Board Meeting Minutes North Carolina Chapter of The Wildlife Society Latta Plantation Nature Preserve, Huntersville, NC 20June 2012

Transcription

1 Board Meeting Minutes North Carolina Chapter of The Wildlife Society Latta Plantation Nature Preserve, Huntersville, NC 20June 2012 Executive Board Susan Campbell Kendrick Weeks Danny Ray Kelly Douglass Jonathan Shaw Gary Marshall Jeff Marcus ATTENDEES Position President President-elect Past President Secretary Treasurer At- large Board At-large Board Susan Miller (Webmaster), Colleen Olfenbuttel (guest), Lori Williams (Newsletter), and Charles Sanders (NCSU) were also in attendance. The meeting was called to order at 10:03 A.M. BOARD MEETING MINUTES Welcome and opening: Susan Campbell welcomed everyone to the meeting and gave some general housekeeping comments. She mentioned the successful release of the spring newsletter, under the new Editor Lori Williams and the Chapter's support of the Land and Water Conservation Fund. Susan also reported that the Trap-Neuter-Release (TNR) proposal for Wake County unfortunately passed, with the support of veterinarians, and now sets a precedent for other counties in North Carolina to follow. Meeting minutes: Susan Campbell requested that the Board review the 4 April 2012 meeting minutes (final version, with slight revisions from the Board's initial review via ). No edits or comments made. Jon Shaw moved to accept the minutes as submitted. Gary Marshall seconded the motion. All were in favor. The motion was carried. Treasurer's report: Jon Shaw reviewed the Treasurer's report. The checking account balance is $1,009.27; the Money Market Savings account balance is $16,434.87; the Susan Sharpe Memorial Fund (SSMF) balance is $10,491.77,and the Shares account balance is $ Jon has been in contact with the Fur Fish and Game Camp regarding the two $200 scholarships that NCTWS is donating this year; Jon is waiting to receive the scholarship applications from the camp. Income and expenses since the 4 April 2012 board meeting: Income was $485.97, including $ in dues and $65.97 earned in interest; Expenditures were $32.72, including $29.72 paid to Gordon Warburton for reimbursement for annual meeting name tags and $3.00 for administration. 1

2 Jon indicated that the budget year/to/date is located on the back of the Treasurer Report - the middle column is the proposed budget for 2012/2013. There have been no major changes to the budget since the 4 April 2012 board meeting. Kelly Douglass motioned to accept the Treasurer's report. Danny Ray seconded the motion; all were in favor and the motion was carried. Committee Reports Audit: Susan Campbell reported no action regarding the 2012 audit. Awards: John Ann Shearer (Chair) reported via that the committee has made slight changes to the web posting for the student awards to clarify the nomination process and has made changes to the actual award text. John Ann indicated that the committee would be happy to receive an application for a Western Carolina University (WCU) student award if the university is interested in having one. John Ann and Susan Campbell will begin conversations with the WCU advisor in August when he returns. The committee will announce the schedule for nominations by the August board meeting. Susan Campbell mentioned that the budget will need to be amended to include $250 for the WCU student award for 2013, and donations to the wildlife conclave Jeff Marcus suggested making those funds a priority for fund raising this year; Jon Shaw indicated that cuts could be made in the Chapter's donations to the student endowments this year, if necessary, to cover the cost of conclave and the WCU student award. Conservation review: Susan Campbell indicated that Kacy Cook (Chair) is still looking for a replacement. Susan Campbell has approached several individuals on the committee (Amy Rockhill and Salinda Daley) and no one can do it. She hopes to have a replacement for the Chair by the August board meeting. Susan Miller suggested contacting Sara DiBacco regarding the position. COWCR: Susan Campbell reported no activity for the COWCH committee. Susan has spoken with several individuals about reinvigorating the committee this summer, and hopes that she will have more news on COWCH by the August board meeting. Education and Information: Susan Miller (Chair) reported difficulty in obtaining responses from committee members about their continued interest to serve on the committee, but has a semi/current member list available. The Chapter poster is available as a pdf on the NCTWS website, and the poster that was on display at the annual meeting is currently at WCU on display. Susan would like to have 2/3 more posters to have available for chapter members to use, and indicated that she could print one, but would need someone to get it laminated. Danny Ray said Carolyn Rickard, with the NC Wildlife Resources Commission (NCWRC) could print two posters in Raleigh and a NC State University (NCSU) student could pick up the posters from Carolyn to get them laminated using NCSU's discount at Kinkos. Charlie Sanders (NCSU Leopold Wildlife Club president) offered to pick them up and get them laminated Danny Ray said he has a laminated poster that is also available. Susan Miller asked the Board to approve the printing of new brochures and to advise on how many to print. Susan indicated that the committee would like to have some brochures available at the NCTWS annual meeting but does 2

