| The Board of Directors of the New York State Ornithological
Association, Inc. met at Nuthatch Hollow in Vestal on July 15, 2006. The
meeting was called to order at 9:31 a.m
Present were Brenda Best, John Confer, Phyllis
Jones, Gail Kirch, Berna Lincoln, Andy Mason, Bob
Mauceli, Bill Ostrander, Carena Pooth, Bill Reeves and Bob
Spahn.
Summary of Action Items:
- Approved minutes with changes of previous board meeting. (Item
1)
- Approved nomination of individuals to serve on Nominating and Auditing
Committees (Item 2)
- Approved accepting $689.36 from HMBC as payment of loan in full (Item
3)
- Approved appointment of Jeff Bolsinger to NYSARC (Item 5c)
1. Minutes – Brenda Best
On page 2 under By-laws, “level of club membership” should
read “level of club dues-paying membership.” Bob Mauceli
made a motion to approve the draft minutes from the April Board Meeting
with changes. Bill Reeves seconded. Approved unanimously.
2. President’s Report – Andy Mason
Two committees that will serve in 2007 need to be elected at this
year’s Annual Meeting. Andy asked for volunteers to serve
on the Nominating Committee. Bob Spahn made a motion, seconded
by Berna Lincoln, to nominate Gail Kirch, Tim Baird, and Bill Lee,
if they each agree to serve, to the Nominating Committee. Andy
will discuss this with them. Approved unanimously. For
the Auditing Committee, Andy will ask Manny Levine, Irv Cantor,
and Peter Capainolo to continue to serve. Bob Mauceli made a
motion to nominate Manny, Irv, and Peter to the Auditing Committee,
which was seconded by Bob Spahn. Approved unanimously.
3. Treasurer’s Report – Bill Reeves
Treasurer’s Report dated June 30, 2006 was distributed (Attachment
A). There was only one issue of The Kingbird which was
paid, and some activity in the Atlas fund. We received a $100
donation from Chemung Valley Audubon.
The loan to Hudson-Mohawk Bird Club was again discussed. Bill
received the income/expense report from them and feels everything is
in order. As previously discussed, HMBC has a surplus of $1189.36
before repayment of the loans and proposes paying NYSOA $689.36 and
$500 to the club. Berna Lincoln reports that a previous $1000
surplus was donated to NYSOA in 1996. Brenda Best made a motion
to accept $689.36 as repayment of the $1000 loan in full. Seconded
by Phyllis Jones. Approved unanimously. A letter will be
sent to HMBC, noting that we realize HMBC is being repaid in full and
that NYSOA is bearing the loss.
4. DEC – John Ozard – No report.
5. Committee Reports
a. Membership – Brenda Best – Current membership
stands at 634 individual members and 54 life members. We have
had seven new members since our April meeting. Dues notices were
sent to 22 members with July expirations. Final dues notices
were sent to 77 members with January and April expirations. If
not paid by the end of August, these members will be dropped from the
roll. Four member clubs have not yet paid their dues, although
two have advised they will be paying soon.
b. Nominating – Bob Mauceli – Slate is
set. Names, addresses, phone numbers, and email addresses of
the Nominating Committee members should be printed in the October New
York Birders.
c. NYSARC –Andy passed out
revised NYSARC Guidelines; however, Section I Introduction was to include
word-for-word Article XI of the NYSOA By-laws. Section IV Chair
is to be revised to read as follows: “The Chair will perform
the functions usually associated with such office, and will report
in person to the Association Board of Directors at least once per year
on the activities of NYSARC for that year.” In Section
V, the first two sentences should each be a separate paragraph.
Bob Spahn made a motion to approve the appointment of Jeff Bolsinger
to NYSARC with a term ending December 31, 2009. Berna Lincoln
seconded. Approved unanimously.
Andy spoke with Jeanne Skelly about secure containers. Jeanne
advises she has 10-12 boxes each containing about 1,000 pages. Services
to scan and digitize these records have quoted $.13/page to Andy. Jeanne
is checking with companies in Rochester to perform this. Bob
Mauceli suggested Xerox and felt they would charge $.03-.04/page and
he will talk to Jeanne about this. At extra cost, OCR (optical
character recognition) and searchable PDF’s could be made. If
burned to DVD, they would need to be re-written every three years.
d. Publications– Andy for
Shai Mitra – Shai has received quotes for printing of The
Kingbird including color photos. We currently budget for
each issue $4,000 including postage. Actual average cost, including
layout, is about $4,258. The current quality problems with layout
are hopefully resolved now that better equipment is accessible. Questions
raised included:
- Would we lose American Printing? Would they still print
New York Birders, the Checklist, and stationery?
