Conps May 30, 2015 Board Meeting Minutes

Recorded by Jenny Neale

Attending: Jan Turner, Charlie Turner, Linda Smith, Steve Olson, Nanette Kuich, Jenny Neale, Mo Ewing, Irene Shonle, Sara Copp, Jim Tolstrup, Ronda Koski, Catherine Kleier, Samantha Clark, Erica Cooper, Lenore Mitchell. No phone connection.

Meeting called to order at 9:35

Announcements:

• Ronda Koski is the Northern Chapter president and workshop coordinator.
• Jan Turner announced that a review of Aquilegia will be included in next issue of Taxon.
• US Forest Service has hired a new Region 2 Botanist: Tyler Johnson. Charlie and Jan met with Tyler to discuss CONPS and their desire to collaborate on future efforts related to plants in the region. Tyler is interested in collaborating with CONPS in the future.
• Sam (Samantha) Clark is the new Denver Chapter president
• Linda Smith’s titled has changed to Administrative Coordinator. This title better reflects her job duties.
• The Native Plants for Pollinators handout, created by a team of CONPS members (but primarily by Linda Smith) and collaborators is available. The information will ultimately be part of the Native Regional Plants booklet. The landscaping plans will be available online soon even though the final booklet will not be done for a while. Linda has copies of this to hand out – please pass out to your local nurseries (can get copies from Linda). There was additional discussion of asking local nurseries and partners such as the Colorado beekeepers association and the Boulder County Nature Association to sponsor print runs for the fee of inclusion of their logo.
• Board elections: Irene Shonle is contacting people who expressed an interest in board involvement on their membership renewal form. Qualifications and an announcement of the election will be included in the next issue of Aquilegia as well as on the web site.
• Still need a SE Chapter president – Charlie and Jan have called folks and trying to find someone. Have some preliminary interest. Do we know anyone who would be interested? Our goal is to get someone to attend to board meetings.
• Southern Rockies Seed Network – Erica Cooper shared upcoming dates of events – most are listed under the ‘calendar’ feature of the CONPS website. Can also get to the events through Synergy website.

Field study update: Black Forest/Pineries botanical surveys: First trip was May 15-16, targeting two species – Birdsfoot Violet (Viola pedatifida) and Richardson’s Alumroot (Heuchera richardsonii).

• did find several plants.
  • More volunteers are needed for the assessments on Friday, July 17, and Saturday, July 18. This is a CONPS-supported 2015 Field Study. They would like to have about 15 -18 people participate in the upcoming assessments. Contact Steve Popovich (stevepopovich@hotmail.com) or Judy von Ahlefeldt (blackforestnews@earthlink.net).
  • Additional field opportunity: Wet Mountain Bioblitz – organized by Southern Heurfano county portions of wet mountains. Trying to complement the CNHP county inventory of natural features in Huerfano County. Working to survey USFS June 26-28. People interested can contact Steve Olson.

Business Requiring a Vote

1. Discussion of awards to be presented at annual meeting: There will be a call for award nominations in next issue of Aquilegia. There was a general agreement that the board will vote for awardees online.

1. Membership & Marketing Coordinator – see job description that was sent out with the agenda.

1. 1. As discussed at the last Board meeting, there is interest in creating a part-time 12 month position to hire someone to increase membership in CoNPS and market CoNPS through outreach activities, advertising, and social media.
   2. Charlie Turner Motion: motion to vote yes or no on Membership and Marketing coordinator position. Second by Irene Shonle. Discussion: There was some discussion about the position, tasks the person would be responsible for, how the position would be advertised. The president will supervise the position and will make sure they meet one-on-one with each existing committee to determine how best to interact. The committee that wrote the description will conduct the hiring. We agreed to vote on the position. Charlie Turner called a vote and the issue passed unanimously. We will proceed with hiring.

2. Workshop revenue – Ronda Koski

1. Ronda would like to propose a change in the way in which workshop proceeds are divided. We have many phenomenal instructors coming in to teach and they don’t seem properly compensated by the $50 honorarium and the $25 bookstore credit. We need to find a way to more fairly compensate the instructors; particularly those younger folks who are still early in their career and who spend many hours in preparation.
2. Ronda Koski Motion: Motion to divvy up the workshop revenue into three equal parts, 1/3 for the instructor(s), 1/3 for the workshop coordinator, and 1/3 for the Society. Also get rid of $25 bookstore credit. Seconded by Charlie Turner. Discussion: In order to make it more predictable for the instructors, let’s give them a flat fee. Ronda proposed an amendment to the motion to provide the instructors a $200 flat fee. Amendment seconded by Charlie Turner. Charlie Turner calls a vote for amended proposal. Motion passed unanimously.
3. As for fees for CoNPS workshops: Discussion regarding the workshop fee for workshops where an instructor has been brought in from out of state by the Society. There was general agreement that this is already taken into consideration in fee determination and did not need to be voted on. No motion was made and no vote was called.
4. Ronda also proposed that in the future all workshops be coordinated through the CoNPS Workshop Coordinator. There was discussion of this and it was agreed that this is more complicated than it originally appears. Many chapters organize and run their own local workshops. If we limit Society workshops to those being coordinated solely by the workshop coordinator, we would prevent chapters from organizing their own workshops. It was generally agreed upon that the workshop coordinator should be made aware of all workshops not organized by the coordinator directly. A process for this communication needs to be worked out between the workshop coordinator and the Administrative Coordinator. No motion was made, no vote was called.

