ArkGeo Board Meeting Minutes October 12, 2012

ArkGeo Board Meeting
Agenda for October 12th, 2012

Immediate Past President:Richard Lee
President:Chris Denton
Executive Vice-President:Ron White
Treasurer/Secretary:Judy Vaughn
Website Manager:Kevin Cackler


ROUND-TABLE DISCUSSION (6:00-6:30)Start conference call recording
Open Discussion: Wayne Lunsford dropped off copies of his work on the History of Arkansas Geocachers Association.
Note: Chris Denton donated a 500 minute calling card with a $27.06 value.

CALL TO ORDER (6:30) ROLL CALL OF MEMBERS PRESENT
Board Members present: Chris Denton, Richard Lee, Judy Vaughn, Morgan O'Neal, Tim Stone, Ron Laster, and Kent Uhrich
Visitors: Pat Vaughn, Maribeth Laster, and Susie Lee

OFFICER REPORTS


President's Report
President’s Report to the Board
Chris Denton
October 12th, 2012

As of Friday, October 12th, there are a total of 267 registered voters, giving us an increase of 14 since last quarter.

Arkgeo was involved in 6 events in the last quarter. 2 events at burns park, the cache bash and Cito. An event honoring Topkitty 98 for her service, and 3 area meet and greets in Bryant, Monticello, and Greenbrier.

The ArkGeo web site still continues to perform well and once again I would like to thank Kevin Cackler for all his hard work keeping us going. It is much appreciated.

A great big Thanks to all of those who volunteer and spend some of their time promoting ArkGeo and geocaching in the state of Arkansas.

Treasurer's Report
Prepared by Judy Vaughn
Arkansas Geocachers Association Treasurer's Report
July 13, 2012 – October 12, 2012

Beginning Balance					$929.40
Expenses:
Check Printing	48.06
July Fee	15.00
August Fee	15.00
September	15.00
TOTAL EXPENSES		$93.06
Income:
Merchandise			173.00
Fee Refund			45.00
TOTAL INCOME				$218.00
Ending Balance					$1054.34

NOTE: $176.47 in PayPal Account



Website Manager's Report – No report


COMMITTEE/OTHER REPORTS

Election Committee: Submitted by: Chris Denton election committee liaison.
There was no movement within the election committee during this last quarter. We will soon begin verifying committee members and begin to gauge interest in next year's nominees.


Fund Raising Committee: Submitted by: Tim Stone Fund Raising committee liaison.
The Fundraising Committee sold ArkGeo merchandise at the ArkGeo Burns Park event. We sold $164 worth. We have also sold 8 coins via PayPal in the last three months.
We have plenty of everything except car decals. We sold out of those and have discussed getting some new designs and buying more. We plan on bringing the merchandise to the Nimrod event to sell.


Community Relations Committee: prepared by Kent Uhrich (Board Liaison)
1. Committee recommended to the board - that ArkGeo attend the GIS event in November and to donate 2 ArkGeo t-shirts as door prizes. This was voted on by the board via board thread and passed.
2. A Committee member attended the setup of the GPS Discovery at the Museum of Discovery in Little Rock. The museum asked for more information on Arkgeo to pass out to the attendees. It was discovered that we (Arkgeo) are out of baseball style cards, brochures and all other types of information that can be handed out. I will bring this up in the round table discussion at board meeting.
3. Garvin Gardens update - This was turned over RKLMBL and they have been in touch with Garvin Gardens. RKLMBL has given Garvin Gardens a few ammo cans and asked if they could help hide them or test coords and the likes but GG said it would be later in the fall before they would be ready to do anything. CRC will keep the board posted on progress.
4. Request from Osceola Library to have a member of ArkGeo attend one of their Rotary Club meetings to discuss geocaching and ArkGeo. After several attempts I finally heard back from someone (no name or contact information other than email). I have posted a note in the CR forums with the information and requested dates of the meetings. I have heard from two who are interested but no commitments yet.


Events Committee: Submitted by Jim Sick board liaison.
The Burns Park Cache Bash and Burns Park CITO were held on August 11 & 12 at Burns Park. Although not originally starting out as Ark Geo events it was voted at the last board meeting to join CAGE and the North Little Rock Parks Department in helping promote these two events. Attendance was good and a great time was had by all of those attending.
The ArkGeo board hosted a special ArkGeo celebration on August 4th at the Western Sizzlin in Jacksonville to honor Topkitty98 (aka Beth Daniel). Beth has served as Treasurer for the Arkansas Geocachers Association since its founding in 2004. Thank you Beth for your years of service to this organization and for all the contributions you have made to geocaching in Arkansas.
On September 29th a Meet and Greet was held in Greenbrier hosted by BSA534.
On October 6th a Meet and Greet was held in Bryant hosted by RKL & Ron White.
A Meet, Greet, Eat and Learn was held at the Western Sizzlin in Monticello on September 15^th. The event was not well attended as was expected considering Monticello a town of 9600 only has 5 active caches. However contacts were made which can help promote caching in Monticello and SE Arkansas and that was the main purpose of this event. We contacted Beverly Burks the editor of the local newspaper about the possibility of doing a story on geocaching. Although she was not able to get an article in that week due to a shortage of space, she listed the event in the paper under the week’s events heading and wants to do an article at a later date. One of the 5 caches in town belong’s to two girls from Florida. They are both attending the University of Arkansas at Monticello and they brought their geocaching supplies with them to place more around the Monticello area. They have agreed to work with Beverly on her story and help us promote caching in SE Arkansas. Ricky Calhoon the Parks Director has agreed to help as well. The folks at Western Sizzlin were just super and want us to come back again.

