2003 EDGE&TA Board of Directors Meeting

Board of Directors Meeting 8/30/03
Meeting was called to order 7:45 PM by President Curtis Cook
Directors present
Curtis Cook
Dick Tombrink
Howard Hodson
Tim Wade
Dorene Yearian
Jerry Mac Martin
Larry Voris
Secretary/Treasurer Ruth Warnock
Curtis: Asked if any of the directors had anything they wanted to bring up. Asked Howard what he had.
Howard: Reported on The Youth Driving Program. Said it was going well. He has 10 new ones. 66 have signed up on the driver training program. He keeps a copy of everything he sends.
Howard: Reported on Safety
Said he gets phone calls, Ruth gets inquiries and passes them on to him. For the most part they are answered with a quick phone call, they are just trivial little things. He said he would agree to keep both of these jobs. He said he gets quite a bit of stuff on steam that he forwards on to Tim. Said he is also chairman of the accident review board and he will agree to keep that.
Jerry: Reported on the WebPages.
Talked about the 3 addresses we have. EDGE&TA.Com, EDGE&TA.Net and EDGE&TA.Org. Org is the one we are using now. We keep .Com and .Net so as not to allow anyone to get those addresses. EDGE&TA.com was renewed this year at $95.00/3 years, Doing it for 3 years is a 45% savings. EDGE&TA .Net is due this year. He doesn’t have an exact price because the market varies. It will probably be around $95.00/year or a little less and .0rg is due this year $19.00/yr, this is because we have Christian Web Site and we get a special deal on that.
Jerry: Reported on forms
Last couple of years we have been working on some forms. We have one form up there now that is an email type form that is working well. He thinks we may want to go ahead and do other forms the same way, but when we get a form we need to look it all over and make sure it is what we want before they put it up. Said his son-in-law built the last form and did it free for us. He put in a lot of hours. He said forms usually cost $50.00 to $75.00 hour to write the software for it. Said his son-in-law didn’t give him an exact price, but if it costs $100.00 he would probably do it for $10.00 or $20.00.
Curtis: Said he would suggest that we get as many of our forms web based as possible. Like the events Form. That is a form that is sent in to Dick, it automatically gives a response and it is beneficial.
Curtis: Said, “who doesn’t now have a computer?”
Dorene and Ruth: said there are a lot that don’t.
Dorene: Asked if the forms could be transferred to programs she has. Jerry said no, you have to type into the form that is there.
Dick: Said what he would like to see next year is to accept the form that we have or an Excel based spreadsheet if it has all the columns. Some branches send it to him that way. He prefers to do it that way himself, because that way he can take that form next year and say o.k., these dates change, the events are all the same, just change the dates and go on from there.
Ruth: Said that’s in a perfect world”.
Jerry: Said the problem is a lot of people don’t want to buy Excel.
Dick: Said then let them use the one we have, the simplified one.
Ruth: Said what you are saying is an either/or?
Dick: Said yes.
Curtis: Said he thinks we should. If someone has it in Excel in a perfect format, as long as it has all the information. If it is just sent as an event, then it isn’t any good.
Dick: Said what we want to get away from is email notes that say “next weekend we are having our annual event please add it to our list”. That’s not acceptable
Ruth: Said she gets information on membership from branches in all forms. Sometimes just on a little piece of paper. She said they do what they can do and she is thankful if she gets all of the information required, regardless of how it is written. She said we should continue to push for what we want, but don’t be upset if you don’t get it.
Curtis: Said he thinks the events forms are getting better, people are either using Excel or the form and the more we keep pushing the more other forms we do and still give them the option if they have the same information on another program they can submit that is fine.
Ruth: Said even if they do it in MSWorks, we could transfer it from one to the other.
Dick: Said if it comes in MSWorks, Charlie is not able to download it so what he does is print it out and fax it to him.
Ruth: Asked why doesn’t he download it and put it into Excel.
Dick: Said it is a lot easier for him to print it and fax it.
Ruth: Said the next form that should be worked on is the Questionnaire for groups that want to become members of EDGE&TA.
Curtis: Agreed.
Ruth: Said that is the first thing a group has to fill out. The other form that lists their officers can be a type in form, but not one that would automatically submit because it has to be signed, and sent in with the membership list and the check.
Curtis: Said that if everyone is in agreement that the next form would be the questionnaire form. We should all look at it and see if there is anything that should be added or deleted before it is submitted for writing the program to put it up.
Curtis: Said we now have two new people that they need to look at the form.
Dick: Said the next form should be the Additional Insured Certificate. He said he thought it was pretty good the way it is but that everyone should look it over.
Ruth: Said, but do we know anything more than he did about it?
Curtis: Said probably not, that he thought this form should go between Dick and Charlie because Charlie Is the one that knows what he is supposed to have.
Curtis: Told Dick to check with Charlie and tell him we are going to web base it and he told Jerry it would be a good idea if whoever submits it would get an acknowledgement that it has been submitted.
Jerry: Said o.k.
Ruth: Said that probably this form should go before the questionnaire form.
Curtis: Agreed.
Jerry: Talked about posting newsletters from branches.
Jerry: Said Branch 121 submitted their newsletter to him in MSWord and he put it up there, and their members can just download it. All Jerry does is check it for Virus. He said if this catches on that right now we are using about ½ of the allotted space we have and it could double or triple our space and at that point in time he would come back to the board.
Jerry: Said he would not retype, he would not do anything except check for virus and put it up there.
Larry: Asked what about Microsoft Publisher?
Jerry: Said whatever works for you, it is your people that will have to look at it. They have to have Publisher to look at it.
Ruth: Said the problem with Publisher is that you have to have the exact same version in order to be able to read it. We have 3 people in our branch, all have different versions and we can’t read each other’s files. So she just dumped it.
Curtis: Told Jerry that he had to set up the criteria for the branches that want to submit their newsletters and if it doesn’t meet the criteria then he can’t do it.
Ruth: Asked about graphics and pictures that will take up a lot of space.
Curtis: Said that we would probably just have to watch it and if it starts to use up to much space, then make a decision.
Ruth: Said every branch does things different. She just got the one from branch 8 and it had a lot of pictures. The editor of her branch puts in a lot of graphics.
Ruth: Said she didn’t think we should have to buy more space because some branch wants to put up a lot of pictures.
Jerry: Asked what we wanted him to do.
Ruth: Said she didn’t know, she was just asking the questions.
Jerry: Said he didn’t want to have to tell the branches that they were limited to what was sent.
Curtis: Asked what it cost for additional space.
Jerry: Said that currently it cost us $170.00 and that is for 200 Megs.
Jerry: Said he can get another 100 or 200 Megs whatever we want, it is fairly reasonable. It is not a problem yet. The idea could die where it is at or it could take off.
Tim: Said why don’t we make it known that this can be done, that possibly if this catches on in the future they may be limited in size.
Howard: Said he doesn’t believe that we are going to get enough members from the branches that want to print their newsletter. He said that 75% of the branch might fuss and moan if they don’t get a copy sent to them.
Curtis: Said that what we really need to pursue is that branches have their own website and we can link to them and then it doesn’t take up our space.
Jerry: Said that as of this date we have over 393 web pages and over 1200 pictures.
Jerry: Said that he has to stay on top of it keeping it cleaned up. Curtis said he has done a good job.
Curtis: Asked if we need to take any action on what Jerry has said or do we just let it ride and see where it goes?
Dorene: Said she thinks we need to see where it goes before we make any decision.
Curtis: Said he thinks Jerry needs to set up the requirements that it has to come to him in a word format or that you can’t touch it and if they don’t want to comply there, that they can have their own website and you can link it.
Jerry: Agreed.
Curtis: Said there is nothing wrong in saying that it has to be in a Word format and to keep your graphics to a bare minimum.
Dick: Asked why they would want to put it on the website when they can send it as an attachment to their members.
