New York State Ornithological Association,
Inc.
November 1, 2008 Board Meeting Minutes
Hudson Valley Community College in Troy
The Board of Directors of the New York State Ornithological Association,
Inc. (NYSOA) met at Hudson Valley Community College in Troy on November
1, 2008. The meeting was called to order by President Bill Ostrander
at 9:30 a.m.
Present were Bob Adamo, Tim Baird,
Joan Collins, Gail Kirch, Victor
Lamoureux, Annette Lehner, Berna
Lincoln, Stan Lincoln, Andy Mason, Bill Ostrander, John
Ozard, Carena Pooth, Bill Reeves, and Kathy
Schneider.
Summary of Action Items:
- Approved July 2008 Board Meeting minutes and September 2008 Annual
Meeting minutes. (Item 1)
- Approved using up to $15,000 of the General Memorial Fund for scanning
back Kingbird issues. (Item 2)
- Approved John Cairns to replace Isaac Grant on the Auditing Committee.
(Item 4)
- Approved the reappointments of Tom Burke and Willie D’Anna
to the NYSARC Committee. (Item 4)
- Approved having the President receive all correspondence if Berna
Lincoln is no longer able to do so. (Item 4)
- Approved offering any 2009 or 2010 annual meeting host club $1,000
toward a keynote speaker. (Item 4)
- Approved closing the Atlas and Member Clubs Awards Funds and transferring
the balances to the General Memorial Fund (Atlas) & to the General
Operating Fund (Clubs). (Item 5)
1. Minutes – Kathy Schneider made a motion
to accept the July 2008 meeting minutes with changes. Carena Pooth
seconded the motion, and it was unanimously approved. Kathy Schneider
made a motion to accept the September 2008 annual meeting minutes with
changes. Andy Mason seconded the motion, and it was unanimously
approved.
2. Treasurer’s Report – Bill Reeves
gave the Treasurer’s Report dated September 30, 2008. He
also provided the Auditing Committee report (dated September 29, 2008)
which examined NYSOA’s financial statements for 2007 (year corrected
on the report). Bill pointed out that memberships are decreasing
and not reaching the budgeted amount. Berna requested periodic
detailed financial summaries for the New York State Young Birders’ Club
(NYSYBC). Bill will provide detailed quarterly NYSYBC financial
reports to the board.
Conference calls have been made through
Bob Mauceli. The board members decided to investigate working with
a service instead of relying on one board member to be available.
3. Old Business
Scanning the Kingbird – Andy
Mason presented a quote for scanning all the back issues of the Kingbird. The
board discussed the quote details, and how the project would be funded. Kathy
Schneider made a motion to use the General Memorial Fund to pay up to
$15,000 for scanning Kingbird articles for online, searchable
retrieval. Joan Collins seconded the motion, and after discussion,
it was unanimously approved.
There will be a small annual fee to continue
to scan each year’s Kingbird issues. Carena will
need to switch to a larger server due to the space requirements of the Kingbird issues. Andy
Mason will draft a letter to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and Audubon
New York to see if they would like to make donations to the Kingbird scanning
project.
Policy for advocacy support
on conservation issues – Andy Mason is putting
together this policy and would like input. Kathy Schneider
mentioned that we might want to know if the habitat impacted is an
IBA, BCA, WMA, or if there is an endangered species affected. Send
additional criteria ideas and thoughts to Andy Mason.
4. New Business
Auditing Committee – Kathy
Schneider made a motion to approve John Cairns to replace Isaac Grant,
who has moved and can no longer serve, on the Auditing Committee. Tim
Baird seconded the motion, and it was unanimously approved.
NYSARC appointments – Andy
Mason made a motion to approve Bill Ostrander’s reappointments
of Tom Burke and Willie D’Anna to the NYSARC Committee with terms
ending on Dec. 31, 2011. Kathy Schneider seconded the motion, and
it was unanimously approved.
Joan Collins will update the Key Contacts
list. The Atlas Committee will be off the committee list after
2009.
Membership backup – The
official NYSOA address will temporarily remain at Durhamville (paid through
June). Brenda Best will send all mail to Berna Lincoln. Berna
is the new membership manager. Barbara Butler is the new circulation
manager. Barbara will manage the database and interface to the
printers (NYS Birders, the Kingbird, and dues renewal
notices).
Andy Mason made a motion that the President
will be the recipient of all NYSOA correspondence that Berna Lincoln
currently handles in the event she is no longer able to do so. Carena
seconded the motion, and it was unanimously approved.
There
was a discussion that the Kingbird issues
need to be on schedule to help Berna and Barbara.
Membership
is going to a January to December schedule.