3. Should we have free or partly free one time membership offer for NPM (Native Plant Master) graduates? – Irene Shonle
   1. Irene Shonle Motion: Shall the Society extend the student membership rate to people completing one full course of the Native Plant Master program for 1 month after completion of their course? This would be a one year membership. Nanette Kuich seconded. There was no discussion. Charlie Turner called a vote, the motion passed unanimously.
4. Request to purchase signs for workshops – Ronda Koski
   1. Ronda Koski Motion: Assuming a cost of $140 for a single sign, can the workshop Coordinator purchase three sandwich board sign holders for a total of $420? Sara Copp seconded. Discussion: Would three sign boards be necessary, can they be found for less than $140 each? Suggestion to approve a budget allowance. Nanette Kuich amendment: Let’s provide the Workshop Coordinator with $300 to purchase sign holders for workshops. Charlie Turner called a vote on the amended proposal of providing $300 for sign holders for workshops. The motion was passed unanimously.
5. Request to purchase canopy with CoNPS logo for events – Sara Copp
   1. The Education & Outreach Committee would like society funds to purchase a canopy for educational events.
   2. On this website ( http://www.ezup.com/)  canopies range from $140.00- $2000.00.
   3. Sara stated that this one ( http://www.ezup.com/ ) is ~$240.00  and looks to be medium strength shelter.  I think the 10×10 would be large enough for our use. We could eventually get the sides/back to add to this canopy. It would help depending on the event. Sara Copp Motion: Can the Education and Outreach committee purchase a canopy with CONPS logo with additional back and sides for $240? Seconded Irene Shonle. Discussion: How about we take the similar tactic of a set budget amount and committee chair can determine what she can get for the money? Amendment by Charlie Turner: Provide the committee with $400 to purchase a canopy with back and sides. Charlie Turner calls for a vote on the amended motion. Motion passes unanimously.
6. Consider requiring membership or a fee for fieldtrip attendance.
   1. Irene Shonle Motion: Field trips are now free for non-members. Let’s change the policy so that fieldtrip attendance is dependent on being a member or non-members paying a $15 fee. Seconded by Mo Ewing. Discussion: we would need to wait to implement this change until 2016 field trips since all 2015 trips are already advertised. We would need to establish a pre-registration feature using our new website. In 2015 we can strongly encourage field trip attendees to become members. Lenore Mitchell amendment: should we make it that members need to pay to attend fieldtrips too? Discussion on the amendment: There needs to be some benefits to membership so let’s not charge members, it would be better to raise membership dues, which we did recently. Lenore Mitchell withdraws the amendment. Charlie Turner calls a vote on the original motion. Motion passed unanimously. In 2016, CoNPS members will attend field trips for free and non-members will pay $15 to attend a field trip.

Business (Non-Voting)

1. New Website & New webmaster – Mo Ewing. Mo provided an overview of the new website. It is up and running and has many new features. The desire is that committee chairs learn to use WordPress and take the initiative to update their own committee pages. There are several good videos on YouTube if people want to learn how to update content directly. Mo discussed static and dynamic pages and provided examples of each. His aim is to have all pages be dynamic. The group made a few minor suggestions to wording on the Member Survey page and general feedback.
2. Promotion of events: Sara Copp has created a new Googlegroup (listserv) for the society. She has used it to advertise upcoming opportunities. Jenny Neale commented that after she sent out the Rare Plant Monitoring Training, an additional 14 people signed up. Sara also started a LinkedIN group and is having a hard time getting CONPS members to join in. If you know people who are CONPS members and on LinkedIN, have them join. The Society has a new Twitter account – it is run by Sally L. White.
3. Annual Conference Update – Jan Turner
   1. Conference Theme: Native Plants & Pollinators
   2. Conference will be held in Golden at the American Mountaineering Center on the corner of 10^th & Washington in downtown Golden
   3. Dates: September 11-13, 2015

• Sept. 11 – Annual Rare Plant Symposium
• Sept. 12 – CoNPS Annual Conference
• Sept. 13- Field Trips

4. The Next CoNPS Board Meeting is scheduled for August 8, 2015 at the Regis University Library Tracy Room. Other 2015 Board Meetings: October 24, December 5.

2. Past time – Any additional items will need to be discussed over e-mail or at the next meeting.

Meeting adjourned: 12:26