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ATRBA EXECUTIVE BOARD MEETING
INDIANANPOLIS, IN – OCTOBER 29, 2011 President Glen Carr called the meeting to order at 9:30 a.m. Additional officers in attendance were vice president Brigette Armstrong, secretary/treasurer Tina Reif; directors Tim Branham, Cindy Wickizer, Susan Pohto, Kim Glass, Dera Oldofredi. It was noted that due to health issues director Carrol Hooks was unable to attend. To begin the meeting, Glen Carr introduced Tina Reif as the new secretary/treasurer. Tina took over the position from Carrol Hooks as of September 2011. Due to Carrol’s absence from this meeting, the 2010 board meeting and general membership meeting minutes were not available to be read. Glen reminded the board that the minutes had been printed in an issue of the newsletter shortly after the 2010 board meeting. He asked for a motion to accept the minutes as they had been previously posted. Motion was made by Cindy Wickizer; second by Tim Branham. Motion carried. Secretary Reif was asked to give an account of what she had been doing as secretary since taking the position from Carrol in September. She reported that an EIN number has been obtained for the club. This number will be used by the club for all future official club business. The question was asked about whether there should be two signatures on club checks. Due to the living distances between board members it was decided that two signatures wouldn’t be practical. It was then discussed that each of the executive officers should have single signing privileges in the event that something should happen to the treasurer that would make it impossible for her to sign checks. A motion to have the president and vice president’s signatures on file with the bank in SC was made by Dera Oldofredi; second by Susan Pohto. Motion carried. Again, due to Carrol’s absence, there was no official secretary report on which to vote. President Carr introduced our new “webmaster”, Andrea Ross. Andrea was in attendance to share what she had been doing with the website, and to share her vision for the future of the website. She has changed the program to make it more ‘user friendly’. Board members will now be able to access the site to make changes. The new domain name cost $10/year. She reminded the board that Anne Ott owns the original domain name, and suggested that it be transferred to the secretary. In the future Andrea would like for the website to be set to accept PayPal which would allow for the purchase of club merchandise online, and perhaps even accept membership payments. The board offered a huge ‘thank you’ for all that Andrea has done for the website in a short amount of time. At this point, Andrea was excused from the meeting. Treasurer Reif was called on to talk about the transition of club funds from Carrol. At a meeting in September, Carrol wrote a check for $8,000.00 to Tina to be used to start a banking account in South Carolina. This amount does not reflect the total monies available to the club. Carrol retained the remaining funds to pay for those expenses not yet cleared by the bank in Texas, as well as to pay for mailings that will need to be made to Tina in the coming months. On September 10 Tina met with both Carrol and Tim Branham at a show in NC where Tim verified the amount of the check written to Tina from Carrol. Tina reported her findings about bulk mailing rates for the newsletter. Those amounts were: $190 application fee to the USPS, $190 annually plus $.276 per piece of mail, with a minimum of 200 identical pieces. There would be a cost reduction per piece of mail if the club obtains a non-profit status. That price would then be $.174. Discussion followed. It was decided that the cost of a bulk mailing permit was prohibitive. Tina suggested asking the club members to consider receiving their newsletters via email. Several directors spoke of other clubs who were doing the same thing with good results. Glen suggested that we try this approach, and then review the results next year. Cindy asked about the Quicken program that is on the club’s computer, and gave the okay to purchase additional software should the need arise. The board expressed their appreciation for the work that Tina has done to this point. Motion to accept this report was made by Susan Pohto; second, Cindy Wickizer. Motion carried. President Carr talked about the need to move the club towards a non-profit status. He will begin the process of obtaining a 501-C-3. There was discussion of the newsletter and its significance to the club. Cindy will be in conversation with Anne Ott, our newsletter editor, to seek her thoughts about continuing with this position. For the November newsletter, Cindy proposed that she do an overview of the convention as well as one article that would have shared input from all of the directors on a particular topic. The board gave their approval to this approach. Kim Glass reported on our club merchandise. She reported that there would be $1,800 worth of product available during the convention. Kim asked about changing the ATRBA patch design in the future, suggesting just one rabbit instead of the current two. Motion to accept Kim’s report was made by Tim Branham; second by Brigette Armstrong. Motion carried. President Carr brought two bids to the board for the 2013 Thrianta Nationals: Louisville, KY in April, and Columbus, OH in May. Discussion followed about the strengths and weaknesses to each proposal. The Ohio show would be hosted by the Ohio Thrianta RC, whereas there would be no sponsoring club in KY. Also, there would be no Thrianta booth in KY unless we paid for one; organizing a banquet for the members would also present an issue without a sponsoring club. After discussion, the Ohio Thrianta RC was awarded the 2013 national bid. Motion to award the bid to Ohio was made by Cindy Wickizer; second by Tim Branham. The Ohio proposal asked for $200 from ATRBA for show expenses. Cindy proposed that we raise that amount to $300. Discussion followed concerning the funding of the 2012 national show. It was decided that we would give $300 to the Texas Thrianta RBC club as well for the 2012 national show. There was some discussion about fund-raising to help pay for future national shows. This discussion was tabled. Motion to approve of monies to be given for the support of national shows was made by Cindy Wickizer; second by Kim Glass. Motion carried. President Carr spoke of the need to have an SOP (Standard Operating Procedure) for both the National Convention Bid and for Affiliated clubs. President Carr appointed Dera Oldofredi to work on the SOP for convention bids, and Susan Pohto on the SOP for affiliated clubs. President Carr announced Ruth Anne Bell as the judge selected for thriantas at the 2012 National Convention in KS. He asked the board if we should look further ahead into the future for our convention judges. The pros and cons were discussed. In the end, Glen asked that judge suggestions be sent to him. *Special Notation*: During the meeting Carrol Hooks sent an email to the board, which Tim Branham received on his phone, and then read aloud to the board. In this email she reported the following: the balance of monies in her possession is $2,923.87. She will send all but $100.00 to Tina along with the reports still in her possession. The board discussed this report. President Carr then dictated to Tim as he replied to Carrol the board’s decisions. Carrol was asked to: mail all paperwork to Tina without delay; send the balance of the money minus the mailing expenses; close the bank account in Texas, and send the bank account information to the auditing committee. The board also took this opportunity to express our deep appreciation to Carrol for her hard work, and to let her know that she was missed at the meeting. New Business: Tim Branham proposed a “Hall of Fame” for the club. He shared that the club is now old enough to begin recognizing its members….while they can still enjoy it. Glen added that it might also be time to consider a “Rabbit Hall of Fame” for the breed. President Carr appointed Tim Branham to chair the committee that would put together a list of a member’s qualifications for the Hall of Fame. President Carr spoke of the need to continue the encouragement of our youth breeders. He proposed the formation of a youth committee to be chaired by member Rob Pape of Indiana. Mr. Pape has agreed to this appointment. Meeting was adjourned at 11:20 a.m. Respectfully submitted, Tina Reif, secretary |
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ATRBA GENERAL MEMBERSHIP MEETING
INDIANAPOLIS, IN - NOVEMBER 1, 2011 President Glen Carr called the meeting to order at 10:15 a.m. with the following present: vice president Brigette Armstrong, secretary/treasurer Tina Reif, directors Kim Glass, Cindy Wickizer, Tim Branham, Susan Pohto. Missing were directors Dera Oldofredi and Carrol Hooks. There were 59 members in attendance. President Carr asked for a motion to approve minutes from the 2010 membership meeting. The motion was made by John Soper; second by Tim Branham. President Carr told the members that due to Carrol’s absence, the secretary’s report would not be available. He also mentioned that the finances were in transition due to the recent change in treasurer. President Carr introduced new secretary/treasurer, Tina Reif to the members in attendance. He took this opportunity to ask members to encourage those who may have allowed their memberships to expire to remain with the club. Continuing a strong membership is important to the club. He thanked Tina for her work. President Carr introduced new webmaster, Andrea Ross. Andrea spoke of her work on the website, stating that it had been updated, that the information from the old website had all been transferred, and that she was in the process of archiving the old newsletters. She encouraged suggestions, as this is the club’s website. Glen thanked Andrea for her work on the new website. President Carr offered encouragement to the strong youth presence in our club. He encouraged an even greater involvement in the club. To help promote our youth member Rob Pape of Indiana has been appointed by the board to oversee a youth committee. Mr. Pape gave greetings to the youth members and announced the formation of a ATRBA youth Facebook page. President Carr offered his appreciation to those who had worked at this National Convention: Teri Hendrix as both the booth chairperson, and breed chairperson. He reminded the members that they would need to see Teri to check out their rabbits before leaving the convention. John Soper as our judge for both open and youth. Both did an excellent job! President Carr called on member Duane Holman to give an update on Thrianta Nationals 2012 scheduled for April in Fort Worth, TX. The Texas Thrianta RBC will be the sponsors. Duane reported that volunteers were stepping in to help, but that more help could be used. Glen announced to Duane that the board had voted to give the club $300 to help with national’s expenses. Member Krystal Willhite was asked during the meeting to help with the breakfast planning for the national show. She has agreed to help. President Carr announced that Thrianta Nationals 2013 will once again return to Columbus, OH. The show will be in May. Director Susan and member Tammy Ashley will be in charge of the show’s details. Tammy announced that they are planning a Mexican theme. President Carr brought a request from our Domestic Rabbit magazine reporter, Gail McDonald. She asked that members send her ideas about what we would like to see her mention in the DR. Glen reminded us that the DR is the one place where the entire ARBA membership has a chance to read about our rabbits and our club. Meeting was adjourned at 10:35 a.m. Respectfully submitted, Tina Reif Secretary |