Team Meeting & Minutes - January 21, 2006
January 21, 2006
by MLee

(Original minutes were taken by Barney Lynch.)
The following are the minutes for the team meeting held on Saturday January 21st. This is my first attempt at taking minutes and sending them out, so please bear with me. Also, in the interest of telling everyone the most important stuff, the newly elected board of directors is:

  • Carolyn Voorhees
  • Michael Lee
  • Diana Corbin
  • Andy Ellis
  • Jim Nealis

    Bill Shipp will serve as Counsel to the Board.

    Minutes:

  • 1. Carolyn Voorhees gave an overview of the reasos behind creating a formal structure for the Terrapin Masters team to operate under. These included concerns of both the University and the team, including practice fees, hosting of meets and the financial aspects of this, and having a say in the hiring of coaches.
  • 2. A formal proposal outlining the structure of the team was given to Carrie Tupper after review by several members of the Terrapin Masters team. Mike Lee & Carrie have gone over the proposal together, but it has not yet been accepted by the University.
  • 3. Bill Shipp gave an overview of the legal reasons and processes for incorporating the team, with one of the primary reasons being the protection of the individuals operating under the banner of Terrapin Masters in the interest of the team. Articles of Incorporation have been drafted and filed with the state. In order to qualify as a tax-exempt corporation with the IRS by-laws need to be written and adopted. The IRS may accept these by-laws as is, or may require additional changes.
  • 4. Bill Shipp highlighted some of the more important sections of the by-laws:
    a. A Quorum is defined as 20% of the team.
    b. The annual meeting will take place after the annual team banquet because it tends to have a high team turnout.
    c. By-laws will have to be voted on and adopted.
  • 5. Jane Strachan moved to adopt the by-laws as written. It was seconded by Diana Corbin.
  • 6. Before voting on the by-laws, Jim Nealis inquired about the ability to incur debts without approval of a quorum of the team *as originally written) and suggested choosing an amount of debt that could be incurred with only the approval of the board.
    a. It was decided that "incedental expenses" as opposed to "debts" would be allowed to a threshold of $500 with approval of the board.
    b. The board will also have the ability to incur debts in excess of $500, but will be required to inform the team, via e-mail, when doing so.
    c. As a note of explanation, the ability to incur these debts is sometimes necessary in the planning and hosting of events. An example was a meet recently where, at the last minute, it became necessary to hire timers, or for the purchasing of awards for a meet.
  • 7. At this point Bill Shipp held up the meeting in an attempt to find his pen which had gone missing. It was found being used to take the minutes.
  • 8. A vote was held and the by-laws, with the changes as described in #6 included, were adopted unanimously. Everyone clapped.
  • 9. The follwoing people were then nominated to stand for the 5 positions on the board, all persons nominated accepted: Jim Nealis, Diana Corbin, Jeff Strahota, Andy Ellis, Mike Lee, Bill Shipp, Stephanie Hutchins, Carolyn Voorhees.
  • 10. Bill Shipp proposed that the team liasons to PVLMSC be made standing members of the board, including the registrar for PVLMSC. That left 6 of the people nominated to the board and Bill Shipp then proposed withdrawing his name and becoming the Counsel to the Board as a voting member.
  • 11. Marcia Smith raised an objection to the idea of automatically making PVLMSC liasons members of the Terrapin Masters board, since the actual number of liasons from our team can fluctuate each year. It was then agreed to return to the original format of a 5-member board. Bill Shipp agreed to remain as Counsel to the Board, but as a non-voting member, in order to maintain a board with an odd number of members.
  • 12. A private paper ballot vote was held, where those in attendance voted for 5 of the 7 people nominated (Bill Shipp having withdrawn his name). Jane Strachan and Hilary Sullivan counted the votes. Carolyn Voorhees, Mike Lee, Diana Corbin, Andy Ellis, and Jim Nealis were elected. We clapped for them.
  • 13. The following people attended the meeting:
    Noble Jarrell
    Andy Ellis
    Jeffery Strahota
    Jim Nealis
    Ditte McInnes
    Michael Lee
    Barney Lynch
    Carolyn Voorhees
    Bill Shipp
    Mike Goodison
    Craig DeWing
    Hillary Sullivan
    Jane Strachan
    Steve Payne
    David Larsen
    Marcia Smith
    Meghan Gibbons
    Margot Bauman
    Diana Corbin
    Cheryl Wagner