AZTWS Board Meeting
Conference Call Notes
May 21, 2018
3:00–3:47 p.m.
Attendees: Tiffany Sprague (President), Jessica Moreno (President Elect), Holly Hicks (Corresponding Secretary), Melissa Merrick (Board Member), Audrey Owens (Board Member), Kay Nicholson (Past President), Jeremy Krones (Newsletter Editor), Clarissa Starbuck (Webmaster)
Board members absent: Andrew Jones (Treasurer), Valerie Horncastle (Recording Secretary)
Action Items
- Tiffany to send fillable Continuing Education application to Clarissa.
- Tiffany will send Audrey’s photo to Clarissa for About Us page on website.
- Andrew to send $250 to parent society for national conference.
- Holly will send reminder about donating to scholarship fund for national conference.
- Holly will periodically send reminders to our email list about our Continuing Education grant.
- Scott will set up a phone conference with Andy Bridges about Petrified Forest National Park BioBlitz.
- Jeremy will ask Valerie about status of feature article for newsletter.
- Audrey, Kay, and Melissa will coordinate a fall gathering for members/supporters.
- Jessica will reach out to the TWS Diversity Working Group for ideas and will report back next month.
Motions
- Holly motioned to approve donating $250 to national conference in Cleveland, OH. Melissa seconded. Passed unanimously.
Proceedings
3:08 p.m. Tiffany called the meeting to order
Approval of past minutes
- Valerie still collecting edits for April meeting. Will vote on these during June meeting.
Old business
- Melissa to create fillable form for Continuing Education application. Done
- Tiffany will ask Clarissa to post to the website.
- Andrew to draft announcement reminding members/supporters about Continuing Education grant and encouraging people to attend upcoming conferences. Done
- We haven’t received any applications. Holly will periodically send out a reminder about our grant.
- Andrew to coordinate with Holly to send t-shirt to Jason Myrand. Done
- Scott to review revised sections of JAM manual to determine what revisions are still needed; incorporate existing revisions into manual. Ongoing
- Tiffany will remind committee heads about reviewing revised sections of JAM manual. Ongoing
- Scott to set up phone conference with Andy Bridges about Petrified Forest BioBlitz. In progress
- Kay to confirm to whom we send a check to for BFUPA. Done
- Tiffany to create bylaw wording for board member removal. Ongoing
- Jessica and Chris will work to set up an online membership and communication system for our chapter. Ongoing
- Holly to send out reminders about donating to the scholarship fund (deadline end of May). In progress
- Will send this week and next
- Valerie to contact Carol Chambers about potential feature article for newsletter.
- Jeremy will contact Valerie
- Tiffany to send Clarissa updates/pictures on board members for the website. Done
- Andrew to send t-shirt to Jason. Done
Current business
- Treasurer’s report (Andrew – via email)
- No real changes.
- We have received $195 for the scholarship fund.
- Holly has been reimbursed for Techniques Workshop.
- We sent out an announcement re: continuing education grants available and should continue to do so.
- Reimbursed student chapter travel.
- Still working on quarterly report.
- TWS conference sponsorship (Tiffany)
- Had we come to a conclusion on this during our previous meeting? Kay and Melissa recall that $250 was the level we were thinking to sponsor at for the TWS conference.
- Holly motioned to approve $250 for sponsorship. Melissa seconded. No opposition. Vote passed unanimously. AZTWS will provide the parent society $250 to support the annual conference in Cleveland, OH. Tiffany will coordinate with Andrew.
- Newsletter report (Jeremy)
- Spring 2018 issue put on the website. Holly sent it out to the membership via email and will put it out on the AZTWS FB page or other social media.
- Jeremy will start working on the summer issue soon. Tiffany encouraged sending an email out to our member/supporter list and posting on social media to solicit articles and posts for next newsletter.
- Tiffany asked Jeremy to remind her to send a presidents message.
- Tiffany asked if we have other feature article suggestions if Valerie is unsuccessful in getting Carol to contribute an article. Such topics should be interesting to students and professionals. Jeremy recommended focusing on summer work and research going on throughout the state. Perhaps Board can suggest supervisors to Jeremy that he could potentially get in touch with.
- Membership report (Jessica)
- Nothing new to report.
- Webmaster report (Clarissa)
- Nothing new to report.
- Tiffany asked board to check out the “about us” section and see if they want their pictures changed. She will send Audrey’s photo to Clarissa.
- Opportunities report (Callie – via email)
- Nothing new to report other than 9 events and 6 jobs were reported for the month of May.
- BioBlitz (Scott)
- Nothing new to report. Tiffany will continue to encourage him to get in touch with Andy Bridges in the near future.
- Conservation Affairs (Jon)
- Not on call.
- Borderlands Foundation for Understudied Plants and Animals (Kay)
- Working on getting the advisory board together.
- AZTWS submitted $100 in dues.
- Working with Dave Brown to get a diet analysis study of sympatric antelope and black-tailed jackrabbits.
- Continuing Education report (Stan)
- Not on call.
- Student Liasion report (Holly)
- Nothing new now since students are busy over the summer.
- Outreach, engagement, and diversity
- Tiffany asked if we want to provide another opportunity for students in the fall. Board agreed this is a good idea and recommended something fun and informal. E.g., in 2010 or 2011, we did an informal camping event near rim; Tad Theimer did small mammal trapping demo. Audrey willing to co-coordinate something similar this year. Kay and Melissa are willing to help out. They will get in touch to discuss ideas and report back next month.
- Diversity: Jessica will get in touch with the TWS Diversity Working Group for ideas and will report back next month.
3:47 Meeting adjourned