Jerry: Said that sometimes a branch is doing a show and other people might be interested and want to view the newsletter. It gives a little more general information about the branch out to the public.
Curtis: Said if no one has any complaints, let it ride, Jerry can write up his criteria and see what happens and when we have our conference call probably the end of the year we can talk about it.
Curtis: Asked if anyone had any problems with that. All were in agreement.
Curtis: Asked Tim what he had. He said so far this year he only had received 2 certificates. One from Dick and one from a gentleman in California. Howard gave him 3 more today. In all he might have about 25, and that he was sure there was more steam than that. He said he didn’t know if people were not doing it, or if it was not catching on or just what was going on. There had not been a lot of response.
Dorene: Asked for example if we get certified in our state, we get certified and send in our certification?
Curtis: Said yes, that is the way it works. We have the case where a couple of states do not have any inspection.
Curtis: Asked if MO has inspection or is it self-inspection.
Larry: Said it was self-inspection. Also Wyoming does not have an inspection. Dick, Curtis and Tim would meet tomorrow and talk about these states and come back to the board with a recommendation.
Dick: Said just to bring you up to date, what he ran into in Wyoming when they had the regional there they showed the engines and they had done a pretty good job as near as he could tell. They had done everything right. They had the safety valve inspected, cleaned the boiler out and had some ultra sound readings from when the boiler was repaired in the past, but they didn’t have anything current. The problem is, they don’t have a state boiler inspection law, they don’t have any state inspectors, they are in the middle of Wyoming, if they wanted to get an inspector they would have to come from CO or wherever and it would cost 12-$1400.00 to haul that engine to a state where they do have that inspection. So that’s the issue we are trying to resolve.
Curtis: Said he had some ideas on it and he thinks Tim has some ideas and they would all get together and see if they could make recommendations.
Dick: Said he wanted to talk about insurance. Said he thinks we have come a long way and thought we were all fortunate to have Charlie Yeagan as our insurance agent. He has been in insurance in Billings for many, many years, his family goes back to 1919 when they settled in Billings and they have been in the insurance business and they have also been in the museum business. They have a big museum in Billings, so Charlie understands antiques. He is well versed in that. If you ask Charlie a question, he researches it and doesn’t answer until he is sure and gives you a real good answer. He is a joy to work with.
Charlie told Dick that he wished he could be here tonight to express to all of you what a joy it is to work with you. He said everyone has worked with him in a professional manner, we have looked at all the problems we have and tried to come up with common sense solutions. We have made progress with the events page that was a problem for them. The one thing that Dick said he would like to propose is that all the correspondence go through Ruth, he thinks that is a better way to do it, for example, the events list I have just been passing them on to Charlie, as I said, I’d like to see Ruth just do that. One of the things I don’t have time to do is to go back and make sure that we have lists from all branches, he doesn’t know if we are getting lists from all branches, sometimes he gets a note from a branch about their annual show this weekend, I’ll go back and say I need more information, and I never hear from them and I don’t have time to follow up on that and I think somebody should be following up on it. I have gotten some checks mailed to me and in one case that should have gone to Ruth, so there are some questions on where things should go, whether they should go to me or to Ruth. I’d still be available, I would make myself available for insurance specific type questions that people have, people movers is another one I can continue to work, we are doing real good there, whenever anybody has a question on a people mover they will send me a picture and I work with them to make sure it satisfies our requirements.
Barrel rides, I can do the same thing on those.
So I’d like to hear some discussion on that,
Ruth do you have anything?
Ruth: Said she would not do it. She had enough on her plate; there are seven directors that can take something on. She said she has enough.
Dick: Said he didn’t feel as though he had enough time to do it.
Ruth: Said she would not do it.
Dick: Said well we need to figure out how to work that then.
Dorene: Said can’t the branches go direct to the insurance agent?
Dick: Said they talked about that this year and there was a lot of “how are we going to do it” as we got into it. He said he would have to talk with Charlie. But on the other hand it presents a problem, they don’t know if they should send their insurance premium to Charlie, or just the events list or whatever, that again he is thinking that it should all go to one person in EDGE&TA.
Ruth: Said they are all broken in now and we can’t keep changing this thing every single year. You get the people so they know what they are supposed to do and a new bunch of directors come on and they want to change things and send it to somebody else. No wonder they don’t know where to send anything. You got them all going now, they are doing a good job, rarely, rarely, you got one check out of the whole year that should have come to me. I got nothing that should have gone to you except in the beginning of the year when they didn’t know where to send everything then. They may copy me on it, but they send it to you Dick. As far as I can see, they know what they are supposed to be doing.
Dick: Said well you still get insurance questions,
Ruth: Said absolutely, she agrees, that will always happen.
Ruth: Said that Dick made a comment that did not make her very happy, that it was beneath a director to have to do this. That because I get paid I should do it.
Ruth: Said she didn’t get paid that much.
Dick: Said he didn’t think he said that.
Ruth: Disagreed and offered to show him the print out.
Dick: Said he thought his comment was that he didn’t have time as a director to do this.
Ruth: Said, neither did she.
Dick: Said they would have to figure out how to work that one.
Dick: Said another subject, events list, one of the problems he has had a lot of trouble with is we have asked them to designate whether it is a home show or an away show. I get a lot of events lists that show the name of the show, the date of the show, the location, but as far as whether it is a home show or an away show, a lot of that is left blank. That information is not provided. From an EDGE&TA standpoint, do we see a need for that? Jerry said we used to have that specified and he believed that was taken out. Ruth said that it was on Larry’s form that he started and it was his request when that it was started.
Curtis: Asked if Charlie required it?
Dick: Said he asked Charlie about it, and his comment was, “well that’s pretty good information to have.” Dick said he needed to talk to him again, but he wanted to talk about it here at the meeting first. But I think if we go back to Charlie and ask “are we using that information? Are we doing anything with it?”
Curtis: Said he thought one of the problems was that some of the people don’t know if it is a home show or an away show. They don’t know what to put it down as.
Howard: Said that he didn’t think we had properly identified what they were.
Curtis: Said “what is a home show?”
Dorene: Said she has been doing it for her branch for some time. She did not have a problem with it. It wasn’t our home sponsored show. So all the others are away.
Curtis: Said he thinks there are people that think a home show is the one that’s on the west side of town, but if I drive to Hoboken, 50 miles away, it would be an away show. They don’t know, so they just leave it blank. He said he thinks the question comes right back to Dick and Charlie. Is it required information, is it necessary? If Charlie says no then drop it, kill it, forget it.
Ruth: As I recall, I can look it up, but looking at the form we have now, as I recall, Larry’s form, had home show, away show, and other EDGE&TA branch show. This is confusing because it is in the same column. It says away show EDGE&TA branch, indicate.
Dick: Said I think there are some words missing. I think it says if branch, indicate number.
Curtis: Said and another thing is some don’t know if it is an EDGE&TA show. Curtis said he doesn’t think we can cure this. It is a Charlie answer. It needs to go directly to Charlie and ask is this information useful, necessary and required? If he says no, we kill it and forget it. If he says yes then we need to get on our bandwagon and get clarification out.
Larry: Said Branch 16 doesn’t have a home show.
Curtis: So everything of yours is away?
Larry: Agreed. We are a guest of the Ozark Steam Engine.
Curtis: See this wasn’t a home show for Branch 35. We were a guest of Somerset Steam and Gas Engine.
Dorene: Said when she submits her list, she checks in show directories etc to find the information. She said many groups don’t list their branch number so that makes it hard. If she could find it, she put it in. If she couldn’t find a branch number, she did not put it in. She said sometimes branches sent their listing in, even though they are a branch, but wouldn’t put their branch number. We need to work on that.
Curtis: Said there are many ads that don’t designate they are an EDGE&TA branch. They just put down, Ozark Gas Engine Club, and that’s all they put even though they are branch whatever, they won’t put it down.
