Source attachment: 2021_05_28_MSBA_BOD minutes.docx
Minutes of Executive Board Meeting
May 28, 2021
Online via Zoom
MSBA President, Kim, Mehalick called the meeting to order at 7:04 PM.
Attendees:
Kim Mehalick, Fred Smith, Toni Burnham (with proxy for Jan Day), David Clark, Clif Darby, Erik Darm, Greg Gentry, Lisa Marie Ghezzi, Carl Guerci, Allen Hayes, Pam Hepp, Deborah Hewitt, John Knapstein, David Kyger, Crystal Lehmanking, Brad Luff, Stefanie Ottenstein, Martin Posse, Susan Warner, Jerry Worrell.
Review and Approval of the Minutes of the January 15 and April 25 BOD Meetings.
Reports by the Officers
President – Overall, MSBA activities are moving along well and will be addressed specifically during agenda item discussions.
Vice President – Fred Smith, see Upcoming Programs
Treasurer – Stefanie Ottenstein: Main expenditures this year were from Winter 2021 meeting, with membership renewals and donations we are about $5,000 ahead of last year at this time. We have about $79,000 in the bank, an $11,000 increase over March 2020. Maryland Fair Board has questions related to plans for MSBA Honey Show at November meeting. MSBA’s tax returned was also filed on time/by May 17, 2021.
Secretary & BeeLine Editor – Toni Burnham. Short interval until June 12th meeting, submissions encouraged of any size. Outlines welcome, Mailchimp delivery working well, more local content very attractive. Kim suggests a submission from each Board member.
Upcoming Programs:
• Spring Meeting via Zoom, Dr. Jaime Ellis, Dr. Marla Spivak, June 12, 2021
• Education Committee Workshops
• November 13, 2021: Dr. Dennis vanEngelsdorp, Face to Face and Zoom (location TBD).
• February 12, 2022: Harford County CC. John Knapstein: New connections to college needs to be established.
• Spring Meeting June 11, 2022: Dr. Geoff Williams, FACE TO FACE
Old Business
• Future meeting format and requriements. We have intention to proceed with hybrid meeting in future, is November face to face comfortable for the BOD? MSBA will follow CDC guidance and is dependent on facilities that also follow CDC. May have to pivot if a last-minute change becomes necessary. Jan Day contributes comments that, with extra cash on hand, this is a good time to invest in tech tools and assets (lavalier mics, projectors, etc) that will support hybrid meetings. Perhaps hiring a professional service? MCBA offers use of their gear, purchased at about $5,000. King Audio-Visual of Ellicott City is a long-term resource as well. TechSoup offers discounted prices to non-profits. Toni will gather information and report at next BOD meeting.
• Education committee: (Kim Mehalick) Committee is grateful to the board for its support. Money allocated in January has been used to purchase bees and preparations for session comparing the three manners of starting a colony (package, nuc, overwintered nuc) are well along, developing and exhaustively photographed, within budget will seek paid assistance from a graphics student to ready for class use. Ready to offer Honey Extracting workshop pending permission from UMD to use their honey house. Honey Judging Class is ready to move forward in the Fall, possibly next Spring based on student comfort. Kim will seek location such as Howard County CC. Splits and Nucs class to come over winter.
New Business
• Member directory/privacy policy: MSBA has not had a privacy policy concerning member contact details that are available to other members, and a member has downloaded this information for their own use. Access to the member directory has since been shut off for all but those administering MSBA. All members can opt in to have their data shown for certain purposes (selling bees, catching swarms). Kim suggests that students in a current class should have access to each other’s data until class concludes. Kim Mehalick moves that MSBA close access to the membership directory and member contact information to all except the senior board (president, 1st vice president, treasurer, secretary, directors, past president) and member volunteers whose role requires member data (webmaster, member communications). Greg Gentry seconds. Motion carries.
• EAS is happening! Maryland attendees encouraged to wear club t-shirts, will supply auction basket. Several board members indicate intention to attend.
• Reassigning t-shirt sale: Toni would like to hand off fulfillment of requests via website and selling shirts at meetings. Volunteer reimbursed for postage. Jan suggests use of a service that directly prints shirts to reduce volunteer time required. Kim cites value of a club wide design. Stefanie suggests meeting-only sales with limited windows each year for online sales (like June and/or October). John Knapstein volunteers. Toni will coordinate will John offline.
• MSBA nominations ahead: Nominations committee will be created to identify the 2022 BOD at the October meeting. Second VPs interested in advancing in the organization or aware of others interested in participating are encouraged to look at other roles and communicate with the committee once formed.
• Preparing for November honey show: Maryland Fair Board request on the table, dependent on November location needed. MSBA recruits Superintendent who recruits judges and other volunteers to run the show. Last superintendent was Jim Fraser. Hiring outside judges (George Wilson) also possible. Anne Arundel has provided registration support. Allen Hayes believes we have enough trained MD judges, John Knapstein encourages MD judges to stay in practice. Toni suggests offline discussion between Fred, Cybil, Toni and Allen to recruit honey show judges. Stefanie would like the show to use the Excel spreadsheet developed by David Morris in order to organize payouts and complete Fair Board report. Fair Board requires a date, time, location and confirmation that we are moving forward with show. Stefanie already has applied for the grant and completed local board rep interview.
• Vetting sellers of nucs on site: Deb Hewitt suggests that MSBA require those selling nucs/packages on our site be a member, be registered with MDA and affirm that they are raising the bees locally. MSBA has mixed experience with good practitioners who work with imported bees and others with poor stock and practices. Should MSBA require inspection of nucs before sale? Greg and Toni express reservations about MSBA role in state registration verification, in part due to the way in which the website works. Greg suggests value in directing nuc sales to local clubs. Kim: some clubs not able to leverage their websites for this. Discussion: instead of providing these assurances, perhaps MSBA should provide guidance to buyers about questions they should ask. Deb and Kim to work on list of questions to include on website, work with Phil to post.
A motion to adjourn was made by Kim Mehalick and seconded by David Clark, the motion passed. The meeting adjourned at 8:24 PM.
Financial reports