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 National Council Meeting Minutes - September 16, 2008Luis Hernández, President, called the meeting to order at 6:05 PM CST. Roll call was taken and quorum established. Note: National Council-7 members required for a quorum Present
Guests Reporting:Amanda Hasemeier, Carmen Ortiz AbsentReg. Rep. Caribbean, Jorge Ruiz (excused absence pending) Changes to the Agenda: Discussion on absences from monthly teleconferences will be added under other business. Website re-design and 2008 National Conference Proceedings CD will be added and moved under agenda item C. NOPHNRCSE Website update. Astrid made a motion to approve changes made to the agenda. Eileen M. Vale seconded the motion to approve changes to the agenda, no more discussion, motion carried. Approval of Minutes: Luis Hernández discussed the August meeting draft minutes. Astrid Martínez stated that we needed to document on the absentees on whether they had an excused absence or unexcused absence. Eileen M. Vale made a motion to make changes to the minutes. Jazelle Jusino seconded the motion to make changes to the minutes, motion carried, no more discussion. Treasury Report: Jorge Camacho presented the treasury report for September. Jorge stated he is now able to access the account. Jorge was able to reconcile any pending transactions. Jorge may have to re-issue a check he made in the amount of $72.20 due to the check being lost in the mail. He presented the council with the current balances in the NRCS Federal Credit Union and Wells Fargo. NOPHNRCSE has a current balance of $15,085.65 in the Money Market Account and a balance of $32,581.80 in the regular checking account. Both of these accounts are with the NRCS Federal Credit Union. NOPHNRCSE has a current balance of $56,607.61 in the CD Regular Account and a balance of $61,549.79 in the Scholarship and Endowment account. These accounts are both with Wells Fargo. Astrid Martínez made a motion to approve the Treasurer,s report. Ted Lucero seconded the motion, no more discussion, motion carried. 2009 National Conference Philadelphia: Amanda Hasemeier stated that she has been looking into more hotels in the downtown area of Philadelphia for the 2009 conference. The Marriott Hotel located downtown is likely to be the best choice for the 2009 conference. The hotel has 1400 available hotel rooms, spacious meeting rooms, and is reasonably priced. Amanda stated the dates of the 2009 conference will be held the week of August 2, 2009 (Sunday) -August 7, 2009 (Friday). These dates are subject to change. Amanda was able to set the tentative dates in the national NRCS calendar with the help of Angel Figueroa. All committee chairs are established for the 2009 conference with the exception of the Auction/Scholarship Night. Amanda would like this announced in the upcoming NOPHNRCSE newsletter. The other hotels she visited were the Four Seasons, Sheraton, Crowne Plaza, and Radisson. The Four Seasons was limited on meeting rooms and very expensive on their food prices. The Sheraton did not show any interest in hosting our conference. The Crowne Plaza is still an option. The Radisson Hotel would not guarantee our government rate. Amanda stated Irma Hernández is currently communicating with Chris Tippie in regards to providing NEDS training in the 2009 conference. NEDS has a new three day course on Outreach or How to Outreach. Discussion on the sending the letter of request t o all State Conservationist regarding the Farmer of the Year Award was discussed. The Program Committee of the 2009 conference would be responsible for editing letters. More than likely, SEPMs will have their meeting and not have a joint meeting with NOPHNRCSE. There is a slim possibility that may change. However, Luis Hernández would like to extend invitations to other NRCS professional organizations such as the American Indian/Alaskan Native Association for NRCS or Asian Pacific Islander Organization. Astrid Martínez suggested that we should write a letter proposing a joint meeting with NOPHNRCSE. Amanda wanted to inform the National Council she is currently keeping record of all her transportation costs. Astrid stated that she will need to submit all receipts to Jorge Camacho for reimbursement. Update on NOPHNRCSE’s Proposal to host joint Meeting with SEPM’s for 2009 Conference: Luis Hernández had emailed Joseph Hairston, Director of Civil Rights Division if the SEPMs were interested in having a joint meeting with NOPHNRCSE in 2009 Conference. Joseph Hairston stated that the Civil Rights Division is currently working a proposal to conduct a SEPM conference at this time during the FY 2009. If approved, the SEPM conference will serve the annual training purpose for all groups. If the National SEPM Training Conference is not approved, there might be a good possibility that they will be participating in NOPHNRCSE’s 2009 