Minutes

August 2021 Minutes

 

Sarah Arpin calls the meeting to order at 7:06 pm.

 

Christopher Morris, Sarah Arpin, John Cassidy, Bob Roth, Preston Forsythe, Howard Kalnitz, Jeff Hamilton, Kevin Zachary, Barry Adams, Chris Redmon & Pat Kambesis were all in attendance.

 

Minutes taken by Christopher Morris.

 

Announcements:

  • We passed the bylaws!

 

Approval of the Previous Meetings (Sarah Arpin)

  • Preston motioned to pass them, Bob seconded.
  • Minutes passed

 

Treasurer’s Report (John Cassidy)

  • $17,851.47 as a starting balance
  • $590 in search fees
  • $208.48 from membership
  • -$500 for the grant
  • $0.15 worth of interest
  • $18,150.03 as an ending balance
  • Howard asked if we have any firms that are not paying us.
    • John has one that is falling behind.
    • He will give us an update next month and see where they are at.
    • They have paid some of their invoices but not all of them.

 

Data Committee (Howard Kalnitz)

  • We are up to date with requests as of this morning.
  • We have had 8 requests since the beginning of July.
    • We are averaging 5-7 requests per month.
  • We have had a decent amount of caver or land owner requests.
  • In the last few months we have had 2 requests that we have forwarded to KGS due to the legal issue.
    • We don’t want anyone in our organization to have to show up to court.
    • These have been landowners requesting them.
    • Preston told a story about one in Western Kentucky that he helped with years ago.
  • FileMaker is up and running.  
    • Between Howard and Kevin they have got a lot of it updated.
    • The spreadsheet has been updated in the FileMaker database.
    • The rock layers and elevations are not in there yet though.
      • They will be brought in on the next update.
    • Howard sent out an updated GIS database to the data committee.
      • This is for doing data requests.
      • All the caves out of state have been taken out and corrected.
      • We should be using this new database that Howard sent out.
    • Kevin asked if all the old layers could be removed from ArcGIS Online.
      • Howard said he has started on this, but it is labor intensive.
  • Preston asked about the extra caves for some counties that WKSS does not have.
    • Howard explained where all our data came from.
      • Sperka, then Randy and Lee, then Howard.
      • In most cases you can see where the data came from to be able to figure it all out.
    • Howard shared the old and new database via GIS and explained the differences.
  • Discussion ensued about checking the old data and the role of local grottos in this effort.

 

Emergency Response (Mike Keltner)

  • Not present, no report

 

Membership Committee (Notes from Sheila Minor)

  • KSS Membership Notes on 11 August 2021
    • Attendees: Bob Roth, John Cassidy & Sheila Minor
    • Member Total: 81   Life 59   Regular 22
      • J Cassidy to clean up list before next mtg
      • Reach out to those who have moved to get their addresses
      • Bob to talk to members @ large regarding mass emailing without seeing others names
      • Better communication with members
      • Post on FB to increase participation
    • Does anybody know of survey & project ideas?
    • NSS Presentations: Need people to  do 1\2 - 1 hour presentations. Anything related to caving.
    • Next Membership Mtg:  Wed, Sept 8 @ 8P, est
    • Later date: look @ organizational membership & discuss cost of Annual (paper, envelopes, stamps, etc,)
  • Bob noted that Sean and Sheila are looking at co-chairing the committee.

 

Annual Meeting (Bob Roth)

  • Bob talked with Pat about hosting at Hamilton Valley.
    • We need to set a budget.
  • Bob noted that in the past there had been awards.
    • Bob said if we want that again, someone needs to take ownership of this.
  • Bob talked about the lineup for the weekend.
    • We are looking for a nerd hole for Saturday to survey and produce a map.
  • Bob is looking at the presentations to be 30 minutes long.
    • He has 5 commitments to participate.
    • We need to look at the CDC Guidelines on the day of the event.
  • Bob is looking at getting videos from some people as backups.
    • Preston is recording one with Bob this coming weekend since Preston & Shari will be in the Galapagos.
  • Preston said there are some nice small caves on the property at Hamilton Valley.
    • Dogwood Cav, Adwell Cave and another.
    • Discussion ensued about mapping or bio inventory of a cave instead.
    • There is a vertical cave real close by that needs to be mapped that Pat mentioned.
    • Pat will come up with the ideas for caving.
  • Pat asked about the food payment.
    • Howard said in the past we were in the $200-400 range.
    • Pat said it would be $20 a person.
    • Howard motioned that $400 be budgeted. Christopher seconded.
      • Pat thinks that would cover up to 25 people.
      • Sarah noted that is about how many we have had in the past for an annual meeting.
      • Sarah also mentioned that we need to have an RSVP.
      • All are in favor.
  • Christopher will work on an RSVP on the website for the annual meeting.
  • Sarah asked about paying to stay at Hamilton Valley.
    • Bob noted that it will be paid individually, not by KSS.
    • Bob and John talked about having a PayPal button on the website.
    • Sarah said we need to eliminate us as a middle man and they just pay Pat themselves.
      • All were in agreement.
  • Bob talked about the presentations.
    • Bob has 5 signed up for 8 slots on Sunday and 2 for Saturday night.
    • Need 10 minimum.
    • Sarah asked if we can put together a shared Google Doc for the schedule and who is confirmed for presenting.
      • So we can stay up to date with what is going on.
      • Sarah has suggestions that she will email Bob.
        • Rachel Bosch, Martina Hines, etc. are suggestions.
    • There are 3 main time slots.
      • Saturday night, Sunday morning and Sunday afternoon.
      • If someone can not attend, we can still have them present via a 30 minute video.
    • Bob’s goal is to video all the presentations and document them and archive them.
  • Bob asked if there was anything that he missed that he should be covering for an Annual Meeting.
  • Howard noted people could have posters or maps to hang, especially if they can not come.
    • A lot of academics present their research with posters.
    • Bob noted he really liked that idea.
    • Pat noted to put this in the announcement.
  • Bob, Christopher & Pat will get together for the next announcement and get everything on it.
  • Sarah noted the grant recipient could be someone to reach out to about a presentation.
  • Pat asked about a projector.
    • She will get it for us.
    • Sarah noted that the KSS has a projector.

 

Annual Report (Christopher Morris)

  • Not ready yet.  Christopher has been busy and slacking.

 

Old Business

  • Bylaws Revisions passed.
    • They have been updated on the website.
  • Code of Ethics/Conduct
    • No update at this time.
  • KSS Grants
    • Howard & Sarah have talked about this and will work on updating it.
    • We need to update our grant details.
    • Cleveland Grotto, NRMG good examples/templates.
    • Sarah would like to tackle this before the Annual Meeting.

 

New Business

  • International Year of Karst
    • Thoughts or ideas?
  • Other ideas/goals?
    • Look at our vision and mission statement and decide what we are lacking in and what could we do better at going forward.

 

Bob motioned to adjourn at 8:19 pm and Kevin seconded.