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Greater Seattle Aquarium Society
Board Meeting Minutes: Aug 21st, 2003 (at Bob Holmes' home)
Board Members
Present
Bob Holmes Rick Rose Dave Sanford
Absent
Clay Hess Erik Olson
Membership Observers
June Olberding Steev Ward
Executive Committee Reports
> The Minutes of the previous Board meeting (May 22nd, 2003) were accepted and approved. Bob signed in Clay's absence.
> The Treasurer's Report:
1) Current Bank Balance: $3950.62 2) Cash Box: 51.00
3) No Outstanding Bills
Bob requested reimbursement of $52.28 which was unanimously approved.
Meeting & Program Schedule
Month Topic / Activity Fish-o-the-Month
SEP 9th Introduce yourself and your fish, solicit ideas ($30 Dave-Dwarf/Pygmy Coreys) OCT 21st Rusty Wessel (Kathy is still verifying) (__________________) NOV 11th (__________________) DEC 9th Christmas Party (None) JAN 13th (__________________) FEB 10th Plant Auction (None) MAR 9th (__________________) APR 13th General Auction (None) MAY 11th (__________________) JUN 8th (__________________)
(2004-2005 Club-Year)
SEP 14th OCT 12th NOV 9th DEC 14th Christmas Party JAN 11th FEB 8th Plant Auction MAR 8th APR 12th General Auction MAY 10th JUN 14th
Spring 2004 Paul Loiselle - on West African Dwarf Cichlids (Kathy O.)(________________)
(*) Tentative, Special Dates
Special Dates (in Red)
List of possible speakers:
Mike Schadle (typically cancels due to work responsibilities) Pam Chin (Friend of the Olsons - they would host) Steve Lunblad (African Cichlids) ____________ (Livebearers, get name from Frank Tomko) - Discussion of names submitted by Frank has been tabled until the next board meeting. Dave Sanford (Revamped Presentation)
Dave will check with Kathy Olson regarding Rusty Wessel in October, and the possibility of hosting Pam Chin for November.
Next Meeting: September 9, 2003
> The September General Meeting will be Introductions and a round-table discussion of interests and possible meeting topics for this year.
Old Business
> Newsletter Update
1) September Newsletter Status - June Olberding
The newsletter is in process will a target mailing date of August 30th. June plans to introduce a "Trading Post" column for when members have items that they would like to sell or trade. She will also group miscellaneous information under a column titled "Thens and Nows and some Odds and Ends."
2) New Members' Names (since the last newsletter) to be published in the next newsletter
The Greater Seattle Aquarium Society would like to welcome the following new members!
Bruce Fischer (accidentally omitted in last issue)
Mark Tackabury Cameron, Trish, and Emma Pierce Victoria Earnest Mark Dorward
3) Rick has received two address corrections as a result of the picnic mailing. He will notify June when the corrections are in so that she can print labels for the newsletters.
4) Article Contest Winners
i) Gilead Rose ii) Tori Craig iii) Aaron Frymire
> Clay has asked Diane Elliot how Rich (a lawyer) would advise us to proceed with regard to Liability Insurance - Waiting for an Answer.
> Recap of June General Membership Meeting - Erik Olson, Photographing the Planted Aquarium
* 31 members signed in, plus 7 visitors for a total of 38 in attendance.
* Email strand from Rick/Erik
On Wed, 11 Jun 2003, Rick Rose wrote:
Excellent Presentation last night! I'm inspired to do better "record keeping" using my camera. Also, can the free software you mentioned (the gimp?) be downloaded? I'd like to learn how to "stitch". What would you think about reiterating the various contest opportunities with contact info and deadlines in a follow-up email to the members?
<Erik>
You betcha... posting to gsas-member directly now...
The Gimp is homed at http://www.gimp.org Gimp for Windows has its home at http://www.gimp.org/~tml/gimp/win32/ and this in turn points you to this site http://www2.arnes.si/~sopjsimo/gimp/ which actually has stuff you can install easily under Windows. I'm trying it right now while I type just to see if works. Normally I just use the Linux/Unix version.
My little stitching demo is on http://mystery.thekrib.com at the moment.
The AGA Aquascaping contest is at http://showcase.aquatic-gardeners.org Entry fee is cheap, and I will be personally happy to come over and photograph anyone's aquarium for the contest. The thing that's so cool about the AGA Contest is that it features folks from beginner to advanced, and the styles are very different. Deadline is September 15th.
The AGA site is http://www.aquatic-gardeners.org, and this is where you can get two of the books I mentioned: Aquarium Plants Handbook (an AGA exclusive) and Tropica's book (which is also available elsewhere).
