I. Call to order
Dr. Dan McBride called to order and opened the session with prayer for the regular meeting of the Texas Taxidermy Association at 6:42 PM on 6-22-2016 in Lubbock, Texas.

II. Roll call
Marie Holdridge conducted a roll call. The following persons were present:
Dan McBride; Roy Holdridge; Linda Poerner; Marie Holdridge; Jimmy Fontenot;
James Poerner, Brian Fees; Ben Cromeens; Jerry Huffaker; James Newport; Jacob Poerner; Daryl Hajek & Mason Morrison

Excused Absences: Clay Wagner; Jake Carter; John Paul Barber, Mark Hernandez

III. Quorum Announcement
A quorum is present.

IV. Amendments/Additions to Agenda
- None

V. President’s Remarks
- Dr. Dan McBride, first thanks Jimmy Fontenot for good work for convention. Board members applaud Jimmy. The other group to thank are the helpers who are at the desk every morning to help our members. Marie has a situation that will prevent her from being here on Friday. She may choose to elaborate further but we need to be sure that we have enough help at registration. Thanks to all of you who work to help get this all done. We have a few board members who will not be here. Please be sure we have enough help for key areas. Roy will need help in the competition room. Overall this should be a good show.

VI. Approval of minutes from last meeting
Marie Holdridge provided a copy of the minutes from the last meeting. They were sent twice by email. First immediately after the last board meeting and within the last 2 weeks. The minutes were approved as read by silent assent.

VII. Treasurer’s Report
Linda provided a handout of current financials. (See attached handout for detail.).The current total is $31,822.87.  Report approved by silent assent.

Financials: Click to Review

VIII. Committee Reports
a) Convention Chair: Jimmy Fontenot reports all going well. Lunches for workers on Thursday and Friday will be delivered at noon. Lunches ordered for children’s events, too.  They will be in the hospitality room. There will be a sign outside the door indicating that the room is for judges and board members. Workers will be told that it is OK to go there. In the mornings there will be coffee and doughnuts. Jimmy also has the two sound systems. They will be stored in the locked room and ready for use by seminar instructors or auctioneer. The caterer needs any adjustment to the Friday night meal no later than noon on Friday and no later than Friday afternoon for the Saturday night meal.
b) Competition Rules Committee – James Poerner chair, reports all is OK.
c) Competition Room Committee – Roy Holdridge chair, reports everything good but he will be short handed in the competition room. Good volunteers needed.
d) Supply Room Site Committee – Jacob Poerner reporting for Mark Hernandez chair) states things going well. Dan reports that he received a call from vendor Headquarters. Their representative has been stuck in the airport for hours and due to these issues they will not be able to attend. They need their pallet of items ready to ship back to them tomorrow.  
e) Backboard Committee – Dan McBride chair, looks like we will have plenty.
f) Judges Committee – Jerry Huffaker and James Newport reporting for Clay Wagner chair, state everything going well. The two judges from New Mexico and everyone except Kenny are already here. Kenny is in route and will be here shortly.
g) Friday Night Committee – Jimmy reports that auctioneer will be here, all set. There are 9 tables set up for Master’s Challenge participants. Pro-One is donating hide paste for each participant. Will make sure auctioneer announces that. Marie reports we have 3 signed up, so far. Lengthy discussion about Master’s Challenge. Revised rules not received and due to 2015 on most recent rules, the webmaster removed them from online. Also proposed Master’s Challenge for Birds rules still need to be written for consideration. Will make sure this is promoted better next year. Ben proposes that the next day touch up grooming time be adjusted from 15 minutes to 30 minutes. Decision to keep it the same for this year due to it being in last set of rules.
h) Kid’s Activities Committee – Brian Fees reports that all activities are planned and t-shirts were ordered by Debbie Fontenot. She received sponsorship money for the kid’s t-shirts. Kasha will be her Thursday but not Friday due to another commitment. Concern about small children and parent’s attending. Marie reports that the consent form indicates that any child requiring car seat or booster seat must be accompanied by parent/guardian at events.
i) Sponsors & Vendor Committee – Jimmy Fontenot, chair, All good.
j) Seminar/Mini Seminar Committee – Jerry Huffaker reporting for Clay Wagner, chair. One seminar instructor canceled due to death of childhood friend – police officer killed in car chase. TTAI thoughts and prayers are with Lowell Shapley. Jerry, James Newport and Jimmy will provide a business seminar at that time. Marie will change the schedule poster to reflect this change and will adjust the schedule for the seminar room as well.
k) Auction/Raffle Committee – Debbie Fontenot, chair. Jimmy reports all going well. No raffle this year, just auction.
l) Points Keeper/Awards Audit Committee – Katie (Poerner) Hewitt, chair. Linda reports that database should be working well this year.  
m) Awards Committee – James Poerner, chair reports that several awards are no longer received or sponsored. No Ducks Unlimited award, multiple attempts to contact without success. Dallas Safari Club not receptive to sponsoring an award this year. Neither of these will be given. Elk Foundation not sponsored but due to having purchased an award we will give it this year. The Mule Deer Foundation award and STAR Fish awards are in route and will be given this year. Dan has the youth awards. James reminds the Board that any new award must be discussed by the Board and receive approval. The TTAI has received some items from the Taxidermist Directory. They are giving Gold and Silver memberships to specified award winners. These will be handed out with the regular awards. James reports that he has 5 Provenzano award winners this year and the TTAI will award the lifetime achievement (with honorary lifetime membership) award to Ken Edwards this year. He has done a lot for the industry and is well deserving of this honor.
n) Photography Committee – Jerry reports that Ken Edwards is here and all set to go.
o) Bylaws Committee/Ethics –James Poerner, chair reports that things going well. Need to meet to update Handbook.
p) TTAI Magazine – Jerry Huffaker, chair, reports all going well.
q) Advertising Committee – No report
r) Site Selection Committee – No report
s) Communications Committee – No report
t) Technology Committee – No report.
u) Membership Committee – No report.

