St. Louis Area Geocaching Association

MEETING MINUTES 2021

16th Aug 2021/ 6:30 PM / meet at SmithPro Painting

ATTENDEES

Steve Bromley, Michael Smith, Robert Klemme, Nan Dabler, Melissa Pierce, David DeWitt

Meeting called to order at 6:35 pm.

Motion called to approve July 2021 minutes by Robert, seconded by Nan.

Motion called to approve July 2021 treasurer's reports by Michael, seconded by Robert.

• Nan asked David about the way Amazon charges for their services. It is a pay per use charge set up so the amount owed changes from month to month.

Retrospective

• None

       Events

• Brentwood Parks and Recs GC 101 will be held on September 11, 2021 from 10 am - 12 pm.
  • Currently have four volunteers to help with the class.
• Fall picnic is upcoming and should be held in October.
  • Will send out an email looking for a host.
    • Deadline for response is September 3rd, 2021.
  • Robert has a copy of the host duties for SLAGA sponsored picnics.

      Ongoing Business

• Procedures/Systems
  • David DeWitt was able to join us tonight to go over questions and to relay information related to the SLAGA website, store, and other online concerns.
  • Store issues
    • Can we add milestone awards to the store in some way for people to “purchase” the award and then be able to choose to pay for shipping (excluding the chair and jacket due to shipping costs) or state which picnic they will pick up the award at? 
      • Can we also include an option for “no award” wanted? 
        • It was mentioned that not everyone wants the milestone award, simply the recognition.
      • When a member signs up for an award can we include a form for updated information such as their current email and phone number?
      • Would like to also change how long we will hold onto an award.
        • Currently we have some that are several years old that have yet to be picked up by the recipients.
        • Suggested that we hold on to them for 90 days after missing the pick up date.
          • We could then reuse the award for ones not personalized.
          • Personalized awards could be placed in a cache
    • Can we add a place to renew or purchase a membership to the store?
      • Feel like it is currently somewhat confusing and bulky to do as it is now.
      • David thinks we might be able to. 
      • No can not change, this is built into the system.   David walked everybody through the process at the August meeting.
    • Can we add the old coins and trackables to the store for sale?
      • Absolutely can add to the store.
      • We will also include the Boone’s Lick Road coins for purchase at $15 plus shipping.
  • SLAGA Website
    • Is our Facebook page linked to on the site?
      • It is not currently, David will add.
    • Can we improve on the membership milestones area. It doesn’t go over what exactly is included with them.
      • Can we include pictures of what the milestone awards are?
      • Is there a way to get from the Facebook page to this area?
    • We currently email a reminder for membership renewal.
      • Can we have the email send them straight to the store?
    • We will be updating the membership prices on November 1, 2021 and need the updated information placed on the website.
  • Other technical concerts
    • Is there a way to automatically track how many total years a member has paid for?
      • David does not believe this to be possible 
    • Is there a way to ensure that individual information for family memberships are flagged that way?
      • Family memberships mean living at the same house.
        • We do have a few of these however it is not a widespread issue.
      • Family memberships are allowed 2 awards.
      • We would like to prevent extra awards going to families.
    • We need to find a new hosting website.
      • Current website, Joomla, has now hit its end of life and will no longer be doing upgrades. Community Builder will require the new version fairly soon. Blue Host will not update the MySQL to a new version
        • We probably have about a year before we will need to move.
      • David has been looking for a new hosting service that is comparable to what we have now in both services offered and cost.
        • Approval was given for David to find and acquire the needed change by Nan, seconded by Robert. No objections.
    • Is there a way to find invalid emails and then remove those people from the SLAGA membership rolls?
      • Valid email is a condition of membership for SLAGA.
    • David does have a budget for our website related costs, however can not find it currently.
      • David was the only one to turn in a budget to Steve
      • David will see if he can locate it.

• 20th Anniversary Coins
  • John Elfrank has sold all the coins he had.
    • Money was received and is in account.
• Election
  • Ballots were sent out.
    • Will send out once again in hopes to get additional votes.
  • Voting ends on August 31, 2021.
• SLAGA bylaws
  • Need to make any changes to this prior to the Fall Picnic business meeting, to take effect on November 1st, 2021.
  • Expense review needs to be added to be done yearly.
    • Fiscal year or calendar year.
  • All references to MOGA need to be removed
• Bank issues
  • Nan will need to order more check 
    • Steve thinks he may have some and will check.
  • PayPal is still listed under Pam Ueltzen as the owner.
    • In order to change this we have to give them a change with an actual person, not an organization, and with a real address. Also must be completed on SLAGA letterhead.
  • MOGA account has now been closed and remaining money has been placed into the SLAGA account.
  • A thumbnail drive with old financials had been given to a previous treasurer however it is unable to be found.
    • David located old financial information from 2014 through 2018.
  • US Bank account
    • Nan finally received a debit card for the account in June.
    • Had previous communication with Amanda, the Vice President of the Granite City, IL branch, about changing branches to one within St. Louis, MO.
      • According to Amanda all that needs to be done is to send of documents for the transfer
      • Nan talked with someone at the Kirwood, MO branch and they stated we would have to close the account and reopen it as a new account.
      • We have not been able to get a response from Amanda about this situation.
    • Steve would like to move to a new bank.
      • Will need to look at what types of fees and charges a new bank has for a 501(c)7 organization with less than $10,000 in revenue
        • Suggestions were given of banks that the board use
          • Enterprise, Royal, and Regions banks 
            • Nan will look into the suggestions.

Donated items

• Megan had donated items and asked for a statement for taxes.
  • We are unable to do that as we are a 501(c)7 organization.

New Business

• Write up for Dane Morgan’s passing
  • Melissa will complete and get out via email.
• Would like to start updating the SLAGA website four time per year
  • Ask for article contributions from members.
• Michael would like to try to get a Zoom meeting together with other geocaching groups in order to brainstorm and share ideas.
  • Michael will see if he can get some people together to do this.

CLOSED EXECUTIVE MEETING

• None

Meeting adjourned at 9:03 pm by Robert and seconded by Michael.

NEXT MONTH’S INFORMATION

Monday, September 13, 2021 at 6:30 pm at SmithPro Painting, 2655 Metro Blvd., Maryland Heights, MO 63043 

map, 7/28/2021 @ 1954, corrections 10/9/2021 @ 1126