WINTER KT-SAF EXECUTIVE MEETING MINUTES
Submitted by Haley Frazier, Secretary
David Mercker called the meeting to order on 1/25/2012 at 6:10pm
Clairion Hotel, Lexington, KY
Meeting started at 6:15pm with introductions
Additions to agenda
-Jeff Stringer asked about merging Kentucky chapters
Review and Acceptance of Summer 2011 minutes
-Reeves made a motion to accept the minutes, Tim Phelps seconded. Minutes accepted
Treasurer’s Report
Kerry Livengood gave the treasurers report. Bottom line is we spent $248.82 more than we brought in. So the ending balance is 15231.11. No seed money was used this year. The biggest contribution was the SE Tennessee meeting ($1200). We did not loose as much as we proposed ($2370). Tim Phelps made a motion to accept the treasurers report, Laurie Smith seconded. Report unanimously accepted. Tim Phelps asked we put the proposed budget off until after the committee reports because committees may be requesting money.
OLD BUSINESS
Results of elections
Chair: Chris Reeves
Chair-elect:Tim Phelps
Treasurer: Haley Frazier
Secretary: Greg Bailey
Review of officer and committee chair positions
David Mercker asked if there were any questions about the duties that he sent out this summer. David noticed that one of our award recipients was not notified so they will not be here this year. It is awards chairman’s responsibility. Kerry Livengood thinks it would be helpful if outgoing position left a list of the duties to the next person holding the position. Dave Walters suggested we make list of duties and put them on the website. Kerry Livengood supported this suggestion. All agree that we need a more organized amendment to the charter. Dave said we do not need to change the charter as this is a huge process, but amendments to the charter does not require that bureaucracy of changing the charter. Tim asked for help with the newsletter/website duties.
Status of revision to the KT website (Phelps/Reeves)
Reeves suggested two options for website update – pay a professional design firm (1000-1500) which ½ could be paid for by the forester’s fund group. This company will make the website in 3 months. Chris’s wife could do it for free which will take 6-9 months. Haley Frazier made a motion to allocate $1500 for website development and make a run for the forester’s fund group. Laurie Smith seconds. Motion passed. Tim and Chris will take a lead on getting the forester’s fund group application submitted.
Student Development Fund Changes
Jeff Stringer thinks it needs to have a leader that will engage the process because it is rarely used at this point. For the past several years all of the silent auction money has gone into this fund. Kerry reported that 5409.93 are in the fund right now. Laurie Smith said she will revamp the charter to make the funds more available for students. Laurie will have a proposal about revisions to the charter at the summer meeting and we will table this discussion until that point.
Fellow Nominating Committee (Stringer and Evans)
21 people have received this award. It has been 4 years since anyone has been nominated. Dave Walters says the biggest obstacle is that they have to have been active at 2 levels of leadership. There are 3 levels – chapter, state, and regional/national. They must have participated at a regional/national level (does not have to be SAF). David Mercker proposed that Richard Evans, Dave Walters, and Jeff Stringer work together and see if they can find a candidate by the 1st formal notification on February 28th.
Heartland Leadership Academy report (Walters)
Dave reported that KT SAF was well represented. Indiana foresters want to host another academy in 2013. We may want to budget for the 2013 academy this year.
Council Report (Walters)
Dave Walters reported that everything is moving forward. The property in DC is still in negotiating process. SAF will keep the mansion, but sell the property for 14 – 20 million dollars – finalized deal is still several months away. Not every society has grown in membership, but KT is doing very well thanks to Mercker.
Scenarios for austerity (Reeves)
David Mercker asked chair elect to come up with suggestions for austerity at last meeting since we proposed a budget loosing 2400 last year. Reeves reported that most of our expenses have been cut to bone already so he looked at the income instead of the outcome. Reeves thought raising the state society dues would be one of the best ways to bump the budget. $7 is one of the lowest dues in the nation, most around us pay $10-15. Everyone agrees that it does not seem to be an issue since we have carried a $10,000 + balance for over 10 years. This issue will be tabled until we have under $10,000.
Committee Reports
Auditing – meeting tomorrow
Awards – Ben Worthington will be here tomorrow, a lot of nominations this year
Continuing Forestry Education – Doug McLaren in KY and Ward in TN if you need CFEs
Education – Laurie Smith reported that 3 awards will be given this meeting
Foresters Fund – Not covered
Member Information – Lloyd Foe reported that there was a 6% increase in members at the 2011 winter meetings. Newsletter/Website - Tim Phelps sent out 4 newsletters, emailed ~350 and sent ~40 copies by hard mail. Need to remind everyone to update email address because bounced emails get a hard copy. Tim would like to keep mailing these and no one objected. David Mercker got a new wooden watch. Dave Walters likes it!