Howard: Said in the case of them, since they are a guest, and I’m listing them as my members are going to be there, I put down Branch 16, and that’s an error cause they are a guest.
Dorene: Agreed.
Howard: But we all say we are going to Republic, and Branch 16 is in Republic and so 90 per cent of my members think they are going to Branch 16 show.
Curtis: But it’s an away show for you.
Howard: Agreed, it’s an away show.
Curtis: Said he thinks what we ought to do is to let Dick go back to Charlie, get a definition on it, and if Charlie says it is not necessary, we delete it. If Charlie comes back and says it is a required form then we need to do a better job of telling people what is required on the form, maybe a better explanation and yes Ruth you were correct, I think Larry Burchfield had 3 items on there and we were only looking for 2 at the present time, but if it is not required why have it?
Ruth : Said the problem is you can’t say it is an EDGE&TA show or a non-EDGE&TA show.
Curtis: Said “you can’t, you don’t have a clue”
Dick: Said o.k. he would do that.
Curtis: Said we have cleaned up tractor pull rules some.
Dick: There are a couple items on tractor pulls, for example, helmets on garden tractors, I think that’s one that maybe we can do away with it.
Curtis: We did away with the 100 HP. That wasn’t even in the policy.
Dick:There are a lot of those things that we kind of self -imposed on our selves that were a carry over from Larry Burchfield, that we may want to go back and look at.
Dorene: Asked wouldn’t Charlie be the one that has to look these over?
Curtis: Said no, that we need to go over them and then go to Charlie with our recommendations and then he will either bless us or tell us no, it has to stay. He said that is where we got into the catch 22 with Larry Burchfield. We let him tell us what he wanted. We need to go to Charlie and for instance say “we are going to delete helmets, is that o.k. with you?” Charlie says “yes”. We want to delete the 100 HP. That’s fine it’s not in the policy anyway, get rid of it. O.k., it’s gone. The walk on sled, that’s a given. That’s never going to be insured. That’s the most dangerous thing there is. But I think Dick is absolutely correct and think what we need to do is Dick and I get together, or the new president and vice president after tonight needs to get together and pass around these safety rules with Howard and each person take a section of them and work with them and look at some things in there and clean them up. There is probably verbiage in there that’s backwards and stuff and we have some stuff in by-laws that I’m going to go over in a few minutes.
Jerry: Said he thinks there is a lot of confusion on parts replacements. Not a lot of confusion but an understanding or original parts replacement and stuff like that.
Curtis: In regards to tractor pulls?
Jerry: Yes
Ruth Said we went through a lot of this 2 years ago.
Curtis: Said yes, we need to do it again because unfortunately tractor pull rules was designed by Larry Burchfield to a large extent. I’m not knocking Larry, not kicking him, he did us a tremendous favor five years ago. I have the greatest praise for him for 5 or 6 years ago, he brought us out of a pickle barrel in fairly good shape, but then at some point things went haywire, it’s time we readdress them. It’s not something we go to the membership with to readdress, it’s something we need to decide amongst ourselves and get it done. Once we are done tonight, who ever becomes the president and vice president needs to work out what that’s going to do and start assigning it out because Howard can’t set there and do every one of them. Dick’s got problem with the insurance thing that has to be worked out and everything, so we have to work those things out to make it in able for everyone to survive. Dick there are a couple of issues that you need to go directly to Charlie and just get a reading on it, and then we need to address some of that other.
Dick: Said I think you are right, we need to go back through all the rules and see if there are some that don’t make sense to us at this time.
Curtis: Said and there are some.
Dick: Said I’m sure there are.
Howard: Said there are several of them, the total situation has changed since they were written and they are no longer applicable to what we do.
Curtis: Assignment of directors to write articles for magazines. Larry Voris will do E&E and Dorene will do Gem.
General discussion: on how to write articles. Curtis said nothing specific. Should have EDGE&TA business and the rest can be a story. Howard wrote on the threshing story, Dick helped Curtis write the Z3 story and they published that. They are looking for something that is of interest as well as talk about what we do
Ruth: Said E&E is still our official magazine. It’s your choice where in the article you put the information, but you should put whatever is up to date with EDGE&TA. If you need to come to me for dates or anything I’ll be happy to supply it. This issue can list the new directors. She said she had heard where Don was a little disappointed that nothing got into the last issue.
Curtis: Like the next article, can list the new board of directors, list the new president, the new vice president. There are still two more regionals, one in Utah and one in Ohio.
Dorene: Asked about Gas Engine, do you put in EDGE&TA stuff or do you just have a story?
Curtis: Said always put in EDGE&TA information, whether it is one paragraph or two, and then something to finish it up. You could write about this show in Somerset VA. You could list the new directors and then go on from there. You could go back and look at some back issues. Curtis asked who did it before Cliff.
Ruth: Said it was Dale.
Curtis: Said E&E is the prime magazine, we get the best coverage from E&E, Gas Engine gives us when they have space, when Cliff did it and Dale did it ended up being about bi-monthly. They would send them in and they wouldn’t publish it every month. They wouldn’t have room, they wouldn’t do it.
Dorene: Questioned if she sends something in for this month and it has dates and they don’t publish it.
Ruth: Said on her side she shouldn’t put anything in with future dates. She should write about past events. Ruth said if she could send Dorene some kind of a write up on shows that are past, and she wants to use them that’s fine.
Dick: Said another thing they talked about was the buttons for this year’s show and we had suggested that they be picked by the branch hosting the national meeting. Do we want to discuss that
Curtis: Asked what does everybody think?
Dick: Said I know when we talked about it before that there was a question on how they got picked, I’m just proposing that maybe this was a solution?
Curtis: Said or do we want to leave it, it has always been kind of that the president has picked it.
Ruth: Asked if he wanted input.
Curtis: Said go ahead.
Ruth: Said, the president has always done it, it has worked well the president could go to the board for input for a selection.
Curtis: Said one year we did that, went to the directors and said this was a proposal, it was that rare engine from CA that we used.
Ruth: Said that most branches that are hosting a national show have their own buttons made.
Curtis:Said this is our National button that says that you are a member of EDGE&TA
Dorene: Said right, this is a member button.
Ruth: Said she feels the directors should make that choice.
Dorene: Agreed, not the branch that is having the show. Dorene thinks it should stay as it has been done.
Curtis: Said like this year he picked the Z3, Dick got the story, and the Z3 was here at the show. That’s like we picked the engine from CA. The engine was physically there for the National membership button.
Ruth: Said she thinks it would be a courteous thing if the president, whomever he or she might be, decides with the directors.
Curtis: Said maybe this is the year we go back to a tractor, or a gas engine. It’s always been tried to be passed around. The only thing I heard a negative comment on was when they put somebody’s picture on the button.
Ruth: That was a special situation.
Dick: Said last year we talked about the branches that did not vote. We sent out letters to them. Do we want to pursue that again this year?
Curtis: Said he didn’t think it was worth the labor and the postage.
Howard: Said in his opinion the horse was dead quit beating it.
Ruth: Commented about one branch that called her and said she lost her ballot and would I send her another, that last year that girl Dorene got after her for not voting and she wanted to make sure she voted this year she didn’t want her coming after her again.
Dorene: Said she really felt the directors should send a letter saying “hello, my name is, we are so and so, and we think you are important” to them all.
Curtis: What do we have 114 branches?
Ruth: Said yes.
Curtis: Said so we had 66, just under 50%.
Ruth: Said what she can do is send each of the directors the branches that didn’t vote, so when you send out your letter it’s your choice.
Curtis: Said, let me give you a classic answer of what I got from a branch that’s local. I don’t know who these two people are and I’m not going to vote for any of them, cause I don’t know them personally. So that’s probably where the bulk of them come from, even though your resume is there, they still don’t feel comfortable.
Dick: I have had comments, I don’t care what you do, just give us insurance.
