WEST POINT SOCIETY OF DENVER
Board of Directors Meeting
MINUTES OF MEETING – Wednesday, May 5, 2023
Meeting conducted remotely via Zoom
Call to order – By President Joel Martin at 11:37 AM
Attendees
·
Board members participating on the Zoom call
were: Jace Johnson, Steve Best, Sam Thiessen, Bob Walcott, Shannon
Bican, Joel Martin, and Andy Benson.
·
A quorum was not on the Zoom call, however,
with the two proxy votes that Joel had been given by Lou Schroeder and Chad
Dalton for the purpose of voting for officers, it was decided unanimously that
the meeting could proceed for officer elections with a quorum of nine votes.
·
WPSD member Tina Morris, invited to attend by
President Joel Martin, joined the meeting at 1230.
Minutes of the Last Board Meeting
Because a full quorum was not present with enough proxies to vote
specifically on the last Board Meeting Minutes, which was the Annual Planning
Meeting held on 24 January 2023, the minutes were not approved that the current
meeting.
Treasurer’s and Membership Reports
·
Brian MacDonald did not attend so these
reports were not presented. Joel said he
was continuing to talk with potential replacements for the Treasurer position.
·
Joel
plans to discuss with Board Member Emeritus Dave Jackson, who has served
as Treasurer before Brian, if he would consider serving as Acting Treasurer
until Joel, as the new Past Immediate President and Officer Nominating
Chairman, is able to discuss with others who would be willing to serve in the
position. Joel will also talk with Mike
Euperio about being treasurer because Mike has indicated a willingness to take
the position.
·
Andy said he believes the Society still owes the
University Club money for Founders Day expenses. A brief discussion was held about the need to
conduct an audit of Society funds because one has not been conducted for
several years.
Officer Elections
Normally the Immediate Past President, serving ex-officio as
Chairman of the Officer’s Nominating Committee, would present a nomination
slate for the next three-year term for Society officers, but with Brain MacDonald
absent it was decided to proceed as follows.
Officer Nominations were presented, and each moved to a
separate vote:
·
Sam nominated Steve Best for the position of
WPSD President, Joel seconded. No other
nominations were presented. The vote for
Steve as President was unanimous.
·
There was no vote for WPSD First VP. Sam asked Andy Benson if he would consider
taking the position. Andy said he would
like to consider this. Joel recommended
that we postpone the vote for VP and said he would discuss the position of VP
with Andy after the meeting. Joel also
said that Chad Dalton had said he would consider being nominated for the VP
position if no one else volunteered for the position. It was decided by the Board Members present
on the call to postpone the election for VP until Joel was able to discuss the
position further with Andy and Chad.
·
Joel nominated Tim Griesmer for the position of
WPSD Scribe/Secretary. Sam
seconded. No other nomination was
presented. The vote for Tim to retain
the position of Secretary was unanimous.
·
There was no vote for the position of WPSD
Treasurer. Brian is the current Society
Treasurer, and he notified the board during the Annual Planning Meeting in
January that he was unable to continue in this position.
·
Sam nominated Jace Johnson to retain the
position of VP for Admissions. Joel
seconded. The vote to retain Jace as VP
for Admissions was unanimous. Jace noted
that he glad to continue holding the position but gave notice that he might be
moving out the state in a year or so.
·
The appointed position of Communications
Director was briefly discussed.
President Best will make this appointment in the future.
Third Annual WPSD Leadership & Ethics Conference
(Wednesday, April 5, 2023)
Joel reported on a very successful conference.
·
BG(R) Chris Petty, Society Member and Primary
Conference Presenter, has indicated he plans to provide an After-Action Report.
·
Jace reported on feedback from the attendees,
noting from comments that more read-ahead and take-home materials would be
good, as would be the development of several different vignettes to discuss in
break-out sessions. Jace also noted that
in the future the number limit on attendees for the larger schools should be
increased or eliminated.
·
Steve observed that moving forward, the WPLEC
needs a formalized set of records.
·
Joel needs to be reimbursed $2,078.00 for
out-of-pocket expenses for the Conference.
Army-Air Force Game in Denver/Empower Field at Mile High
(Saturday, November 4, 2023)
·
Steve noted that the Army-AF Tailgate slides
he’d sent out earlier for planning purposes were still current.
·
Steve also said that the WPSD and the Pikes Peak
Region Society (PPRS) have committed with a $2,900 (not exact) partial payment
to using Mile High Station at Empower Field for the pre-game activities. The total cost for this facility is (approximately)
$5,900, not including the addition of a tip amount expected to be around
25%. The balance and the tip are still
owed to the Station.
·
The Tailgate Organizing Committee currently
consists of Steve, Chad Dalton, and PPRS President Mike Boatner.
·
Steve will establish more committees for the
Tailgate as we progress. Jace
volunteered to head up the Parking Committee.
Other 2023 Programs and Events
·
Joel reported he believes Tim has submission
of AOG Distinguished Society underway and close to submission.
·
The remaining programs/events on the agenda were
not discussed in the absence of the respective committee chairs.
New Board Member
·
Joel moved to elect Tina Morris, USMA 1994, for Brain MacDonald’s vacant position, to serve until
2024. Same seconded the motion. Tina was unanimously elected to the Board of
Directors.
Steve adjourned the meeting at 1300.
