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 National Council Meeting Minutes - February 17, 2009I. Luis Hernández, President, called the meeting to order at 6:07 pm. II. Roll call was taken and quorum was established. Note: National Council-7 members required for a quorum Present
Regional Representatives
Guests Reporting:Amanda Hasemeier, Irma Hernández AbsentRegional Rep Northern Plains: South Central, Cresencio Pérez (excused), Heather Medina (excused) III. Approval or Changes made to the Agenda: Luis Hernández asked the National Council to see if any modifications needed to be to the agenda. Ted Garrahan added under on going business, Small Farmer information sheet/Spanish Translation. Jorge Camacho stated under Ongoing Business letter I., Astrid Martínez was the person presenting the topic. Ted Lucero asked if he can be first on the agenda under on going business, since he had a meeting to attend to at 6:45 CST. Astrid Martínez made a motion to make these changes stated above. Jazelle Jusino seconded the motion, no more discussion, motion carried. IV. Approve Minutes: Luis Hernández asked the National Council to review the draft minutes from January 20, 2009 teleconference. Luis pointed out that few corrections needed to be made. Under VI on going business, topic G. Conference Selection Process, Luis asked if the last three sentences be edited. Also title C. Update on 2009 Conference, line number #8 was deleted from the paragraph. Astrid Martínez made a motion to approve the minutes as amended. Jorge Camacho seconded the motion, no more discussion, motion carried. V. Treasurer's Report:
Jorge Camacho presented the treasury report listed above. Jorge stated that he recently discovered that he cannot contact NFC directly regarding the membership automatic drafts. He said a HR officer has to call NFC. They discovered that NFC was not notified about the change of the routing number. NFC stated that they were not getting any rejections from the Wells Fargo bank in Laredo. The bank then stated that they have not received any deposits from NFC. The next step for NFC is to track where these automatic drafts are going to. Jorge stated he estimates a total of $1000.00 needs to be recovered. Mario Morales asked who authorized the closing of the account in May of 2008. Jorge stated that Rick Tafoya, who was the treasurer at that time, did. Jorge then asked the NC what to do with the two CD's at Wells Fargo. He stated that one of the CD's will be maturing in May of 2009 and other in November of 2009. He further stated that he will need a letter from the NC stating that he is now the treasurer for NOPHNRCSE. This will allow Jorge to access these CD accounts at Wells Fargo. Luis asked the NC to think about this and it will be discussed at next month's teleconference. Astrid Martínez stated if a new member chooses the automatic draft payment to pay their membership fees, they still need to provide NOPHNRCSE with a check for $30.00. The automatic draft pertains to the following year's membership dues, not the current year. It was suggested that Rocemi Morales, Membership Committee Chair needs to be notified about the change of bank accounts. Astrid stated that we have to encourage all new members to write a check when they submit their application. Eileen M. Vale made a motion to approve the treasury report as amended. Mario Morales seconded the motion, no more discussion, motion carried. VI. On-going Business A. Membership Drive Proposal: Ted Lucero stated that his SAO recommended a $30 limit on awards. Tim and Astrid agreed with the $30 limit. It was recommended that windbreakers be given to one member from each region who recruits the most new members. These new recruits can be old members. Ted suggested that it would be nice to present the awards at the National Conference during the banquet or luncheon. Ted would like to see this membership drive to occur from February 20th through March 21st if possible. The process would be to be send out a membership form (NOPHNRCSE brochure) by regional reps, send all forms back to regional reps, and regional reps will be count of all new recruits. Jazelle Jusino stated it would be nice to have an updated list of all active members. It was strongly suggested that all payments go to the membership chair, Rocemi Morales. On awards, $30 per windbreaker, one windbreaker per region would equal a total of $210.00. Tim Garrahan recommended that the amount be increased to $350.00 just in case of any cost over run. Ted made a motion to allot $350.00 for the membership drive awards. Mario Morales seconded the motion, no more discussion, motion carried. B. New Website Update: ComRush stated that they are no longer interested in doing business with us due to the lack of follow up. Therefore, we are back to square one. Mario stated that he forwarded the bill to Eileen and Luis. Eileen stated that she did not receive it. Mario stated he will send it again. This bill which consists of $650.00 was for the 10 hours of time producing website samples. Astrid stated that we should at least get a template from them. Mario said that he spoke with Lori Valadez. Lori stated that sooner or later all NRCS professional organizations will have to provide their own website. Luis Hernández stated that we will not pay the $650.00, until ComRush provides NOPHNRCSE with the template they worked for us. Luis would like to have the same team to look into to other companies that can provide us with our new website. He would like to have Carmen Ortiz to take the lead on this project. Eileen M. Vale made a motion to pay the invoice from Com Rush totaling to $650.00, once they provide us with the template they worked for NOPHNRCSE. Tim Garrahan seconded the motion, no more discussion, motion carried. C. Webinar Presentations: Tabled for next month's teleconference due to Carmen Ortiz's absence. D. Update on 2009 Conference: Amanda Hasemeier was happy