ARONIA ASSOCIATION
2018 Business Meeting
Saturday, March 17, 12:30 p.m.
The meeting was called to order by Acting President Craig Winquist at 1230 p.m. Dennise Bowyer made a motion to approve the Agenda. Bob Dobson seconded this and was approved by the members. Motion was made to approve the 2017 Annual Business Meeting minutes prepared by Amy Mykisen, secretary; motion was made by Kent Klinkefus to approve and seconded by Janice Mann.
Treasurer’s report was given by Craig Winquist, acting treasurer, for the members present. Martin Sturtevant made motion to approve the report and was seconded by Vicki Niemitz.
The board gave their respective reports at this time.
Rich Voyek, Information Technology- talked about the new up and coming web design and how the board will proceed with the new webpage. Kent Klinkefus, Membership- discussed how the focus was to collect data throughout the year and that in 2018 they plan to see an increase in membership. He talked about the benefits of MAA membership being the newsletter, networking, etc. Dennise Bowyer, Public Relations- talked about how she had reached out to and made a list of over 140 media outlets such as radio and TV stations regarding press releases about the MAA and conference. Janice Mann, Newsletter/Conference- has provided a quarterly newsletter to our members. Janice also was a key player in organizing the conference. Steve Nabity, Events- thanked everyone on the MAA board and its members for a great three years. He will be exiting the board but was willing to continue to help out with events in the future. Dean Tranel, research- Has conducted multiple research projects and has more in progress. He talked about the status of past grants that he has submitted for MAA and hopes that the future will be more promising as awareness Aronia continues to grow.. Corey Hillebo, Vice President- shared about success of the MAA and how far the organization has come during his time on the board. Corey will also be transitioning off of the board this year. Corey has been the organizer for the regional groups and has done just about anything that the MAA has needed. He offered to help in the future if there was anything that was need by the MAA. Craig Winquist, President- Summarized the year for the membership and was very positive about the direction MAA is headed. He discussed the importance of Aronia being on the USDA survey and that the board is very focused on building membership and raising awareness of Aronia around the country.
Three members were nominated for board vacancies. Each nominee introduced themselves and gave a short bio. General membership voted that the new Board Members were Lynn Jensen, Donna Costello, and Paula Scharers. Jeff Mann made the motion to approve nominees as new board members. Kevin Craft seconds. Members motion to approve. New board members were announced.
Discussion was had regarding a motion to change the Bylaws of the organization to say that there is one type of membership, that being a voting member. This motion was proposed during December 2017 Board of Directors meeting. There was a motion to approve by Dean Vuval. Motion was seconded by Judy Sanders. After discussion the motion was made to amend the original motion by Dennise Boyer and seconded by Kent Klinkefus. Motion failed. Vicki Niemitz then made a new motion that we change the Bylaws to give the Board the authority to waive the membership fee to research and education membership applications at their discretion. Dean Mangrich would second that motion. Members motioned to approve and the motion carried.
The next motion was a recommendation from the Board to have membership cutoff date of January 31st. Rich Vought made motion that membership cutoff date be January 31st and a second was made by Scott Hillebo. Motion was made to amend the motion by Steve Nabity. Amendment failed and then the main motion failed. Steve Nabity then made the motion that an annual membership would run through January 1st to December 31st of each year. Motion was seconded by Rich Vought. Members motioned to approve. Motion Carries.
Elected Board Members will meet after Conference to meet one another and determine Committee placements. Corey Hillebo made motion to adjourn and was seconded by Jeff Mann. Motion carried.
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