MASNA March
08, 2007
BOD Meeting
Minutes
This
meeting was held electronically on March 8, 2007 at 8:00pm CST
ATTENDENCE
MASNA
BOD Members
Cheri
Phillips (President)
Bob
Lemcke (Treasurer)
John
Henrion (Membership Chair)
Del
Brashare (Editor)
Chuck
Scannell (Industry)
Eric
Hall (Webmaster)
Scott
Cline (Internet Promotions)
ABSENT:
Kathy
Garey (Public Relations)
Non-BOD
Members
Adam
Cesnales (PMASI)
Kelly
Jedlicki (LMAS President)
OFFICER
REPORTS
(All
Officer Reports were emailed to the BOD Members in advance of the meeting.
They are reproduced here)
1.
President’s Report:
MASNA
Internet Promotions Director:
·
Met with Scott Cline (Toledo Reef Club) when he was in
a nearby town on business. We discussed MASNA and he subsequently volunteered
for the Internet Promotion board position. The Board voted to approve his
appointment. I spent some time on a call with him explaining the Clubs
database, its history and my vision of where I’d like to see it go.
MASNA
Secretary Position:
·
Steven Bentz contacted me regarding the open MASNA
Secretary position. His health has improved and he would like to be back on the
MASNA Board starting April 1, 2007. The Board voted in the affirmative on his
appointment.
MASNA
Store:
·
Mailed out a calendar purchased from the store.
Dr.
Foster’s & Smith Coral Conference/Frag Swap:
·
Participated in a conference call on 3/2/07 with Steve
Bentz and Bob Lemcke discussing the Dr. Foster’s & Smith’s 3rd
Annual Coral Conference & Frag Swap, June 29-July1, 2007. Steve was MASNA’s
contact for last year’s event and he’s once again helping out by being that
contact. MASNA will have a free booth at the event (shared w/ local clubs) and
a free room to meet with local clubs if we want to use it for a pre-MACNA
meeting. They will also waive both registration and banquet fees for any MASNA
Board member that attends. They will have an auction of fish and corals with
the net proceeds over cost (plus re-stocking charge) going to a donation to
MASNA’s Scholarship Fund! We will provide an advertisement of the event on
MASNA’s home page (like last year) linking to their Live Aquaria site and they
will link back to our home page.
Project
DIBS:
·
I started a thread in the Board forum linking to
Reefkeeping Magazine’s article on Project DIBS. The intention was for the Board
to discuss if MASNA should do something to support this effort and to
brainstorm what we would do if we agree to do so. The discussion is on going.
Sponsor
Renewal:
·
I secured the renewal of Reef Central as a MASNA
sponsor
·
I gave a list of sponsors that hadn’t yet renewed to
Steve Bentz. He’s agreed to help out in securing additional renewals starting
immediately. Some of the sponsors were ones he got for us last year.
Reefkeeping
Magazine:
- Skip Attix, Editor of Reefkeeping Magazine,
contacted me. With Board approval, we agreed that when MASNA puts out a
new issue of Marine Scene, the next issue of Reefkeeping’s online magazine
would include a link to MASNA’s Marine Scene in the magazine’s table of
contents. This was a good will gesture on behalf of the magazine without
request for return compensation. MASNA has offered to include Reefkeeping
magazine’s banner in our rotation for an equal period of time.
- The issue of Reefkeeping Magazine that just came
out does have the link to our latest newsletter: http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2007-03/index.php.
If you click on the “+” sign next to the title you see, “A
quarterly publication of the Marine Aquarium Societies of North America
(MASNA). MASNA's goal is to assist in forming and promoting the growth of
clubs within the hobby and the education of their members while ensuring a
sustainable future for the marine environment.”
Misc:
·
Provided training via WebEx to John Henrion III for
the Membership Director position
·
Created an updated MASNA calendar ad for the
newsletter and updated the President’s Corner to include appointments of John
Henrion III and Scott Cline
·
Secured the membership renewal of the Bay Area Reefers
club (BAR).
2.
Vice President
None Filed
3. Treasurer’s Report
- Financials:
- Income
Statement February
Gross Income: $2,726.58
Total Expenses: 95.91
Net Income: $2,630.67
- Cash as of 02/28/07: Operating Funds $15,817.50
Scholarship Fund 5,311.37
- IRS
Letter
- Received
IRS letter requesting that we either file our 2003 tax return or respond
in writing why filing is not required.
- Based on my review of fiscal year 2003,
it appears that we will not be required to file for that year.
- MASNA’s
2007 Marine and Reef Calendar
- Emailed our MASNA Newsletter Editor a
file containing Photo Contest/Calendar Project milestones
- MACNA XIX
- Received and deposited installment 1
from PMASI per the MACNA Host Agreement
- Web
Hosting Company
- Provided web hosting company a
mastercard account to charge to avoid lapses in payment
- On-Line
Voting
- Participated in all on-line
voting/polls
- Sales
Tax
- Performed
limited research to determine the requirements necessary for clubs to be
exempt from paying state sales tax (on speaker’s hotel, rental car,
meals, raffle items purchased, etc.)
- Determined that not only does this vary
by state, but that clubs would not meet state exemption requirements.
(Researched this only for GA and NY.)
- 501( c )3 Filing
- Nothing to report
- Open Items
- Survey
to send to our clubs to obtain various facts about them (e.g,. club size,
merchant processor, etc.)
- To
investigate changing Merchant Processing company
4.
