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 10:30 AM on 08-15-2015 in Marble Falls, Texas.

Roll call
Marie Holdridge conducted a roll call. The following persons were present:
Officers and Board: Dan McBride; Roy Holdridge; Linda Poerner; Marie Holdridge; James Poerner, Jerry Huffaker; Jake Carter; James Newport; Mark Hernandez, Jacob Poerner; Daryl Hajek.

Excused Absences: Ben Cromeens, Brian Fees, Clay Wagner and Jimmy Fontenot

Guests: John Paul Barber & Mason Morrison
Quorum Announcement
A quorum is present.
Amendments/Additions to Agenda
- Under Open/Other – Letter from Bryan Travis family and note from Shannon Travis; Marie’s Responsibilities; 4 H Taxidermy

President’s Remarks
.Dan McBride stated - Thanks. This organization has under this Board and it’s leadership has become an icon. I am very proud of you. Things are well run and operate with order and integrity. We are here to accomplish our mission statement. Welcome to new Board member Daryl Hajek. Let our next focus be how we can encourage new members to attend the convention. Almost every year we have a small trip up but we work to correct it. Although there were a few complaints this year, overall the response was very positive. I do want to mention the Ethics Committee discussion we will have at the end of our agenda today. The discussion during that Executive Session must be kept confidential and not discussed outside the Board. If anyone contacts you about this matter – simply let them know that you cannot talk about it. That is all that needs to be said. This coming year is a transitional year for the Board. Marie and Linda both put in a significant amount of work to help the TTAI. Most of the rest of us do not have duties all year. Marie and Linda have things they must do all year to help keep things going and on time. Marie has let me know that her work responsibilities are increasing significantly. We need someone to step up and work with her this next year or so, to allow a smooth transition. Most members do not realize the work that the Board does to benefit the TTAI. Al’s resignation is noted and he did not resign due to anything negative. He has two young children and needed to prioritize his family. He plans to still be involved. He, like all of us, has a circle of influence. We can all encourage and promote the TTAI among our circle of influence.

Open Positions
1. Vacant Parliamentarian Position – Jimmy Fontenot is willing to do this for the TTAI. Motion to appoint Jimmy to this role by Jake Carter, second by James Newport. Unanimous approval.
2. Two Open Board Seats – Roy Holdridge made a motion that John Paul Barber and Mason Morrsion are appointed to fill those roles. Second by James Newport. (Both nominees exited the room.) Unanimous approval by the Board. Welcome back John Paul Barber and Masson Morrison!

Approval of minutes from last meeting
Marie Holdridge provided a copy of the minutes from the June 24th and June 26th meeting. The minutes were approved as read by silent assent.

Treasurer’s Report
Linda provided a handout of current financials. (See attached handout.). The total account balance is $35,112.39. Linda reports that the TTAI is a little better this year after the convention that the prior years. Linda reports that the money raised for the Bob Wilkins Educational Scholarship is a little over $2,000. Linda will move that to a separate account. The Board discussed the Bob Wilkins Scholarship. The TTAI will continue to and dedicate an auction item each year to help fund it going forward. The $500 scholarship will still be available to any TTAI Member or their child who has at least one semester of college remaining. The check is paid to the College/University for the winning student. Motion to accept the report by Marie Holdridge, second by John Paul Barber.

