Board of Directors Meeting: Wednesday, May 5, 2023

 

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.