3 not want many left over (i.e., not distributed). Kendrick Weeks suggested identifying the target audience for the brochure to determine how many to print; Susan Miller indicated that the Membership Committee could probably estimate that number. Kendrick then suggested maybe printing 50 for each student chapter. Danny Ray also suggested giving some to the Membership and Mentoring Committees. Susan Miller said it sounded like 250 brochures would work (50 per chapter and another 100 reserve). Charlie Sanders also suggested having 50 brochures printed for NCSU student orientation. The Board concurred; 300 brochures should be printed. Susan Miller asked the Board for approval to print the brochures; the Board said no approval was necessary if the committee stayed within the approved budget. Danny Ray indicated that printing costs may be reduced with higher quantities, and that depending on how money could be saved, we might want to order more brochures (approximately 500). Susan Miller reported that Donna MacLennan is still working on the power point presentation. She also reported that Ron Davis is still working on the educational resource links on the Chapter website, and Beth Evans is looking into using the NCWRC species profiles links. Allen Basala had an idea to identify local speakers for the Chapter and selecting 2~3 events per year (e.g., Dixie Deer Classic or the Cape Fear Wildlife Expo) to target for educational outreach with the brochure. Susan Miller wanted to present that idea to the Board for discussion. Jon Shaw sees it as an opportunity for wildlife education (not necessarily about the Chapter but about what wildlife professionals do); he suggested picking a wildlife topic to focus on. Susan Miller indicated that the only problem would be that the NCTWS does not need to be handling general wildlife calls from the public. Jon agreed, and suggested using volunteer Chapter members to speak at Boy Scout troop or other civic group requests. Susan Miller also suggested asking the student chapters for volunteer speakers. Danny Ray recommended also having the poster and brochure at the events, but concurred with Jon about picking a wildlife topic for the presentation subject, not NCTWS. He indicated that the power point presentation is not to solicit membership at those events. He also suggested that if a NCTWS member is already present at the event, they can hand out brochures or display the poster. Susan Miller said any requests for speakers would come through the Webmaster, and she could distribute them to the membership for volunteers. She suggested having an "expertise" check off list like the National TWS membership renewal forms, so she would know who to send requests to. Danny cautioned that members may not check off boxes in order to keep them from getting requests, and suggested having a link on the website to various experts in the state instead of the check off. Kelly Douglass mentioned that a benefit to talking about NCTWS would be donations, but it may not outweigh the cost of sending a speaker to those events (if one is not already present). Danny Ray cautioned again about the demand for presentations and the possible drain on the membership if requests flood in. Colleen Olfenbuttel suggested having the poster and brochures available at event booths for kids that are interested in pursuing a wildlife career (e.g., the NCSU Leopold Wildlife Club and the NCWRC booths at the Dixie Deer Classic). Susan Miller indicated that the committee will capitalize on what the Chapter is already doing for educational opportunities. Danny said he would Carolyn about making the posters, and then contact Susan Miller when they are finished. Susan Miller will get the brochures printed. Finance: No report. Susan Campbell indicated that Pete Campbell may want to step down as Chair, given his new responsibilities/position at Lake Mattamuskeet National Wildlife Refuge. She also indicated that Pete may talk to Terry Sharpe about replacing him as Chair. Membership: No report. 3

