National Council Meeting Minutes - March 17, 2009

I. Luis Hernández, President, called the meeting to order at 6:06 pm.

II. Roll call was taken and quorum was established.

Note: National Council-7 members required for a quorum

Present

President, Luis Hernández
Executive Vice-President, Astrid Martínez (attended for at least one hour)
Secretary, Eileen Vale
Treasurer, Jorge Camacho

Regional Representatives

West, Roney Gutiérrez
South East, Jazelle Jusino
South Central, Cresencio Pérez
Midwest, Heather Medina
East, Tim Garrahan
Caribbean Area, Jorge Ruiz
 

Guests Reporting:

Amanda Hasemeier, Carmen Ortiz

Absent

Northern Plains, Ted Lucero (excused)
Vice President, Mario Morales (unexcused)

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. Under On going business B. Webinars will be tabled until next month. Heather Medina made a motion to make these changes stated above. Astrid Martinez seconded the motion, no more discussion, motion carried.

IV. Approve Minutes: Luis Hernández asked the National Council to review the draft minutes from February 17, 2009 teleconference. Luis pointed out that few corrections needed to be made. Under on going business, B. New Website Update, Luis pointed that NOPHNRCSE will not pay the $650.00; until Com RUSH provides us with the sample templates they worked on for NOPHNRCSE. Furthermore, a correction on the committee chairs under Standing Committee chairs goes as follows: Awards-Arturo Carvajal, Natural Resources-Tony Resendez, Nominations-Carlos Hernández and Scholarship & Endowment-Gilbert Guerrero. Eileen M. Vale made a motion to approve the minutes as amended. Cresencio Pérez seconded the motion, no more discussion, motion carried.

V. Treasurer's Report:

Jorge Camacho presented the treasury report listed above. Jorge was happy to report that we were able to solve the direct payment for membership dues. Rocemi Morales will continue to send Jorge emails regarding any deposits made from membership dues from checks she receives. Jorge had a concern on where the funding for the Career Enhancement Program will come from. Will it come from NOPHNRCSE’s regular checking account or the scholarship endowment fund? Amanda Hasemeier said the scholarships are paid by the scholarship and endowment fund. Astrid Martinez suggested that Jorge call Gocha Rodriquez in regards to these accounts. Jorge Camacho also had a concern if we had enough income every year to fund the Career Enhancement Grant. Luis Hernández stated that the career enhancement grant will decided on a year to year basis depending on the availability of funds. Heather Medina made a motion to approve the treasury report as amended. Jorge Camacho seconded the motion, no more discussion, motion carried.

VI. On-going Business

A. New Website Update: New Website Update: Carmen Ortiz stated she received four estimates two weeks ago. Out of the four companies, Webmojo located in Thousand Oaks, California had the best proposal. Aside from contracting a company to produce the new website, Carmen suggested that we also need to pursue a company to host our website and internet service. This can cost $15 to $25 dollars a month. Domain registration can run an estimated cost of $15 per year. Carmen then proceeded to review the estimate for the NOPHNRCSE Website proposed by Webmojo. She stated that she did talk to them personally in regards to what are needs will be. Webmojo proposed a total cost of $3140.00 to produce the new website. This includes $100 for video sharing system for posting videos and $300 for general overhead. Carmen stated that in the state California a percentage of the total contract cost is due when the contract is signed and agreed by both parties. Carmen will let us know what the percentage is. Luis stated that he wants to make sure Webmojo can provide us with a website to meet NOPHNRCSE’s needs. Carmen stated that the Design of the website will be done in phases. After each phase is completed it will be reviewed, approved and paid. All payments after each milestone or phase will equal to the contract agreement cost of $3140.00. Carmen stated that the website can be completed in about 2 months. We will need someone outside the agency, such as Gocha Rodríguez to sign the contract. There was a concern on how to contact the council regarding after each completion of each phase or milestone of the new website. We simply cannot wait until the next teleconference to meet and approve each completed phase of the new website. It will take more than two months. We can’t afford to drag it out. It was suggested by Carmen that she will email the National Council when a phase has been completed and schedule a mini teleconference if needed. Jorge Camacho made a motion to accept the new website proposal by Webmojo of $3140.00, to pay the required percentage of the contract cost by the State of California and to have Gocha Rodriquez sign the contract on behalf of NOPHNRCSE. Eileen M. Vale seconded the motion, no more discussion, motion carried.

B. Webinar Presentations: Tabled for next month’s teleconference.

C.  Career Enhancement Scholarship Program: Due to Julie MacSwain absence, Luis Hernández reviewed the revised career enhancement grant program application. He stated that the program will more than likely be implemented in May or June.

