TVMA Board of Directors Meeting

Tuesday, August 10, 2004
Holiday Inn Riverwalk, 217 N. St. Mary’s, San Antonio, TX

After determining that a quorum was present, President Steve White called the meeting to order at 9:00 am, 8/10/04. The following TVMA members were present:

Steve White, David Wall, Myron Rabalais, Paul Northcutt, Steve Prather, Rick Bennett, Rob Brooks, George Pylant, Don Telge, Buddy Hudson and Scott Dunham.

Paul Northcutt read the minutes of the previous meeting of 6/9/04. 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 and George Pylant indicated that Ron Held and his family were still struggling with an illness and the Board of Directors sent out their very best wishes and prayers. The main focus of this meeting is to continue detailed planning for the 2004 Conference. Steve indicated that during September, 2004, LCRA requested a TVMA speaker on one of their upcoming conferences. Steve will make that presentation for TVMA. Steve signed the two remaining tax exempt documents and placed a TVMA Board of Directors Approval Date of 8/10/04. He will send these documents into the attorney and expects a quick resolution of the TVMA tax exemption status. Steve will advise the Board when a tax-exempt number has been assigned.

Vice President – 2004 Program Chair Report:

David Wall discussed the conference agenda and went over all “final” speaker / agenda changes. Exhibitors can set up starting at Noon, 10/11/04, and should be completed by 5:00 pm. An additional 30 minutes was added to the TVMA business meeting, so all speakers were moved 30 minutes later.

Don Telge summarized the Training & Certification Agenda and noted that the seminar would start at 10:00 am on Monday, 10/11/04. Each module will consist of a PowerPoint module, followed by an interactive set of module questions. After those are finished, the students will go over another question handout, and will write their answers on their handouts. It was discussed that anyone attending the Annual Conference were welcome to attend any of the training seminar modules, in the event they wanted more information on that subject. Rick Bennett, TVMA Training Coordinator will facilitate that class, and make an announcement to the membership that everyone is welcome to attend the training class. There are 3 tests; 1) General; 2) Laws and Regulations; and 3) Right of Way. Cost for the Right of Way exam is $24, and there is no charge for the L&R and the General tests.

David went over the “responsibility / budget” sheet and verified and made minor adjustments to the conference items. The Board felt an estimate of 150 personnel for the Monday evening reception was a “good guess.” Our luncheon is based on 200 personnel which may be low. TxDOT will be providing a computer and an LCD projector for our use at the conference. Buddy Hudson with the Vegetation Management Section of TxDOT’s Maintenance Division, will serve as the conference’s A/V coordinator. Don Telge will bring a 35mm slide projector, and Paul Northcutt will bring an overhead projector and VCR if needed. Don also indicated that there would be a total of 5 TDA visitors who would be given comp registration, to get them acquainted with TVMA. David mentioned that we would tour the Hard Rock Café at lunch to get the Board’s decision on the possibility of holding a Tuesday evening reception at that facility. David reiterated that he needs to be aware of any expenditures so he can keep a running tally on conference-related expenses.

David previewed the TVMA logo shirts and jackets. The Board indicated that we should wear the shirts on Tuesday at the conference. It was decided that shirts or jackets should be made available to the membership on a donation basis. They will be displayed at the conference, and Paul will place the items on the TVMA web site. Paul will also place apparel items as a donation item on our on-line registrar. Myron indicated that TVMA still has a small supply of TVMA caps available. The Board agreed to make the caps will be available at the conference for a minimum donation of $10. David indicated that the 2004 Program Committee would meet for further discussion at 1:00 pm today.

Treasurer’s Report:

Myron distributed the treasurer’s report As of 8/9/04, TVMA had total assets of $26,874.80, with $6,321.55 in the Scholarship fund. A motion was made, seconded and approved by the Board that the Treasurers report be accepted as read. A discussion was made on continued membership in RISE. Steve White will write Rich Hendler an email and request his thoughts on this issue. An electronic ballot if necessary will be sent out after received from Rich Hendler.

After discussion, the Board authorized the Treasurer to secure a business credit card in the name of TVMA to be used for official TVMA expenditures only. This should help in those instances where a TVMA check is not accepted.

