AAPA Veterans Caucus Minutes
May 31, 2011
Las Vegas Hilton
Las Vegas, NV
The meeting was called to order by President Mike Gallagher at 0815 hours.
Officers in attendance included: Mike Gallagher, President, Miguel Valdez President-Elect, Gino Gianola, Secretary/Treasurer; Sharon Hanley, Office Manager, Bruce Cunningham and Fred Brace, Directors-at-Large
Board Member Absent: Rock Munsee
Members Present: John Padgett and Hal Slusher both Lifetime Members.
Guest: Tony DiTommaso
Committee Reports
I. Review and Approval of Minutes from December, 2010 Meeting
Motion was made by Mike Valdez to accept minutes and seconded by Fred Brace. The motion carried.
II. Secretary/Treasurer’s Report – Gino Gianola
- * We will continue to have our taxes handled by our current
- accountant, T. Robert Ward.
- * Tax filing was extended until August 2011.
- * Our finances remain stable.
- * Copies of current balances were distributed to the Board members and they included categories of Income and Expenses and Profit/Loss reports.
Motion to accept the report was made by Bruce Cunningham and
seconded by Mike Gallagher. The motion passed unanimously.
Please see attached report for details.
III. Charity Committee Report – Bruce Cunningham
- * Bruce reported that $500 was given to the Veterans Homeless Organization in Puerto Rico.
- * Bruce then requested we donate $500 to the Las Vegas Veterans Homeless Clinic and John Padgett said he could take it to them.
Motion was made by Fred Brace and seconded by Mike Valdez to give $500 and the motion passed unanimously.
- * Fundraising Committee is currently applying to some pharmaceuticals seeking support. Discussion revolved around requesting funds from Veterans Organizations especially if they have Foundations.
- * The Treasurer was asked to further investigate tax issues regarding raffles for motor vehicles and/or motorcycles.
- * Mike Gallagher commented that Committee Chairs can make decisions about the direction of their Committee and bring their decisions back to the BOD for approval.
Motion to accept the report was made by Mike Valdez and seconded by Mike Gallagher. The motion passed unanimously.
Please see attached report for details.
IV. Newsletter Committee Report – Mike Gallagher
- * We have published one newsletter since the last report.
- * The Newsletter Committee was dissolved for a few weeks and reconstituted with Tim Egan taking it over for one newsletter.
- * Blanca Tehnet has taken over the position as Editor.
- * There was a general concern about lack submission of articles by Board members. Mike Gallagher suggested with great vigor for Board Members to submit articles.
Motion to accept the Newsletter Committee report by Mike Valdez and seconded by Fred Brace. The motion passed unanimously.
Please see attached report for details.
V. Web Site Committee Report – Fred Brace
- * Hosting our site cost $66.00, Membership software costs $110.00.
- * The detailed report shows 65,000 visits over the year and 6000 visits per month in the last two months. This indicates a very busy site.
- * Photo gallery now has photos from PA Historical Society.
- * The Career Center is now active.
Motion to accept the Web Site Report was made by Mike Valdez and seconded by Gino Gianola
Please see attached report for details.
VI. Diversity Committee Report – Rock Munsee
- * Due to the absence of Rock, no report was given.
VII. Veterans Health Affairs Committee Reports – Rock Munsee
- * Due to the absence of Rock, no report was given.
VIII. Office Manager’s Report – Sharon Hanley
- * Sharon announced that she will be stepping down as Office Manager as of December 2012. There was discussion on the transfer of information and responsibilities to Committee Chairs.
- * There was considerable dialogue to separate the Secretary/Treasure position.
Motion was made by Mike Gallagher and seconded by Mike Valdez to separate function the position of Secretary/Treasurer.
We would create the office of Secretary who will take over responsibility of Office Manager. The Secretary would be a voting
Board member. The Treasurer would change and be a four year position as well as that of the Secretary for continuity. Since this
would be a By-laws change, it would need to be sent out to the membership for a vote. This motion passed unanimously.
Motion to accept Sharon’s report was made by Mike Gallagher and seconded Gino Gianola and the motion carried.
Please see attached report for details.
IX. Scholarship Committee Report – Rock Munsee
- * Rodney Grogan presented the Scholarship Committee Report in Rock’s absence. He discussed the web access for submission of applications. There were a few bumps in the road this year but appears next year should run much smoother.
- * 12 scholarships given this year with a total of $20,000.00 dispersed.
- * Two new scholarships were created for 2012: The Grogan for Dependents Scholarship and the Jessie Edwards Scholarship.
- * There was continued conversation of dependents receiving specific scholarships and additional dialogue of prioritizing scholarships. Final decision of scholarships will be left up to committee.
Motion to accept the Scholarship Committee report was made by Mike Valdez and was seconded by Gino Gianola. The motion passed unanimously.
Please see attached report for details.
X. Memorial Day Committee Report – Mike Valdez
- * Memorial Day cost was less then expected.
- * Plans for the 2012 Memorial Day Ceremony in Toronto, Canada are moving along and there will be further conversation with the Canadian veterans.
