ANREP Executive Committee Meeting
December 18, 2012
Members Present: Eleanor Burkett, James Henderson, Dean Solomon, Mike Kuhns, Gary Goff, Sanford Smith, Chris Jones
Not present: Mindy Habecker, Duane Friend,
Non-voting Members Present: Eric Norland, NIFA liaison; Bill Hubbard, Executive Secretary
AGENDA:
ITEM #1. Additions to Agenda: none
ITEM #2. Approval to correct the date on the October 23, 2012 Minutes and accept November 27, 2012 Minutes as presented.Kuhns moved and Dean seconded a motion to approve the correction to October 23, 2012 minutes and approve the November 27, 2012 minutes. Motion unanimously approved.
ITEM #3. Executive Secretary’s Report - Bill Hubbard
· Membership – 465 members; 44 have paid 2013 dues; 316 have paid 2012 dues; 105 have paid 2011 dues (These members who only paid in 2011 are about to become delinquent if they don’t pay their dues.).
o 2013 Dues Notices will be distributed over the holidays to everyone’s email boxes. (The Board asked Bill to send the dues notices after the Holiday rush on January 7th to membership.)
o Membership by Region
§ 90 members from the Northcentral Region
§ 57 members from the Northeast Region
§ 184 members from the Southern Region
§ 132 members from the Western Region
o Florida Chapter now paying all their dues to the National Office; Will reimburse state their $35 per person on a quarterly basis (added responsibility of Executive Secretary to keep track of Florida dues and reimburse Florida Treasurer)
o Winners of the Free Membership Drawing was conducted
§ Allyson Muth, Penn State University
§ Carol Mack, Washington State University
§ Steven Rodie, University of Nebraska – Omaha
§ Database has been updated and winners have been notified.
· Contacted by IRS about tax-exempt status. Must refile due to changes in tax law. Under going process to do so at this time. Bill will send our application and payment to the IRS this month.
· Bank signature cards and debit cards will need to be updated and issued to appropriate individuals
· Website moving along. On track for release in January.
o Webmaster will help transition to a new webmaster in 2013 (per discussion with, webmaster, and current and incoming President of ANREP)
· Social media needs communicated to communication chair
· Newly updated Policy & Procedures Handbook placed online by EC
· All minutes and newsletters placed online by EC
· Several requests to post items to listserv were received and posted
· Listserv created and managed for NNSLE group; UGA hosting monthly calls
· Several W-9’s filled out
· ANREP online database updated regularly as dues come in.
ITEM #4. Treasurer's Report- Dean Solomon-
a) 2012 Financial Page. December records are posted now.
b) Audit committee. Dean suggests we create an audit committee to review financial records. Eleanor called for volunteers for and ad-hoc audit committee. Chris Jones volunteered to be on the Audit Committee. Jones volunteered James Henderson. Henderson accepted.
Additional points as Dean Solomon exits. We are in good financial state. The past two conferences were very successful financially. Budgets were conservative and we have underspent. Balance sheet as of 12/17/12 indicates total assets of $113,321.51. Things to think about for the future. We have enough money to fund possible special projects or to subsidize something of interest to ANREP. In the past we have used money from Galaxy to support our budget. The next Galaxy will impact future budgets, but not immediately. Do we want to include an inflation factor into our budgeting? We haven’t overspent but we may need to address that in the future. Dean recommended that we invest money that is just sitting in our account. Perhaps CD’s or in a savings account (we have a CD now)? But we must determine how much to leave in the checking account. But we are in really good shape. No immediate financial worries. Sandy asked about next year’s budget. Dean said this would need to be developed early in 2013. Dean says he thinks the budget should be similar to 2012’s. Sandy inquired about bringing up the incoming treasurer (Greg Frey) up to speed. Dean indicated that this is progressing well and the incoming treasure is up to speed and has acquired the necessary accounting software.
