Minutes of PBAT General Meeting December 13, 2013 Page 5
Minutes of General Membership Meeting
December 13, 2013
Inn on Baron’s Creek, Walch House, Fredericksburg, Texas
Program
The meeting and program started with lunch at 12 noon. At 12:30 PM, President Doherty introduced our guest speaker for the program, John Weir from Oklahoma State University and a leader on the Great Plains Fire Science Exchange. John’s presentation was on the history and benefits or fire, concluding with his opinion that PBAs are the key to successful use of fire in the ecosystem today, and he encourages all of us to stay active and pursue his suggestion of contacting NRCS to encourage support of prescribed burning through PBAs.
He also gave us his opinion that we should not focus too much on burning only in the optimum conditions to achieve some specific goal, but to burn anytime it was safe in order to increase the amount of burning achieved.
Guest Linda Campbell, TPWD Private Lands and Public Hunting Director, told us of a new program at TPWD to provide a State Fire Management Coordinator for Texas with four regional fire specialists reporting to him. The new state coordinator is Seth Pearson (tel.: 325-203-2366 mob, email: .) His office is at 114 Center Ave., Suite 300, Brownwood, TX 76801. Seth was also there and spoke briefly with enthusiasm for working with us in the future.
President – Larry Doherty
President Larry Doherty called the business meeting to order at approximately 1:30 PM. A copy of the agenda for the meeting is attached as Exhibit A.
Secretary Dave Redden verified a quorum was present. Only one PBA was not represented by proxy or a representative present.
Attendees at the meeting are shown below by x in right column. Contact updates are noted in green highlight.
Member Organizations / Representative / Email address / Telephone1. Coastal Bend PBA / Charles Tatton / / (361) 646-9111 (h)
(361) 526-4007 (w) / x
Lynn Drawe / / (361) 215-0740 (m) / x
2. Edwards Plateau PBA / Jim Kenton / / (254) 386-3591 (h) / x
Curtis Schulze / / (325) 347-7250 (h) / x
3. Hill Country PBA / Bill Armstrong / / (830) 257-5391 (h)
(830) 660-4641 (m) / x
Rob Sandidge / / (830) 562-3428 (h)
(830) 796-5323 (m)
4. W Navarro Bobwhite Recovery Initiative / Gary Price / / (214) 454-3841 (w) / x
Sharon Lane / / (817) 797-3520 (m)
Jay Whiteside (Advisor) / / (254) 578-3786 (h)
5. North Central PBA / Rooter Brite / / (940) 872-1814 (h)
(940) 841-0132 (m) / Proxy
Brent Durham / / (903) 649-0222 (m)
6. N Texas Prescribed Fire Initiative / Stan Graff / / (214) 951-7434 (h)
(214) 951-7435 (w) / x
J W Smith / / (903) 966-2722 (h)
7. South Central Texas PBA / Dave Redden / / (936) 878-1988 (h)
(979) 218-0493 (m) / x
Larry Joe Doherty / / (979) 289-4216 (h)
(979) 289-9078 (h2)
(979) 251-1251 (m) / x
8. South Texas PBA / Susan Durham / / (361) 348-3020 (h/o)
(361) 522-5194 (m) / x
David Kelly / / (361) 325-2484 (h)
(364) 474-0075 (w)
9. Texas Panhandle PBA / Andrew Bivins / / (806) 376-4147 ext. 206 (w)
(806) 679-9969 (m)
Dale Smith / / (806) 376-4147 Ext. 204 (w)
(806) 678-4147 (m)
10. Trans Pecos PBA / Ernie Reesing / / (432) 837-2974 (w)
(432) 386-2299 (m) / Proxy
Bonnie Warnock / / (432) 837-8488 (w)
(432) 940-9809 (m)
11. Tri-Canyon PBA / Bob McCarson / / (830) 683-2275 (h)
DISSOLVED / Jim Tom / / (830) 232-6999 (h)
(830) 486-8295 (m)
In addition, the following Directors who are not Member Representatives and several guests attended. Those were:
Allen Ersch – Director – Insurance Committee Chair
Butch Taylor – Director - Nominating Committee Chair
Ray Hinnant – Director – Education Committee
Kirk Feuerbacher – Coastal Bend PBA Sec./Treas.
Maria Gutierrez – IRNR
John Weir – Oklahoma State University and Great Plains Fire Science Exchange
Linda Campbell – TPWD
Seth Pearson – TPWD
The PBAT General Meeting was called to order by President Larry Doherty at 1:30 PM.
President – Larry Doherty
Larry Doherty reported that PBAT had received recognition from the IRS in early December that we are now officially a 501(c)(3) tax exempt organization. He also requested that each PBA representative notify the members of their PBAs and encouraged all to consider donating to PBAT and to look for ways to assist PBAT in fundraising. Jim Kenton, Vice President, requested that something in writing be prepared to send to the members to explain what the donations would be used for and why they should contribute. Larry Doherty stated that he believed this had been done earlier with little or no response, but at it could be sent out again now that we are officially tax exempt.
