TASMA

Two Meter Spectrum Management Association
358 South Main Street, #90 Orange, CA 92668
Minutes of the June 5, 1998 Board Meeting

Members having been duly notified by Newsletter posted May 1, 1998, a TASMA General (Special) Meeting and a TASMA Board Meeting were held on June 5, 1998, at the Ontario Safety Center, in Ontario California.

Minutes of the TASMA General Meeting.

The meeting was opened by Chairman Larry Bryant at 1944 hours, with other Officers present were Secretary JaMi Smith KK6CU, with Vice Chair[person] Pat Finke KC6ACL arriving late. Treasurer Bob Thornburg W6JPY was absent. There were 12 other members present at the beginning of the meeting, 4 of which were new members.

Larry Bryant asked for a motion to approve the Minutes of the previous meeting.

It was MOVED by JaMi Smith and SECONDED by Ray Martin KC6IPI: To accept the Minutes of the TASMA Annual Meeting of 12-12-97 as published in the Newsletter. There was no discussion, and a vote was called for and taken, with: 6 FOR; 0 AGAINST; and 1 ABSTAINING. The Minutes of the 1997 TASMA Annual Meeting were APPROVED as published in the Newsletter.

Larry Bryant stated that there could be no Treasurers Report since the Treasurer was absent.

Larry Bryant asked the Secretary if we had any Correspondence.

JaMi Smith stated that all correspondence was either matters concerning Membership, or matters concerning the Technical Committee which have either been previously been forwarded to the Secretary of the Technical Committee or would be forwarded after the meeting, and that the one exception was a letter addressed to the Chairman of TASMA which was an Ethics Complaint, which would be directed to the TASMA Board at the Meeting to follow.

Larry Bryant stated that the letter was a complaint regarding the actions of two members of the Technical Committee, and that it was his intent to handle that matter in the Board Meeting. He further stated that the Board Meetings were open, and invited all those that were present to stay after the close of that Meeting and attend the Board Meeting that followed.

JaMi Smith added that we have also had correspondence concerning Taxes and Business matters that have been forwarded to the Treasurer.

Larry Bryant stated that we had no committee reports, and that there were two matters of unfinished business, one of which was the matter having been voted on and passed at the November Meeting, to restructure the membership dues, so that all memberships would expire at the same time at end of the year, and that while the matter was approved, there was at that time no final decision on how to implement a prorated dues structure, or implement the transition.

Larry Bryant stated that we needed to make some decision on this matter, and that while he could handle it himself, that he would prefer to have it handled by the membership, and asked if there were any comments or discussion.

Ray Martin suggested that we prorate on a half year basis only, and that members joining in the first six months of the year would pay $10.00, and that members joining in the last 6 months of the year would pay $5.00, with renewal being a flat $10.00.

JaMi Smith stated that when we had discussed this matter before that several people had asked questions regarding how we would prorate and convert current membership expirations to the new system and how we would make the transition. He further stated that he had worked out a schedule based on our current annual dues, that equated 5 weeks of membership for $1.00 excluding the last 2 weeks of the year which would be free. He further stated that he had written up a motion that had covered all of the bases and that while the motion was quite lengthy, it did address and handle all of the issues that had been brought up in previous discussions.

Walt Diem W6CWD (formerly WA6PEA) asked whether this issue affected the Bylaws, or if it was simply a motion. JaMi Smith explained that this matter did not affect the Bylaws, since it was only a procedural issue, and that TASMA had already, at the November 1997 Meeting, approved the change to an annual expiration of membership on December 31st of each year, and that what we were doing now was attempting to implement the decision that had already been made.

JaMi Smith MOVED:
[BEGINNING OF MOTION]

1. TASMA will immediately, upon passage of this motion, convert to the annual membership expiration date of December 31 of each year for all members, which has been previously approved by the membership at the November 1997 meeting. All current memberships will remain in effect until their normal expiration date. All new or renewal memberships will be processed on a prorated basis.

2. Within 30 days of approval, TASMA will make available a new membership application form, both at meetings, and on the TASMA Website, which will clearly show cutoff dates and the prorated cost of membership thru the end of a year.

