Minutes

Attendees

Josh Brewer

Sean Vanderhoff

Sarah Arpin

Preston Forsyth

Christopher Morris

John Cassidy

Howard Kalnitz

Amber Yuellig

Jim Currens

 

Meeting called to order by Josh Brewer at 7:03 pm on December 18, 2019.

 

Announcements 

  • Josh talked a little bit about the annual as we waited for people to join.

 

Previous Minutes 

  • Christopher read the minutes

 

Treasurer Report 

  • $16,067.71 is the ending balance for this month
  • $4000 was sent to Ben Tobin for the interns
  • John has been talking with Fidelity about the stock mutual fund.  It has been going slower than he thought.
  • They require a second person to be on the account in case John gets hit by a truck
  • John mentioned the bond mutual fund for another $5000.  He said it would be relatively simple. Also, we would be able to take money out whenever needed.  We would get $300± more per year than we otherwise would not have.
  • Howard is not a huge fan of credit cards.  He would like the credit card to be in the treasurer’s and a second one to be in someone else’s hand.
  • Preston asked what mutual fund John is looking into.  It is a non-fee fund that has done decently well in the last few years.  Preston mentioned that Contra has been one of their best mutual funds in the last couple of decades.  John noted that we are looking more short term than long term investment.

 

Committee Reports 

 

  • Data Access Report  
  • Sarah has the spreadsheet completely caught up.  She reported 67 last month and it should have been 70.  
  • We are now up to 75
    • 3 were commercial
    • 2 were landowner
  • Last two years we only had 33 requests each year. 

 

  • Database Committee Report 
  • Howard noted that we looking at consolidating data committees.  We will have a committee meeting in January to finalize the details of combining these committees.  Tentatively planning a meeting for January 15, 2020.
  • Howard asked Christopher to look into a numbering system.
  • Sarah mentioned an invoicing system and auto-populating the spreadsheet for requests.  There was a discussion about this. 

 

  • Data Archives Report 
  • Sarah is going to start getting the large-format maps into dropbox.
  • Sean noted that he has been going through Steve Gentry’s data.  Josh noted that we have promised to give him and Kimbro a survey initiative this year. 

 

  • Emergency Response Committee 
  • No update from Mike which is always great news.

  

  • Membership Committee 
  • Sean has the most up to date list that he can get.  He double-checked a lot through the NSS members list.  There are 2 life members that he has not been able to update.
  • Sean has the list on Dropbox.
  • Sean is going to update the list right before annuals are sent out so we have the most up to date list for sending them out.
  • Sean has quarterly newsletter websites down to 3 websites.  He is looking for a free one and one without ads. It is still in the works.
  • Howard asked about the list being sent to Christopher.  Sean noted that it has been.

  

  • Annual Report 
  • Josh updated on what we have been doing.
  • He noted that we need all the committee report updates.
  • Our goal is to be ready and to the printer by the middle of January and mailed out by the end of the month and in people’s hands.
  • Josh is really excited that it will be a color edition.

  

  • Advisory Committee 
  • No update from Howard.

  

  • KSS Survey Expedition 
  • Sarah updated on the Estill County Initiative.  Sarah noted that we went to have a fun time looking and surveying caves on a very eager landowner's land.  He has given us free rain on his land. 
  • Josh went on to explain what we did for the survey that weekend.  Josh noted that Christopher and I have already mapped all the caves we found.  Josh noted that we had a decent time.  
  • Josh went on about Campbell Cave and what we have done so far caving there.  He noted we have another trip coming up the weekend after Christmas. Also, George Crothers, the state archeologists will be there on the 28th.
  • Preston updated us about the owner and a bat specialist coming in to check out the cave.
  • Josh went on about some of the additional trips that he and Nick Lashley have done at the cave.
  • Amber asked if any were set already.  Josh, said no dates yet for 2020. Amber noted that she is starting a new job and will be running trips in Wells coming in 2020 on weekends.

 

  • Annual Meeting 
  • Josh and Sean are looking into a facility in the Louisville area for the 2020 meeting.

 

Old Business 

  • Regional Coordinators
    • No real update until changes in the database committees is finalized.
  • Ben Tobin - Interns
    • No updates
  • Yahoo Groups
    • They are dead, Christopher is working on an email mailer through the website.
  • Letters for Advisory Committee
    • No updates
  • Jim Quinlins Slide Collection
    • We are not going to be the tip of the spear on this one.  So we are waiting to see what else anyone is going to do.

 

New Business 

  • 2020 Meeting Schedule
    • Josh has gone through the year and basically made the schedule.
    • There is a conflict with the January data meeting that was just set, so that has been moved to January 22nd instead.
    • A discussion was had about On Paper meetings.  Josh said that we should schedule the On Paper meetings as needed and in addition to the regular meetings.  Howard agreed. Sarah noted that we are paying interns for this now. Howard noted that we should just have them as needed and if needed.
    • Sean noted that it would be nice to have a face to face meeting once or twice a year.  Things can happen that normally don’t happen. Howard agreed, as well as Josh. Josh likes us all.  Howard said let's try to have a face to face instead of the May 20th meeting. Josh noted that we should do a meeting on one of those Sundays.  May 17th was brought up.
  • 2020 Budget
    • Howard noted the IRS problems and so now we are working on a fiscal budget.
    • A budget means that we budget a certain amount of money per item and we must stay within that budget.
    • Howard shared a spreadsheet where he separates out what we spent on each item in the past.  It also has a recommendation for each item. He also has a sunk cost, where he is saying we will be spending that money for sure.  He also has a recurring cost that we know we will have each year.
    • Howard then went through each item in the spreadsheet and explained his reasons for that amount in the budget.  Discussion ensued on each item discussing the items in the spreadsheet.
    • Howard thinks are normal budget should be about $2000± per year.  He needs to discuss with John about how sustainable that is.
    • Sarah asked what about adding what our income per year is.  Howard went on and asked John.  
    • Howard and Preston debated the KSS owning survey equipment.  Josh mentioned buying survey paper. Amber noted that if people need equipment, there is a KSS grant for that.
    • Howard added $100 for survey paper to the 2020 budget.  Debate ensued. 
    • Sarah noted that she is not willing to vote without all the information, including what we brought in for 2019.
    • Motion is raised by Sarah to wait on the vote until we have previously income accounts.  Howard asked John to get us the last three years of income. Josh seconded the motion to postpone the vote.  Howard set for a vote, no one opposed, motion passed.

Howard ended the meeting at 5:51 pm.