July 2019 Board Meeting Minutes

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AZTWS Board Meeting

Conference Call Minutes

July 22, 2019

3:06–3:40 p.m

[Download the PDF]

Present: Jessica Moreno (President), Haley Nelson (Treasurer), Valerie Horncastle (Recording Secretary), Emily Scobie (Corresponding Secretary), Chris Carrillo (Membership Chair), Samantha Novotony (Conservation Affairs Chair)

Board members absent: Melissa Merrick (Board Member), Holly Hicks (Board Member), Kinley Ragan (Historian), Andrew Jones (President Elect)

Announcements/Housekeeping: Charlie Painter BioBlitz is this Friday and Saturday. Brian put out an announcement for the event in the newsletter. Emily will send out a quick email about the event. Samantha Novotony is our new Conservation Affairs Chair. Jessica will post her information on
the webpage.

Action items

  • Jessica will send out a draft of the updated operations manual for the finance sections. The committee will review and vote on the changes at the August meeting.
  • Haley will send out the draft annual budget to board members and we will vote to approve the budget at the August meeting.
  • Jessica will get the SWAG inventory and prices uploaded onto the online store.
  • Chris will pull together the active list of members and send to Emily.
  • Jessica will post the volunteer opportunity for road kill surveys and Samantha will send Jessica some additional volunteer opportunities to post.
  • Jessica, Haley, and Emily will review the new applications for the continuing education grants.

Motions

  • Approval of June 24, 2019 board meeting minutes – moved by Haley, seconded by Chris; passed.
  • Meeting adjournment – moved by Valerie, seconded by Haley; passed at 3:40 p.m.

Proceedings

Old Business/Previous Action Items

  • Jessica, Haley, and Andrew will update the operations manual to include a policy on check authorizations, check writing procedures, and other accounting practices. Ongoing – Jessica is working on draft for the finance sections. The draft will be sent to the committee for input and we will vote on the update during the August meeting. Haley is working on drafting the annual budget which we will review and approve during the August meeting. In the future, the treasurer will draft the annual budget earlier and we will approve it at the annual meeting. The board is working on upgrading how we are tracking finances and bookkeeping. Haley is looking into using Quickbooks to document our finances.
  • Jessica will send out the document her organization put together regarding the I-11 corridor project. We can then decide if AZTWS wants to sign on. Comments are due July 8 th . Done –Jessica sent out by email on July 3rd (Andrew motioned to approve, Melissa seconded, and there were 6 yeahs). Jessica sent out a copy of the final letter.
  • Andrew will follow up with Marla to see if she is interested in the webmaster position. – Ongoing
  • Jessica update on whether AZ State Lands are allowing wildlife monitoring on their lands. A new policy was set up last January no longer allowing research on state lands. They have denied requests from several different groups. State lands does have a mandate to manage wildlife on their lands. Jessica is still trying to learn more and will keep us posted.
  • Jessica will email out information and request for action regarding the 2019 Wildlife Corridor Conservation Act. Done – Samantha will continue to update us.
  • Holly will finalize pricing, photos, and inventory of SWAG for the website. Done, Jessica will get uploaded onto the online store.
  • Tiffany will update the operations manual and send to Jessica and Andrew for review. – Ongoing.
  • Jessica, Emily, and Chris will set up MemberPlanet online membership and communication system for our chapter. Ongoing, Chris will pull together active list of members from National and send to Emily. Haley will have updated information for members from the paypal list.
  • JAM Manual Edits (Jessica/Tiffany) – Ongoing
  • JAM 2020 Planning (Tiffany/Jessica) – Ongoing
  • Other Old Business? (All) None

Current Business

Treasurer’s Report (Haley)

  • Treasurer’s Report (Haley) –
    • Working on annual budget, Member Planet, and QuickBooks
  • Newsletter Report (Brian) –
    • Not on call If you have any ideas for articles, please send to Brian
  • Board and Award Nominations (Andrew) – Not on call
    • Nothing to report
  • Chair positions (Jessica) – Ongoing
    • Webmaster
    • Conservation Affairs (Samantha Novotony new chair)
    • Opportunities Chair
    • Social Media Outreach
    • Continuing Education
  • Diversity (Jessica) – Nothing new to report
  • Membership Report (Chris)
    • Chris is working on updating Member Planet. He has 6 membership applications from the Techniques Workshop.
  • Webmaster’s Report (Jessica)
    • Jessica will post the most recent meeting minutes
  • Opportunities Report (Valerie)
    • Jessica will post volunteer opportunity for road kill surveys. Samantha has a few opportunities that she will send to Jessica to post.
  • BioBlitz (Scott not on call)
    • Charlie Painter BioBlitz is this Friday and Saturday. Brian put out an announcement for the newsletter. Emily will send out quick email about it.
  • Conservation Affairs (Jon) – Samantha is the new lead. Jon has been sending information to Samantha so she is update on current affairs.
  • Borderlands Foundation for Understudied Plants and Animals (Kay not on call)
    • Nothing new to report
  • Techniques workshop (Holly not on call) – No new updates
  • Student Liaison Report (Holly not on call) – No new updates
  • Operations Manual (Tiffany) – Jessica is currently working on a draft for the finance sections. Tiffany is currently working on the other aspects of the manual.
  • Other Current/New business
    • Emily has been getting information about continuing education grants that applications have been received. Emily will forward to Jessica. We usually look at them quarterly. Jessica will take the lead until a new chair person is available. Haley and Emily will help review.

Next Meeting is Monday August 29th, 2019

3:40 p.m. adjournment