February 24, 2002 Southern Conference Meeting
11:45 am: In attendance: Michael, Kathleen, Robin, Maggie, Laura, Brandy, Zayanne

Any news other than the conference that needs to be covered (this should be limited to 10 min.)

Michael:
LEAF fair: two weekends, Sunday March 10-Santa Monica Mountains Whale Festival (Nancy and Michael will be at the AEOE table Judy and Michael will be at the LEAF fair. Dan A. will be at AEE conference that weekend Michael will be at GSEEC meeting and will bring publicity AEOE materials. A lot of new members coming from the publicity of conferences and fliers

Kathleen:
* Would like to pick a date for fall conference. Tabled until Helen comes.

Treasury report (Zayanne)

Registration packet (Maggie)
* Has a first draft done and has had valuable feedback from the form, would like to discuss money matters with Zayanne and Helen.
* Map and directions need feedback-connect maps a bit more, Maggie will be making adjustments.
* Copied Westminster Woods format
* Add earplugs to list of things to bring
* Michael suggested we make a mention of what to do for late arrivals, Maggie will change this

Schedule of events (Maggie)
* 6:00 registration begins
* Bill Andrews at 7:30
* Sign-ups start at 8:00
* Ice-Cream bar 8:30-9:30
* We may need to move tables around for registration, need volunteers to move and set up
* Location will not be listed on pre-schedule
* Maggie has made a copy will email to all
* As people show up, we will have a list of options for Friday night to start around 9:30-10:00 (storytelling, song swap, improv., etc.)
* Mealtimes confirmed
* Time for jobseekers to meet with COSA before lunch on Saturday. In conference packet there should be a blurb about how to register easily (read the descriptions first to decide what you will be signing up for, etc.)

Registration:
* Those helping really need to know what their jobs are

Zayanne: it would be helpful if we had all people owing money going to
One line and others not owing registration go to the other line. Tables
Should be set up in this fashion:
* Lines:
* 1) Money
* 2) Registration
* 3) Membership
* 4) Nametags/Schedule
* 5) Professional Development/Tee-Shirts
o Zayanne & Nat, Helen & Michael &?? Brandy & Maggie, Anita &Kathleen
* 6) Housing
* 7) Green Conference
o Joanna & Laura

Worksite set-up
* Housing-signs need to be made up for dorms, VIP, camping, designating style-loud vs. Quiet, early vs. late to bed.
* Traffic flow of registration and dining hall need to be checked into
* Dorm sign ups should be done by a map of the dorm with bed spaces listed under each Laura will make dorm maps.
* Lost and found box and recycling bins should be near registration, Laura and Joanna will host that spot-Wrightwood folks will bring recycling bins from their site
* Workshop sign-ups must be clearly labeled and should flow in a logical order (Robin will make signs as to day/time offered really highlight double sessions –connect two sessions together and descriptions in large type)
* Merchandise (zayanne)
* Parking situation (Michael)
* Presenters (Robin)
* 55 confirmed so far (email went out to everyone)
* Being put into strands
* Natural History, Teaching Methods, Music, Administration, Storytelling
* When should we offer two sessions

Jobs
* Nancy-non-profit vendor coordinator (do we still need this?)
* Laura-green conference coordinator
* Laura-map maker
* Laura-sign maker
* Michael-facilities coordinator, raffle and auction
* Workshop sheet coordinator-Beth (might be better served as parking
person)
* Brandy-volunteer coordinator
* Maggie-Keynote, entertainment
* Robin-Presenter coordinator
* John-Scholarship
* Helen-evaluations (prizes for turning in evals. Was suggested-acorn
naturalist donated prizes, books by Michael)
* Anita-t-shirts
* Anita/Kathleen-professional development
* Brandy-Transportation
* Merchandise-Zayanne-has sources for plastic travel mugs and bags as well as carabeeners, decided to stick with mugs and bags only for this conference.
* Photo contest-Janice (are we doing this?)
* VIP housing and camping (Joanna fuller-anyone have her number?)
* Julie-Job and Resume table
* Membership-Beth
* T-shirt, gear swap-Zayanne (after dinner Sat. night in keynote area
* Journal swap
* Skits-Brandy asking if Paul will do it (themes: most educational, best theme association, funniest, etc.-if prizes are going to be given, they need to decided upon and made up-plaques, mugs, bags and Acorn naturalists certificates were suggestions. Maggie suggested doing skits before MoiJoi in same place as they will be playing.
* Parking: (who is this?)-Parking fee box at registration ($5 honor system, waived if you carpooled in a group of 3 or more)
* Housing
* Dining Hall Monitor
* Clean up (can we get volunteers on site as they register and offer an incentive?)
* Presenter liaison: Judy (need 4 more)
* Keynote liaison: need two
* Registration cut off is 10:30 Friday night, after 10:30 housing maps will be moved outside for late arrivals.
* Zayanne felt sign-in of housing was important for reconciliation at the end, all registrants will pass by Laura’s housing and sign-up
* Meals: cafeteria style first meal only suggested by Camp HK-all others will be family style
* Dining hall volunteers needed-start checking people in at 7:00 but breakfast not served until 7:15
* Zayanne suggested having two volunteers at each door to check in numbers for meals.
* Day rates: 75 is cut-off. Maggie suggested calling day rate folks as soon as conference fills up to 75 to let them know. Zayanne suggests waiting until registration begins to decide on day rates
* Zayanne suggested that registration continue Saturday morning-we should all check on Helen and Zayanne to make sure they are getting food during check in.
* Jobseekers to meet with COSA folks from 12:45-1:15 Saturday after lunch, need to figure out where on workday