IX. Old Business
a) Provenzano Points Database and TTAI Website. Marie reports that the database developer and she have spent a lot of time getting this sub-database going and validated. It is working well. The database has all of the electronic data uploaded and appears to be accurate. The gap is not knowing the entire set of winners over all of the years. Additionally, individual competitors are best positioned, through the use of the worksheet (available at ttai.org), to know when they have attained the Provenzano award. Jerry Huffaker had an excellent suggestion to have the Provenzano award information displayed prominently on our main website via a large button. The page should provide an overview of Paul Provenzno and what the award represents. It would also contain the Provenzano worksheet to allow individual competitors track their own points. The worksheet is designed to help keep competitors aware that irrespective of how many points they earn (beyond 10), a blue ribbon in the category is required to attain the Provenzano award. The web page should also provide a comprehensive list of all who have attained the Provenzano award, by year. Doing this will require some research into the old “Annuals” and other records. James Poerner will interview Richard Reeves to obtain the history. He will contact Terry Rheinlander or others to gather the list from historical TTAI publications. Marie would like to also send out a Survey Monkey to identify any others. Going forward it would be updated annually to show the current year’s attainees.
b) Rules Committee to meet regarding TTAI Handbook revisions discussed at the last meeting. Meeting will likely occur in the Spring. This will allow time for printing new Handbooks for next year’s convention.

X. New Business
a) Next Board Meeting – August 6. Due to board familiar with Killeen, agreed to meet in Kerrville. James or Linda to see about getting something set up with Inn of the Hills. The mini seminar will be there as well. He will let the Board know the details. This will need to be published for proper notice.
b) New TTAI Position – Membership/Convention Registration Chair. First Marie wants to let the board know that she will not be here on Friday due to a death in her family. She will fly out early Friday morning and return Friday evening. Registration should be well covered by Katie Johnson, Katie Hewitt, April Poerner, Ashlin Holdridge, Joy Miller, other helpers and, of course, Linda Poerner. Next Marie asks the Board to consider splitting the duties of membership and convention registration preparation and oversight to another committee chair. This would allow the Secretary position to focus on Board meeting agendas and minutes as well as the annual election process. The Board agrees with this idea. Dan asks that Marie write a job description for this new role and states that this work should be considered for payment by the TTAI. Marie reminds the Board that originally the Board agreed to fund the Secretary role but she instead asked that the funding go to registration help. This has been in place for several years. Dan commends Marie for doing this. Marie reports that there may be a person who is willing to fill this role. The board will discuss this at the next board meeting.
c) Open/Other –
a. First, the NTA has a new award – NTA Taxidermist of the Year award. They have specified how this is to be awarded. The actual award is a replica of a death mask cast by Carl Akeley. James Poerner has the award and will get with Marie to get it added to the Awards Banquet Agenda.
b. Next, the NTA is getting rid of all of their backboards and will instead ask each specific state association to supply them and the labor to put them up and take them down when the NTA has a convention in that state. Thoughtful discussion and then polling of each board member’s thoughts on this topic. Overwhelming agreement that the TTAI elects to not participate in this process for the NTA.
c. Hunts for Auction. Ben Cromeens has a hog hunt and Dan McBride has lined up 5 hunts. These hunts and the auction items need to be promoted. We will get a white board and list them at the registration desk.

XI. Executive Session – Ethics Committee Report
a. The Board moved into executive session to discuss a recent communication. This matter is being handled by legal counsel.

XII. Adjournment
Dan McBride after motion by Roy Holdridge and second by James Newport- and unanimous the Board members adjourned the meeting at 8:20 PM.

Minutes submitted by:  Marie Holdridge, TTAI Secretary
Minutes approved by:  TTAI Board 8/6/2016