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FINAL Board Meeting Minutes - August 27, 2002
This is the FINAL version of the Board Meeting Minutes:for August 27th 2002
as they will be presented to the Board for approval on September 24, 2002.
It includes feedback received since the initial publication on Monday,
September 2, 2002.
Board Members: Present Absent
Clay Hess
Paul Carey
Bob Holmes
Don Rudee
Dave Sanford
Erika Barcott
Erik Olson
Rick Rose
Membership Observers: Merrie Jo Hess
a.. The first order of business was to establish the makeup of the
2002-2003 GSAS Board based on interest solicited from the membership after
the last general meeting and recent emails from previous board members. The
result is as follows:
Clay Hess, President (also temporarily filling in as Programs Coordinator)
Bob Holmes, Treasurer, Membership, and Librarian
Dave Sanford, Board Member
Erik Olson, Webmaster
Rick Rose, Historian
Paul Carey, Board Member
Don Rudee, Board Member
Erika Barcott, Editor/Exchange Editor
a.. The following policies related to the Board were voted and
established:
1.. In order to remain on the Board, a board member may not miss three (3)
consecutive, regularly scheduled board meetings. A special exception may be
negotiated otherwise with the Board ? as is currently the case with Erika
Barcott, who lives in Georgia. In the absence of such specially negotiated
exception, a board member who does not attend his/her third consecutive,
regularly scheduled board meeting will automatically resign his/her board
position. It should be noted that this new policy is non-inclusive of this
meeting, August 27, 2002 at which the new policy was established; therefore,
any board member who happened to miss this meeting is starting from this
point forward with a "clean slate".
2.. When we have an approved Board Member In Absentia, as with Erika, the
Historian (Secretary) will communicate pertinent questions and issues with
that person directly and publish the results in the minutes.
3.. With regard to the Board Member Email List, prior board members who
are still interested in actively supporting the current board members with
their valuable knowledge and assistance throughout the year are welcome to
remain subscribed. Current examples of such valuable assets include: Kathy
Olson, Ed and Sue Messerly, Laurie Hughes, Joe Hughes, Scott and Victoria
Cartright, and Sam Beavin. Any prior board member that is no longer
interested in being part of the email list may unsubscribe from the list by
sending an email to <Majordomo@thekrib.com> with the following command in
the body of the email message:
unsubscribe gsas-board
a.. The next item of business was to respond to several email questions
that Erika had recently posed regarding the newsletter.
On behalf of the Board, to Erika?
1.. To answer your question about how to present the Store-List where
discounts are offered, and how to thank, reward, ENTICE! more stores to
participate, we discussed what kind of "Ads" and how often they would be
published. The board has decided to use "business card-sized" Ads (in some
cases, actual copies of their business cards) and to include this type of Ad
in EVERY issue (printed on the back page? or wherever you think would be
best). Initially, there will definitely not be too many to cause any kind of
problem with "available space". We can only hope that it becomes a problem
that we have to address in the future.
2.. We're guessing that you have not received a large number of
submissions for the article contest already; and we have a suggestion. The
rest of the board (and especially Clay) would like you to document RULES for
article submissions. Clay has a few specific ideas... like length?, submit
to you in what format?, pictures?, etc. Clay has had some experience in the
past with people getting their feelings hurt (or worse) because of
miss-understandings and unclear policies (contest rules). In light of this,
and the fact that the due-date for article submissions is in a couple of
days, we would like to suggest that the contest be extended another month.
This will allow time to create and then publish the contest rules to the
membership ? and to hopefully generate more submissions! Putting off the
contest presents two problems for which we think we have answers.
1.. In order to remind the membership that the first meeting of the new
year is in two short weeks, the newsletter would need to be mailed out
YESTERDAY! - Instead, Erik will prepare a quick post-card mailing to the
members.
2.. What to do for the September Newsletter if we extend the contest? -
Coincidentally, Rick has prepared the first in a series of articles (the
goal is monthly) for a "Regular Column" called The GSAS Community Tank
(Member Profile). The Board expressed unanimous support for the idea and the
first article is ready to go. Dave said he had submitted an article months
ago that has not been used yet. Please let us know whether or not you
received that article from Bob F. If you didn't, Dave will send it to you
ASAP. Will these two articles give you enough material to make the September
Newsletter while postponing the contest for another month?
Erika?s Response?
So far I have received exactly: none. The purpose of the "My Fish's Summer
Vacation" contest was to drum up some material for the first issue - the
problem is that only a small fraction of the membership is actually on the
GSAS email list. I would expect a printed call for articles to get a better
response rate.
Erik - I mentioned this to Erika, but it's worth repeating: There's actually
53 people currently subscribed to gsas-member, which is on par with our
current circulation of newsletters (once you remove inactive life members,
exchanges with other clubs, and free advertiser copies). I have not purged
the membership database since our publishing schedule became very erratic;
it would not surprise me to find we only have about 25-35 "paying members"
at the moment. A lot of people are coming to the meetings entirely based on
the website and lists.
