MASNA July, 2005 BOD Meeting Minutes

(This meeting was held electronically on July 6th, 2005 9: PM EST)

Attendance:

BOD Present:

Cheri Phillips (President)

Amy Larsan (Membership)

Robert Lemcke (Treasurer)

Joe Scavo (Public Relations)

John Brandt (Industry/Legislation/Ocean Conservation Rep.

Marc Levenson (Editor)

Drew Weiner (Vice President)

BOD Absent:

Chuck Scannell (Webmaster)

Members Other Than BOD Present:

Kelly Jedlicki (LMAS President)

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:

WAMAS MACNA XVII Help:

• Took a red-eye to Washington D.C. arriving 6/4 for a two-day MACNA XVII planning meeting at the Hyatt Regency Crystal City where the MACNA conference will be held. WAMAS board members, Chuck Scannell and I met all day both days. Many aspects of the conference were discussed. In particular, the assignment of the scheduled speakers to specific time slots in specific rooms was worked out, after touring the vendor area and rooms. We also met with the hotel representative to negotiate additional rooms for Thursday night and go over other questions.
  
  
• Uploaded Sharon Eppler’s design (WAMAS graphic designer) to the VistaPrint (www.vistaprint.com) website to order 2500 custom postcards (at 25% of on the printing) to be sent out advertising MACNA XVII. The postcards were sent to my home since I’d volunteered to handle the whole thing, including the mailing. I took the Boston attendee, MASNA membership list, Baltimore attendee and WAMAS membership lists, have massaged them all as needed to create labels and affixed the labels to the postcards. The postcards are sorted by zip code – may or may not qualify for special pricing. I’m nearly done with a total of approximately 1600 postcards. We are still deciding what to do with the leftovers – probably ship some to Dr. Mac to include in each shipment he sends out.
  
  
• Pitched the idea of having a table at MACNA to the owner of Seawater Express
  
  
• Have started looking into what it would take to get seahorse.org to have a booth or table at MACNA since they had a terrific booth (live seahorses at various stages of life) at IMAC. Kelly Jedlicki volunteered to help with this since she knows the site owner and several of the folks there.
  
  
• Reviewed a variety of MACNA-related information sent out to the Executive Planning Committee by WAMAS.

MASNA Photo Contest:

·         Worked with John Link, owner of Reef Central, to get an announcement of the contest posted in a thread that is stickied to every forum on www.reefcentral.com. I got the same announcement posted to Reef Frontiers (www.reeffrontiers.com).

MASNA Award:

·         Sent out a notice to all MASNA members extending the deadline to nominate an award recipient. We’d only received 13 nominations to date, so I’m hoping the extension to 7/31/05 will bring in some more (two more already came in since the eMAIL went out).

MASNA Store:

·         Order for the set of Seachem Additives and Mark Weiss Additives placed – Mark Weiss Additives shipped; first contact w/ Seachem made and that order is on hold while Seamchem brings up their new factory. MASNA store updated to remove the Mark Weiss Additives

·         Order for Mark Weiss Additives placed right after the first one – eMAIL sent explaining we have no more inventory

·         Order for a New Wave CD placed – filled and shipped by Mark Weiss Co.

·         Order for a set of Bob Goemans books placed – filled and shipped by Mark Weiss Co.

·         Order for 35 polo shirts, 35 baseball caps and 35 t-shirts placed by some joker/scam artist supposedly in Nigeria (total w/ shipping - $945)!! – order ignored/deleted!!

Misc:

·         eMAIL correspondence with Dr. Thomas Carefoot, creator of an interactive educational DVD-ROM – “The Biology of Caribbean Coral Reefs.” He was wondering about selling the DVD through the MASNA store. We also discussed his having a table at MACNA. He’d previously only been marketing to divers/dive shops and is looking for expansion to marine hobbyists. I will also throw out the idea of MASNA sponsorship, which would allow him banner and Marine Scene advertising, as well as an eMAIL to MASNA members if he gives them discount pricing. Info at http://www.virtualcoralreefdive.com  

·         A variety of other eMAIL inquiries!

2)      Vice President’s Report:

• Collected a bunch of great links from Steven Pro that I am compiling to add to the education site.

• Recently attended a workshop attended by aquarists from the public aquarium
  sector and they are interested in helping out with the page.  We're still
  sorting out what may be useful for our purposes.

3)      Treasurer’s Report:

• In sum, MASNA has a fiscal YTD net profit of $2,918.55, consisting of $4,954.35 of Gross Revenue and Expenses of 2,035.80.

• The bank balance was $5,431.27 as of June 30th.

• Other related Treasurer activities for June primarily related to the photo contest/2006 calendar project.

