ASSOCIATION OF ENVIRONMENTAL & ENGINEERING GEOLOGISTS (AEG)
Annual Board of Directors Meeting Summary
The Association of Environmental & Engineering Geologists (AEG) Directors convene meetings biannually to review the status and conduct the business of our organization. On April 17th and 18th, 2009, the Board of Directors (BOD) Mid-Year Board Meeting was in session in Seattle, Washington, the President’s city of residence. Detailed meeting minutes were prepared and will be available for approval at the next Annual Board Meeting, which will take place in South Lake Tahoe, California, September 26-27, 2009. The following summary was prepared to assist our Directors in highlighting major issues and topic areas for communication to the general membership.
AEG has twenty-five (25) sections and five Executive Council members totaling thirty Directors. Nineteen (19) Section Chairpersons or their proxies were present along with the Executive Council (EC): President Molinari, Vice President/President-Elect Kreuger, Treasurer Hilton, Secretary Bauer, and Past-President Kuper, achieving the required majority present for a quorum. Chief Operating Officer Roland was also present, as were Governance Committee Chair Andrews, Finance Committee Chair Sofield, Strategic Planning Committee Chair Hale, Communications Committee Chair Shaw and other invited guests. Sections absent were Montreal, New England, New York-Philadelphia, Ohio River Valley, Southeastern, and Southern Nevada.
· President Molinari discussed his Section visits, and told the Board that he would report back to them after discussing the Jahns Lecturer Selection with GSA.
· Treasurer Hilton reported that the IRS accepted AEG’s request to change the fiscal year from July-June to January-December, starting January 1st, 2009, which means AEG has to file a tax return for the short year of July-December 2008. The accountant-audited financials for the fiscal year 07-08 will be available at the end of April 2009 and our taxes are due May 15th. He also reported that our investments, down around 6%, are doing much better than the overall stock market, due to our conservative investment strategy which is consistent with prior BOD direction.
· The 2008 Annual Meeting in New Orleans, LA had a surplus of around $21,000.
· Chief Operating Officer Roland reported that our Year-to-date membership total is 2632 members, which is around 85% of the total for 2008. Staff members at headquarters are in the process of calling lapsed members, but Section cooperation is imperative to bringing these members back to AEG.
· Sections that have access to lists of State Licensees are asked to send these lists to Headquarters for membership solicitation.
· Communications Committee Chair Allen Shaw discussed the print media of AEG. He asked that Sections ask their members to submit technical papers or case studies to the Environmental &Engineering Geoscience Journal. There will be several papers in a future issue of the journal by speakers at the Shlemon Specialty Conference on Fault Rupture that was held in Southern California in February 2009, and there is also the potential for a Special Publication from the conference proceedings and papers. Allen would like to increase advertising in the AEG NEWS in order to add more color photos and enhance the quality of the publication.
· Website Committee member Dale Andrews reported on ideas about the website revision. He emphasized the need for the website to be a living document and for the Board to consider how it will be continually updated after revision.
· In addition to presenting Finance Committee report, the Finance Committee Chair, Darrell Sofield, reminded the Board of its fiscal responsibilities and how the committee helps to meet those responsibilities. He then stated that without a Treasurer’s report or a fiscal report that compares the actual financials to the budget, the FC could not do its job. “With out those reports, you can’t tell if the budget was met,” Darrell said. The FC suggested that the BOD develop a policy on procedures for financial reporting including procedures for comparing the budget to the actual money spent and a discussion section for items where considerable difference was noted between the budget and actual money spent. The EC has already begun implementing the FC’s suggestions in the 2009 budget, as the budget and actual financials will be broken into quarters for easier comparison, and dissemination to the FC and BOD.
· Sofield also made a request to members of the current BOD to join the committee. After waiving the 30-day notice, the Board approved by blind vote Mary Kay Markunas and Niall Henshaw as Finance Committee members.
· 2009 Annual Meeting Co-chair Gary Luce reported that planning for the Annual Meeting in South Lake Tahoe is going well. COO Roland will distribute the PowerPoint presentation to Section Chairs for promotion at Section meetings. President Molinari will send the Board information on the Outstanding Environmental and Engineering Geology Award after the selection committee makes a decision.
· Strategic Planning Committee (SPC) Chair Paul Hale gave an update on some of his sub-committees.
o Advocacy committee has been working on gathering information on the photos they received from the photo contest they hosted, is developing one page technical information flyers, and is considering making a short movie promoting the profession.
o Student/Young Professional Support Committee has been busy with the Visiting Professionals Program, Section Champions/Student Liaison coordination, the Facebook page (New Geologist), the Student Chapter application template, a Student Welcome Packet, and planning a pre-Ice Breaker event at the Annual Meeting to connect students and professionals.
o Section/Chapter Support Committee is finalizing an Officers’ Handbook for Section Officers and conducting a survey of Section Chairs to find out where they need help.
· The SPC contracted with Creativity @ Work to conduct a member survey and internal and external interviews. The results were used to direct the Strategic Planning workshop, which was held April 17th in Seattle, the Friday before the Board meeting. During the workshop, the attendees defined the areas of concern regarding the future of AEG. Now the SPC will work on a new Strategic Plan and will present it at the 2009 Annual Board Meeting.
