2007 Board Meeting Notes

[krisw]

On Thursday, December 21st, the newly elected board met at Sean's house to talk about the upcoming year. Below are the notes from that meeting:

• Club Outreach
  • - Planning Three Workshops this year:
    • - Fins/Feathers - Ghazanfar's going to coordinate with store.
      - TFW - Sean to coordinate
      - Scales - Kris to coordinate
    - Gardening clubs - Ghazanfar will research what local gardening clubs are around, and will try to send them a flyer encouraging them that GWAPA allows "winter gardening."
    
    - GWAPA Poster - still need a designer. Will use Kinkos (or equivalent) to print 10-15 copies for local stores/events.
  Club Purchases
  • - Porous Mossy Rock - The club is purchasing 400-500 pounds of this rock, to sell off at meetings, or by request, to members. It will be priced per pound.
    
    - ADA Order - Ghazanfar is going to talk to Fins/Feathers to try and coordinate a large purchase of Aquasoil for the club. If members want any other ADA products tacked on to this order, this should be possible. It will most likely be slightly above wholesale price.
    
    - Manzanita Wood - Sean will contact manzanita.com to see how much 2 boxes of wood will cost, and if they can give the club any discount/selection.
    
    - Group Orders - We will add to the group order rules a suggestion that any live orders co-incide with meetings, to prevent the inconvenience incurred by the organizer of dealing with no-shows/non-payments.
    
    - GWAPA Farming Project - due to cost and logistics, this idea is placed on indefinite hold. Instead, we will draft a list of ideal aquascaping plants, and encourage our members to farm out these plants in whatever extra tanks they have. Hopefully that will make more aquascaping plants available at meetings.
  Events
  • - Aquascaping Contest for Hosts - In 2007, GWAPA will hold an aquascaping contest for meeting hosts. At each meeting, a picture will be taken of the host's preferred tank. That picture will automatically be entered into the contest. If throughout the year, the host wants to submit a different picture, that will be accepted. One entry per host, per year. At the end of the year, the membership will award the "best aquascape" award of $150 to the winning host.
    
    - 2.5G Aquascaping Contest - We will repeat the 2006 aquascaping contest, but this time we will use Amazonia for substrate. Entrance fees will be minimal (~ $5/tank) if you already have the tank, or ~$20-$25 if you need a full tank setup. This year, it will be a photo contest, to avoid having to transport the tank, and to allow each person to submit their tank in it's "peak aquascape."
    
    - Plant Swap - We will attempt to coordinate a plant swap with all interested clubs. Houston, San Fran, Dallas clubs were all suggested. Aaron's going to contact SFBAPS to setup the first swap. We suggested that there be enough of each plant for 2 people to grow it out.
    
    - Florida Collecting/Field Trip - The third week of May was the tentative day for this. We will need deposits from members who are interested sometime before this.
    
    - Field Trips - Maryland Aquatic Nurseries, Lilly Ponds, and the Wash. Botantical Gardens were all suggestions. Aaron's going to contact MAN to find out the best time to go so that the owner can give us a tour.
    
    - Bulb Orders - Sean's going to contact HelloLights.com and/or Exotic Aquatics to see who can give the best price on the largest variety of bulbs.
    
    - District/Regional Mini-Conference of Clubs - Aaron suggested that we consider the idea of contacting a few of the clubs in our region to see if there's any interest for a mini-conference where all of the local clubs in the mid-atlantic/north east, get together for a plant swap, and exchange of information. Speakers if available. Logistics and interest need to be discussed with the other clubs.
    
    - 2007 Meetings - Jeff is organizing. We especially wanted to encourage some of our Virginia folks (John G, Ali, Rob, etc) to host to even out the meeting locations. We have the following tentative schedule:
    • - Jan - Viktor
      - Feb - TBD
      - Mar - Sean
      - Apr - Kris
      - May - Ghazanfar
    - Suggested Meeting Topics:
    • - Building a DIY Auto Doser (Jeff)
      - Advanced Trimming Techniques (Ghazanfar)
  Other
  • - Donation Letters - Aaron is going to contact Seachem to see if they'll sponsor our workshops.
    
    - Membership Renewal Email - Kris is going to email any current or former members who is not up-to-date with their membership. He'll note the January meeting time and location, and ask that they renew at the meeting, or online by January 31st. Ghazanfar suggested looking into vBulletin to keep track of our membership data and forum.
    
    - Bylaws - Ghazanfar is going to renew, revise, and propose a new set of bylaws for vote by the membership.
    
    - GWAPA Bank Account has $2900