National Council Meeting Minutes - May 20, 2008

Carlos Suárez, President called the meeting to order at 6:06 PM CST

Roll call was taken and quorum established.

Present

Carlos Suárez, President; Irma Hernández, Secretary; Heather Medina, Reg Rep - MW; Mario Morales, Vice-President; Jazelle Jusino, Reg Rep - SE; Roney Gutiérrez, Reg Rep - W; Rick Tafoya, Treasurer; Tony Reséndez, Executive VP; Cresencio Pérez, Reg Rep – SC

Absent

María Collazo, Reg Rep - E; Carlos Morganti, Reg Rep -C; Herman García, Reg Rep - NP

Note: National Council-7 members required for a quorum

Visitors reporting: Astrid Martínez

Changes to the Agenda: Carlos Suárez requested a motion to approve the meeting agenda. Tony Reséndez motioned to approve the agenda, Roney Gutiérrez seconded the motion. No more discussion, motion carried.

Approval of minutes: Irma Hernández discussed the April meeting draft minutes. Carlos Suárez requested a motion to approve the minutes. Rick Tafoya made a motion to approve the minutes. Cresencio Pérez seconded the motion. No more discussion, motion carried.

Treasurer’s Report: Rick Tafoya presented the May treasurer’s report. Carlos Suárez requested a motion to approve the treasurer’s report. Irma Hernández made a motion to approve the treasurer’s report. Heather Medina seconded the motion. No more discussion, motion carried.

Rick Tafoya requested the Council approval to purchase QuickBooks accounting software. Carlos had a concern on which computer this software will be loaded. Carlos is concerned if this software is going to be loaded on a RC&D’s computer. Rick clarified that he will have the software loaded on his personal computer. The Council discussed different brands of software, the price range and the use of the personal computer versus the RC&D computer. Rick mentioned that he can continue doing spreadsheets if necessary. Carlos Suárez supported the use of the computer software especially because it will be beneficial for future audits. Irma made a motion to approve the purchase of the software using the lowest price of three quotes not to exceed $250.00. Mario Morales seconded the motion. No more discussion, motion carried.

Changing Banking Institution: Rick Tafoya reported to the Council that NOPHNRCSE has officially changed Banks to NRCS Federal Credit Union. Rick reported that we are set up for online banking and this has simplified the membership check deposits. Rocemi Morales, Membership Committee Chair, no longer needs to mail the checks to the Treasurer for deposit.  Instead she (and future Membership Committee Chairs) can mail checks directly to NRCS-FCU.

Selection Process for NOPHNRCSE Conference Site: Rick Tafoya and Tony Reséndez presented the criteria and guidelines that the ad hoc Committee put together for the conference selection process. See attached report. The Council discussed various points including the region rotations and the development of the web-based voting program. The web-based program is intended to provide opportunities for those members that can’t attend the conference to submit their votes electronically. The discussion was very extensive and because not everyone had a chance to review the report, Irma Hernández proposed that everyone review the report and provide comments to her no later than COB Thursday, May 22. Irma will compile all votes and comments and report back to the Council by Friday, May 23 to allow regional reps time to contact the members and solicit input.

NOPHNRCSE Website: Mario Morales presented the three options for the new NOPHNRCSE website. There is a one time fee of $1,600 for hosting the website. There are three rates: first option is Basic ($19.95 mo). The monthly fee doesn’t include maintenance and we would have to handle all updates. The second option is Business Plan ($50.00 mo.). This will provide an email account and additional functionalities. The third option is an Enterprise Plan ($ 79.95 mo). This third option includes functionalities like surveys, pay pall, etc. Just the additional request for functionality costs approximately $65.00 per hour.

Carmen Ortiz, current webmaster recommended to start with the least expensive option. ($19.95 mo)

Irma Hernández asked Mario Morales if he considered the three points that Rick Tafoya presented at the last meeting. Irma read them from the April minutes. The first answer is that we would own the domain name. Second answer is that there is no contract duration; we pay on a month by month basis.

Carlos Suárez supported the idea of starting with the lowest options. Roney Gutiérrez made the motion to approve the Basic Plan and Tony Reséndez seconded the motion. No more discussion, motion carried.

2008 NOPHNRCSE National Conference: Astrid Martínez reported the updates from the Conference Planning Committee. Astrid indicated that everything is going well and running less expensive than last year.

The Council discussed the Registration waiver that the Council has granted in the past. Irma Hernandez asked about which criteria that we are going to use to select the members that will receive the waiver. The Council agreed to the following criteria in the order of preference: Council Members, Chairperson, Moderators, and Presenters. The Council agreed.

Astrid asked if we can push the early registration a week. The Council decided to leave it as established.

Regional Representative Reports

Jazelle Jusino, SE - Jazelle has forwarded job announcements to members. She called all HEPM in her region to inquire about who is planning to attend the conference and she estimates 12 to 15 members.

Cresencio Pérez - Cresencio hosted a teleconference in his region and had 10 participants. He reported that he has 35 members that renewed their membership and 20 that have not yet committed. Cresencio has contacted them to help members to rejoin.

Roney Gutiérrez - Roney reported he has a dozen members waiting for approval to attend the conference.

Heather Medina, MW - Heather has forwarded job announcements to members. Heather has also contacted some members to present technical papers.

Carlos Suárez requested a motion to adjourn. Mario Morales made a motion to adjourn. Cresencio Pérez seconded the motion.

Meeting adjourned at 8:30 PM CST.

Carlos Suárez, President
Irma Hernández, Secretary

Conference Site Selection Required Documents

This document requires Adobe Acrobat.

Conference Site Selection Process (PDF; 86 KB)
Conference Cost Analysis and Feasibility (XLS; 37 KB)

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