- Could we get outside funding for The Kingbird, such as State
Wildlife Grant?
- Could we get advertising to support the cost of color photos?
- Could we include a statement such as “underwritten
by” or indicate the type of equipment used?
- Does 16 pages of color delete 16 pages of text? Are
the photos in the center or scattered throughout?
- If we proceed with two issues at increased cost, then what? We
would have to increase dues to cover the added expense.
Bill Ostrander advises he will get a quote from a printer in Elmira.
Motion was made by Phyllis Jones to proceed with two issues without
color at Sir Speedy. Motion was seconded by Bob Mauceli. It
is noted that the logistics of mailing to be worked out and that American
Printing has a supply of printed covers. The cost of the specific
issues is to be advised by Shai. Motion approved unanimously.
Tim Baird advises in a note to Andy that New York Birders in
on schedule and the July issue is out.
Timing of printed checklists was discussed. Carena will check
with Angus about making changes to the checklist as put on the website. The
most up-to-date checklist will appear on the website before being published
in The Kingbird and before new checklists are printed. We should
include a note on the printed checklist to this effect. Our current
printed edition is dated 2003. Brenda will advise quantity in
inventory. Andy will discuss with Angus the prioritizing of reports
of new species to the state so that new printed checklists can be obtained.
e. Website – Carena
Pooth – Regular maintenance has been performed.
f. Archives – Phyllis Jones – Still
going through the Stoner papers and finding them very interesting.
g. Atlas – Phyllis for Valerie
Freer – Artwork and species accounts are progressing. Time
sheets from the first Atlas have been entered so that hours/block could
be compared. Item #4 not sending original artwork to a printer
in China is a big plus.
h. Awards – Bill Ostrander – No
responses to the letter sent out about the Stoner Award. Bill
asked who should sign the Certificates of Appreciation. Bill
will contact Charlie Rouse about the Eaton Award and Shai Mitra about
the Elliott Award.
i. Conservation – Gail Kirch
and John Confer – Gail received a response to the letter regarding
the Shawangunk Grasslands. Runways will be removed, but not during
nesting season, and there will be some prescribed burning. A
draft position on wind power was presented by Andy Mason for our review. Revisions
were suggested and Andy will re-submit for review. Andy would
like to present this as a resolution to be voted on by the Council
of Delegates and give the paper to member clubs. The letter to
the Town of Babylon has not yet been written, but John Confer is still
willing to do it. Suggestion was made that we get more involved
with the Parks Department regarding bird management. Perhaps
we should ask them for a report similar to the one we usually receive
from DEC. John offered to contact them to see if they would
do this.
j. Finance – Berna Lincoln – Raising
dues should be studied. A budget for next year will be prepared
for the November Board meeting and items, such as archiving NYSARC
records, should be submitted.
OLD BUSINESS
eBird – Bob Spahn reports that eBird looks close to launch by
the eBird folks, but he has some concerns. There are some communication
problems and a sit-down meeting needs to take place before going live. The
output needs to be useful to our Regional Editors and it is not clear
that is the case. Carena is getting training shortly on procedures
for the front page. No contract has been signed yet, and we have
not paid anything yet.
Governance – Andy passed out a report of responses from clubs,
and there appears to be a lot of apathy about this issue. Many
clubs did not respond, and only three responses came from individual
members. Since we had a request, we investigated. The issue
has come up in the past and has died. There is no overwhelming
support to change and the issue is therefore tabled. Andy will
write a summary to let the clubs know.
Annual Meeting – For 2007, two clubs considered hosting but declined. Brenda
will research locations for a delegates meeting in her area, but not
a full-blown conference.
The November Board meeting will be held on the 18th at Nuthatch Hollow.
NEW BUSINESS
Article VII of the By-laws should be reviewed for partial term of a
Director.
Bill Lee asked if our liability insurance covered our members on field
trips. Our policy only covers the organization.
Bill Reeves made a motion to adjourn, which was seconded by Carena Pooth. Approved
unanimously. Meeting adjourned at 3:09 p.m.
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