RRF BOARD OF DIRECTORS MEETING
Wednesday,September 24, 2008
The meeting opened at 8:11 AM
Attendees
Board of Directors: Jim Bednarz, Clint Boal, Michael Collopy, Laurie Goodrich, Carol McIntyre, Miguel Sagesse, Gary Santolo, John Smallwood, Ruth Tingay, Dan Varland, Petra Wood.
Officers and committee chairs: President Lenny Young, Vice President Ted Swem, Secretary Joan Morrison, Treasurer Angela Matz, Journal Editor Cheryl Dykstra, Education Kate Davis. Wingspan Editor Petra Wood and David Bird arrived after lunch, as did Mike Kochert, newly elected Director.
Absent Directors: Fabrizio Sergio
Other members present: Travis Booms
I. Welcome: President Lenny Young gave call to order, opening remarks, and welcome, introduced all Board members and committee chairs.
II. Committee Reports
- A. Election Results - Joan Morrison
- President elect: Ruth Tingay
- Vice President: Ted Swem
- Eurasian director: Fabrizio Sergio
- North America Director #3: Laurie Goodrich
- Director-at-Large #3: Mike Collopy
- Director-at-Large #4: Mike Kochert
- Action Items: Elections
- Encourage more members to run for offices and directorships.
- Improve voter turnout. Make sure member e-mail addresses are correct.
- B. Awards - Clint Boal
- Hamerstrom Award: was not awarded in 2008
- Cade Award: David Bird
- Leslie Brown Award - Mwangi Githiru, environmental conservation activities in Kenya
- Koplin Award: Sofi Hindmarch, Simon Fraser University
- Dean Amadon Award- Ralph Buij, studies of changes in land use on west African raptors
- Tully Award: Mark Jasper, Effects of parasitic disease on migration in Red-tailed Hawks
- Anderson Award
- Best Student Poster Award:Travis Booms
- Best Student Presentation Award: 1st Place tie to Isabel Caballero and James Dwyer; 3rd Place to Kathlyn McVey
- Action Items: Awards
- Clint Boal will find a new chair for the Anderson award and develop guidelines for distributing funds for this award. Guidelines will be submitted to the board, for evaluation.
- RRF is currently registered to do business as a 501(c)3 and now is operating out of AK. For anyone interested in learning more about how non profits operate, downloadable copies of an excellent reference are available for $10 at http://www.iciclesoftware.com/vlh7/.
- The tax laws for non-profit organizations have changed dramatically resulting in greater accountability for what we do and for our tax reporting.
- RRF has retained a CPA, Virginia Farmier, in Fairbanks to assist with our taxes
- RRF has retained a lawyer, James Dewitt, also in Fairbanks, who is well versed in non profit law in AK. We pay only if he does work for us.
- Highlights of expenses during FY 08:
- Ornithological Council: $500
- OSNA: about $8000, service fees include supporting work such as running the annual election.
- Credit card charges (rate of 4%) are a significant part of our expenses; these occur when authors pay for journal fees and when members renew their memberships by credit card.
- Allen Press charges RRF fees for warehousing back issues of the Journal
- In 2008, RRF funds covered scanning back issues of the Journal for addition to SORA.
- Sales of the Techniques Manual. No information is available yet on number sold or income from this. Directors agreed to talk with David Bird and with the publisher, David Hancock, about this issue.
- Other publications - Jim Fitzpatrick continues to take orders for back issues of JRR, research reports and the Powerlines publication. During 2009, Jim will send everything he has to Angela, including all back issues of the journal, publications, etc.
- Angela indicated there is about $64K in the checking account; we are in a position to transfer $10K - $15K to funds to our money market account, which has a slightly higher interest rate.
- Action Items: Finances
- Investigate transferring excess funds from the checking account to the endowment.
