Business Meeting

Minneapolis/St. Paul Hilton

Bloomington, MN

4/30/2013

Meeting called to order at 3:05pm. COGNA 2013 Host Pete Boulay welcomed attendees to Minnesota.  It was decided to table New Business regarding the Constitution and Bylaws, due to number of attendees.

Roll Call

Pete Boulay - MN
Pete Martinez -NM
Dan White –UT
Barbara Wanish –CA
Wayne Furr – OK
Betsy Kanalley – FS-DNC
Glen Yakel Retired MN
Bruce Fisher USGS -OR
Julie Hoff AZ
____________________

1. Old Business
 
a.  Motion to approve minutes of 2011 Business Meeting: Pete Boulay, seconded by Barbara Wanish
Ayes- all

b. Executive Secretary’s 2011 Conference and Annual Report

Wayne discussed COGNA 2011 in Hawaii and mentioned logistics. The conference came close to cancelling at one point. However people had already registered so the conference went as planned. There were 48 attendees, down from the average of 67. Wayne mentioned that the talks were top notch and the conference was very successful.  One common issue was hearing comments relayed from management of various agencies, ex: “we won’t let anyone go to Hawaii.”  Overall it was a good conference with a lot of planning.

Motion to approve the COGNA 2011 report by Barbara Wanish, seconded by Bruce Fisher.

c. Financial Report for 2012.

Wayne discussed the financial report and summed it up by mentioning: “We still have money in the bank.” The recent purchase of AV equipment was discussed. This was done to avoid rental costs in the future. In effect it was cheaper to purchase the equipment than it was to rent it. (Note the projector and the computer used for COGNA 2013 were on loan from State of Minnesota-Department of Natural Resources)

2. Future Conference/Conformation and Election of Officers.

a. Economy

Wayne Furr: Economy continuing to impact COGNA Conferences with 1/3 of the attendees missing from COGNA 2013 due to the Sequester.

b. Deadlines

Wayne Furr found it difficult to get people to sign up for the banquet in a timely manner.

c. Registration

Wayne Furr mentioned that the PayPal system had some issues from those using state credit cards that would not work with the service.

d. Timing of the Conference

Dsicussion about the best time of the year for COGNA. Was a fall conference and switched to spring in 2011.   Spring was chosen because it seemed to be the best timeframe for the Federal Fiscal year in the past. Pete Boulay mentioned that this year was an exception due to the events that unfolded.  Other spring conferences were mentioned that wound up being cancelled due to the Sequester.

3. Presentation for Austin, TX: Claire DeVaughan

Wayne presented for Claire DeVaughan in regards for GOGNA 2014 in Austin at the Holiday Inn Town Lake (Lady Bird Lake) in Austin, Texas from April 29-May 4, 2014.

Dan White made the motion for Claire DeVaughan to be Conference Coordinator, Pete Martinez seconded.  Note that Richard Wade is the Chairman of the committee host.

Wayne noted that COGNA has until August 1 to cancel with no conditions.

-Ayes all.

Discussion then turned to the 2015 conference with Montana as a possible location. Dan White cautioned that it could be expensive to travel to Montana. Pete Boulay posed the question regarding which COGNA was attended the most. After some discussion, St. Louis, MO in 2000 had about 103 to 108 attendees, with Springfield MO in 2010 with about 70 attendees.  

4. Election of At. Large Member (Tabled) Reason: No quorum to vote on topic.

-Ethics committee- Federal Government can’t vote on structure- can confer on names issues.  Finances of COGNA since 2007 are controlled by the Executive Secretary.
 
-Discussion about renaming the conference as a training conference to more reflect what it is and to perhaps help attendees receive permission to attend.

-Discussion then ensued about what topics to keep and drop from future conferences. It was decided that Academic Talks were useful and add to the conferences. Perhaps adding a workshop on ESRI or having Google present would be beneficial in the future.

-Wayne Furr added that he is planning to continue to be the Executive Secretary for COGNA past Austin in 2014.

Dan White made the motion to adjourn the meeting, Pete Boulay seconded that motion.

Ayes-All

End of Business Meeting.