FITS Excom Conference Call 10/6/2016 10:00am-11:08 Central
Attendees:
Julie DeFilippi
Nick Sievert
Rebecca Krogman
Andy Loftus
Thom Litts
Jeff Ojala
Julie Claussen
Jodi Whittier
Discussion:
- Science Communication Section
- Overview from Julie C:
- Initial discussion was to make sure it wouldn’t step on toes and would complement existing efforts
- Science communication is a really growing field and there is a need for it (more than just social media)
- Looked at what other professional societies have been doing
- Where is the home for this in AFS? No obvious place, fills a major need.
- Photography, public speaking, art, interviews in addition to social media, online stuff, etc.
- Objectives for section
- Building skills
- Training
- Source for talent
- Feedback for Julie C
- Rebecca- Do you have people in mind who will be leading this group
- Solomon David likely to be the first president
- Ed Henry likely to be secretary
- Probably working groups rather than appointed committees
- Julie D: Does anyone have concerns about overlap
- Andy- No concern about overlap, great addition and will be a great resource for sections needing their expertise
- Jeff Ojala- No concerns about the new section
- Rebecca- This section should have a rep on ESAB
- Julie C- would be nice to have a FITS rep involved with SCS
- Julie C- This section is not meant to lead AFS communication, they are doing their own thing.
- Rebecca- Do you have people in mind who will be leading this group
- Website update from Rebecca and others
- Rebecca- Woodstreet created a child theme for section pages under the AFS umbrella, there were some issues with the coding, redone by our consultant/contractor to avoid issues and be more similar to parent society page, much improved. Rebecca mentioned that these sites likely need to highlight news and announcements
- Folks are encouraged to check out the demo site and provide any feedback to her:
- Will likely try to distribute to sections and units pre-loaded with pages that would be likely to meet their needs
- Tight timeline for rollout because there are units that are trying to get there websites updated, including wanting to run registration through the site and want to get moved to AFS in the next month or two
- Andy Comments-
- What is member login on section/unit pages, could be confusing if it’s for the parent society
- Rebecca-Some units/chapters/divisions/sections will have logins
- Maintaining continueity between subunits and society, some operate almost independently of society, need to have set things that link these groups back to AFS, need to make that connection
- There will be a hard-coded link back to the parent society on every page, just need to decide what it is and where it goes
- Andy-subheader would be a good approach
- Issue will be balancing continuity with flexibility
- Julie D- there will be efforts to work on consistent branding with logos, there is concern by AFS about logo consistency
- Rebecca- Possibility of a logo design kit that would set guidelines,, but also allow groups to develop their own based on that within a set of bounds
- Rebecca- Once we get these details worked out we will start putting together the FITS website
- Andy- FITS site kind of provides a good template for how to set up a header that would create continuity between subunit/section/ect. And parent society
- Begin discussion on goals
- Julie- Tom brought this up at the business meeting. Our statement is very broad and doesn’t provide a clear picture of what our goals and objectives are. Our objectives are pretty vague and we might be served by updating our goals and objectives.
- Provide clarification as to why someone was to get involved with FITS versus other groups
- Julie- If anyone has ideas please send them to Julie before our next call and then she will organize it and send it out for our discussion on our next call
- Andy- This happened in the past, this is what lead to the decision to change the name of the section, be cautious of this as entails a lot of work for the secretary/treasurer to update everything in our records.
- Julie agrees and would even add that we shouldn’t even consider changing our by-laws at this time. Just wants something to make it clear what we do to people who may visit our website.
- Housekeeping:
- Southern Division sponsorship
- Puerto Rico–They are one of the newest units and will be hosting southern division, asked us for sponsorship.
- Julie D- Doesn’t think this is something we have historically done
- Andy- Don’t recall sponsoring meetings ever before (except for OFWIM/FITS co-meeting), although it’s a worthy endeavor it’s a bit of a slippery slope, how would we decide which meetings to support.
- Julie D. – Nothing related to the meeting is specifically linked to FITS so without that link it’s difficult to justify
- Consensus is that it’s not really an appropriate use of FITS funds
- Insurance
- Haven’t done this in the past, do we need this- Julie D
- Andy- we have purchased it, but only if we were going to be having unit sponsored meetings outside of the parent society meeting.
- Issue if section is a signatory on contracts (hotel, etc.)
- Jeff O- Will this be an issue if we try to do something with OFWIM
- Andy could open up some liability
- Group consensus was that this was not necessary
- Dues payment
- Need to reachout to staff again to get an answer, if we don’t hear back we need to figure out a way to get a response
- Monthly meeting schedule
- Julie will send out a calendar for future calls
- We will discuss officer elections on our next call, fisheries data exchange, symposia at Tampa
- Haven’t done this in the past, do we need this- Julie D
- Southern Division sponsorship
- Julie- Tom brought this up at the business meeting. Our statement is very broad and doesn’t provide a clear picture of what our goals and objectives are. Our objectives are pretty vague and we might be served by updating our goals and objectives.
- What is member login on section/unit pages, could be confusing if it’s for the parent society
- Overview from Julie C: