SCRPA Board Meeting

Wednesday, October 19, 2016

SCRPA Office-Lexington, SC

MINUTES

In Attendance: Jim Headley, Eric Stewart, Lawanda Curry, TJ Rostin, John Alexander, Doyle Best, Ray Dunham, Josh Sullivan, Matt Elswick, Neal Hamilton, David Caldwell,Amy Evans

Not Present:Randy Gibson, Mark Sexton, David Williams, Shannon Loper,Jeff Metz, Leslie Ballard, Scott Wilhide

  1. Welcome.
  1. Approval of Minutes: A motion to approve the July board meeting minutesand the October business meeting minuteswas made, seconded and passed unanimously.
  1. Reports
  1. Branch Updates
  2. ELM- Continuing to work on Trends Institute for February.
  3. PRM- Finalized Parks Maintenance Institute. Eric Russo will serve as chair in 2017.
  4. RAP- Met at conference. TPS is on schedule. Buddy Faile will serve as chair in 2017.
  5. Student- The Student Branch is continuing to recruit student members; they plan to attend the Clemson University internship/job fair. The SCRPA Annual conference was a success. Clemson University brought 75+ students and staff to conference each day.Cole Thomas will serve as chair in 2017.
  6. SCAP- SMI is set for December 8-9, 2016 in Lexington.
  7. CBM- This is Scott Wilhide’s last year; we currently do not have a replacement.
  1. District Updates
  1. Western- Held their fall workshop at the Pavilion Ice Complex followed by a tour of the new ice plant.A joint district social was held at Carolina Ale House during the conference.Several individuals are interested in serving as District Vice President in 2018.
  2. Southern- Held meeting and annual bocce fundraiser in August. District may consider doing a different fundraiser next year. Active Shooter/Workplace Safety Workshop is scheduled for October 20, 2016. District will be sponsoring a hole and golf team for upcoming golf tournament. Love Ishie will serve as District Vice President in 2017.
  3. Central –Shane Duncan will serve as District Vice President in 2018.
  4. Eastern- Bridget from Dillon will serve as District Vice President in 2017.
  1. Committee Updates
  2. Scholarship- Raised over $5,000 between silent auction and room rebates at conference. Scholarships have been awarded to two students from Clemson.
  3. Ways & Means- no report
  4. Conference- Thank you to everyone who volunteered at the conference or brought equipment. Perry Tuttle and the Mayor have both received positive responses on the conference evaluation.
  5. Marketing-Marketing committee met at conference. Deadline for last issue is coming up. Award winners will be highlighted in this issue.
  6. Awards and Citations- no report
  7. Past President-Association legislative platform will be presented at the board retreat.
  8. Diversity-Still finalizing the committee.
  9. State PRT Update- Six state parks are still closed due to Hurricane Matthew. Two will be closed until next year.
  1. President’s Report
  1. 2016 Goals
  2. Eric thanked the board for a great year and for keeping momentum going through 2016. One goal was continuing education for the board; he would like to see that continued.
  3. Vice president received a good understanding of what to expect next year.
  4. Jeff Metz updated the Executive Director’s Evaluation. Eric will email the form out at the end of the month for the board to complete. As a board, we will make salary increase recommendations for the 2017 board to vote on.
  5. Lawanda attended the President’s meeting at NRPA conference in Eric’s absence. They met with Executive Directors and discussed various hot topics. Jim led a session on financial investment/endowment policy.
  1. Executive Director’s Report
  1. Budget update. Any surplus is invested strategically over the following year.Conference was very successful.
  2. Legislative
  1. Jim has been meeting with Don and several Legislators.
  2. Looking for new funds and a dedicated source of money for parks and recreation.
  1. Lifelong Recreation Beach Retreat was rescheduled to December 7-10, 2016 due to the hurricane.Added a Christmas theme to the retreat. Reaching back out to departments that were not planning to come.
  2. Membership Satisfaction Survey was completed and will be reviewed at the 2017 board retreat.
  1. One question asked if conference should be moved off of Sunday. 65% said yes. Jim pointed out that new employment laws might play a role in planning future conferences.
  2. A second question asked which days would you like the conference to run. Monday-Wednesday received 40%, Wednesday-Friday received 39%, Tuesday –Thursday received 18%, and other received 1% of votes.
  1. Old Business
  1. Neal provided an update on the trails website. The search by features is functional, but not all the trails are on the site yet. The site is very user-friendly.
  2. Best Practices for Out of School Time Providers group understood our decision not to support their guidelines at this time. Jim will continue to research what other states have done.
  3. Golf Tournament will be held on October 27, 2016. So far we have 47 hole sponsors, 5 tent sponsors, and 11 teams. Please secure sponsors; forms are on the SCRPA website.
  1. New Business
  1. Reviewed contracts for 2018 conference. Columbia and Greenville submitted the best two bids. A motion to enter in contract with Greenville Hyatt for Monday-Wednesday was made, seconded, and passed unanimously.
  2. TJ reviewed the Committee Vice Chair and District Application. It will create a database of those who would like to serve and the application requires their manager’s signature. All applications will funnel through Jim and Melissa. Eric proposed a link on the SCRPA website as a means of distribution for the application; Jim will research options for this.
  1. Board Retreat will be held at Pleasant Ridge Camp and Retreat Center in Greenville, SC on November 30-December 1.
  1. Adjournment

Respectfully Submitted by:

Amy Evans, Secretary