TVMA Board of Directors Meeting – Wednesday, June 9, 2004
American Electric Power Offices
Corpus Christi, TX

 

After determining that a quorum was present, President Steve White called the meeting to order at 9:00 am, 6/9/04.  The following TVMA members were present:

Steve White, David Wall, Paul Northcutt, George Pylant, Ray Erwin, Steve Prather, Don Telge, Stan Jones, Rob Brooks, James Cruser, Rick Bennett, and Grant Ehlen. 

 

Paul Northcutt read the minutes of the previous meeting of 2/19/04.  A motion was made, seconded and approved to accept the minutes as read.  Paul reiterated that the minutes are maintained on the TVMA web page.

 

Officer Reports were given as follows:

 

President’s report: 

 

Steve welcomed guests which included; Rick Bennett of Helena Chemical in College Station, and Jim Cruser and Grant Ehlen of AEP in Corpus Christi.  Steve thanked Jim and Grant for graciously provided the meeting room for this meeting.  Steve mentioned that the next meeting will be held August 10, 2004 in San Antonio.  Steve discussed the board of director vacancy created by the resignation of Chris Dray.  David Wall made a motion that Don Telge fill the At-Large – 2005 board position vacated by Chris Dray.  Stan Jones seconded the motion. The motion was approved by the Board.  Don Telge made a motion that Jim Cruser be nominated to fill the Utility – 2004 board position vacated by Don Telge.  David Wall seconded the motion.  The motion was approved by the Board.  Steve went over the Agenda and moved directly into item listed.

 

Vice President – 2004 Program Chair Report: 

 

Steve White reported that the scholarship golf tournament will be at “The Bandit”, a course on the southeast side of New Braunfels.  We will tee off approximately 10:00 am until 4:00 pm on Monday, 10/11/04.  Golf participant fees for 2004 will be $85.  Rob Brooks reported one venue for sporting clays was the National Shooting Club, and would be approximately $90 which was expensive and little money would be available for the scholarship fund.   Another venue would be in Marion, about 35 minutes northeast side of San Antonio.  The Marion venue, the Bear Community Skeet Club, would be much less expensive and has the potential of raising more funds for the scholarship fund.  TVMA could provide the shells and the participants would bring their own guns.  TVMA will secure the Marion skeet facility and set the participant fee at $65.  Paul will add those fees to the web site registration forms.  Rob will decide on appropriate prizes for the tournaments and will give the estimate to David wall.  Sporting clays will start approximately 1:00 pm on Monday, 10/11/04.

 

David Wall discussed the 2004 program schedule.  Exhibitors will start set-up at Noon on Monday, 10/11/04.  The 2004 Exhibitor Contract is on the TVMA web site.  There will be 20 exhibit tables and electricity is provided.  Paul went over the email sent out to all board members regarding soliciting contacts for exhibitors.  Paul asked for everyone’s input and turn in those forms on possible new exhibitors in 2004. 

 

The 2004 TVMA Board Meeting will be moved to the end of the conference.  David will coordinate setting up the board meeting to a lunch meeting following the conference.

 

Vice President – 2004 Program Chair Report:  (continued)

 

David provided an update of all estimated conference costs.  David indicated that the conference cost estimates shown did not include taxes.  In the event that the TVMA tax-exempt situation cannot be secured by the conference, it is entirely possible that we will lose our luncheon speaker Brian Dodge, because his fees for tax-exempt associations are acceptable, but if we are not tax exempt, his fees would be prohibitive.   

 

The use of post cards especially to TDA pesticide applicators was discussed.  The TDA list was received and there are over 5,000 non-commercial names, and over 2,000 names on the commercial list.  Paul reported that a full-color post card would run approximately $320 for 500 cards.  Two page letters go up from there.  The board felt that the authorization of post card advertising was probably cost prohibitive, given the unknown response rate from an unsolicited direct mail campaign.  Steve White suggested that each board member distribute info to their own contact list.  Paul will develop a two-page 2004 conference announcement and will send that to each board of director who can then duplicate as needed and send to their own contact lists.  Paul will also send it electronically to the TVMA active list.  Paul will add a caveat that the maximum capacity for the conference is 300.

 

David suggested that TVMA authorize the program committee to secure appropriate recognition items for the TVMA Board of Directors.  The Board authorized David to proceed with jackets, shirts or other appropriate items with the TVMA logo to be given to the Board at the conference.

 

Distribution of TVMA merchandise was discussed as an item of unfinished business.  The consensus of the Board was that we not try to pursue making caps, shirts, etc., with the TVMA logo available to the membership, because the majority of the members would probably not want to purchase or make donations for these items.

 

The Board recommended that the Program Committee proceed with conducting a silent auction to raise funds for the Scholarship Program.  Paul will add an article on the upcoming CLIP regarding donating prizes for the silent auction. David will set up a room for the silent auction items in San Antonio. Rob Brooks will be the coordinator for all silent auction items.  Door prizes will be purchased.  David will work up a 400-square board which will help select attendees to receive door prizes.

 

George Pylant indicated that Ron has made some progress with the Sprayco lawyer regarding TVMA’s tax-exempt status, but he was not able to provide a more definitive status update.

 

David reported that evening meals on Monday and Tuesday nights were “dinner on your own.”  Based upon the available funds, he may put together a reception on one of those nights.  The tax issue will determine the availability of surplus funds.

 

David reiterated that all estimates were based on 200 attendees.  Should we have significantly more attendees, then the estimates would obviously change.  The Buckhorn Hall of Horns venue is apparently too expensive to schedule an event.

 

Treasurer’s Report:

 

No treasurer’s report was received at this Board Meeting.

