Board Meeting Minutes - July 22, 2011

[topkitty98]

ArkGeo Board Meeting



ROUND-TABLE DISCUSSION (6:00-6:30)


Open Discussion


CALL TO ORDER (6:30)

ROLL CALL OF MEMBERS PRESENT

Richard Lee (idratherbehiking)
Tim Stone (BSA534)
Beth Daniel (topkitty98 )
David Spicer (paris1time)
Chris Denton (cpdenton)
Ron Laster (1/2 of rklmbl)
Kent Uhrich (KnKinCabot)
Judy Vaughn (mathseeker)
Ron White (ronwhite)
Kevin Cackler (thecacklers)

Visitors Present:
Kim Uhrich (1/2 KnKinCabot)
Anna Cackler (1/2 theCacklers)
Jeremy Rowland (daTexanBoy)
Pat Vaughn (woodwalker9)
Mike Waid (CardsFans55)
MariBeth Laster (mbl of rklmbl)
Wayne Lunsford (gaddiel)


OFFICER REPORTS

President's ReportPresident’s Report to the Board
by David Spicer
July 22nd, 2011

The activities for ArkGeo in the last quarter included the board elections, Annual Event, Eat-N-Greets, and other activities.

Probably the most important activity was the election of new board members. The Election Committee worked hard on finding candidates and the election was held in May with the announcement of the new board members at the Annual Meeting at Lake Ouachita State Park. Chris Denton, Ron White, and Kent Uhrich were elected and take office in July. I want to congratulate them all and thank them for their willingness to serve.

There were a total of 54 that voted in this year’s election. As of Thursday, July 21st there are a total of 211 registered voters, of which approximately 100 or more members have not even logged into ArkGeo for the last year. Voter turnout continues a downward trend in those voting each year. There has been discussion in the past on how to increase voter turnout, and it continues to be an issue to be worked on in the coming year.

ArkGeo held its Annual Meeting, Hot Dog Cookout, and Cache In Trash Out Event at Lake Ouachita State Park on June 4th and 5th, 2011. Turn out was good and a lot of great work was accomplished to help repair some of the damage done by the spring storms to the park. Thanks again to the committees and all those who helped with the events.

During the quarter ArkGeo Eat-N-Greets were also held in Texarkana and Springdale.

The ArkGeo web site has also continued to perform well and thanks to Kevin Cackler for his work on the web site and insuring the online elections were held without any problems.

I wish Richard Lee as the new Board President, the board, and its officers good luck over the next year. Thanks to all of those who volunteer to serve and spend some of their time promoting ArkGeo and geocaching in the great state of Arkansas.


Treasurer's Report
Beginning balance 3/31/11 $1887.97
* Total deposits: 972.09
* Total disbursements: 723.26
Ending balance 6/30/11 $2135.83

Deposits included:
* Donations $ 427.00 ($200 specified – Arkansas Challenge Event)
* Interest 1.09
* Fundraising 544.00

Disbursements:
* R. Swanson (carabineers) $225.98
* 4:13 Graphix (t shirts) 350.76
* R. Lee (annual meeting/picnic supplies) 146.52

Website Manager's Report
The traffic to the website has more than doubled since the annual meeting!

COMMITTEE/OTHER REPORTS
Election Committee prepared by Beth Daniel - topkitty98, Board Liaison

The Election Committe's current members are:
Will Pumphrey (Flannelman) (chairman)
Reid Henry (SJClimber)
Richard Lee (IdRatherBeHiking)
Edie O'Bryant (EdieO)
Beth Daniel (topkitty98 ) (Board liaison)

The Election committee actively recruited eligible members to run for the Board. Elections were held and the results were announced at the annual membership meeting in June.

The following members volunteered, have been approved, and placed on committees:

Brad & Nadia Lambert - DctrPepper - Membership Relations
Jerry Turner - Cachemates - Election
Morgan O'Neal - drmo913 - Membership Relations
Deanna O'Malley - Hogwildfamilyof6 - Fundraising
Chris & Kristie Moore - Pizzaboy2600 & Guwisti - Events
Sharon Simmons - Flyfishingcachers - Fundraising
Mike & Jen Waid - Cardsfans55 - Fundraising

Fund Raising Committee
There's been a lot more discussion since receiving our new committee members. We began the sale of carabineers this quarter. We have discussed the possibility of a new geocoin. We have discussed additional choices of hats, particularly those with mesh. We know that caps are big sellers and want to keep those in stock. We have a list of current merchandise inventory. We discussed an online store.

