January 6, 7, 2000 MD/DC Chapter APPA Board of Directors Planning Meeting Minutes
Turf Valley Conference Center

Attendees: Willy Suter, Sheri Vucci, Rita Sato, John Jensen, Dennis Bohlayer, Pat Tate, Bob Burhenn, Kevin Petersen, Gary Viola

Absent: Harold Tinsley, David Rouse

Convened 3:20 pm

• Welcome of new Board Members
• An updated list of Board Members with addresses was distributed.  A few corrections still must be made.  Bob will send the new version to all via email.
• Discussed the pros and cons of Palm organizers vs. Casio organizers; Dennis passed his around for a demonstration of information that can be held.

Willy distributed the agenda to all of us and we started not in order to discuss the topics.  Willy asked if any others should be added.  Dennis brought up new members and membership enhancement

TOPICS DISCUSSED 

Chapter Meetings 

• Format – discussed the various possibilities of overnights of the same daily as we have it now – decided present format fits best especially for costs to attending members’ institutions.  Brought up that we really do not draw the far ends of our area (Western Maryland and the Eastern Shore).  Discussed adding a meeting in July to coincide with the PGMS day at AU (July 27^th) – declined but we are going to advertise the event.
• Special Events – We will look into the possibility of setting up a couple special events this year.  One suggestion was an Oriole Game (Pat and Gary to investigate this option further and have results back by March meeting so we can canvas the attendees for interest).  Another possibility is a golf outing.  In this one we would ask for further support from our Business Partners.
• Set up this years meeting schedules.  We are going to try to publish this list to all members as soon as we can confirm all the dates and locations.  This will be distributed also to various local Business Partners to solicit their attendance leading to future participation by sponsorships and presentations (more later).

• January 28 – Board meeting at Montgomery Community College.  Willy to contact Joe White to arrange this and the March meeting.
• March 10 or 24 – Montgomery Community College, Germantown – This will feature the solar cell array and the partnering with SOLAREX.  Another presentation will be with EPA (Bob) on the Energy Star Programs and/or Custom Energy (Bob).  Another program will be the Smithsonian’s entomologist (bugs) arranged by Sheri. Another program possibility we are investigating is having Wally Glascock give a presentation on a management topic (Willy).
• April 28 – National Zoo Board Planning Meeting.  Sheri to verify dates with Robin again to set this back up.
• June – a three consecutive day session for MBTI was voted on and agreed upon, to be held at the College Park Holiday Inn.  Rita and Sheri to verify that the presenters are available and when so we can set the dates and get the registration material out as soon as possible.
• June 2 or 9 – National Zoo – same programs as that canceled in the fall; EMS and communications problems (Dennis), ZERASCAPE landscaping techniques (Willy) and team housekeeping (Harold).
• July 21 – UMB or Towson – Board Planning Meeting – still not sure which one at this time.  Dennis, Pat and Gary to discuss this and let us all know.
• July 27 – PGMS session at AU.  Not a Chapter event but all are invited to send people.
• September 8 or 15 – meeting and elections at either UMB or Towson.  Programs not determined at this time. 
• Date unsure – Oriole game
• Date unsure – golf outing

Treasurers Report

Sheri distributed the summaries of expenses for last years meetings and the general information she had available for the OC Conference.  All still has not completed the books and accounts to give her the final figures.  We have not received any of the profits as of yet from the conference and still have outstanding advances from the Chapter’s general fund to be reimbursed.  It was to be noted that Harold gets the prize for getting the most money into the treasury from regular meetings thanks in most to the food “costs” at the Naval Academy. 

Additional Education Programs

• Willy agreed to talk to Wally about the possibility of his new company to give a special education program.
• Willy also agreed to find out about “Jim Cole” from the Northern Virginia area about coming to our Chapter and giving a presentation of a training program.