Financials: Click To Review

Committee Reports
2016 Convention Chair: Jimmy Fontenot, Jake will help him with the Lubbock show this year. Marie will get the dates posted on the ttai.org website.
Competition Rules Committee – James Poerner chair, everything went well this year at convention.  
Competition Room Committee – Roy Holdridge chair, reports that everything went well. He is thankful for the help from Ben Cromeens, Masson Morrison and John Paul Barber.
Supply Room Site Committee – Mark Hernandez did an excellent job and Dan is appointing him as chair. Some of the suppliers have requested that the TTAI provide a coffee pot and hospitality items in the supply room. Also, thanks to Jacob Poerner and others who helped with making sure people had badges to show that they were members/convention attendees. Marie stated that on the Supplier registration forms online it is now clearly stated that all helpers must have a badge. Additionally, similar to other conventions, there is a limit of free badges supplied per table (except minor children of the business owner.) Additional badges will cost an additional fee.
Backboard Committee – Dan McBride chair, discussed that we ran out of backboards and had to make more at the show. One supplier who lives in the area took all the 2x4 boards and used his miter saw to cut them while TTAI Board meeting was conducted on Wednesday evening. Jerry Huffaker reports that the TTAI has given this supplier a free TTAI Magazine advertisement to compensate him for his work. The Board agrees and thanks him as well.
Judges Committee – James Newport reporting for Clay Wagner chair, Work underway to get judges for 2016. Some have already been contacted. The Board discussed that perhaps 2 year contracts might be a good way to go for judges who do a good job. Some competitors have complained about having the bird judge also judge the fish or vice versa. Lengthy discussion about this. John Paul Barber and Mason Morison to see about locating judges who are either highly qualified in both or see if a fish judge would want to judge for a reduced rate ($500) due to usually very low volume. This year the Amateur division judging was assisted by several of the TTAI master taxidermists who previewed each mount and documented items. Then the appropriate judge assessed the mount and determined the score. Lengthy discussion about how to properly communicate this new process. The TTAI website, Facebook and newsletter will let competitors know that to better serve our newer competitors some will be panel judged by TTAI master taxidermists with oversight and final scoring by the convention judge. Marie and Linda mentioned the need to secure judge contracts as soon as possible and communicate this to Linda. James Newport asked that Marie send the contracts to him. He is going to work with Clay to help with the process.
Friday Night Committee – Clay Wagner Chair. The Friday Night activity is centered on the Master’s Challenge. It will be Gamehead and we will add in Birds this year as well. Marie to send the rules to John Paul Barber who will modify them for the Bird category. There will be belt buckles for both categories in 2016.
Activities Committee – Kasha Crisp, Chair. Dan has talked to Kasha and she is working on children’s activies.
Sponsors & Vendor Committee – Jimmy Fontenot, chair. Jimmy has done an excellent job. Marie is going to train Debbie and one other person from Jimmy’s business on the database so they can obtain all the reports and see all the activity for this on the online database.
Seminar/Mini Seminar Committee – Clay Wagner, chair. Lengthy discussion about seminars at the convention. The Thursday evening seminars have been well attended. The TTAI sound systems were at the convention but not used. We need to make sure to use them. Jerry stated that next year Tim Mutina and Wes Sykes are going to do a basic white tail mounting and finishing seminar for commercial taxidermists. The TTAI will send a Survey Monkey survey to see what other seminars are requested. The Mini Seminar this year will be for TTAI members only. Vince Flemming will be showing how to do jaw set casting. The location for this event is not yet determined. Linda Poerner will contact the Granbury Conference Center. Bryan Travis had been talking to them and they offered a good rate. She will also contact the Inn of the Hills in Kerrville. The date for this will be the latter part of February. It will start Friday afternoon and all day Saturday. As soon as this is settled we need to begin plans for advertising it. Any new member who signs up at the MiniSeminar gets additional months of membership through to the following calendar year’s convention date. This is an excellent value.
Auction/Raffle Committee – Tim Bane- Auction Chair/Debbie Fontenot, Raffle Chair. The auction went well. Jimmy Fontenot asked that the TTAI consider stopping the bucket raffle items or reduce the number of items to some higher dollar items, due to limited interest on the part of the attendees. Lengthy discussion. Motion by Jake Carter to eliminate the regular raffle items. Second by Mason Morrison. Unanimous approval. The 50:50 will continue at the Banquet
Points Keeper/Awards Audit Committee – Katie (Poerner) Hewitt, chair. Marie reports that the overall database is working well. Unfortunately there have been some problems and one member who should have received the award last year was not properly identified. He mentioned it at the banquest and Marie researched it and found out that he should have won. The reports used for the Provenzano Points has come from 5 different data sources (3.5 cards/ paper, old spreadsheet (from Chris Hix), the old database,  the 3 years of mount check in/scoring spreadsheets from Julie, and now the new database. The Provenzano points are currently placed on a spreadsheet. Some prior clerical support that Roy and Marie paid to help accidentally messed up some of the old spreadsheets. We do have the proper scores on paper printout. This is why it takes some time to review and obtain these points. Marie has developed a Provenzao points worksheet for member use. It is much easier for a member to track this and then let us know when they are there. Please encourage members to use this tool. Marie has a spreadsheet with formulas and will send to any member who requests it. The Board discussed the need for a new database to house Provenzano points. Marie stated that her friend who build the current points database (has never charged the TTAI for that work) has the knowledge to build it. The Board askes that Marie ask him to build it and submit a bill, then see if he is willing to update all the information in that database. If not, the TTAI needs to find someone to do the data entry with sufficient attention to detail to prevent problems going forward with this. Marie stated she is also going to send a Provenzano Award survey out to all members to identify those who have won it by year and category. This should be published on our website so everyone can see the prior winners.
Awards Committee – James Poerner, chair. James reports that any awards that were not actually presented at the Banquet will be sent to recipients this week. Al Crisp got the belt buckle order completed this week. Lengthy discussion about the process for adding any new award. We want to make sure that new awards do not overlap with existing awards and that there is a clean process to start them. Marie also mentioned that aytime any score based award or supplier product used award is added there needs to be sufficient notice to allow the database to be updated to capture it for the convention. James reports that the ribbons have been completely standardized. Dan asked aobut the scalpel handle award for judges & seminar instructors. All agreed that these are well received. Discussion about the special Provenzano achievement by Richard Reeves. This past convention he was the first person to complete the win for all categories. Motion by James Poerner that going forward we name this special award The Richard Reeves Provenzano Award. Second by Jake Carter. Unanimous approval.
Photography Committee – Clay Wagner, chair. James Newport and Jerry Huffaker stated that the pictures by Ken Edward were excellent. He is willing to continue this work for the TTAI. Jerry stated that we should pay him more for doing this work. Motion by James Poerner to pay Ken Edward $1,000.00 for photography services, plus hotel room and airfare or basic travel, per contract. Second by Roy Holdridge. Unanimous approval.
Bylaws Committee/Ethics – will be discussed at the end of the meeting today.
TTAI Magazine – Jerry Huffaker, chair, reports that the TTAI Magazine coming out in December will have at least 20 more pages. Dan states that the TTAI Magazine is one area that the TTAI has made significant strides forward. We are heads above the rest in this aspect. Jerry states he wants to do a U-Tube video with information about the TTAI for new potential members. It will be professionally done and some of the filming for it will be at next year’s convention. Additional discussion about possibly using that same media for other things like the interview with Richard Reeves about the history of the TTAI.
Advertising Committee – Jimmy Fontenot, chair. Jerry Huffaker reports that Jimmy has already raised $9,000 for TTAI Magazine and newsletter advertisements.
Communications Committee – Jerry Huffaker, chair. Jerry asks about the website. Marie reports that Bill Atkinson manages our website and is very responsive. All Board members who have distinct responsibilities need to contact him for posting items. Marie will send Bill’s contact information to the Board members. Jerry stated that he will send Bill the information needed to update photo galleries. He does want to hold on the past year winning mounts pictures to allow that to be presented in the TTAI Magazine. The website could have pictures of the most recent year’s activities and candid pictures. Then the website can be updated next year with the prior year’s winners. Jerry will sort this out with Bill.
Technology Committee – James Poerner, chair. No report.
Membership Committee – Dan McBride, chair. Lengthy discussion about membership numbers and interests. Dan stated that we need to give a consistent message. Come to the TTAI Convention and sign up. You can be a better taxidermist!