3. For the purpose of properly cycling current or new members to the new annual expiration date, membership, at the current rate of $10.00 per year, will be prorated at the rate of $1.00 per 5 weeks (or any portion therein), with the last 2 weeks of the year being free, and used to roll the entire schedule back 2 weeks, to prevent quibbling over actual dates.

4. To shorten the conversion process, so that it will be complete by December 31 1999, members who have renewed previous to passage of this motion, and whose last renewal was for a period of two years or more, will, as a benefit for their commitment to TASMA, have their current expiration date extended to the end of their current expiration year, free of charge.

5. Any new or renewal membership falling within the last two renewal periods of a year, will require the payment of the next years membership, in addition to the applicable remaining periods of the current year.

6. Any new or renewal membership, postmarked later than 15 days after both the posting of the new prorated application on the TASMA Website, and the mailing of the newsletter containing the Minutes of the passage of this motion, shall be processed as a prorated membership thru December 31 1998 (or if properly prorated, 1999), and any amount in excess of the prorated amount, will be considered a 'donation' to TASMA, and not be returned, excepting that prior to December 31 1998, that amount in excess of the prorated amount, may be credited and applied with the additional payment of the remaining additional prorated amount to extend the expiration to December 31 1999.

7. Prorating of the $10.00 annual membership dues will be as follows:

Period 10: Jan 1 thru Feb 4: $10.00 thru the end of this year.
Period 9: Feb 5 thru Mar 11: $ 9.00 thru the end of this year.
Period 8: Mar 12 thru Apr 15: $ 8.00 thru the end of this year.
Period 7: Apr 16 thru May 20: $ 7.00 thru the end of this year.
Period 6: May 21 thru Jun 25: $ 6.00 thru the end of this year.
Period 5: Jun 25 thru Jul 29: $ 5.00 thru the end of this year.
Period 4: Jul 30 thru Sep 2: $ 4.00 thru the end of this year.
Period 3: Sep 3 thru Oct 7: $ 3.00 thru the end of this year.
Period 2: Oct 8 thru Nov 11: $12.00 thru the end of NEXT year.
Period 1: Nov 12 thru Dec 16: $11.00 thru the end of NEXT year.
Period 0: Dec 17 thru Dec 31: $10.00 thru the end of NEXT year.

8. For prorating the remainder of this year only, if postmarked or paid prior to Oct 7 1998, the following shall also apply for this year only, and for supplemental payments according to item 6 above, postmarked or paid prior to December 31 1998:

Period 2: Oct 8 thru Nov 11: $ 2.00 thru the end of this year.
Period 1: Nov 12 thru Dec 16: $ 1.00 thru the end of this year.

9. There will be a 'Membership Renewal Reminder' included in the newsletter prior to each Annual Meeting which announces candidates for office to be voted upon at the Annual Meeting, which will remind all members that their membership is about to expire.

10. There will be no grace period, after expiration of membership, with respect to TASMA benefits such as newsletters and other mailings, however, a 45 day grace period (as implied by the Bylaws) will be allowed with respect to renewing membership and having that membership considered 'continuous' with respect to 'voting' in TASMA Meetings, providing that the full annual dues amount is paid. Any membership renewed after this 45 day grace period, will be considered a new membership with respect to TASMA 'voting' privileges. Dates will be determined by postmark or if paid in person by actual date.

[END OF MOTION]

The MOTION was SECONDED by Pat Finke, and discussion followed with JaMi Smith and Larry Bryant answering several questions that were brought up. A vote was called for and taken with: 6 FOR; 3 AGAINST; and 0 ABSTAINING. The Motion PASSED.

Larry Bryant then went on to the proposed Bylaws Change, Proposition A, which would add an additional elected Officer to the Board, described as a Member at Large, and read a description of the office from the previously published Newsletter. He then asked if their was any discussion, and there being none, Ballots were distributed to members eligible to vote.

Ballots were collected and tallied with the results being: 7 FOR; 1 AGAINST; 0 ABSTAINING. Bylaws Amendment, Proposition A, establishing an additional Board Member to be called the Member at Large, PASSED.

Larry Bryant then went on to the proposed Bylaws Change, Proposition B, which concerned Nomination of Officers and the Acceptance of Nominations, and read a description of the change from the previously published Newsletter. He then asked if their was any discussion.. There was some discussion, after which, Ballots were distributed to members eligible to vote.

