Minutes

July 2020 Minutes

Amber calls the meeting to order at 7:02 pm.

Christopher Morris, Amber Yuellig, Kevin Zachary, Preston Forsythe, Chris Redmon, Sheila Minor, Pat Kambesis, Sarah Arpin, John Cassidy, Ben Tobin, Sean Vanderhoff, Bob Gulden, Darryl Marsh, Barry Adams, Jeff Hamilton,

Announcements:

• Amber started by asking if there were any other announcements.
• Amber stated the NSS Convention is starting July 27th.
• Sean announced that they cancelled the Fall TAG Cave-in this year.

Reading of the Previous Meetings (Christopher Morris)

• Christopher read the minutes.
• Sean motitioned to pass them, Sean seconded.
• Minutes passed

Treasurer’s Report (John Cassidy)

• There has been a lot of activity.
• $12,934.52 is the current balance.
• We have about $1,500 in outstanding invoices.
• He talked about the Credit Card and the bank account.
• He says we should hold off on the mutual funds for the time being.  We do not have our money in the stock market yet.  He suggests that we should wait for the time being.
• Amber noted the president could be the second and she is happy to be that, but that we may need to wait until after elections.
• Ben asked what it takes to change names on the accounts.
• John has some KSS materials from Howard that he needs to give them to the KSS, with someone that can store them. 
• Sarah noted that she can get them from him and store them in her basement.
• Sean noted that since the board is in the interim status, that we should hold off on making decisions.
• Discussion ensued regarding the investing with the NSS between Amber, John & Pat.
• John reiterated that he thinks we should wait for right now to invest.

Data Committee (Sarah Arpin)

• We have had 4 data requests (0 commercial).
• 1 land owner, 1 caver and 2 from ACA via Chelsea Ballard.
• We had a meeting on June 24th.
• Kevin Zachary was added to the committee.
• Working on getting training materials to get the new people up to speed.
• The next steps are to update incoming data and where it is going to go.
• To get our new database up and running, even if it is not the final database that we are going to use going forward.
• The next meeting will be on July 29th @ 7:00 pm.

Emergency Response (No Report)

Membership Committee (Sean Vanderhoff)

• No change from last month.
• No new members.

Grant Committee (Amber Yuellig)

• We have awarded 1 survey grant.
• He will be working with John Cassidy on how to deal with the money side of this.

Annual Report Report (Christopher Morris)

• No real update.
• Sean asked what can anyone do that wants to help.  What are our needs for help?
• Amber asked for a list of what we expect for article submissions.
• Christopher told her he had one he made last year and will get it together for this year.

KSS Expeditions (Amber Yuellig)

• On hold due to Covid-19.
• Our grantee of the survey grant would like to do a survey weekend this winter.
• Discussion ensued about the social distancing aspects of this.

Annual Meeting (Sean Vanderhoff)

• He noted that we will not have an in-person meeting this year.
• He sent out an email to the board discussing this.
• He thought about spreading out the annual meeting over a month online instead.
• He noted that some of the board members had got back to him and he asked for the others to please get back to him.
• Sean asked if we needed to vote on this.
• Christopher said might as well.
• Pat explained what all we could do.
• Possibly like the NSS Convention.
• Ben noted that the bylaws state that it has to be in person.
• Amber noted that these are rare times and that the bylaws were not written with a pandemic in mind.
• Ben said we could do a 10 minute presentation each meeting for the rest of the year.
• Amber thought about spreading it out, once a week during September.
• Pat noted that people not doing it in person opens them up to being willing to present.
• Amber noted to make a theme.  Pat elaborated that to a weekly theme.
• Sean noted that this could be a test run for future online events for the KSS.
• Sean asked if this is something that he can take and run with.
• Amber said that sounds good.
• Sarah and Pat offered to each do a presentation or workshop.
• Pat said she could do a sketching workshop online.
• Pat will give Sean some suggestions offline.

Old Business

• Kentucky Nature Preserves (Sarah Arpin & Ben Tobin)
• Ben noted it is a working group that the KGS is involved with.
• Sarah had an informal meeting with them about data.
• It was to get a feel about the data structures and what we have compared to them.
• Talked about making our different databases talk together.
• Amber also talked to the Kentucky Nature Preserves.
• How to make their data work across databases.
• Survey 123 app discussion.
• They discussed biological information.
• We could go and do bat surveys with them.
• Ben asked that Amber keeps up in the loop on future discussions with the preserves.
• Regional Coordinators (Sarah Arpin)
• Sarah noted that we would probably be able to report back at the next meeting.
• Sarah explained what we have been doing on this recently.
• Amber noted that we could do a presentation for your membership about what Regional Coordinators mean to the KSS.
• Pat noted that this would be good.
• KSS Interns (Ben Tobin)
• Gillian is working 5 hours a week and is going through the data.
• We have her through the summer.
• He expects her to get through about half the data before her time is up.

New Business

• Member Involvement During the Pandemic (Amber Yuellig)
• Noted this was discussed in the Annual Meeting discussion.
• NSS Internal Organizations (Amber Yuellig)
• This has been discussed by the board.
• Christopher noted that this should not be done under the current leadership.
• Amber wants to discuss the pros and cons of this.
• Ben noted that we could do a committee.
• Amber read through the list of requirements.
• Pat said she would assist looking into it.
• Ben said he would also assist.

Pat motioned to adjourn at 8:09 and John seconded