Attendance List (X = Present, P = Partial Attendance)

Discussion Items       

Joel opened and called the meeting to order at 1:00pm

Opened meeting with greeting and handshakes

General Announcements:

Board agreed to separate meeting into two mini meetings:

Awards

Regular Board Business

Joel Epstein presented Sandy Clark with his 50yr certificate – round of applause – Great Job!

Awards

Dick Jaques – Region Awards director walked the board through the nominations for:

Outstanding Patroller

Outstanding Patrol

Outstanding Patrol Director

Park Willis Award

Nationals

Stars

Senior Awards

Park Willis award is a new award this year for NMR - Created in memory of Park Willis (Nub’s Patroller) – intent of the award is for a patroller who is not in a leadership position, more for local service.

As a new award discussion revolved around this award being given to a patroller in each section

A plaque will be given to each recipient

Large plaque – generally moved around from patrol to patrol – will reside at Nub’s Nob (Park’s Patrol), and the smaller name plate engraved with the person’s name and patrol. – reason it will be stationary is number of recipients – one from each section – motion passed

Award presentations:

Dick made the suggestion that Awards not be presented at the OEC Refresher, he believes it downgrades the awards

He suggested that if the board does not wish to keep it as part of the Spring meeting, that Awards be presented to recipients at their respective Patrol Banquets. A board member would be present

Outstanding Awards be sent to the region’s patrollers utilizing the region’s newsletter.

With these changes, the submission of awards would need to be in by March 1 to make new deadlines for Patrol Banquets

Regular Business:

- Board approved Minutes from 1/22/05 to be posted to general Patrol – Sending to Patrol Directors via e-mail. They are to disseminated to their patrols. – motion passed

- Policies and Procedures Manual for the Northern Michigan Region.

The manual will be used to articulate the policies and procedures that the NMR board will follow.

The initial reading of the Policies and Procedures Document occurred on March 13, 2005 This document represents our efforts, all agreed this will be a living document subject to change as required.

Reviewed entire manual for first reading

Items of issues in first reading :

•  Living document includes Policies and Procedures Chapters, and Appendix A.

•  Changed the name from Executive Board to Operating Committee – comprised of the Region Director, Section Chiefs, Patrol Representative, and the Assistant Region Directors. Only the Region Director, Patrol Representative, and Section Chiefs are voting members.

•  Full Board, is comprised of Patrol Directors, Region Director, Section Chiefs, Assistant Region Directors. Only the patrol Directors are voting members with the Region Director casting a vote in the event of a deadlock.

•  Appointments of Advisors, and Assistant Region Directors expires when the Region Director’s term ends.

•  Change budgeting date from August 1, to no later than May 1.

•  Appendices B, C, D – do not need approvals and readings – working documents

•  Job descriptions for advisor positions – Mike is collecting for Off-Hill, Aren is collecting for On-Hill - information will be added to Appendix

Thanks to Aren for a great Job.

- Back Crosses

  Many e-mails were read and discussed

  Other issues other than Back Cross will more than likely arise from this one issues

Determine what we as a Region want to do and pursue

  Pursue a coordinated Region Response

  Pole the patroller base

  Region Director to send questionnaire

  Two simple questions – 1.) Do You Support the recent actions taken by the National Chairman with respect to the “Back Cross”

  2.) If no, do you authorize your Operating Committee of NMR to take action

Answers back by April 1.

The agreement was to appoint a sub-committee to work on this issue and report back to the board. Joel agreed to find a chairperson and Karl Jurries name was discussed. In the event that Karl would be able to fill this role, then Joel will search for another candidate. Additionally, Aren Fairchild, Mike Costa, and Aren Fairchild agreed to work with this sub-committee along with Joel Epstein..

– Motion Passed

Spring Banquet

•  There will be no spring banquet this year. In it’s place a spring planning/budgeting session will take place.

Set date to Last Saturday in April

Date: April 30, 2005

Location: Otsego

Preliminary Agenda:

Morning

Advisors Meeting – Mike Costa

On Hill – Aren Fairchild

Afternoon

  PD’s and Joel – Full Board

  Operating committee

  Set the Budget for the 2005/2006 season.

Attendance List (X = Present, P = Partial Attendance)

Discussion Items       

Joel opened and called the meeting to order at 5:45pm

General Announcements: - Katherine Loerch was appointed scribe for the NMR board meetings

-Skyline has a new Patrol Director – Don Mazolli

Joel Epstein (RD) and Aren Fairchild (ARD) visited with Skyline’s owner. Happily, the NSP and Skyline will continue their cooperative relationship.

- Letter from Candy Jacques – Eastern Michigan Region will be hosting the Fall ’05 Division Meeting.

Candy is requesting help from the Northern Michigan region. She would like to have each of the areas donate an item for the auction; Joel volunteered to spearhead this activity.

Aren offered organization material previously used by NMR to Candy, to help assist in her endeavor. Aren will contact Candy and send materials directly.

- Please be aware of the impact of both written/verbal communications.

Regular Business:

- Policies and Procedures Manual for the Northern Michigan Region.

The board has been working diligently to get a completed manual into operation.

Mike Costa is lead for this project; Aren Fairchild, legal advisor.

The manual will be used to articulate the policies and procedures that the NMR board will follow. – Motion Passed by board

The manual development began with the Central Division procedures document – NM Region team then revised/altered to suit our requirements. A draft is being review today (January 22, 2005) This document represents our initial effort, all agreed this will be a living document subject to change as required.

Items of issues in Dec 2004 version:

•  Treasury Operations

•  Budget and re-imbursements for Advisor programs

Fees for programs

Re-imbursement for proficiency/training seminars

Vouchers

Cash Advances

•  Job descriptions for advisor positions

•  Emergency appropriations of funds

•  Ordinary travel in region not reimbursed

•  Non-Budgeted items – basis for change

Communicate the change

Establish a baseline

•  OEC Issues

Part of the confusion about OEC revenue and expense may be due to the change-over when

Bob Taylor left as OEC Advisor .

Reasons for change need to be disseminated to Patrol directors

Suggestion is to have a budgeting refresher as part of the patrol director’s

meeting at the fall refresher.

- Letter to Board

A letter to the NMR board from Vern McCardell (Nub’s Nob PD) and Sharon Crocket (Nub’s Nob Assistant PD) was read and discussed by the board.

Many of the items in the letter are addressed in the draft Policies and Procedure manual.

The board was sensitive to the concerns of the Patrol Directors, and that follow-up should occur on any item in the letter, not addressed in the draft Policies and Procedures manual.

- Awards

Want/need to setup a separate awards committee.

Dick Jaques knowledgeable on awards – utilize this experience if possible

Award selections are due February 19, 2005 – E-mail was sent on Thursday 1/20/05.

- Spring Banquet

PD’s feedback – Spring Meeting is meaningless to the average Patroller. The National and Certification awards are fine under this venue

Gold Stars, Blue Star, Purple Stars, etc should be moved to the Fall Refresher where peers can give recognition to recipients

- Spring meeting is still needed to create schedule for the next season

Change to just a board meeting?