FLORIDA PARK SERVICE ALUMNI ASSOCIATION, INC.
ANNUAL BUSINESS MEETING
May 3, 2008

President Clif Maxwell called the Annual Meeting of the FPSAA to order on May 3, 2008 at 9:45 A.M. at Wakulla Springs State Park , Wakulla , Florida .  For those who missed the birding trip Friday morning at St. Mark’s 68 bird species were spotted.  He welcomed Wakulla Springs new park manager, Brian Fugate.  Brian welcomed the members and said he was already getting use to his new name which is “The New Sandy”, but was disappointed that he was unable to put that on his name tag.

President Maxwell introduced Assistant Division Director Scott Robinson who gave a brief update on Division happenings.  Last year was a challenging year particularly at the end of the year when they lost an additional 4% of the operating budget plus FCO funds.  The coming year’s budget was not looking good, but is acceptable for these bad times.  They have lost some FCO funds but the operating budget is not being cut further from last year.  They are still pursuing the decriminalization of some of the rules in 62D so that if someone won’t have a record if they break the leash law.  Also visitors will be able to use road worthy electric carts on park roads.  A Bill similar to “Florida Forever” has been passed by the Senate and House and is in the Governor’s Office for signature.

Minutes of the April 28, 2007 meeting held at Jonathan Dickinson State Park were read by Judi Maxwell.  Tom Linley moved to accept the minutes as read, seconded by George Apthorp and unanimously passed.

Treasurer Tom Linley gave the Financial Report reflecting a beginning balance for the FPSAA of $3,554.95 with credits for the year of $3,510.80 and debits of $2,079.29.  The ending balance as of 4/28/08 is $4,986.46. Tom informed the members that since the ending balance is so healthy the board voted to move $2,000 of FPSAA funds to the James Cook Memorial Fund.  The Financial Report for the James Cook Memorial Fund reflected a beginning balance of $27,754.90 with credits for the year of $6,556.04 and debits of $3,075.25.  The ending balance as of 4/28/08 was $29,104.53. Total assets of the two funds equal $34,090.99.  Operating budgets were submitted for the 2007-2008 year for FPSAA fund and the James Cook Memorial Fund Darrell Krause moved to accept the financial report.  Seconded by Sandy Cook and unanimously accepted.

Membership Chairman Larry Perry reported that we had a good year last year for dues payments and membership.  We have 117 members.  Larry was proud to announce to the members that the Executive Board had voted to approve the first Honorary Membership in the FPSAA.  The Honorary Membership was awarded to Betty Cook.

George Apthorp reported on the five projects for the past year.  Cast iron cooking was again presented at Florida Caverns and Falling Waters State Parks . Two archives service days were held at Appleyard.  Also the Southeast State Parks Programs Conference was held in Tennessee and they asked for the assistance of Alumni members to help since they had done such a great job with the conference held at Wakulla the previous year.  We had the Alumni banner displayed in a Tennessee State Park .  We’ve also volunteered to assist with next year’s conference which will be held in Delaware in December.

George announced an upcoming project at Falling Waters on June 7^th.  He was unsure what the project would be at this time.  In October there will be a work day in District 4 and sometime between June and October we will have another Appleyard project.  Phil Werndli has taken the bull by the horns and is running with the Archives project.

Ney Landrum presented the proposed slate of nominations agreed upon by the committee:

Director At Large –Bob Rundle to continue for a full term

Director At Large – George Jones to replace Dave Randall

Director At Large – Darrell Krause to replace Kathy Mathen

George Apthorp reported that there is new merchandise available for sale during the meeting and the auction.  He showed off the new mugs, polo shirts, caps, denim shirts and t-shirts.

Ney Landrum reported on the progress of writing the State Parks History.  This is a joint venture with the Division including an advisory committee consisting of three current Division employees appointed by Mike Bullock and three past employees, appointed by the Alumni president.  He has already produced the first two chapters.  His intention is to pull park service information together, analyze it and hopefully have park service employees use it.

Clif Maxwell reported that Tom Linley had conferred with a CPA regarding the motion made to follow up on obtaining 501 C3 status for the James Cook Memorial Fund.  Tom stated the CPA advised that as we are currently set up it would not be to our advantage or warrant the expense to change to a 501 C3.  If in the future we expanded the uses of the funds to include possible scholarships then we might reconsider at that time.  The Executive Board agreed to keep the status as it is.

Doug Carter reported that we hope to start back up the Oral History Interviews.  The Division person who was heading up this project has left the Division.  By this time next year they should have a new person in place and hopefully he will have more to report.

Doug also reported that the Alumni web site is becoming outdated and needs to be more user friendly.  Tom Linley has agreed to help revamp it.  There is also a List Server where with one email address we can send email to everyone on the list.  Judi Maxwell will be assisting in capturing and updating members’ email addresses.

Clif Maxwell announced that next years meeting will hopefully be held at Gold Head Branch State Park with possible backups of O’Leno or Wekiwa.

Roy Kimball was asked to give an update on happenings of the Friends of Florida State Parks.  Roy informed the members that they are still operating and are starting a campaign for members and to raise money.  They would like to be able to help the Division with some of the budget issues.

Sandy Cook announced that Phil Werndli had donated an antique organ which was his mothers.  She will be looking into the best way to sell it whether through holding a raffle or sell it on e-Bay.

Doug Carter reported that no nominations were received this year for the Carlos Maxwell Award.  He reminded the members that this is the highest award presented by the Alumni and that the criteria are posted on the web site.

  Clif Maxwell presented the President’s Award.  The award was presented to Judi Maxwell for an outstanding job serving as Secretary for multiple terms and her unflagging efforts to keep the President on track and out of trouble.

President Maxwell again announced the slate of nominees for Directors At Large put forward by the Board and asked for nominees from the floor.  As no more nominees were presented, Ney Landrum moved accept the slate put forth.  It was seconded by Doug Carter and unanimously passed.  President Clif Maxwell welcomed the new board members.

Tom Linley moved that the meeting be adjourned, seconded by Larry Perry .  The meeting was adjourned at 11:15am.

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