Annual Meetings – In
order to have a valid annual meeting, 10% or 100 (whichever is lesser)
of those authorized to vote must be present in person or by proxy. Many
ideas were discussed on how to hold the annual meeting when no member
club is scheduled to be a sponsor. Using a college instead of a
hotel was suggested. A one-day annual meeting was discussed with
early morning birding followed by the meeting. Kathy Schneider
will make a few phone calls to colleges in Central New York that might
be available.
Tim Baird will send a thank
you to the Sept. 2008 member club host.
Andy Mason made a motion that NYSOA offer
a potential 2010 meeting host club $1,000 toward a keynote speaker, or
arrange and pay for a keynote speaker. Kathy Schneider seconded
the motion, and it was unanimously approved. Kathy Schneider then
moved to amend Andy’s motion to also include a $1,000 offer to
a 2009 host club should one come forward. Andy Mason seconded this
amended motion, and it was unanimously approved.
5. Committee Reports
Finance Committee – Berna
Lincoln reported the committee’s recommendation to close the Atlas
2000 and Member Club Awards Funds at the end of this fiscal year (31
Dec.) and transfer the balances to the General Memorial Fund (Atlas)
and General Operating Fund (Clubs). Henceforth, a line will be
annually added to the General Operating Fund budget for Member Club grants
equaling the projected interest income on $10,000. Tim Baird made
a motion to implement this recommendation. Kathy Schneider seconded
the motion, and it was unanimously approved.
Membership – Berna
Lincoln reported for Barbara Butler that there are currently 540 members
(low), 51 life members, and 44 clubs (4 clubs did not renew). January
renewal notices will have Berna Lincoln’s address as the return
address. To try to increase members, it was suggested that NYSOA
information be submitted to member clubs’ newsletters. It
was also suggested that the membership database be moved to the web site.
New York State Young
Birders Club (NYSYBC) – Annette Lehner, Adult
Coordinator of NYSYBC, told the board that there are two member clubs
so far – Sullivan County Audubon Society, and the Ralph T.
Waterman Bird Club. A discussion on how to advertise the new
club was held. Suggestions included: advertise in the Conservationist
for Kids publication, member club newsletters, NYS United Teachers,
and statewide newsletters. Annette will give a presentation
on the new club at the statewide teachers meeting. Student
members can also give the presentation.
Annette
mentioned that member clubs should be welcoming to members of the
NYSYBC.
Official club trips are scheduled with
NYSOA member clubs. There are applications for membership and flyers
on the NYSYBC web site.
Publications – Tim
Baird told the group that the October-December New York State Birders newsletter
issue would be out soon.
Web site and eBird – Carena
Pooth updated the Checklist of the Birds of New York State with
the latest AOU information (July 2008 49th supplement). Carena
added articles on the Atlas exhibit at the museum in Albany, and on the
NYSOA Annual Meeting including photographs. The NYSARC information
has also been updated. She changed the link for eBird to go to
the main page.
Atlas 2000 – John
Ozard brought one of only 3 new Atlas books that were hot off the press! He
told the group that The Second Atlas of Breeding Birds in New York
State would be printed in December. John also reported that
the NYS Museum exhibit on the Atlas project is great! There will
be a museum reception for the Atlas exhibit on December 10th.
Conservation – Andy
Mason reported the committee is working on the policy for advocacy support
as described above. Brenda Best is concerned with mining occurring
at the edge of the Iroquois National Refuge.
Bylaws – no
update.
Awards – no
update.
NYSARC – Bill
Ostrander reported the 2005 annual report is ready for printing and 2006
is almost done.
Archives – Phyllis
Jones sent a message that the committee is waiting for The Second
Atlas of Breeding Birds in New York State to be published.
Nominating – Kathy
Schneider is the chair.
6. DEC Report – John Ozard reported that
the DEC was working under both state and federal budget constraints. They
have lost many biologists from the department, including Brianna Gary.
DEC is beginning a marsh bird monitoring
program (using the National Marsh Bird Monitoring program). Amielle
DeWan will be the statewide coordinator.
Matt Medler will continue to be the coordinator
for the Whip-poor-will surveys.
Biologists at DEC will focus on citizen
science projects in the state.
The Atlas database will be fully searchable
online.
The DEC will make the State Wildlife
Grants data more accessible to the public.
7. President’s Report – Bill Ostrander
reiterated that the DEC will make its data more accessible to the public. Bill,
John Confer, and Andy Mason traveled to the DEC office in Albany to
meet with Patricia Riexinger. They discussed how to make it easier
to capture eBird data for New York State.
8. 2009 board meeting dates:
February
7, 2009
April 4,
2009
July 11,
2009
November
7, 2009
Andy Mason made a motion to adjourn the meeting at 2:13 p.m. Victor
Lamoureux seconded the motion and it was unanimously approved.
Respectfully submitted,
Joan Collins
Recording Secretary |