There was concern voiced after this year’s annual meeting held in Daisy State Park that attendance was down and that we needed to look at several aspects of that event and possibly make some changes before next year. A survey was conducted among members of the organization in an attempt to see exactly what members wanted in regard to this annual event. Only 29 people took the time to fill out the survey and the results are posted below.
16 votes for having a separate meeting and large statewide event at different times13 votes for leave it like it is, everything the same. The results of this survey will be discussed at the board meeting on the 12^thand since one of the main problems with this year’s event was the heat due to the later date, one of the options to be discussed will be to move the event to the first week in May when it is a lot cooler. As to the drop in attendance I really think that one contributing factor to that is that each year there are more and more geo events being held in the state. With a lot more choices as to which event to attend or not I think that we are going to continue to see attendance at events affected and numbers fluctuate as cachers pick and choose which one to fit into their schedule of other non geocaching activities.


Membership Relations Committee:
Current Membership Relations Committee Members:
Ron White – ronwhite (Board Liaison)
Judy Vaughn – MathSeeker (Chairperson)
Justin Murphree – arkfiremedic
Morgan O’Neal – drmo913
Sharon and Glynn Simmons – Flyfishingcachers
Chris Dickinson – Saint Aubie

Membership Relations Committee Activities:
07/01/2012Posted on the homepage of the ArkGeo website the eighth Arkansas Geocacher showcased; ArkGeo Vice President, Ron White (ronwhite).
08/02/2012Posted on the homepage of the ArkGeo website the ninth Arkansas Geocacher showcased; Ron and Maribeth Laster (rklmbl).
09/03/2012Posted on the homepage of the ArkGeo website the tenth Arkansas Geocacher showcased; Kent and Kim Uhrich (KnKinCabot).

ArkGeo Newsletter – The Membership Relations Committee reports that the ArkGeo Newsletter has run into a snag of sorts. Due to work issues Morgan O’Neal (drmo913) as had to step back from helping on the ArkGeo Newsletter. It was reported that Chris Dickinson(Saint Aubie) has the information concerning the newsletter (passwords and templates), but not sure whether he really knows what to do with the information without some Board guidance. The last I heard was that there was a draft copy that was being looked at by several members of the Board and they were supposed to be updating with current articles and information. From that point, I’m not sure whether any new information can be placed in the newsletter if it is received by Chris and what the review process would be. The Board may want to put a request out to our members to see if we have any journalism type people out there that could help Chris finalize the newsletter. Also, I’m sure Chris would appreciate a phone call with some guidance on what he needs to be doing, if anything. Which brings up the question – Does the Board still want to pursue the idea of putting a newsletter out?



UNFINISHED BUSINESS

1. Possibility of selling coins on ebay
   Chris Denton made a motion to set up an ebay account for ArkGeo tied to our PayPal account to sell our geocoins. Motion was second by Jim Sick. Motion carried.
2. Annual Meeting Location
   Chris Denton made a motion for the Annual meeting and camping event to be held June 8^th and 9^th. Motion was second by Morgan O'Neal. Motion carried.
   Events Committee given the task of finding possible locations for the Annual Event Weekend.
3. ArkGeo History update
   Wayne Lunsford is working on our written history. He dropped off copies of his work to date. Thanks Wayne for documenting Arkansas Geocachers Association history.

NEW BUSINESS

1. Possibility of setting up region based sub-forums for different parts of state.
   Morgan O'Neal made a motion to table for further investigation. Motion second by Chris Denton. Tabled
2. Selling Coins on Geocaching.com forums
   Tim Stone will make a post on geocaching.com with a link to the buy page on ArkGeo. Tim Stone will also make a post on the ArkGeo facebook page for the coins.
3. Brochures
   Tim Stone will get price for rack cards and post in forums.
4. Newsletter
   Morgan O'Neal will try newsletter on google drive and check with Kevin Cackler about emailing it to the membership.
5. Fund Raising
   Purchase window stickers.
   Motion made by Tim Stone to purchase a total of $100 worth of window stickers, two different designs. Kent Uhrich second the motion. Motion carried.
6. Membership Concerns
   Chris Denton and Morgan O'Neal will talk with the Arkansas Reviewer about membership concerns.

Next board Meeting January 11, 2013
ADJOURNMENT
End conference call recording.