NAI 2005 Annual Board Meeting

March 20, 2005, 4 p.m.

Fort Smith, AR

 

Pat Silovsky: minutes approval from last meeting; John Miller motion; passes

 

Roll call: All present but Schanee Anderson, David Latona, Neil Garrison, Brian Stith, Eric Leonard, Lisa Cole

 

_____________________________________________________________________________

 

Old business:

 

Pat Silovsky:

  • Reorganization of the national board passed-new regional leadership council (all 10 regional directors); elect 4 people from council to sit on national board and represent all regions.  Sections will have 4 and regions 4 members; still working on how to select members; funding to send members to national to sit on board? 

 

  • Listserve for regional and sectional leadership councils-anybody on regional board can get on listserve – contact Pat

 

  • Exec committee members can also listen in on conf calls of national meetings (bimonthly)

 

  • Interpreter split out from Legacy; makes Legacy more broad based market (coffee table magazine)

 

  • First international workshop in 06; hired development director at national level who is working on funding/pay off new building/fund new positions

 

  • Tim Merriman will do presentation at business luncheon on what’s happening at national level

 

  • Staggered elections not allowed by our bylaws but does maintain “institutional memory”; some regions are doing this (have elections every year)

 

  • Regional exhibit: new logo from AR game and fish; will add to newsletter (make request for original artwork, no copies, high resolution; 8X10/300 dpi) Panels (not whole board) are getting worn; might want to update with new photos, theme, etc. (Kelly); AMI may use it in Aug.

 

John Morrow:

  • Regional workshop notebook-didn’t have one; new ones presented to state coordinators and director, deputy director, national level
  • Grady Manus has completed MO workbook
  • Designed so that states can add info to each state section ie committee contact info, summary and critique of workshop, etc.

 

Kelly Farrell

  • Workshop scholarship-Kelly-no scholarship for just financial aid (only students)
  • AMI funded 4 50% financial aid scholarships for this conference and 3 scholarship runners-up; out of chapter/scholarship funds? (money in Janus mutual fund and checking account); Dollar amount – registration + (around $400)
  • Need 2550 for scholarships; 1000 for mini; if we clear 4000, we apply 400 to financial aid (know how much to give next year after auction)
  • We can also use fundraisers for additional income (bendies/CDs)
  • Also have 2 free memberships to give out each year if the director chooses

 

John Miller: motion

  • That board should establish financial aid at 50% to attend workshop (any excess from schlarship funds, CD sales) with goal of making it a line-item issue for next year (where it comes from each year out of budget) and establish how we choose award winners (through scholarship committee?)
  • Jodi Morris second
  • Sarah Keating moved to table motion until membership is present
  • Bring up at business luncheon meeting
  • -form will be figured out by whoever administers (scholarship?)
  • -encourage more activity in NAI (form addresses need and service to NAI)

 

Sarah Keating:

  • Suggests alternate method for paying bills-proposed budget one year prior to workshop (example:  Tara Tucker would present to us during this conference)
  • Should be able to go back in records to get a proposed budget for conferences
  • Isn’t any other way to get money
  • Jodi-could national get credit card? – answer is no
  • Sarah-thinks treasurer should attend conference planning meetings (or by phone, etc) and work with registration chair-better idea of budget
  • Registration committee needs to communicate with regional treasurer not just national

 

_____________________________________________________________________________

 

Reports:

 

Treasurer-Sarah Keating:

  • Dec. checking 14, 719.67, Janis 16,096.19
  • Knew break-even point on registration for NAI conf; will come out ahead this year

 

Deputy director-Jodi Morris:

  • None

 

AR-Jay Miller:

  • Game and Fish doing good- involved in NAI, etc.
  • State parks director approved that this workshop be annual meeting for them.
  • White River National Refuge-new vc;
  • Dept of AR Heritage and Natural Heritage Commission becoming more active in NAI;
  • weak support from NPS (buffalo river);
  • U of A – Fort Smith degree program actively involved at conference, have degree program of interp of heritage sites, go through CIG, impressed with skills of public speaking and understanding of interp

 

MO-John Miller:

  • new facilities open-confluence, clark Norton, nature center at Cape (part of SEMO);
  • started MO master naturalist program (at west plains, Columbia, Joplin), train people to help give programs (administered by conserv. Dept and MO extensions service);
  • seasonal training in May with CIG