Dorene: That’s fine, that’s the only reason they join, that’s fine.
Ruth: But the point is you directors have taken the step.
Curtis: I think Ruth can send out to each one the branches in their area that didn’t vote, if you want to address it fine, if you don’t want to address it fine.
Howard: Said he would like Ruth to send him a list of the branches in the SC area so he could write them letter tell them he was now the director in that area and if they needed anything to come to him. He said Dorene needed to do the same because areas have changed. He said you could put in a little paragraph stating “and by the way, I noticed you didn’t vote, you need to consider that.”
Dorene: Said she thought it should be put in a more positive way. Like, we think you are all important we need your input. If you have any questions, contact the director in your area.
Jerry: Said the problem with this is that you write a letter now, it is going to go to the current branch president. Then when it comes time for elections next year there may be new officers in the branch and all of that is going to be lost in the paper work. Jerry said what Ruth and he did this time was he called the 6 or 7 California branches that had not sent in their ballots a couple of weeks prior.
Question: How many did Ruth get a ballot from? Answer 3. So 50%.
Ruth: Said she was going to do it with all directors, but didn’t. She had sent some to Tim because he requested it.
Dorene: Agreed that it was a good idea.
Curtis: Said Jerry has a valid point, new officers do take place. Maybe that’s the best way, 2 or 3 weeks out Ruth just gives you a blip and tells you what branches haven’t sent in their ballots. Send a letter of introduction early on. Then when voting time takes place, give them a call if they haven’t voted. Curtis said last year in the minutes it said there were 112 branches 49 voted. This year 114 branches and 66 voted. There was an improvement.. So maybe doing it that way, you are not beating them up, your not hitting them with I’m the new director why didn’t you vote, then you go back to them, Ruth has it all in Excel on her computer, she can just say, well these 5 branches haven’t voted yet. Your case, well when you come are you going to bring the ballot? They say, well we aren’t going. You say, well you need to vote. It’s a better way to go at it.
Ruth: Said two of the branches Jerry called, one said I don’t know where the ballot is. I sent them another ballot. Another said, well I thought so and so did it. I faxed him one. Both of them faxed them back to me. Another branch was having a meeting the night before I left, they voted and faxed it to me that night.
Dorene: Said that was an idea.
Howard: Said that was a good idea, he liked that.
Dorene: Said, you introduce yourself.
Curtis: Said, but you don’t want to beat them up.
Dorene: Said she didn’t want to go to them with why didn’t you vote, she wants to go to them with you are very important to this organization, without you we can’t do our job, or something to that affect and then call, I think that is a good idea.
Jerry: Said in the beginning, he was a little worried about what / how he was going to say, hey you guys need to vote, or what’s the problem, I didn’t want to insult them, but the minute you tell them you are national director, then they start talking.
Ruth: Said she could move the date a little and that would make it a little more flexible for them to get it in.
Curtis: Asked Dick if he had anything more.
Dick: Said he had come to the end of his list.
Curtis: Starting next year we go to 6 Regionals. Is that correct Miss Ruth?
Ruth: Yes
Curtis: All right, back in Ozark AR we voted that we would drop the amount of money to $300.00 for the Regionals. It was a motion that was made, 2nd and carried, so we need to put that into affect.
Ruth: Said the directors had also voted via email on this.
Dorene: Said so you are saying we no longer send money to the Regional show?
Curtis: No, we send $300.00. We send $500.00 now. We are cutting it back to $300.00 because we are going to 6 Regionals.
Dorene: O.K.
Curtis: That was done in Ozarks.
Curtis: Howard has already discussed the tractor safety stuff on what is going on there that was discussed in Ozark.
Dick: Said. Back up a minute. What do we send to the National show?
Curtis: $1000.00
Curtis: Then there was a decision made in Ozark, Ruth, you’ll have to help me here. That in 60 days we would put a vote out to the directors on sending an advisor to a Regional Event. Did that ever get done? Anything ever happen to it? Ruth said yes, the president would go to the directors, tell them this was their area, they were assigned
Curtis: And if they didn’t want to go, they could pick the advisor to go. That takes care of that. Dorene, I’m going to jump around a little bit. Talked about advisors. Right now we have Dick Wilson SW, Ken Green SW, Alan Schurman NW, Dorene has gone away, and George Christmas is SE. We need to get some advisors if we can. If anybody knows of somebody, please ask them and if they agree then you can bring them on as an advisor. It doesn’t need to be a board decision the best I remember.
Ruth: Said the best she remembers it was always the president that decides.
Curtis: Said well the director suggested.
Ruth: Agreed
Curtis: So if you have a suggestion, you don’t really get an advisor, but if there is an area, like my area that does not have an advisor, and you know someone up here like that, you recommend them, let me know who it is. Dorene, I think you want to recommend Darrel Carter as an advisor, I don’t have a problem with it. Larry knows him, if he don’t have a problem with him, I don’t have a problem. So if you want to ask Darrel, that’s fine.
Howard: Said he needs to find one in the SC somewhere.
Curtis: Said, you need to find someone down there.
Dick: We are limited to one director per region? With one Director at Large, which is Larry Voris, that director at large can come from any area in the country. But now we are set in the 6 Regions as it’s been split. NW, NE, NC, SC, SE, SW.
Dick: Said I said director, but I meant advisor.
Curtis: Advisor. We are not limited to one. Jerry has two
Dorene: I would think it would amount to how many branches you have
Ruth: By rights, Ken Green took my place and he should be Director West. He took my place when I became Secretary. Curtis said but this is according to the list you put out in Sept. 2002. You put him as Advisor SW.
Ruth: Said, she knows, but this got dropped, lost somewhere along the way she had been looking at some notes. He took my place and I was Advisor West, remember you were advisor East and I was advisor West.
Curtis: Agreed. So where should Ken be?
Ruth: He probably doesn’t want to be anywhere, I don’t know.
Curtis: Does Ken still want to be an advisor?
Jerry: I’m not sure where he stands. I think he would rather be doing other things in his life at this point.
Curtis: That’s fine
Jerry: I think he is still there if there is something important for him to do he might do it if he has the time.
Curtis: How about Dick?
Ruth: Said Dick still keeps in contact with his branches. But I would like to put in one thing here. When advisors started way back when we were first advisors, at that time it was the EDGE&TA president that brought in these advisors and at that time, as I recall, the president looked it over every year and decided whether he wanted to keep that advisor on if you’ll remember. Asked him/her to stay on another year.
Curtis: When we were brought on it was and East - West Advisor Dick was Advisor NW at Ft Scott.
Ruth: The point I am trying to make is I’d like to see some guidelines on how long an advisor is on. Are they just on forever and ever? Or does the director look them over and say well I think we need a change?
Dorene: I really think you need to look at we want ____ again this year as an advisor He has been on a whole year and done a good job.
Ruth: Right, if you have an advisor that is doing nothing, do you want him to just stay on for the next 29 years?
Curtis: Well in order to do that then the person that the advisor is assigned to has to answer those questions.
Dorene: Right.
Curtis: Because I don’t know.
Ruth: I know, I’m just putting this out.
Curtis: So if you have an advisor, like you suggested about Ken, maybe it’s time Ken is pulled off, stepped back, did his personal things for the next 2 or 3 years and maybe he’ll want to come back.
Howard has to go find one.
Dorene wants Darrel. She needs to ask him and see if he wants it.
Dick has Alan
Tim has George. He has been somewhat active.
Tim: You mentioned Jerry has 2 advisors. The way we are scattered out, maybe we need two advisors. NC up north.
Dick: Well I’ll tell you what I was thinking. Alan is over on the west coast in Washington. There is an individual in Missoula that seems pretty active, pretty interesting in this organization, and I was thinking of asking him to be an advisor.
Curtis: To my knowledge, and Ruth you can help me here, there is no hard and fast rules made on how many advisors there could be or couldn’t be.