- Coordinate with David Bird and David Hancock to follow up on sales of techniques manual
- Mike Collopy will make recommendations to the president with the goal of reconvening the financial committee that will provide guidance to our investment advisor. Lenny will submit proposed financial committee membership to board via e-agenda
- Angela will draft a privacy policy regarding use and disposal of credit card information and submit to board via e-agenda.
Items for 2009 budget
Proposed Expenses
- Ornithological council is the only membership fee we continue to pay
- Costs to OSNA for running our election are around $8000
- Conference management fees - costs for this year and next year have been donated.
- Publications - we pay between $7-10K per issue of JRR, 4 issues annually is approximately $40K
- Cheryl proposed an addition of $500 for translators of Spanish abstracts for JRR, a fee on par with other journals.
- Travel for 2009 meeting in Scotland is already budgeted, but only for officers, and only for a portion of their expenses, not directors.
Expenses for Awards
- Hamerstrom and Cade awards are plaques; cost is about $200 with one time additional cost this year ($160) of changing the business that does the engraving
- We cannot take additional funds, annually, from the endowment to add to a particular award. Someone wishing to make a contribution to this or any award could make a separate contribution to RRF for that year, then for that year we could add that amount to that particular award.
- Board voted unanimously to increase the Koplin award to $500 plus banquet ticket.
- Board recommended making $300 available for oral paper award(s) each year. This would give the committee flexibility as to how many papers they want to recognize.
- $100 is available for poster award each year.
- Board voted to take amount needed for awards from the endowment annually instead of every 3 years and base the percentage available on past 3 years of rolling average return on the endowment.
- Cap on the 3 year retrospective average is 4%.
Action Items regarding disposition of documents- Lenny will seek someone to be RRF's archivist
- Jim Fitzpatrick will ship all RRF materials and documents to Angela, in Alaska
- Joan will contact Ed and Judy Henckel about getting their RRF materials and documents
- All past presidents and officers are encouraged to review what they have and compile what should be kept
- Recent submissions are low, last year has seen considerable improvement in recovering publication costs
- Our membership to BioOne has been an asset: more people are seeing our journal and downloading articles.
- All our back issues through 2005 are now available on SORA.
- All back issues beginning in 2006 are now available on BioOne. Members can login to BioOne on RRF website.
- We now have an ad exchange with Auk and Condor.
- In 2009 the editor will be seeking a new book review editor (or co-editors).
- Joan Morrison agreed to be an associate editor for RRF, John Smallwood agreed to be associate editor for kestrel issue.
- Action Items: JRR Editor
- Work to reduce turnaround time for reviews
- Seek a new book review editor (or co-editors)
- Increase payment for translators for abstracts
- Board discussed adding links to our partner organizations, including but not limited to, OSNA, other bird groups, Raptors of the Rockies, and Hawk Mountain
- Board recognized need for posting statements about their duties and activities and other Foundation related information, on website
- Action Items: Website
- Convene committee to investigate upgrading website; committee should work with webmaster (Carl Marti) to add web links, photos
- Add link to Hancock publishers for purchasing techniques manual, and information on how to purchase it
- Secretary will post meeting minutes and e-agenda information on website each year
- Board members and officers will prepare statement about their duties and responsibilities and these will be sent to Carl for posting on website
- Board voted unanimously to upgrade the physical capability of our website, this will increase costs to $11.95 per month. Angela will work with Carl to accomplish this
VI. Conference Committee – Dan Varland
- 2007 - RRF made $349 profit from Allentown conference
- 2008 - Kate thanked the people from continuing education at University of Montana, who helped with this year's meeting
- 2009 - Ruth indicated that planning is coming along; very few slots remain for paper or poster presentations
- 2010 - Dan presented a draft proposal from McAllen, TX.
- 2010 - Another possibility is University of Arizona. Bill Mannan is at our meeting so we should talk with him about this.