Old Business
1. Open/Other – none
2. Summary of 2015 Convention – Teleconference completed and Committee Reports went over all of this.
3. Adding New Awards – Process discussed during Awards Committee reports. James will work with Roy to assure that the DSC award is adjusted to allow the Ackley award to be given as stated.

New Business
1. Youth Membership and Youth Competition – Age Differences. Discussion about all Youth under age 18 are entitled to a free membership, convention and Youth competition. Enrolling youth in their own free membership assures that they have their own member number which will carry forward with them as they become adults. Youth under 18 may also attend the convention and compete in the Youth division for free. Youth may compete in other divisions but they must pay for competition at other levels. The current Youth Division ends at age 16. It is suggested that the Youth Division competition ages go through age 17. Motion by Jake Carter to change the Youth Division ages to 1) children up to age 8; 2) ages 9 through 14; 3) ages 15 through 17. Second by James Newport. Unanimous approval.
2. Youth Banquet Ticket Price – Discussion regarding youth banquet ticket price. The price will stay at a reduced rate but the definition of child for this purpose is for children 12 and under. The website and tickets will be updated to indicate that.
3. 2015 Survey Results – Marie reported that Vendors and members responded well to the surveys conducted through Survey Monkey. Overall both groups indicate that the TTAI convention is a worth the cost of attending. Positive response to registration and to supply room. Members did respond that they prefer hotel accommodations closer to the convention site.
4. Open/Other –
a. Letter from Bryan/Rory Travis and one from Shannon Travis. Both letters express appreciation for the funds that the TTAI raised to help with medical bills. They thank God for the blessings from the TTAI.
b. TTAI Secretary Position – Marie mentioned that over time many duties have ended up with the TTAI secretary. Due to changes in her job she will be unable to do extra things for the TTAI and would really appreciate any extra help for even the secretary role. The Board agreed to shore up other duties to make sure things are completed and going well.
c. 4-H Taxidermy - Sponsorship by the TTAI. Lengthy discussion of 4-H leader Michelle who is interested in having a competition for some students who are interested in taxidermy be able to win a trip to attend the TTAI annual convention and competition. Motion by John Paul Barber to provide for one student – a free room, no incidentals, free convention registration for student and their immediate family and 2-3 banquet tickets for the student and their parent/guardians. Second by James Newport. Motion approved.
d. Cast mouth indication for Master’s competition needs to be better defined to accurately reflect whether the competitor cast all parts or purchased items. James Newport to send information to Roy about how to better state this and it will be updated on the competition cards for judge’s review.

Executive Session – Ethics Committee Report
The TTAI Board reviewed confidential matters. Documents related to the discussion were distributed. Each one was numbered and each was signed out and then signed back in. Lengthy discussion about the matter. The Board voted via secret ballot. The Board’s decision was unanimous.

Adjournment
Dan McBride after motion by James Poerner and numerous seconds by the Board members adjourned the meeting at 4:30 PM.

Minutes submitted by:  Marie Holdridge, TTAI Secretary
Minutes approved by:  TTAI Board 2/20/2016