 

 

Secretary-Editor Report

 

Paul Northcutt advised that the June 2004 issue of the CLIP was posted to the web site on June 1, 2004, and the issue was currently at the printers and should be placed in the USPS regular mail on or about June 21st.  Paul reported that he had written an article on the 2004 TVMA conference to be published in Lone Star Roads, the newsletter sent to County Judges and County Commissioners.

 

Committee Reports

 

Parliamentary, Historical, Membership and Legislative committee reports were not received.  Steve will contact Bruce Moore regarding updates on the Historical Committee.

 

Membership Report – Ray Erwin.  Ray wants to provide a mailout on the conference to those on his contact list.  His landowner list is 2-3 thousand people.  Paul will work up the conference mailout and provide to Ray who will copy and distribute to his contact list.  The TVMA updated member brochure was distributed to the Board members.

 

Scholarship Report- Rob Brooks.  Rob indicated all scholarship information had been distributed to all schools.  He has also determined there is a Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board who maintains a web site www.collegefortexans.com, who have established a link to the TVMA scholarship page so that anyone in Texas looking for scholarships can click on our information. One scholarship application has already been received. Steve recommends that the scholarship recipients be updated on the database to make sure we can furnish that information to potential employees.  It was discussed that perhaps we need to look into providing scholarship money directly to the student’s account with their college financial aid office to help insure that the money was utilized for educational purposes. 

 

Training Report – Don Telge. Don distributed the current update on the 2004 Training Seminar.  Jim Cruser will take the Herbicide Applications and Study test for Steve Prather.  Don that we would provide a training portion, then go over the sample questions and insure that the students can answer the sample questions.  We will teach only that information the students need to pass the test. We don’t have time to teach everything they may need to know and give them an in-depth study on all items; just that information they need to pass the test. Steve will review the Laws & Regulations study questions after Randy Rivera’s presentation.  Paul and Don will work just on reviewing calibration.  The Right of Way test is difficult to pass.  Laws and Regulation and General are not as difficult.  The Right of Way test costs $24 each time they take the exam, the other two exams are free. Don Telge will serve as facilitator/coordinator to make sure entire training program remains on time and on schedule.

 

Unfinished Business:

 

David Wall coordinated the review of the remaining portion of the TVMA by-laws and each item was discussed by the Board of Directors. Paul will distribute the revised TVMA by laws to the Board of Directors for final recommendation.  Once recommended by the Board, Paul will distribute to the TVMA membership by electronic means and via the CLIP for final approval and vote at the 2004 Annual Meeting.   Steve will include a voting item at the annual conference for selected Honorary Members.  Those voted as Honorary Members will be exempt from annual dues (currently $25).  The Board recommended that all Lifetime Achievement Award recipients be given Honorary Membership.  For those Honorary Members who attend the conference, they would be given a registration fee reduced by the amount of their annual dues (currently $25.) 

Unfinished Business (continued):

 

Paul will make sure that two weeks prior to the Board Meetings, that each person on the TVMA Active email list receives a notification of the upcoming board meeting. 

 

Paul reiterated that after the 2004 conference, he will send out dues notices to those members who had attended/paid for 2003 membership, but who did not attend the 2004 conference.  After a suitable period of time if no funds were received, Paul will place those members in an “inactive” category and stop sending those individuals a copy of the CLIP automatically.

 

Don Telge resigned as chair of the Training Committee, and made a motion that Rick Bennett, Helena Chemical Company, be nominated to become the Chair.  Steve Prather seconded the motion.  This nomination was approved by the Board. 

 

New Business

 

Steve White and Paul Northcutt discussed the use of web-based conference registrations.  This would permit TVMA to utilize credit cards throughout the year to register attendees for our conference or any other event which needs payment.  Our current credit card machine agreement is available apparently only during the conference.  The on-line registration form system uses a system from a company called “Acteva” which is accessed through the TVMA web site.  We would design the registration form for any event needed, and we would use their merchant account for Visa, MasterCard, Discover and American Express.  Paul discussed the Acteva fees which would be as follows:  no setup fees and no contract.  Each transaction fee would generate the following funds to Acteva - $0.01 to $15 = $1.50; $15.01 to $100 - $1.50 plus 4.5% of amount over $15.00; $100.01 to $500.00 - $5.50 plus 3.0% of amount over $100.00; $500 to $1,000 - $16.50 plus 2.0% of amount over $500.  Any, all or none of these fees could be passed on to the registrant as a “convenience or processing” fee.  There would also be a credit card discount fee of 2.5% per transaction for Visa, MasterCard and Discover, and a 3.5% discount fee per transaction for American Express.  Acteva would cut a manual check to TVMA twice per month.  The account would permit management reports on demand, and would provide complete details on registrant information for the membership database and would be downloadable.  After discussion, the Board was in agreement that TVMA should proceed with enacting such a registration system, but directed the Secretary-Editor to evaluate competing companies to see if perhaps other companies might offer the same services at a lower rate to TVMA.  If a suitable system could be found, the Board hopes to enact the system for the 2004 conference year and have on-line registrations being taken prior and during the conference.  The Board instructed Paul to send out an electronic vote to the Board members once the analysis was completed and a suitable on-line system could be recommended.    

 

The Board authorized President Steve White to renew the agreement to maintain the TVMA web page with Paul Northcutt.  Steve signed the web page renewal agreement which extends the service from 7/1/04 through 6/30/06.

 

The next Board of Directors meeting for TVMA will be held on August 10, 2004, at the San Antonio Holiday Inn Riverwalk from 9:00 am until Noon.  Specific meeting room location will be announced in the TVMA web page. 

 

There being no further business, the Board meeting was adjourned at 1:00 pm, 6/9/04.

 

Respectfully submitted, Paul Northcutt, TVMA Secretary-Editor, 6/10/04