[* - Secretary note: due to the size and formatting of the Draft Balance Sheet and Draft Income Statement, they are left as an addendum to the monthly minutes]

4)      Director of Membership Report:

Current Membership:   6-30-05 – 7-04-05

Steven Vallone, Robert J Wilson, Mark McKay, Jim Shearon, Christina Pearson, Brandon Downard

• Sent all new member welcomes (two via the photo contest) and thank you to our one new sponsor.

• Emailed with Mario Pugh of Ocean Reef Aquatics about allowing sponsors to view the National Speaker Database. I asked Cheri & Chuck if that were a possibility, and they agreed. Chuck made the change to the website allowing sponsors to view the Speaker Database.

• Made phone calls to correct bounced back email address, and was able to fix two.

• Had numerous privet messages on Reef Central about the photo contest, and if Paypal is an accepted method of payment. I called and email Bob about our Paypal account. Still waiting for a reply.

• I helped two people via RC with putting together a new reef club. One in Road Island, one in Northern Nevada. Both intend to become MASNA members they are able to hold their first meeting.

5) Secretary’s Report:

No email votes

• I have finished and attached to this email the June Meeting Minutes
  
  
• I posted on ZRU about the Photo Contest
  
  
• I sent a notice to all MASNA members about the July meeting
  
  
• I posted in the announcement forum and MASNA forum on both Reef Central and Reefs.org about the July meeting

6) Editor’s Report:

(None submitted)

7) Webmaster’s Report:

(None submitted)

8) Industry/Legislation/Ocean Conservation Representative’s Report:

• Reduced the content of the Industry/Conservation section of the website by informing the Webmaster (Chuck) which very old or nonrelevant entries to remove.

• Spoke to Reef Protection International (Drew) about an introductory entry for this same website section. This would lead readers to the RPI website.

9) Public Relations/Internet Promotion Officer’s Report:

• Calendar contest is slated to be extended for 1 additional month.

• Calendar sponsors and prizes are being worked out. 

• Each sponsor will give the equivalent of a 100 dollar donation.

• The 1^st place in each category will win a $100.00 gift cert towards a sponsor product (TBA).

• The second place in each category wins a $50.00 gift cert towards a sponsor product (TBA)

.           The remaining $50 will assist in funding the calendar printing cost.

• The third place in each category wins a $25.00 gift cert towards a sponsor product (TBA)

            The remaining $75 will assist in funding the calendar printing cost.

• This formula will allow $500.00 towards the calendar printing cost.

MEETING CALLED TO ORDER 9:00 PM EST:

10) New business:

Motion made by C. Phillips to accept the June meeting minutes. Second by A. Larsan. Motion passed 6 aye, 0 nay at 9:34 PM EST

11) New business:

Finical update given by B. Lemcke:

• 5431.27 in $ and net profit YTD is 2918.55

• No merchant processors will to do dues with only 1x a yr transaction. Currently have check with 15-18 companies so far.

12) New business:

MASNA Website Awards:

·         Judging for website awards needs to start 8/1/05. There is a list of criteria used last year for judging to go by for this year’s award. A team is needed to go though all 43+ websites to see which qualify. Judging should end by 8/14

·         A. Larsan, C Philips has volunteered. Possibly C. Scandelle and M. Levenson might be able to help.

13) New business:

Calendar Contest Update by S. Scavo:

• The contest needs to (and will be) extended another month.

• A suggestion to boost interest has been to put the contest in the MASNA quarterly newsletter. As well as seeing if John Link will allow more advertisement on Reef Central, or possible sponsor a month in the calendar (or a prize of premium membership).

Another idea that was brought up and will be emplemented will be the chance for entries (and MASNA members only)  to win a custom made sump (roughly roughly $275 in value) at the MASNA raffle drawing during MACNA. 

• More sponsors have been contacted and the BOD gave additional suggestions for vendors to contact.

• As it stands, selling months alone will bring in $500 to cut calendar costs to less than $5.00 a piece.

• Sponsors can do $100 all cash; 50 gift certif/$50 cash OR $25cash&75 Gift Certificate

• Finial time on the prizes to be announced should be by the coming weekend.

• Calendar deadline is by July 31. For Shipping plus production, we need at least 2 weeks for at least 250 calendars.

Motion made by C. Philips to cover shipping expense for custom sump MASNA raffle prize. Second by M. Levenson. Passed 6 aye, 0 nay at 10:07 PM EST

14) New business:

Elections for the BOD for the coming MASNA Year:

·         C. Phillips will ask C. Scannell  to put up the elections page on the MASNA website. She needs everyone to state their intentions to run for a position or not for the MASNA 2005-2006 year.

·         C Phillips will run for President again. A. Larsan will run for Membership and Secretary again.

Motion to adjourn meeting to general discussion made by C. Phillips, seconded by J. Scavo.  Passed 7 ayes, 0 nays; at 10:17 PM EST