October 2003 BOD Meeting Minutes
This meeting was held electronically on October 8, 2003 9:06PM EST

BOD Present:
Charles Scannell (President)
Lee Morey (Vice President)
Cheri Phillips (Secretary)
Rob Tess (Newsletter Editor)
Joe Scavo (Webmaster)
John Brandt (MAC/USCRTF Representative)
JT Croteau (Internet Promotion/Membership)
John Brandt (MAC/USCRTF Representative)

Members Present:
Kelly Jedlicki (LMAS Vice President)
Shane Graber (Administrator at reefs.org)

BOD Absent:
Larry Burt (Treasurer)

Call to order 9:06 PM EST
1) Chuck brought up that several board members have expressed concern in not getting response from other board members when asking for information from their respective committees. Everyone was asked to check eMAIL regularly. One eMAIL from Chuck apparently didn’t get delivered to several people; spam filters were suggested as a possible cause. Suggestion was made by Chuck to ask Joe to set up MASNA eMAILs for everyone. JT suggested utilizing the Topica eGroup mailing list that isn’t yet being used. Chuck asked for everyone’s phone numbers as a fallback plan, which he would distribute as a private list to all of us. Rob suggested Joe setup a broadcast address, bod@masna.org. Joe agreed to do so.

2) Membership Report: A few profile changes have come in and All-Glass Aquariums has joined.

Issues still exist with lack of a membership list. Rob has completed the Newsletter, but hasn’t sent it due to a lack of a membership list. JT was asked to send it to Rob. JT indicated he needed to make some changes and then would forward to Rob by weeks-end. Chuck and JT both suggested use of a PHP/MySQL web-based database for the member list. Only the Membership Director would be allowed to update, but the rest of the BOD would be able to view at any time. Joe said that the Boston Reefers have a very organized database for their members.

3) Treasury Report: Chuck reported that all MASNA contact information has been changed with the bank and EMS. Contact had still not been made with our Treasurer, so Chuck had prepared an extensive treasury report.
Last Month’s Balance: $2,814.98
Monies Received Since:
$2,000.00 LMAS seed money
$70.00 EMS Deposit – MASNA store order
$271.00 EMS Deposit
$642.00 Memberships
$2983
Expenses:
$67.16 EMS Charges
$10.00 Service Fee
$110.47 Check#1102 – MASNA lunch reimbursement
$100.00 Check#1099 – Net Fund
$161.04 Holiday Inn Clarksville – MASNA Mtg.
(–)$448.67
Ending Balance to
Date: $5349.31
Memberships left to
Process: $290
MASNA Store: $77.85
Seed $$ to Boston: (–)$2000.00
Scholarship (approx): (–)$718.00

General Fund: $2999.16

The LMAS seed money was to have been deposited into a separate account with LMAS as co-signers, but it was deposited in the general account because no response was received from Morris. Chuck is working on it. Chuck and Kelly will work together to set up another account. LMAS always uses two co-signatures.

Chuck indicated the treasury is still a little low and we’ve had $150 more in the scholarship fund in the past.

Future expense: the power supply on the credit card machine died and a new one has been ordered.

4) VP Report: Lee sent a few eMAILs to clubs but has received no response.

5) Secretary Report: Cheri reported having sent the renewal letter out to the membership and getting a letter from Matt at All Glass Aquarium, indicating their willingness to donate a special Grand Prize once again for the next MACNA. Rob has heard the Boston Reefers plan a “mass renewal” at their October meeting. Rob indicated there would be multiple tanks up for raffle at the next MACNA.

The board voted to reimburse Cheri for submitted expenses from preparing and mailing the renewal letter.

6) Editor Report: The newsletter is done and Joe eMAILed the BOD w/ the draft web version. Printing costs expected to be lower due to a member being a printer. Rob is looking for potential advertisers for the next issue. Chuck suggested Kevin Kohn, General Manager at LiveAquaria.

7) Webmaster Report: the website has been updated to a degree. Joe reports additional things he’d like to accomplish: repository for articles, more manageable database. The profiles of the BOD have been updated with the known information, but those who haven’t yet submitted one to Joe should do so and include a picture if possible. Joe would like more information from clubs about upcoming events and has requested we send him any MACNA pictures we have.

8) MAC/USCRTF Report: John reported that he didn’t attend the USCRTF meeting in Saipan due to the estimated cost of $2600. He will get reports from the meeting and will call Washington and get a summary of any decisions important to the trade (no pending issues expected). John will write something up for the website and newsletter pertaining to that meeting.

John reminded us about the link he’d sent us to the new 66-page report presented to the United Nations on the marine aquarium trade. He is editing the report for unimportant errors and will write a synopsis for the website. The report can be found at http://www.unep.org/PDF/From_Ocean_To_Aquarium_report.pdf.

MAC News – There are now Certified Retailers in Florida and New Jersey and Certified Importer/Wholesalers in Florida (Segrest) and Holland as well as 6 U.S. Retailers and 4 North American Importer/Wholesalers. There will soon be Certified Collecting Areas in Fiji and the Philippines. In the 1st quarter of 2004 they expect to have Certification of collecting areas in Vanuatu and the Solomon Islands. Oversight is provided in several layers (4 formal checks in all) – 1st is the LGU (local government units), then MAC staff in the region and finally, Reef Check (MAQTRAC). Additionally, is the actual 3rd party Certifier (ISO 2000). John attended the Graduation Ceremony of the 2nd collecting area in Bohol, Philippines. MAC has invited him to the Graduation Ceremony of the fisherman in Fiji.

9) A motion was made and passed to accept last month’s minutes, with correction to Dustin.

10) MACNA Report: Kelly reported preliminary figures show that after the $2000 seed money, the club made ~$6,000. A valid number is needed to contact Randy Hein or Jackie Barr. Kelly requested our help in obtaining their contact information. LMAS plans to support the tradition (last MACNA they hosted) of donating a set of 3 or 4 books to all of the high schools in the two counties (~34 schools).

Motion to adjourn by Chuck, seconded by Lee. The motion passed at 10:40pm EST.