Kentucky Speleological Survey Meeting

April 26, 2008

Kentucky Geologic Survey Mines and Minerals Building

Lexington, Kentucky

 

 

The meeting was called to order at 10 am by the President, Bill Walden. There were seven members present, including Lou Simpson.  The secretary was not there so Shari Forsythe volunteered to record the minutes. Both members-at-large were present-John Cassidy and Don Conover.

 

The old minutes were read and approved.

 

Jim Currens gave a detailed treasurer’s report. At the end of March the KSS had a balance of $1,756.21. A small error was pointed out in the reconciliation with the bank statement.  Jim has been working on our tax exempt status. Instead of being a “private foundation,” the KSS will be a “public charity.” We are exempt from income tax. We now have temporary exempt status and expect to receive permanent status soon. We have info on reporting new hires and reporting and filing employee wages. (This is not a problem with the KSS as we are a volunteer group).

 

Preston Forsythe suggested that donations please be given to Bill Walden for the flowers for Lee Florea’s father’s funeral.

 

Jim said that Randy Paylor is still having some issues with the database. The external hard drive needs a new box. Vista is problematic. We have a copy of XP that we should probably install. Randy received a free upgrade to the database software, which he is plugging away with hoping to have it online in the future.

 

At the end of the month there will be a state speleological survey meeting soon at Bristol, TN (?). Jim and Randy may go.

 

New Business:  Jim handed out a draft of changes to the bylaws concerning fees for a data request. There was some discussion about fees for a data request. Should this be refunded if the request is denied-and, people thought we should return the fee. This was the only recommended change. We will vote on this at the next meeting. Other discussion was about discount rates for multiple year membership payments and organizational membership rates.

 

Hilary Lambert filed a data request in February for biological data on aquatic troglobites in Barren County. This information will be used in protecting karst areas in the Mammoth Cave area.

 

Bill Walden talked about a KSS newsletter. He is shooting for four times a year. This should help attendance. The on line copy will have color photos. Lou said he likes a print version even if photos were in black and white. Issues would contain items as articles, agendas, minutes, bios on people who have submitted data, and projects (who is doing what and where). Maybe we can at least start with two issues a year, including an annual report. [Please submit material for publication to Bill!]

 

A short discussion was conducted on what we would do if we ever lost our current office space. This is not a short term worry.

 

The next meeting will be at Karst-O-Rama, July 20, 10 am. The fall meeting will be October 25, 10 am, at the Cave Research Foundation facility at Hamilton Valley.

 

The meeting adjourned at 11:40.

 

Respectively submitted by Shari Forsythe