NSA-PCS Business Meeting
October 11, 2007
Welches, Oregon
The meeting was called to order 12:30 pm October 11th, 2007 by PCS chair Don Velasquez. After the officers Kelly Toy, Randy Hatch, were introduced, Don Velasquez asked everyone to introduce themselves. The following members and interested people signed the attendance sheet: Jennifer Whitney, John Adams, Kurt Johnson, Ray RaLonde, Dan Barth, Sandy Shumway, Teri King, Brett Dumbauld, Kerry Griffin, Nicolas Taris, Mark Camara, Sean Matson, Brent Vadopalas, Karen Chan, Kristi Straus, Colleen Burge, Dennis Hedgecock, Aaron Galloway, Aleta Erickson, Randy Hatch, Kelly Toy, Joth Davis, Don Velasquez, Ford Evans, Chris Langdon, Tamara Gage, Cathy Stanley, Marcia House, Adam Brisbois.
Don called for any changes to the agenda, hearing none the agenda was adopted as presented. Don asked everyone to review the 2007 minutes for errors and changes. Jennifer Whitney moved to accept the minutes and Brent Vadopalas seconded the motion.
Treasurer's Report
A budget report was given by the Treasurer Randy Hatch. Copies of the treasurer's report were passed out to all in attendance and summarized verbally. During this discussion, it was brought up that student registration should be waived for the conference and to make sure that students are still counted as NSA members in the budget breakdown for the annual conference. It was reported at last year's conference that we lost money due to the high cost of the hotel and its' services. Jennifer Whitney motioned to accept the budget and Aleta Erickson seconded the motion.
Old Business
Fund Raising Efforts: There was a discussion concerning the need for greater effort in getting larger donations for the Ken Chew Student Endowment Fund. There were several ideas proposed which included T-shirt sales and the possibility of doing another student fund raiser bar-b-que. We also discussed increasing the efforts in collecting more donations for the silent auction.
Increasing Visibility: There was a lot of discussion about how the conference is more oriented towards PCSGA activities. Sandy Shumway remarked on how the name tags did not have the NSA logo. Teri King suggested that we should have an NSA banner in front of the registration table along with PCSGA. A motion was made and passed to have a table cover for the next conference. Another way of increasing visibility was to make a donation to the National Centennial Fund. A motion was made to donate $500 and this motion was passed.
New Business
Don Velasquez reported that he had discussions with Craig Dolphin concerning the progress of the NSA-PCS web page. Craig informed Don that he had not had much opportunity to work on the web page. The goal was to make the web page more user friendly for the board to edit or modify the page to respond to and reflect current activities.
Annual meeting planning was discussed and the overall feeling of the group was that the timing of the conference was very inconvenient for the students. The meeting needs to occur prior to the beginning school quarter in order to maximize student participation.
There was a discussion about the NSA centennial meeting and how PCS should have a greater presence at the National meeting. There was a suggestion of putting a poster together which would help increase our visibility and would describe the PCS events and activities.
Don reported that there will be a penalty if NSA dues payments are late starting in January of 2008.
We discussed the confusion regarding the submission of abstracts for 2006 and who was responsible for it. It was pointed out that our current secretary, Lizzie, had put together the current abstract booklet for the conference but there were times when other officers had taken over this duty. After some discussion it was concluded that abstract submission for publication should be an official duty of the secretary. We agreed that we should have abstracts to Sandy Shumway by November.
Topics and session organizers for the 2008 meeting was discussed and the suggested topics from the group were crustacean (Don), broodstock (Joth), geoduck (Glen), resource management, abalone, urchins, and cucumbers.
Election of Officers:
Don Velasquez informed the group that he will not be able to serve as president for another term and asked for nominations from the floor for the chair position. There was dead silence and everyone looked like a deer in a spotlight. Finally, Teri King spoke up and said she was willing to take the position if Kelly Toy and Randy Hatch would remain in their existing positions. Kelly and Randy accepted to remain under the proposed circumstances and then a motion was made to nominate Teri as chair and to keep Kelly and Randy as the vice-chair and treasurer and the motion was passed. For the position of secretary, the existing secretary Lizzie Nelson, had moved to California and was unable to continue in her position. A nomination was made to elect Cathy Stanley as secretary and the motion was made and passed.
Best Student Paper Award:
In addition to the $100 award and NSA membership, the group discussed the possibility of sending the best student award winner to the National Meeting. It was decided that the best graduate student paper would get the first option to receive the $500 travel award to attend the meeting. If this student declined the award, the offer would go to the runner up graduate paper. The first award would be made available for the 2009 National meeting.
A motion was made and seconded to adjourn the meeting at 2:05pm.