· During lunch each Section was asked to answer three questions: 1) What is working for your Section? 2) How is the economy affecting the Section and its members? 3) What committee(s) are you on or would you like to be on? Answers will be posted with the minutes of the meeting.
· The Board discussed the Joint Task Force on Areas of Practice (JTFAP) Guidance document during the MYBM. There was considerable concern that the document in its current condition does not effectively represent our professional practice and its intended use and purpose remains unclear. Although a vote was not called for, an informal blind straw poll was conducted asking if the document should: 1) stop, 2) proceed with the input and guidance of AEG on a broader basis, or 3) proceed as a publication solely published by AEG. Two abstained, 20 thought AEG should proceed on a broader basis, and 1 thought we should proceed with a publication published solely by AEG.
o President Molinari requested creating an ad hoc committee. The BOD concurred, stipulating the following committee make-up guidelines:
1. Minimum of 3 members from Western US, minimum of 2 members from Mid-west/Eastern US, plus two current JTF committee members
2. Minimum of 5 members are current or former board members
3. Strive to include at least one member of AEG Licensure Committee
4. Strive to include at least one member who has been or is included on State Licensure Board
5. Range of 7-10 members
o The Ad-hoc Committee’s charge will be to:
1. Review and summarize member comments about the document
2. Consult with Mark Molinari after he obtains feedback from AIPG and Geo-Institute (after June 15 deadline) regarding how they intend to proceed and invite to forum if appropriate
3. Make recommendations for action and direction of the document
4. Present recommendations to the membership one month before the Annual Meeting
5. Have a discussion forum at the 2009 Annual Meeting assuming the document goes forward with the other groups
6. Work with CA, OR, WA and other licensure boards
· The Spring Shlemon Conference was a great success and had an approximate surplus of $12,000. The selection committee is looking for proposals for future conferences, beginning next year.
· President Molinari discussed the progress of the future Annual Meetings.
o 2010 – Charleston, SC
o 2011 – Anchorage, AL - AEG will need to help with the planning of this meeting
o 2012 – Salt Lake City, UT
o 2013 – Seattle, WA
· The Board decided it would like to post each AEG NEWS issue online when it is mailed and to allow public access for current and past issues.
· Governance Committee (GC) Chair Dale Andrews reviewed the GC’s summary of observations from the 2008 Annual Board Meeting. He also presented three Conflict of Interest templates for the board to decide among, in order to comply with IRS requirements. The board decided to have an attorney review all three statements and work with the GC and EC to finalize a version for Board approval at the 2009 Annual Board Meeting.
· Andrews also presented a template for Sections to use for meeting announcements, which will be posted under the Section/Chapter Support documents on the website.
· The GC compared the governance structure of AEG with other similar organizations and presented potential options for AEG. The Board discussed AEG’s current governance structure and decided that it is effective, but feels that the GC should look into other options including the proposed options of Delegates and Regionalization as well as define performance measures and ways to measure efficiency and effectiveness of the governance of the Association in its current structure.
· Treasurer Hilton presented the Fiscal Year 2009 budget, which covers from January-December 2009, to the board, emphasizing the major changes from the FY08/09 budget. Items such as reduced printing in the coming year, increased advertising/sponsorship efforts, and membership drives are essential to achieve/exceed this budget and allow the use of discretionary funds. The Board approved the budget as presented.
· The Board discussed the pros and cons of online vs. print publications. Through straw vote, the Board’s order of priority for electronic publication is 1) E&EG Journal (21 votes); 2) AEG News (14 votes); 3) Directory (5 votes); and 4) Abstracts with Programs (0 votes). Members will be asked for their priority in a demographics survey that will be included with their membership renewals.
· The Board discussed ways to retain and recruit members; each Director/Section Chair pledged to recruit a certain number of members by the 2009 Annual Meeting. Look for our goal to be posted and progress to be tracked as part of the membership drive.
· Director Metz offered a free frequent flyer ticket to any member who recruited the most members before the 2009 Annual Meeting.
· The Board approved changes to certain By-laws to account for the change in fiscal year to a calendar year.
· The Board approved a template for a Memorandum of Understanding between AEG and Sections proposing to host a future Annual Meeting.
· Two Student Chapters were approved by the Board: The College of Charleston and the University of North Carolina at Charlotte.
· The Board approved by blind vote a nominee to be included on the Executive Council ballot as Secretary for 2009/2010. This nomination is not a final result, but places this candidate on the mailed ballot; the election results will be presented at the AEG Business Luncheon in Tahoe in September.
· COO Roland summarized the report that the AEG Foundation (AEGF) submitted. The AEGF would like to work closely with the EC to establish one committee for the Lemke and Corporate Sponsor scholarships for students at the Annual Meeting. It would like to look at ways to support un- or underemployed members. It is supporting color photos in the E&EG, but would like for AEG to find a way for this to be self-sustaining.
· PowerPoint slides on the AEGF are available for Section Chairs to have at their Section meetings.
· President Molinari discussed AEG submitting a proposal to IAEG at the 2010 meeting to host the 2014 meeting, and reminded the Board that this meeting would replace AEG’s Annual Meeting that year, and would be an IAEG meeting, not a joint meeting.
· The next Board of Directors meeting is on September 26th and 27th in South Lake Tahoe, CA.