4 Mentoring: No report. Newsletter: Lori Williams (Chair) thanked all those who helped get first newsletter out of the gate, especially Susan Campbell. Susan Miller sent her lots of pictures from Beth Evans from the annual meeting, and indicated that the recent newsletter was really a team effort. Lori asked for any specific feedback or suggestions for improvement; the Board said the format of the newsletter looked good and it had a lot of information in it. Lori is interested in getting photos from anyone of species, landscapes, etc that she can use in future newsletters. Jon Shaw suggested contacting Brady Beck to see if he had any "[unk" material to include. Lori is hoping to have the next newsletter go out in end of August. Danny Ray suggested getting in contact with the raffle winners at last year's annual meeting to get photos and to see if they would be willing to write something for the newsletter. Kelly Douglass suggested contacting the Finance Committee to see if they had the names of the raffle winners. Lori also solicited contributions to the next newsletter (announcements for meetings, news from other conservation groups, pictures, etc), and indicated that the December newsletter will be mostly filled with information on the 2013 annual meeting. Lori asked Susan Campbell if Pete might be willing to write a short notice on his recent job change for the next newsletter. Nominations and Elections: Susan Campbell indicated that this committee is not currently staffed and that she is willing to take nominations for the 2013~2014 year. Danny Ray suggested having the committee staffed and the nominee search process started by August, and asked all Board members to help Susan Campbell solicit nominees if she chooses not to staff the committee. The following positions will be available for nominations (20B~ 2014): Presidentelect, Treasurer, and 2 At-large Board positions. Professional Development: Kelly Douglass (Chair) reported no activity since the last board meeting, other than continuing to inform the membership of professional development opportunities as they are received via by committee members. She indicated that she will ask the committee to attend all NCTWS~hosted workshops in the future to take photos and write up a short summary of the workshop (and attendance) for the newsletter. Procedures: Kendrick Weeks (Chair) distributed the updated "Committee Procedures" document to the Board (attached). He received responses from the following committees: Awards Committee, Nominations and Elections Committee, and the Professional Development Committee. Kendrick will send out a reminder to the remaining committees, asking them to complete the form. Website: Susan Miller (Chair) reported no activity since the last board meeting. She reminded the Board that a donation contribution button is now on every webpage on the Chapter site. Program: Susan Campbell reported that John Stanton (Chair) will hopefully be present at the next board meeting, either in person or via conference call, to discuss the annual meeting arrangements. Reminder: the 2013 annual NCTWS meeting is February 25~27, 2013 (MondayWednesday) at the 4H center in Columbia. John has booked the same accommodations as the Chapter's last meeting there. He reports that the pricing looks reasonable. Susan Campbell also reported that she had spoken with Scott Anderson, the NC Partners in Flight (NCPIF) 4

5 Coordinator, who is interested in having a I-day combination/joint meeting with NCTWS in Columbia. Scott indicated that Tuesday, February 26 would probably be the best day to have the joint "meeting," and would like to see the meeting agenda focus more on bird/related topics that day for NCPIF members. Kelly Douglass asked if they had discussed registration fees for NCPIF attendees (who usually do not pay a registration fee for their annual meeting); Susan said not yet. She reported that John is already thinking about speakers. The tentative theme for the meeting is invasive species. Kendrick Weeks mentioned the connection between birds and invasive plant seed dispersal as a good Segway between topics. John would like to have another quiz bowl if possible. He also said the poster competition sign up information is to come. Kendrick Weeks was contacted by Andy Rosenburg (Virginia Chapter of TWS, President) about holding joint meeting with our Chapter. Susan Campbell talked with Andy and both chapters are concerned about getting out/of/state travel approval for Chapter members, but they are both still interested in having a joint meeting sometime in the future - but not this year. VATWS consistently has approximately 150 members attend their annual meeting. Student Chapter Updates North Carolina State University: Charles Sanders (president) gave congratulations to Rachel Conley (former president) on her Teaching Assistant position this summer and her acceptance to Auburn University for a Master's degree. Charlie reported that the Leopold Wildlife Club (LWC) hosted several new events this past year: a herpetology field trip to Holly Shelter, a wild food supper in February, which netted around $1,000, and being selected for hosting the 2013 student wildlife conclave. LWC is in the early stages of planning the conclave, which will be held in Southern Pines at the Hampton Inn March 7/10,2013. Charlie indicated that LWC and NCSU will need a lot of support from the Chapter. The majority of the grunt work will be handled by the LWC, but they will need volunteers from NCTWS for quiz bowl, judges (challenging - subject matter experts), moderators (though most will come from the NCSU faculty), and submitting questions. Charlie said they had over 1,000 questions at the quiz bowl last year, and indicated that the questions should be difficult but not impossible. Colter Chitwood is organizing the quiz bowl, so send any questions to him. Jon Shaw suggested sending out a request via to the membership for developing 5 possible questions (per person) and sending them to Colter. Charlie will get up with Colter to draft an for the list serve. Charlie said about 500 people attended the conclave last year, and they had about 25 different -l-hour field trips. Chris Moorman and Susan Campbell have a strategy for getting local members in Southern Pines to hold the conclave dates open for helping. Chris Moorman sent a written request to the Board for financial assistance - NCSU has requested $1,000 from the Chapter to help cover conclave expenditures. Chris estimated their total expenditures for conclave will be around $50,000. They will need to raise over $14,000. Susan Campbell asked the Board to consider providing NCSU with the amount requested. Danny Ray stated that the Chapter budget basically breaks even each year, and asked how much money was raised from the annual meeting last year. Jon reported approximately $4,000. Danny suggested that the conclave funds come from the money market account. Susan Campbell stated that the $200 budgeted for the mentoring committee will most likely not get used this year, and may also be available for conclave. Jon Shaw said he would look at the budget again tosee what should be left in the money market account at the end of the year, and get back with the Board with his recommendations. Danny asked if Haywood Community College would be involved in hosting conclave; Charlie said no. Kelly Douglass suggested that we have a decision for NCSU on an amount by the next Board meeting; Susan Campbell concurred. Charlie also stated that the 5