Ruth: No, my concern this year, and it was mostly due to the insurance issue, and the directors that had To go out and work on this. I feel that the whole chain of command dropped. From top to bottom.
Curtis: Insurance took too much of our time. We could not act on anything except act on insurance.
Ruth: But insurance didn’t last the whole year, and the year is still going on and you set it up so that so and so reported to you, and then the directors reported to the vice president and the advisors reported to their director. I’m just saying, I understood when it was busy with insurance but I don’t know why it has continued on.
Curtis: Said I do think there has been some failure of communication between director and advisors and I think there has probably been some failure the rest of the way up. I think it’s just time to get back into the Org chart and get things back where they belong and keep on going. It’s not a contest. It’s just to get back on line and get things going. Unfortunately Dick and Tim got tied up in insurance and that was eating all of our time. Conference calls and all that. The branches are doing o.k., you are getting less complaints if I understand you correctly. It’s time to get back into the org chart, look at things and get going.
Ruth: What’s more important is, I’m not getting any complaints about the insurance, and I used to get them all of the time.
Curtis: So that’s where we got to go.
Howard: Said one thing we have to look at is when these advisors come and go, Ken is on the investigation committee, and if he goes, then we need to find somebody as a replacement.
Curtis: But Howard, that’s not a big thing. If somebody goes, that’s not a big deal. We have to replace him, I’m not going to keep him on in a capacity that he doesn’t want to be a part of.
Howard: Said that’s true, all I’m saying is that if he goes we need to find someone to replace him. Just keep in mind that he is on that team and if that team member is missing we need to find somebody else.
Ruth: O.k. so I guess I go back to do you, or who ever is president, ask, do you go to each of these advisors and ask them if they want to continue on next year? Is that another nice way of doing it?
Curtis: Well the advisor is supposed to report to the director and I think the director should go to them and say do you want to continue another year or don’t you, then each director makes their recommendation back. So Jerry, you should go to Ken,
Jerry: Right
Curtis: Say Ken do you want to continue on, then go to Dick Wilson, do you want to continue or do you want to travel this year?
Ruth: When Dick went off as director, he asked to go back to advisor.
Curtis: Right, but he might not want to do it anymore. I’m just saying that. He may not want to do that. So you have to give them an option. You go to Darrel and ask him, Tim you go to George and ask him and Dick, I think you need to go to Alan and ask him if he is still comfortable and then if he has another person out there he needs to talk to them and see if they want to come on. Then convey that. The way the org chart was set up, directors report to Dick, Dick reported to me, We made some other little minor changes, in them, but basically that’s the way it works and I think we need to get back to it.
Ruth: Thank you.
Curtis: We just got lost this year, ever since the middle of last year, whatever it was, October, November, whenever the fiasco started.
Ruth: Said June.
Dorene: Said, are you saying that after we have a national that we as directors should go back once a year to our advisors and say do you want to stay on?
Curtis: Yup
Dorene: And then we convey that back up the line.
Curtis: Whoever is vice president. I said Dick, but whoever the VP is. That doesn’t mean I can’t correspond directly with you, but we always have to keep the VP in the loop. There is correspondence that stays in the loop that Ruth needs to have. Not always is she going to act on it or do anything, but she keeps it as an office of record. She may totally like what is being corresponded, but that’s not her thing. It’s to keep the records Example: if somebody comes back well you told Larry Voris we were going to do this and Ruth would say, oh no it wasn’t, this is the letter that was written, end of story. So we need to go back to the org chart.
Ruth: So do you want it to be like after every national meeting that that is when their year starts?
Curtis: I think it should. Because I think you should ask them ‘cause I really get the same feeling from Ken that you do that his life is turned around and he wants to do something different now.
Jerry: Ya
Curtis: And that’s fine.
Dorene: And you are also saying, not that I need them, that we can have more than one advisor.
Curtis: Yes, but you don’t need 25 of them.
Dorene: No. But I meant. O.k.
Curtis: And you don’t need 5 living right there at your back door. As Dick, he’s got one in one area that’s way away from him and then one in another area.
Dorene: Lets say I have 5 advisors I want and that are living in the same house. You would have to say, no Dorene, we just need one in that area. I should think you would have to o.k. what we recommend.
Curtis: Well at this point, Dick and I would. Or whoever it’s going to be.
Ruth: The night before I left I got an email from Alan and he and his wife had been in an accident and his wife broke her wrist. Her leg was bruised and then she got an infection in the leg. And Alan had a 3-way by pass.
Curtis: So that may be a perfect time for Dick maybe not to say o.k. Alan do you want to back out, but back off on pushing him to do anything until he gets back on his feet. We have to communicate.
Anything more on advisors, is everybody straight?
Unfortunately our aged bylaws which are not aged, but there are some things that have to be changed in there. I think some of these changes can be made possibly without membership vote but I don’t think so Let me bring up the first one.
Under Article III Membership -Section 4. - New Branches C.
An Application for insurance signed by the branch officer, appropriate insurance premium, copy of branch membership shall be submitted to the insurance agent. Is that still correct?
Answers: No
Curtis: O.K., that needs to be changed because insurance agent isn’t there anymore. Right? Or Wrong?
Answer: Right
Curtis: It is submitted to EDGE&TA right?
Answers: Right
Curtis: That has to be changed, so you all think about it.
You got another one right below it
d. The secretary/treasurer and the insurance agent. The insurance agent is no longer there.
Continuing on Article VI- Dues and Insurance
Section 2, B Insurance premiums are payable to the insurance agent by the branches. That’s no longer true. Just highlight that one now, lets not try to get into the verbiage.
Under Article VIII - Branch Responsibilities - Section 4 Branch events. A, b, c have the word insurance agent in there. Does that still pertain?
Answers: No
Curtis: Well some of it does, but it is not reported to the agent, it is reported right now to Dick. So how do we change it? I think it should be just changed to EDGE&TA. Whether it is Dick Tombrink or whoever, reported to EDGE&TA because if we start putting Dick Tombrink’s name in the by-laws, we don’t want that.
Ruth: But, should you put EDGE&TA liaison ?. They are going to say EDGE&TA secretary? EDGE&TA who? You have to put another word there.
Dick: Another one, section 3 right above it.
Article VIII section 3 a. Agent is in there again. Needs to come out. Twice in there.
Under Article VIII Section 2 Branch Officers B, there is insurance agent in there again.
What I’m saying is we need to look at these bylaws, and I don’t want any decisions tonight, but the words insurance agent has to be removed. We have to put in what is going to be proper terminology to do it.

For instance: Under branch events. Is it reported to EDGE&TA? EDGE&TA liason? EDGE&TA Secretary Treasurer? EDGE&TA something? We have to come up with it. Take them home and go over them. These are the ones that I have caught. Not everything have I caught. Right now I’m concerned with anything that has to do with insurance agent because we have changed that and it is done directly to Ruth.
Ruth gets the checks. Mostly the bylaws should never have said the insurance agent. It should have said EDGE&TA.
Ruth: I use the word liaison myself, whether it is right, wrong or indifferent. When someone comes to me I say this needs to be answered by our EDGE&TA insurance liaison.
Curtis: Right, and that’s a good word but what I want you all to do is take these home and look at them, come up with the terminology and possible in 60 days or so or 90 days we may have to have a conference call when the show season slows down, so we can put these words in because we have to bring it to the membership, cause we can’t change these. Please go through all these and look at them. Tim what was it you had?
Tim: Article IV Directors Officers and Advisors Section 7 Pay and Reimbursement under B Directors and Officers shall be reimbursed for essential transportation, lodging, and meal expenses to attend Annual, Special, or Board of Directors meetings. They shall be reimbursed the same to attend Regional meetings to which they are designated the official representative. I would like to see some wordage put in there to say the max they would be reimbursed is air flight, the cost of an airline ticket.