Membership Report
- Current
Membership:
|
|
2003-2004
|
2004-2005
|
2005-2006
|
2006-2007
|
Diff
From
2005-2006
|
Diff
From
02/07
Report
|
|
Individual
Members
|
64
|
115
|
176
|
106
|
-69
|
+6
|
|
Club
Members
|
27
|
44
|
44
|
37
|
-7
|
+3
|
|
Corporate
Members
|
10
|
19
|
28
|
16
|
-12
|
+3
|
- Welcomed
the new members; processed and thanked renewals.
Michael Craig –
Individual
Walker Joseph – Individual
Scott Cline – Individual
George Dellinger –
Individual
Michael Canute – Individual
Mark Smith - Individual
North Wisconsin Reef
Society – Club
Bay Area Reefers – Club
MARSH – Club
Sea in the City – Orlando –
Corporate
Reef Central – Corporate
Reed Mariculture -
Corporate
- Working
through learning website and processes for welcoming new members and
renewals.
- Processed
2 more memberships in March – 1 individual and 1 new club.
5.
Secretary Report
- Sent
announcement of the 3/08/07 BOD meeting to all members and posted in both
the MASNA forum on Reef Central and the Announcement forum
- I
had agreed to create the minutes for the February meeting but I haven’t
yet completed them. I will try to complete them before the March Board
meeting or shortly thereafter.
6. Industry Report
None
filed
7.
Internet Promotions
- National
Club Database - Currently working on updating the MASNA National Club
Database.
- The
current database is consisting of 149 Marine Clubs. Some of these
may or may not be still existing today.
- I
will be contacting and researching the 149 Marine Clubs currently listed
in the MASNA National Club Database checking for accuracy.
- New
Clubs - I have complied a list thus far containing 63 Marine Clubs
currently not listed in the MASNA
National Club Database.
I
will be contacting and researching the list of new clubs to add accurate
information to the MASNA National Club Database.
8.
March 2007 Director Webmaster Report
·
Added Reef Keeping Magazine and Reef Central Banners to
our banner rotation software
·
Working with our host to fix the outbound email problem.
– this seems to be fixed by changing a spam setting
·
Set-up access to the forum and board functions for Scott
Cline
·
Posted the latest issue of Marine Scene on
the website
·
Change the Calendar ad on the website to a
new one provided by Cheri
·
Removed MASNA Store box from the FrontPage of
our website.
·
Updated the MASNA award ballot page
·
Setup Scott with an MASNA email address (internet@masna.org)
·
Changed membership@masna.org
to be a user and gave John the information to access it
Open
Items:
·
Currently looking into a map that will show members
location.
9.
Newsletter Editor
Main
activities for February 2007 (Newsletter Editor)
- Prepared
2 articles for the Winter 2007 edition
- Reviewed
and provided edits for the articles
- Working
on solicitations for newsletter content
- Articles
include:
- NOAA
- Aquarium
Restaurant
- Another
Steve Bentz piece
- Update
from Pittsburgh
- Results
of MACNA XX host club nomination review
Advertising
to include Drs F&S Coral Frag Conference (with assistance from Steve Bentz)
10.
Public Relations
None
filed
11.
Director At Large Report
Newsletter:
1. Contacted
clubs and sponsors re: newsletter material
2. Worked
with Del on content
3. Completed
and published the newsletter
Other
Business:
1. Talked
with Bob Lemcke re: the calendar photo contest.
Open
Items:
1. None
MEETING CALLED TO ORDER BY CHERI PHILLIPS AT
8:05 CST
12. MACNA XIX Update
Adam Cesnales reported that Gerry Allen will
be the keynote speaker at the banquet.
There are more than 300 attendees registered
and about 40 paid exhibitors. Some of the exhibitors paid by exchanging
advertising or sponsorships.
Cheri offered to help communicate MACNA
information to member clubs.
13. December meeting minutes on hold pending
the addition of the Treasurer’s report.
14. Becky volunteered to do the March
meeting minutes and Cheri agree to send Becky the logs.
15. Photo contest
All agreed the contest is a
worthwhile endeavor. Becky McAlister agreed to run the calendar photo contest
with the assistance of members who contributed last year. Notes from last year
are unavailable, but Lisa from last year may be accessible for information.
John Henrion agreed to help with a mailing.
16. Project DIBS
Scott
Cline agreed to lead the cause for MASNA. The five ideas presented for MASNA
involvement are 1.
Include Project DIBS info in eMAILs to new and renewing members, 2. Write about
Project DIBS in the next issue of Marine Scene, 3. Put Project DIBS banner in
our website rotating banner, 4. Ask member clubs and sponsors to place banner
on their website, 5. Become a sponsor by donating money. The board agrees DIBS
seems to mirror MASNA’s mission, but we need additional information before
choosing how to proceed in our relationship with DIBS. Scott plans to speak
with DIBS to clarify how MASNA can best contribute to the cause.
17. John
Henrion inquired as to the identities of members present in the discussion
board as the handles are ambiguous. Everyone agreed to use signatures on the
board forum for clarity.
18. Cheri
floated out the idea of a mid-term BOD meeting to discuss the scholarship
fund. She was thinking that partial reimbursement for travel might be possible
and the Foster’s & Smith conference during the summer might be a good
venue.
19. MACNA
XX – Cheri indicated no bids had yet been received, but one from Atlanta was
anticipated.
20.
Motion to adjourn made by Cheri Phillips, seconded by Bob Lemcke, and the
meeting adjourned at 9:52pm CST.
