Attending: Ted Atchinson, Fred Granville, Don Schaefer, Randall White, Don Wolf

Minutes of the last business meeting (held on 2/6/2001) were approved.

Membership:

Membership applications were collected for calendar year 2002. We would like to welcome our latest member, Randall R. White.

Officer Nominations:

The group nominated and elected officers for 2002. The officers for 2002 are as follows:

1) Chair – Ted Atchinson

2) Vice Chair/Treasurer – Don Schaefer

3) Secretary – Fred Granville

All present expressed their appreciation for the efforts of the past chair, Don Wolf.

Old Business:

The group reviewed the unique domain name for the IEEE Consultants Network in Kansas City that was selected earlier by informal email vote. The selected domain name is “Consultants-IEEE-KC.org”.

New Business:

The group discussed the modification of bylaws and/or procedures to allow voting by email. A procedure for email voting was presented and approved. A motion to allow email voting carried.

The group developed a tentative calendar of events for 2002:

1) February 6, 2002 – Project Management Fundamentals (Speaker responsibility – Randall White)

2) May 8, 2002 – Computer Security (Speaker responsibility – Ted Atchinson)

3) June, 2002 – Business Meeting

4) ? – SCORE Presentation (Speaker responsibility - Ted Atchinson)

5) ? – Group Mentoring (First volunteer – Don Schaefer)

The group also agreed to continue conducting the majority (if not all) of these events as luncheon events on the first Wednesday of the month.

Don Wolf, past chair, reminded us that as of 2002, we qualify as an affinity group for the IEEE. The requirements for an affinity group are that we maintain a membership of at least six individuals. We must also hold at least two local events each year and provide some reports to the IEEE regarding our activities. In return, we receive $180 each year.

The group discussed the possibility of providing a small gift certificate (or other token of appreciation) for outside speakers.

Randall White suggested that we might court newly unemployed engineers via strategically placed flyers.

Randall White also proposed that we explore the possibility of hosting a regional or national Consultants Society meeting. The group resolved to discuss further at the June business meeting.

Don Wolf suggested that we should send out an email to the Kansas City area IEEE membership regarding our group. The group concurred that we should consider this and other steps to raise the profile of our group.

The group discussed the next steps regarding usage of the Internet domain name that was selected previously. Fred Granville pointed out that the logical next step was for the group to register the domain name to preserve it for the group. Companies such as Network Solutions will register the name for two years for $70. It was also pointed out that at a minimum, we would need a place to “park” the domain name until we figured out how best to use it. Don Schaefer and Fred Granville agreed to investigate further and prepare a proposal to put to the group for an email vote or a vote at the next meeting.