Ballots were collected and tallied with the results being: 8 FOR; 0 AGAINST; 0 ABSTAINING. Bylaws Amendment, Proposition B, concerning Nomination of Officers and the Acceptance of Nominations, PASSED.

Larry Bryant then called for any other old business, and there being none, went on to new business.

There was a question from the floor as to when the added position on the Board of Member at Large would become effective. Larry Bryant responded that it was effective immediately. This led to a discussion, and reading of some sections of the Bylaws, and also discussion on whether the Chairman could or should appoint someone to the new Office. Nothing was resolved, however the consensus appeared to be that we should notify members of the creation of the new Office in the next Newsletter and then conduct an election for the new Office at the next TASMA Meeting, with the details left up to the Chairman.

Jensen Woods AH6MX, brought up the issue of TASMAs' published Repeater List and the classification of repeaters in that list, some of which are in error, or not current, which he stated has caused problems. He further stated that when he has brought up this issue in the past, he was assured that the problem would be addressed and taken care of, but that nothing has ever been done about it. He further asked what could be done to make sure that this issue gets addressed and the list gets fixed.

Discussion followed, and was expanded to also discuss the fact that TASMAs' List has 3 classifications which includes the classification of 'Private', and how the ARRL does not recognize our classification of 'Private' and only classifies a repeater as either 'Open' or 'Closed' in their Repeater Directory, which has also caused problems. This brought up the question of whether or not any individual changes to the 'database' should be 'published' prior to the whole 'database' being 'reviewed' and 'approved'. The discussion expanded to the question of responsibility for updating the 'database'. Also discussed were ways that corrections could be made to the database in individual circumstances.

JaMi Smith brought up the issue of Official TASMA Documentation, and specifically the number of copies of Documents that need to be submitted and the number of Files that these Documents need to be kept in. He cited as an example that we have many 'empty folders' where our Repeaters Files are concerned, and stated that he believes that this is due primarily to not having enough copies of the Documents initially, in that wherever a certain Document went, it ultimately did not end up in those folders but rather in someone's pile of personal papers after a Tech Committee meeting. He further stated that he believed that TASMA needed to maintain a Master Correspondence File which would contain 1 copy of all incoming and outgoing correspondence, in addition to which we needed copies of some of those documents in additional Files such as a Membership File, an Individual Repeater File, and an Individual Frequency File, all in addition to the number of copies which needed to be distributed amongst the Tech Committee so that it could do its work. He further stated that he believed that TASMA needed to specifically require that each different type of correspondence should have whatever number of copies it specifically needed clearly specified, and that all correspondence submitted to TASMA without the required number of copies should suffer the fate of sitting around on the 'back burner' for however long it takes the Secretary to get around to getting the correct number of copies made. He cited as an example the need for 2 copies of all membership or renewal applications, where 1 copy needs to be kept in the Master Correspondence File, and the other copy needs to be sent to the Membership Database Administrator. He further pointed out that we are no longer charging a fee to process Applications for Coordination, but that we were nonetheless a organization of volunteers and that it is not the responsibility of the Secretary to be a 'copying service', and that the lack of the correct number of copies just creates extra work for a lot of different people within the organization.

This prompted extended discussion on many issues such as: Why the Membership Database Administrator needed a separate copy of an application; What the file folders may or may not have had in them and what happened to those contents; Who Technical Committee correspondence needed to be addressed to and why it took so long to get to the Technical Committee; How often the Mail should be picked up from the PO Box; Whether e-mail was equivalent to snail mail; The only Official TASMA correspondence is that which is sent or received thru the US Mail; and other 'correspondence' issues. The general consensus was that issues of this nature could be handled by specific Policies which could be determined by the Board.

There was some discussion on the locations of Technical Committee Meetings, and Larry Bryant reaffirmed that the LA County EOC Facilities were still available for that use.

There being no further business, Larry Bryant adjourned the meeting at 2105 hours, and announced that a Board Meeting would commence following a short break.

The forgoing Minutes of the June 5, 1998 TASMA General (Special) Meeting, and are respectfully submitted by:

______________________________
JaMi Smith, TASMA Secretary