Blue: Motion
Red: Responsibilities 

1. Members Present: Jennifer Fish, President; Mark Wilson, President-Elect; Lloyd Owens, Past-President; Jim Bennett, Treasurer; Brent Sohngen, Secretary; Doug Zehner, At-Large Council Member; Dave Libben, At-Large Council Member.

2. Call to Order and Minutes: President Fish called the meeting to order. 

• The Executive Council Meeting minutes from February 4, 2003 were reviewed. Doug Zehner moved to accept the corrected February minutes, seconded by Lloyd Owens. Motion carried.

3. Treasurers Report: A written treasurer’s report was provided by Jim Bennett (see attached): 

·         Operating: $3,365.33; Scholarship: $13,822.74; Envirothon: $5,317.09.

·         Annual meeting summary: Print profit: $160; Recruited 6 new members; Additional donations: $350; Shirt sales: $40. See attached.

·         Annual financial report of charitable organizations is due in May.  Jim will work with Jennifer to get that paperwork submitted properly.

·         Audit: Lloyd agreed to get 2 members to conduct an audit of last year’s books.

·         GIS Conference: We got a nice letter from Nathan W. thanking us for our support.  Nathan is to be commended for the excellent job he did on the conference.  Mark Wilson noted he had a conversation with Nathan about the conference.  Nathan noted that there were not many SWCS AOC members at the conference, and he would like to do some survey work with the members to assess why.

·         There needs to be discussion about allocating funds to the Envirothon and the Scholarship because interest payments are so low this year.

·         Connecting Ohio Watershed Conference: Brent will determine if we can have a display and where we can have it.  Mark Wilson will be attending as the SWCS representative, and will help set up the display.

·         Payroll Deduction: Doug Zehner suggested that we continue to watch this and make sure that our membership roster is passed out to people so they can check and see if their name is on it.  There are some accounting problems between the payroll office at NRCS and Ankeny that have caused some errors in the past.

·         Dave Libben moved to accept the treasurer’s report.  Brent Sohngen seconds.  Motion carried.

4. Newsletter:

·         Need to determine when and what for the upcoming newsletter:

o        List of donations, conservation champions, etc.

o        Report on the annual meeting

o        Letter from the President (Fish)

o        Highlight a member.  There was some discussion about who to highlight.  Adrian Achterman was one name forwarded. Mark Wilson also suggested that we consider highlighting some young members from time-to-time.

o        Report on GIS conference.

6. Goals Discussion: (Copied from notes taken at board)

Overall Goals For the Organization

• Fundraising
• Membership*****
• Annual Meeting and
• Summer Meeting
• Committee Assignment
• Active Membership
• Education Committee
• Newsletter

Committees

            Standing

            1.         Program  (Chair: Mark W.)

            2.         Membership ? (Dave Libben to talk with for Dot R.)

            3.         Awards  (Norm F. will continue).

            4.         Scholarship (Doug D. will continue)

            5.         L.R. Planning (Larry Antosch?  Jennifer Fish will call)

            6.         Nominating  (Lloyd O.)

Ad-hoc Committees:

·         Newsletter (Sean will continue, potentially with some of the names of individuals indicating interest on the membership survey)

·         Archives (Tim G.)

·         Web Site (Nathan W)

·         Election Teller (John C?)

·         Education, GIS, Grants (need to check on chairs for these committees)

Goals to Potentially Address this Year

• Technical Training
• Public Policy

• Develop A Stand?
• Learn About Process?
• Use National Information?
• State Level?
• Policy Forum?
• Membership is probably the main goal.
• Where do we focus our energies on new members?
• W.S. Groups, watershed coordinators, SWCD offices in different counties (only 8 or so are represented right now), EPA, ODNR, Certified Crop Advisors, groups like Pheasants Forever?

Time Line

June 1:              Prelim Agenda for summer meeting due.

July 1:               Final Agenda for summer meeting due

July:                 National Meeting

*Aug 1: Newsletter sent

Sept. 1: Experiment with E-Mail Reminder of summer meeting

November:         Elections information/ballots

March, 2004:     Annual Meeting (need to determine timing for newsletter)

Need to meet with other organizations in October.

7. Scholarship: Should we authorize $1000 for the scholarship this year?  This would mean that approximately $600 would need to come from the operating fund.  However, Jim Bennett noted that the operating fund has declined substantially since he took over a year ago, mainly due to the reduction in revenues from the annual membership meeting.

• Mark Wilson noted that we need to increase membership and figure out ways to increase the revenues the AOC receives each year.

• Mark Wilson moved that we give out a $1000 scholarship this year; Doug Zehner seconded.  No discussion.  Motion passed.

8. Annual Meeting Wrap-up: 

• One problem was that the annual member meeting conflicted with a number of sessions, which may have contributed to lower than expected turnout.  Next year, need to try to place the member meeting at a more opportune time.
• Next year, we need to find a way to keep the AOC from getting “lost” in the meeting.  The presence of AOC was not clear in the sessions it organized and perhaps we can make it clear in the program next year.
• There was some discussion about doing our own registration for the meeting to ensure that we can track numbers.  Will wait on this until the financial issues for this years meeting are finalized.
• There is a meeting on April 23 at ODNR to discuss the financial outcomes with the Federation employees.  Jim Bennett, Jennifer Fish, and Mark Wilson will attend.