20170309 Minutes

International Society of Precision Agriculture (ISPA) Board Meeting Minutes

March 9, 2017

Conference Call

Participants: Nicolas Tremblay, President; Ken Sudduth, Past-President; Ian Yule, President Elect; Terry Griffin, Treasurer; Viacheslav Adamchuk, Secretary; Quentin Rund, Executive Secretary

Could not attend: Raj Khosla, Founding President; John Stafford, 2012-14 President

The meeting started at 14:30 EST.

Nicolas started the meeting by listing the participants and absences and reviewed the agenda.

Nicolas reviewed the minutes from December 15, 2016. Terry and Ken will look into financial items. The minutes were unanimously approved.

Quentin described the details of the Sheraton Hotel proposal. The facility is of a high quality. The cost of a room is somewhat higher ($148 US versus $135 US in St Louis). Nicolas asked about the potential drawbacks of this proposal. Quentin listed the key obligations (e.g., required spending on food and beverage), which appears reasonable and comparable to the Sacramento meeting. Nicolas mentioned that the conference structure will be discussed at the next meeting. The board voted unanimously to move forward with the presented proposal. The public announcement will be made after several strategic items are resolved.

Quentin reviewed the status of the proceedings available to ISPA members. These include ICPA proceedings back to 2008 (fee-based availability to non-members). ACPA proceedings also follows the same structure, but an alternative may be necessary to make them available to non-member conference participants. Slava asked about access to proceedings for conference participants and nonmembers of ISPA. Terry and Ian both mentioned that paper visibility is beneficial. Quentin mentioned that an outsourced hosting of proceedings costs about $60/month. Nicolas, Ken and Terry will explore the potential financial structure for proceedings posting. Ken asked if ASA was approached in terms of accessibility to old proceedings. Quentin is in the process of contacting the right individuals. Nicolas summarized that the current focus is on the current proceedings, but access to older proceedings would also be beneficial.

Terry has been reviewing old financial reports and asked about board reimbursements for participation to ECPA. Nicolas clarified that this was for ICPA participation only. The item relating to the reconduction of the PRAG editor stipend payment will be discussed at the next meeting. Terry asked if it would be possible to establish a protocol for board reimbursements. Quentin requested to have an allocation available for relatively small reimbursements. Nicolas responded that this is a reasonable idea and Terry, Quentin and Nicolas will work on this item for future approval. Terry asked about the tax paperwork and Quentin responded that form 990EZ should be applicable if annual revenue stays below $50K. The form is due May 15. Terry provided the financial report. Specifically, he conducted several day-to-day transactions. New CDs are $50K (Feb 2022, 1.9% APR), $30K (Apr 2020, 1.01%), and $30K (Dec 2018, 0.90%). This left accessible balance at $52K. Paul Carter will be paid for 2016 and the compensation policy is up for renewal. Nicolas mentioned a report from John, which will be discussed at the next meeting. To date, Ken remains a signature authority for ISPA before this transfers to Nicolas.

Nicolas reviewed the next work items: 1) 2018 ICPA logistics, 2) position on relationship with national societies, 3) differentiated fees for low-income countries, 4) ECPA and ACPA update, 5) PRAG editing report. Quentin has asked that a decision be made on proceedings. Ken added that the next agenda should also include a discussion on broad financial strategy.

The schedule poll for the next board meeting will be sent shortly. So far, board meetings have gone  well, considering the geographic dispersion of Board members.

The meeting was adjourned at 15:40 EST.

Distributed Agenda

1. Call to order / welcome
2. Agenda approval
3. Review and approval of minute (2016-12-15)
4. Review of the proposal from the Sheraton for 14th ICPA in Montreal (Q. Rund)
5. Access to Past/Future ICPA(-ECPA-ACPA) volumes (Q. Rund)
6. Finances
   1. Audit status (Q. Rund / T. Griffin)
   2. Surety bond (T. Griffin)
   3. Certificate of deposit / stacking strategy (T. Griffin)
7. Proposed items for next Board meeting
   1. Strategy and activities for 14th ICPA
   2. Position on national PA societies
   3. Reduced fees according to the World Bank country classification
   4. Update on ECPA (J. Stafford)
   5. Update on ACPA (I. Yule)
   6. Review of PRAG report and funding
8. Adjourn