OKIAAI Board Minutes 1/20/22

Date: January 20, 2022
Time: 10:01 a.m.
Location: Oklahoma Farm Bureau – Tulsa, OK

Call to Order

Made by President Chris Woodall

Roll Call

Present at Meeting: Chris Woodall (Pres.), Ashley Stephens (1st VP), Todd DeSmet (2nd VP), Tim Reeves (3rd yr.), Nick Nodeau (3rd yr.), Steve Rhodes (2nd yr.), Jesse Benne (2nd yr.), Marc Sutphin (1st yr.), Renee Southerland (Secretary), Jonathan Wilk (Treasurer)

Absent at Meeting: Bill Hollander (Past Pres.), Gina Coleman (1st yr.)

Reading and Approval of Minutes

Chris made a motion to forgo the reading and approval of the December minutes. Ashley seconded, motion carried and approved.

Membership

Three new members had applied. 1) Matthew Meredith – of which some of the board members already knew. Tim made the motion to accept his membership, seconded by Todd, motion carried and approved. 2) Nicholas Compala – Todd called David VanBuskirk regarding his credentials since David lived next to Kaw City. The discussion was tabled until David could call back. David then called back and advised the chief stated Mr. Compala would be an excellent choice for membership. It was also discussed whether he should be an associate member or regular member. A motion was made by Todd to accept his membership, seconded by Tim, motion carried and approved. 3) Rodney Mullinax – of which some of the board members already knew. Jonathan made a motion to accept his membership, seconded by Steve, motion carried and approved.

A discussion was then had regarding new members as it related to the National membership language that we had adopted concerning active versus associate. This discussion was tabled until “old business.”

Treasurer’s Report

Jonathan had sent the bank statement by email to the board the day prior to the meeting but it did not have a total. He advised the total we have in the bank is $18,719.04, which did include the checks that were received from the last meeting as those have now been deposited. Jonathan advised he has not yet paid ODI for the items that we want to give away at the next conference as he has not yet received a return call from them.

CFI

Tim Reeves advised that Joey Applegate received his CFI in December of 2021.

Website

Renee provided Jonathan with an invoice in the amount of $575.00 from Dan VanBuskirk for website changes.
There was a discussion of Dan’s work and what he has done so far and what he did last year.
Marc advised there were issues with the “learn more” tab on the main page as it gives an error if you click on it. Renee will have Dan check on this.
Jonathan provided a check for Renee to give to Dan in the amount of $575.00.
Now that all of the new board members’ information has been provided, Renee will have Dan add that to the website.

Annual Conference

A discussion was had concerning Krystal’s information that the food court has not yet been completed, but she is adding 10 additional rooms for our conference and can delay the date that reservations are made. She advised that their employment capacity is only at 47% right now due to vaccine requirements.
Jonathan advised that prior to our last conference we only $13,000.00 in the bank and now that we have $18,000.00 in the account, he would like to provide funding for lunches and possibly pay for a hospitality room.
Ashley advised that the surveys reflected that the Grand Casino was a good location for the conference.
Renee advised that everyone also liked Hallman’s display and the members wanted to see more of those case studies.
Ashley advised he would reach out to some of his co-workers to do case studies and that we already have someone from Social Media Exploration Branch to do a case study.
Jonathan advised he wanted a google warrant discussion at the conference.
A discussion was had if the conference could meet the yearly goal of 24 hours plus two hours of mental health, but if so, then the conference would have to be three full days or add a mini conference through the year sometime.
Renee handed out business cards for board members to pass out to prospective members for the next conference as the business cards identify our organization and our website.
Jonathan advised in reference to the giveaways, there was an issue with the 511 shirts as the extremely large sizes can’t be obtained unless it’s for a business. A discussion was had to possibly get a different kind of shirt or sweatshirt that would come in the larger sizes to get away from the business issue.
Renee advised she would request Midwest Trophy to provide two pullover sweatshirt samples for the next meeting.
Todd discussed possibly having other items to be given away such as flashlights from 511, and Jonathan will check with 511 on those.
Renee advised that she had received the updated Fire Chief e-mail list from the State Fire Marshal’s office and will compare to the last list received in 2017 to make any updates.

501(c)3

Jonathan brought all of the records he could find in the brown folder and provided those to Chris including the 2020 and 2021 bank statements. Chris advised he needed to get the tax returns caught up and is not sure what that cost will be but believes we had approved $500.00 in the past. He may need a Power of Attorney for his wife’s tax firm. Chris will have his wife do a spreadsheet of all past years to give to the tax firm so that we can get our 501(c)3 reinstated.

Old Business

A discussion was had concerning member types, voting, and board rights. Membership requirements were read in the Bylaws for both the Oklahoma Chapter and International Chapter.
A discussion was had concerning “fire officer” and that a fire officer is first making the determination and then they may punt to an O&C or an additional fire investigator.
It was discussed that the membership wording needs to be changed on the website and that copies of the International Bylaws should be handed out to the board members to look through and make our changes regarding membership status so that our Bylaws can reflect what the national IAAI says.
Jonathan advised that he had a discussion with Bill Cathcart on the first day of the conference as to how to approach the membership discussion concerning the changes and about the voting that would take place by the members on the last day of the conference.
Chris re-read the motion from the October minutes regarding the membership change and a discussion was then had about making our Bylaws changed to be limited to the types of membership.
Todd suggested we ask Bill Cathcart what his recommendation is as to how to make the Bylaws change on the website concerning membership based on IAAI membership.
Ashley advised we want to make “retired” fire investigators or firefighters have the ability to keep their membership and Chris advised as well as corporate companies and marketers such as Rimkus.
Ashley advised to decide on the wording we want to use from the International and send out the wording to the membership in an email blast. Advise that we have not taken any action yet to make the language change but that this would be the language we want to use and request their input. It could then be discussed again at the next annual meeting.
Todd suggested we needed to follow the Roberts Rules of Order.
Jonathan stated he felt as though we had already adopted language to reflect what the International Bylaws state but was open for discussion at the next conference concerning Ashley’s suggestion.
Chris advised it would be okay to send an independent email regarding what the board had proposed concerning the language change for membership and then vote on “exact” language at the conference in October of 2022. In this e-mail to the members, we can request comments be sent back to us to discuss.
It was discussed that no motion was needed to make the new bylaws language change, but it was requested for Bill Cathcart to review it first. And at this time, it was requested all board members review Article II to be discussed at the next meeting.
Ashley advised we would need to add “retirement and corporate” wording and that the members need to agree to this wording.
Chris advised at the next meeting we would focus only on the membership language so that we could get this out to the members.

New Business

Renee reminded everyone to pay their International dues of $100.00 because as a board member for the Oklahoma Chapter you have to be a member of the National organization.
She also advised that she submitted the photos to the International Association and they would advise if a winner was in our group.

Next Meeting

The next meeting will be on Thursday, March 3, 2022, at 10:00 a.m. at the offices of Cathcart & Dooley, located at 2807 North Classen Boulevard, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.

Jonathan made a motion to adjourn the meeting, seconded by Nick, motion carried and approved.