I. Call to Order at 9:15 am at Linnaea’s Cafe in SLO

V. Introductions: Tim Borgerding, Jen Allan, Dan Allison, Robin Frank, Debbie Carraway, Julie Faulkner, Michael Charnofsky, John Conant. Dan opened.

II. Minutes adopted from last meeting

III. Decisions in interim

Both sections accepted SCS tentative budget
Southern decided to cover Northern until have money to reimburse

IV. Agenda adoption

Deb suggested spending time on budget and on 501c3 schedule
Micheal asked about time after meeting to meet if not finished today

VI. Reports

(Dan explained that we do these upfront because it clarifies what is happening in those areas, so that there is no confusion)

A. SCS

working on a proposed budget for the state
working on getting year to date numbers so we know where the money is going
501c3 application has been done in some parts, but need assistance to complete
getting a lot of emails from people wanting to do programs with students
can give new members free copies of Green Teacher magazine
Orion Grassroots network offers money back for every member we get them

B. Section Chairs

Southern Chair:
Michael has been working on getting a site
California Science Framework adoption write ups
GSEEC meeting attendance
Helen is putting together email address list
Activities are birding trip, Josh. Tree, Catalina
Northern Chair:
Great Fall conference
Board mtg. Jan 6, discussed upcoming spring conference
Conference planning is going well
Maggie is looking at a target date newsletter being the third week in February
Treasury is at an all time low, the lowest it has been in 7 years.
Banking on good money coming in from the conference to increase the bank
Activity coming up in February
HOPPY is applying to CSTA Board, not as an AEOE liaison, but in his own interest
Should try to get an AEOE rep. on the board as well

C. Webmaster

Affiliates are not making much money for AEOE, weblinks have not brought in money but instituional membership has increased greatly (about 24, was 4)
lot of hits on website

D. State Historian (not present)

Howard Bell nomination
Suggestion of having a search committee
Tim and Micheal suggested George Stratman
Dan asked for a procedure regarding Howard Bell award
Would like to brainstorm a list of names of candidates

VII. Business

A. Conferences

A.1. State Conference Coordinator Manual
Micheal is working on binder, may be able to work
Brief discussion about having a conference coordinator, compensated or not, Northern has three, Southern will discuss ideas (has a conference, preregistration and workshop coordinator)
One thought was to have an “elect” conference coordinator, acting as an assistant the first year and then taking it on the following year

A.2. 2001 Spring Conference
Northern 2001 is pretty much set, registration packet is in draft form, much of it refers back to the website so that it could remain small, packet will go out with statewide spring issue of newsletter (looking at Third week in February)
Budget: Project making $9,000 on conference, need a little more than that to fulfill all financial obligations
N. agreed to run on a two year budget cycle (Debbie asked that N. and S. be correlated, Dan said that they will still be submitting yearly budgets)
Tim brought up the thought that as membership grows, site options become a factor of capacity.
Michael and Tim suggested that we focus on ways to generate more money at conferences (provide big selling points, make the site in a desirable location, etc.)

A.3. Southern Fall Campout Conference
Site l ocations still being considered (possibly Joshua Tree, need to keep in mind the CSTA conference dates)
Northern Fall Campout Conference:
Yosemite (last Fall, about 105 people)

A.5. Registration fee policy:
Northern made a decision because they had to do something for this conference
Northern will have families pay full price, kids under 12 don’t pay membership but pay site rate because costs are fixed site per person costs
Statewide should discuss how we should do this...
Michael suggested we make a decision year to year based on the site we are using
John suggested we look at a case by case basis
Need to have a note in registration that says children must be under supervision when on site
Dan made a motion that children 12 and under attending AEOE events with parents will not be charged a membership fee. (Debbie seconds, all agree)

A.6. Conference Planning timing:
Should a timeline be in place so as to know dates to shoot for
Debbie suggested having a conference guideline calendar
Date and location of Spring Conference should be announced at the previous years Spring conference
Dan made a motion to have hosting section of Spring Conference announce the date and time of their spring conference.the year prior to the conference.
Fall conferences
Timing guidelines should be discussed section wide
Michael suggested that the fall conference date and location be announced at the spring conference of the year it is being held. No formal policy need be made.

