Alpha Omicron Chapter
Epsilon Sigma Phi
Board Meeting Minutes
August 16, 2007
State College, PA

Meeting was called to order at Prospector's Restaurant at 5 p.m. with the following people present: Fred Davis, Marilyn Corbin, Rich Stup, Karen Vines, Jeff Myers, and Vicki Lewis

While the group was forming, and during pre-meal visit, a discussion was held about the issue of Extension Memories, a project that is being headed up by Guy Temple and supported by the Directors office. Guy has approached the ESP Board asking for support for the printing project. Many questions are unanswered such as how much will the final project cost, what will ESP commitment be, should orders be taken before printing to establish a sense of the demand, should it be web based so it could be printed on demand, financial commitment from the Director's office, and many others. (Recent copy of Guy's email is attached to the original minutes). In the end, to dispense with the matter, it was agreed that ESP will support the project but we are not prepared to name a dollar amount until production costs are determined.

Secretary's Report

Vicki had sent out the minutes and they had been reviewed. Copies were available. Approved as presented.

Deadline date for the Fall Newsletter is September 19.

Rich will provide an article for the newsletter explaining about the dues increase.

Karen will be sure the form is corrected and ask Marilyn to proof before posting to the website.

Vice President's Report

Karen stated that the money that we normally have in our budget for Professional Development is under discussion. Claudia had been prepared to submit a proposal but Cindy had called from the Director's office to say that the $1,500 was not needed this year. Suggestion was made to hold over the money and add to next year's amount and use the combined amount ($3,000) to conduct a major PD event next year. Since Claudia will be the PD Committee chair next year, she already has some ideas to put into motion.

Karen stated that she had been in touch with the Awards chairmen and they are preparing for submission. Karen will contact them again and assess their progress.

Fred commented that the typical deadline for awards applications is September 1. The awardee's meal will be paid by ESP and their guests will be sponsored by their local offices or in other ways. The nominator reads and presents the award.

Treasurer's Report

Rich reported the following balances: Checking: $6,173.96. Savings: $5,359.82. Investment accounts: $8,140.15 and $6,895.80.

Rich asked about increasing state dues since national dues will go up in January. Can we increase dues without changing the by laws? We begin collecting dues in the fall. This issue needs to be finalized so the correct amount can be posted on line with the membership form.

Jeff made the motion to increase our dues by $10.00 to cover the increase in national dues. Seconded by Rich. Approved.

President's Report

Fred confirmed the date of our next meeting: a conference call October 11 at 9:30. Rich will be in Kansas but will participate by cellphone, and Karen will initiate the call. Fred will send the agenda prior to the meeting. Rich will send out a proposed budget before this call.

Fred asked about donations for goodie bags for First Time attendees at the National Conference. We need 100 of each item. Marilyn offered to ask Jane Landis if she could get some Hershey Bars, and Fred will get some small bags of pretzels.

Fred and Rich have had some discussion about Natalie Ferry's request to have the money that would be spent on her retirement gift go to a "PA scholarship". After some discussion, it was decided that the money would go to the Forgivable Loan category in the budget.

Fred stated that Nancy Stephens will receive the DSA Award at National as a Pennsylvania recipient. Some discussion about the way the award was handled.

Voting delegates in Charleston will be Fred and Karen.

Discussion about whether or not to submit a bid to host the ESP National Meeting in 2011. Comment that the Ag agents of the Northeast will support Galaxy in 2012 and it might be a stretch for us to host in 2011. Suggestion was made that when the time comes, perhaps PA could agree to co-host the meeting with another northeast state.

Fred reported that the nominating committee is in the process of searching for a secretary.

Marilyn Corbin led a discussion on Membership/Recrutiment/Retention:

-Treasurer will apprise the chair of the Membership committee of the current list of members.
-Marilyn has assigned paid members up to five non-renewing members so they can be contacted about their membership.
-General discussion about members clearly stating the value of ESP membership such as networking with others outside our program area, and the professional development opportunities in ESP.
-Ideas to help boost membership: invite new hires to a reception as a recruitment tool, offer professional development opportunities, review the benefits of ESP membership. It was decided we would have a reception at December inservice, and we would ask "Mid-Career" awardees, etc, t o speak about the value of their membership in ESP.
-All board members stated that it was very beneficial to have Marilyn come and share ideas.

New Business

Should we revisit the idea of lowering the 2-year employment requirement as a membership criteria for ESP? Consensus is not to change: in order to become a member, an extension worker shall have been employed for 2 years.

Respectfully submitted,

Vicki Lewis