corporate Members	10	8	2	-2

 

4.        Cheri is current on all acknowledgements to new and renewing members. She stopped waiting for $$ to clear messages, believing it is more important to make people feel welcomed or acknowledge their renewal nearly immediately than worry about the finances. If, for some reason, the funds don’t clear, they can be contacted and it will get straightened out.

5.        SEABay (my personal club) was convinced to join. Cheri plans on bringing MASNA brochures to the meeting on 1/17/04. Attendance should be high due to an excellent speaker (Anthony Calfo).

6.        Still no response from John Link at Reef Central, in spite of sending him an eMAIL through Reef Central’s link and the mailed letter.

 

5)       Secretary Report:

January meeting minutes were completed and were mailed to bod@masna.org.

 

6)       Editor Report:

1)       Aquatic EcoSystems confirmed their ad for the coming year.  Check was sent to Rob who forwarded on 1/12 to Chuck.

2)       Winter 03/04 is done.

3)       Need decision on suggestion that we offer free newsletter ads to all of our corporate sponsors.  Rob suggests we offer them all 2.25” x 2.25” ad space for free and if they want larger ads they can get them at a 50% discount.

4)       CARRYOVER FROM LAST MONTH - Based on what happened with the change over this past September we need a decision on when the newsletter is issued.  Current schedule is

ISSUE	DEADLINE	PUBLICATION
FALL	November 1st	December ??
WINTER	February 1st	March ??
SPRING	May 1st	June ??
SUMMER	August 1st	September ??

The newsletter schedule should revolve around MACNA. We need to decide whether the Fall Issue comes out before or after MACNA.  There are benefits to both.

If we issue before MACNA then there are no complications if the editor changes as a result of elections as happened this year.  But then the wrap up of our biggest annual event doesn’t come until the Winter Issue.

If we issue after MACNA, say October sometime, then we can get the MACNA wrap up in it but we risk having a new editor producing this issue.

Rob’s preference is that it be issued after MACNA.  Everyone who attends MACNA should get a copy of the Fall Issue.  The reason is that we will get more members to renew if we keep momentum by issuing it as soon after MACNA as possible with a really exciting summary of the event as the lead story.  (BTW, why doesn’t MASNA have a membership table at MACNA?)

Rob is proposing the following revised schedule

FALL	September 1st (except MACNA article which will be done within about 1 week following MACNA)	October 1
WINTER	December 1st	January 2
SPRING	March 1st	April 1
SUMMER	June 1st	July 1

 

5)       Mass emails – Following an email to all of our individual members and club membership delegates it seems that most folks are willing to receive email with information on new products or special offers from vendors who are MASNA Corporate Members.  Some ground rules should be set.  On the vendor side, there needs to be a frequency limit and a statement that we are not endorsing anything. On the other side, if we give out a discount code is there anything that can be done to limit its distribution once we send it out?  I’m sure there are other things that need to be considered.  At least we can get the ball rolling with this.

 

7)       Webmaster Report:

·         A little over a month ago a mass mailing was sent out by Joe to introduce himself as well as give an overview of what we have in store for MASNA.org in the near future.  This mailing also requested notification of local club events so as to provide fresh content for the MASNA homepage.  Joe received little response in regards to this.

 

·         Moving forward with the MASNA homepage, Joe has started designing revisions.  One of these revisions is the addition of a rotating banner ad for sponsors.  This will ensure sponsors that they will have more of a “presence” as opposed to being buried on the “members” page.

 

·         Implementation of the article repository, as well as the membership database will be included in the beta release of the site.

 

8)       MAC/USCRTF Report:

1)       The USCRTF will be having their 13^th meeting in Washington, DC on February 25, 2004. John is requesting that the Board of Directors vote to send him to this meeting. Estimated cost of airfare, hotel, taxis, etc. = $500-600.00.

 

2)       The MAC will have its Board of Directors meeting by conference call on February 25, 2004. MAC reimburses John for the long-distance call to Hawaii. These meetings typically are 2-3 hours. John plans to be part of the meeting.

 

3)       John has been invited to be a plenary speaker at Marine Ornamentals Conference 2004 in Hawaii, March 1-4, 2004 http://www.hawaiiaquaculture.org/marineornamentals04.html . His topic will be “The Role of the Hobbyist in a Sustainable Marine Ornamentals Trade”. He has also been asked to organize and chair a panel discussion titled, “The Role of the Media in the Marine Ornamentals Trade”. There will be 4-5 speakers presenting abstracts for this panel discussion including representatives from hobby and trade magazines, Internet bulletin boards, etc. Marine Ornamentals is an important conference that is similar to MACNA however presenting a more scientific and trade-oriented agenda. The attendance is at least double that of a MACNA. It is an honor and a privilege to be asked to do these presentations.