B. Board:
Skipped 1-6

B.7. Transfer of responsibility: Policy on sharing member database
N. agreed that we would not give our database out but would mail out materials if they seemed appropriate. Question came up as to should we give out labels rather than database.
Debbie suggested we send out labels only with AEOE at the bottom of the label so that members knew where the info. came from
Dan made a motion that AEOE will never share membership database with any other organization without a vote of the Executive Board, will provide labels to organizations on a case by case basis marked with AEOE, and will mail for organizations on a case by case basis. (all agreed)
Email list:
AEOE needs to have discussions about sending out email lists
Deb suggests send out emails about sectional reminders, good for activating members into being involved
Tim suggested people regulate themselves by giving or not giving their emails
John felt that until it becomes overwhelming with the amount of emails, we don’t worry about the issues
Section should vote on a case by case basis whether or not to send emails
Northern was concerned with who is responsible for putting the email out, Debbie says send it to the board for a decision about whether to send emails out.
Northern sends once a month mass emails
Dan suggested it be an on line “mini newsletter”, with brief section headings
Tabled for further discussion

B.8. Meeting pattern for year:
Board meeting in September has been happening for several years, would like to discuss how often to meet and what we are meeting on.
Deb felt it important to meet in Spring to talk more about membership involvement and briefer business information. Goal was to have proposed budget for upcoming year discussed at Spring meeting. Tim proposed we just talk about budget at the spring meeting, might even hold two meetings.
Suggestions have been made for meeting sometime in the spring, concerns were time expenditures, money expenditures from own pocket.

C. State Coordinating Secretary

C.1. SCS Budget (see attached)
Debbie explained the AEOE Statewide Proposed Budget
Some of the numbers are not accurate because they are unknowns, they have been inferred from vague information.
Numbers in parentheses is a deficit
Sheet number 2 is details of the budget lines on the first page
As more accurate numbers come in, she will apply them to the budget
Page 3, details for grants, donations and scholarships
Newsletter numbers have been inferred
Statewide newsletter was printed on Southern’s paper, some uncertainty about Northern’s Spring newsletter issue because of numbers needed and registrations packet
Sheet 3, page 1 is State Coordinating Secretary Budget
last page breaks down historian and webmaster expenses
affiliations numbers will need to be adjusted as expenses for membership go out, Zayanne paid for NAAEE, money should come out of state money
Most of the Northern numbers have been guesses, as money goes out and comes in, those numbers will be adjusted
Will attempt to keep year to date numbers up to date and look at them a couple times a year, in order to create a more accurate budget every year.
As we get 501c3 status, we will have to keep track of financial information for tax purposes
Asked for review of the budget and indiscrepancies be pointed out to Debbie so that they may be changed
Debbie needs numbers from Lisa in order to make this a more accurate working document.
Dan discussed challenges for treasurers being keeping track of numbers and then being able to categorize them, this is a proposed form to be used (open to discussion but to be used this year if noone offers changes)
Responsibility of Treasurer to do the job of providing numbers and look at the budget, SCS organizes information from both sections, but they need to provide the information)

