December 2011 - Board Meeting Minutes
Palm Beach County Beekeepers Association
December 2011– Board Meeting Minutes
Len Khan, James Chapman, Chris Schwartz, Sara White, Al Salopek (guest)
12-2-11 at 5:30 PM
Last month’s minutes approved.
Treasurers report: (amount available at monthly meeting)
Len complimented the board on a great year and Sara complimented Len on doing a great job. Good leadership and great speakers at the monthly meetings. Sara did a great job in setting up the treasury, Chris did good record keeping and Jim worked on the web site. The library was set up with a dedicated lockable cabinet and librarian (Les Vrabel); we acquired a greeter (Nedra Obradovich) and hospitality person (Charlene Nakamura). Dial-My-Calls set up to remind members of monthly meetings. The beginning training class had 79 participants, and an observation hive was set up at Pine Jog.
New Business:
FSBA manages an apiary; maybe the PBCBA could set up an apiary. Pine Jog was approached with this idea and they were not in favor of having multiple hives (ex. 25) on the property for an extended period of time.
Len recommended that the constitution should be reviewed periodically and amended when necessary.
The auditor’s report recommended accounting software with a computer and training. Cost could be approx. $1,200. To be presented at the general meeting for a vote.
Len proposed changing article #7 of the constitution to raise board approved discretionary spending from $100 to $300.
Insurance: Acquiring liability insurance for the association to protect us all from personal liability. Currently we could be held liable if an injury were to occur when we take live bees to a function. We have received one quote from Texas Insurance and Financial Service, Inc. for approx $1,200. We are pursuing other quotes.
Outreach:
The Rare Fruit Council approached the Beekeepers to get their participation in the showing of Vanishing of the Bees with visitation by the film’s director. The associations cost would be $150.00 which the board approved to bring before the members at the general meeting.
Guest Speakers for February through April 2012 but still need someone for January 6th.
Gary Ranker and Malcolm Sanford of the FSBA need updates on the advertisement we will have in the January issue of the Florida Beekeeper and they need updated information on our April conference. Also would like to request that the FSBA promote our conference on their web site.
Leonard led a discussion of whether we could improve our response to bee rescues by making them more regionally specific. Perhaps partner with the Treasure Coast Beekeepers and have links on our website that would direct the public to the TCB if a rescue is in Stuart or the St. Lucie region.
It was brought up that the membership list needs to be verified for accuracy by the members. Printing out the list produces very fine type face because there are so many columns. We are looking for a way to provide the list so when members arrive they can initial that their information is correct.
Sara mentioned that we changed our constitution to make membership in the association coincide with the calendar year to stay in line with the FSBA but the latest record book she received from the FSBA still has the October to September membership year. Leonard stated that the FSBA did indeed change their membership year and they were just using up the receipt booklets that were already printed.
The Pot-Luck dinner raffle was canceled by the board since no advance preparation was made.
Sara is working on the Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for registering for the Yahoo groups and will be finished with it by January.
Three examples of Honey Bear labels designed by Kevin White were reviewed by the board. Design needs to be in portrait format and fit on the front of a 12oz. honey bear. Kevin was given a blank honey bear to modify a label to fit. Al Salopek mentioned that the Florida Department of Agriculture will pay $1,500 towards printing of the labels if it says “FreshFromFlorida” on the label. We are in a time crunch to get the labels printed in time for the South Florida Fair so we won’t be able to take advantage of this opportunity.
The association received their Tax Exempt Certificate from the State of Florida.
Meeting adjourned at 6:50 PM
Minutes respectfully submitted by: James Chapman