February 2019 Board Meeting Minutes

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AZTWS Board Meeting

Conference Call Minutes

February 25, 2019

3:00–3:39 p.m.

[Download the PDF]

Present: Jessica Moreno (President), Andrew Jones (President Elect), Valerie Horncastle (Recording Secretary), Emily Scobie (Corresponding Secretary), Melissa Merrick (Board Member), Tiffany Sprague (Past President), Kay Nicholson (BFUPA chair)

Board members absent: Haley Nelson (Treasurer), Holly Hicks (Board Member)

Action items

  • Andrew will get Haley set up on all of the accounts.
  • Andrew will make sure we have a complete list of people that paid for AZTWS membership during the JAM registration.
  • Holly will finalize pricing, photos, and inventory of SWAG for the website.
  • Brian will send out an outreach for articles for the newsletter report.
  • Jessica will check with the Fisheries society about a mid-April deadline for updating the JAM manual.
  • Jessica will send out an email on the proposed bill for the restoration of Arizona state parks funds.
  • Tiffany will update the operations manual and send to Jessica and Andrew for review.

Motions

  • Approval of January 28, 2019 board meeting minutes – moved by Andrew, seconded by Valerie; passed.
  • Meeting adjournment – moved by Andrew, seconded by Valerie; passed at 3:39 p.m.

Proceedings

Old Business/Previous Action Items

  • Jessica will send out the JAM schedule Done
  • Jessica will send out a notice that there are still rooms available at the Marriot Pyramid Hotel for JAM Done
  • Jessica will send out a reminder to vote for board nominations Done
  • Holly will send Andrew a list and prices of merchandise we will be selling at the JAM Done
  • Tiffany will send out a signup sheet for manning the merchandise table at JAM Done
  • Contact Holly if you want to help with planning the techniques workshop Ongoing
  • Contact Jessica if you know of any good candidates for the Treasurer position, Conservation Affairs Chair, Opportunities Chair, or the Webmaster position. Ongoing – Treasurer position has been filled
  • Jessica will ask the JAM planning committee about setting up a single website for JAM, rather than each chapter hosting its own. Ongoing
  • Jessica will discuss website options with Andrew (e.g., pointing our domains to WordPress rather than using GoDaddy). Ongoing
  • Jessica and Chris will work to set up an online membership and communication system for our chapter. Ongoing – Jessica will send out a link to board members so everyone can update their profiles. It will then get sent out to all members. Once NM Chapter sends out the list of people that registered during the JAM then Jessica will update the member list.
  • Chris will contact the parent chapter for an updated list of current paid members. Done
  • Holly will work with Jessica on making an inventory of our promotional items (hats, tshirts, etc.), pricing, and photos for the website. Ongoing
  • Tiffany to create bylaw wording for board member removal. Ongoing
  • Other Old Business? (All)

Current Business

  • Treasurer’s Report (Andrew)
    • Andrew is working on the audit with Haley and working on getting all of the accounts in her name. We had about $700 in SWAG sales from the JAM.
  • Online Shopping (Jessica/Holly)
    • We are currently waiting on pricing, photos, and an update on inventory after JAM.
  • Newsletter Report (Brian)
    • Brian will put out an outreach for articles. The deadline to submit is March 15. We should include a paragraph on the JAM summary and include a list of the awardees and new board members. The student chapters that received funding should also be submitting a brief summary about JAM.
  • JAM 2019 planning (Jessica)
    • We have not received any information from Bill on updating the JAM manual. The chapter will make some edits and send to the AZ/NM American Fisheries Society. Our old deadline to complete this was March 1. Jessica will check in with the fisheries folks to see if a new deadline of April 15th will work for them.
  • Board and Award Nominations (Jessica)
    • This item was left on the agenda as a reminder that we need to start thinking about possible award nominations early in the year. We need to update the website with the names of the 2019 awardees and new board members.
  • Chair positions (Jessica)
    • We have several chair positions that we need to fill soon.
      • Webmaster (starting in May)
      • Conservation Affairs
      • Opportunities Chair
      • Continuing Education – Stan would still like to be involved, but he could use some assistance
      • Historian position – Kinley Ragan has offered to take over this roll. The board is currently deciding whether we want to keep this position and if so better define this position’s role. Do we need to keep paper copies of everything or just move to an electronic database for records? We will revisit this topic.
  • Diversity (Jessica)
    • We will continue working on previously discussed items to help improve diversity. Some of these include highlighting (through social media) some of the underrepresented voices such as TWS WOW, TWS EGDWG, Native Outdoors, and Latino Outdoors, having a separate committee chair for social media outreach with special emphasis on diversity, and increasing mentorship.
  • Membership Report (Jessica)
    • Nothing new to report
  • Webmaster’s Report (Clarissa not on call)
    • Nothing new to report
  • Opportunities Report (Valerie/Callie)
    • Valerie has continued to have issues posting items. Jessica and Valerie will work together this week to solve the problem.
  • BioBlitz (Scott not on call)
    • Dr. Tom Van Devender from GreaterGood.org might be a great contact for helping find experts to help out at the BioBlitz. He has numerous contacts and has worked on several BioBlitzs in the past.
  • Conservation Affairs (Tiffany)
    • A new House bill has been introduced to restore funds for Arizona state parks. Jessica will send out more information about the bill and then the board can decide if we want to send in a letter of support.
  • Borderlands Foundation for Understudied Plants and Animals (Kay)
    • Nothing new to report
  • Techniques workshop (Holly not on call)
    • The wildlife techniques workshop is scheduled for April 13th. They will be offering many of the standard classes: net guns, telemetry classes, and trapping techniques. Other classes they are considering is an aquatics class or map and compass class. Extra activities in the morning and evening will include geocaching, bat netting, birding, and herping.
    • For future workshops, we might want to consider including high school students. We could either add an extra day or try to incorporate them with the college students. It might help open up different career opportunities to younger students.
  • Student Liaison Report (Holly not on call)
    • We should follow up with Holly to find out which student chapters requested travel help.
  • Operations Manual
    • Tiffany is currently working on updating the 118 page operations manual. Once Tiffany has completed her edits, she will send to Jessica and Andrew to review.
  • Other new business
    • We need to send the parent society a list of the new board members.
    • Volunteer opportunity on March 5th and 7th at Catalina State Park. There will be 400 students learning about wildlife tracking, birding, and other activities. They are looking for volunteers to help out.

3:39 p.m. adjournment