Nominating – David Mercker asked for suggestions for a nominating chair because it is falling on the chairman at this time. Will bring it up at the business meeting Friday and ask for volunteers.
Policy – Ron Taylor sent his summary
Program – Jeff Stringer and Chris Reeves have worked hard on getting the speakers together.
Scholarship – Wayne Clatterbuck keeps this account. He reported that our dividends did not cover our donations this year.
Teller – Richard Evans asked is electronic ballots worked for everyone. No complaints.
Chapter Reports
East Kentucky – Two meetings this year – spring and fall. About 30-35 people attended. Member levels remain the same. Everything is functioning well. Should be a meeting in May in Morehead to talk about Forest Industry.
East Tennessee – Wayne Clatterbuck reported that they meet for breakfast once a month and helped host frog meeting this past fall.
Middle Tennessee – Andy Norris reported that John Woodcock is going to be the next chair – they talked about having a spring meeting at the Hill property (old growth forest in Davidson county).
Southeast Tennessee – Diana Gennet reported that they have not met since November but have started meeting once a month for breakfast and most likely will combine the tree farm committee meeting with this meeting.
West Kentucky – Larry Doyle reported that 3 of them are here and they have $1000 in the bank.
West Tennessee – David Mercker reported that they have 43 members and he has reassumed the chair. They met in December for the first time in three years and are planning the 2013 winter meeting if we go with the proposed new schedule.
School Reports
University of Kentucky – Jeff Stringer reported that they got so many student SAF members through the forestry club. The new department chair Red Baker is really pushing professionalism in student development and therefore enforced the notation that if you are a member of the forestry club you have to be a SAF member. There is a new structure where you engage in forestry classes freshman year instead of sophomore or junior year. KWOA has a member that is giving a scholarship fund to get students to the KWOA annual meeting. The forestry club helped KDF collect seed for their nursery.
University of Tennessee – In the last couple of years they have started a forestry field day – invite high school students to come out and learn about forestry. They won the quiz bowl at the Chattanooga meeting.
Agency Reports
TDF – A lot of hiring is happening – all vacancies are being filled.
KDF – Tim Sheehan reported that our numbers are expected to drop dramatically in the next few years – from 185 to 160.
Industry Report
Wayne Clatterbuck commented that he does not believe industries are looking for on the ground foresters anymore. IP just hired a graduate of UT and they did not require a forestry degree.
New Business
Merging of Kentucky Chapters - Chris Reeves reported that west Kentucky approached him a year ago about merging the west ky chapter with the east ky chapter. Chris Reeves suggested that there is another option of merging west KY and west TN chapter instead because of logistics. David Mercker suggested that we keep the western Kentucky chapter but do not hold meetings anymore. Jeff Stringer is concerned that west ky members will get the short end of the stick and they will loose more members as a result. Gary Schneider suggested that keep west KY and West TN in tack but allow them to combine the meetings when it is out there so that there are more people to help. The west Kentucky people agree so we moved on to look at the revision of host chapter for summer and winter meetings. Laurie Smith made a motion to accept the proposed schedule. Jeff Stringer seconded but amended that it should stay flexible and west ky will join west tn in hosting the meetings in summer 2015 and winter 2021 in Kentucky. Motion passed.
Increase in state dues - Already discussed
National requests members to list home emails on renewal applications – Everyone agrees with this request.
Need for a silent auction coordinator – Decided that we will leave it as it is and that each meeting coordinator will appoint someone
Budget
Wayne Clatterbuck moved to accept budget. Chris Reeves seconded. Budget passed.
Meeting concluded at 9:20pm
Attendees:
Greg Bailey
Wayne Clatterbuck
Dave Walters
Haley Frazier
Kerry Livengood
Tim Sheehan
David Mercker
Christopher Reeves
Lloyd Foe
Larry Doyle
Laurie Smith
Jeff Stringer
Tim Phelps
Andy Norris
Jeff Hoyt
Dave Buckley
Mac McClure
Dian Gennett
Kevin Hoyt
Gary Scheider
Richard Evans
Alan Houston