Budget comments:
All agreed that Debbie has done an amazing job on the proposal, in question is surplus money left in the SCS budget. Reasoning is that SCS should start the year off with money and end the year with money.
When Deb took over, a balance of $700 existed in SCS budget
Jen asked how much money should be started off with each year in budget, should discuss between sections how much money should be contributed by each section. Because Southern has given a loan to Northern, this is difficult to decide this year.
Jen suggested that we put $1000 in SCS budget to be available at end of year and beginning of year.
Dan suggests we have $2100 from each section available as a target for SCS budget end of year balance, this would be a change to sheet 3, page 1-Budget contributions should read $2100 instead of $1720.85. Northern has already agree to these changes
Summary: as it stands now, each section would have been contributing 1700 for the year, Northern has contributed 582, Southern has contributed 2859, each section would contribute 2100. Because Northerns treasury is low, southern would contribute an additional 760 dollars.
Discussion that this money should go into an account controlled by Debbie, so that she would have access to it.
Dan moves as a state Executive Board that we modify the budget to reflect 2100 contribution from each section to have a reserve available at end of year. (all agreed)
Julie will email southern board for a vote on 2100 versus 1700 from each section.

C.2. Stipend for SCS
Dan would like to look into having money available to SCS because of the responsibility of the position. Asked that all think about this and come back with some thoughts on it at our next meeting.
Current positions being stipened are state webmaster (500 annually) newsletter editors (100 per/issue) recommend 200 for SCS
Jen asked if there are guidelines for who stipends are offered to on the board, Dan has said that it has been a case by case situation but should be discussed by the state board. Should be added to the agenda for a future meeting.
Michael asked if fundraising position has been discussed (in Section B of agenda)
Tim offered his view that stipend is a way to sweeten the pot for volunteer opportunities which are challenging so that they feel the need to stick with it rather than throw in the towel.

C.3. 501c3 Status
we are up to date with state of CA, we are a CA public benefit org.
By law, we should be a federal 501c3 filing 990 tax report form at end of fiscal year.
To get non-profit status, we need to fill out the form, much of it has been done by Deb
Some of it needs to be discussed, we are at a spot where we need the help of an accountant, would like to look into pro-bono person.
Dan suggested that after adjourning the meeting, those available look at the forms to be filled out and do what can be done.
Tim, Robin, Julie will contact people to try to get some answers (this should be done by the end of February)
If no answers can be found by end of February we look at getting outside help from an accountant,
Dan would like to have application sent in before Spring Conference (April 27)

adjourn for lunch at 12:30, meet at hostel at 1:30

1:40p.m.

C.5. Bank Account
Account under Debbie’s name with heading AEOE, it is a free account because it is tied to her personal account, looking into another low cost account. Having the account not under the name of AEOE, she cannot deposit checks written to AEOE. Asking for help to find an option.

C.6. Managing Liaison
Would like to have a biannual report on liaisons, a separate binder has been created to keep track of these items. (Julie-NASA, Micheal-GSEEC, Deb-NAAEE, Kate and Lisa-CSTA, these have been noted at previous meeting)
Chairperson should be helping SCS to get information from the liaisons
CSTA-Micheal and Helen will be presenting workshops.
Question was is it worthwhile to staff a booth at CSTA, Hoppy felt it was not time well spent at last years conference.
We need to decide as an organization who we really want to target. Dan felt there are no organizations who are serving teachers interested in EE.

C.7. Expansion of responsibility
Just a check in to see how the SCS is going, Debbie is extremely busy, no additional responsibilities are appropriate for that position

C.8. Dept. of Education
Tim suggested we piggyback w/COSA to have representation, Dan said COSA is funded by the State Dept. of Ed., so may be difficult to do this.
Dan put this on agenda because Bill Andrews does not inform us of info. from Dept. of Ed. Dan feels his attitude towards outdoor schools is not positive
No decisions need to be made at this time, just options should be kept open.

C.9. California Plan for EE (CPEE)
paper sent out to all Board members, we should have a rep. from AEOE at each meeting if possible
dates and locations passed around, initialed if possible to attend
thought was we should have a position statement on this EE plan, this would probably have to be created after attending one of the sessions
Julie will take on the project of coordinating attendees and putting together a position statement if appropriate. Julie will try to ask for a report from George asking how we can be most effective at these meetings. She will also send a note to Helen to ask for assistance looking for people from the email list.

