Society of American Military Engineers

Robins Post

Board Meeting

11 December 2013

Board Members:

President Col Ted Munchmeyer Present

Vice President Mike Coats Present

Treasurer James Griffin Present

Secretary Esther Lee-Altman Present

Asst Secretary MSgt Melissa Broussard Absent

Executive Director

Membership Nancy Manley Present

Directors

National Liaison Becky McCoy Absent

Programs Ken Branton Present

Laurel Cordell Absent

Education and Mentoring Lt Col Craig Johnson Present

Financial Kevin Long Present

National Security Joe Ballard Present

Shawn Politino Present

NCO/Sr Enlisted MSgt Kerry Parsons Absent

Events/Small Business Steve Hvizdzak Absent

Sustaining Membership Kathy Chaffin Absent

Others Griff Cox

Mr. Mike Coats, Post Vice-President, initiated the meeting at 1110 hours.

Upcoming Meetings:

The next General Meeting has been scheduled for January 2014.

Programs/Program News:

In January, Merrick will be giving a presentation on LEED as the initial company that was contacted for this topic will not be available this month. Mr. Ken Branton stated that the rest of the year is open for presentations and asked the Board if there was anything in particular that they would like to see. Ms. Nancy Manley stated she may have someone who could talk to the Post about the Solar Farm Enhanced Use Lease that Robins is currently pursuing. Ms. Manley will get back with Mr. Branton about this topic.

Finance:

Currently, the Post has about $2,000 in checking and $8,500 in savings. Mr. James Griffin handed out copies of the 2014 Proposed Budget to the Board and there was discussion of the listed items. Mr. Shawn Politino brought up the motion to approve the proposed budget and Col Ted Munchmeyer seconded it. The Board voted unanimously approved the 2014 budget.

After reviewing the proposed budget, there is a negative net balance of about $2,000. The Board discussed ways that the Post could shrink this balance. One suggestion was for SAME to take the lead on the annual Earth Day Golf Tournament. Typically, the base Environmental Management (EM) office takes the lead on this event and it is a “break-even” tournament. Ms. Esther Lee-Altman will talk with EM to see what all the base plans to do for Earth Day and Col Munchmeyer will touch base with CE to see if SAME could possibly be in charge of the Earth Day Golf Tournament.

Mr. Ryan Emory and Ms. Nicci Clark of Morgan Stanley gave a quick presentation on status of the Post’s investment account, which as of the end of November was at $97,890. Mr. Emory stated that the Post is on the right track with their investment plan and recommended that the Post stay on its current course with a prediction of an 8 to 10% return for the year. If the Post wishes to change its investment strategy, Mr. Emory says he looks over our account quarterly and can make changes then. The Board discussed withdrawing money from the investment account to balance the proposed budget. Mr. Emory stated that if we were to pull money out of the account, he recommends we do so in the April-May timeframe. Mr. Kevin Long will send out the Post Financial Plan to the Board so the Board can review the plan and discuss any future changes to our account that we may want to make.

Post Membership:

Ms. Manley stated that HQ SAME have changed the rules on the Membership streamer this year as they recognize that gaining new membership is more difficult in current times. If a Post has less than a 5% decrease in membership, the Post can still receive this streamer. Currently, the Post is down 21 members, mostly Sustaining Members. Ms. Manley and Ms. Lee-Altman have asked Post members to encourage others to join SAME to increase membership and Ms. Chaffin has been engaging those Sustaining Members whose memberships have recently expired.

Emergency Preparedness:

The Emergency Preparedness Streamer has been drafted and will go out for a final review in January. Mr. Joe Ballard has recently joined a TISP committee and stated that there will be a regional TISP conference in Savannah, GA. Mr. Ballard will inquire if this regional conference will count towards an Emergency Preparedness streamer requirement as this conference would significantly lower the Post’s cost for travel to a TISP conference.

Education and Mentoring:

Lt Col Craig Johnson stated that the dates for the engineering summer camps have been released and he will begin advertising the summer camps and the scholarships in January. Lt Col Johnson will work with the Post’s web manager on updating this information on our website.

Events and Small Business:

No update was given.

SAME National:

Ms. Lee-Altman notified the Board that there is a new Director of Membership and Post Operations at HQ SAME, Marc Bialek. She also stated that there will be a newly revised Post Operations Manual coming out in 2014 and will be debuted at the Post Leaders Workshop.

General Topics:

Mr. Griff Cox thanked the Board for being the base sponsor for Pack 220 and Troop 220 and asked if the Post would be interested in re-chartering the Boy Scouts for next year. Ms. Manley raised the motion to the Board and Mr. Ballard seconded it. The Board voted unanimously yes for chartering the Boy Scouts.

There was discussion on potentially moving the date of the Post elections. Most posts hold their elections in the June-July timeframe but our Post holds elections in January. There was a suggestion of moving our elections to the March-April timeframe to better align with the military’s schedule of when military members receive their new assignments. Mr. Coats will check the bylaws to see if the Post designated a particular time to hold elections. The Board decided that the 2014 Elections will be held in January as planned and will discuss if we want to change the date at a later time.

The 2014 elections will be held in January and Ms. Lee-Altman gave a draft copy of the ballot to the Board for review. She asked if any changes needed to be made to the ballot and Mr. Shawn Politino stated that he will be stepping down as Co-director of Emergency Preparedness. Col Munchmeyer also stated that he wishes to step down as President and nominated Lt Col Johnson. Col Munchmeyer expressed interest in becoming the Education & Mentoring director instead. Ms. Lee-Altman will make these changes on the ballot and resend to the Board.

Ms. Manley stated that the Post will most likely receive the streamers that the Post submitted with the exception of the Membership Streamer. Unfortunately, the Post may not get them with distinction.

Ms. Lee-Altman asked the Board if there were any items that needed to be put in the monthly flyer as it is a great way to get information out to the Post.

Bold = Board decisions Italics = Tasked actions to be taken