April 2017 Board Meeting Minutes

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AZTWS Board Meeting

Meeting Minutes – Final

April 24, 2017

3:00–4:30 pm

[Download the PDF]


Attendees: Kay Nicholson (President), Tiffany Sprague (President-Elect), Jessica Moreno (Corresponding Secretary), Melanie Tluczek (Recording Secretary), Scott Sprague (Past President), Andrew Jones (Treasurer), Jon Hanna (Conservation Affairs), Holly Hicks (Board Member)

Board Members Absent: Audrey Owens (Board Member)

Action Items:

  • Melanie to make suggested edits to the March meeting minutes. – Completed
  • Tiffany to create bylaw wording for board member removal – Ongoing
  • Andrew to look into transferring Capitol One account to Chase account. – Ongoing
  • Andrew to send in 990 form to Capitol One by May 15 due date. – Ongoing
  • Andrew to have a financial report completed by the end of April. – Ongoing
  • Holly to write an article about the techniques workshop for summer newsletter. – Ongoing
  • Scott to send some sections of the JAM manual out to folks that helped with last year’s JAM so he can get good revisions. – Ongoing.
  • All board members have edits to JAM manual back to Scott before May meeting. – Ongoing.
  • Kay will remove AZTWS logo from Survey Monkey continuing education survey and send survey link to Chris to distribute.
  • Chris to send email to membership with link for the continuing education survey.
  • Jessica to send out awards press release. – Ongoing.
  • Jessica to post spring newsletter on website. – Ongoing
  • Kay to send Jessica newsletter from last year which has participants at JAM if Jess cannot find it. – Ongoing
  • Jon Hanna will ask Shelly Shepherd out of Flagstaff to send Jessica a list of media contacts. – Ongoing
  • Andrew to have quarterly report to board members by end of April. – Ongoing, pending transfer of funds from Capitol One account.
  • Andrew to pay for portable toilets for techniques workshop. – Ongoing
  • Dean to put newsletters and minutes on website. – Ongoing.
  • Callie will post relevant events from other organizations on AZTWS calendar. – Some were added. Ongoing.
  • Jessica to start a spreadsheet with credentials for various accounts. – Ongoing
  • Andrew to send credentials for AZTWS Gmail account and associated Google drive to Kay and Jessica, so that the board can start using Google drive to share large files. – Ongoing.
  • Scott to continue discussions with Wilderness Brewing Company about providing sponsorship for TWS national meeting or JAM. – Ongoing
  • Andrew to talk to a friend at Wilderness Brewing Company to see if she can help discussions. – Ongoing
  • Board members to gather ideas and work on the idea of a 2018 JAM plenary session panel on activism through the next month. – Ongoing
  • Jon Hanna suggested a memorial for the late founder Cory Gray of Coda Net Guns. John Hicks offered to arrange this. – Ongoing
  • Andrew to set up PayPal link for donations to sponsor a student going to the national meeting on chapter website. – Ongoing.
  • Jessica to work with Andrew to get a landing page on the website that the donate button can be linked to. Will send it out to the board for review. – Ongoing
  • Scott to contact Cross-tech about sponsorship for national TWS meeting. – Ongoing.
  • Holly to contact Babbitt Ranches and Coda Net Guns about sponsorship for national TWS meeting. –Contacted Nina Grimaldi (biologist) SRP who has sent information to her boss Ruth Valencia (head of department). Ongoing.
  • Andrew to contact CAP about sponsorship for national TWS meeting. Ongoing.
  • Jessica and Holly to talk to biologists with SRP to see if they want to be a sponsor for national TWS meeting. Completed
  • Jonathan Hicks to double check on the price of camping at the Fun Shoot. – Ongoing
  • Jon Hanna will work with other board members to develop an outline of the plenary session.
  • Jessica will present plenary outline to Grijalva.
  • Tiffany to coordinate TWS activities for public lands day.
  • Kay will coordinate with Jonathan Hicks for the Fun Shoot, and email the board if more decisions need to be made.
  • Scott will get (possibly donated) ear protection for the Fun Shoot.

Motions:

  • Holly motioned to approve $500 travel reimbursements for NAU students. Tiffany seconded. None opposed.