C.10. Green Teacher Magazine
Willing to offer a free copy of the mag. to all of our first time new members. We need to decide on the best course of action:
some groups ask for a quantity to include in member package
email new member list-to mail out to new members
send mailing labels of new members, they will send mag. out
Tim suggests if they have extra back copies of mag. could we give these out for free at conference
They will send us one mag. for every old member for 1$ an issue
Tim recommended we ask for a certain number of mags to give out at Spring conference just to those interested during registration and to every new member. All agreed this might be the best idea, have people pay the $1 if they are old members and want the magazine. Debbie will ocntact the liaison to find out what they are willing to do.
Dan suggested Debbie ask him to wait until Northern registration comes back in next few weeks so we have an idea about how many new members. This info. came from NAAEE conference.

C.11. Orion Grassroots Network
we are a member allowed to reprint articles and can get money back if we get our members to sign up as members of ORION. Debbie would like to print one of their adds and articles with a blurb about the ORION society, we get $10 back for every new member. If we have online members subscribe, we get $20 back. Could have a blurb on the newsletter that explains the benefits to AEOE of joining online.They will supply us with an email and web banner that is on our website and send this out to our new email list.
Concern that Dan Webster has concerns with doing this in our newsletter, we should communicate with Dan about his reservations and get a feel for why he is opposed.

D. Vision

Dan would like to present info. to members at State board mmeting so they have an idea of what we were discussing. Would like to let everybody know what this project is all about once we have a better idea of what it is we are doing. Would like to have a strategic plan for where we are headed in next five years that we can present to members.
Deb feels we need a short, to the point mission statement from our statement of purpose. The vision should be the ideal, bigger and broader and longer. The mission statement says what we are here to do. Tim volunteered to write the mission statement.
Dan suggests we look at a sampling of mission statements from other organizations to see what they look like, say, etc. Tim will have something written up in next two weeks and work with Maggie. What they come up with will be emailed to Board.
Tim suggested we look into getting computers for a few Board members so that we can work a little easier.
Robin, Tim and John should take on the meeting to discuss our vision with members, give some thoughts about this and email something to the board.

E. State Historian
Janice is working up a procedure for how Howard Bell is going to work, she is working on this now. This is tabled.

F. State Webmaster

F.1. Institutional membership has increased to 24, they pay $30,and receive an institutional member letter explaining benefits to them. Institutional members send their payments to membership chair for the section they are joining.
Tim will send off these institutional letters, authorized to buy envelopes, stamps, etc.

F.2. Partnerships
No income generated yet from partners list
If we go through the partner links on the website, money comes back to AEOE
Link to Acorn, Orion, REI, Patagonia
Should send an email out regarding affiliates

F.3. Stipend
Should pay $167 to be paid up to April

F.4. New Webmaster
Would like to look for a new web master, Julie sent someone to Dan, hasn’t hear yet
He is ready to do something else and would like to transistion someone into it, not saying he is gone at end of April, but sent a plea to look for a replacement.
Preferably the person should be an educator, not necessary if currently a member.
If AEOE would like him to remain as the webmaster, would like to ask for $1000 a year, rather than $500. Tim suggests we look into getting volunteer fundraisers, grantwriters, etc.

G. Membership

G.1. Life membership certificates printed and will be sent out to all life members
G.2. Group membership-tabled
G.3. Reorganization of bylaws-scratched
G.4. Unification of membership database-should merge memberships so not so confusing, need software to do this. Should be discussed at a later date.
G.6. family membership-family members don’t need to be members in order to be covered under our insurance

H. Affiliations, Liaisons, and Partnerships

H.1. GSEEC
Michael attended meeting, well attended. Focused on science framework and the ee plan. No new news in terms of relationship w/AEOE. Some folks asked for workshop app. forms for Spring Conference. Well paid people (don’t have a membership) generally, a great voice for EE. Micheal feels it is very valuable relationship, the only disadvantage is paying for someone to go to their conferences, meetings, etc. They have good connections, long time member of NAAEE. Key players in the state of CA that will help if we would like to be involved in policy making decisions. Michael and Hoppy are AEOE reps. Dan says they are serving the purpose of being a cooperative council between the state agencies and EE programs. Deb will be talking to Jeff re: GSEEC affiliate status with NAAEE.