Secretary-Editor Report

Paul mentioned that the notification to the TVMA membership regarding the proposed by laws had been sent out electronically. Paul also distributed the draft of the August/September CLIP and solicited input so that it could be printed and distributed so that it was on-hand by September 2, 2004. Paul passed around a draft of the 2004 program and asked for comments or changes. Paul also passed around the recommended 2004 program evaluation. David indicated that he would pass along ideas for the next issue of the CLIP.

Committee Reports

Parliamentary, Historical, Legislative and Membership committee reports were not received.

Nominating Committee: Steve White indicated that one name, Don Telge, had been submitted as a potential Vice President candidate. Steve felt that the position would be highly recommended and helpful to your regular career. Steve solicited additional nominations by email or phone. It was discussed that we would need three (3) directors. Paul Northcutt was instructed to send out an electronic nomination notice soliciting nominations for VP, and for At-Large, Contractor, and Utility Board vacancies which will expire with this conference.

Training Committee: Rick Bennett indicated that a training committee would be held this afternoon to finalize the training agenda.

Scholarship Report- Rob Brooks: Rob indicated that only one application for scholarship had been received to date. The amounts are $1,000 for upper classmen, and $500 for under classmen. There will be a total of $4,000 in scholarships awarded in 2004. Rob is continuing to work with all the schools to make them aware of the funds available. We have had a few donations toward the silent auction, including Asplundh, Advanced Applicators, AEP, Red River Specialties, Davey Tree, TNT Training. Rob indicated that the middle to the end of September 2004 should be the cutoff date for 2004 applications.

Awards Committee: David Wall indicated that Bill Held had been nominated for the 2005 TVMA Lifetime Achievement Award. David has requested bio information from Ron Held on Bill who passed away recently. David Wall will present a final nominee to the Board on the 2005 TVMA Lifetime Achievement Award after the September 1, 2004 submittal deadline had passed.

Unfinished Business:

A motion was made, seconded and approved by the Board to accept and approve the non-profit documents.

New Business:

The business meeting agenda for the 2004 conference was discussed. The agenda should be as follows:

Keynote Speaker – Brian Dodge

Recognize Upper Level Exhibitors / Sponsors

Reports: 1) President’s Annual Report

2) Treasurer’s Report

Awards: 1) 2004 Lifetime Achievement Award

2) Scholarships

3) Announce Golf and Skeet Winners

Vote on Recommended Honorary Members

By-Law Vote on Revisions

Election of new Officers and Board of Directors

The internal audit report required by the By-Laws will be given during the 2005 annual conference.

It was stated that Don Renchie, Mary Ketchersid, Texas Cooperative Extension had been recommended as Honorary Members. It was also discussed that all Lifetime Award Members would automatically become Honorary Members. Honorary members must be voted on by the association at the annual meeting.

Paul will place the LCRA, DowAgroScience and Davey Tree logos on the golf and skeet pages on the web, as they are sponsoring the events.

Paul Northcutt recommended a refund policy as follows: all requests for refunds must be made in writing to TVMA; if written request received by 9/10/04 – full refund; if received from 9/11/04 through 9/26/04 – 50% refund; if received after 9/26/04 – no refund unless authorized by the Board. A motion was made, seconded and approved by the Board to approve this refund policy.

Paul will provide a registration form for TxDOT to Steve Prather. Steve will distribute to all TxDOT personnel and requesting that they pre-register.

Rob Brooks, Dow AgroSciences volunteered to donate the funds to furnish the ammunition for the 2004 Skeet Shoot.

Paul Northcutt gave an update on our “on-line” registration process administered through Acteva. All comments received so far indicated that everyone seemed very pleased with the process. Paul showed the Board the typical reports available through Acteva and indicated that Myron and Paul were both administrators of the system and the system would be available, via a dial up line, to use during the conference.

The Board of Directors agreed to look at possible annual conference sites in South Padre Island for our 2005 Annual Conference.

There being no further business, the Board meeting was adjourned at 12:00 pm, 8/10/04.

The 2004 Program Committee met after lunch, followed by the Training Committee where the proposed 2004 Training Seminar PowerPoint presentations were previewed to the committee members and speakers.