That doesn't mean this is a bad thing; we get so little money from the
membership anyway -- it basically covers printing the newsletter (when we
print it). Our real support comes from the two auctions.
General magazine policy is to have a bit under the masthead that says
"contact for submission guidelines." Authors write a query letter ("How
about an article on X?") and receive an answer, along with submission
guidelines.
I don't have any feelings one way or t'other about submission guidelines.
I'm happy to whip some up, if the board would prefer a standardized set of
guidelines. But let's be honest - few (if any) members will bother querying
for guidelines, and frankly, we're not in a position to be picky.
As long as I can read it, I'll accept it (I can view files in almost any
format). If it's too long, I'll ask the author where I can nip-n-tuck, or
publish it in two parts (if I think the article warrants it).
>From a broader perspective, I've been spending a lot of time thinking about
the newsletter over the past few weeks. Traditionally, the newsletter has
pitched itself as a vehicle for general aquatic information. Articles have
loosely fallen into two categories: informative articles about a particular
species of fish or plant, and abstract musings on the hobby in general.
Erik - My impression was that a certain percentage of our home-grown
articles were about "MY experience breeding fish X", or "MY trip to Y". i.e.
it's one of our members and how they did something. Not some guy who's a
national columnist or otherwise a pro. People read it, and go "hey, that's
Dave. I need to ask him about his Xenotaca eiseni fry", etc.. So the
article's 1/2 about disseminating information on tropical fish, but 1/2
about promoting fellowship amongst the members. Just something to consider
in the perspective of the articles.
Now, I'm not saying this is a bad thing. Not at all, and if our membership
could support it, it would be a wonderful thing. But considering our
traditional difficulty in obtaining articles, and considering that the
market for informative articles is pretty saturated (between magazines and
the Internet) I wonder if it isn't time to start re-thinking the purpose of
the newsletter.
I had been hoping to bring this up at the board meeting by phone, but alas,
I forgot that my schedule prevented me from attending. This is a big issue
which should be discussed at length by the board, possibly over the next few
meetings.
I have been thinking that the newsletter's primary value lies in its ability
to present information specifically about the club itself. Both as a way of
disseminating information about the board and general meetings, and as a
means of bringing every member in the club a little closer together. It's
difficult to foster a sense of community when only a small percentage of the
members attend any given meeting, and if we don't take steps to foster that
sense of community, the club will eventually die. (My understanding is that
membership and interest have experienced a gradual decline over the last
decade or so.)
I love your idea to profile a different club member in each issue. This
would fit perfectly with my thoughts for the direction I'd like to take the
newsletter. (I must emphasize that this is not a coup! This decision will
have to be made by all of us, not just me.)
Ideally, my "vision" of the layout for an average monthly newsletter would
be:
1. Masthead
2. Notes from the board meeting
3. Small article summing up the last general meeting
4. Your aquarist profile
5. Small bits: store ads, info on the next meeting, and (if necessary)
little "fillers" like small pictures, or a chart converting Celsius to
Fahrenheit
Erik - It's funny, you're describing exactly how the newsletter looked
1985-1991! It was about 3-4 pages long. I'm scanning in my remaining
documents relating to this before I hand it all off to Rick, so I'll make
sure to send a copy of the CD-ROM.
On behalf of the Board, to Erika?
The Board discussed the issue of COLOR!. Although the knee-jerk reaction was
that a color newsletter would be too expensive, we did come around to the
decision that we should not rule it out. The club could purchase its own ink
cartridges allowing us to print copies on Rick?s ink-jet printer (for
example). Since the text would still be black (for the most part) it might
be feasible. Some of the current cost of Xerox copies would then be replaced
by purchasing the ink cartridges and reams of paper instead. What are your
thoughts/ideas on the subject of color?
Erika?s Response?
Well, yes and no. The club can certainly afford to print the newsletter in
color - the question is whether or not the use of color would warrant the
extra cost. An issue which includes a color photo probably deserves to be
printed in color; an issue which just has some bullet points and decorative
accent lines in color probably does not.
a.. The next item of business was regarding the official bylaws of the
club which have been lost. Rick will coordinate the project to recreate
them. Thinking that it would be helpful to look at those of similar clubs
for examples, Dave will contact GPAS and Erik will contact ACA to request a
copy of their bylaws. These copies will be forwarded to Rick.
a.. Becky Quimby of the Seattle Aquarium, where our general membership
meetings are held each month, has contacted the Board to request a current
list of the board members who may arrive early to setup for the meeting. Bob
will forward the current list from the minutes to Ms. Quimby. We need to
make sure that the membership is aware that the doors open at 7:00pm for the
general public.
a.. The following library issues were discussed by the Board.
1.. Dave Sanford is donating a copy of A Garden Aquarium to our library.
Thanks Dave!
2.. The Board voted to authorize Dave to purchase a copy of Live Bearing
Fishes for $8.00 for the library..
3.. Bob will update the excel spreadsheet that documents the contents of
our library and forward a copy to Rick.
