Minutes of the Kentucky Speleological Survey Meeting
September 29, 2012
Officers Present: Lee Florea, President; Jim Greer, Secretary; Steve Gentry, At-Large Representative; Amber Yeullig, At-Large Representative
Organizational Reps Present: Harry Goepel (GCG), Jim Currens (KGS), Randy Paylor (BGG), Bill Walden (COG)
Lee Florea called the meeting to order at 1:07 PM.
Secretary's Report:
Minutes of the previous meeting were approved on a motion by Steve with a 2nd by Bill. Motion passed.
Treasurer's Report:
The treasurer reported a balance of $4591.65 as of 9/30/12. Income was $282.50 for the last period, including $157.50 in dues income and $125 in search fee income for data requests. The report was accepted on a motion by Steve and a 2nd by Amber.
Committee Reports:
Data Access Committee - Jim Currens reported a total of 25 data requests had been received so far this year. Currens requested that we open discussion on appropriate fees for fulfilling data requests. Amber suggested considering charging by the number of records returned or by the hour. Some discussion followed and it was decided to put off further discussion to the New Business portion of the meeting.
Data Administration Committee - Lee reported for Howard. Currently we have approximately 60% of the counties entered into spreadsheets. There was some discussion on the need to move forward on getting a database up and running.
Newsletter Committee: Bill notified those present at the meeting that the current issue of the newsletter is out and posted in Yahoo! Groups. Bill requested that everyone please continue to send him info.
Old Business:
Lee reported that the Karst-O Rama booth was successful. The KSS gave away two memberships as door prizes at the convention, however, neither have been cashed in yet. The KSS also got 3 or 4 new members at KOR as a result of the booth. It was felt we should continue to do a booth at area caving conventions.
The KSS sponsored a session at the NSS Convention. There were multiple presentations by various state cave surveys including WVACS, KSS TSS and others and a number of organizations were represented at the session. Several good ideas were presented on putting together a database. Several groups are doing a lot of interesting things with the current technology in this area. This will be an annual session at NSS Conventions.
Lee motioned to appoint Bill and Amber to an ad hoc committee to look into purchasing a video projector for the KSS. Steve seconded the motion and the motion passed.
Amber motioned that the KSS allocate an amount not to exceed $850 for the purchase of a projector and accessories and that the purchase take place by the end of 2012. Steve seconded the motion. Some discussion followed and the motion passed.
New Business:
Lee brought everyone up to date on the new logo options. Some discussion was held on the various options and a motion to pick an option was tabled pending some additional design work that it was felt needed to be done.
The discussion on changing the fees for service rates for data requests was reopened. After some discussion, it was proposed that we charge a search fee of $50 and a $10 per record fee for each record returned in a search.
Currens motioned to bring the fee-schedule by-laws change proposed at the April meeting off the table for a vote. 2nd by Bill. Amendment was called for a vote. The proposed amendment passed to revise Article XII, Section B. of the bylaws to read as follows:
"Data requests to the KSS from for-profit organizations shall be accompanied by a fee assessed based on the then current KSS fee schedule to be paid, verified by the Treasurer, prior to any search. Additional fees may be charged to recover costs."
Currens motioned that a fee schedule be adopted charging $50 for an initial search fee and $10 per record for each record returned. Bill seconded and motion passed.
A discussion was held on streamlining data requests. Steve suggested that Currens scan the requests and place them in Dropbox. The request could then be read and voted upon. If approved, we would notify the requestor of any charges and then fulfill the request once payment has been received.
Lee led a discussion on updating the website, as well as dealing with various issues including ongoing maintenance and access for updating files.
Some discussion was held on reducing the number of meetings each year. Lee proposed that we amend Chapter VIII of the By-laws to read as follows:
"The KSS will hold 3 meetings a year. These meetings will include and Election Meeting in January, a Business Meeting in April, and an Annual Meeting in September or October."
The motion was seconded by Randy. Per the By-laws, the motion was tabled until the next meeting.
Currens announced that Tab Farthing had passed away. He discussed contacting Tab's mom about getting copies of his data donated to the KSS. Everyone felt it was OK to follow up on this.
The motion to amend Article III of the By-laws was taken off the table from the previous meeting. Having been seconded at the previous meeting, the motion was opened for discussion and called for vote. The motion passed to amend Article II of the KSS By-laws by adding the following:
"Nominations for officers are open until the presiding officer calls for a vote. Self-nominations are allowed."
The next meeting will be held Sunday, January 20, 2013 in Horse Cave.
A motion was made to adjourn the meeting. Steve seconded and the motion passed. The meeting was adjourned at 3:22 PM.