conference. NOPHNRCSE Website Update: Carmen Ortiz stated that she contacted the website company; ComRush. This company will charge $1600 for a new website design. The National Council will approve any changes in the design or logo. Carmen stated that they will create a skeleton home page so the NC can get an idea of what the website will look like. Programming to add more functionality to the website (e.g., online conference registration or online voting for organization officials) is going to be extra. Carmen stated that she can continue being the webmaster and making the necessary additions/edits on the website. ComRush charges charge $75.95/month if they do the maintenance. By Carmen being the webmaster, the cost will only be $19.95 a month for hosting the site. Carmen stated that she does not know how much space is available through ComRush. She will email them to inquire out how much space is available to us. NOPHNRCSE 2008 Conference Proceedings: Luis Hernández said that it would be beneficial to compile all NOPHNRCSE presentations given at the 2008 conference and put them on a CD to send to all State Conservationists. This would show STCs what NOPHNRCSE has to offer at National Conferences. We can also create another CD with the videos from the workshop titled "A Day in the Life". The Day in the Life videos can be used for recruitment. Carmen will draft a cover letter for Luis Hernández's signature to all STCs. Standing Committee Chairs: Luis Hernández stated that Mario Morales informed him that all Standing Committee Chairs are in place. Mario will be emailing the official list of Committee Chairs ASAP. NOPHNRCSE History: Luis Hernández stated that he has contacted Humberto Hernández in regards to NOPHNRCSE History. Humberto has agreed to take lead on this project. Humberto would like to form a committee to help implement this project. Luis will write a letter informing the membership about this project and see if anyone would be interested in participating on the committee. Luis will forward the letter of request to regional representatives for distribution. Luis suggested that he would like one of the members of the National Council to serve on the committee. Regional Representatives: West-Roney Gutiérrez reported that he had local staff interested in joining NOPHNRCSE. He has been forwarding job announcements to membership. Northern Plains-Ted Lucero reported he has been forwarding job and any informative NOPHNRCSE announcements to membership. Southeast-Jazelle Jusino reported that she had the opportunity to represent the HEPM of Florida in a National HEPM teleconference. They discussed issues regarding outreach to Hispanic Farmers and Hispanic Heritage Month. She has been forwarding job and general announcements to membership. Jazelle commented on how she liked the format for vacancy announcement. Midwest-Heather Medina reported that she has been forwarding job announcements to membership. East-Tim Garrahan reported that he has been forwarding job announcements and general announcements to membership. Tim has been on leave the last two weeks. He had a concern on who will be his back up on forwarding emails to the membership. Eileen M. Vale stated that she can forward the emails to his members in his region when he is not able to. Caribbean Area-Jorge Ruiz: ABSENT South central-Cresencio Pérez was present only the first 25 minutes in the meeting. Midwest-Heather Medina – Absent Other Business: Unexcused and Excused Absences: Astrid Martínez had a concern for the recent absences occurring in the last three monthly teleconferences. She wanted to reiterate the importance of attending monthly teleconferences. In the by-laws, it states that we (national council) are allowed three unexcused absences. Furthermore, we can have a proxy sit in for us in a teleconference. Astrid Martínez will research this issue in previous teleconference minutes. Luis Hernández will be sending an email to the National Council regarding this issue. Membership Issues: Luis Hernández briefly discussed the concern he had on the low numbers in membership. He stated that we need to encourage those who where previous members to rejoin NOPHNRCSE. Luis would like to know the reason why they are not current members of NOPHNRCSE. He also would like to see the idea of a Membership Drive be implemented as soon as possible. He has asked Ted Lucero and Tim Garrahan take lead on this project. Luis Hernández stated that he will not be able to attend next month's meeting due to an International Meeting (he will be attending) in Mexico October 12-28. He has asked Astrid Martínez to officiate the next month's teleconference on October 21, 2008. Ted Lucero made a motion to adjourn the meeting. Heather Medina seconded the motion, no more discussion, motion carried. Meeting Adjourned at 8:00 PM CST Luis Hernández, President
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