Biz Meeting Notes

[Erik Olson <erik@thekrib.com>]

AGA Convention - 5 November 2000
Biz Meeting and Miscellaneous Biz Notes

OFFLINE STUFF

David: Would like to see process of decision-making improved.  He has
trouble following when issues are open for discussion, voting, and
closed.  Ideally he'd like to see some kind of attachment that would
notify folks of this (unfortunately not possible with our current
digest form of MCM list).

Paul: Would like to see local plant clubs listed on our website and
possibly elsewhere.  [Good idea -- I will take this item. ***EO]

Karen: Has proposal for a project piaba-related plant study thingy
(I've been calling it "Project Piabotanica" with tongue-in-cheek).  No
time to discuss this, so I'll open the floor in e-mail for this issue
when Karen's ready.

MEETING STUFF Erik, Mary, Karen, Neil, Merrill, Dorothy, Paul,
Charlene, and special guest Dave Gomberg.  David Lass had to leave
early.

Bulk subscription: It was announced that Mary and Neil had
unofficially agreed to offer a bulk subscription of TAG to Glaeser's
group at the 3-year rate.  We voted at the meeting to formalize this
as a policy for any organization desiring bulk subscriptions of 10 or
more.  Needs to be updated in the subscription info in TAG and website
[***EO].

Convention: Dave would like an article about the convention in PAM,
and of course Mary would like coverage in TAG.  We discussed how to
divvy things up so we have nice complementary material in both.
Mary's deadline for TAG is like now (her layout person goes out of the
country on the 22nd).  [Mary, what IS the deadline for the next TAG?
And the one after that?  We've e-mailed personally, but might be good
to have this on the list too.]  Was decided to have a few varying
viewpoints from 3 or so individuals ranging from the casual
first-timer to the seasoned people.  Charlene GRACIOUSLY (after all
that INCREDIBLE work on the convention!) offered to step in and do the
interviews.  One possible reason to rush the convention reporting is
that we're expecting the showcase results to be the "star" of the
winter 2k+1 issue.

Future convention: Need to preface this by saying that this convention
was AMAZING.  Charlene pretty much single-handedly pulled this whole
thing off, and deserves utmost thanks.  (Oh, somewhere in the
formalized and printed thanks I also need to include David Youngker
for bringing his computer monitor and VCR from home at a moment's
notice. ***EO) So we should take the suggestions for the future as
"here's what ELSE" we can do to raise the bar, not as a "what went
wrong".  Also, I suppose some of this will repeat when Charlene gets the
surveys back, but here's what was said at the business meeting:

Charlene would really like to see the showcase and convention merged.
She had trouble getting donations because the manufacturers and
retailers had already donated to the showcase and were confused at
this second event.  Other good things about merging the two would be
double PR coverage, announcements, and we could announce the winners
of the showcase at the convention.

Dave Gomberg liked the Discovery Classroom as vendor room.

The silent auction went great.  Good prototype for future years.

Neil suggested a plant "show".  Not necessarily a judged show, more
like a display of different specimens.  Could be in tiny custom tanks
even.  Dave G volunteered to help out with this, even if it's not in
the bay area.

Neil wanted to see more advertising next year in the printed pubs.
This led to the idea that we need a PUBLICITY committee.  I know of
some possible people on the showcase who might be interested, so I can
ask there.  Another possibility is if the historian thing is too easy,
maybe Mike would be interested?

Someone needs to chase after the site selection and eval forms.  I
[EO***] volunteered to send out e-mail copies or have forms on the
website as followups.  Charlene will send me a comma-separated list
that includes the e-mail addresses.

Karen thought we should be working on the next TWO years now.
Charlene handed out site survey forms for the local clumps to do their
homework and get back to the MCM by January or February.  The SF group
and John Glaeser's group seem like good possibilities and should be
encouraged!

More convention future stuff: Neil would have liked to had more time
between talks, maybe only had four talks instead of five.  He also
noted that having "stuff" going on all the time (such as hospitality
suite and food) keeps people around instead of dispersing.

We (the AGA) need to have a booth next time, with the pins, T-shirts,
sample TAGs, etc.  Somehow we just missed this one.  Oops.

Karen brought up a motion to ask for an AGA session at the next NEC.
This was approved. 

Someone brought up (Dorothy?) the speaker program (we supply
supplemental funding for clubs who want an AGA-sanctioned speaker).
We decided to have it an "apply-by-mail".  I want to call for
discussion on this so we can have something formal written up on the
website here too.  Doesn't have to be fancy, maybe just a simple
paragraph that clubs are invited to apply for thus and such speakers
and we'll provide up to $100 in funding towards their trip, and maybe
some back-issues of TAG for auction.

Oh yeah, back issues of TAG for auction: This was discussed as a
possible way to promote the organization.  Clubs request donations, we
send a bunch of TAGs (from Diana's "Grab Bag" candidates?).

Color in TAG: Not clear, needs more research.  Looks like the current
printer offers color xeroxes [EO: BAD BAD BAD] or true 4-color
printing [EO: GOOD GOOD GOOD!].  Mary is going to find out what it
costs.  David, could you put together some sort of ballpark budget for
TAG based on the last few years?

Dave Gomberg knows of some printer that does slick 4-color inserts at
25 cents per page or so, but there is the usual complexities of
collating, etc.  Anyway, we can ask him if we are interested.

Dorothy brought a bunch of stuff for Mike as Historian: the original
pin mold, which we can use to get more pins made.  And the original
membership roster.  Oh, and Neil brought me the AAGA stuff, which I will
scan in, and pass the CD-ROM to Mike.

Neil would like to see wider pin and T-shirt sales.  But of course,
this requires a champion like everything else.  [Elsewhere in the
convention, I jokingly suggested that we use the Tom Sawyer approach
and announce that "bids are now available on the AGA T-shirt
franchise!"  But stopping to think, this has a serious side because
perhaps a club or individual could be allowed to make money off
selling the shirts... think about it!]

Incorporation: More of an announcement than anything else.  Bob McCaw
has taken our suggestions and will draw up a draft.  When this is done
and I post it, PLEASE REVIEW IT!  If your input is not heard, it will
not make it into the bylaws before they are filed.



-- 
Erik Olson
erik at thekrib dot com