AZTWS Board Meeting
Conference Call Minutes
October 22, 2018
3:05–3:36 p.m.
Present: Tiffany Sprague (President), Andrew Jones (Treasurer), Holly Hicks (Corresponding Secretary), Valerie Horncastle (Recording Secretary), Melissa Merrick (Board Member), Brian Blais (Newsletter editor), Chris Carrillo (Membership Committee)
Board members absent: Jessica Moreno (President Elect), Audrey Owens (Board Member)
Action items
- Andrew will send out the quarterly report.
- Andrew will resend Aaron Prince’s article for the newsletter.
- Valerie will contact Carol Chambers about writing a newsletter article on her research with the New Mexico meadow jumping mouse.
- Tiffany will coordinate with Jessica, Rachel, and Bill about JAM registration, abstracts, student papers, etc. to make sure everything is on schedule.
- Jessica will send out information on board nominations.
- Holly will send out an announcement about the fall mixer to chapter members and all of the student chapters.
- Callie will post info about the fall mixer on our calendar.
- Everyone should review the diversity spreadsheet that Jessica shared and be ready to discuss at the November meeting.
Motions
- Meeting adjournment – moved by Holly, seconded by Andrew; passed.
Proceedings
Meeting minutes from the September meeting will be reviewed and approved during the November meeting because only two board members on today’s call participated in September meeting.
Old Business/Previous Action Items
- Andrew will finish a brief article for the newsletter discussing the funds we have dispensed via continuing education, supporting students to attend the national meeting via the parent society, and thanking folks who donated money to supporting students to attend the national meeting. Done
- Scott will write a blurb on our involvement with the Petrified Forest BioBlitz for the newsletter. Done
- Tiffany will explore setting up a Google Drive list of potential future newsletter articles and reserve of articles to use when needed. Ongoing
- Tiffany will send out a Doodle poll for a new time for the December meeting. Ongoing
- Tiffany will send info about turtle trapping to Melissa and Holly to share with UA TWS. Done – Holly shared with UA TWS
- Jessica will discuss website options with Andrew (e.g., pointing our domains to WordPress rather than using GoDaddy). Ongoing
- Jessica will ensure that the template for the online membership and communication system was sent out for review. Ongoing
- Jessica and Chris will work to set up an online membership and communication system for our chapter. Ongoing
- After MemberPlanet is updated, Tiffany will ask Chris to download member names from the parent society monthly. Ongoing
- Holly will work with Jessica on making an inventory of our promotional items (hats, tshirts, etc.), pricing, and photos for the website. Ongoing – Holly needs to finish taking pictures
- Andrew will schedule audit. Ongoing
- Audrey, Kay, and Melissa will coordinate a fall gathering for members. Done
- Audrey will book the Sharp Creek Campground for Nov. 10 member trip. Done
- Scott will follow up with Jesse Lewis from ASU to see if he is interested in participating in the fall retreat. Done
- Melissa will reach out to professors at U of A to see if they’d be interested in giving an informal talk at the fall retreat. Done
- Tiffany will ask Bill Dunn to include Jessica on JAM 2019 planning calls and will work to find at least one other person to participate on behalf of AZTWS. Done
- Jessica will send out information on award nominations for JAM. Ongoing
- Jessica will check in with individuals on whether current board members will be interested in staying in their positions. 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
- Tiffany to create bylaw wording for board member removal. Ongoing
- Other Old Business? (All) None
Current Business
- Treasurer’s Report (Andrew)
- Need to put out quarterly report Working on counting up t-shirts Scheduling audit
- Online Shopping (Tiffany)
- Inventory is done. Holly working on getting photos of each item.
- Holly was wondering if anyone kept track of the items (shirts/hats) that we occasionally give away. No one was aware of any document. Melissa still has a box of t-shirts from the Southern Arizona Science and Engineering Fair (SARSEF).
- Newsletter Report (Brian)
- The Fall 2018 Newsletter was sent out. Brian currently has 2-3 potential articles for the winter newsletter. Valerie will contact Carol Chambers about a feature article on the jumping mouse.
- Fidel Hernandez will no longer be writing the Southwest Section Tracks. Jim Ramakaa is the new SW Section Rep and will be taking over that responsibility.
- Andrew will resend Aaron Prince’s article.
- JAM 2019 planning (Tiffany)
- Jessica and Rachel were unable to make the first JAM meeting, but they have the minutes from the meeting. There are opportunities if anyone wants to be involved in helping with the layout and printing of the programs. Tiffany will coordinate with Rachel and Bill to make sure we are on track for student papers, registration, abstracts, etc. She will also find out if the NM chapter is heading the review of student papers or if the Arizona chapter will be involved. Melissa offered to help again this year.
- Board and Awards Nominations (Jessica not on call)
- An announcement went out for the awards nominations, but we have not received any nominations yet. The deadline is November 16th, so spread the announcement widely and nominate some worthy folks. An all member call will go out this week for Board elections. Please help us recruit some great board members, especially if you know underrepresented folks in the wildlife field to personally invite to our leadership team.
- Membership Report (Chris)
- Still working on Member Planet and hope to have it completed before JAM.
- Webmaster’s Report (Clarissa)
- Nothing new to report
- Opportunities Report (Callie not on call)
- Nothing new to report. Event calendar is currently not up to date. Callie has been extremely busy and Valerie volunteered to help out if needed.
- BioBlitz (Scott not on call)
- Nothing new to report
- Conservation Affairs (Jon not on call)
- Nothing new to report.
- Borderlands Foundation for Understudied Plants and Animals (Kay not on call)
- Nothing new to report.
- Student Liaison Report (Holly)
- UA student chapter is interested in helping out with the turtle project. Taylor from UA chapter will provide the student perspective article for the winter newsletter.
- Fall Mixer (Audrey not on call)
- Events for the mixer have been scheduled. Holly will send out the announcement flyer to chapter members and all of the student chapters.
- Diversity (Jessica – not on call)
- Jessica sent out a spreadsheet with some ideas for promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion. Please review the information and add any thoughts, comments, or ideas. Be ready to discuss at the November meeting whether we want to implement some of these ideas, what are the next steps, or whether we want this to become a mission statement.
- Future Meetings
- Reminder that the November 26 meeting has been shifted to 4 p.m. Tiffany is waiting for responses to the doodle poll before setting a new date for the December meeting.
Holly motioned to adjourn, Andrew seconded. 3:36pm adjournment