Dorene: Where are you again?
Tim: Article 4 Section 7 b
Dorene: Said so he wants it to say what again?
Larry: Said transportation only.
Tim: Said lodging and meals is fine, but the transportation should be limited to the cost of the airline ticket. Maximum.
???? said; What about your getting around? Rental car?
Dorene: Said what about fuel?
Ruth: Said there are people that don’t fly.
Tim: Said let’s look at it this way. We’re going to California next year. Your round trip ticket is $500.00. I Drive, I spend $2000.00.
Curtis: Said is that fair?
Tim: Said Is that fair?
Ruth: Said well I remember when Curtis and I were first involved in this we worked this over, and I took the ones that drove that year and the ones that flew and we realized it came out pretty much the same by the time we got through. Now with the gas prices so high, it does make a difference, and then we have the people that add on extra days, if this doesn’t fly, I would like to say it is limited it to x amount of days. You can’t have somebody that is going to travel cross country and take a 7 day trip and expect to be paid for it.
Curtis: Said in corporate America, they are starting to do the same thing. They are saying the same thing. I just did a trip for a company I work for in Michigan. I flew from Norfolk down. They put in there they would pay up to $250.00 travel or your airline ticket of up to $250.00. Well for me to drive it back and forth was going to cost me $400.00 to make the drive and the airline ticket was $185.00. Tim asked me about this some time ago. This is the exact reason why Bill and Cliff didn’t come this time because they were going off and didn’t feel as though it was necessary, cause Cliff figured his expenses would have been in excess of $2000.00 to drive out here and back. With the gas prices the way they are now.
Ruth: Because his wife doesn’t fly.
Curtis: Well you can get real nasty and say, tough Cliff you’re the one coming, whether the wife comes or not. You are the one that has to come.
Ruth: But it could also be the guy that doesn’t fly.
Curtis: Right, it could be the other way around. Tim asked me about this and I told him to bring it up. With gas prices the way they are and everything, what have we got.
Ruth: Said but that’s now, how about next year? We can’t base this on the gas prices.
Howard: Said when I looked at my itinerary to see what was most feasible for me to come, the cheapest airline ticket I could get 3 months in advance was 1128.00 and I would have had to have a rental car when I got here. So that’s $2000.00. I guarantee you, I can drive it 6 times for that.
Ruth: $1128.00? You coming by way of Alaska or what?
Dorene: Said he is not at a major airport like you. I could have drove the car to Tulsa, left the car there, then rent a car when I get here for about $1050.00. I could still drive it 5 times for that.
Curtis: Said it was just something that was brought up. Do we need to table it? Do we need to do any action on it? Do we need to think about it? What do we need to do? I don’t want to sit here all night, but it is something to think about. Because it is our members money, it is cost, I think we need to be prudent to the cost. I commend Cliff and Bill for not driving and causing that undue expense. Now if Cliff had been running for director again, the by all means. But I think there has to be some type of cap in there someplace, and I don’t know how to put a cap there.
Dorene: Said on the bylaws, can’t we leave them somewhat vague, but when we go to fill out our expense report, have guidelines as what is allowed. Cause that was one question I had. What was allowed for me to go to a show. Have a guideline that we all agree to.
Curtis: Said you have it in your red book.
Dorene: Said I know it, but instead of doing it in the bylaws, do it in the guidelines.
Curtis: Now, if you’ll all think back, that is one thing that Cliff was trying to do. Get things into policy and procedures and out of the bylaws. The bylaws are going to change every time. Gas prices next year may be .50 a gallon. Change the bylaws again. We’re in this catch thing with the insurance agent. We got to get that out of there. We can’t keep going back to the membership telling them we got to change bylaws again. Policy and procedure has to come in. Under policy and procedure currently we say travel national meeting by air, make reservation early get the best fares. On personal vehicles gas is paid only. Use national credit card for gas. No additional expenses will be paid. If your vehicle is damaged it will be on your insurance and will not be reimbursed by national.
Dorene: Said I would rather see it in something like that.
Curtis: Said that’s where it should be. It should come out of there.
Dorene: Said just say transportation here, and put it into policy and procedures.
Curtis: Said well then policy and procedure manual has to become more of a bible then what it has been. Policy and procedure manual has been basically ignored. I’m not pointing a finger at me or anybody, but policy and procedure manual has been ignored.
Larry: Said, under purposes I’d like to see the word education in there.
Curtis: Asked what is in the original
Ruth: Said not that, we go by what the Wisconsin statutes say
Curtis: Said, what’s in the Wisconsin statutes, not education?
Larry: Said because we got caught up in a tax deal in MO
Ruth: I know, I heard that from another branch.
Larry: Said if we had education, that would kind of say we are trying to educate people.
Ruth: We are accepted as a social club, and that’s what our branch 22 had to go in under. They wouldn’t do education.
Curtis: Said, no, we already have our 501C3, so we shouldn’t have any problem.
Larry: Said we put education in our branch bylaws.
Ruth: Said the individuals can do whatever. But we have to go with the way the Wisconsin statues are set up.
Curtis: Said what he would like everyone to do is to take the bylaws and look at them, and then in about 90 days or less we’ll have a conference call, because nothing can be done to these until next years national meeting, which will be next year at branch 22 at Santee Lakes. But we need to get the information to the membership. Policy and procedure manual, we all need to look at it and get our heads straight on changes etc etc. If you like Tim’s suggestion? If you like Ruth’s suggestion? Whatever, because it’s got in there the kind of car rental, rent a mid size vehicle, gas and tolls only, pool together if possible.
Ruth: Said that’s what we did.
Curtis: Said. As Ruth stated, we have kind of got away from everything and we have to get back to the org chart, the policy and procedure manual, and get things back in order.
Ruth: Said, and the president whomever he or she might be, when she gets these budgets in from the directors and sends them to the president to look at, she thinks at that time if he or she sees something that looks a little out, lets say that Larry is going to drive and he is going to take 10 days to get there and he’s got some super duper thing that is going to cost a big fortune, I think maybe at that time you have to come in and say this is way overboard. Most of the directors that have gone and taken an extended vacation, and even I have done this, I went to MO then I paid for where I went after that, then back to MO and put in for the rest of the way home. If you do it that way, then it’s o.k. but if you try to go from a to z it’s not fair to the people that pay their dues.
Howard: I did the same thing.
Curtis: Said, just like meals for instance. We suggest in here, meals should not exceed $25.00 per day. Didn’t say it shouldn’t but it should not exceed it.
Ruth: Said, in the motor home she rarely charged for meals. She had to eat anyway.
Howard: Said $25.00 is cutting it pretty close. Cause it cost him $7.00 for breakfast almost anywhere. And Then lunch $5.00 to $8.00 for lunch.
Dorene: Said she got a breakfast here for $3.95
Howard: But I guarantee you, if you try to do that in Little Rock AR you aren’t going to eat for no $3.95.
Ruth: Let me say one thing. If we do it per diem on what we get for food, that’s what you should be what you get. The rest is what you eat every day anyway.
Howard: Right.
Ruth: You got to eat to survive. Now the fact that the national gives us some money that because we eating a little out of our element, we should be happy with that. That’s my feeling.
Dorene: To me, the only time you would ever meet or might exceed something, is if we all going somewhere special and have a meeting and it comes to a little more.
Dorene: Does that mean if I go to a show I can bring all the tractors trailers I want to a show?
Curtis: Nope.