Gary Goff asked about expenses for professional development. Gary said this would be a good way to use up some of our excess funds to the benefit of the membership. Eleanor suggested offering some seed money in next year’s budget to the Professional Development Committee. Bill addressed Gary’s question about maintaining increasing amounts of cash and concerns with our tax-exempt status. Bill offered to review IRS regulations and report back to the committee. Everyone thanked Dean for being an excellent treasure.
ITEM #5. NIFA Update - Eric Norland. Not much going on at NIFA to report. Waiting to find out about budgets. Waiting on Farm Bill to see if programs will be reauthorized. RREA scenarios. We need congress to pass a Farm Bill that includes a RREA reauthorization. Farm Bill must be reauthorized every 5 years. An appropriation for RREA is also need. But who knows what Congress will do? Eric believes that reauthorization is very likely. The Conservation Title and Commodity Title are often subject to much disagreement but Eric believes RREA will be swept along for approval. Eric expressed appreciation for being included on the ANREP Exec. Committee meetings. Dr. Hiram Larew will join us on the call in January. Eric expressed appreciation for being included on the ANREP Exec. Committee meetings.
ITEM #6. President's Report - Eleanor Burkett
· ANREP Awards Committee Chair - No volunteers to serve as the committee chair. Eleanor suggested having the regional reps recruit for a committee chair.
· Wooden Plaques - Seven wooden plaques were received from Mike Reichenbach. We can give these to award winners the next few years. Perhaps the individual awards since there are only seven plaques.
· Professional Development Committee. The committee met. It was a good meeting that generated many ideas. Co-chair will be Lara Miller (along with Eleanor as the other Co-Chair). A future meeting will be held in January.
· National Forestry 4H Invitational Committee to request to ANREP to sponsor the national contest ($1,000.00)
· Smith moved and Jones seconded a motion to approve the request to sponsor the national contest in the amount of $1,000.00. Discussion: Dean said to remind the Invitational to provide us with a write-up on the event. Motion unanimously approved. Eleanor will notify Dave Jackson, 4-H Committee Chair via email.
· Promoting Galaxy IV - needs to be on everyone's radar
The Galaxy IV newsletter will be sent to the membership email list by Sandy Smith. Bill was charged to promote Galaxy IV on the ARNEP website. Sandy was asked to report on the deadline for the call for papers in the upcoming newsletter. Regional reps need to promote this as much as possible in their respective regions.
· Proceeds of Galaxy IV: 30% distributed equally among affiliate organizations. The other 30% will be distributed by membership affiliation numbers attending Galaxy. The other 40% will not be allocated to the membership affiliate organizations.
· ARENP reps to the Galaxy Executive Committee. Mindy Habecker has replaced Eric Glenn on serving on this committee, since Eric has resigned from Extension. Martin Havlovic will continue to serve as one of our two ANREP members on this Committee.
ITEM # 7. Galaxy IV Conf. Update - Sandy Smith. An update on the meeting was sent to the membership via email. Sandy suggested that we would not subsidize the cost of the two tours.
ITEM #8. Clarification on board member travel Sandy provided some clarification. Fly versus driving expenses. Some universities require travelers to make a comparison and the reimbursement will be the lesser of the two. On page 31 under TRAVEL REIMBURSEMENT POLICY the procedure is to print out the cost of the least expensive travel option and submit to the Treasurer. Bill please see this gets updated to the P & P Handbook and repost on the ANREP website.
ITEM #9. Proofreading of minutes - Sandy noted that the JCEP board has two of the attending members review the minutes for accuracy. Eleanor reviews the minutes after submission by Mindy Habecker. If volunteers are called to review the minutes, Eleanor suggests that review be done right away. ANREP does have the advantage of seeing the minutes being prepared during the meeting via Adobe Connect. Eleanor and Bill will review the minutes for this meeting.
ITEM #10. Sandy will be conducting a new board member meeting at 3 o’clock eastern time this Thursday (Dec. 20) and all board members are welcome.
ITEM #11. Adjourn Sandy Smith moved and Gary Goff seconded a motion to adjourn at 3:36.
* Minutes taken by James Henderson, reviewed by Eleanor Burkett and Bill Hubbard.