Wednesday, April 27, 2005-
Board of Director's meeting - Part 1
Board Members present: Mark Venuti, Tom Healy. Pete Foti, Jim Kisner, Barry Gerber, Rob Biscoe, Roy Ryals, Charlann Staab and Joe Gibson.
Guests: Dawn Duran, DMFD
Mark Venuti called the meeting to order at 12:10pm.
The Board members were asked to review the minutes from the March 7th, 2005 Board meeting. Jim motioned to accept, seconded by Barry. Motion passed.
Mark welcomed everyone to the meeting. Mark spoke on the challenges we are experiencing about a location / site for the General Membership meeting and meeting date (conflicts).
Mark thanked Daisy Mountain for their continued hosting of the Board meetings and their efforts to provide lunch for the Board.
Mark advised the Board that he spoke with Gene Wilke, Bureau of EMS Office Chief, and he is excited to participate in the General Membership meeting.
Rob Biscoe provided and update from the Legislative committee. The committee has three candidates to interview for the association’s lobbyist scheduled for Friday April 29th at 9:00am. The candidates are John D. Thomas, referred by Jacque Holladay, Lee Miller, Lobbyist currently working for AFDA, and Mitch Menlove of Matt Salmon’s group, referred by Elaine Arena (past Lobbyist).
Rob asked the Board to define, for the interviews, what we our expectations are for the Lobbyist. Lee Miller advised that it would cost the association about ten to twelve thousand a year for regular updates and that we would expect costs of double to triple for more aggressive work.
Joe advised it was very helpful to receive regular written updates, like we received from Elaine Arena, that enabled him to place the information on the website and or e-mail to the association as warranted.
Mark advised that we need to have someone that is a watchdog of legislative events, who also submits and tracks progress.
Roy suggested that the core elements of the Lobbyist should be to identify legislation that impact the Association, monitoring and to negotiate and work amendments. Secondly we need to be able to introduce legislation (possibly an add on for the work). It is also important to watch the 2171 money to be sure it gets back to the regions.
Roy mentioned that we need to make sure that the candidate we select should not have any potentially perceived conflicts of interest. The lobbyist should not have affiliations with an agency / member.
Joe mentioned that the association should have a pre-determined plan of operation in the event that someone has a conflict of interest situation.
Tom agreed that we need more of a watchdog lobbyist. We also need to be fiscally responsible to the Association.
Jim Kisner added that he felt that the perceived conflict of interest with our last Lobbyist, in his opinion, was more perception than true conflict.
Roy added that the Lobbyist should have the expertise to shepherd legislation through the process. Should have strong political connections.
Discussion ensued about the amount of previous legislation has been authored by the AzAA. How much we actually submit. The lobbyist should have knowledge / experience with CON’s. Past legislative issues involved CON concerns.
Roy mentioned that the issues of the Air Ambulances rules and regulations should be addressed.
Charlann recommended to be cautiously neutral.
Joe Gibson provided a financial Report for 2005 year to date and distributed the AzAA Mail received.
Joe gave an update on the location and date planning for the General Membership Meeting.
Mark recommended that he could check into the availability of the Snow Bowl resort to be able to remain in Flagstaff.
Discussion opened on the option of moving the meeting to Tucson to piggyback on the AFDA meeting. We could have the reception the night before our meeting Wednesday), then the AzAA General membership meeting on Thursday, the day before the AFDA meeting begins.
It was decided that with all the time and efforts it took this year, to try and secure a summer location in the cool country, that we need to plan for the 2006 general membership meeting location as soon as possible.
Discussion opened on the format for the August membership meeting.
Business Meeting, Keynote Speaker, Gene Wilke, Breakout session, Lunch, Breakout session the back to a general session for closing.
Breakouts should be structured to give options for Fire related, ambulance related, administrative and billing related, to give options for the variety of attendees from many disciplines.
It was agreed by the Board that we cannot affectively secure speakers for our meeting until the date and location is secured. This will be Joe’s top priority. |
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