Date: May 13, 2021
Time: 10:14 a.m.
Location: Oklahoma Farm Bureau, Tulsa
Call to order by President
Made by President, Bill Hollander
Roll Call
Present: Bill Hollander (pres.), Chris Woodall (1st VP) – (by phone), David VanBuskirk (Past Pres.), Steve Rhodes (1st Yr.), Jim Wilhelm (1st Yr.), Renee Southerland (Secretary), Jonathan Wilk (Treasurer)
Absent: Ashley Stephens (2nd VP), Fred Henderson (3rd Yr.), Jeremy Robbins (3rd Yr.), Tim Reeves (2nd Yr.), Todd DeSmet (2nd Yr.)
Reading and Approval of Minutes
David VanBuskirk made a motion to accept the April Minutes. Seconded by Steve Rhodes. Motion carried and approved.
Membership
Currently 107 paid members and no new members since the last meeting.
Treasurer’s Report
Current balance is $13,972.59, which does not include a transfer from PayPal of $581.70. Since the last meeting there were two deductions of $5.00 for the checking account service fee, and $115.40 to Midwest Trophy for the Past President plaque and the plaque for Neal Moore. A Motion was made by Steve Rhodes to accept the Treasurer’s Report, seconded by David VanBuskirk. Motion carried and approved.
CFI
None
Website
Dan Van Buskirk added the conference and hotel information on the website.
Annual Conference
- Renee Southerland sent out the blast and already received conference payments from several who want to attend.
- Chris Woodall made headway on contacting the speakers and getting their materials. He will work on the agenda. Bill Cathcart needs the 921 / 1033 info / changes, and Chris will have Tripp send that within the next week.
- David VanBuskirk needs to know if speakers need any hotel reservations – Chris Woodall will find out and advise.
- Renee Southerland spoke with Dave Hallman and he will bring evidence to the conference from closed cases to display as talking points during breaks.
- Jonathan Wilk advised he would contact the prison in Hominy to see if we could purchase an item or two as raffle giveaways at the conference since that has been done in the past.
- Steve Rhodes presented a $500.00 check from Integrity for us to purchase raffle giveaway items and that will be discussed at the next meeting.
- Renee Southerland had a conversation with Mike Parham regarding the burn camp being a 501(c)(3) and that they use accountant Preston Smith and his brother, Parker Smith, who is their attorney. It was suggested Preston was a possibility to do the 501(c)(3), and Chris Woodall advised he just needed to meet with Jonathan Wilk to go over all the banking information so that the lady he is using at his wife’s accounting firm can get started on the process.
- Jonathan Wilk wanted to discuss the tool bags being given to the members when they registered and whether or not they should be embroidered. A short discussion was had concerning the sizes of the tool bags and Jonathan will do some research and provide information at the next meeting. A 5.11 search was done online at that point on his phone, and they do have several bags from which to choose. He will also check on bag cost from Special Ops with the logo.
- Renee Southerland will go ahead and order the t-shirts for the members and requested that everybody work on getting donations for the raffle items. She also sent out sponsor/vendor forms by email to a list of potential vendors.
- Chris Woodall advised it would be good to have a new electric vehicle at the conference and not a burned one – Jeremy Robbins is to be working on this.
- Renee Southerland discussed the photo contest and about raising the amount of the award. Jonathan Wilk made a Motion to raise the first-place photo awards in accidental and arson to $100.00 and second place to $50.00 in each of those categories. This was seconded by Steve Rhodes. The Motion carried and was approved.
- Jonathan Wilk requested that in the next blast we really push the need for investigator of the year applicants and getting photos for the contest. He suggested we give each person that participates 10 raffle tickets. Jonathan made this Motion, seconded by David VanBuskirk. Motion carried and approved.
- A discussion was had about the Honor Guard and who would be doing the opening ceremonies. David VanBuskirk will call and find out if Keith Bryant with the Oklahoma State Fire Marshal’s Office could maybe do the keynote speech for five minutes and Bill Hollander advised he would call Shawnee Fire Department and see if their Chief could get their Color Guard to do the opening ceremonies.
Old Business
- A discussion was had again about the Burn Camp accountant being used possibly as our accountant, but Chris Woodall stated he would meet with Jonathan Wilk to see about getting our tax returns filed first with the lady he has been communicating with at his wife’s office.
- Jonathan Wilk sent a proposal to Bill Cathcart regarding changes to our By-Laws to mirror the National By-Laws regarding membership.
New Business
None
Next Meeting
The next meeting will be Wednesday, June 9, 2021, at 10:30 a.m. at the Grand Casino in Shawnee. Renee Southerland will call Krystal, our event coordinator, and will reserve a room for this meeting. David VanBuskirk made a motion to end the meeting, seconded by Chris Woodall, motion carried and approved.
