NE-SECTION -AIPG
EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE MEETING
January 6, 2003
Malcolm Pirnie, Inc.
104 Corporate Park Drive
White Plains, New York

I. Call To Order:
1615 Attendees: Dan St. Germain, Dennis McGrath, Bob Stewart, W. Thomas West, and Bob Blauvelt. By Phone: Dean Herrick, Sam Gowan, and Arnie Schiffman, Kerry Hanlon.

II. Secretary's Report:
Minutes of the December 2, 2002 meeting were reviewed. Dennis McGrath presented a motion to accept the minutes with minor corrections. Bob Stewart seconded the motion and the minutes were approved by an Executive Committee vote.

III. Treasurer's Report:
The January 6 Treasurer's report was reviewed. Dennis M. presents a motion to accept the treasurer's report. Sam Gowan seconded the motion and the treasurer's report was approved by an Executive Committee vote.

IV. Correspondence:
Dan St. Germain contacted the Colorado Section and discussed the events that could be sponsored by the NE-Section. The Ice Breaker reception is something that the NE-AIPG Section has typically sponsored in the past, but Dan thought that the Coffee-Break sponsorship might allow an opportunity for presenting information on the 2004 National meeting. Dennis indicated that the host section of the National meeting typically allows a booth to be set up for advertising the following years National meeting. The Section will need to decide by March which event to sponsor to be recognized in the meeting brochure. The Executive Committee voted to sponsor one of the Technical session breaks at $500.

V. Old Business:
NYSCPG Update - (provided by Sam Gowan): The licensing bill is going to be re-written, and re-introduced in next legislative session; the association is also considering obtaining a new sponsor with broader appeal in the assembly.

ATMGSTF Update- (provided by Dennis): Contributions to the Angelo scholarship fund have been successful with Dennis's and Dick Young's efforts on the "You Can Count on Me" fundraising drive. According to Dennis, contributions to the Angelo scholarship fund for 2002 were over $6,000.

Spring Meeting: Dan and Dennis have selected a field trip for the Saratoga Springs thermal springs from the AASG field trip guidebook. The location for the Spring 2003 meeting was selected by Dan and Dennis to foster momentum for the organization of the 2004 National meeting. Will Rodgers has agreed to lead the field trip and Bill Kelly has agreed to give the dinner talk on garnet mines in the local area. The Spring 2003 field trip is scheduled for May 14th. The initial hope is to possibly combine dinner with HMPGA (Hudson-Mohawk Professional Geologist Association). Bob Fakundiny has been coordinating the combined effort, and Dan has tried to reserve a meeting room for 2-hours at the Gideon Putnam for the Executive Committee Meeting so that the NE Section members will have an opportunity to see the 2004 National meeting site. Dean recommended that we contact and see if someone from National could attend the meeting - possibly Bill Siok, to talk about AIPG.

Newsletter - Bob Stewart indicated that he intends to make the newsletter a key vehicle for news and announcements regarding the 2004 National meeting. Dan discussed re-vamping the website to also include more visibility for the 2004 National meeting.

VI. National Meeting:
Are we set with the Committee Chair People? Dan contacted Jim Richert of Malcolm Pirnie's Buffalo office and he has agreed to chair exhibits, also Dennis Wolterding (CPG and NYSDEC) agreed to help (although his assistance level has yet to be determined). According to Bob Stewart, committee chairs for the National meeting have been filled with the exception of a Publicity chairman. Dan recommends that Bob Stewart hold monthly teleconferences with chair people to keep momentum going and make sure each of the chairs are accomplishing assigned tasks. Bob agreed to initiate monthly conference calls, and indicated that the first call will be set for first week of February and the results of these calls will then be presented during the ex-com meetings. According to Bob, the first task will be to develop a written committee plan and budget for each of the committees. Bob Stewart discussed what he believes each of the committee chairs need to focus on:

Program Chair: (Bob Blauvelt) What sort of program do we want? For example, the Glenwood Springs meeting had both technical and professional sessions. Bob Blauvelt had sent e-mail to Bob Stewart on his thoughts on varies topics that might be included in the meeting. The four general topics included: Environment, Mineral Resources, Geology, and Hot Topics.