 

TX-Tara Tucker:

  • TWP dept sending people with CHI, CIG certifications to zoo

 

Workshop committee-John Morrow:

  • going well after 2 year build-up
  • orange/yellow shirts on committee—see them if need help
  • developed action plan for workshop committee members
  • changes at hotel may cause us to make less than proposed $4500
  • will present critique and after-action report to forward to board members and new workshop notebook

 

Scholarship-Kelly Farrell:

  • good response this year, funded 2 undergrads and 1 undergrad

 

Awards-Cyndi Evans:

  • did not get nominations for every category – 4 awards this year.
  • Committee working hard on coming up with revisions to committee by-laws/forms/etc
  • Not sure where to send revisions…
  • Recommendations:
    • Wanted to rename meritorious service after Bob Jennings
    • Add lifetime achievement award to match national
    • Change Baldauf to add “outstanding new interpreter”
    • Now giving out certificates per bylaws
    • Change articles to any interpretive article written by NAI member
    • Made many other recommendations (see attachment)
    • Changes from board:
      • Only if committee member NOMINATES someone, are they exempt from vote and Minimum score for awards (committee does not have to accept poor nominations); Require at least one nomination from each board member but no limit
  • Submitted budget $464 for next year.
  • Cyndi will send bylaw suggestions via email

 

 

Secretary- Tiffani Addington: Send 04 minutes to Eric

 

Elections committee-Don Simons:

  • 6 candidates willing to run; recruiting more this week; all officers will be replaced next year

 

Mini-grants-Pat Silovsky:

  • 1000 to give out; first deadline passed so sent reminder on listserve; 11 applicants; devised scoring system; 2 awards given out

 

Newsletter-Pam Tooley:

  • goes out regularly; one way to make money is to go back to bulk mailing (375 in mailing); about $1.85 per person; mailing 550 newsletters

 

CD sales-John Miller:

  • anything we sell now is profit; wants to announce that 40 CDs will fund financial assistance awards

 

 

2006 conference update- Tara Tucker:

  • March 24-28, University of Houston-Hilton
  • Theme:  revolves around Houston being meca of energy; incorporate “wealth of discovery”; working on wording
  • Number of off-site sessions, Calling presentors currently
  • Opening reception –director at Houston Zoo agreed to fund it at zoo with meal/keepers/animals/tours of zoo
  • Pam Tooley agrees to co-chair conference committee

 

_____________________________________________________________________________

 

 

New Business:

 

Kelly Farrell:

  • Scholarship auction chair-split into co-chair or into scholarship and auction chairs a lot of duties for one person; she would like to keep scholarship chair; Janet Price and Sarah Keating both volunteer for auction chair
  • Director will solicit someone for additional chair

 

Pat Silovsky:

  • 2007 NIW in KS-question is do we hold regional workshop in spring 2007 (in KS)
  • national would rather we don’t do a spring workshop
  • would rather people attend national workshop
  • what do we do about rewards, scholarship, auction?
  • Suggest we have a dinner for regional presentation of awards?
  • Kelly, Jodi, Sarah volunteer to be involved at region level for planning committee.
  • Jodi Morris moves we skip regional 2007 workshop in order to focus efforts on national workshop, and that we do hold professional award presentations at national workshop; KS bypasses turn in regional rotation. John Miller seconds; Motion passes

 

 

Sarah Keating motions to adjourn

Kelly Farrell seconds

 

  • Adjourn at 6:45 pm

 

_____________________________________________________________________________

 

 

2005 Board Members:

 

Director             Pat Silovsky

Dep Dir             Jodi Morris

Secretary          Tiffani Addington

Treasurer           Sarah Keating

TX coord            Tara Tucker

AR coord           Jay Miller

LA coord           David Latona

KS coord           Schanee Anderson

MO coord          John Miller

OK coord          Neil Garrison, Stephen Black

VIsions eds       Pam Tooley, Lisa Cole

Webmaster       Eric Leonard

Awards             Cyndi Evans

Scholarships     Kelly Farrell

Elections           Don Simons

Membership      Brian Stith

05 wksp chair    John Morrow

06 wksp chair    Tara Tucker