Minutes

February 2021 Minutes

 

Sean Vanderhoff calls the meeting to order at 7:05 pm.

 

Christopher Morris, Bob Roth, Sean Vanderhoff, Kevin Zachary, Barry Adams, Amber Yuellig, Philip L. Francis III, Howard Kalnitz, John Cassidy, Sarah Arpin, James Borden, Jeff Hamilton, Jim Currens, Sheila Minor, Susan Wilkinson, Kimbro Pittman, Ben Tobin, Christian DeCelle, Michael Ketzner, Pat Kambesis and an unknown were all in attendance.

 

Minutes taken by Christopher Morris.

 

Announcements:

  • Sean announced that the Nashville Grotto is having an online survey talk.
  • Jeff talked about Meade County caving and taking Sarah Arpin & Christopher Morris out to check them all out.

 

Reading of the Previous Meetings (Sean Vanderhoff)

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

 

Treasurer’s Report (John Cassidy)

  • Sean asked if there is anything outstanding for the new board to discuss?
  • $15,897.76
    • $640 in commercial request fees
    • $132.46 in membership fees
    • Closing balance of $16,670.22
    • Check sent to ESRI for $10.64
  • John got in touch with our grant awardee.
    • He noted that the award should go out to someone better as he lacks transportation.
  • John noted that someone wanted a copy of our insurance and we do not have a certificate of insurance.
  • The next board should look into what to do with the money we have been bringing in.  Especially with the IRS questions a couple of years back.
    • He noted maybe hiring a KGS intern again.
  • Should we get into a mutual fund, as that was put on hold due to Covid.

 

Data Committee (Sarah Arpin)

  • 13 new data requests.
    • 3 public
    • 1 government request
    • 1 caver request
    • 1 research request
  • Sarah explained that Howard put out a challenge after the last meeting about the database.
    • Howard went into this and why we are doing this.
    • One of the strong options is using cloud based FileMaker.
    • 3 people were interested in bringing forward options
      • Kevin, Philip & Alan
  • Howard dove into the new FileMaker and found out that it does read our old data
  • Alan is working with a caver that is diving into TCS data.
    • We saw several things that we really liked.
  • Philip has been diving into programming in FileMaker and adding those same features to see what is possible.
  • At the next meeting we will choose one of these options for the next year, at the next meeting.
    • We will not be sunk into our choice, as it is only a year payment for subscription.
  • Philip apologized for coming off as brash. 
  • Kevin asked some questions about Survey123
    • Howard said Survey123 will continue to be a good data reporting tool.
    • The problem is how to update the database.
    • Howard has some concerns about auto updating the database.  There has to be some QA/QC before adding it to the database.
    • Kevin confirmed that we have to have a workflow to do this QA/QC to add data to the database.
  • Philip has been working on how to link our relational database and geodatabase together.
  • Sarah recapped where our focus will be in the future.
  • Sean noted that he is excited about the future and everything that is in the works.
  • Bob asked about the physical files at KGS and what the future holds about that.
    • Sarah talked about the memorandum of understanding that we have with KGS to house this data for us.
    • Howard started back in 2015-2016 to actually scan and digitize all the files.
    • Ben said this would be a good thing for Bob to step up and work on archiving all the work that has been donated to the KGS.
  • Kimbro asked about changes she makes to a Google Drive spreadsheet
    • We said they do not have them related, but that we do have the data.

 

Emergency Response (Mike Keltner)

  • Not present, no report.

 

Membership Committee (Sean Vanderhoff)

  • 3 new members this month
  • 58 life members
  • We are in the mid 90’s for members, with 60%± life members right now

 

Grant Committee (Amber Yuellig)

  • Is there anything outstanding for the new board to discuss?
    • Nothing, John covered it in his report.
  • Amber noted there was nothing new to report.

 

Annual Report Report (Christopher Morris)

  • Christopher is hopeful to have it out by the end of March.

 

New Business

  • Bylaws update under the new board.
    • Ben is working on this right now.
    • A lot of it is grammar corrections.
    • There are a few major changes.
    • Ben hopes to have something by early to mid-March to be out to the board and the general membership for a 45-day review period.
  • Jim was having issues with his mic, so Sean filled us in on the Dripping Springs Map.
    • Bob said he could transfer files to the NSS if needed.
    • Sarah noted that she has been looking for it.
    • Ben is going to look for it as well.
  • Ben said that the NSS is in the process of writing a strategic plan of the NSS.
    • He wanted to let us know that this was going on.
    • They will want feedback from members and societies.
    • Ben also noted that we had previous conversations about the KSS joining the NSS and the new board might want to take this up as an issue.
  • Kevin thanked the 2020 board
  • Howard thanked Sean for stepping up and everyone else.
  • Philip also thanked Sean for doing a great job.
  • Ben and Jeff also thanked Sean for stepping up.

 

Kevin motioned to adjourn at 8:03 and Ben seconded.