The AGA is also holding convention in Dallas the weekend of November 14th, featuring Christel Kasselmann (author of the $70 book I mentioned -- available on amazon or other places), Karen Randall (here last June & who will be in Portland for their show in October), Roger Miller, George Booth, Tom Barr and a bunch of other speakers. This convention is *the* place to hang out with major plant geeks.
Aqua Design Amano's home is http://www.adana.co.jp but their site has notoriously little information in English, especially about their contest.
The Aquatic Plants Digest's home is http://fins.actwin.com/aquatic-plants
And yes, I can now say that installing Gimp for Windows from the third site I listed works great! You have to install both pieces (first gtk, then gimp), but otherwise it comes right up.
- Erik
* Email from Bob
Good meeting last night - big turnout, great food, excellent presentation. Auction proceeds were $84 including $7 in IOU's. Two new members - Victoria Earnest and Trish Pierce. See you at the picnic.
Bob
* Email from Clay/member feedback
A quick note to let you all know that I have received some feedback from the meeting as well. Thought I would share this with you: "The meeting didn't get over until after 10:00.........which was fine. We were going to leave right after the announcement of the coloring contest....but (my husband) decided he wanted to stay for the auction, right when he saw it. He said" This was more exciting than I thought it would be, I wouldn't mind coming again." So for this to come from a "Non fish person" is good. We all enjoyed ourselves!"
Sounds like the meeting was a fantastic success!! Great job, ALL OF YOU! Sorry I could not stay for the whole show.
Clay
> Board Member Attendance Requirements.
Attendance (and other?) requirements for Board Members - Given the tie vote at the last meeting which failed to rescind the current policy, the Board unanimously voted to readdress this issue at the August meeting. No new discussion was offered and all members of the board agreed that they had not changed their opinion on the issue. Bob asked if we were sure that we had a quorum. Rick noted that the old bylaws required only 50% of the voting board members in order to establish a quorum - we had 3 out of 5, or 60%. It was moved and seconded to rescind the current attendance requirement for board members. The motion carried - two to one.
> How to improve participation from the general membership
Brief discussion brought to light that we are already making headway on this subject by encouraging participation through specific announcements at the general meetings, and through various PR materials including personalized name tags with interests, and upgraded membership cards. In addition, there are several projects that are planned for the future such as job descriptions and promotional fliers that members can use at their local fish-related events.
> General elections for board members - synopsis of decisions from last board meeting and additional issues that were addressed at this meeting.
o Eventually, we want to get back in line with official policies recorded in bylaws. The copy of the bylaws that was recently found appears to be quite out-of-date (either it was a prior version which had been subsequently amended, or perhaps it had simply not been kept current.) These bylaws require nominations to be held in May and elections in June; however, a special exception is being made for this club-year only - given that there was not enough time to coordinate nominations and voting by the June meeting.
o Clay has already stated that he does not want to continue as President for another entire club-year; however, he is willing to continue until such time as proper elections can be organized.
o It was decided at the last board meeting (for this year only) to hold nominations in September followed by elections in October.
o The newly elected board/officers would then sit at the October Board meeting and the November General meeting.
o According to the current bylaws, all Board positions will be open each year - current board members who wish to remain for another year will have to seek re-election. Although it was not our purpose to address bylaw policies beyond the immediate need for nomination and elections procedures, it was generally agreed by all members present that it would be better to have two-year, rotating positions in the future. That way, we could avoid a situation where an entire, newly elected board is made up of first-time members with no experience or tie to the previous year's issues.
o Current Board Members intending to seek re-election
* Clay Hess No * Bob Holmes Yes * Erik Olson No * Rick Rose Yes * Dave Sanford No
o Policies and Logistics for this year's Nomination and Elections process
* The number of Board Positions will be limited to five. * A clip-board will be passed around during the meeting where nominations can be made. * Only paid-up members can nominate someone for a board position. * Only paid-up members can be nominated for a board position. * A break in the meeting after the clip-board has been passed around will provide an opportunity to check with those who were nominated - ensuring that they are willing to run for a position. * If a qualifying nominee is not present at the September meeting, they must be contacted and agree to the nomination before their name can be included on the October ballot. * The names of the nominees will be written on the dry-erase board during the break. * The membership will elect up to five board members from those that are nominated. * The newly elected board will vote at the next board meeting to elect one of their members as the President, one as Secretary/Historian, and one as Treasurer. * If no more than five qualifying nominees are presented, then the voting (at the October general meeting) can be by show of hands or some other non-private means (we didn't really discuss this possibility to conclusion.) * If more than five qualifying nominees are presented, then voting (at the October meeting) will be by private ballot. * Rick will prepare written ballots for the October meeting (if needed.) * Written ballots will be counted by the three retiring board members (Clay, Erik, and Dave) plus two members that have already stated they will not be accepting nomination (June Olberding and Steev Ward.) * Winners will be announced at the end of the October board meeting. * As I write this, I believe we failed to discuss how a tie-vote would be handled. We should discuss this at the September board meeting.