Curtis: I think we are pretty well winding down, if everyone agrees with me. Take the bylaws home and look at them. We heard some very good suggestions from Jerry, from Howard, from Dick, from Tim, Dorene and Larry, the new kids on the block. Let’s get some thoughts put together. Youhave heard Dick’s concerns on reporting. He doesn’t have the time. Let’s come up with some suggestions, let’s not leave it to one person to make the decisions, lets get a conclusive group together, lets get working as a board, lets get back to following the org chart, lets get back to following the policies and procedures manual, get back to where we started. Insurance is history now, it seems to be running smooth, lets leave it alone and concentrate on our youth drivers program, Dick and I and Tim will get together, I’d like to talk about maybe starting some kind of steam school going at some of these national events where it’s a steam deal, might not be Santee Lakes because there might not be steam there, the next national might be in the heart of steam country. We can do a training program or an informational program. Get doing other things. As Tim has said to me many times, get pro-active instead of re-active. We have been in such a re-active state for the last 5 or 6 years it has been pathetic.
Dick: Especially this year.
Curtis: All we have done is react to every ones complaint and whatever. We need to get pro-active and start going out there and start doing things for our membership and giving them ideas. Howard finally got the youth thing off and running to some extent, we need to do more of that. There’s nothing wrong with someone going in, Jerry, there’s nothing wrong with your going in and putting on a Briggs and Stratton class, a small engine class.
Jerry: Yes.
Curtis: You are the small engine guy. There’s nothing wrong with Tim, me and Dick doing a steam engine thing someplace, just do a morning fire-up or something. Get some basics out to people. There’s nothing wrong with Larry to maybe go give a course on Jacks or something, I don’t know. Get things away from the insurance game, lets get out and start doing things and get the organization where it is at. Insurance yes, it is always going to be a forefront but we need to get out. We need to keep our ears to the ground, make sure we are doing what we need to do and everything else.
Dorene: I have one thing, Branch 8 motions. Some of the changes they wanted were some of the changes we need to make to the bylaws.
Ruth: The only changes they wanted to make to the bylaws is what they and everyone else voted in last year.
Dorene: No, not that one. The one where our payments go to Ruth.
Ruth: That’s done.
Dorene: I know, but what I am saying is, that was voted down, but we are already doing it, and we need to change in here, are we going to get a reaction from them when we change the bylaws. We need to change them, but do you understand what I am getting at? We are already doing that. Our branch voted against those motions, because we didn’t like the whole motion the way they wrote it anyway.
Tim: That was a two part motion you couldn’t vote for one without the other.
Curtis: O.k. You are partly correct, but you are partially wrong to. Because motion one was a two part and they didn’t separate it, they left it as one motion.
Dorene: Right
Curtis: I’ll quote it. All dues including insurance will be sent to the national secretary/treasurer. National secretary/treasurer will pay the insurance premium as a whole sum or as required by the insurance company. That’s a done deal. That was put into effect due to the insurance agent we got this year. The second part of that first motion was: A minimum of 3 bids must be solicited each year from “A” rated carriers that operate in all fifty states. (Will not happen.) This search will be conducted from January 1st through April 1st for the following year. This will be done by the director with the least seniority (you two) with the assistance of the President. The national directors will vote on the final selection. So, yes, we have to make a change, but we are only changing the wording with the secretary/treasurer collecting all.
Dorene: What I mean is, prior to the motion, to me they wrote it wrong. They said it should be the whole thing, which we didn’t want,or this. We are doing part of this motion. And that to me, they might come back and say, see. I just wanted you to be aware that they might do that.
Tim: We decided to do this before this motion came in.
Dorene: I know, but they are still going to say it’s our idea, or they might come back and you might get a reaction.
Ruth: They were approached asked to change it and they didn’t.
Dick:We just need to say we are changing our bylaws because that’s the way we are doing it now.
Curtis: That’s right.
Dorene: I just want you to be prepared in case you get that. Because we didn’t like the way it was written.
Ruth: I have one more thing.
Curtis: Anything else from anybody. We still have 2 items, number 1 is president and vice president number 2 is Ruth has something she wants to go over real quick. Does anyone have anything else. O.K., this is the end of August, that will make it sometime, 90 days, we’ll be due for a conference call someplace in November, because I’m going to be out of the country until early November so.
Howard: Can we make it after Thanksgiving holiday, that way it doesn’t tie up peoples travel time?
Curtis: O.k. We’ll set it up after the Thanksgiving holiday. Dorene and Larry you get a phone line paid for in EDGE&TA, if you don’t want that, work it out with Ruth, also, do we have any fax machines? Now Larry Voris I know has his own fax machine. Cliff can send it to either one, and Bill to the other.
Ruth: Who’s going to contact them, do you want me to do it.
Curtis: I’ll do it.
Ruth: All right, you are going to take care of both of them.
Curtis: Yes. I’ll email Cliff and Bill and have them ship one to each of them
Ruth: That’s good, because I have told them to keep their boxes so they can ship.
Ruth: Make all your phone calls for EDGE&TA business on your fax machine. I don’t want to receive a phone bill that says you made 3 calls on your home line, and 5 calls on that one, because phone bills are a nightmare, because everyone has two phone bills to begin with.
Curtis: Because you have a long distance carrier and a local carrier.
Ruth: And I would like you to hold off and send them both to me at one time. If you can please.
Curtis: All right Ruth.
Ruth: The other thing I have is a suggestion. We have 29 Hall of Fame members at this point. I would like to see a Hall of Fame Plaque with all the members names on it, and as Jerry, now being the Hall of Fame Chairman get the names, submit them to me, I would get them made up and it would be the Hall of Fame Chairman’s job to the National show each year. It doesn’t need to be carried to any other show unless he chooses to. I have checked on a couple here, if you want I can send an email out to all of you, the two that I picked out, they run between 139.00 and 152.00 and that’s the difference between pressed wood and walnut. They can hold 45 names.
Jerry: I figure we have 4 more years if 4 are selected each year
Ruth: Our logo and printing on the top plate is all included in the cost.
Curtis: For those of you that were here in the Jerry Wymore days he had one of those made up but it wasn’t an EDGE&TA thing, it was NGAS.
Curtis: I personally don’t think that is a bad idea.
Tim: I’d rather see walnut then press board, if press board gets wet you are in trouble.
Ruth: Believe it or not, press board is 8 lbs and walnut is 6.32 lbs.
Curtis: So all we have to do is put the current 29 on there, then you can be as high as 4 or as low as one. This year it was 2.
Howard: There will be a little cost for the engraving.
Ruth: I had it written down, can’t find it, I want to say $5.00 each plate.
Howard: I make a motion that we purchase it.
Dorene: I second
Curtis: We have a motion and a second that we get the 45, the walnut.
All in favor.
Curtis:
Dick: No
Curtis: You can cross him off.
Tim:No
Larry:No
Jerry:No
Dorene:No
Curtis:
Howard: No
Dorene: O.K. that leaves one person.
Ruth: O.k. what would happen if Curtis said no?
Curtis: I can say no. Then what happens Tim, you are the parliamentary in here.
Howard: Said if he had said no, I would have said yes.
Ruth: See, that’s what I mean about you guys, you don’t stand on your own two feet. If you really wanted to, then you should do what you want to do.
Curtis: If you really want to put your name down Howard, you should say so.
Ruth: And it isn’t your final say
Curtis: It’s our final say.
Howard: Then I will say yes.
Curtis: All right, so Howard is in.
Tim definitely out? Yes
Dick definitely out? Yes
Jerry definitely out? Yes
Dorene definitely out? Yes
Larry definitely out? Yes
All right, we have two people to vote for president. That’s myself and Howard.
Mark your ballots and pass them to Ruth.
Ruth: You got it Mr. Curtis
Curtis: All right we have to do vice president
Howard, are you up for vice president? Yes
Tim are you up? No
Dick are you up?
Dick: Said if he was going to have to spend time on insurance again I think I better bow out.
Jerry? No
Dorene? No
Larry? No
Howard is in.
Curtis: Asked are you going to be able to handle everything you have with your safety, youth driving your accident and everything else as well as VP cause each one of these report to you. I’m not trying to be smart about it but you have all that and each one of these people report to you and it is going to be a lot of communication because you have heard the conversations tonight that we have to get back on track with bylaws and back on track with everything.