Community Relations Committee - Prepared by Judy Vaughn - MathSeeker Board Liaison

The Community Relations Committee is made up of:
Judy Vaughn (MathSeeker) (Board liaison)
David Spicer (paris1time)
Jim Sick (sayitagain)
Clark Gray (cfd29)
Brett Phillips (brettp2004)
Jim and Susan Yeager (Apache_Scout)

The committee has discussed educating Arkansas Law Enforcement about Geocaching.
The committee members solicited door prizes for the annual meeting.
Jim and Susan Yeager (Apache_Scout) were added to the committee.

Events Committee - Prepared by Richard Lee/IdRatherBeHiking Board Liaison

The Events Committee is made up of:
Richard Lee - idratherbehiking (Board Liaison)
Jason & Lisa Nuckols - jclaudii & southerngirl(Co Chair)
Ken Hayes & Sue Hayes- Nukeworker & Raquetballgirl
Brian Bryant - B62GTAWK
Blair Shelton - pshelto
Jim Fryar & Sandy Fryar - likestocanoe
Judy Franklin - jffok
Ron White - Ron White
Kim and Kent Uhrich - KnKinCabot

The committee planned and prepared for our annual event in June and it was again a success.
The committee members also solicited door prizes for the event which continues to be a challenge.

Planning has begun for next years event at Lake Ft Smith State Park to be held on June 2nd and 3rd.

We are still in the planning stages for the Arkansas Challenge Event to be held in November at Mt. Nebo State Park. Cache page will be published by August 10th.

We are planning a trail maintenance CITO for the fall. The road into the area should be completed by that time to allow easier access to the northern portion of our section.

All committee work was done either in the forums or email. No conference calls were held this quarter.
Chris & Kristie Moore - Pizzaboy2600 & Guwisti were added to the committee.

Membership Relations Committee - Prepared by Tim Stone (BSA534) Board Liaison

The Membership Relations Committee is made up of:
Tim Stone - BSA534 (Board Liaison)
Judy Vaughn - MathSeeker (Chair)
Justin Murphree - arkfiremedic

ArkGeo has published 4 new caches since the Annual Meeting, bringing the total of ArkGeo caches to 6.
Committee Chair Judy Vaughn has continued to maintain the list of member participation points.
The photo contest discussion has not progressed and the idea of member interviews has received no discussion at all.
The committee is down to 2 members and not much discussion has gone on in the forum. It is my hope that a new board liaison and some additional members will make this committee active once again.


UNFINISHED BUSINESS

I. Status of ArkGeo Goals

The meeting of all goals was discussed. Goals were revised.

II. Possibility of producing another ArkGeo Geocoin

The Board approved the Fundraising Committee, along with the Membership Relations Committee, doing further research into the design and pricing of a new edition of an Arkansas Geocoin.


III. Moving the ArkGeo bank account to a new bank

The Board approved moving the Arkansas Geocaching Association's account to Regions Bank. The signature members will be the current President, Richard Lee, and current Secretary/Treasurer, Lizebeth Daniel. We are a non profit 501c7 organization.

We will be activating a new PayPal account when the bank account is at Regions.

IV. Getting caches approved in National Parks (Buffalo River and Hot Springs)

The Buffalo River National Park will be discussing at their next meeting the possibility of allowing us to place Earth Caches in their park. Virtual Caches are also a possibility, should they be available to us in the future.

Hot Springs National Park has not returned our inquiries yet.

Both of these projects will be forwarded to the Community Relations Committee.

V. New website ideas and direction going forward.

* We will be moving the ArkGeo email to an ArkGeo.org address. The gmail account will be forwarded to the new address.
* In order to facilitate easier communication, we will set up the ability to send ArkGeo email directly to the appropriate committee liaisons, officers, or the entire board.
* We will be moving the points for participation spreadsheet from google docs to the database. This will facilitate the use of points when we are able to use an online store.
* Web site accounts that have not been active for over two years and have no forum posts will be deleted. Web site accounts that have been inactive for over two years, but have posted in the forums in the past will have their voting privileges removed. This will be reflected in the standing rules.
* Web site will now have links to enable anyone to find and read the minutes of meetings. All discussion of the minutes will stay in the forum threads.