 

However, these conferences do not pay for the expenses of any speakers or session chairs. John’s registration fee is waived but he still needs to cover his own airfare, hotel, taxis, etc. He has made arrangements with MAC for them to cover about 50% of my expenses if MASNA will contribute as well. MAC generously offered to pay either my airfare or hotel fees. John is requesting that the Board of Directors vote to send him to this conference as a Representative of MASNA. Estimated cost = $700-900.00 for MASNA’s contribution. It will be a good opportunity to introduce MASNA, and MACNA to a very large audience of marine ornamentals industry professionals.

 

 

Call to order 9:12 PM EST

 

 

9)       Drs. Foster & Smith: Chuck got another eMAIL from Kevin Kohen (Drs. Foster & Smith). He wants to place a regular Fosters & Smith ad in the newsletter and also run a coupon for MASNA members for a specified time period. The deal has been finalized and Kevin needs to get Chuck artwork, etc. and then work out specifics on the coupon dates. It will run in the April Newsletter since the current one is already completed. A specific % off will be offered to MASNA members. We will unveil this new deal once we get the artwork, payment for the ad and final coupon.

 

10)    Tax Status: Based upon reading and calls made by Chuck, it appears the IRS considers MASNA a social club [501(C)4 – our current status]. Educational/religious organizations are 501(C)3. Many of the local reef clubs, however, have successfully received 501(C)3 status. Rob has forwarded the Boston Reefers application to Chuck for his review. The application fee to switch MASNA status is $125. Since we believe we can make a case for MASNA being an educational group, a motion was  passed to spend the $125 to apply for the status change. Chuck believes the process will take 4-6 weeks.

 

A suggestion was made by Lee to rewrite our charter statement to better fit the IRS description – stressing information and education.

 

Discussion ensued around the question of whether our relationship with MAC and/or USCRTF would be an issue due to one of them being considered a PAC (Political Action Committee). Conclusion was that MASNA has very little direct ability to affect any PAC we are even remotely associated with, so we don’t believe this should affect our status change application.

 

11)    December Minutes – motion was passed to accept them

 

12)    Advertising for Corporate Sponsors: Cheri brought up the discussion on giving corporate sponsors a free ¼ pg . ad in the Newsletter as a selling point for getting corporate memberships. After discussion, a vote was taken and passed to give each corporate sponsor ¼ pg ad in the Newsletter once per year. They can request which issue, but ultimately it will be at MASNA’s discretion. We will start with the April issue.

 

13)    Revised Newsletter Schedule: motion passed to accept the revised Newsletter schedule presented in the Editor’s report.

 

14)    Treasury Report Clarification: Lee asked for clarification of available $$$ - ~$800/$4183.36 is earmarked for scholarships and the projected cost for each newsletter is $300-400, giving us ~$3000 to work with. Lee requested we keep the scholarship $$$ separate in the Treasurer’s report. Cheri suggested this was important in showing MASNA’s “educational orientation.” Chuck suggested that the scholarship money be put in a separate bank savings account (setup by him) that doesn’t get fees deducted. He can open the account online and transfer the money over.

 

15)    Response to John Brandt: Discussion on the requests made in the MAC/USCRTF Report. The Washington USCRTF trip is the end of February and the Marine Ornamentals conference is the first week in March. Motion was passed to accept the fees ($500-600) for the USCRTF trip. Motion was also passed to send John to MO 2004. John believes his speaking at MO 2004 will introduce a lot of people to MASNA and MACNA. His lecture will feature MACNA as an educational event for hobbyists and he will take a hefty stack of MASNA brochures. Chuck said he could get some done up before then and ship them to John. Suggestion was made to update the brochure first to focus on education and make legislation less prominent. Rob volunteered to do this.

 

16)    MACNA Plans: The Boston Reefers had a fundraiser (solicited for donations and had an auction) that raised close to $10,000 for MACNA. There were 18 MACNA registrations at the event itself. They are also taking their booth to the PETS 2004 show in Orlando in February. Kelly offered any help LMAS could give to the Boston Reefers.

 

17)    Money Raising/Membership Ideas: Chuck said he would contact some more corporations for MASNA discounts, ads and such. Rob suggested soliciting vendors for donations that we can sell to raise money for MASNA. Rob hopes to sign up more members at the 1/31 Boston Reefers meeting. Joe is working on revamping the website.

 

Motion to adjourn by Chuck, seconded by Rob. The motion passed at 10:41pm EST.