Conference Call

FITS Excom Conference Call 3/10/2016 10:00am-11:24 CST (call continued after secretary had to disconnect).

 

Attendees:

Julie DeFilippi

Jeff Kopaska

Andy Loftus

Nicole Eiden

Nick Sievert

Rebecca Krogman

 

Discussion:

  • Julie- AIFRB symposium, FITS donated $200, we will get to host the materials on our website.
  • FAMS Loan
    • Andy pointed out that we need to make sure that the Tennessee funds that we paid directly, as well as the fact that everything paid off before the end of the first year would not have accrued interest.
    • Nick- Will make sure the amount due (which will be provided by Dan Cassidy) lines up with the stipulations in the contract
  • Investing with AFS
    • We have not received any additional information –Nick
    • Rebecca suggests we hold off on a year before investing it.
    • Julie- Last year we didn’t make money but we also didn’t lose it.
    • Andy- Thom may have information he received while he was on the governing board related to this.
      • Even if we started poking around now, we could have a better idea of what we’d like to do in the future.
    • Julie- Will look into this further. Will CC Nick. Discuss further on the next call when we have more information from AFS as to the options.
  • Julie- FDX had another call
    • Webinar series- No need to focus on more success stories
    • Discussion on what the products should be (lots of different perspectives)
      • Suggestion to approach the LCCs (Dan Weifriech), interest has been expressed.
      • Funding is necessary to go forward and produce a product
      • So plan is to approach the LCCs with a proposal
      • Jeff and Andy agreed with the summary provided by Julie
    • Nicki asked for clarification as to what FDX is, and Julie summarized the objectives of FDX
    • Jeff asked why Julie feels more positive
      • Julie responded that she felt that the dialogue was better and that the movement away from success stories told through webinars is a big step in the right direction.
      • The movement towards working with the LCCs will benefit the initiative
      • Expects to get more people involved in the future
      • Jeff’s opinion: Didn’t feel like he was being listened to. Felt like they weren’t listening to his needs but instead trying to dictate to him what he needed (using their fragmentation metrics, etc.)
      • In depth discussion about how funding is variable based on region and allows folks working in different areas to be able to do different things.
    • Fisheries article is set to be sent out-Nick
      • No one felt a need to provide more edits.
    • Preparing the next generation of fisheries professionals—thematic issue of fisheries
      • Julie was sent this. They are looking for companion pieces from sections and emerging leaders to address this.
      • Need to know if we are willing to do it by March 14th
      • Deadline for writeup is April 25th
      • 900 word essay or 250 word sidebar
      • Our topic could be related to technology in fisheries training.
      • Jeff and Julie will take lead
        • Others from the group will help out as needed.
        • Will reach out to Keith from OFWIM for other contributions
      • Mid-Year Report
        • Get comments to Julie by the end of next week.
        • Nick will respond to the financial and gis course info. Will also try to get info for website traffic but we may need Thom for this.
        • Discussion about support, manage, and promote a fisheries professional certification program.
          • Jeff would like to discuss the program with the certification committee. Right now the certification has very little overlap with the work many of our section members do. Is there a way to make the certification overlap with the kinds of work FITS people do. It doesn’t really hold a lot of value for professionals related to our types of work.
          • Julie- Will look into this more and possibly talk to people about how we could link in FITS with professional certification.
          • Andy and Julie discussed that this might be approporiate to work with OFWIM on.
          • Andy discussed Data Management as a specialty certification within the Fisheries Professional Certification.
        • Strategy 11 might be left blank, because we don’t necessarily have good responses for these items. Hard to breakdown into the categories they list.
      • Andy- Needs to get in touch with Jeff Slipke about an issue a user had using it on Windows 10.

 

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