VI. ArkGeo trading cards

The Board approved the production and purchase of ArkGeo trading cards at a cost of $ 113.66. These will be used for promotional purposes.

NEW BUSINESS

I. ArkGeo History

The Board approved Wayne Lunsford to begin a written history of the Arkansas Geocaching Association to be used for archival purposes.

II. Making the Standing Rules a public document.

The Board approved that the Standing Rules will now be a public document.

III. ArkGeo Scholarship

The possibility of an ArkGeo scholarship was tabled for further discussion in the future.

IV. Annual Meeting Minutes

Minutes from the Annual Meeting will be taken and posted in the future.

V. ArkGeo treasurer/fund raising reporting. Standardized and detailed.

Records must be kept of all costs and all profits for each fund-raising activity. Fundraising committee liaison will give full accounting of funds entrusted to the committee in written form to the Board at each quarterly Board meeting. This will include an inventory report and a sales report. An amount of 40 dollars will be kept with merchandise and will be verified before any sales are made. All other monies will be deposited in a timely manner.

VI. ArkGeo Facebook Page - This was tabled for later discussion.
VII. ArkGeo board member participation and commitments - This was tabled for later discussion.
VIII. Improving communication with the membership through the Forums - This was tabled for later discussion.
IX. Getting Geowoodstock to Arkansas - This was discussed briefly, then tabled for later discussion.

X. New Board liaisons

The following liaisons from the Board to the committees were appointed:
Election Committee - Chris Denton (cpdenton)
Membership Relations Committee - Ron White (ronwhite)
Community Relations Committee - Kent Uhrich (KnKinCabot)
Events Committee - David Spicer (paris1time)
Fundraising Committee - Tim Stone (BSA 534)

Comments from the membership: Open discussion

Next Board meeting is October 14th, 2011 in Conway

[OldRiverRunner]

I want to thank the Board of Directors for the prompt posting of the minutes for the July meeting. Good job!

Regarding the minutes, I have a few comments:

Thanks for approving to make the Standing Rules public. And I see they are already available under the Documents section of the website.

The committee reports are all provided in detail as part of the minutes. Could these be separated out as independent documents, accessible by links in the minutes? Just looking to shorten the minutes, as the committee reports, while interesting, should not be the meat of the minutes.

In contrast, the item on the Goals for ArkGeo has no details at all, except that the goals were discussed and revised. The minutes should reflect what specific changes were made in the goals, and also the current status of each goal.

I looked back through earlier minutes and it is not clear to me when the Board voted to remove Bert Drake as website manager and formally appoint Kevin Cackler. I have no problem with the change, but this is the type of action that must be explicitly documented in the minutes. A lot of the other stuff doesn't need to be included in the minutes, but that is at the discretion of the Board. But the action regarding the replacement of a Board member must be documented.

Also, since Bert was one of the founding Board members, did the Board do anything to recognize his service? Other retiring founding Board members received a plaque. Was one given to Bert? If not, the Board should take action on this at the next meeting. Or, better yet, call a conference call or take a vote over the Board only section of the Forums and take action on it now. Bert deserves to be recognized.

The section on removal of members, and especially voting rights, bothers me some. I agree that there is a problem that needs to be addressed. But the Board should be careful not to violate the Bylaws. I think that putting the guidelines for removal into the Standing Rules is appropriate, but the way I read the Bylaws, the Board needs to vote on the removal of membership of each member. By extension, I think this would apply to voting rights. The Board needs to review the Bylaws and determine what the proper approach should be.

It is unfortunate that the discussion of improving communication between the Board and general membership through the Forums was tabled. This is an important topic that should not have been delayed and should have received higher priority in the agenda than some of the other items which were covered. Perhaps too much time is spent on the committee reports and old business?

With regard to Item 7, perhaps the Board should consider meeting more frequently than once per quarter. I know from experience that the meetings can be very long. And I heard that this meeting did not end until 10 PM and it is clear that a LOT of items were left unaddressed. Perhaps monthly conference calls could be held in the months between the quarterly meetings, as a way to keep the physical meetings limited to once per quarter.