4.. Erik will make a copy of "The CD ROM" containing all available
historical information of the club for Rick.
5.. Erik is going to begin a project of transferring our "Video Library"
to DVD. Several copies of the talks given by past speakers would then be
made available for borrow by the membership as part of our library.
Erik - Sorry, minor correction, because I really don't want anyone to get
the idea that I agreed to make this any sort of priority... I said at some
point in the near future I would try to transfer a set of talks to VHS, and
MIGHT try some DVDs. At the moment, it's very time-prohibitive to do the
DVDs, as it takes about 12 hours to encode an hour of running time.
I have located a VHS tape of our 2000 speakers that I will bring to the
meeting to start things off.
a.. Clay has received several emails from GPAS regarding their upcoming
Pacific Northwest Aquarium Show. One of those emails solicited our
assistance in getting sponsors for the various classes of competition. Such
class sponsorship pays $25.00 which is used to purchase plaques, trophies,
etc. The Board has decided to consciously limit this effort to avoid
"cross-competition" concerns (asking a business in our area to pay for
something that will benefit their competition in the Portland area). The
following two three sponsorship efforts will be undertaken to show our
support.
1.. Dave will contact the Fish Gallery because they are already a
supporter of the show.
2.. GSAS will sponsor the Tanganyika Cichlids class ? Bob wrote the check
at the meeting and Dave will coordinate with GPAS.
c.. Kathy ? We [Erik and Kathy] also sponsored a class in the show in
Portland, so there is some support from the club.
A message needs to be communicated to our membership to promote this show.
Included as part of that message will be "If you plan on attending the
Pacific Northwest Aquarium Show, please consider offering to help/man one of
the tables for a couple of hours to allow the others a break and to attend
one of the presentations if they wish.".
a.. Sandy Gibson has volunteered to hostess the refreshments table at the
general meetings again this year.
a.. Clay is standing in as the Programs Coordinator until such time as
another board member wants to volunteer to take on that responsibility.
(Kathy Olson has agreed to coordinate two (or three?) "hi-profile" speakers
this year.) The meetings will continue to be held on the second Tuesday of
each month (September ? June) with the possible exception of the two
hi-profile speaker months (next Spring). The following is a tentative
schedule for the meetings?
Month Topic / Activity Fish-o-the-Month
SEP 10th Introduce yourself and your fish, solicit ideas Bob and Dave
OCT 8th Rick checking with *Michael Vu ? Arowanas
NOV 12th Workshop?
DEC 10th Christmas Party
**JAN 28th Rusty Wessel ? Central American Cichlids (Clay)
FEB 11th Plant Auction
MAR 11th ***
APR 8th General Auction
**MAY 6th Ad Koning ? Lake Tanganyikans (Kathy O.)
**JUN ? *** Paul Loiselle ? on West African Dwarf Cichlids (Kathy O.)
(*) ? If Michael Vuu is willing to speak, we will buy the fish-of-the-month
at his store (King Discus) and offer him a $50.00 gift certificate at the
Seattle Restaurant of his choice.
(**) ? Tentative, Special Dates
GPAS is also proposing that we coordinate Paul Loiselle as a speaker either
this Spring or next Fall.
(***) Kathy - Paul Loiselle....either March/June or fall working with
Portland on that now, on West African Dwarf Cichlids. Mike Schadle...no idea
I think Clay and Julie are working on this.
a.. Susan Rose (from the membership) has suggested that it would be very
helpful to have some kind of a simple, younger kid?s activity planned to
coordinate with the speaker topic, etc. One simple example would be to have
coloring pages of angel fish (and crayons) available if the speaker is
talking about angel fish. Dave and Bob have volunteered to Champion this
project.
a.. The Board noted and agreed on the following as related to the GSAS
budget.
1.. The bank balance as of the last meeting (May 28, 2002) was $5462.00.
2.. The current bank balance reported by the Treasurer is $5183.00.
3.. The projected budget for the 2002-2003 club-year was set at the
previous board meeting at $4600.00.
4.. To ensure that the club "stays solvent", the bank balance at the end
of one club-year will be used to establish the budget and fund the expenses
of the following club-year ? i.e. the income raised from dues, auctions,
etc. will be set aside each year to fund the following year.
a.. Erik was authorized by the Board to establish access to the membership
database for Rick.
a.. Bob has offered to write an article for the newsletter hi-lighting one
of last year?s philanthropy projects ? the tank setup at a nursing home.
a.. The Board authorized Rick to work-up some posters, fliers, and
business cards for GSAS to be used at events like the recent Fish Gallery
Anniversary, Sandy Gibson?s garage sale, etc.
a.. Erik will update the website to reflect the 2002-2003 meeting dates,
Board info, etc.
Respectfully Submitted,
Rick Rose, GSAS Historian Date
(Blue) Post-Publication Comments - (Colors don't show on the email version)
(Red) Post-Publication Additions & Corrections - (Colors don't show on the
email version)
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