Field Trips: (Lance Mead) Do we have one large topic on the geology of the Adirondacks, or smaller, shorter more focused on local areas of interest?

Short Courses: (Craig Werle) Unfortunately Craig was not in attendance at the Executive Committee meeting, but Bob Steward believes that the short courses should tie into theme of the meeting (assuming that the Executive Committee accepts the proposed theme - "From Extraction to Restoration - geologic management of natural resources - at this point Bob Stewart has not received any feedback on the proposed theme).

Exhibits: Bob Stewart's wife has contact with an event planner, which could help with getting handouts/tote bags, pens, etc. for meeting. Bob agreed to look through the catalogue and possibly select something for handing out at spring field trip.

Evening Programs: (Dean Herrick) Dean needs to draft a schedule of the events - dinner cruise, night at the races, and keynote speaker; also the question of whether the awards banquet should be separate from the speaker needs to be determined and which nights we want to have these events fall on. Dean will be responsible for setting up both the dinner cruise and night at the races - the Executive Committee will still needs to iron out the issue of keynote speaker and/or awards on the same or separate nights.

Registration: (Sam Gowan) Dan has already created a template for registration, Sam will need to determine what will actually go in the registration packet, and assemble staff to handle registration. We want to send out announcements about a month early to beat the leaf-peeping period. The question of whether we will be able to accept credit cards was raised? According to Arnie Schiffman, the answer is yes, but we may have to buy the software to process the registrations and we will have to pay a small percentage (2.5%) of each purchase to use the software. Arnie has agreed to look into the details and report back to the Executive Committee by the March 3rd meeting.

Fund Raising: (Dennis McGrath) Dennis has created a fund raising plan, and according to Dennis, the first step (by the end of January 2003) will be to identify a marketing strategy and revenue sources/sponsors, and then to develop an event-wide sponsor option menu/pricing (similar to Glenwood Springs). We have a large base of existing sponsors (newsletter), but Dennis suggested tackling a corporate sponsor such as Subaru or Lands End. Craig Werle had expressed an interest in going after lining up a corporate sponsor. The question was raised "should we be looking a prioritizing our sponsorships, i.e., Top 10 such as drillers, labs, supplies rather than looking to the typical consulting firms for sponsorship?" Who is located in the Albany area - various cement companies, Howe Caverns were several names that were identified during the discussion. Dennis suggested that we identify a local Albany area representative to assist in identifying the top 10; this could be completed at the sub-committee level. Also Dennis has agreed to talk with Dick Young, and perhaps develop a letter to start generating sponsorship support. Dan talked with Dick, and recalled that when advertisers were approached in 1993 to support the National meeting, it was done during advertising re-up and a 5th copy of the newsletter was published to also serve as the meeting program.

Financial Planning: (Dan St. Germain) Dan indicated that he needs to receive budgets from each of the committee's so that an overall program budget can be established and that realistic goals for fund raising can be set. Dan indicated that the devil is in the details for developing the program's budget, and we will need to carefully evaluate what costs are mandatory. In addition, Dan will be involved reviewing all of the contracts required for the meeting.

Publicity Chair is still open: Tom Van Biersel, who works at Southern Connecticut State University has volunteered to act as the academic liaison and get the word out to the student population. Bob Stewart has agreed to report back to Tom on how he can assist us, and Bob acknowledged how important student involvement is. The Executive Committee reviewed the letter that Bob Blauvelt prepared to Colin Powell (Mr. Secretary) inviting him to be the 2004 keynote speaker. The Executive Committee approved the letter with minor corrections, and the group felt that the letter would be useful as a template for sending to the other prospective speakers.

VII. Adjournment
- 1815 hours.