6 LWC is always looking for guest speakers at their meetings, and asked that if anyone is interested to contact him. Kelly Douglass offered to give a presentation. Danny Ray said he had been contacted to give a presentation but did not think he could justify the trip (limited mileage and funding). Haywood Community College: No report. Western Carolina University: No report. Susan Campbell mentioned that she had been in contact with Appalachian State University (ASU) and the University of North Carolina - Pembroke (UNC-P) about possibly forming student chapters. ASU is very interested in getting more information on NCTWS and careers in wildlife, so Susan will be in contact with them in the future. Charlie Sanders said the University of North Carolina - Wilmington (UNC- W) was also interested in forming a student chapter; Charlie said he would send that information to Susan Campbell. Lori mentioned that the NCWRC mountain staff is already working in the field with some of the ASU professors. Other Business Black Bear Management Plan - Colleen Olfenbuttel: Colleen gave a very detailed power point presentation on the North Carolina Black Bear Management Plan (attached), as requested by Susan Campbell in response to a question from John Wooding on the NCTWS' position on the management plan. All information presented can be found in the plan. Colleen also stated that the NCWRC is asking professionals along the range lines to call with confirmed bear sightings (live and road-kill), especially of female bears. Kelly Douglass suggested sending an to members to ask for documentation of black bears along the range line. Lori Williams suggested contacting NC State Park staff to help. Kendrick Weeks asked if the survey response received was different in the piedmont between rural and urban residents; Colleen said no. Susan Campbell thanked Colleen for coming, and said the presentation was very informative. Susan plans to get back in touch with John Wooding, and inform him that the Board will not take a position on the issue. NCTWS SE Section Representative: Susan Campbell had spoken with Nils Peterson, based on discussions at the last board meeting. Susan said Nils did not feel like he could keep up with the responsibility of the position and he was willing to be replaced. Lori Williams is willing to step in as Nils' replacement. Kelly Douglass proposed amending the budget to send the SE Section Representative to the Southeastern Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies (SEAFW A) meeting in October in Arkansas so she can report on NCTWS activities to the Section and update the Board on Section activities. Susan Campbell said she will not be able to go to the National TWS meeting, so money may be available there. Lori proposed funding conclave this year, and then sending the SE Section Rep to the SEAFW A meeting next year if the Chapter has money available National Meeting: Susan Campbell informed the Board that the National TWS is visiting all states that were nominated to host the 2016 National meeting. NCTWS proposed hosting the meeting in Wilmington, Raleigh, or Charlotte. National TWS will be visiting Raleigh sometime soon. Susan also informed the Board that the committee co-chairs had not yet been 6

7 identified. Danny suggested that once the co/chairs are identified, they should accompany the national members on their visit, if possible. Update on NCWRC Reorganization: Starting 1July 2012, most NCWRC technicians (fisheries, wildlife, and engineering) will be pooled together within one division and technician teams will have mostly engineering supervisors. Next steps of the re-organization may include evaluating the Wildlife Diversity Program, and other field biologist and/or mid/level supervisor positions. Action Plan: Susan Campbell informed the Board of the NC Wildlife Action Plan revisions currently taking place. Cindy Carr has requested stakeholder reviews of the revisions. Jeff Marcus suggested that the Chapter provide comments on the review, via general comments or a position statement. Susan Miller suggested asking Salinda Daley to co/chair the Conservation Review Committee, which would be responsible for the Chapter's official review of the plan. Update on Secretary Files: Kelly Douglass reported on her progress with scanning the secretary files. She has scanned all documents back to 2009, and will give another update at the next board meeting. Board meeting: The next board meeting is scheduled for 15 August 2012 in the mountains. Danny Ray will check on the availability of South Mountains State Park, Lake James State Park, or the Agriculture Center in Statesville, and notify the Board via of the specific meeting location. Jeff Marcus motioned to adjourn; Kendrick Weeks seconded. meeting adjourned at 2:05 P.M. All were in favor. The Board Respectfully submitted, ;!~f)e: Kelly DOU~ - <, NCTWS Secretary 7