Greater
Seattle
Aquarium
Society Board Meeting Minutes: October 24th 2002
Board Members:
Present
Clay Hess
Bob Holmes
Erik Olson
Rick Rose
Dave Sanford
Absent
Paul Carey (2)
Don Rudee (2)
Erika Barcott (*)
(*) In Absentia
Membership Observers
Kathy Olson
- The Minutes of the previous Board meeting (September 24th 2002) were accepted and approved.
- Current Balance: 4,810.20
- No Outstanding Bills
Old Business
- October Newsletter Status
Email update from Erika:
LOL - status report, huh? Okay, you caught me. :) This month's newsletter will be posted on the 30th. Which means I will likely begin working on it on the 29th. No worries, though - I have it mentally laid out, and creating the template was the big time expenditure on the first one.
I believe this time around, rather than trying to place ads (which, as Erik correctly pointed out, were, in fact, just plain business cards) I will do a plain text listing of stores that offer discounts to members. Probably on the inside of the back cover.
I am torn between listing just the member-discount stores ("visit these stores for a 10% discount!") or listing those plus The Fish Store ("visit our sponsors!") I feel bad that TFS gets left out of the free advertising game, considering all that they have done (and continue to do) for us. But OTOH, they've kind of shot themselves in the foot on that one, so I don't feel TOO bad. :)
- Extension of the Summer Article Contest through the end of October as suggested by the Board did not happen – Erika judged the entry(s) and awarded the prize to Jeff Stewart for his article "The Summer Attacks." Clay has the magazine subscription ready to give to Jeff at the next meeting – assuming that Erika’s comment about him having won a set of heavy-duty black rubber gloves was not meant to be serious.
- Contest Rules for Article Submissions – Still outstanding so the board has established the following
- Length is not an issue
- Pictures and Illustrations are encouraged, but not required
- Deadline
- The Board decided to promote another Article Contest this year.
- The subject will be "Most Impressive Tank" or "Favorite Fish"
- Deadline for submission: April 30, 2003
- COLOR Printing
Email from Erika:
Unfortunately, it seems that we will not be able to publish in color, as the Kinko’s guy I talked to last time said that it's not possible to print double-sided color copies. Apparently the inks smear, or something.
Ah well!
The Board discussed the possibility of printing a "Special Issue" using GPAS’ Color Laser Printer. Erik thinks he could "Call in a favor, or two, or …".
- Dave has obtained a copy of GPAS bylaws and passed them on to Rick
- Erik has obtained a copy of AKA bylaws and passed them on to Rick
- Rick has no progress to report
- The following Library issues were discussed by the Board.
- Dave
has purchased a copy of Live Bearing Fishes for the GSAS Library.
- Bob
has Updated the Library Inventory and has given a copy to Rick as requested.
- VHS Tape of Speakers – Erik
- 1996 – 1999 Speakers have been added to the Library
- Tape of 2000 Speakers – Outstanding
- Bob
has created stickers that say "Property of Greater Seattle Aquarium Society" and will put one in each book that has been recently purchased for the Library. The older books have been similarly stamped already.
- Meeting Activities for younger kids – Dave & Bob
- Dave has two boxes of crayons and his high school art club is working on producing pages for a coloring book
- Rick
will create some pages for the coloring book that promote GSAS.
- Bob has completed the rough draft of his philanthropy article and will be emailing it to Erika in a few days.
- Promotional Materials
for GSAS – Rick
- Poster Boards (for Fish Stores) and GSAS fliers are still outstanding. The layout for the business cards is complete, but the project is basically on hold due to an incompatibility of Rick’s software with the GSAS logo graphic file. Clay, Dave, Erik, Bob, Don, Rick, and Paul (by subsequent email) prefer to have their phone numbers preprinted on the cards; Erika has declined to have business cards.
- Name Tags will be ready for the November meeting, based on the limited response to several email requests for "Interests". Rick has filled in some gaps using the "notes" field from the membership database. Those who have not responded with their interests will have a pre-printed peel-n-stick tag. Rick proposed that the Board reconsider its decision to use the smaller sized tag due the amount of information that is to be printed it. Samples of the larger sized tag were shown to, and approved by the Board.
November Meeting – Tank Lighting Workshop – Clay, Erik, Rick
Clay is in the process of constructing the canopy framework for the lighting workshop. He brought the front, back, and side pieces to show the Board. Once the construction is complete, Rick will stain and varnish the canopy and pre-install the lighting components so that they are ready for Erik to do the actual wiring at the workshop. Kim at A H Supply did not have any printed material, so Rick will create brochures using the graphics and text from his website (with Kim’s permission, of course). A H Supply has donated a 13 watt Deluxe Kit and bulb to be used as a Door Prize.
- The Board has voted to publish the New Members’ names in Northwest Aquaria (in the first issue possible, depending on publication schedule, immediately following their initial membership). This will be formatted, as it has been in years past, with only the members’ names and no other personal information such as home town, etc. Rick was assigned to send an email to Erika illustrating the format and Bob will send an updated list of new members to Rick.
Committee Chair – "Job Descriptions" – Rick has no progress to report.
