Minutes of the Annual Meeting of the Foundation for Science and Disability (FSD)

Washington, DC, February 19 , 2005

Marriott Wardman Park Hotel

2600 Woodley Rd NW, Washington, DC 20008

 

 

Call to Order/Introductions - 9:00 am

Attendees:

Gordon Anderson (Gordon.Anderson@osd.mil)

Betty Ingram (bolhasas@comcast.net)

Bob Ingram (ingraminstitute@comcast.net)

Latasha Mason (lmason@aaas.org)

Gregory Stefanich (stefanich@uni.edu)

Virginia Stern (vstern@aaas.org)

Laureen Summers (lsummers@aaas.org)

Robert Van Etten (vanetten@adelphia.net)

Richard Mankin (rmankin@gainesville.usda.ufl.edu), President

 

Greg and several other FSD members (including Laureen Summers, Virginia Stern, Ed, Keller, and Richard Mankin) are also members of Science Education for Students with Disabilities.  These two organizations have complementary missions, and the possibility of carrying out some joint website activities was discussed (see New Business).

 

Minutes

The minutes from the February 14, 2004 annual meeting in Seattle, WA were reviewed.

 

Upon a motion duly made and seconded, it was unanimously RESOLVED that the minutes of the February 14, 2004, annual meeting in Seattle, WA, be approved.

 

The minutes are posted at http://cmave.usda.ufl.edu/~rmankin/annmeetminute04.html and in the 2004 Newsletter.

 

Treasurer’s Report

Ed Keller was unable to attend the meeting but he emailed the following report for the period of January 1-December 31, 2004

 

 

 

2004

2003

ASSETS:

 

 

 

Cash on Hand

3,932.05

4,196.05

 

Money Market Account

6,834.88*

6,849.21

 

Total Assets

10,766.93

11,045.26

INCOME:

 

 

 

Dues

875.00

790.00

 

Contributions

280.00

190.00

 

Interest

13.75

22.01

 

Total Income

1,168.75

1,002.01

EXPENSES:

 

 

 

Newsletters

214.00**

385.09**

 

Postage

205.00

0.00

 

Student Award

1,000.00

1,000.00

 

Bank Service Charge

28.08

14.04

 

Total Expenses

1,447.08

1,399.13

NET INCOME:

-278.33

-397.12

 

 

 

 




 

* Interest is less than bank service charges.

** The expenditure for the 2003 Newsletter was dispersed in 2004.  The expenditure for the 2002 Newsletter was dispersed in 2003.

 

During the last three years, our expenses have exceeded income by about $1300.  The primary expenses are from student grants, the awarding of which is currently a major reason for our existence.  Although we need to build up the membership and increase contributions, the Foundation has $10,000 in reserves, and the Foundation has made some progress to correct our immediate financial difficulties.

 

It was further discussed that FSD’s corporate status may be in arrears with the District of Columbia because there is no recent record of corporate filing fees being paid to the District of Columbia Corporations office (latest record of fees being paid is 1999).

 

Upon a motion duly made and seconded, it was unanimously RESOLVED that the 2004 Treasurer report be approved.

 

Upon a motion duly made and seconded, it was unanimously RESOLVED that the President be authorized and hereby is directed to immediately take all action necessary, including ensuring that the required corporate reporting, corporate fees, and corporate late fees are provided and paid, respectively, to the DC Corporations Office, to ensure that the corporate status of FSD is officially approved by the District of Columbia.

 

Science Student Grant Committee Report - Richard Mankin

Committee – Richard Mankin, Betty Weaver

The committee received about 300 requests for applications.  One incomplete and three complete applications were returned to us.  The completed applications were of high quality, but one received particularly high recommendations from the applicant’s professors.  The committee unanimously recommends that a $1000 grant be awarded to Cheryl Fogle, a PhD student in Anthropology at the University of New Mexico, Cheryl is blind and she would use the funds to obtain assistance in field studies for her project, “Explanations for morphological variability in projectile points:  A case study from the late Paleoindian Cody complex.”

 

Upon a motion duly made and seconded it was unanimously RESOLVED that the President be authorized and hereby is directed to take all necessary steps to ensure that the Foundation award a $1000 grant to Cheryl Fogle as recommended by the Science Student Grant Committee.

 

Officer Elections/Nominations

In the April 2004 elections, Ed Misquez was approved as President, and Richard Mankin as Treasurer. After the election, Richard was notified by the Ethics Office of his research agency (Agricultural Research Service) that service as Treasurer could pose a conflict of interest.  To avoid a potential conflict of interest, the FSD officers began a search for a new treasurer.  Robert Van Etten, a Rehabilitation Engineer (see AdaptiveLiving.com), has agreed to serve as Acting Treasurer until a permanent treasurer can be selected in the next election.  The attendees voted unanimously to approve Robert Van Etten as Acting Treasurer and to nominate him as Treasurer in the April, 2005 election.

 

Upon a motion duly made and seconded, it was unanimously RESOLVED that Robert Van Etten serve as Acting Treasurer and respectively, until elections are held in April, 2005.

IT WAS FURTHER RESOLVED that Mr. Van Etten be nominated as Treasurer in the April, 2005, election of officers on ballots suitably distributed to the membership.

 

  The attendees also recommended that we move the savings account to a new bank that does not charge the expensive fees recently initiated by the current bank.

 

Upon a motion duly made and seconded, it was unanimously RESOLVED that the President be authorized and hereby is directed to immediately take all actions required to close the Foundation bank account at the bank in Illinois in which funds are deposited and place those funds in a suitable bank that is conveniently located for the officers

 

New Business

The future hosting and maintenance of the Foundation for Science and Disability (FSD) Website came under discussion.  The website is currently hosted by a server at West Virginia University, but Webmaster Ed Keller intends to retire soon.  Dr. Keller also hosts the Science Education for Students with Disabilities (SESD) Website.  During the discussion, Richard Mankin noted that he could move the web pages from West Virginia University to his institutional server (cmave.usda.ufl.edu), where they could be easily updated, but they would not have user-friendly URLs.  Robert Van Etten noted that it is possible to purchase an inexpensive, user-friendly domain name that would enable an internet service provider to forward requests to any host server, consequently, the problem of a long URL can be eliminated.  Such an approach might also be beneficial to SESD.  The attendees voted unanimously to authorize Richard and Robert to explore this option and to develop plans for a joint website under the name ScienceandDisability.org, or a similar name, with links to each organization’s web pages.

 

In other news, it was discussed that Ed Keller, the outgoing treasurer and past-President, has been inducted into the Hall of Fame for Persons with Disabilities.

 

 

Upon a motion duly made and seconded, it was RESOLVED that Ed Keller be given a special commendation for his years of exemplary service to the Foundation.

 

Upon a motion duly made and seconded, it was RESOLVED that an Honors and Awards Committee be initiated and authorized to establish awards for meritorious service to the Foundation.  The initial members of the committee will be Richard Mankin, Gordon Anderson, and Robert Van Etten.

 

Submitted March 2, 2005

Richard Mankin

http://cmave.usda.ufl.edu/~rmankin/fannmeetminutes05.html
03/29/05 Richard Mankin