- 2011 - We have a completed proposal from Duluth. MN. Venue is $109 per night, facilities, registration fees etc. are in line with other meetings, proposal is pretty much ready to go. Directors voted unanimously to accept proposal from Duluth for 2011 meeting
- 2012 - joint meeting with NAOC in British Columbia
- 2013 - Miguel Sagesse proposed we hold the meeting in Mendoza province, Argentina. He will put together a formal proposal for 2013 meeting, for review in upcoming e-agenda
- Action Items: Conference Committee
- Seek additional information for McAllen proposal, investigate other hotels etc.
- Seek other proposals for 2010 conference, as necessary
- Finalize financial agreement with Duluth committee for 2011 conference
- Dan will stay on as Conference Committee chair until 2010 and 2011 meetings are set up, then he will to step down. Libby Mojica indicated interest in chairing the Conference Committee. She will work with Dan during the transition.
- Miguel will bring forward a formal proposal for 2013 conference in Mendoza, Argentina
- Overall, numbers during 2007 and 2008 have declined. For period 2005-2008, RRF membership declined 5.5%
- Regular and student members make up most of members and these are categories that are decreasing
- RRF's membership turnover is 20-25% turnover per year.
- Board should facilitate transmission of membership information to potential members in southern hemisphere
- Board discussed need for mentoring program particularly for student members
Membership of Board members
- According to the by-laws students may run for board seats; however the by-laws do not recognize the category of "student member"
- Board voted unanimously to direct the secretary to draft a policy statement for approval of board. This statement should recognize different membership categories and state who specifically can run for board seats
Action Items: Membership- Send a letter to lapsed members asking why the let membership lapse and inviting them to reinstate membership.
- Identify journal authors and other potential members who are not members and send a letter inviting them to become members.
- Miguel will investigate developing a survey for lapsed members to determine why they dropped membership.
- Put RRF's ad and poster in a variety of places and perhaps create a membership oriented ad for other periodicals.
- Reactivate membership committee to help Ted with membership issues.
- Miguel agreed to translate Wingspan and the website into Spanish, which should help prospective members in southern hemisphere.
- Miguel will develop a proposal for a mentoring program for submittal to the board.
- Angela will coordinate setting up a membership booth at future RRF conferences
- Petra will publish statement regarding membership categories in Wingspan and Carl will post on website
- Action items: Wingspan
- Encourage more submissions from officers and board members about what the Foundation is doing, our tasks for RRF, etc.
- Publish notice that the foundation is seeking an archivist or historian.
- This past year RRF submitted two letters on conservation issues
- comments on the USFWS’status review for the Bald Eagle in the Sonoran Desert area of central Arizona and northwestern Mexico
- response to the Bureau of Land Management's proposed Colville River Special Area Management Plan.
- Board discussed proposed project to evaluate disturbance effects on raptors, project proposed by Phil Whitfield, scientific program chair of 2009 meeting. Lots of buffer zones are designed for raptors but are based on no real data.
- John Smallwood expressed willingness to work on this issue, brainstorm study design, and draft preliminary information to bring to board for review, however board reiterated this project must have strong statistical design.
- Action Items: Conservation Committee
- Lenny will appoint a new chair for this committee, Jim Bednarz agreed to chair committee beginning January 1, 2009
- RRF needs to respond to more conservation-related issues.
- Secretary should post committees' guidelines on website and in Wingspan
- Other organizations we currently belong to include OSNA and the Ornithological Council.
- Laurie will gather information from our NABC rep, Buzz Hull and will report her findings to the board on future e-agenda.
- Board reviewed issues of job performance and responsibilities of officers and directors.
- Action Items: Officers and Directors
- All officers and board members will write position descriptions for foundation leadership, outlining responsibilities and time commitments.
- Board discussed having term limits for all committee chairs, but fixed terms that are renewable: someone could re-stand for a chair if appropriate.
- Board voted unanimously to give the president of RRF authority to set term limits on committee chairs
- Board accepted the proposed 2009 budget as balanced
- Board was reminded that in 2007, board members had discussed their intent that all revenue from sales of the techniques manual should fund the endowment and not just go into the operating budget.