MMSA Board Meeting Minutes
Fall Tour -Sept 26, 1998

The September 26, 1998, MMSA Board meeting was called to order at 4:55 PM by President John Anton. After amending the minutes of the last Board meeting to reflect Terry DeLoughery's status was excused absence the minutes were approved. The Treasurer's report was accepted and bills were presented for our insurance premium and flowers for Lynn Reynolds. Both bills were authorized.

Committee Reports:

Budget: John Anton and Larry Haigh presented a new budget, which was adopted. They also recommended that the fiscal year be changed to July I through June 30. This would allow more accurate bookkeeping for the Fall Tour, Annual Conference and membership fees. The change was adopted. They also recommended a double signature system for all checks. Due to the geographical separation of Board members, it was decided to satisfy this need by having the President sign vouchers for the issuance of checks and the Treasurer signing/issuing the checks.

Fall Tour: Larry Haigh reported that attendance for the Fall Tour was 102.

Maple Contest: Terry DeLoughery reported that Carl Witte and Steve Youdes had volunteered to assist him. However, he still needed one more volunteer.

Nomination/Election: Ron Kistler reported that Earl Girard and Paul Williams would not seek re-election in 1999.

Annual Meeting: As the meeting date and place had already been established, the discussion centered on the agenda/program for the meeting. A letter was read which indicated an interest in discussing the use of defoamers. It was the consensus of the Board that a better forum for this topic would be the "Letters to the Editor" portion of the newsletter. Topics for the afternoon breakout sessions that were discussed included use of computers, beginners, value added products, and forestry issues

Membership/Honorarium: Marv Besteman presented the first draft outline for an awards program.

Grants: The committee's recommendation was presented. After discussion, the Board decided to adopt a permanent budget amount for grant activities and to take Grants out of the Promotion activity and give it its own activity status within the budget.

Promotion: The committee reported that the video would take an additional year to complete. It also reported that we had entered into an arrangement with a class at Lansing Community College to develop a Strategic Plan for MMSA. There is no cost to MMSA for this project. The committee recommended that we develop a web-site advertising page to help pay for the site and to alleviate problems for the site manager recommending customers to producers. The Board accepted the report and directed the committee to move forward with all three projects.

There was no Old or New Business.

The next Board meeting was announced as January 22, 1999, at the Doherty Hotel in Clare.

The meeting was adjourned at 6:30 PM.

Respectfully Submitted,
Brian Vissers, Secretary