Jobs to remember:
* Robin: ask RT and Mike to do birding on Saturday and Sunday
* Maggie: ask Jim Weaver about Wybell donation for auction, ask Anita about skit awards graphic, contact John about scholarship info.
* Zayanne: finding out about mug and bag prices and getting samples
* Brandy: ask Paul to be in charge of skits, in charge of transportation (get volunteers to help)
* Beth: membership at registration
* Laura: signs
2/24 meeting minutes (after Robin and Brandy left at 3:30)

Taken by Maggie Wolfe, co-chair
Elections
Chair-Elect: Brandy agreed to be chair-elect (with Helen as chair) after the conference J
Treasury Report:
New, Improved Budget Format: Zayanne shared her new format for the budget—it is all on Quicken now, which makes it very easy to summarize, come up with budgets, reports, and even charts. J All present agreed it was wonderful, and in case (god forbid) Zayanne should ever retire as Treasurer, it will make it much easier for the next person to step in.

Statewide budget: Zayanne has had no luck arranging a meeting with Savannah and Debbie, so she has gone ahead and done things herself to set up the budget for becoming statewide in the future. It seems she has worked out a simple system that could easily be for a statewide budget if we could get the treasuries together into one. Zayanne will keep trying to work with Savannah on making that happen.

Newsletter Article on Budget: Zayanne will write a treasurer’s report for the summer newsletter—“Where does your money go?” or along those lines, and perhaps include a pie chart. Members in general have no idea what we do with the membership dues and conference fees—no clue about insurance costs, newsletter costs, costs of putting on conferences and events, the costs of getting non-profit status, etc.

Budget report on web: Zayanne will also publish a budget report for southern (and we hope eventually for statewide, if she and Savvy can coordinate) on the web.

Newsletter:
Budget: Board approved an additional $1000 for Spring and Fall newsletters and conference packet.
Membership:
We need to add a section to the database to designate new members for the free offers that we get from Green Teacher and others. Right now Helen just changes the expiration date when people renew and there is no way to tell who is new and who has renewed.
Awards:
Howard Bell Award : Maggie agreed to contact Janice about the Howard Bell award and making sure it is engraved and ready and the speakers are organized.

Environmental Educator of the Year: We skipped the Environmental Educator of the Year award this fall, but would like to reinstate it for next year. Maggie agreed to put an EEer of the year nomination form in the Summer newsletter, and Helen agreed to be in charge of taking nominations.
Policies:
Meeting Minutes: We noted how we often remember discussing or voting on issues, yet can’t remember what was decided or find them in the minutes, so we decided to come up with a standard format for minutes that will be more user friendly and make it easier to find records of past decisions. Zayanne, Helen, Maggie and Michael will email their ideas for this to each other, and when they come up with a good format, will tell Beth and future secretaries how we want them to be.

Suggestions for Meeting Minutes: One thing we would like is to have not only standard sections, such as reports from different board members on their areas, but also sections on decisions and jobs agreed to. This would make a quick reference. Also, the secretary needs to record major policy (and especially bylaw) changes that need to be recorded in the bylaws or on the web site. The secretary should also bring a notebook of all past minutes to the meetings to help to look up decisions and policies of past meetings. If the secretary cannot be at the meeting (as was the case in this meeting) other board members should have backup notebooks of minutes for reference.

State Board members’ voting rights: Michael brought up that he wasn’t sure he could vote on Southern issues as a statewide board member. He is not on the State Executive Board, as that is comprised of the President, Section Chairs, Section Chair-Elects, State Coordinating Secretary and now the Chief Financial Officer (7 total votes). But he is not on the southern board either. We decided that statewide board members such as PR, Webmaster, and historian should have voting rights on both section boards, if desired. (Of course, this should be a statewide decision, and may already be in the bylaws…)
Conference planning
Board discounts: this is what lead to the discussion about finding past decisions in the minutes. We all remember discussing this and voting on it, but not exactly what was decided. We decided Maggie (and others) will look it up in past minutes to see what has been decided. If we can’t find a past decision, we will give everyone on the conference committee (board member or not) a 50% discount. Board members not involved in major conference planning can pay full price. Of course, presenter discounts apply also, and many board members are giving workshops, so will either be half price or free if they are also on the conference committee.