Please take these comments in the manner in which I intended, as ways to make the minutes and Board even better.

Again, you are doing a GOOD JOB! Thanks for your service!

[Ashallond]

I had mentioned to pars1time that pathtags were allowing for geocaching groups to have a logo put on the back of pathtags, and that any pathtags that had the logo on the back had a portion of the profits shunted to the organization.

Since many people in Arkansas has pathtags, should we look into this as a possible easy fundraiser? I see discussion about the new geocoin, but I figure paris may have forgotten about this since I only mentioned it once at an event.

[BSA534]

I'll look into the pathtag thing. We've had a couple of ArkGeo pathtags produced. Thanks for the info.

[jclaudii]

regarding membership and removal of voting privlidges:

Section 2. Membership
Each applicant for membership shall be required to provide ArkGeo with their name, address, phone, email address, and geocaching alias, as well as other information deemed necessary for contact and identification of a candidate. Any applicant who has provided ArkGeo with the above information, supports the goals of ArkGeo as described in the Mission Statement, is at least 18 years of age, and is a resident of the State of Arkansas or bordering states will be considered a member of ArkGeo. Any member who is in good standing with ArkGeo will be eligible to vote.
Membership Revocation/Withdrawal. Membership revocation shall require a majority vote by the Board. In the event of a tie, the Chair of the Board's vote will serve as tiebreaker. Any member may withdraw his/her own membership, without penalty and to be effective immediately, by giving written notification to the Board.

I think we can provide a spreadsheet/table/or even a hardprint version of all the members who will have their membership removed so the board can just vote overall on it at the next meeting after reviewing all of the names. Also, any members that will be removed can be on a separate table for the board to see to verify. If all board members sign off on it that they have looked over and agree, then at the next it will just be a "all in favor" type vote to let us do this.

Also, I am in big time favor of just keeping track of our monies and assets/merchandise via a detailed report that comes out quarterly. Also, if there needs to be any help on this end I would be glad to help form a simple document that just lets the seller "check" what was sold and they turn that into the treasure when they turn in that particular event's earnings. It would serve as an audit and as a way for us to see what is selling the best.

also, I have been dabling in opencart.com open source shopping cart system and this could be easily implemented into our arkgeo site. It just requires a paypal and all the checkout bit is handled through payal (or whatever payment module we would want setup). opencart.com has a demo of their site, check it out and look at the admin side as well, very easy to use, setup, manipulate, edit, etc.

[TnT]

Now I'm confused. I was under the impression that to vote you had to provide name, address, etc. But, according to this, we have to provide this information simply to be a member. So then, what constitutes a "member in good standing" to determine voting eligibility? Seems to me that simply not logging on for an extended period is not necessarily cause to revoke membership.

[kcackler]

When you provide your name, address, etc..., you become a "Registered Voting Member". There is a difference between having an account in the forums and actually being a registered voting member.

If a user account is NOT a registered voting member AND has not been on the forums in over 2 years AND has no forum posts, the account will be deleted.

If a user account IS a registered voting member AND has not been on the forums in over 2 years AND has no forum posts, the account will be deleted.

If a user account IS a registered voting member AND has not been on the forums in over 2 years AND has forum posts, the account will be downgraded back to a regular website account. At any time, the user may choose to log back in and re-register to become a voting member.

The thing is that the line in question has been in the standing rules for quite some time, but was not being enforced or understood very well.

I'm just passing along the information as I've understood it.

[Clark~Griswold]

Also, I am in big time favor of just keeping track of our monies and assets/merchandise via a detailed report that comes out quarterly. Also, if there needs to be any help on this end I would be glad to help form a simple document that just lets the seller "check" what was sold and they turn that into the treasure when they turn in that particular event's earnings. It would serve as an audit and as a way for us to see what is selling the best.

also, I have been dabling in opencart.com open source shopping cart system and this could be easily implemented into our arkgeo site. It just requires a paypal and all the checkout bit is handled through payal (or whatever payment module we would want setup). opencart.com has a demo of their site, check it out and look at the admin side as well, very easy to use, setup, manipulate, edit, etc.