to report that they now have an idea on what the program agenda is going to be for the conference. She stated that she was very impressed what is on the program. Amanda said that they may change the theme a little bit, nothing too drastic. Once they tweak the theme, they will start working on distributing post cards and emails to members. They will be putting an announcement for the need of Technical Papers and exhibits in LA Voz in March. Nominations for Awards will have a deadline by April 30th. Irma Hernández asked the NC if the title of Farmer of the Year can be changed to Hispanic Farmer of the Year. Astrid Martínez stated that there was a ranking process and the committee of the Farmer of the Year consisted of 6 people. Luis stated he was the chairman and the committee consisted of 8 people. The Farmer of the Year Award is open to everyone. It would be in everyone's best interest if we keep it that way. It was suggested that the title and ranking stay the same due to the amount of work and time spent by the Farmer of the Year committee. Irma mentioned that, a member Febe Ortiz had a concern with NOPHNRCSE, maybe providing too much training at the conferences. What she meant by this statement is we may have too much training going on that some of the people cannot enjoy the conference itself. Luis said that the purpose of our Conferences is to provide training to all employees that wish to attend. He and the NC would like to see it continue this way. Irma also stated that she would like to see a proposal for the site selection (for the national conferences) for the next two years. Luis stated the main problem with that is the state conservationist do not have a budget in place and they simply cannot base their decision with out a budget first. Irma further stated maybe we can just remind them about our conferences so they can keep in mind when they do receive their budget. Luis stated that he and the other Professional Organizations Presidents will be submitting the Joint 2010 Conference Proposal on March 19th. It might be until early April or May until we know if we are going to have a joint 2010 conference. The NOPBNRCSE will be having their 2009 Conference in Kansas in December. If the proposal to have a 2010 Joint Conference is approved, they will cancel their 2009 conference in December. Irma also proposed that we limit one waiver for conference registration fee per region. Luis suggested that we table this for next month. E. Small Farmer Sheets: Tim Garrahan asked what the status of getting all the small farmer sheets translated. Luis stated that he talked to Irma and Arturo Carajaval was the lead on this committee to translate these sheets. Luis said he talked to Arturo and nothing has been completed on translating the small farmer sheets. Tim asked if it can be done in a timely manner. Luis stated that he will talk to Irma Hernández and Arturo Carajaval in regards to getting the sheets completed. Luis will have Irma follow up on this item. F. Career Enhancement Scholarship Program: Will be tabled for next month's teleconference. G. Standing Committee Chairs Update: Mario Morales stated that Phil Gonzalez, of NRCS Wyoming, has agreed to be the Committee Chair for the by-laws committee. Mario stated he has contacted Tony Garcia to see if he was interested in serving as the Chairperson for the Finance Committee. For the rest of the committee Chairs goes as follows:
H. Proposal to limit the number of excused absences in NC Meetings: Astrid Martínez stated that she looked in the by-laws on how many excused absences a NC member is permitted for missing NC meetings. Astrid said it was not currently listed in the by laws, but it was there at one time. The by-laws have not been updated since Patrick O'Connor retired. Astrid proposed that 3 unexcused and 3 excused absences should be allowed. That equals to ˝ a year or 1/3 of a NC member term. Phil Gonzalez is currently the chairperson for the by-laws. Luis stated he or Astrid will contact Phil to see if they can investigate the documentation that stated NC members can only have 3 unexcused absences. Jazelle Jusino made a recommendation to look at past NOPHNRCSE minutes including ones that were approved when Bertha Venegas was President for NOPHNRCSE. K. Membership Drive Proposal: Luis Hernández stated it is important that we move forward with the membership drive proposal. We need to all do our part and outreach to members and past members. It was proposed that a cash reward of $50 be given as a prize to who ever can recruit the most new members in each region. Other prize suggestions included a NOPHNRCSE windbreaker, 50% discount on registration conference fee, and one year free membership. Astrid stated she still needed to check with her SAO to be sure we are not breaking any rules of ethics. Tim Garrahan stated he talked with his SAO and stated that she did not see a problem on the prizes we were considering on offering. Heather Medina suggested that Ted Lucero and Tim Garrahan work with Rocemi Morales to see if they can all brainstorm more ideas for the membership drive. L. Standing Committee Chairs Update: This will be tabled for next month's teleconference due to Mario Morales absence. M. Regional Representatives:
VII. Other Business A. Proposal to use Teleconference Website: Eileen M. Vale stated that she was instructed by Luis to look in to teleconference live.com. Eileen stated that we would have to pay at least $150.00 per month to use their services. Luis stated that we will continue to use the teleconference line we have currently with the NRCS. VIII Adjournment Mario Morales made a motion to adjourn the meeting. Astrid Martínez seconded the motion, no more discussion, motion carried. Meeting adjourned at 8:16 pm CST. Luis Hernández, President
< Back to Minutes of the National Organization of Professional Hispanic NRCS Employees |
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