AZTWS Board Meeting
Meeting Minutes – Final
July 31, 2017
3:00–4:30 pm
Attendees: Kay Nicholson (President), Tiffany Sprague (President Elect), Andrew Jones (Treasurer), Jessica Moreno (Corresponding Secretary), Holly Hicks (Board Member), Audrey Owens (Board Member), Scott Sprague (Past President), Callie Hartson (Opportunities), Stan Cunningham (Continuing Education), Dean Pokrajac (Webmaster), Jon Hanna (Conservation Affairs)
Board Members Absent: Melanie Tluczek (Recording Secretary)
Action Items:
- Tiffany will provide language requesting a newsletter editor to send to our email list.
- Callie will email the Desert Roses event announcement to the board to determine if it’s appropriate to post on our calendar.
- Stan will contact students who hand-wrote their grant applications and ask them to type and resubmit.
- Andrew will contact the AGFD lawyer to ask if he’d be willing to speak at the JAM plenary.
- Kay will check with the parent society about how many students we are sponsoring.
- Tiffany will request input from the board on National Public Lands Day.
- Callie will add a placeholder for National Public Lands Day on September 30 to the online calendar.
Motions:
- Holly motioned to approve the June board meeting minutes. Andrew seconded. Passed unanimously.
- Tiffany motioned to adjourn the meeting. Jessica seconded. Passed unanimously.
Proceedings:
Approval of 26 June 2017 Board Meeting Minutes
- Holly motioned, Andrew seconded. Passed unanimously.
Old Business
- Andrew transferred our Capitol One account to Chase
- We received a piece about the Techniques Workshop from a participant, which was included in the summer newsletter.
- Scott has received feedback on sections of the JAM manual and plans to have revisions done by August 14, before our first official JAM planning call.
- Jessica sent our Survey Monkey continuing education survey to chapter members.
- Jessica gave the password spreadsheet to Kay.
- Jessica and Callie will use the study specimen workshop announcement in the summer newsletter to add announcements to our website and social media.
- An announcement about travel grant award availability for travel to national TWS conference was sent out.
- Kay informed Heather Bateman that the Board approved her request of $265 for the Quiz Bowl buzzers.
- Jessica submitted comments on the National Monuments review.
Current Business
1. Treasurer’s Report (Andrew)
a. Will have quarterly report by Friday of this week.
2. Newsletter Report (Tiffany)
a. Summer issue went out.
b. We need a feature article for the fall issue. Send ideas to Tiffany. If we haven’t received any ideas by the end of the week, we will send an email to our list asking for suggestions.
c. We may need a new editor next year when Tiffany assumes role of President. We can send an email to our list asking for volunteers.
3. Membership Report (Chris)
a. No report.
4. Webmaster’s Report (Dean)
a. Jessica and Callie have been very helpful with website updates.
b. Dean looked at our welcome email, which someone had said was out-of-date, but everything looked good. It comes from Chris Carillo.
c. Dean may be slow to respond due to his busy schedule, so let Scott know if Dean is needed to take care of something right away.
5. Opportunities Report (Callie)
a. Callie has made contacts with National Turkey Federation and Arizona Elk Society, which will send her announcements. She regularly checks a variety of groups’ webpages for announcements. If anyone has ideas of other groups she should contact or post activities for, send her an email.
b. Desert Roses (women’s trap and skeet group) is hosting an event in Prescott. Callie will email an announcement to the board to determine if it’s appropriate to post.
6. Student Liaison Report (Holly)
a. Nothing to report as school is not in session.
7. Conservation Affairs (Jon)
a. No report.
8. Continuing Education (Stan)
a. Continuing Education Survey (Kay/Jessica)
- We sent an invite to our list (452 people) and have received 28 responses so far. We will send another reminder this week.
- Majority of people who responded are interested in habitat quality assessments and mobile apps. Willing to pay $30–50 for one-day workshop or $100 for twoday workshop; one-day workshops are preferred. Winter is the best time for a workshop. Thursday–Friday during the day preferred. Several people provided ideas on other workshop topics or presenters.
- Jessica said we could potentially provide some of these as online workshops. Once developed, they wouldn’t require anything further from us.
b. Grants for National Meeting (Andrew)
- We received three grant applications ($2,300 total requested)
- Two of the student applications were hand-written, one of which was sent as a camera-phone image. Stan is concerned that students think this is an appropriate way to apply for $1,000 grants.
- The board recommended that we ask the students to type and re-submit their applications. We may want to provide further guidance in the future on how to submit an AZTWS grant application. Stan will contact the UA and ASU students and ask them to resubmit.
- Andrew recommended that we provide $750 to each school (UA and ASU) and the full requested amount (~$360) to a graduate student who applied.
9. JAM 2018 (Kay)
a. Committee Chairs
- Most committees have already been assigned.
- Tiffany willing to help with Program Layout (as member but will chair if no one else steps up).
- Scott willing to help with Exhibitors/Vendors (as member but will chair if no one else steps up).
- Callie will chair Job Board/Message Board.
- Audrey will chair Raffle/Auction.
b. Location – Flagstaff
- Little America very interested in accommodating us. Would hold off on further renovations until after our meeting.
- Pros: Set-up sounds ideal. Hotel rooms ~$90. Quote less expensive overall (see quote).
- Cons: Beer would be more expensive. Farther from downtown area. Last year was less than ideal.
- Questions: How late would banquet room be open (could we hang out there after banquet)? Could we bring in kegs
- High Country Conference Center (at NAU)
- Pros: Might be able to get some beer donated. Close to downtown.
- Cons: Doesn’t have hotel rooms, but other hotels nearby (one in same complex). Hotel room prices ~$150 (but might be able to get a discount). Might overall be more expensive (see quote).
- Questions: Could we bring in kegs?
c. Plenary – Activist for Wildlife
- Jon is still trying to get a politician and a private industry person.
- Jon asked if someone with AGFD could contact the AGFD lawyer to see if he would be willing to give 5-min. talk about what state employees can/cannot do in terms of political advocacy. Andrew will contact him.
- Does anyone know someone with a federal agency? Scott recommended contacting Bill Noble with USFS.
- A couple of speakers asked about travel reimbursement.
- We should consider having a plenary-only registration option. It was $25 when we did this before and it worked well.
10. Borderlands Institute for the Study and Conservation of Understudied Animals (Melanie)
a. Jessica and Melanie are trying to find a time to meet to discuss this.
b. Kay met with Dave Brown and Linda Searles with Southwest Conservation Center. Linda expressed interest in SWCC being the fiscal sponsor, in which case BISCUA would just be a project with AZTWS.
c. Need to get the revised mission statement from Dave Brown.
11. National Meeting (Kay)
a. We received a note that we are sponsoring one student for the meeting. Kay will check on this as we sent enough money to sponsor two.
12. Fun Shoot (Kay)
a. We don’t have another date yet but want to make sure to get an announcement out well ahead of time.
13. National Public Lands Day
a. Scheduled for September 30, but some agencies/groups hold events later in the year due to the heat. Callie will add a placeholder to the online calendar.
b. Tiffany will send a note to the board asking for input.
Adjournment
- Tiffany moved. Jessica seconded. Passed unanimously.