The Fund Raising Committee has a spreadsheet of the current inventory and the simple document you mentioned to check off what we sell. We use that to update the inventory after each event so we don't have to count everything again. Until recently, there were only two active members of the committee, so we basically communicated by email. We have several new members since the annual event who are chomping at the bit, and we are trying to schedule a conference call this week to discuss geocoins. The spreadsheet was published to the Fund Raising Committee forum. I could post it elsewhere if there is interest.

The opencart sounds like it has potential. We have discussed reviving the cafe press account and this may be a better alternative. We will make it our second initiative after the geocoin. We need the bank account moved to Regions first so the PayPal account can be set up.

[kcackler]

The opencart sounds like it has potential. We have discussed reviving the cafe press account and this may be a better alternative. We will make it our second initiative after the geocoin. We need the bank account moved to Regions first so the PayPal account can be set up.

Having worked with Opencart in the past for multiple clients, I am incredibly opposed to its use on our website. As far as open source cart systems go, it is one of the better ones, BUT it has its issues, and is WAY more than we need for ArkGeo. Couple in the fact that I would have to modify its core files to tap into the member points system, and I may as well just code our simple needs store from scratch.

I already have a rudimentary e-commerce functionality built for the website (In anticipation of bringing a store live) and all that's left is to fine tune it and finish up the points system so that we can tap into it for people to redeem their points for cash value.

[TnT]

When you provide your name, address, etc..., you become a "Registered Voting Member". There is a difference between having an account in the forums and actually being a registered voting member.

If a user account is NOT a registered voting member AND has not been on the forums in over 2 years AND has no forum posts, the account will be deleted.

If a user account IS a registered voting member AND has not been on the forums in over 2 years AND has no forum posts, the account will be deleted.

If a user account IS a registered voting member AND has not been on the forums in over 2 years AND has forum posts, the account will be downgraded back to a regular website account. At any time, the user may choose to log back in and re-register to become a voting member.

The thing is that the line in question has been in the standing rules for quite some time, but was not being enforced or understood very well.

I'm just passing along the information as I've understood it.


So, the standing rules override the by-laws?

[kcackler]

I'm not saying that, as I don't know. I was just attempting to clarify what appeared to be a source of confusion in the wording of the standing rules.

[hogwildfamilyof6]

Sorry I couldn't make the meeting, but I sure was excited to see that our meet and greet held in Texarkana was on the minutes!! I am really excited that I get to be a part of this great organization, I just hope that I get emails letting me know when I need to do something or getting event information. I do try and look at this site, but sometimes I forget (or run out of time,lol). The only added comments that I have, is that I saw you were looking at talking to law enforcement agencies. I just wanted to offer my assistance in the Southwest. I happen to be a 911 dispatcher in Texarkana, so I dispatch for the cities of Texarkana, AR and Texarkana, TX and the sheriff's office as well on TX side, but I also volunteer daily with a taskforce and we partner with 6 law enforcement agencies in our region so I have names I can pass on, or would be more than happy to set up those meetings for you or do them if it would help. And also, as I have been posting everywhere, the Texarkana geocachers are planning our next event to be held in Fouke, AR on October 21st. This will be our biggest event yet, so Im hoping to have a great turnout. We have a special "monster" in our area called the Fouke Monster, or you might have heard of him referred to as 'The Legend of Boggy Creek'. Well, we will be going on a hayride in his neck of the woods in search for our legend. We will also have food, games for all ages, and a special surprise for all in attendance. It's not something you will physically receive, but it will be great and a first for our community, and those in attendance will be a part of it. I do have one question though, I see that you can get a special souvenir for having 500 in attendance? How would I go about making sure that we could get that for our event, just in case we happen to reach that goal?

[ronwhite]

I have the Southwest part of the State this year, so I'd love to talk/e-mail to you about having a ArkGeo sponsored meet and greet, maybe in Hope. As for the special souvenir for 500 in attendance, I don't know about that, but if you have 500 in attendance for you October event, I will personally give you guys a recognition plaque. That would be awesome!!!

[ArkGeo_Board]

Here is the trading card the board approved. They should be in soon. They will be great to drop in caches to promote our organization.
4344

[hogwildfamilyof6]

Just email me or you can call me at 903-748-0782 and I'll be happy to assist. And about the 500, that's not a huge goal at this point, but just curious to know how it works as we get closer. I know we will have several people there that aren't geocachers (yet), so that would account for greater numbers than what we have on the geocaching website. Thank you for your assistance.