Oklahoma Aquarium Association Administrative Meeting Minutes, January 7, 2006
The OKAA Executive Committee Meeting was held at Kelly Higgins' office in Midwest City. Attending this meeting was Joe Anderson - President, Sheryl Coley, Gerald Griffin - BAP chair, Howard Sarrington, Kyle Osterholt - Treasurer, Monica Osterholt - Secretary, Dean Hougan and Kelly Higgins. VIA conference call were Josh Shilling and Betty Harris. The following items were discussed:
Membership Drives:
Sheryl Coley will be heading up the Membership Drive in the Petsmart in Edmond on Saturday January 28, 2006. Those giving her a helping hand are Kelly Higgins, Gerald Griffin, Howard Sarrington, Betty Harris and Kyle & Monica Osterholt. Monica will be Creating a display board and Petsmart has agreed to let us set up tanks the night before as long as we use their equipment and livestock for display.
We will also be looking for more locations for future membership drives and all are welcome to make suggestions.
Advertising:
We are also planning to bring back the snail-mailed newsletters as had been done in years past. Sheryl has offered to head up the program with Gerald's assistance. Goal date is for a "rough draft" issue to be sent out by March. Frequency of newsletters was discussed but no decision was made. Production difficulty and costs will regulate the number of newsletters per year that will be sent out. Advertising participation will play a large factor in costs.
Dues:
The committee has decided to keep the membership dues at $20 per person. It was agreed that the dues are reasonable. Monica made the motion and Howard seconds it. There was talk of giving new members a $5 entry credit on BAP auctions but no motion was set. It will be decided on the next Committee meeting. We discussed other methods of acquiring benefits for members to increase membership instead of increasing dues for more income.
National Letter Campaign:
Kyle and Kelly will work on a letter campaign to petition national vendors for door prize donations as well as coordinate local donations from various businesses. Anyone with ideas for donations should contact Kyle or Kelly to discuss each case.
Door Prizes:
The committee decided to give each member a ticket for door prizes at each meeting containing a drawing. Additional tickets can be purchased for the drawings.
Nationally Recognizable Presenters:
The committee discussed bringing in well recognized speakers to some of our meetings. Joe plans to bring in speakers like John Henson, Travis Nelson and Frank from New York, many if not all can be brought in at no cost to the club.
Local Support from Pet Shops:
Joe moved a motion to give LFS two shirts per shop to those with multiple employees as long as they will be utilized. The motion was second by Monica Osterholt and voted in unanimously.
The committee discussed setting up a promotion tour. A promotion tour is a group of members or individuals that visit with LFS to promote the club and socialize with the employees. We will finalize and assign members to LFS on the next committee meeting.
Marketing Ideas:
Betty has created pull-tab flyers on the website, which can be printed off by any member. There is also merchandise for sale in the cafe-press with the club logo. Additional items will be looked into for the future including possibly printing a calendar or individualized shirts.
Website updates:
We discussed the necessity of moving the website to a new server with a new forum and the chance for more advertisement space, better traffic tracking and more control over the entire site without as much difficulty to the webmaster or the visitors.
HAP Chair?:
Who will hold the HAP chair? (HAP is similar to the BAP program only for plants) No one seems a shoe-in for the HAP chair although there are many members who would aid in the success of the HAP program. Gerald made a motion that he would take care of the paperwork end of the chair as long as others would assist in setting up the rules and verifying they are being followed. A new group has been formed for the HAP discussion and invites were sent to: Earl Blewett, Steve Bryan, Josh Shilling, Bailin Shaw, Gerald Griffin and April Walters.
Monica Osterholt
OKAA Secretary
Update/Comments:
Since the meeting a lot of work has been going on. Kelly has been working on the official letter we will be using with the vendors. Betty has been pursuing a new server to host our website as well as a forum program to use. I (Kyle) have had a slow week at work so I was able to write up the inserts for both Tropical Fish Hobbyist and Aquarium Fish Magazine to be submitted in their club listings. AFM is also affiliated with FAMA, Marine and Reef USA and Aquarium Fish USA publications and will mirror the submission in those club listings. They should both have the website listings posted as well. I also found a free newspaper I found in front of Wal-mart called MetroFamily and have submitted our club in their "monthly" calendar section and they connected me with a similar publication in the Tulsa area called TulsaKids in which I also submitted our listing. I have been working with Kelly on getting a gameplan for contacting vendors. Mike Myers and Joe Anderson have helped supply contact information for some vendors. I know several others have been diligently working on their own projects but havn't heard the details to brag on them so maybe they'll speak up and let us know what they've been doing. As you can see, your administration is not quietly sitting by "raking in your dues" just to let them sit in the checking account to do nothing. We are working hard to make this club grow faster than ever with more to offer than ever. We WILL have a greater club month after month, I guarantee.