Howard: Probably ought to give back the accident and investigation. However, since I’m also the safety officer
Curtis: And, youth driver.
Howard: Youth driver doesn’t really take too much time. When they come in I can handle them in 20 minutes because I have them finished, because I have them all set up in the computer.
Curtis: So what your saying is that you want to give up accident, and you want to give up safety?
Howard:Well whoever does safety ought to do accident too because they are kind of tied together. I probably ought to give that up.
Curtis: Anybody want to volunteer?
Dorene: If you don’t give them up, you have a committee, right?
Howard: Right
Dorene:Maybe some of the people on the committee can help you more. If that makes sense.
Howard: Right now, I’m the chairman of the accident and investigation committee. I got that job because I’m being the safety officer. So they are tied together.
Curtis: The reason I bring this up is, you heard Dick Tombrink, being vice president, trying to do the insurance which is too much to do. I’m concerned that it is too much for Howard to do.
Howard: It probably is.
Curtis: So it has to be shared. I can point fingers and say, you, you and you are going to do it, and then you are going to be mad at me for doing that. Because Jerry is loaded with the web pages. You heard him say it takes a lot of his time. He doesn’t want anything extra. (points to Tim) You all know what his work schedule is. It’s one of the screwiest that any human being in this world ever worked. He’s on the accident committee also. Looks at Dorene, and I know you are on it. Ken Green. Maybe once Jerry talks to Ken he may want to come off. One of you two needs to accept the chairmanship of it and run with it rather than rather than letting him be saddled with it.
Dorene: O.K., there is another idea, I’m not saying that’s not a good idea, but leave it, and we are going to talk in 90 days, Come up with another solution, or he might find he can do it. It’s just a suggestion.
Curtis: Personally, I don’t think he can. Nothing against Howard, I just don’t think he can. You can’t load his wagon any fuller than what it is. Jerry can’t take anything on. The web is going to kill him.
Howard: I can probably stay on the committee as a member, but not the chairperson and still handle it. ‘Cause when you get to writing letters to those folks, that won’t answer you, and trying to make phone calls, you tie up all kinds of time trying to do that.
Dick: I think the vice presidents job needs to be a person that can spend a lot of time communicating With everybody and I didn’t have the time to do that this year.
Curtis: You were tied up with insurance.
Dick: I was tied up with insurance, that’s kind of why I’m bowing out of it, If I’m going to continue with the insurance I know I won’t have the time. So, who ever takes that job it’s going to be someone that spends a lot of time on the computer, talking to people, sending emails and so forth. So you might want to take that into consideration.
Dorene: I don’t mind helping more but I don’t want to take it on as the chairman because I don’t know enough of what’s going on yet, I don’t mind helping more, that’s not a problem, but I don’t want to be head of it, chairman of it. Doing the letters and stuff like that is not a problem, but being chairman, I don’t think so yet. But I can help more.
Curtis: What we have to do, is we can’t saddle Howard with 3 items or 4 items. Dick bowed out. If he’s going to stay with the insurance deal, Dick’s comfortable with that. He has a good repoir, I think, Dick can do a very good job smoothing these things out on the web pages with Jerry and everything and not be worn out. Like he said, he wasn’t able to be a vice president. Being a vice president is going to require communication, require answering people, answering not only me, but Ruth on some things because there is correspondence that’s going to happen. Tim’s on the accident committee, he’s very good, but his work schedule doesn’t allow him to be the chairman of it. So if you 3 are going to be on it, you have the E&E articles which is a bimonthly, you have the Gem which ends up being a bimonthly, but, do you want to shift safety officer? You have safety, youth and investigative. Accident and safety actually go hand in hand.
Howard: I would agree to stay on as a member of the committee, if Larry will take the chairmanship.
Larry: Of the accident
Howard: Of the accident/investigation.
Larry: And you would stay on safety.
Howard: I would stay on safety.
Curtis: Then when we have the conference call we can revisit it and see where you are at. Then we’ll see where Dick is at, maybe Dick can pick up something different in the safety thing.
Curtis: All right, do we have anything else?
Ruth: Yes
Curtis: What
Ruth: Said you have to vote in the secretary.
Curtis: That’s right, we have to vote the secretary/treasurer in. It really has not been done, and per the bylaws the secretary/treasurer is voted in by the directors. The secretary/treasurer can come from outside the board or within the board.
Larry: Well we haven’t voted the vice president. I make a motion we vote for Howard. Dorene seconded
Ruth: It was done by ballot.
Curtis: He got it by elimination.
Ruth: The secretary is kind of a hairy thing, because nobody runs for that position, In the old days, if you’ll remember, the secretary/treasure was voted in by the membership. But we made the change in our bylaws and said it could be within the board or outside the board. One year they say we ought to keep Ruth in, the next year we don’t do anything, But really it’s not fair because you might want somebody else in there and that’s fine. I don’t know if you want to change the way that’s done or not. This might be a good time to do it.
Curtis: Asked for any suggestions?
Dorene: Said I’ve read it but forgotten how it’s done.
Ruth: Said the secretary/treasurer is elected by the board but no one goes out and runs for it.
Curtis: Said it doesn’t have to be a board member.
Ruth: Said, you don’t go out, because the branches don’t vote. It’s the directors that vote. I think you better come up with a better idea. Ruth is not going to be here forever, maybe not after tonight. I think you need to make a decision.
Howard: I make a motion to keep Ruth another year.
Dorene: Well I have a question to ask. Will you take it Ruth?
Ruth: Yes, I will take it for another year.
Dorene: O.K. then I will second the motion.
Curtis: All in favor. Aye
Motion carried.
Ruth: Said well I want it clarified.
Curtis: I agree. Ruth is correct. It is in the bylaws. There may be somebody else out there that is chewing at the bit that wants it so bad they can’t stand it.
Ruth: Said, find them
Curtis: Like Ruth said, find them. Like Ruth said, she is not going to do it forever.
Larry: Asked, one of us could do it if we wanted to, or we could find somebody else out of the group that can do it.
Ruth: That is correct. But I’ll have to admit, it would be really shell shocking if I came to the meeting tonight and you said o.k. Ruth, you are out of here.
Howard: Said anyone that wants to work for a nickle a day, volunteer.
Ruth: I just felt it was policy that needed to be set, that’s all.
Curtis: One final piece of business. October or whenever it is, the Ohio NE Regional is October what?
Ruth: October 18th and 19th. Is the one in Ohio.
Curtis: I would like right now somebody to possible take that. That is the weekend before I head to the Ukraine and I will probable not be worth 2 cents going up there and spending the weekend.
Dorene: Said she would have to look at my calendar
Curtis: Look at your schedule, Larry, look at your schedule, if either one of you is available, let me know so we can make a decision because I’m probably not going to be able to make it. Even though it is my area. Howard: And if you are going to be gone, I’m not going to be able to make it.
Curtis: No, your going to have your hands full because I’m going to be gone a little bit this year.
Ruth: You are going to send out a notice to everyone?
Curtis: Yes. Anybody have anything else?
Dick: Ruth when you update the list with and add new branches, will you just send us a new file and that way we won’t have to add it. We can just delete the old one.
Ruth: Sure, both you and Charlie?
Are you talking about insurance now?
Dick: I’m just talking about whenever you have an additional branch come on board, just send the list to us. Cause I know we have got email notes saying add this to your list
Ruth: Yes and all you have to do is go into your Excel file and add them in.
Dick: I’d rather see you send us a whole list.
Ruth: Gosh your lazy. I’ll do it for you. But you are lazy man.
Curtis: I will entertain a motion to adjourn.
Tim: So moved
Curtis: Is there a second?
Jerry second.
Curtis: All in favor. AYE
Meeting adjourned approximately 10:00 p.m.
Respectfully submitted.
Ruth A. Warnock, Secretary.

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