Proceedings:

Approval of February 2017 and March 2017 Board Meeting Minutes

  • February 28, 2017 – Tiffany motioned to approve. Jessica seconded. None opposed.
  • March 27, 2017 – Tiffany recommended clarifying the difference between Jon Hanna and Jonathan Hicks. Arizona Wilderness Brewing Company, not wildlife. Andrew will help find quotes, not Scott. Jessica motioned to approve after suggested edits. Holly seconded. None opposed.

Housekeeping
Tiffany thanked Jessica for her help on the Facebook page. Post engagement went up 224% in last week!

Old Business

  • Action Items from March Meeting
  • Other Old Business? None

Current Business

1. Treasurer’s Report (Andrew)
a. Capitol One account
b. May 15 is deadline to send in 990 form.
c. Sent out reimbursement check to ASU.

2. Newsletter Report (Tiffany)
a. Newsletter was published and needs to be put on website. Jessica will post.
b. Summer issue deadline is June 15. Tiffany will write feature article, and is expecting more student pieces. Holly will write an article about the techniques workshop.

3. Membership Report (Chris) – not present

4. Webmaster’s Report (Dean)

5. Opportunities Report (Callie) – not present

6. Student Liaison Report (Holly)
a. NAU sent out their information for $500 student travel reimbursements. Articles were turned in. Kay approved. Holly motioned to approve. Tiffany seconded. None opposed.
b. Holly sent Prescott College and U of A a reminder about getting students to claim their reimbursement. This was the third and last reminder.
c. Holly visited Prescott College to meet with The Prescott Student Chapter of The Wildlife Society. They are a small group currently exploring what hooks are needed to get members to participate.

7. Techniques Workshop (Holly) – All instructors did a great job. All positive reviews.

8. Conservation Affairs (Jon) – No updates.

9. Continuing Education (Stan) – not present
a. Kay will remove AZTWS logo from Survey Monkey continuing education survey and send survey link to Chris to distribute.
b. Chris to send email to the membership with link for the continuing education survey

10. JAM 2018 (Kay)
a. Location – Board agreed that JAM 2018 should be held in Flagstaff. Carol is looking for a discount on conference center.
b. Plenary Ideas

  • Activist for Wildlife
    • Jon Hanna will run the “activist for wildlife” plenary session if we do decide to go with this as a theme.
    • The goal is to get membership more at ease and motivated to be politically active.
    • The session will not present any views for or against specific candidates, but focused on issues.
    • One suggestion was to start the plenary with “do’s and don’ts” of wildlife activism within the bounds of TWS and agency work, then move to position statements and how we can move forward with them (climate, horses & burros, etc.…)
    • Suggestions – get a republican, democrat, and independent to discuss issues. Perhaps (Andy) Biggs and Grijalva would agree to participate. Have 2 reps talk, then give some time to independent person, then panel to wrap up. Jon Hanna will work on a 1 pager to outline the plenary session and send to board for review.
    • Jon Hanna will work with other board members to develop an outline of the plenary session.
    • Jessica will present outline to (Raul) Grijalva.
  • No other ideas for plenary sessions were presented.

11. National Meeting (Kay)
a. Student sponsorship

  • Donate $500 or $1,000 – discussed previously – will get page set up with donate button.
  • Challenge members to donate, funds matched by Chapter – May 31 deadline.

b. Chapter support for the meeting

  • Should the chapter donate? – Board agreed that it was beneficial, but at a lower level.
  • Andrew suggested taking any leftovers from JAM reimbursement and putting it toward sponsorship. The issue was tabled for discussion in May once all JAM reimbursement requests have come in.

12. Fun Shoot (Kay/Jonathan) – Not present
a. Date set for May 21st – confirmed.
b. Campout that evening – need to confirm.
c. Board agreed that option 2 (i.e., the a la carte option) is best for paying for workshop materials.
d. Kay will coordinate with Jonathan Hicks, and then email the board if more decisions need to be made.
e. Scott will get (possibly donated) ear protection.

13. Other Current/New Business? – Jon Hanna suggested AZTWS do something for National Public Lands day, September 30 2017. Tiffany will coordinate TWS activities for public lands day. Also suggested we post the various Public Lands Day events on our calendar.

New Business
None

Good of the Order/Other?
None

Adjournment
Melanie motioned to adjourn. Holly seconded. None opposed.