H.2. Sierra Club Youth in Wilderness Program-nothing to report. Tim said that Foothill Horizons wrote a grant and received $30,000 to bring kids who can’t afford it. Don’t know how long the funding will last, money is coming from an anonymous source.

H.3. Green Teachers Magazine Offer-addressed earlier.

H.4. NAAEE and affiliate relationship (Deb) good networking at conference, met a lot of California EE people. Affiliate partnership could be worthwhile, listserve usually gets response as to how to go about doing things. NAAEE is having difficulty financially and organizationally. Some feelings that they are being pushed out as a leader in EE by other organizations. Lot of discussion about choices they have given us to be affiliate members.

H.5. ACA-(Zayanne is liaison) Michael says we will have a booth for $75, state represented, money comes out of SCS budget. Zayanne, Janice and Helen will be going. AEOE was asked to do a workshop with the thought of “How can we get camps more involved in EE”.

H.6. CSTA-are Kate and Lisa still interested in being liaisons? Deb will ask them

I. Functions

I.1. ROSS Guide-things are in a holding pattern, if we want to have guides available, give Dan ideas for how to print them up. Michael suggested having someone else be responsible for the project. Possibility to sell guide at a discount, suggestion to give to new members. Would allow Dan option of selling ROSS guides at conferences for $3.00 a copy.
Tim made a motion that Dan be authorized to sell his ROSS guides at Spring Westminster Woods Conference. (all agreed)

I.2. Joie Armstrong scholarship- Northern administrative state function, so should be discussed at statewide meeting. John said we have $300 and only one person applied. Scholarship still available and no changes will be made up to this point. Mention of this in the registration packet. Dan would like to know how to get more money into the scholarship fund. John’s concern that we don’t have enough applications to justify bringing in more money, we need to be clear on what we are raising money for. Micheal suggests we look into ways to bring in more applicants. See what happens with the Spring and look at this again in September.

I.3. Howard Bell Award: procedures for 2001-discussed earlier

I.4. AEOE display and banner-Hoppy has a display, they are his own personal pictures, should have Janic e produce photos of conferences to put together a display to bring to booths, etc. Tim offered to build one with carpet background in a wooden frame that can be built for $50, discussion of whether AEOE will reimburse him. Would like to have a display for ACA.

I.5. Environmental Educator of the Year and related awards-taken off agenda, open to future discussion if anyone feels the need. Brief discussions about having different categories for awards, EE of the year maybe should not come from the current board. Would be beneficial to have a statewide discussion about awards. Dan commented that it is exciting that we are able to discuss controversial issues since not too long ago there was a lot of separation between Northern and Southern.

J. Policies

Skipped entire section

Dan gave personal notes regarding Intern position legality stating that it is illegal to have interns unless you fit the requirements outlined in the laws, many orgs. do not.

Dan does not suggest making decisions regarding support for outdoor school funding, iterns and wage laws but would like for everyone to think about these things.

K. CA Science Framework

Micheal would like to have a letter that members can support generated so that it can be signed and handed in before the Feb. 14 deadline. Micheal and Kathleen wrote a draft that was read, GSEEC asked that they submit that for comments and finalize a draft. Need to alert our members about the importance of commenting on the document.
Micheal suggested we have a formal letter signed by the board and an email we can send to members and outdoor schools. He will write a formal letter in conjunction with Maggie. Dan suggests having AEOE President and SCS sign the letter.
Debbie suggests sending out a form letter for members to sign and sending out in mass with their signatures. Dan will post something on the website.
Dan suggests that we recognize the contribution of having a garden in every school to incorporate more of an outdoor science feel.

Meeting adjourned at 5:25 pm

Met informally Sunday morning to discuss framework response and actions