Date: October 21, 2022
Time: 9:45 a.m.
Location: Grand Casino, Shawnee, OK
Call to Order
Made by President, Ashley Stephens
Roll Call
Absent at Meeting:
Present at Meeting: Ashley Stephens (Pres.), Todd DeSmet (1st VP), Steve Rhodes (2nd VP), Jonathan Wilk (Treasurer), Renee Southerland (Secretary), Chad Oubre (1st yr.), Johnnie Sawyer (1st yr.), Gina Coleman (2nd yr.), Marc Sutphin (2nd yr.), Jesse Benne (3rd yr.), David Van Buskirk (3rd yr.), Chris Woodall (Past Pres.)
Reading and Approval of Minutes
A motion was made by Chris Woodall to forego the reading of the September minutes, seconded by Todd DeSmet, motion carried and approved.
Membership
Renee Southerland advised that our organization had a total of 117 members as of the last day of the conference and 14 of those were new members. 108 members attended the conference.
Treasurer’s Report
Jonathan Wilk advised we currently had a balance of $22,407.80 with $3,445.00 in outstanding invoices and payments to be received. As of the date and time of this annual meeting, the conference invoice had not been received.
CFI
No CFIs to report.
Website
Photographs of the conference will be added to the website and the minutes will be updated.
Annual Conference
- Ashley Stephens advised if you attended all three days of the conference you received 22 hours of credit for CLEET, 20.5 for MCLE, and 18 in general for the Department of Insurance and that most of the required training needed could be met at this conference.
- A discussion was had concerning the elections, and it was advised that Tim Reeves and Nick Nadeau will be off of the Board and Past-President Bill Hollander will be off of the Board as well. The new board members now are Johnnie Sawyer (1st yr.), Chad Oubre (1st yr.), and David Van Buskirk (3rd yr.). Jonathan Wilk made a motion to destroy the ballots, seconded by Johnnie Sawyer, the motion carried and approved.
- The raffle items raised $2,529.00 for the Burn Camp, and the OKIAAI organization matched up to $1,000.00. Two checks will be written the burn camp in those two amounts. A motion was made by Hugh Graham to accept these amounts, seconded by Josh Davis, motion carried and approved.
501(c)3
Chris Woodall advised the membership that our 501(c)3 had lapsed and a discussion was had concerning the past tax returns that had to be re-submitted to apply for reinstatement. At this time, the organization is waiting on the IRS to confirm the 501(c)3 for our organization to be tax exempt, and hopefully we will know something in the next few months. The membership will be advised.
Old Business
Bill Cathcart, legal counsel to the Board, advised that changes had been made to the Chapter By-Laws concerning membership which he had reviewed, and he had also updated other topics in reference to monthly meeting or annual meeting changes. It was discussed that because of COVID and the possibility for that to happen again, language was added so that the organization could continue to operate and have meetings with flexibility, such as virtual meetings, if certain standards were set in place and that easy access could be obtained to vote. It was also discussed that there was no indemnification section and that was explained to the members. Also, under Article VI regarding notices, those could be made electronically and to make available a listing of voting members.
Hugh Graham requested reasoning for the removal of student membership language. Jesse Benne advised that four or five revisions had taken place and the International language was used and inserted into our By-Laws. As it was reviewed, it was determined that student membership fell under associate membership with the same qualifications and standards. So to simplify the area of that qualification, student membership was removed.
Hugh Graham also requested that the order of the meeting under Article VIII, Section 1, be changed and reverse b) Prayer and c) Pledge of Allegiance, to have the Pledge of Allegiance first and then the prayer to be consistent with what we do at the conference. Bill Cathcart requested that a motion be made to accept the language as proposed which was made by Mark Milstead and seconded by Johnnie Peterson. It was also requested that a motion be made to change c) to b), which was made by Hugh Graham and seconded by Chris Woodall. All motions carried and approved.
New Business
No other new business discussed.
Next Meeting
The next meeting will be discussed. A motion was made by Bill Hollander to conclude the meeting, seconded by Tim Reeves, the motion carried and approved.