D. Update on 2009 Conference: Amanda Hasemeier stated that she and her planning committee meet every month. Her last meeting was held last Wednesday, March 11th. She, Luis Hernández and Dana York looked into cutting the cost of the conference in some areas. 150 people are estimated to attend the conference. Not all 150 people will be flying in to the area. Furthermore, some corrections were made on how many people will need 4 to 5 nights of lodging/perdiem. Bottom line, the total cost of the conference was decreased from $280,000 to $245,000. Amanda stated that she will leave the cost of the conference fee at $400.00 with SEPMs (HEPMs and FWPs) paying $25.00 for their training on Monday. If the SEPMs decide to attend the entire conference their fee would amount to $450.00. Jorge Camacho suggested that Amanda makes sure she has all the supporting documentation to why the registration fee is $400.00 this year. Tim Garrahan stated that Dana York suggested reducing the conference by a day. This might help reduce the cost of per diem and lodging expenses. The National Council decided it would best to keep our national conferences they way they have been in the past. We do not want to risk removing any of the tours or additional trainings (NEDS, etc) that we provide. Amanda stated that they were having difficulty translating the new theme for the conference. There is no official translation for Together, helping People, help the land. It is not easy to translate. Luis stated that the National Council needs to approve the budget for the conference. He suggested to Amanda that she needs to have each committee chair work on his or her budget. Then the committee chairs need to submit their numbers to Amanda. Amanda will then consolidate all the figures into one report. Each chairperson is responsible for submitting any invoices to the Planning Chairperson or Co-Chairperson.

E. Membership Drive Update: Tim Garrahan stated that he and Ted talked to Rocemi Morales (Membership Chair) and reviewed the membership brochure. Tim said the applications will be emailed next week by regional reps. The membership drive will include the dates of January 1st through May 1st. Tim feels it would be fair to count any new members that were recruited after January 1st. All the new membership application forms and monies (checks, etc) will go to Rocemi Morales, since she is the membership Chairperson. Heather Medina asked if there was a place on the brochure that indicates who the new member was referred by. Eileen M. Vale stated that there is a place on the brochure where the new member writes down the name of the person who referred them.

F. Standing Committee Chairs Update: Will be tabled due to Mario Morales absence. Luis Hernández was concern about Mario Morales absences and how it was affecting the organization. Luis asked the NC to decide if it would be best for him to step down as Vice President. It was proposed by the NC that Eileen M. Vale draft a formal letter of resignation requesting Mario Morales step down as Vice President from the NC. Furthermore, Luis asked the NC to see if they had any recommendations who can serve as interim vice president until the next elections. He asked those recommendations be sent to Eileen. Roney Gutiérrez made a motion to have a formal letter of resignation, requesting Mario Morales step down as Vice President of NOPHNRCSE, sent to Mario Morales. Heather Medina seconded the motion, no more discussion, motion carried.

G. Regional Representatives:

• West: Roney Gutiérrez stated he worked on career development survey, and correspondence.
• Caribbean Area: Jorge Ruiz stated that he has been forwarding job announcements and working with the National Civil rights committee with their visit in May in the Caribbean Area.
• Northern Plains: Ted Lucero was absent.
• Midwest: Heather Medina stated that she worked on general correspondence, career developmental survey. She announced that their will be a vacancy on the National Civil Rights Committee for or to represent Hispanic female.
• South Central: Cresencio Pérez was absent at this part of the meeting due to a phone outage in his office. This is what he reported in his email: "I apologize for dropping off at the end of the teleconference last night. My cordless phone went dead and when I tried to call back in all I received was a message saying that all operators where busy and could not get back on. Anyway, here is my report. I have been forwarding emails to the membership and attended a job fair held at Texas State University which had representative strictly from US government offices.  I spoke to several students; six were Hispanic, who had interest in natural resources, GIS and IT. I gave information on the various fields they could pursue in the NRCS and briefly mentioned NOPHNRCSE as well. Several where about to graduate this spring but several were first and second year students. I gave them the handouts with application procedures and how to logon to US Jobs and search for NRCS positions.  I have been visiting with a Hispanic employee who has been an ultimatum sort of speak on some of the coarse work his taken in qualifying for the position he holds at this time. I will be visiting with him and see if there is some assistance NOPHNRCSE can provide him. I will keep you posted.
• South East: Jazelle Jusino reported that she has been forwarding emails, job announcements, membership drive and career development survey.
• East: Tim Garrahan stated he has been forwarding job announcements, general correspondence, membership drive, monthly committee planning for the 2009 conference etc.

VII Adjournment

Eileen M. Vale made a motion to adjourn the meeting. Jorge Ruiz seconded the motion, no more discussion, motion carried.

Meeting adjourned at 8:39 pm CST.

Luis Hernández, President
Eileen Vale, Secretary

< Back to Minutes of the National Organization of Professional Hispanic NRCS Employees