2004 EDGE&TA Conference Call Minutes November 15, 2004

Minutes of Board of Director's Conference Call November 15, 2004 (8:00pm Eastern Time)
ROLL CALL
Howard Hodson
Dorene Yearian
Dick Tombrink
Jerry Mac Martin
Larry Voris
George Christmas
Wayne Timchuk
Ruth Warnock
Howard opened the meeting by reporting on the National show hosted by Branch 22 at Santee Lakes, CA. He said they did a very good job hosting the show, having the meeting and providing us with everything we needed. He said he was sorry that Jerry, George and Wayne missed all the fun. Howard said he would like to welcome the two new directors on board.
OLD BUSINESS
Howard said we have a motion that is still on the slate that has not been voted on. That is if the proposal that Dick made was in the form of a motion. Howard asked Dick if he would pull the motion back until after the officers are voted in. Dick asked what he was referring to.
Howard said this was pertaining to safety rules vs. guidelines.
Dick said he would like it to be in the form of a motion.
Howard asked if he would withdraw the motion until after the election of new officers.
Dick agreed stating that it did need to be voted on but said it could wait.
Howard said that one of the things that should be delayed until after the conference call are the changes to the Policy and Procedure (P&P) manual. Mention it now and after the conference call is over, all should work on it and get it a little more in line with how we do things. Howard asked to set a December 1st date to have that completed. All agreed.
Howard stated that there were a couple of things that had been voted on since the national meeting.
1. Travel home from the National meeting for first time elected director.
Approved by all directors.
2. Travel for any unopposed first time directors to and from the meeting.
Approved by all directors.
3. Hotel bill for Ruth. Was approved by the directors and Ruth declined to accept the payment.
Howard thanked all of the directors for all of the hard work they have done over the last year.
NEW BUSINESS
Fax machine. Howard asked if everyone had a fax machine. All said they did. However Wayne's is not working presently and he will either get it fixed or get a new one.
Howard stated that Tim would like to buy the one he has for $50.00. Asked for the board's recommendation. Jerry said you can buy fax machines for around $70.00 now, so should probably take Tim's offer. All agreed providing no one else needed one. Wayne said he would buy his own.
Branch Information Form
Howard stated that Ruth, Jerry and himself had talked about making the branch information form that is currently on the web pages an auto reject form. This means when the form comes up on the web page you would be required to fill in specific blanks, or the form would not go through. Ruth said the reason this came up was that it is stated in our bylaws that each branch must have a safety officer. She was not receiving this information from all branches and by making this form have specific blanks that must be filled in, this information would come forward for national record.
Howard asked Jerry if he had a figure for this. Jerry replied "right around $150.00".
Howard asked for a motion.
Larry made the motion that we spend the money to change the form.
Dorene Second. All were in favor. Motion carried.
Canadian membership
The issue was discussed in great detail as to whether we should pursue having branches in Canada or allow Canadian membership in our US branches. It was decided by the board that we would allow Canadian membership in our US branches and they would be covered by our insurance as well as our EDGE&TA members would be covered if they went to Canada.
Dick made the motion.
We accept Canadians as members into US branches as long as it doesn't exceed 15%.
Motion second by Jerry Mac Martin. All in favor, motion carried.
Garden Tractor Youth
Howard stated that he thought we ought to look at certifying or safety checking garden tractor youth. Those that are from 6 to 12 years old. Perhaps we should talk about it more, not on this conference call because it can get rather lengthy. Howard suggested we let the branch safety check them and then issue them a certificate similar to the one we do for the 12- 16 year old folks, in a different color.
Dorene stated she did not see a problem with it, Howard proposed a program for the youth drivers and she saw nothing wrong proposing a program for the garden tractor youth, present it to the board and they will vote on it. Howard agreed it was a good idea. Howard said he would like to turn that over to whoever the new safety director is, which won't be Howard. He was asked by Dick what he meant by turning what over. Howard replied he meant making a program for the garden tractor youth.
Dorene asked if Howard was going to give up the youth driving certificate? Howard stated he was going to give up the Safety Officer job. Dorene said she was talking about the youth driver. Howard said we would talk about it later.
INSURANCE PREMIUMS FOR NEXT YEAR
Howard said it had been proposed by Dick, who has talked with Charlie considerably, and the board has mulled it around a lot and it seems like $6.00 would be a good price for insurance. If we need to we can go back to the branches and explain to them that if it comes in under $6.00 we will apply it to what we took out of the treasury for the increase this year when they had only sent in $4.80.
Dick said he agreed with what Howard was saying, but basically if the $6.00 was too much we would apply it to the next year's premium. If it is not enough we would have to continue to take some out of our "till" to make up the difference, unless it gets way out of range. Howard asked if this was a motion.
Ruth asked Dick if we would be setting up a "slush fund" for this. Dick said yes. Basically if we set it at $6.00 and it comes in at $5.80, .20 cents would go into the slush fund or if it came in at $6.20 we would be .20 cents short and would have to pull it from our savings. But next year try to make up for it by anticipating our increase. Ruth said she understood where he was going with it but she wanted to set something specific up so the branches can see what is taking place. Dick agreed.
Dick made the motion that we charge $6.00 this year for the insurance and we will keep track of the excess or the deficit so that the branches know how much we owe or do not owe.
Second by Dorene
All approved, motion carried.
Howard asked Dorene if she had some things she wanted to talk about at this time. She indicated most could be done at another time. The one thing she wanted to bring up was the term of the Advisors that Ruth had asked about. She wanted to propose that the Advisors serve a term of one year and that the
director that works with them asks them if they want to serve another year and bring that to the national board meeting. Howard asked if that was a motion. Dorene said no, she wanted discussion. She explained the position of the advisors. There is nothing in the bylaws that state their term of office. They are not elected, they are appointed. Or if the director found someone new or in addition they could bring that person's name to the board.
Dorene made the motion that the advisors serve for one year and the director should ask that advisor if they would serve for the following year and bring that information to the BOD at the national meeting and/or that director bring a replacement name to the meeting or an additional one.
Jerry second.
All approved, motion carried
Jerry asked what was Tim's stand on being an advisor.
Dick said he had received an email from Tim that he would stay on as an advisor and also on the steam committee.
Howard said he thought we ought to give George the privilege of asking Tim if he wanted Tim as his advisor. George said he had talked with Tim and Tim was in agreement that he would serve as an advisor and on the steam committee.
Dorene said that Darrell Carter was also willing to serve on the steam committee.
Dick said he would like to have both Tim and Darrell on that committee.
Howard asked if anyone else had anything they wanted to talk about before the election of officers.
Wayne asked how he got an advisor.
It was suggested that he survey the people in his area.
Dorene brought up the "give away" pens and key chains. Ruth explained how this promotional item came about. Ruth will send information to the directors to make a decision on reordering. This was agreed upon.
Dorene asked about a plaque for Tim. Ruth said it was in the mail.
Ruth suggested to the directors they might want to look into some kind of a recognition for outgoing advisors. They work hard for EDGE&TA also.
Howard said that he has the Hall of Fame Plaque and the National PA system.

