MBGS Executive Committee Minutes

From

September 10, 2003

Officers in Attendance: Tom Godbold President Tom Hoane Treasurer

Tom Wellman Secretary

Pat Poli Business Manager

Milt Gere Past President

Officers Absent: Dr. Michael Grammer Vice President

Stan Idziak Newsletter Editor

Mark Wollensak Electronic Publications

Location: Holiday Inn South, Lansing

Speaker and Topic: George Shurr, Unconventional Shallow Biogenic Gas Systems, approx 24 attending

Meeting Commenced: 4:53

Agenda Items

Tom Godbold

October 8, 2003 meeting topic will be about Spindletop and will be our Mentors Meeting. Retired geologists will receive their meal free.

Stan Idziak gave his notice that he will not continue as newsletter editor after this year. Discussion continued and motion was passed to award him as a Lifetime Honorary Member for his dedication and service for 10 years as MBGS newsletter editor.

Discussion continued from last season about placing minutes on our website. The main issues concerned where it should be posted and what it should be labeled. Passed motion to place the link as a sub-menu item under Publications and to label it either ‘Executive Committee Minutes’, ‘Meeting Minutes’ or just ‘Minutes’ as space allows. Request will be transmitted to Greg Varnum with instructions to label or abbreviate as feasible.

Greg Varnum has asked if MBGS would like to change its domain registrar with potential cost savings. Web address should remain the same. Information brought to meeting was not clear regarding cost comparison to our current registrar and potential for multi-year contract savings. Tom Hoane will contact Greg for details and bring back to next meeting.

Tom G asked question about how to encourage attendance at meetings. He would like to see a small questionnaire in the newsletter asking members what it would take to get them to attend meetings more often. Possible areas include: Meeting venue, Meeting location, Cost of dinner - or no dinner, Speaker Topics. Tom G will notify Stan of format and content of questionnaire.

AAPG is looking for nominations for “2004 K-12 Teachers Award.” Tom G will provide information to Stan for placement in newsletter.

Tom Wellman

No minutes were written from the summer meeting, none distributed.

Discussed attaching the newsletter to the e-mail notice as it was thought e-mailed newsletters provided better service and was a better reference than just the e-mail reminder. This was approved in May but latest e-mail notice did not include it. Tom Wellman will contact Stan to attach a Word (or Adobe or easiest format) document of newsletter with notification. However, do not want to get into previous situation of delaying newsletter to generate multiple files.

Tom Hoane

Tom distributed financial sheets. Current checking balance is $10408.86; Money Market is $5387.61. Discussed trend of increasing balance in checking account. MBGS has not awarded a scholarship in a couple years mainly due to lack of interest from potential recipients. Could transfer funds to Money Market account but interest is not much better in that account either.

Tom H. sold the next to last copy of Oil and Gas Volume 1. Consensus is we should scan for future distribution but Mark is booked for a while. Preliminary estimate from Tom is it will cost about $20 per copy to make 3 copies, price we charge is $25. Approved making 3 copies.

Tom indicated the SPE meeting location will be moved to Mountain Jacks. Subsequent e-mail from SPE identifies meal cost at $30.

Deferred discussion on insurance until Mark is present.

Other Business

Tom Hoane

Tom made a suggestion to reimburse our delegates travel expenses when representing MBGS at AAPG Eastern Section or National Meetings. Discussion centered on potential number of trips per year and number of delegates. Passed motion to cover up to $200 worth of documented travel expenses to each of the two delegates who represent MBGS at both the AAPG Eastern Section and AAPG National meetings (Note: May include alternates if they are substituting for our regular delegates).

Meeting Adjourned 6:02pm when prompted that salads were on the way.