Minutes of the High Plains AMS/NWA Chapter Meeting

October 5, 2006

This meeting was held during the lunch hour of the High Plains 10th Conference.  About 15 members and 2 visiting members from the Wichita AMS chapter attended.  The meeting was held in a vacant pool side bar of the Dodge House Hotel and Convention Center.

Call to order.   The meeting was called to order at 12:40 PM.  Secretary Tim Burke/DDC read the 7/18/06 meeting minutes, which were accepted as read.

Treasurer’s report.  Treasurer Matt Masek/LBF provided a status of the Chapter’s funds as of October 3rd, 2006, one day prior to the start of the conference. Since the 7/18 meeting, 4 new members paid dues ($40.00), $0.85 interest was earned, and $1817.90 was received from pre-registration fees for the conference.  As of 10/3/06, the Chapter’s checkbook and ledger balances were both $3483.14.  A summary of conference fees and expenditures will be provided later.

Old Business.  After much discussion on the quorum issue, it was decided to put this topic to an email vote to members.  The consensus at this meeting was to change our current requirement of 1/2 the membership to define a quorum to 1/4 the membership.  Due to the large area and travel time covered by our membership, from North Platte, NE to Dodge City, KS, we often have less than 1/3rd of our current members at any given meeting.  A lower requirement for a quorum would allow us to conduct normal business at our meetings.  President David Floyd/GLD will send out an email vote to poll our members on this subject.

New Business.  President David Floyd announced the creation of the “Jim Johnson Memorial Scholarship”.  Jim Johnson was the main organizer of this chapter, 12 years ago.  He was also largely responsible for planning the 1st High Plains Conference in Dodge City in 1996.  Upon Jim’s recent retirement, GLD MIC Scott Meltzer honored Jim by donating $500 to the Chapter, to be used as a scholarship for a graduating high school senior who is planning to pursue a degree in one of the sciences.  The High Plains AMS/NWA chapter will administer this scholarship, seeking out graduating seniors in Kansas and Nebraska who are planning to major in a science degree.  Another $500 was anonymously donated, to be used for the 2nd year this scholarship is awarded.  Our members voted to take this on as an annual scholarship, after discussing alternative means to raise the needed funds.

One way we plan to fund part of this scholarship is to raise our Chapter dues to $15.00/year.  This is the first increase in our Chapter’s dues since inception (1994).  This dues increase will become effective next year.  We also discussed restructuring the prize money awarded at our annual conference to winners of the student competition.

Members of the Wichita AMS/NWA chapter pitched an idea to become part of our annual rotating conference schedule, meaning each office would host the conference each 5 years, instead of the current 4.  This idea met with a favorable reception.  The Wichita chapter will prepare and submit a proposal to the High Plains Chapter, which will be reviewed and voted on.

At this meeting, we voted to award $500 to our first place graduate student presenter at the conference, and $200 to the 2nd place finisher.  We had previously voted to award $500 to the graduate winner and $500 to the undergraduate winner.  Since we had no entries in the undergraduate competition, we modified the original plan.  

Adjournment.  The meeting adjourned at 1:10 PM.  The next meeting will be held around the Dec/Jan time frame, but has not been planned.


Dave Floyd, President and Tim Burke, Secretary