Larry also gave a brief status update on the law suit involving Edwards Plateau PBA and the potential outcomes that may affect our ability to get liability insurance in the future.
Treasurer – Stan Graff
Stan submitted a report showing that we have approximately $3155 in our bank account. Details for expenditures and income from donations are attached (Exhibit B). A total of $8050 has been contributed to PBAT. Of that amount $4850 was used for legal services and $45 for bank fees.
Stan’s report included his role as Finance Committee chairman. The discussion involved ways for fundraising, now that we are a 501(c)(3). Linda Campbell suggested that we develop a strategy (pitch or theme) that we can use to approach agencies or corporations. She offered support from TPWD in developing a plan for implementing that strategy once we had a clear message that we could communicate what we wanted to do with the money.
Susan Durham asked if there was a brochure or some printed material describing PBAT that could be used in approaching potential donors. Larry Doherty reminded us of the brochure and fact sheet that are posted on the website at http://pbatexas.org/Resources.aspx. Printed copies of these may also be available through Larry Doherty or from Maria Gutierrez at IRNR.
Jim Kenton suggested that the Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association (www.texascattleraisers.org ) might be a source of funding. Rooter Brite (representative for North Central PBA) is the chair of the Agricultural Research Committee of TSCRA and may be able to help us.
Insurance – Allen Ersch
The insurance issue is still uncertain. A of now, Texas Farm Bureau and Germania are the only two companies that are writing Farm and Ranch policies that will cover hostile fire resulting from prescribed burning. Three others may be suitable, but have not been confirmed yet. Please contact Allen Ersch if you want to discuss some specific issues.
Education – Ray Hinnant
Ray reported on the completion of the work that was done for the Texas Prescribed Burn Board for training for certified insure prescribe burn managers as part of the grant that as used to establish PBAT. This includes the PBAT Fact Sheet (http://pbatexas.org/Files/Resources/fact%20sheet.pdf ), the PBAT Brochure (http://pbatexas.org/Files/Resources/brochure.pdf ) and nine presentations (PowerPoint® slides in PDF format at http://pbatexas.org/Training.aspx). The nine presentations have been submitted to Texas PBB for review and approval. Their review status is unknown.
Ray also suggested that there be a greater effort to provide educational material and organizational support for the PBAs on the website. There were no specific suggestions or a motion.
Legislative Review – Susan Durham
Susan Durham reported that there are currently no proposed Texas legislative changes related to prescribe burning. One item that was nearly completed was a change in TCEQ rules which did not include mitigation of wildfire risk as an approved exception for prescribed burning. This change was requested by the Texas PBB and was accepted. It is expected to be adopted by the commission January 15, 2014.
There is also administrative action (although not legislation) in the agencies that do affect prescribed burning. The Texas Wildfire Prevention Task Force, under the Texas Agriculture Dept., is looking into ways to get insurance companies to encourage wildfire mitigation through discounts to policyholders. Prescribed burning may be suitable for such consideration.
In addition, The Texas PBB has recreated an advisory board to investigate issues and impediments to prescribed burning specifically aimed at the lack of availability of liability insurance for certified prescribed burn managers and PBAs. The first meeting of this advisory committee is January 8 in Austin. PBAT will be represented on the committee.
Exhibit C attached is a more detailed list of items Susan reported.
Nominating – Butch Taylor
Butch Taylor submitted his committee’s report, which was that all officers and directors continue in their current positions for one more year.
A motion was made to accept the recommendation of the nominating committee for the election of the officers and directors. The motion was seconded and passed.
New Business
President Doherty opened the floor to any new issues or concerns.
Stan Graff proposed that PBAT form a committee to provide guidance to the Texas Wildfire Prevention Task Force to help them address our concerns. Larry Doherty appointed Stan to head the committee. Stan responded with a request for a brief brainstorming of the members present to identify several key issues. These are the items that were mentioned:
· We need to have ecological goals for burning consistent with the ecoregions.
· How do we meet/obtain financial responsibility?
· What can be done to improve public education on prescribed burning and wildfire mitigation? How can we counter the fear of fire brought up by previous education campaigns?
· We need to emphasize that wildfire prevention starts years ahead of the actual wildfire.
· Around 95% of Texas is private land. We need to focus on the landowners to have a significant impact for wildfire prevention.
Charles Tatton, Coastal Bend PBA, reported that they have received a grant which they will use to get professional communication equipment. He said that they will need to file for a radio frequency and wondered if there would be any advantage in requesting a statewide frequency under PBAT instead to having a local one for their PBA. Without a vote, it was suggested Charles file for a statewide frequency that could be used by all PBAT members.
Adjourn
A motion to adjourn the General Membership meeting was made, seconded and passed at approximately 3:25 PM.
Submitted by ______Secretary, PBAT. January 2, 2014.