October 2017 Board Meeting Minutes

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AZTWS Board Meeting

Final Meeting Minutes

October 30, 2017

4:00–5:00 pm

[Download the PDF]

Attendees: Kay Nicholson (President), Tiffany Sprague (President Elect), Andrew Jones (Treasurer), Jessica Moreno (Corresponding Secretary), Audrey Owens (Board Member)

Board Members Absent: Melanie Tluczek (Recording Secretary), Holly Hicks (Board Member)

Action Items:

  • Jessica will contact the CE grant applicant to let her know that the beetle book proposal does not qualify for a CE grant (and will copy Kay).
  • Jessica will hide the political Facebook post. Kay will talk with Jon to see if he wants to repost this coming from him, rather than from the chapter.
  • Tiffany to create bylaw wording for board member removal. Ongoing.
  • Scott to review revised sections of JAM manual to determine what revisions are still needed; incorporate existing revisions into manual. Ongoing.
  • Jonathan Hicks to arrange memorial in JAM program for the late founder Cory Gray of Coda Net Guns. Ongoing.
  • Tiffany to coordinate TWS activities for public lands day. Done.
  • Tiffany will provide language requesting a newsletter editor to send to our email list. Ongoing.
  • Tiffany will touch base with Holly about contacting students to get articles for “Student Corner” in the next newsletter. In progress.
  • Kay will go through her list of folks that expressed interest in the past in being on the board. Done.
  • Holly will send a welcome email to students in the next couple of weeks. Done?
  • Jessica will send a summary of education survey results to the list serv. Done.
  • Scott will look into getting an instructor for a mobile app workshop. Done.
  • Kay will reach out to Jonathan about scheduling the fun shoot in the fall. In progress.
  • Kay will coordinate with the parent society regarding legal counsel on AZTWS’s affiliation with BISCUA. In progress. Kay following up.

Motions

  • Jon will draft a position statement using Idaho’s as an example and then send to board for review. Motioned by Tiffany. Seconded by Andrew. Passed unanimously.
  • Andrew motioned to adjourn the meeting. Jessica seconded. Passed unanimously.

Proceedings:

  • Melanie did not send out August or September meeting minutes. Kay will ask Melanie to do so. Approval tabled until November meeting.

Old Business

  • Review of action items from August meeting.
  • Tiffany to create bylaw wording for board member removal. Ongoing.
  • Scott to review revised sections of JAM manual to determine what revisions are still needed; incorporate existing revisions into manual. Ongoing.
  • Jonathan Hicks to arrange memorial in JAM program for the late founder Cory Gray of Coda Net Guns. Ongoing.
  • Tiffany to coordinate TWS activities for public lands day. Done.
  • Tiffany will provide language requesting a newsletter editor to send to our email list. Ongoing.

Current Business

  • Treasurer’s Report (Andrew)
    • Andrew was busy setting up JAM registration page. Needs to send out quarterly report (after Nov. 6).
  • Newsletter Report (Tiffany)
    • Fall 2017 issue done – Jessica posted on webpage, Facebook, and Twitter. Will also distribute via email.
    • Winter 2018 issue – need ideas for feature article
    • Newsletter editor needed! Included announcement in newsletter – will also send to Jessica to distribute via email. Please ask people if they’re interested!
  • Membership Report (Chris)
    • Not on call
  • Webmaster’s Report (Dean)
    • Not on call
  • Opportunities Report (Callie)
    • Not on call
  • Student Liaison Report (Holly)
    • Not on call
  • Conservation Affairs (Jon)
    • Federal Land Transfer position statement – see Idaho TWS example. Jon offered to draft a position statement using Idaho’s as an example and then send to board for review.
      • Motioned by Tiffany. Seconded by Andrew. Passed unanimously.
    • We need to be careful in our communication with our members and the public. Because of our tax-exempt status, we cannot communicate for or against any elected officials and should not request people to take specific action on specific
      legislation. A recent post on Facebook called out a specific Congress person and asked people to contact him regarding specific legislation. We should avoid doing this. Jessica will hide this post, and Kay will talk with Jon to see if he wants to repost this coming from him, rather than the chapter.

      • On Facebook, Kay is administrator, others are editors (Jessica, Tiffany, Audrey, Jon, Callie, Holly).
  • Continuing Education (Stan)
    • Continuing Education Survey – next steps
    • Potential workshops – See example on “How to Work with Local Governments”
      • Stan interested in helping with future workshops. Likely can’t take lead but is interested in being involved.
      • How often do we want to host CE workshops? Kay will look at our CE survey results and will put together a possible plan.
  • Board Nominations (Tiffany)
    • We’ve received a lot of interest but haven’t received confirmation from everyone. Currently, should have at least two candidates for each position except President Elect. Deadline for nominations (including bios) is Nov. 17.
  • Awards Nominations (Tiffany)
    • Awards announcement went out via email and also in newsletter. Only one nomination received so far. Please reach out to folks to nominate people/groups! Deadline for nominations is Nov. 17. Kay will help put together a flyer to request nominations.
  • Borderlands Institute for the Study and Conservation of Understudied Animals (Kay)
    • Parent society has some concerns with having AZTWS brand on it. Kay still coordinating on this.
  • Fun Shoot (Kay)
    • Nothing new to report. Might need to push back to spring.
  • Arizona Beetle Book
    • See proposal. Authors submitted an application for a CE grant, but it does not qualify for a grant.
    • Is this something we want to support? If so, need to decide out of what fund the money should come.
      • Don’t want to open the doors of supporting this book and potentially not supporting future requests. This also strays from our objectives. We also wouldn’t want to support without first reviewing, but none of us have the time or knowledge to do so.
    • We could invite her to be a vendor at the JAM and to market and sell her book there.
    • Jessica will contact the applicant to let her know that the proposal does not qualify for a CE grant (and will copy Kay).
  • Other Current/New Business?

Adjournment at 4:44 p.m.

  • Andrew motioned. Jessica seconded. Passed unanimously.