Scholarships

• It was agreed upon that we should adopt the new APPA/ERAPPA forms for both the scholarship applications and the judging criteria as soon as we can get these.  Dennis will get a hold of Harold to make sure he is still in the mix as he is to head up the scholarship committee along with Dennis and Rita.
• It was agreed to by hand vote (unanimous) to add and additional scholarship each year that the Chapter would sponsor bringing it to three (3) per year.
• It was agreed upon also that the funding limits shall remain as they have; the cost of the registration fee to the Institute plus $500 expenses.  They must be used with in one year of award (i.e. the September or January Institute following the award.
• It was agreed upon by the majority that the Chapter should include the Leadership Academy for a scholarship option.  The amount will NOT cover the entire Leadership Academy cost but only the equivalent of the Institute amounts (i.e. registration fee plus $500)
• It was agreed upon that the scholarships must be awarded on a timely basis so the non-selected applications can be sent to ERAPPA in time for their consideration.  We should also try to promote the scholarship program more aggressively by perhaps doing a separate mailing to Institutions and members.

By-Laws Committee

A newer version of the by-laws was distributed to all.  It contained mostly cleanup of style and couple small changes in section lettering.  Kevin as committee chair agreed to work with Pat and John to review it and get back to us all on further suggestions.  A couple typos where noted already that need fixed.  Bob has the electronic form of the new version. 

Other Chapter Attendees

We discussed in general the idea of getting members from the close-in chapters such and Northern Virginia, Delaware Valley and New Jersey to attend our meeting.  We, on the same token should try to work in a couple of people to attend their events when we get the invitations.  Willy will try to get the list of the Northern Virginia members so we can include them in our mailing. 

Membership

Dennis brought up the topic of trying to improve meeting and Chapter business attendance and participation.  It was discussed that Harold had set it as one of his goals last year to improve participation.  Dennis will contact APPA and ERAPPA to see what kind of strategies they are using to get the K-12 schools involved especially.  Sheri will look into setting up a Chapter website.  Other Chapters have a website linked from the ERAPPA page.  Sheri does not think it would be a lot of work to keep it updated, as we really do not have a lot of things that change frequently. 

Business Partner Participation

This topic was discussed at length by all.  It was basically agreed upon that we need to tap into this valuable resource for program presentation and sponsorships.  The ideas floated included sponsoring an entire meeting cost, sponsoring and contributing to a scholarship, or sponsoring or contributing to a Chapter special event or education program.  The funds brought into the Chapter treasury would then be able to be spread out to help more members.  We could then do some other items such as:

• Awards
• Defray meeting costs
• Contribute (subsidize) special Chapter events (i.e. Oriole night)
• Subsidize a new member institution first year dues
• Obtain speakers for a fee to get better programs
• Identity stuff for Chapter (give-aways)
• Mass-marketing of the scholarship program (mailings)
• Website costs for the Chapter
• “Customer” scholarships with in the university community (associated departments)
• Awarding a 4^th or even 5^th scholarship as funds permit

We should send out invitations to all the local Business Partners that attended the Conference in OC as well as others that are more localized to us.  This should happen so they may attend the March Meeting.  We have all had contacts recently from some of our Business Partners desiring to become more active in our Chapter.  We should develop an information sheet similar to that used for the OC Conference that can be distributed to Business Partners.  This will need developing.  It was pretty much agreed that we have a lot of information presently available and it will just take getting it organized and distributed. 

Other Items

• Survey results from last year – Willy will try to develop a summary document of the results from his education survey he did last summer at the Naval Academy meeting so it can be distributed to members.  We should no try to utilize these results in setting up the programs for the upcoming meetings.  The March meeting already has some of the top requested programs.
• Build and Email list – it was agreed upon that Bob should try to get an email list of all meeting attendees and others together so he can do a blanket advertisement/announcement/reminder for upcoming meeting.  Sheri also agreed that she would be able to take the registrations online and they will just have to pay at the door.  The list should include some of the higher ups so it keeps them informed of the importance of our organization and possible encourage more people to attend and become active.
• Next years planning meeting – We decided upon November 16 and 17.  We will keep the same format of starting at 3ish and work till around 7; dinner and relaxation; starting the next morning and finishing after lunch.  We will come back to Turf Valley if a better place is not located.  We want to further talk with them about costs and scheduling
• Willy brought up the ERAPPA tape library and its use to members.  He is going to come up with some ideas on possibly marketing it better.  John might be able to help as he has used it before to a minor degree

 Meeting adjourned at 11:10 for checkout and lunch at the conference center restaurant.  Thanks Rita for getting this all organized.  

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