Minutes 6-01

Minutes of the EDGE&TA General Meeting Hosted by Branch 32, Arkansas June 22, 2001

Meeting was called to order and opened by Branch 32 president Ricky Jones who welcomed all and then turned the meeting over to EDGE&TA president Curtis Cook. Curtis introduced all directors present: Bill Keene and Dale Fry from Texas, Cliff Northcote, also vice president, from California, Gus Peterson from Oregon, Howard Hodson from Arkansas. Director Floyd Schmall from California was not present. He introduced the National secretary/treasurer Ruth Warnock. Jerry Mac Martin web master and advisor from California, advisors Tim Wade from North Carolina, who is also running for a directors position and Dorene Yearian from Missouri.

Roll call was taken. We have a total of 104 branches. There were ____44____ branches present

Gus Peterson NW director talked about the importance of each branch having a web page. All branches are entitled to a free web page and the branches should take advantage of this to advertise their events. Gus gave his report on the three remaining regional shows for 2001. The Northwest will be hosted by Branch 62, in Great Falls, Montana, July 6-7. The Northeast will be hosted by Branch 1, in Almelund, Minnesota, Aug 10-12 and the Southeast will be hosted by branch 70 in Alvarado Texas, October 26-28. He announced the national and regional shows for 2002 will be hosted as follows:

National - Branch 21, Klamath Falls, OR - Aug 23-25

Northeast - Branch 101, Sharon Springs, NY - June 15-16

Northwest - Branch 52, Wasilla, Alaska - Jun 21-23

Southeast - Branch 85, Morrow, Arkansas - Oct 19-2O

Southwest - Branch 13, Grass Valley, CA - Jun 7-8-9

Hall of Fame chairman, Jerry Mac Martin, gave his report. He explained the guidelines for submitting nominees to be inducted into the Hall of Fame as follows: There can be up to four individuals inducted regardless of their geographic location. All inductees must be EDGE&TA members; posthumous submissions will be accepted having past EDGE&TA membership. These guidelines were put into effect Sept 9, 2000, in Farmington, NM. Jerry explained how the Hall of Fame chairman selects judges. New ones will be chosen each year from different geographic locations. The judges will not know who their fellow judges are. The judges this year were chosen from Minnesota, NC Region, California, SW Region and Missouri, SC Region. He also stated that this year we had 10 nominations and 3 were selected. The three were: Harvey Highlands, Oregon, Ruth Warnock, California and Blair Dollery from Wisconsin.

Curtis invited representatives from branches hosting regional shows to speak. Branch 85 said they are ready for the 2002 regional. Branch 1 spoke briefly on their 2001 show.

Curtis asked all of the director nominees to stand up and be recognized. He introduced James Moore from CA, Glen Spencer from NM, Tim Wade from NC, and himself from VA.

While the ballots were being counted, John Puliz president of Branch 21, Oregon who will be hosting the National Show and Meeting, Aug 22- 23- 24 was introduced. John announced that this would be a very rural show. He wanted to make sure that the expectations were understood. They have a hand pump well and are running on a generator for the cook shack, but will have a good show. They will have a Threshing Bee and they have a 1913 Russell Steam engine running around on the grounds. They have a 1000-acre ranch and said there should be room for everyone. There is no pavement so crawlers are welcome. It will be just a good home time show. He had packages to hand out.

Cliff read the results from the ballots as follows:

By-law: Section 1 Dues 40 yes 9 no

Sec 6: New branches 39 yes 9 no

Art 5: Branch responsibilities 34 yes 13 no

Art 6: Addition of F 40 yes 9 no

Art 8: Removal of a director 39 yes 9 no

Art 6: increase secretary/treasurer’s compensation from 10% to 15% 35 yes 15 no.

(Applause)

Directors:

Tim Wade 25

James Moore 14

Glen Spencer 13

Curtis Cook 35

New directors Curtis Cook and Tim Wade (with applause)

Howard had a group of enthusiastic members that held a tractor drive and traveled 107 miles over the mountain. They drove through heavy rain but it didn’t dampen their spirits. They left on Monday arriving to officially open the National event on Thursday. There were three branch presidents and one national director on the drive.

Howard made a presentation to Ruth Warnock from the tractor drive folks that will help her count the money she is going to make. She was presented a Hillbilly desk calculator. Toes were numbered 1-0 and for when she gets far away from home they also gave her a pocket one. Ruth thanked them all. (Applause)

Discussion from the floor. Kids under the legal driving age - driving tractors.
Concerns are that we will not have kids stay interested if they can’t drive. Larry Burchfield, EDGE&TA insurance advisor was asked to address the question. Larry said there was no way to handle it on individual branch basis. It has to be a National decision. Ideas have to be submitted to the insurance company. If the insurance company accepts it and will give coverage, there will be an increase in premium. This is not an individual branch decision. Question was asked, how much? The answer was he did not know. Curtis reiterated that the insurance policy belongs to Early Day Gas Engine and Tractor Association, Inc. Not by the individual branches. The way to handle this would be to write up a proposal, and then EDGE&TA would submit it to the insurance company. If it comes back in our favor, it would go on the ballot next year.
Question: Can something like this be applied for kids. Larry’s answer was that Kids could drive a lawnmower tractor in a parade now with max rear wheel size 26 inches. Which is a garden tractor or lawnmower. Kids can own equipment and show it.

Tractor pulling was discussed. Everyone must pull under the EDGE&TA rules. Curtis said we (EDGE&TA) designed the pulling rules and submitted them to the insurance company asking them to insure us for what we submitted. They agreed but said if anyone steps outside of those rules they must have additional insurance, which is what branch 32 did. They went out and bought another policy to cover their hot rod tractors and for more than one person riding on a tractor. They named EDGE&TA as additional insured. EDGE&TA was not responsible. There are many clubs pulling under our guidelines with no problem.

Question asked about coverage for animals. Answer was that Scottsdale would NOT cover animals.

There are other insurance companies that will insure animals.

Branch 1 talked about their having a tractor driving school for kids. They have to qualify and be certified.

There was discussion on working with 4-H and FFA because they have good programs for this. Question from the floor was asked if that would help us. Larry said it would be possible. There could be training sessions. Larry said he couldn’t commit for the insurance company underwriter. A proposal must be made from EDGE&TA and submitted to him for the insurance company underwriter. Curtis said with these kids having certificates getting approved by an accredited agent like FFA or 4H, it would give the national something to propose to the insurance underwriter. Final decision was made to use the North Central region in a pilot program. Howard will work on this and more information will be sent to the branches later when things are finalized.

Member from the floor asked for a round of applause for the insurance agent, Larry Burchfield.

Meeting adjourned.

Respectfully Submitted,

Ruth A. Warnock,

EDGE&TA Secretary

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