ELECTION OF OFFICERS
PRESIDENT
Howard Hodson said he is willing to run again
Dick Tombrink nominated Larry Voris
5 votes for Larry
2 votes for Howard
VICE PRESIDENT
Dorene Yearian said she would run
Howard Hodson said he would also
5 votes for Dorene
2 votes for Howard
SAFETY OFFICER
There was lengthy discussion regarding this position.
Ruth said there are no specific duties listed under job descriptions in the Policy and Procedure manual for Safety Officer. It had never been defined.
No one volunteered to take the job.
Howard Hodson said he would take the job with some reservation.
All voted him in.
Howard said he wanted to reopen the rules/guideline issue but not on the conference call.
Larry said there should be a committee for this and asked how many should be on it. Dorene said three.
JOB RESPONSIBILITIES.
Insurance coordinator
Dick Tombrink
E&E & GEM Magazine articles
Wayne suggested checking Farm Collector
GEM, Farm Collector and a steam magazine are all owned by Ogden Publishing
Dorene will contact Farm Collector
Larry said he would continue with E&E
Newsletter
Howard asked if Ruth was going to continue to do the newsletter.
Ruth said the newsletter wasn't a requirement of the secretary, she just decided to take it on. The directors agreed to send articles. After a while this stopped. She said she didn't mind doing a newsletter but felt it was up to the directors to send in articles. She will send them scheduled due dates. Howard said if we are going to do it, each region needs to submit something for each letter. Dorene agreed.
Larry said we forgot about the web page and asked Jerry if he would continue.
Jerry said he would.
Howard said we need to form the safety committee and the safety officer should be the head of that.
George, Dorene and Dick will be on the committee.
Howard said he would continue to do the driver safety certificates and would try to get something started for the younger ones.
Hall of Fame. Jerry has indicated that he does not want to do this anymore.
Jerry explained what the job was all about.
Judges are selected by Ruth and Jerry and are chosen from different regions each year.
Howard said he would take over the Hall of Fame.
Howard turned the program over to the new president, Larry Voris.
Larry told Howard he had done a good job. He said he was going to need all the directors' help including Ruth to make this thing work. He said we are going to try this and make it work.
It was agreed that all would print what they need for the P&P magazine.
Dorene made a motion to adjourn
Howard second.
Meeting adjourned at 9:15pm (Eastern Time)
Secretary/Treasurer
Ruth Warnock

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