Motion to accept the Memorial Day Report was made by Mike Gallagher and second by Bruce Cunningham. The motion passed unanimously.
Please see attached report for details.
XI. Awards Committee Report – Mike Valdez
- * The civilian and military veteran of the year information was presented.
- * The Board was encouraged enthusiastically to provide names of deserving individuals for next year.
Motion to accept the report was made by Mike Gallagher and second by Bruce Cunningham. The motion passed unanimously.
Please see attached report for details.
XII. Elections Committee Report – Mike Valdez
- * Candidate recruitment needs to continue at a more brisk pace for next year’s elections.
- * Voting by the membership is still low.
Motion to accept the report was made by Gino Gianola and second by Bruce Cunningham. The motion passed unanimously.
Please see attached report for details.
XIII. Continuing Medical Education Report – Mike Gallagher
- * Mike Gallagher and Sharon Hanley gave continuing Medical Education Committee report. They discussed the 20th Anniversary Dinner Dance at Tropics.
- * Geisinger will continue to support the work of the Caucus on Tropics in the Tropics when Sharon steps away from the Office Managers position.
- * The search for the site of the 2012 Topics in the Tropics continues
Motion to accept was made by Mike Valdez and seconded by Bruce Cunningham. The motion passed unanimously.
Please see attached report for details.
XIV. Finance Committee Report – Mike Gallagher
- * This is oversight committee.
- * No issues this year with books.
- * Finances look stable.
Motion to accept the report was made by Bruce Cunningham and seconded by Mike Valdez. The motion passed unanimously.
Please see attached report for details.
XV. Professional Wellness Committee Report – Mike Gallagher
- * There were no Professional Wellness problems reported at this time.
XVI. Ethics & Grievance Committee Report – Dallas Lipscomb
- * No Ethics problems at this time.
- * There was a grievance filed by a previous Board member, which was addressed by the Committee Chair and discussed by the Board. Issue resolved.
Motion to accept the report was made by Mike Gallagher seconded by Fred Brace. The motion passed unanimously.
Please see attached report for details.
XVII. Marketing Committee Report – Bruce Cunningham & Dallas Lipscomb
- * Dallas needs to move merchandise from his home due to hurricane
- * Merchandise includes shirts and prints.
- * Shirts and some prints will go to Sharon.
- * Prints will go to climate-controlled storage temporally and then may go to Steve.
- * Numbered prints are now stored with Dallas and need to be moved.
Motion to accept the report was made by Mike Gallagher and seconded by Mike Valdez. The motion passed unanimously.
Please see attached report for details.
XVIII. Membership Committee Report – Sharon Hanley
- * The Executive Committee decided to reinstate Lifetime Membership last year. This year we have 14 new Lifetime members.
- * There was discussion to leave students who applied for scholarships off membership list.
- * Sharon provided Excel spread sheet showing members present and past.
- * On the Caucus website, if membership expires they will have no access to membership only group information. However there will be a grace period.
- * There was an extensive discussion on the use of the membership software from the Web Site.
Motion: Delete automatic membership to students who apply for scholarship was made by Mike Gallagher and seconded by Gino Gianola. The motion passed unanimously.
Motion: Charge students $10.00 for two-year membership was made by Mike Gallagher and seconded by Gino Gianola. The motion passed unanimously.
Please see attached report for details.
New Business
A. Discussion of continued need for Quarterly Reports by Committee Chairs to enhance communications – this is very important to our survival. We need to keep the lines of communication open.
B. Mike Gallagher handed over Gavel to Mike Valdez, New President.
C. Mike Valdez noted:
- * Bylaws changes will be set out to the entire membership by Fred and voted on thru the Web.
- * Fred was asked to create a training manual for the web site for a future Webmaster. We do not want to find ourselves in the position of no one knowing the operation should something happen to Fred.
- * Further discussion was continued about new Secretary position and if to appoint an interim Secretary until new bylaws changes and election.
- * Mike Gallagher volunteered to redesign/remake the Caucus coin for our 30th anniversary. Design will be mailed out to Board for their review and approval
- * Mike Valdez announced new and continuing committee chairs as noted:
- Awards Committee John Padgett
- Election Committee John Padgett
- Veterans Health Committee Rock Munsee
- Ethics & Grievance Gino Gianola
- Membership Mike Gallagher
- Website & Communication Fred Brace
- Memorial Day Committee John Padgett
- Charity Committee Bruce Cunningham
- Finance Mike Gallagher
- Newsletter Blanca Tehnet
- Diversity Rock Munsee
- Scholarship Rock Munsee
- Marketing Retailing Steve Lackie
- Marketing Professionalism Gino Gianola
- Policy Procedure John Padgett
The meeting was adjourned at 1215 hours. The next meeting will be held on Wednesday, December 7, 2011 in Cancun, México at 0800.
Respectfully submitted,
FJ Gino Gianola, PA, DFAAPA
Secretary/Treasurer
May 2011
