AREA BOARD MEETING

AQUATIC RESOURCES EDUCATION ASSOCIATION BOARD OF DIRECTORS MEETING

September 18, 2004

Hawk’s Cay Resort
Duck Key, Florida

•The meeting was called to order by Secretary, Laurel Garlicki. (The Chairman arrived late due to travel delays and joined the meeting.) Board members in attendance: Bob Jones, Laurel Garlicki, Jimmy Barnett, Sam Faith, Ti Piper, Doug Darr, Doug Thornburg, Mark Beauchesne, BeBe Harrison. Guests in attendance: George Shipp, Ann Miller, Ivy Santee, Tony Fedler.

• Reports from the Committees:
1. Administrative Committee – Laurel reported that the updated version of the Articles of Incorporation were mailed out for member review along with a ballot on Sept 6. The deadline for ballots to be received back by the Secretary is Oct 6. So far response has been positive. It was noted that as far as we are aware, it is not required that we have a lawyer review the new Articles, although it has been suggested. The new Articles will need to be submitted to the IRS as part of our 501(c)(3) status. Revisions to the Bylaws will have to wait until after Oct 6 so that changes from the new Articles along with other Committee recommendations can be included. Then, the Bylaws will go to the Board members for vote.

2. Membership Committee – Jimmy reported that he had great response from the membership to be part of his committee. He conducted a conference call on July 8 and corresponded by e-mail with the committee members. Jimmy wrote recommendations that were to be shared with the Board, but they didn’t get that far. He described the new membership categories and dues structure that the committee recommended. Jimmy also mentioned the new member mentoring idea, the new members lunch to be scheduled for each conference and other conference activities that would serve to welcome new members into the Association.

a. Awards Sub-Committee is being chaired by Hector Cruz-Lopez. Once award categories, criteria and applications are created, he intends to advertise for award nominations on our website and through the listserve.
b. The Membership Committee was also given the responsibility of maintaining the listserve.

3. Education Committee – Sam reported that an on-line discussion of the definition of stewardship was conducted.

4. Conference Committee – Marc Sommer, chair of this committee, was not present, although we assumed everything went well as we were now at the conference.

• Regional Representatives were directed to gather their members for the regional meetings scheduled later in the conference and vote for a representative.

• Membership Meeting:
- Bob Jones reported that an election of officers would be held and that nominations would be accepted from the floor.
- There was discussion of an agenda for the Membership Meeting.
- In order to present the recommendations from the Membership Committee during the Membership Meeting, the Board would need to act on them. Jimmy reported that the Membership Committee made the following motion for Board approval: 
A.) Regular Membership ($25.00 per person for two years) - This membership category provides full privileges, including discounted conference registration for the individual.
B.) Student Membership ($10.00 per person for two years) – This membership category provides full privileges, including discounted conference registration for the individual.
C.) Sponsor Membership ($100.00 per organization for two years) – This is a non-voting membership. (Individuals from sponsor membership can also join as a regular member with full privileges.)
Discussion followed the motion: Mark B. – Does the new structure allow for financial growth? Jimmy B. – Yes because organizations must pay $100 to become a sponsor and then each individual can purchase a regular membership at $25. Recommend we try this for one membership cycle to see how it goes. Hopefully it will encourage more corporate involvement. The Board can make adjustments to the structure later if needed. BeBe H. – will sponsor members have access to the listserve? Jimmy B. – Yes. Doug T. – Will the sponsor membership category be promoted to organizations? Jimmy B. – Yes, that is party of the committee’s goals.
- The Board was unanimously in favor of the new membership and dues structure. Laurel will incorporate it into the Bylaws revisions.

• General Discussion:
- George Shipp discussed how the conference committee structure is cumbersome and it was difficult to find out information because of the structure. It was even difficult just to figure out how to help. One of the resulting problems was that the Federal Aid folks could not attend the conference because the agenda was not created to fit their needs and made organizing the conference difficult. Bob Jones explained that the RFP contains very specific information about various roles within the conference committee. He also mentioned the difficulty of changing committee chairs midstream. He felt that organizing a conference will now be easier with the Conference Committee as a standing committee as a result of the strategic planning.

• With no other items to be discussed, a motion to adjourn was made by Jimmy Barnett, seconded by BeBe Harrison and was carried unanimously.

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