Day Rate Limit: We reduced the day rate limit to 50, but will be flexible and if we get enough workshops, we can add more. The limiting factors on the day users will be workshop space and parking. Robin will keep a running total of workshops, and spaces per session, and keep Helen apprised.

Regular Registration limit: 325, including keynotes and their families—this is limited by dining hall space.

Keynote registration: Maggie will send Byrd Baylor, Art Sussman and Bill Andrews registration packets with “complimentary” written in on the basic cost lines and premium housing lines, and ask them to go ahead and fill out registration forms and send to Helen for our records.

Nametags: Three colors: Day Use, Regular, and Board Member. Presenters will say “Presenter” on them in large, perhaps watermark style, print, and the other categories will also be printed on nametags. COSA members will be printed on regular, since even if they aren’t attending the conference, they still get meals through Saturday lunch included in the COSA fee.
On front of nametags will be: Name (first and last), Number, Program, Designation (Day use, Board Member, Presenter). On back will be a place to write in workshops and locations, and possibly inside folded nametag will be the whole conference schedule.

Copies: Voted to allow Helen to give Inside the Outdoors free institutional membership for allowing her to use their copy machine for registration and nametags, if they agree.

Nametag holders: Helen will email Northern to see if someone has the saved nametag holders from the last conferences.

Numbers: We discussed having the numbers be coded with all day use numbers starting with 400 for easy identification. Could have all presenters (and board members) starting with 100.

Presenters: Helen will contact Tracy Meyers about doing a taxidermy workshop at the conference.

Volunteers:
Meal set ups:
We discussed having a sign up sheet at registration for meal helpers. We need about 12 people per meal to come in 15 minutes early to help set the tables. We decided we will just use people already there for clean up, after doing most of it with “hoppers” OSS style. Brandy could make the sign up sheets and bring them.

Volunteer gifts: We discussed but never finalized, what we will give volunteers. We liked Kathleen’s idea of giving tee shirts like they did last year, but sizing and color may be a problem, so we thought that mugs or cloth grocery bags would be better. We would like to leave it up to Brandy’s discretion on which volunteers should get something—meal helpers probably don’t need anything, unless they are helping out with several meals. But people helping out with parking should definitely get something, as that may be a bigger job. The $10 gift certificate we agreed on at the last meeting was called into question: $10 off the conference price isn’t enough to encourage people to volunteer for that reason—most folks who volunteer do so because they want to help. We ended by deciding not to say anything in the registration packet about “payment” for volunteers, but will give those who really do a lot mugs, bags or both as a thank-you gift for helping us out.

Registration Confirmations will be sent out by email soon after registrations are received. Helen will come up with a system that works for her—daily, every couple of days, or at most weekly group email confirmations. She will tell people that their registration has been received and unless contacted individually, they could assume that their requests will be able to be met.

Jobs, resumes, program information table: Maggie brought the binders that were sent down from Northern. Maggie will contact George Stratman about organizing and maintaining the jobs table. It will be mostly a self-service table, but would be good to have one person in charge of checking it and making sure it is neat and together during the conference. We will use Dan Allison’s map of ROSSes in California there after we use it on the membership table at check in to show institutional members, programs with the most staff attending (# staff/site attending and % of total staff?).

Information Table: We would also like to have a table for information on other organizations, such as NAI, Surfrider, NAAEE, Orion, Green Teacher, etc. somewhere near the jobs table.

Green Teacher Magazine: We will have lots of Green Teacher magazines to give out to new members. We will have a stack at the membership tables at check in with a sign that says “free to new members” or “one free copy for new members.”

ROSS Guide: Maggie will contact Dan Allison about bringing his ROSS Guide to sell at the merchandise table.

Parking Fee: We will have a coffee can at registration check in for Parking fees, probably at Helen’s station, and it will have a sign saying “$5 parking fee, waived for carpools” and we will let it be collected on the honor system.

Maggie and Michael left at 6, and Helen and Zayanne were still working on registration ideas!
Summary:
Jobs:
Maggie: contact Janice about the Howard Bell award; put an EEer of the year nomination form in the Summer newsletter; email meeting minute format ideas to Z, H, and M; look up board discount policy in past minutes; will send Byrd Baylor, Art Sussman and Bill Andrews registration packets; will contact George Stratman about organizing and maintaining the jobs table; contact Dan Allison about ROSS guides to sell.

Helen: in charge of taking nominations for EEer of the year; email Northern to see if someone has the saved nametag holders from the last conferences; contact Tracy Meyers about taxidermy workshop; email meeting minute format ideas to Z, M, and M

Zayanne: keep trying to work with Savannah on making the statewide budget happen; will write a treasurer’s report for the summer newsletter: will publish budget summary on web (at least at end of FY); email ideas about minutes formats to M, H, M.

Robin: will keep a running total of workshops, and spaces per session, and keep Helen apprised.

Brandy: Chair-Elect!! Could make the sign up sheets for meal sets and bring them; decide on volunteer gifts.