The meeting was called to order by President Jim Ollar at 10:30 a.m. Board members present were: Jim Ollar, Karla Spencer, Bob Schultheis, Tom Henderson, Susan Mills-Gray and Gail Carlson.

Minutes of the September 3, 1998 board meeting and October 26, 1998 annual meeting were approved as distributed by Bob Schultheis.

The treasurer’s report was given by Tom Henderson. The combined balance of the checking and saving account is $5,072.68. There have been $2868.00 in dues collected through 11/20/98.

Jim Ollar handed out paper copies of the bylaws to those present, along with a computer diskette of the ESP National Chapter Handbook.

In Mel Zielinski’s absence, Tom Henderson gave the Membership Committee report. He provided lists of active, life, and inactive members. The active list is current but the inactive list needs updating to remove the deceased and and those that have left Extension. The national portion of the membership fees are $100 one-time for life members, $25 for new members, and $20 for continuing members. The state retains $11 per new and continuing member. Discussion followed on how best to track those eligible for membership and update the inactives. Karla Spencer asked for names of eligible faculty in each region who have not been asked to be members. Tom will obtain a list of those with over five years of service in Extension. Jim Ollar asked about having a regional contact for membership recruitment, which was agreed upon by all. Jim will contact Mel Zielinski to develop this approach. Karla agreed to serve as contact for the SC Region, Bob for the SW Region, Susan for the WC Region, and Tom for campus.

Tom Henderson reported his figures on the 1998-99 budget. We need to pick up 20-plus members to make an income of $3,490. Higher expenses are expected this year for board meetings, due to more board members being off-campus. E-mail can save some money for distributing the newsletter to active members, but there will be a cost to mail three newsletters to the 120 retirees. Tom will update the budget and e-mail it to all board members.

Susan Mills-Gray gave the Professional Development Committee report. Downlink sites and hosts for the December 10 satellite program "Building a Learning Organization for the 21^st Century" have been arranged. Seven of the eight sites are hosted by ESP members. A glitch in program publicity through the "Weekly News" will be corrected immediately after this board meeting. She also has had a discussion via e-mail with members on retirement planning, such as investments. Two key groups have emerged: those with 15-22 years of service and those new to the organization.

Gail Carlson gave the Recognition and Awards Committee report. Participation in the awards program has been sparse, perhaps due to the time it takes to complete the application and that people don’t want to nominate themselves. She suggested an idea of having people submit only names to the committee, which then contacts the candidates to see if they can help the committee member complete the application. The Teamwork Award needs lots of documentation for the national competition. Jim Ollar suggested dovetailing into the Annual Conference Awards program process to get into the applications packet. The question was raised whether all leaders of awards committees could get together to discuss this issue. Another idea was to have the Board serve as the nominating committee.

At Jim Ollar’s request, Gail Carlson agreed to serve as the ESP representative to the joint association meetings. This would include the UMEA Board meetings January 6, March 3, and July 7, 1999.

Jim Ollar reported that David Lindell is doing a great job on the Courtesy and Memorials Committee. Anyone with information on member recognitions or deaths should notify David for followup. A "retirement recognition certificate" is available from ESP. Susan Mills-Gray volunteered to look into this for 1998-99 and get it to an ESP member in the region for presentation.

Jim Ollar gave the Loan and Fellowship Committee report. The fund now has a balance of about $70,000. A chair for this committee is needed to replace Linda Murphy who left. Names suggested were: Pat Snodgrass and Janet LaFon.

In Eldon Cole’s absence, Jim Ollar gave the Annalist report. Larry Hale will deliver accumulated ESP information to Eldon, and anyone else with past records are asked to get them to Eldon, too. The UM Records Management Department is one option for storing "permanent" records.

Goals for 1998-99 were discussed, with the following goals set:

1. Develop a website explaining benefits of ESP membership, posting highlights of the Board Meetings, and providing links to the other professional associations. (Bob Schultheis will work on this.)
2. Continue to research retirement-related information.
3. Review lists of all potential members and update the addresses. (Tom Henderson maintains the lists.)
4. Publish three issues of the ESP newsletter.
5. Assist with enhanced communications between the professional associations for upcoming national meetings.

Plans were then made for publishing the newsletter. An editor is needed to recruit and publish submissions. Suggested names were: Sandra McKinnon, Joan Hickman and Jim Sawyer. Bob Schultheis will check with Jim Sawyer to see if he would serve as editor.

Four meetings were scheduled for the future: a one-hour March 9, 1999 board teleconference, board meetings June 8, 1998 in Rolla and September 7, 1999 at a yet-to-be-named location, and the annual meeting during the October 25-27, 1999 Extension Annual Conference in Columbia.

Meeting was adjourned at 1:30 p.m.

Respectfully submitted,

Bob Schultheis, Secretary