> Bob - brass plate for nursing home tank. - Outstanding
> Bylaws - At last month's meeting, the Board briefly discussed the magnitude of the project to bring the bylaws up to date. It was decided that we will convene a special meeting this fall (not in combination with a standard board meeting) to work on this project. Clay suggested that a special location (someplace not as comfortable as someone's home) might be a good idea to keep the focus of the meeting intact. Discussion on this topic was tabled until the September meeting.
New Business
> New Members since last meeting - Bob
* Mark Tackabury * Cameron, Trish, and Emma Pierce * Victoria Earnest * Mark Dorward
> 2003-2004 Operating Budget
* Rick will ask Clay to bring the budget figures from the May 2002 board meeting.
* Bob will prepare a spreadsheet showing actual expenses and income for the 2002-2003 club-year.
* Rick remembers a vote from the May 2002 board meeting (when he was a membership observer) where the then-current board agreed to limit each subsequent year's operating budget to the income that was produced from the preceding plant- and general auctions. Hopefully, Clay will have some record and/or further details of that decision. Further discussion of the budget was postponed until the September board meeting.
> June Olberding (from the membership) requested that the kid's coloring contest winning entries be displayed on the table near the entrance. Rick also noted a recent email where Erik mentioned that Trish Pierce had also inquired about Emma's winning entry being posted on the website. Rick will get those scanned images to Erik as time allows.
> Rick will update the "Low Priority and Ongoing Issues" area for the start of the new club-year.
Announcements for the next General Meeting
* Dave - Explaining the typical responsibilities of being a board member * June - Articles! Articles! Articles! (especially on livebearers) * Rick - No Dogs or other Animals at the Aquarium * Rick - Nominations and Elections procedures (clip-board, break, board, voting, etc.)
Low-Priority and On-going Issues
(The following issues which may or may not have been addressed above will continue to be listed here until they are completely resolved.)
> Official Bylaws - Rick
1. Dave has obtained a copy of GPAS bylaws and passed them on to Rick 2. Erik has obtained a copy of AKA bylaws and passed them on to Rick 3. Erik found a copy of the GSAS bylaws, scanned them, and gave them to Rick 4. Rick has produced an editable text file from the scanned images - a copy given to each board member and one to June Olberding.
> Promotional Materials for GSAS - Rick
* Poster Boards (for Fish Stores) and GSAS fliers are still outstanding. * Business cards - on hold * GSAS Fliers * Standard GSAS Thank You card
> Historian Project(s) - Rick
* History of Philanthropy Projects
* Probe the minds of Clay, Dave, Bob, and Erik * Look for old article (on the 30-years CD), written by Laurie Hess, about the "Providence Tank"
> Committee Chair - "Job Descriptions" - Rick has no progress to report.
> Kathy will provide a Task List (Job Description) based on her experience as Speaker Wrangler. This list will be of immediate help to the new Program Coordinator which entails the responsibilities of Speaker Wrangler when there is not another person separately fulfilling that role, Clay (as President), and Rick (as part of the project to document the responsibilities of all Committee Chairs.)
> Meeting Activities for younger kids - Dave, Bob, and Rick
1. Dave - coloring book update - gave a folder full of artwork to Rick. 2. Rick - pages for the coloring book that promote GSAS 3. Rick - Aquarium-related word searches, puzzles, mazes
> Membership Letters - Bob
* New Member Letter - example final version for records * Renewal Letter - sample for the Board to review
> Discussion on a future Philanthropy Project
* Clay will be putting together a written Philanthropy Proposal form which he, then, will use to present his idea for our next project. Clay's proposal is to provide one or more Grade School's with a set of books of an aquatic life theme. His cost estimate per school is $175.00.
* At the June General meeting, Clay will also promote the idea of doing a new philanthropy project and invite other members of the club to submit their suggestions using the new form.
* The Board would then review all project submissions and select one.
Next Board Meeting Location
The next meeting will be at Bob Holmes' home, Thursday, September 18th, 2003, starting promptly at 7:30pm. |