TIMBER FRAMERS GUILD, BOARD OF DIRECTORS

MINUTES OF MEETING

Date: October 13th, 2005

Time: 18:40 – 22:30 ET

Location: F2F - Burlington

Present: Brenda Baker - Chair

Gord Macdonald – Minutes

Leon Buckwalter

Will Beemer

Al Anderson

Laura Brown

Grigg Mullin (slightly delayed)

Rick Collins

Curtis Milton (slightly delayed)

David Blackwell (Guest from 18:00 – 20:45)

Sue Warden (Guest from 18:00 – 20:30)

Ken Rower (Guest from 19:45 – 22:30)

Apologies:

Rudy Christian

Joel McCarty

1. Minutes of Previous

RESOLUTION: Minutes of previous board meeting adopted.

2. Matters Arising

ACTION Curtis to continue to work on a proposal for the investment of CD’s, for circulation to the board before Jan 01, 2006

Will/Curtis reports that the money received from lifetime memberships is shown in this year’s budget. All agree that current price is about right at 10x current membership rate. Must consider options for investing this income…Curtis will make a proposal by Jan 01 ‘06

ACTION Joel to confirm whether or not CI will provide insurance for event in Suriname.

Curtis Reports that he has had very little response to his web-posting regarding Guild response to Hurricane Katrina so far. Sue reports that fundraising events are underway for this conference.

3. Budget Review & Sue’s Report

Sue Need to make a budget provision (at least for the Eastern Conferences) for 2 interpreters to attend and assist one of our members.

Some discussion regarding new membership rates for people who are colleagues or staff of existing members. Agree no changes required to existing policy.

Accounts system now up and running. Individual projects have not been entered in to accounting system yet…now working on a standardized budget form for projects. Recommends that this becomes part of the initial briefing for each new project manager.

Curtis Comments that many of these project-related costs are the result of the new way that we’re running projects…it’s new ground and there will be some growing pains.

Sue Need to address the issue of how we account for costs associated with project development, whether or not these become working projects.

Rick When Joel does project development work he is often providing a service to the client. When this doesn’t lead to a job it should be expressed as a loss.

ALL Agree that Sue should be involved in budget and contract review from very earliest stages of development.

No queries regarding September P&L.

Sue As of yesterday there is $103K gross income from current conference.

Curtis Currently carrying approximately $7K in debtors from auctions, dating back as much as 5 years. Sue to discuss strategy for approaching these people with JMc, and then make contact debtors by phone.

4. Becket Report

Will Regarding insurance: Has a quote of min $7,500 for international coverage for Public Liability insurance. Previous year was $3,250 premium. May also require Professional Liability insurance, but have not yet received a quote for this…warns that this may be expensive, but can be very quickly put into place if required. Insurers may want to know the certification that the Guild’s professionals (instructors) carry. Will continue to investigate the options BUT there is an urgency regarding the upcoming Suriname project.

ACTION Rick will immediately chase CI to determine what coverage they have in place for their volunteers and whether or not this can be extended to the Guild’s staff and volunteers working in Suriname.

ACTION Gord will ensure that volunteers are aware of the insurance position regarding Suriname project before they depart for the job.

Sue departs 20:10

5. Alstead Report

6. Projects

Rick LISEC (boathouse at Long Island) – planning in 2005 for production in 06, proposal has been received.

Will Group is having meeting at noon on Sunday; project design Tentative dates for Sept 20-30^th 2006.

Randolph Mountain Club – Local to Curtis (contact person), maintains over 100-mile trail network. Current need for a building to house their year-round caretaker and seasonal trail building crew. Curtis and Joel have met with them and will return to them Oct 22 with a proposal to suit the $300K that they have raised. Tentatively planned for Aug-Sept ’06, but have not yet submitted a project proposal…serious contenders.

Colorado –

Indiana Covered Bridge – Doesn’t seem likely.

Rick Confirms Project Committee consists of Chris Gunn, Bob Smith, Curtis Milton, Rick Collins, Joe Miller. Looking for proposals for an additional committee member: Bill Keir, Scout Wilkins, Steve Lawrence all proposed.

ACTION Rick to discuss potential involvement of these

Gord Re Suriname: General update re state of play…currently waiting for CI to amend TFG Scope of Works….this is a potential deal breaker, but very likely CI will provide amendment as requested.

Describes some of the ongoing problems with the project and explains that some of the CI’s contractors (including Guild members Bob Smith, Donna Williams, Adrienne Walker, Andrea Warchaizer) have had issues with the CI and in some cases with the Guild. This relates to expectations (not always met) that the Guild would stand by the private contractors through thick and thin.

Complex situation. It would be valuable for us to thoroughly de-brief this project upon completion.

Rick Notes that there is much to be gained by going ahead with the project in terms of learning how to work with overseas NGO’s.

Will Describes situation regarding proposed sale of Japanese carpentry workshop.

ALL Agree no changes to existing policy and board to revisit this issue at next F2F.

Agree best solution is for Guild to provide curriculum and content, perhaps source instructors…client would pay for the instructors and curriculum but host own project.

Rick Reviews criteria for selecting managers of Guild projects as prepared by Rick & Gord

ACTION RCo: Circulate the draft criterion for Project Managers to the board by e-mail for comments and review results at next meeting.

7. Conference Committee

ALL Agree to add David to the committee.

Invite David to please come to the Membership Meeting where board will introduce.

David Looking forward to discussing vision of future conferences with the Conf Committee. Encourages board to contribute ideas and feedback…very receptive.

Will Chris Dancey has been added

8. AOB Nominations Report

Grigg Laura Brown, Curtis Milton, John Miller, Leon Buckwalter have been nominated.

9. Human Resources Report

Curtis Encourages HR Committee to take a holistic view of organization when reviewing all JD’s

ACTION Brenda & Rick to discuss method for holistic review of JD’s and report back at next meeting.

10. AOB

Ken Publications Update - 2 Major projects just complete: Design Book and Brochure. 2 projects currently in the works: Monograph of Historic Trust Articles; Barn book (have 6 items by end of month seeking 6 more); Plan Book (currently in Andrea’s hands…currently has 12 plans in progress).

Publishing of books and booklet is a good direction for the Guild.

ACTION Gord/Ken/Will to brainstorm ideas for tidying-up/editing the training curriculum.

Brenda Raises issue of protocols for election of Executive Officers as raised by Rudy and circulated to board by e-mail.

Ken Notes that officers have traditionally been elected in a process of ‘claim’ IE face to face proposal and general agreement.

Rick Proposes that we leave as is, rather than amendment to bylaws.

ALL General discussion. While recognizing that the historical process has been to elect executive officers by acclaim, there is no desire to amend the bylaws and elections are to be held in accordance with existing bylaws. Agree to wait until F2F meeting in February ’06.

Will Confirms that new term begins Jan ’02 (before the F2F scheduled for mid-Feb)

ACTION Will To invite previous officers to F2F in Feb.

Next meeting will be Nov 02 by teleconference.

Minutes reviewed and meeting is closed at 19:00 ET