- Bob
has finalized the "New Member Letter" and will continue to work on a draft of a "Renewal Letter" for the Board to review.
- The discussion seemed to indicate that the Board had changed its mind regarding Storage Cabinet Keys for current Board Members. Previously, Bob was to have made additional copies of the key – one for each board member. However, the current feeling is that the three keys currently assigned to Clay, Bob, and June Olberding are sufficient.
New Business
Sponsors:
- The Board discussed the need to update the phone numbers of our sponsors to include the area code on the website and in the newsletter. This then led to a desire to do a more thorough review and update of the Sponsor List – assigned to Erik. The following action items were identified…
- Review and update the list of sponsors that offer a 5% (or more) discount to card-carrying members.
- Get new business cards for each sponsor. If the phone number listed on the card does not include the area code, clarify what it is for our lists.
- Provide these results to Erika for publication.
- Update the membership database
- Update the website
- Dave
volunteered to contact Conway Fish Store to see if they would be willing to become a sponsor
- Anyone on the Board is welcome to do the same at any other fish stores in their area.
- Some of our sponsors maintain a "personal membership" in addition to the "complimentary" membership that is provided to their business/organization. Personal memberships must be paid for and will expire just as any other membership does.
- "New membership database thingies (Features)" – Erik briefly explained the purpose and use of the new features that he recently added. Further, more detailed, explanation will be given directly to Bob after the meeting.
- Self-service label generation
- New/renewal show & reset
- Inactive member purge functions
- Bob
will email to Rick a list of the New Members since last meeting. (Subsequently received)
- #411 Browning, Ben & Andrea
- #412 Crichton, Meredith
- #413 King's Discus
- The question was raised as to whether GSAS, being a non-profit organization, has Tax Exempt / Non-Profit Number(s). We are not "that kind" of non-profit organization (as far as tax exempt status goes.) But we would qualify to have a "new" non-profit number and could do bulk mailings, etc. after we replace our bylaws and successfully reincorporate – assuming that we have the volume to make it worth doing a bulk mailing. Rick will check into bulk mail requirements as part of the bylaws/reincorporation project.
- June Olberding has accepted the Hostess Committee Chair. She will need a "backup" during the months of December and January when she will be on an extended vacation. Subsequent to the board meeting (during the General Membership meeting on November 12th) Clay asked for a volunteer to help June during those two months – Florian Raymann volunteered to do so.
(Suggested by) Kathy Olson - With business cards, and especially if business cards show board of directors etc...it just reminded me that most boards carry liability insurance. It is up to the board to decide, but I think it would be prudent to check and see if we need Liability insurance. All the Northeastern Aquarium clubs have this. I know The ACA does. It is something that should be looked into. I leave this up to the board. (since I am not on it)
Erik heard from GPAS that they actually do not have such insurance because it was found to be too expensive. Clay will talk to Diane Elliot and ask her to see how Rich (a lawyer) would advise us to proceed.
- Susan Messerly from the membership (at the October General Meeting) requested that we raise the value of the Christmas gift "limit" from $10 to $15. The members in attendance were in general agreement. When gift exchange is promoted (at the general meeting, and via email announcements) it is to be stressed that the gifts are to be aquarium related.
- Clay
announced at the last General Meeting that he had received a letter from the Port Authority having to do with an upcoming presentation on environmental impact around the Puget Sound. This "meeting" was probably a fund-raiser and had already passed by the time of our board meeting – no further action to be taken.
- Susan Messerly from the membership (at the October General Meeting) requested that we come up with a way to "share" website resources. Although this seems, on the surface, to be a very innocent and helpful idea, there were very strong concerns raised at the board meeting that GSAS must avoid any kind of "sanction" of one "resource" over another. Club resources (website and email lists) will not be used to "promote" other Internet sites. (See policy of link exchanges, below.)
- The Board discussed our policy regarding Link Exchanges with companies. In general, we do NOT do link exchanges. We do, occasionally and when they are relevant, link to donors, other ‘reliable’ clubs, and recent club speakers’ sites – as determined to be appropriate by the Board.
- Next month’s General Membership meeting will be the traditional Christmas Pot-Luck and gift exchange (playing the game where you have to decide whether you want to keep the gift that you drew or trade with someone else before you unwrap yours). Bob will make arrangements to buy (on behalf of the club) the ham and pop. Rick will prepare a sign-up sheet to be offered at the November General Meeting with such categories as salads, side dishes, chips and snacks, breads, hot veggies, desserts, and other. In addition to the meat and drinks, the club provides utensils, cups, and napkins.
- The Board voted to approve an expense reimbursement to Bob for $19.89 (fish for the philanthropy tank).
- In light of the fact that the board meetings for the last two months of the year always need to be rescheduled due to the holidays, the official scheduling guideline used for all months will be changed to read "the second Thursday after the General Meeting".
- It was reiterated that we will take every opportunity to promote the two email lists (member and announce). These lists are a vital line of communication to the membership in between our monthly meetings.
- Clay
will promote the idea of "hosting a board meeting" to the membership at the next general meeting.
Next Board Meeting Location
Kevin Foxen’s House, Thursday, November 21st 2002, starting promptly at 7:30pm
|